Mission FINALLY Accomplished

Okay, so I know I am not in Spain yet, I still have about 8 weeks to go (September 3rd), but I have wanted to start a blog for a while, and now just seemed like the perfect time to do so.

First off, let me just say that the Spanish are very set in their ways, and they do not make any exceptions to their rules. Because I am going to be in Spain for 107 days, I have to have a student visa. You would thing this would be an easy process, right? OH no! It is quite an ordeal.

I found out at the end of May that I had to apply for my visa in Miami in person. After collecting the 100s of documents the consulate required, Tuesday I headed down south to Miami to get the visa...

Tuesday (Day one) I awoke at 6:30 AM, headed to the Memphis Airport and boarded the plane to DFW. (Yes, I know it doesn't make any since to me that you fly through Dallas to get to Miami, but whatever). Although I was not excited about the short trip, so far the journey to Dallas couldn't have been smoother, but Oh was I wrong... The moment I arrived at DFW I asked the gate agent where my connection gate was and she told me she didn't know, so I was stressed since I had 1 and half hours to get to the right terminal and gate before the plane left for Miami. As soon as I left the gate agent, I heard someone yelling "Morgan" and I was overwhelmed with happiness when I saw one of my camp friends Roxanne in the airport. She happened to be a Dallas native, so we grabbed a quick bite of lunch and then she helped me find out where my gate was and it was at this moment that everything started going downhill...I looked up at the departures screen only to see the flight to Miami DELAYED for 2 more hours. So I rode the train with Roxanne to her gate, she boarded the plane and then I decided I needed to head back to the correct terminal, so at least if they happened to undelay the flight, I would be in the right spot. Well, as I go to get on the train, there are TSA agents everywhere and we soon find out that there is a security threat in one of the terminals so the train was closed. So what now? Well we had to take some sketchy bus to the other terminals. So finally I arrived at terminal D, cleared security for the second time and headed to the gate. Upon my arrival at the gate, the status of the delayed changed and once again the flight was delayed an extra 30 minutes. No worries... I was used to this by now! 2 hours later, at 5 we boarded the plane (the original departure time was 2:55). Obviously we were quite behind. On the 3 and half hour flight, I did witness something so awesome... on my plane there were about 60 or so highschoolers headed to Jamaica for a 2 week missions trip. Across the isle an older cuban woman who hardly spoke english, leaned over to the girl sitting next to her and said "What are you doing in Jamaica?" and the girl replied "I am with a group going on a missions trip to tell kids about Jesus Christ"... the sweet cuban lady asks, "and who is Jesus Christ?" From there I watched this girl share about her relationship with Christ and what He means to her for the next hour... it was so cool to watch this girl share the gospel with this older cuban woman. I was truly encouraged, especially when we landed in Miami and the woman told the girl, "I think what you are doing is wonderful! Good luck" I do not know what kind of an impact that girl had on this woman, but it sure was encouraging to see her share the gospel with her. We FINALLY arrived in Miami, I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel and rushed to the bar to have a much needed dinner.

Day 2 in Miami... I awoke bright and early at 6:30 AM, got ready and headed out to successfully complete the mission I was to accomplish in Miami. After arriving to the consulate, I had an interview and the first thing the man says to me is "this is the wrong form" and I literally almost started crying, but I kept it together and responded, " Do you know how hard it has been to get here?" After that he allowed me to complete the form and I was granted the visa! WAHOO! I left the consulate, checked out of the hotel and left for the airport in attempt to get on an earlier flight. I did get on an earlier flight to DFW and I was so excited, because things were going so much better today than yesterday, but boy was I wrong. After we landed in Dallas, I hurried to the next terminal where I was going to be on standby to get back to Memphis. I anxiously looked at the computer monitor that told me I was number 6 on the standby list. I figured with my luck I wouldn't make this plane, but decided to ask the gate agent what she thought, and much to my surprise she moved me up and put me on the plane. I couldn't have been happier. As soon as we boarded the plane, the captain came on and told us the weather was beautiful in DFW and as well in MEM so we should have a very smooth flight. Literally as we were taxing to the runway, it started hailing and all flights in and out of DFW were grounded for an hour. An hour later the planes were cleared for takeoff, however there were 22 planes in front of us, so that meant sitting on the runway for yet another hour. 3 hours later we were IN Memphis, and I couldn't be happier to be back home.

After I arrived home, all I wanted to do was get in the bed and go to sleep, I was exhausted. However, the thousands of ants that were roaming around my room prevented me from doing that. Of all things, this WOULD happen to me! After attacking the ants with the spray, I went to bed.

These 2 days, will definitely be remembered... I guess I don't have good luck with airports! But the good news is... I finally accomplished my mission to get my visa and now I am going to España!