Hola Europa

Dearest friends and family,

Welcome to my blog! Although I'm not familiar with the cyberspace protocol, I wanted to post before I embarked and to make note of my initial feelings and expectations.. Unfortunately, i had planned to do this from the airport where I expected to find free wi-fi. When I discovered that it wasn’t free, I decided to save my euros for more important things (like visiting friends in other parts of Europe!)…So here I am, already in Granada communicating with those of you back at home. As you may or may not know, I am beginning my adventures a few days late, and before I dive into this, I want to take a moment to explain my delayed departure. My grandfather, Milt Reiterman, passed away late evening December 29th and I decided to stay in the bay area for his funeral. He was a truly remarkable man, (evident in the hundreds of people whose lives he touched that were able to attend his funeral rosary and mass). I will never forget his warm laugh, passion for social justice, and big heart. He was the most generous person I know and has always been an inspiration. He would want me to leave on this adventure with an open and willing mind, ready for anything. He believed that if something was worth doing, it was worth doing well and BIG. I can only hope to accomplish half as much and touch close to as many lives as he did.

Now, my plan was to update you all on my day's adventures, but i am just way too tired. Instead, I will just write some random thoughts!

Things I learned on Lufthansa flight 455:
1. (Most) Americans must have something programmed in our DNA to dislike bubbly water because everyone else seems to prefer it.
2. If you sleep through peanuts, you can't have them later
3. yes they actually weigh your carry on!
4. and even though it's a 10 hour flight and they turn off all the lights, it's still impossible to sleep.

...post flight, I discovered that it's quite easy to avoid customs (but don't worry I would have passed through with flying colors had they stopped me) & that my spanish is way better than I thought it would be!! In my jet lag daze, however, I realized that the first person to speak Spanish to me was a janitor who politely laughed and told me that I was walking into the men's restroom...

Hopefully things will get easier with sleep. Which is what I am about to do!

¡¡Hasta pronto!!