Day 33 - O Rosella!
Today I presented my both of projects to the class. I did okay on my individual presentation, not anything I would have been particularly proud of back at A&M, but a solid E is for Effort kind of deal. Turns out I got an A in the class, so I think my amount of effort put forth and my final result was pretty impressive. Thanks Rosella!
After class we went to Can Moja for a fantastic Paella dinner. I loved the rice dish and am so glad I ate it before leaving Spain. We then laid out on the beach, people watched, and advised Katie in a henna tattoo purchase. Later we stopped by the market for one last fruit juice and tray. We wandered around El Corte Ingles, a HUGE department store with everything from fine designer clothing to light bulbs and cheap wine. I bought cava, wine, and brandy to bring home.
Day 32 - Prepare to Present
I spent all day working on my individual presentation on the Common Agricultural Policy's Grain, Beef, and Butter Mountains: Europe problem of too much food. It was tedious and annoying. Then I worked with my group on our SWOT Analysis of Apple entering the Spanish market. It was more fun working with a group, but also, annoying.
Day 31 - Organic is Orgasmic
Katie, Kelli, and I went into Barcelona for more shopping!!! I bought the cutest gladiator sandals! We then went to Organic, a vegetarian restaurant Bailey suggested. Apparently Gwyneth Paltrow ate there when she lived in Barcelona. Oddly enough, we ran into Bailey and Mallory at Organic. The food was amazing! We ordered the Mediterranean Calzone and the Vegetarian Pizza. Each of us also had a trip to the glorious salad bar. Catalonians don't typically include a lot of vegetables in their dishes, so we had been craving a little green. The shirts sold at Organic read "Organic... is Orgasmic," hence the title of this day.
Day 31 - Why yes, my house has 2800 rooms...
Sunday, our last day in Madrid. We woke for breakfast and went back to bed for a little nap. Then Kelli, Katie, and I took the metro to the Royal Palace where we explored and toured the lavish rooms, but not all 2800 of them. Then it was back to the hotel to meet the bus. The trip home only took 6 hours... same strange bus driver. lots of calls. we think he must have a boyfriend who also drives a bus and with whom he met up with several times on our trip to Madrid.
Day 30 - Not My Thing
I woke this morning with huge stomach issues, and they didn't subside at the Prado Museum of Art. Without a huge deal of convincing, I got Kelli and Katie to accompany me back to the hotel before the tour was over. A nap settled my tummy and I was ready to go out and see more of Madrid this afternoon. We headed to the city park, which was huge and quite beautiful. After exploring the park we ran into what we thought was some sort of daytime rave. Turns out this "rave" was really a parade, and the first "float" was a eighteen wheeler with tr
ailer, being pulled by about 20 people, all with hooks through the skin of their backs. It was bloodly, gruesome, and disgusting. Totally not my thing. Interesting, but odd.
After our stomachs recovered from all the blood and gore we managed to find the Hard Rock Cafe. I think we've been in Spain long enough, searching out American restaurants is certainly a sign.
Day 29 - Do You Have Any Idea?
Our first day in Madrid started off with a bang. The hotel breakfast was delicious! I loaded up on tons of great fruits and pastries.
We took a bus tour of Madrid and went to Museo de Reina Sophia. Here we took in several of Picasso and Dali's works.
After the museum Katie, Kelli and I headed out to explore Madrid! We went to the mercado, Plaza Mayor, and had lunch at TGI Fridays to satisfy our craving for American food. After a wonderful meal (I had ribs), we hit up some shops. I found a cute black top, a couple of english books, a leather wallet for day, and some organic olive oil.
We went out to celebrate Charli's real birthday. I had a few beers at a couple different bars, after walking in and out of the largest club in Madrid (a few in our group didn't have ids, who knew they carded in Spain?), and was ready to head home. Kelli and I walked back to our hotel, which took us about an hour. I love Madrid. We didn't feel unsafe at anytime, and lots of people were out and about, even at 3 AM.
Day 28 - 7 minutes in heaven? try 11 hours of hell
6:00 woke
6:45 time set to leave Madrid
7:15 actually left for Madrid
8:00 bus driver makes call over bus loud speakers
8:15 bus driver makes another call over loud speakers (lots of beeping)
9:30 stop for a break, not planned, bus driver insisted he couldnt make it 30 more minutes to Zarragoza
10:00 stop in Zarragoza. breakfast.
11:00 leave Zarragoza
11:11 bus driver takes call over loud speakers
11:45 bus driver makes call over loud speakers
12:00 stop for lunch, also not on itinerary, bus driver "had" to stop. Pringles and ice cream for lunch
1:00 leave creepy ghetto truck stop
1:15 bus driver makes mass calls over loud speakers
2:00 I finally tune out the phone calls and manage to sleep
6:00 arrive in Madrid, five hours after scheduled arrival.
Day 27 - Sleep is your friend.
I slept ALL day. Woke up in time to pack for our trip to Madrid and went back to bed.
Day 26 - San Joan, I pretty much hate you.
So let me start this by saying that I harbor no ill feelings toward Saint John the Baptist. He was a great guy; baptized Jesus in the Jordon, washed many a sin away, and was imprisoned and beheaded for his proclamations of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
It's the festival of Sant Joan that will probably never sit just right with me. Spaniards, and Catalunions in particular, celebrate on the eve of the Summer Solstice with a huge fiesta on the beach involving fireworks, fire, partying, and massive amounts of alcohol. The night started out fun, I actually had a wonderful time meeting people from all over the world, drinking my "Coke Light" and vodka, and chatting with several members of our group. Things went south about the time the vodka bottle dried up. Now, this was not all my consumption, and to be honest, I mixed maybe 5 shots of Vodka in my 1.5 liter bottle and drank half of it. But my friend, Friend A, was the consumer of the rest of the bottle. And maybe Rosella wouldn't fully appreciate my form of economics, but when a consumer who never drinks consumes a good such as vodka in a quantity greater than which they are accustomed to an in a time period of an hour or so, bad things happen. The same also goes for Friend B who drank cava out of cups around strange and somewhat creepy men.
So while I'm doing great, pacing myself in order to drink at a leisurely rate until the sun comes up, a goal most of us had but no one accomplished, my friends are dropping like flies around me and I am completely sober. I manage to find a chaperone to escort Friend A back to the hotel and gather the other Sober Sallies to assist Friend B. Eventually the boys carrying Friend B find a taxi and I think all is well, until Katie and I stumble upon them in an ambulance after exiting the Metro in the center of town.
Not expecting anything like this to happen, and at the advice dear Rosella, no one took anything of value with them to the beach. We had only cash, and the bare minimum at that. No one had any sort of means to pay for the inevitable hospital bill for Friend B. So I rode back to the hotel, grabbed my credit cards, Rose, and Scott, broke into Spencer's room for his credit cards and headed back to Barcelona. The trip to and from town is about 45 minutes, so it's approaching 5 am by the time we get to the hospital. Also interesting to point out is our random encounter with an acquaintance walking hand in hand down Las Ramblas with a prostitute.
We get to the hospital to wait on Friend B to be released. Finally, the emergency rooms allows Friend B to leave, I pay the bill, and we head back to the hotel around 7. Luckily I get back in time for breakfast!
Day 25 - Bargain Shopper
After class I decided to head in to Barcelona to check out the hotel that Mrs. Phillips is considering booking for her and Cody's vacation in November. It's a nice hotel, but its pretty far from all of the city's main attractions. Then I did a little shopping.
So the black dress I went on and on about in my previous post is no more. It has been replaced by its white twin, and it is gorgeous and wonderful and beautiful as well. Really, its just a cotton dress that I really like, nothing too special, don't get excited. Today I decided that the black dress of old was a little too snug. I haven't gained too much weight on this trip, but an XS 100% cotton dress is probably not a good idea, especially when I have a tendency to shrink half of my clothes. So I hopped on the train to exchange the dress for a larger size. Problem. The United Colors of Benetton in Barcelona no longer had the dress in any size in black and they were all on sale, for about 25 euro less than I paid the previous day in Sitges. So. I now own the dress in white, and I got a "free" shirt and panties in order to make up the difference between the full price and sale price. I went home with a smile on my face.
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