Day Sixteen - Thursday

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ALREDEDOR... ALREDEDOR... ALREDEDOR...

Chelsea and I woke up today with absolute exhilaration and happiness to be alive! We were going to BARCELONA!!!

Okay, so we were actually exhausted. But the feelings were there... just buried under the feeling best described as “ugh”.

We met up with the group at 8:30AM in Plaza de GG, where the awesome tour bus picked us up and drove us to Barcelona... for about 11 hours... I won't bore you with the “and then we stopped at another rest area! And then we got snacks! And then we saw another rock!”, but here are a few highlights:

• About 4 more hours of sleep – best siesta ever :D
• Pepita made us more burritos for lunch! WOO HOO.
• Watched “Wedding Crashers” and “Wall-E”. Oh man... seriously awesome films.
• Newfound love of dark chocolate... I know, I was surprised too!

Around 7:00PM we arrived in Barcelona at our hotel, Hotel Alimara... which was incredibly beautiful and very modern! Caroline was my roommate, and that was awesome – she's really chill and we made good roomies for the trip. Good times :D

THEY SERVED THE MEAL THAT I WANT BEFORE I DIE!

After relaxing and cruising the channels on the TV (Sex and the City is funny in Spanish!), a demoralizing run-in with one of the girls on my trip about my dress (hello image issues, nice to see you again!) and a quick change, Caroline and I headed downstairs to the hotel dining room where we ate dinner with the group. The hotel itself is very simple and modern, so everything was incredibly sleek and monochromatic. I know, already mentioned that, but it's true!

We ate a rather nice Caesar salad (with some of the best croutons that I've ever tasted), steak with French fries and ketchup (I know, I was confused too), and Greek yogurt with berry jam (WAY too sweet, but very interesting – definitely a new experience!). During the meal I got to know Ramon's daughter a lot better and we discussed her family life and her experiences growing up with almost perfectly bilingual parents and how that altered her cultural lens. I was thrilled to get that perspective, because I had never heard it before! Very exciting!

After dinner, it was time to sleep... Friday was gonna be a HUGE day!