Last Day With the Friends

Last night Emily, Jaklyn, and I went over to our friends' Eliza, Jaqueta, and Christi's apartment in an effort to attempt to rid their apartment of left over alcohol while saying goodbye. De verdad, we really didn't drink a whole lot. It was nice sitting around and talking for a couple hours with the girls. I probably won't be seeing a few of those girls for a really long time.

Today I awoke to rain, which is great for Barcelona. Xavi from my internship said that either yesterday or today (can't remember) boats came into Barcelona carrying agua potable because that is how horrible the drought is. He told me that in the summer gyms will have to close because they can't offer water to their customers. It is really bad, so it is great that Barcelona is getting some rain. However it was bad for us because our metro passes expired earlier this week. We have been walking across town to get to school and such because the passes are somewhat on the expensive side. So today we had to make a small exception. One of the program directors and a person from our housing company came by today to complete housing inspections. 

I am the one who has the internet account for our internet and had called the housing company (who we paid 40 euros to act as a liason between us and the Spanish internet company) two-three weeks ago to tell them to cancel our account on May 10th. They said no problem, they told Telefonica and would call on May 1st to allow for the 10 days it takes for the account to permanently be terminated. I was told I did not need to do anything else. Well, when the women came by to check the apartment, I just happened to ask if everything was set for Telefonica. The apartment company proceeded to tell me that I needed to go to a Telefonica store and drop off all the internet line stuff (box, cables, telephone). Cool. So I was given the address of the nearest store to our apartment, spent money to get there via metro because it was raining, and when I arrived at the address it was a private apartment building. Awesome. So I walked to the apartment company's building and asked them to give me the address of another store. The woman printed out a map that had all the Telefonica stores marked on it and once again reassured me that all I needed to do was go to the store and tell the people that I wanted the account ended today and give them the internet stuff. Right before I left I looked at the clock and it was 2pm. I looked at the apartment lady and said so basically I need to wait until 5pm now because of siesta, right? And she said ya. Great. So I walked home in the rain holding all the stupid internet stuff, took a nap, and then got on the metro again and went to the Telefonica store. When I got there I was told that the store could not do anything and I needed to call the company directly from the landline (which I was now holding in my hands). I wish someone would have video taped my facial reaction. So I left that store and walked to the next one on the map, and of course was told the same exact thing. Great. Walked to my internship in the rain and vented to my people, who also despise Telefonica. Then I spent my last hour and a half at the internship talking with Xavi about stuff (cultura, languages- we practiced my Catalan, how it is going to be hard to go back to USA, etc...), and we had a lot of fun.

After this I met Emily, Jaklyn, and Hannah at a metro stop on Rambla to go eat our last dinner together. I ended up waiting in the rain for a while, which I was somewhat upset about, but no pasa nada. They had to say bye to the girls downstairs and our program directors. We ate a WONDERFUL dinner and, for once, I didn't even care that I actually spent money on dinner out. After dinner we walked in the rain to our gelatto place, had some yummy gelattos, and then had to say goodbye on the metro, and it was really really sad. It hasn't really hit me yet that I am leaving because I will be traveling for a couple weeks, but my friends are going home TOMORROW, and that is WEIRD. Emily leaves in a couple hours for the airport. I am going to be left in the apartment alone tomorrow until Mike arrives. It is really starting to hit me, and I don't know how I am going to take it returning back on the plane. I've just gotten so used to being here, and living in Barcelona is normal for me. Now that my friends are leaving it's becoming less normal and I don't like it! I don't even know how I am going to handle tomorrow before Mike arrives.

It's going to be so WEIRD. I am having such a hard time grasping the fact that I am not going to be LIVING here in two weeks. I'm not going to have to speak Spanish to every store worker or ask for help in Spanish or walk into a store and say "hola." Labels will be in English and I won't have to worry about not buying too many groceries at the store because I can't carry them all home. I won't go to get my apples, cucumbers, red peppers, and tomatoes at the Fruits y Verduras stand, then hit up the Xarcuteria down the street for the best bananas, then go a block to Dia or get on the metro to Carrefour downtown to buy the cheapest cereal. I won't be stopping at Opencor to get the 95 centimos UHT Leche sold on a shelf from a box. UGH it is so weird. I get my paper towels at the Oriental Bazar because it is cheap. I buy my cleaning supplies at the Perfumeria next to my house, where the store owner smiles, says "Hola guapa" and waves to me when I walk to the metro. Adjusting back to life in the states is going to be really really weird. I am going to miss Barcelona so much. I had to say bye to the people I work with at the internship and it was so sad. The lady told me to keep in touch with them via e-mail and they will write back to me on the computer at the shop. Xavi was telling me that he has been really bored because I haven't come there in a couple weeks due to school and exams. They wrote my letter stating the number of hours I completed and the work I did during the internship in Spanish and gave me five copies, including business cards, for my graduate school applications, resume, and such. It was so weird!

But I am SO EXCITED for Mike to get here and travel with him for a couple weeks. It is going to be a blast. I have never traveled like this before and probably won't for a long time. It's so great. When I got home I called the number I was supposed to call and was told that I needed to call back tomorrow after 8am. I'm so frustrated with the whole internet situation. It really pissed me off today. UGH.  The thing is I don't want to be charged for it because the girls are going to be gone, three of them live on the east coast, so it's not like I can get money from them if the internet company ends up not disconnecting the line for another week or so.  They take the money directly from my account, and they speak Spanish, no English.  Monday is a holiday, and I leave for Rome on Monday.  When I get back to BCN I won't be here on a business day, so I can't take care of this when I return.  If it doesn't get taken care of tomorrow I don't know what I am supposed to do.  I will just have to leave the internet stuff in the apartment and tell GSE or the apartment rental company to deal with it, considering we paid them 40 EURO TO TAKE CARE OF IT FOR US.  Stupid people.