I thought I could wait until tomorrow to write an entry, but there is WAY too much to talk about. We had the funnest weekend ever... (I know I say that way to much, but isn't it better to have everyday/experience be better than the last? I would say so!) We just got back from Sitges and I am extremely tired but am so eager to write about the last couple of days!!!
After I wrote on Thursday, I went on my date with Abel (uh-bell... haha) and had such a good time! We met at the bar, where we first met one another, which is in a really cute area in town. He was as handsome as I remembered (hehe) and it was good to see him again. We walked around and found a little cafe where we sat and had coffee (not a drink, coffee... i like that). We had such a good time together... only one problem... his English is good, but not great, as is my Spanish. Needless to say, it was both interesting and entertaining trying to communicate. We had sooo much fun just getting to know each other and trying to help each other speak correctly. Turns out he is a REALLY nice guy. He's 22, works at a bank here and the stuff he was saying was just really cute and innocent. haha. He is actually really dorky... but it was cute. We spent the whole time laughing! So after coffee, we just walked around the city for a while and it was lovely. He's quite the romantic. We sat on a bench and talked and promised that we are going to teach each other Spanish and English. It was so funny, he would get like keys and kiss mixed up and you know me, I laughed for like 20 minutes with everything he said. Anyways, he drove me home (in his bmw) and we listened to flamenco music the whole way home (he doesn't like rap/hip-hop music because it is too degrading... cute!). It was a very nice night and I'm excited to hang out again.
So once I got home, I just hung out with the girls and we went to sleep early. Friday, we accidentally slept in until noon but got up and Ash and I took a spin class at the gym. It was quite a bit harder than we had envisioned, because the teacher was talking muy rapido in Espanol, but we managed. He was really nice and came over and talked to us to make sure we were ok. haha. After that we ran home, hopped in the shower and got ready to meet up with a bunch of our friends.
There is this bar called "Champagneria" where you buy a bottle of champagne and two tapas for 5 euro (which is a REALLY good deal). We met up with about 12 of our friends from our program and all went to the bar. It was completely packed like sardines, but sooo much fun. The tapas and champagne were to die for, but the people and environment was even better. Not to mention, the guy serving us was the most gorgeous thing in the world (and married... boo), and was making us all weak in the knees and feel like little girls because we were so giddy. We decided that we were going to make this event a weekly thing with everyone, because it is literally a blast. Everyone left around 6 p.m. but we (Ash, Dionne and I) stayed and ended up talking to these German pilots for a long time which was very interesting. When I meet new people, especially from a different country, I just question them because I am so intrigued by their lives, simply because it is different than mine.
We took the metro home and decided we would just hang out until we went out later that night. However, we ended up drinking more, our friends Katie and Talia came over, and we went downstairs and hung out with the boys. Long story short, we fell asleep and didn't even go out that night. haha. It was fine though because we had a big and eventful weekend ahead of us.
I was the first to wake up on Saturday and still needed to go pick up my package from mom from the post office. So I went on my own into the city and walked around for an hour and couldn't find it. Come to find out today, as Noelle was looking at a map, that the post office is actually right by our apartment... Awesome. Its ok though, because I had a great little morning walk in the beautiful city. All the kids, and even some adults, were dressed in costumes for Carnaval... I loved it! After I gave up on trying to find the post office, I was vigorously searching for a Starbucks (and once that grande non-fat white chocolate mocha hit my lips, the long trek was sooo worth it).
I got home and tried to get everyone going to leave for Sitges. We kept pushing back the time to leave and ended up meeting all our friends at the train station at 4:30. The train to Sitges is free and about a half hour long. When we got there, it was sprinkling a little bit, but we checked into our hotel and our friends (who were already there, more were coming later on) went and got food and then came over and we all hung out at our place. Let me just say, that Sitges is BEAUTIFUL. It is exactly what you would picture a little Spanish beach town to look like and we all fell in love with it right away. Our hotel was literally ON the beach and unbelievably nice in every aspect. We were the only ones of like 20 of our friends that got a hotel because they were all going to take the train home at like 4 in the morning, and we weren't about to do that, and also wanted to spend Sunday there.
It ended up working out perfectly because it started pouring rain (boo) but we just hung out in the hotel and pre-partied until about 8 and went out... and guess what? No more rain!! So... Carnaval is HUGE in Sitges which is the gay capital of Spain. Carnaval is a mix between Halloween and Mardi Gras... so pretty much, its one big party in the streets with everyone dressed up and the whole city is decorated in bright colors and masks. I felt like I was at Mardi Gras and Santa Barbara for Halloween. The streets were PACKED and all the bars and clubs were just open and you literally went in one place and then another. We met up with pretty much everyone of our friends in our program (we are in love with EVERYONE, its amazing how great everyone is) and we all roamed the streets (its a very small town), took tons of pictures and danced the night away at a ton of different bars and clubs. The most fascinating part, by far, was the excessive amount of drag queens dressed in the most fun, extravagant costumes ever. We all dressed up just in random crazy clothes, but the drag queens were SOO much fun and looked great!
It ended up being an incredible night and being with all our friends was such a blast! We went back to our hotel and fell asleep around 1 or so (really early but we had been partying for quite a while at that point) and we were so happy we had a hotel and didn't have to wait for the train to come at 5 a.m. I woke up first on Sunday and was soo eager to get out and walk around. So I showered, let the others girls get up and get ready and just walked around the city for an hour by myself. Once again, I was all smiles!!! I am completely obsessed with this little town and it was so nice to just have time to myself to take it all in.
Once we checked out of the hotel, we went and got lunch at this little pizzeria and then just walked the streets, shopped and hung out until about 3:00. We took the train back to Barcelona and left at a perfect time, because right when we left it started raining again. It was SUCH a nice little weekend getaway. We were so pleased with ourselves that we got a hotel room and we are so lucky that this gorgeous little town is only a (free) half hour train ride away. We loved Carnaval so much that we are going back for a couple hours on Tuesday for the main celebration.
We are exhausted and just hanging out until the Super Bowl parties tonight. Don't worry, we're not going crazy tonight because we do have school in the morning. However, there are a ton of things going on for the Super Bowl tonight and it doesn't come on TV till midnight (3 p.m. in the states) so we are going to nap because its going to be a late night.
So as you can see, its been an intense, but absolutely amazing, couple of days. I must say that I am living the life here. I just can't believe we have already been here for a month (tomorrow). I can honestly say that it has been the best month of my life, without a doubt!! I can't wait to see what the next three months are going to be like. All I know is that this trip has surpassed every expectation that I dreamed it would be like. I am so happy... I don't think this goofy grin is going away any time soon!!!
