Journal 26 Wednesday: Today was the first day of Thanksgiving break. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving in London, obviously, but the teachers gave us a break for the holiday anyway. And because classes are either Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs, they cancelled the Wednesday classes to be fair to all students who may not have had any classes to be cancelled on Thursday. I was going to be leaving Barcelona this afternoon. I planned to wake up early and go down to school to check email before I left. Justin had to wake up really early, around 6:30 I think, to get to Ben's house and then to the airport to catch their plane to Amsterdam. I ended up just turning my alarm off after hitting snooze twice; my flight wasn't til 5pm so I had plenty of time. I got up around 9 or so, changed/showered/ate as usual, and then packed up all my stuff. I planned to head out the door around noon to run my errands. I said bye to Sue and headed out the door. I walked almost all the way to the Hanger Lane station (probably half a mile or so) before I realized that I didn't have the cables for my laptop... so I walked all the way back. After picking up the cables I caught the Tube and headed down toward school. I sat, checked email, and printed off all my paperwork for the hostel and plane flight. Jeff was in the AIFS office; the poor guy wasn't told that Wednesday classes were cancelled so he was trying to figure out what to do. After spending a while online, to the point where there wasn't anything else to do since no one back home is on at 5am, I left. I walked to the Post Office to buy postcard stamps. When I asked for 25 the lady laughed and said "You have a lot of friends", I just thought to myself "this is only half the people that I wrote down to send cards too..." I stamped all the cards and put them them in the outgoing mail slot, I wrote most of them a month ago and now finally sent them. I then went to Tesco to get snacks and pick up Cookies for my family in Barcelona (yes, I have extremely distant family in Barcelona). I bought a large tin of butter cookies for Paquito (my grandmother's cousin) and a few snacks for my flight. Next I went the book store and bought a cheap English/Spanish dictionary; if I was going to meet distant family I needed to brush up a little on my Spanish. After that I decided to go the airport. I first took the Tube to Liverpool Street Station where I needed to catch the Stansted Express. A roundtrip ticket to the airport cost me 24pounds (RIPOFF!). I boarded the train and sat down for the 40 min ride to Stansted. I switched off reading some of "The Rainbow" for class, and some of my English/Spanish dictionary. We got stuck waiting on the tracks for about 10 minutes or so right outside Stansted because one of the trains (that was in our way) was having engine trouble. We arrived at the airport and I found the EasyJet check for Barcelona. It's great, you walk up to your own line depending what city you're going to fly into. I put my (backpacking) backpack in the large duffel bag I brought so I could check it and then got in line, I was already the next one to be served. Well, because my bag was an odd shape the girl had me bring it the security check point on my own. They x-rayed it and then had me open it since it was full of electronics (laptop/cameras/cables/etc.) When I rebagged the backpack though after showing him it was just a laptop, I pulled the zipper right off.... I'm going to have fix that before Saturday. I checked my bag, may my way through the shopping mall-like area in the terminal, and sat and waited at my gate. When I finally boarded the plane it was open seating so though I got on almost last, I got a seat in the second row. I sat and read more of "The Rainbow" during the two hour flight to Spain. You know, I used to dislike the two hour flight to San Diego from San Jose... but since I fly to Florida a lot now, two hours isn't that big a deal. I landed in Barcelona, got off the plane, and then had to fill out forms at Customs. As I filled the forms I met a few more people from the same Study Abroad program I'm on - also from California too. We talked as we went through Customs, got our stamp, and then went to Baggage. I picked up my bag and we all figured out where we were staying for the night. They turned out to be staying a few blocks north of me at Catalunya, I'm staying in Gothic Point. So I went to the help desk and got a map of where I needed to go. I stopped off at the ATM for cash, and then made my way to the train. The escalators here have sensors at the top and bottom. When you step on them they turn on for a short time (long enough to get to the top) and then shut off again. I bought a ticket that I think was round trip, from the airport to Barcelona. I got off at Arc de Triomf, apparently Spain has one too. I then made my way through the tiny street of Barcelona trying to find my hostel. The area here is awesome, I seriously considered living here for a few months (at some point in life) and I've just arrived. I made the way through the narrow streets and finally found Gothic Point hostel. I checked in, paid the remainder of my balance and found my bed. I'm in 16 bed dorm room, and I swear I have the crappiest bunk of them all. I don't have my own little curtain closing me off, but I'm situated in such a way that I don't really need one - but it would be nice. I checked my email (yes, they have broadband.. amazing huh?) and then turned in for the night. I'm right by the window, so I hear all the noise from the street outside. The scooters and Vespa's are noisy as hell, and the people coming in and out all night kept me up a while too. But I finally crashed.
|