¡Vamos a llegar a la Barcelona! (We’re going to Barcelona)

This day was anything but eventful, but some things of note did take place. For instance we finally got out bus tickets to Barcelona, so we will officially be leaving Segovia tomorrow evening at around 6:30, making a quick stop-over at Madrid and then taking an 8 hour bus ride to Barcelona. I want to extend a thank you to my sister, Meghan, for sending me a quick message with things to do in Barcelona. I really appreciate it.
Anyways, class was much better today than it had been the day before. We took a quick tour of the governmental building in the center of La Plaza Mayor, which took most of the time away from our Linguistics class, but also required me to wear long pants on the long, hot, up-hill walk to class. (We were told to dress nice for this tour.) Nate noticed a salt stain in the shape of my pinche backpack on my back.
I participated a lot more in Cultures class today. I’m happy with my contributions for now, but I am aiming to make small improvements every day. Today’s improvements were promising in my opinion.
After class we tried to buy our bus tickets using a phone because we were told that this would be the best way to get them after trying every method in the book to get them. Nate was seconds away from giving the operator the number to one of our companion’s debit card when the phone call cut out. I encouraged him to use skype to make the call. Unfortunatley, you need internet to use skype, our professor’s weren’t in a particularly benevolent mood and they didn’t want to stay at el Centro to wait for us, and Maricarmen had lunch waiting for us back home, so we had to leave, once again, empty-handed.
As we left, Nate was uncharacteristically quiet, so me and Alejandro did the best we could to reassure him that everything would work out and that these trials and tribulations were nothing but tests of our resolve.
After almuerzo, we returned to La Plaza to make the last ditch phone call with Nate’s skype. Nate couldn’t reach an English-speaking operator, so he had to make the entire call in Spanish. Needless to say, this was quite impressive, and reminded me of how crucial not losing your cool is to making something that you want to happen happen. Nate had every right to be in hysterics after all of the failed attempts to buy the bus tickets, but he decided that it wasn’t worth it, kept his cool, and made the final purchase. It was something to behold.
While he made that call, I talked to the lovely Jenna Smith. This is two days in a row that I have made some sort of contact with her; only one word comes to mind; Magnificence!! I always enjoy talking with her immensely.
Anyways, after that, we returned to la casa, and did some homework that took a little bit longer than I expected us to take. We may have gotten off track a few times. NBD (No Big Deal).
We then ate dinner, which was a Spanish tortilla (made with potatoes) and frijoles verdes. After dinner, we met up with one of our classmates, Brittany, to go see a storyteller. Alejandro needed to see this for his clase de conversación. We met up with two others, Savannah and Lauren, and the storyteller began. The guy didn’t use a microphone, so it was hard to hear what he was saying, especially since he was speaking exclusively in español. I did a quick census after each story to see how many of us actually understood him. It was interesting to say the least.
After that, our group went to a bar called La Ménora, which was right behind La Catedral in La Plaza Mayor. A Bar with the name of a piece of Jewish regala placed right behind a Catholic church. Go figure. Anyway, I got a very nice glass of vino blanco. I think I commanded some respect from the rest of the group for getting something different this evening. Atleast, I would like to think that was the case.
After that, we returned to la casa, and now we are performing our daily ritual of reflecting on the day and listening to some terrific tunes. After going through this process, I now realize that this day was a little more eventful than I had earlier perceived. Such is life in an interesting place like this. Mis padres did some mad touring in Rome today, which included a visit to the famous Coliseum. I hope that everything is great back home. Be good to yourselves. Next time I’ll be blogging from Barcelona! ¡Adios!