Barcelona Beach Party!!

So......thanks for all your emails and support, friends!! I have to meet our timid, quiet tour guide in 15 minutes, so I am short on time to write you back, but I assure you I will email you back next time and get on writing those postcards shortly. You are all the best friends anyone could want!!!!!!

Anyway, yesterday we took an 8 hour bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona. The bus driver was the worst, rudest man you could ever meet!! Seriously!! He arrived one hour late for starters. Then Jose Luis (his name) got in and started yelling at us all in Spanish, saying NO FOOD AND DRINK EXCEPT WATER IN MY BUS!!! We didn´t even have any food out. After that, he made us all put our own luggage in the bus ourselves. We took a few rest stop breaks and he was always taking our sweet, timid main tour guide, Jose, aside and complaining about us. Well, when we finally made it to Barcelona last night, he was furious to see that none of us gave him a tip. He said he should have locked all our suitcases inside the bus. As we ate dinner last night, poor little Jose came in to tell us about the situation. He let us know that Jose Luis would be staying at the hotel and if we felt like dropping him off a tip, we could leave it at the front desk. Yeah right!!!! I think one teacher from Ohio left him a dollar tip for getting us safely to our destination.

Today, we took a really cool tour of Barcelona by a fun guy with bleached, spiky hair. He showed us this huge cathedral that began in 188..something and won´t be done for another 200 years called La Sagrada Familia. I got some pictures and postcards of it because it was so interesting to look at. He took us all over the city and told us how the Spanish in this area are not as talkative as we are, so not to get offended. He also had some interesting stories to tell. During a few lulls in the tour, I talked with this German teacher from Columbus, OH on the bus. I asked who he wanted to vote for in the Presidential Election and he said, Why? You are going to talk me into Mitt Romney, aren´t you?!!! knowing I was a Mormon and from Utah. I tried to act like I wasn´t going to convince him of anything. It was interesting to compare our beliefs, though.

The rest of the afternoon was free, so I went to the outdoor and got some fruit from a fruit stand. The slow lady and her daughter were too tired from a bus ride to walk, so they went to a nice cafe just one minute away from where they dropped us off. I walked all over the place with the Spanish teacher. We went to a little cafe and I ordered a tomato and cheese tostada. It ended up being a cracker with a piece of tomato and melted cheese on top for 4 Euros!!! This place is a ripoff sometimes!! At least I am not addicted to Coke or that would be 4 Euros a day gone.

Tonight we are going out on the town a bit again. I went last night and Melissa´s mom was so worried about her. She made me promise to stay by her every minute of the night and really chaperone by setting curfews, etc. I didn´t realize that she was going to be this worried about her 18 year old daughter. I guess I should understand, but sometimes this chaperoning is tiring stuff.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Carcassonne, France!! That should be more of my territory. I guess I had better get a little bull and a fan before I leave Spain, though.