8-2-09 Sunday...Trip to Tarragona

Buenos Dias! Well it’s Sunday today and I woke up at 6:10 AM! Ahhh, I got in the shower and got ready for the day in Tarragona. I had absolutely no idea what this place was, but I was along for the ride. Kaila and I got to the bus stop..early this time…but go figure, something goes wrong! The bus was late this time though, not us! We got to the Metro and were supposed to meet Gina, Betsy, Emily, and Matt at 8, but ended up getting there around 8:20. We are now known as the “late girls”. Which is very unlike me, because I hate being late and always like to have a plan. We run to the train station to buy our ticket, which was 9.80 Euros round-trip. We just made it on time to get on the train to Tarragona. It took about an hour and 5 minutes to get there. When we arrived, we weren’t really sure where to go or what to do, but Gina had done a report on some Roman ruins in Tarragona, and was interested in seeing those. We ended up getting a pass to go to all the ruins, there were about 7 different stops you could go to, and the cost was 5 Euros. We saw a Roman Amphitheater, walls, and other things. Kaila and Gina are history majors, so they were on a field day. While Betsy, Emily, Matt, and I were just walking with not really knowing anything…haha. It was fun though and neat to see. After we finished our history lesson for the day, we had some lunch, which Kaila and I packed a lunch…to save some money! From there, we were off to the beach for a couple of hours. It was really hot out and the beach wasn’t as nice as the others we’ve been to. A lot of seaweed floating in the water and the waves were huge!!! I got some sun though and a bit burnt. We walked around a bit and then got an ice cream cone to cool off. Just about every store was closed though, because of it being Sunday! It’s just crazy how so much is closed here! Not much to do here on Sundays. Oh well. We took the train back to Barcelona and took the bus back home and arrived around 7:15. It was a long, hot day, but fun at the same time. It was a nice weekend to get out of Barcelona because August 1st is the starting date for vacation in all of Europe. And I guess everyone heads south for the warmth…so people who are from Barcelona are on vacation elsewhere. Very interesting and another little tidbit about work here is that people in Europe have a mandatory month vacation time! Is that not crazy…but awesome at the same time! Never would we see that in the USA…unless you have some job that is way too nice! So I kind of fell asleep after typing some of this…whoops! I am very tired tonight. Anyways, we ate around 8:45 and had chicken and French fries! How American!! And Carmen and Teti had family over again today and made a cake. We had a leftover piece of that as well…it was organic and fresh. It was peach-like frosting, chocolate, and chocolate nougat bottom, it was very different, but not too bad. I would have liked different frosting stuff, rather than peach, but I can’t complain. Almost all of the food I eat here, I like! So to have some not so good stuff, is alright. After dinner, Jordon had called! We talked for about 15 minutes and now I’m getting ready for bed. Time for school again tomorrow...oh boy. Kaila now has morning class so I’ll have to go by myself, which isn’t too bad. I am a big girl, I can do it. Violence doesn’t happen here…just theft and stealing of money. But we live in a nice neighborhood and I haven’t had any problem with that or even getting hit on. Maybe it’s because I don’t really care what I look like here, nor do I have someone to impress! Or maybe the men here just think I am not pretty and have something against Americans…haha. Whatever the case may be, I could care less!  Alright, Adios chicos, I’m off to bed! Till tomorrow…Hasta luego!