hm...just woke up to find my entire dorm completely empty...have no idea where everyone went. i imagine home to their nice cozy parents houses for the weekend. leaving me alone to...slide around the halls in my socks and underwear? watch TV on the computer at an unreasonable volume? be COMPLETELY BORED, even more f-ing bored then usual...is ok, will take this weekend to write and study and...meditate. am bored to the point right now that i am sitting here drinking espresso listening to George Michaels 'last christmas'. someone send me a book or something.
oh, wait, i hear footsteps...
anyway. hello! greetings from cormons! i realize that i havent written in like...a really long time. i ran off to spain and then crumbled off the face of the earth and then arose from the ashes here, in my tiny town.
ok, so, well start with spain. i feel like there's not that much to say...it was both wonderful and not, weird and strange, beautiful and ugly. this is barcelona though. i think i was one of like...all the people in the world who wasnt completely blown away by the city. i just found it sort of seedy and dirty and not at all wild and exotic like i had thought. i think i was expecting miami mixed with mexico but with beautiful spanish men. what i found instead was a big, dirty city. with art that i was not at all impressed by (i attribute this to the fact that i had been living in rome. i am spoiled beyond belief as far as architectual beauty goes). the first part of the trip was weird. freddie and i had an...interesting time and it ended a little odd. but the food was great! we ate tapas and drank mojitos and went to a really bad club where they played all american rap and stayed out very very late. freddie left sunday afternoon leaving me to another couple of days (so i thought) alone in the city. went out sunday night and made friends with some people and danced a bit, spent sunday wandering and eating turkish delights and being relatively bored and unimpressed. tuesday morning i came down to breakfast with my suitcase packed, thrilled to be heading back to safe, normal cormons, where i could have my own room and speak italian and not be bothered anymore. was eating my complimentary cereal when this adorable boy in thick rayban eyeglasses started talking to me. he was there with a group of about 7 other boys, all from slovenia (the country right over the border from me in cormons), all totally cute and punk rockish. turns out they were a group of BMX bikers from slovenia who do a yearly trip together to ride their bikes and hang out. the cute boy who talked to me first, luka, talked about how cool slovenia is and he encouraged me to go there ASAP, even gave me a number of his friend who lived in lubijana and told me to call her when i came to visit. was so very kind and friendly and he kept saying, "postpone your flight! stay in barcelona! why would you leave, tickets to venice are so cheap, just stay!" and i was all, no, no, i have to go, i want to go, etc. so i parted ways with the boys, already friends after one breakfast together. got to the airport and called mom and talked with her for a minute keeping my eyes on the boarding call for my flight. finally it came up, BCN to Venice, and i went to the counter, where i was told (i will NOT go into detail here) that the notice was for boarding, not check in, and i was late and i could not take the flight. fine. at this point i just...i just dont care. is inevitable that i am an IDIOT. so i am given an option: take a flight to another city that night (where? why? what good does that do me??) or reschedule to take a flight later that week for $70. good god. considered options...decided upon taking another flight from BNC to venice later that week, the next one being saturday. i figured, ok, i didnt like barcelona and i am sad about this. i felt like i was missing something. so ill go back, ill be happy, ill give it another shot. went right back to the hostel, laughing, thinking, if the kids at happy days could see this now, my god, and i walked in to see none other than ryan, the new orleans boy from happy days. he had come to barcelona after me and we happened to be in the same hostel again, and he saw me all haggled looking and was just like, "oh god, did you miss your flight again?" and i said "yup" and it was just perfect.
and after this i can say, barcelona got alot better. due to wonderful ryan being there, the slovenian boys, some nice girls including one awesome girl who went to harvard, and the chance to drool over the gorgeous argentinian hostel worker pablo whom i wanted to like kidnap and stuff into my pocket and keep him there for LIFE. the more i explored the city, the more i liked it. aside from being over run with tourists and scary men who did this weird tongue click thing (not spaniards, men from other countries) and the constant threat of having everything stolen off you, the city got cooler and cooler. i found amazing markets, stores, beach front clubs, bakeries with some of the best treats i have ever tried, fresh seafood, fantastic clothes which i did not buy, paella, and proof that spaniards are absolutely some of the coolest people on the planet.
on thursday i had kind of a breakdown of sorts however. i got this email from a lady at my school, the evil one, the one who has given me so much trouble before, the one whom i had written to maybe 15 times begging (literally begging) for information on how school works, how i could register for classes, what the dates were, etc. she had been nothing but tight lipped and mean, and i was told only that if i go in person (which i did) i could get everything sorted out (a lie). so i get this email from her all of a sudden, whcih reads: school started monday. classes are now unavailable for registration. so of course i panic. i start emailing everyone at the school and becoming histerical. i cant use my phone and i cant leave spain and im convinced that i haven just ruined my chances for taking classes this semester. on top of this, of course, the reality of all the money lost due to my stupidness and the mistakes starts to sink in and i just want to die. after a while i pick myself up and go out for a coffee, thinking i can sit and breath and have some caffeine and talk myself out of...disaster. so im at this little coffee shop next to my hostel, and theres this nice, older rastafarian black man working there, the owner. he comes up to bring me my coffee and says, "you look so sad. you need to get out of this city, i can tell. i want you to finish your coffee and go here. dont stop for anything, youll be there by sunset." he writes down a name on a piece of paper, i drink my cup, and go directly to the train station. i hand the beautiful spanish train attendant the piece of paper. he grins when he reads the name, charges me 4 euro, and tells me to have a nice trip. i take the train out of the city, and immediately i feel better. the tracks run alongside the ocean, water crashing to my left, the sun beginning to set up ahead, some of the most beautiful, bright green gassy hills that i have ever seen rolling on my right. we go for about an hour, and the train pulls in my stop. theres not even a train station, it is literally just a platform. i am the only one who gets off the train, and the only person i see in any direction. the beach is down a grassy slope, and i go there and parked on the beach is about 40 boats, all lined up, with their sails tied, sheets flapping in the wind. the sun is setting and the wind is blowing so hard that it is making the chains on the sails fo the boats rattle. they are all different sizes and they all make different sounds in the wind, it sounds like a symphony, and i park myself right in the middle and sit and listen until it gets dark. then i take the train back to the city, where is rest and play and eat a wonderful dinner and finally consider the trip to be worth it, way worth it.
ok, im going to go get some food now, ill write asap about everything happening ehre, which is a surprising amount considering where i am
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