8-31 & 9-1

I made it!

What's today?.... 9-02-10 hahaha like beverly hillsss. But it's Thursday. So where to start?

Tuesday I left... after some tears with my mom I boarded Jet Airways which I had never heard of but found to be ah-mazing. 1st class looked ridiculous... but my row 32 was just fine. I had a private TOUCH SCREEN tv with pop-out remote... and about 40 movies to watch including many new releases and Bollywood movies (it was an Indian flight)... spacious chair & great recline.

And of course I popped my 2 sleeping pills before realizing any of this and before knowing who I would be sitting next to.. which was the fabulous Pau Maso who I had met while checking in our bags... my 2 & his 4. He's moving back to Spain after living in the US for 4 years on and off.... he started off as a NANNY and wants to become a PHOTOGRAPHER... we're so alike.

And the woman next to him was moving to Milan to teach ENGLISH... So the 3 of us filled the plane with our loud excited conversation about Europe, NY, English, Africa, and traveling. They were both wonderful....

I tried to watch Sex in the City 2... but fell asleep about halfway through.. only for about 40 minutes though because dinner was being served. I forgot that Indian food was soooo spicy and only noticed my plain yogurt at the end of my meal... it would have cooled down that chicken and rice combo so nicely (something I learned from my Arabs!) But it was pretty damn good for airplane food.

I also tried watching The Karate Kid with Will Smith's son.... SO ADORABLE! It's like watching Will Smith JR.... but I didn't finish that either.

We landed in Brussels around 730am... which would be 130am NY time. While waiting in line at customs Pau and I noticed all these boys walking past us in matching clothes.... Turns out they're on the nation football team... but the Under-21. It's called URBSFA-KBVB (well those are the innitials). Of course I ended up talking to two of them, Joachim Mununga and Radja Nainggolan and they informed me that I was NOT in Germany... but I was in Belgium. I had no idea.

Pau and I had a 5 hour layover... so we checked out the chocolates, the perfumes, the sunglasses.... and then relaxed. I read Eat Pray Love, which everyone knows about by now, while he played with his amazing new camera, a Canon EOS 7D which I have become obsessed with. He wants to make a movie with it... he said that only 1 full length movie has ever been made with this particular camera and it's about to come out in America.

I've been wanting to see this Eat Pray Love movie and of course read the book... but when Jill told me she's loving it and thought that I would love it too.. I knew I had to get it for my trip! And I am loving it so far.

The plane ride from Brussels to Barcelona was only 2 hours but it would have been a lot longer if the baby 2 seats in front of me didn't stop crying. He was wailing before takeoff. The mom couldn't control him... and he had horrible bruises around his neck and obvious marks where the thumbs had been when the life had been practically drained out of him. If anyone had seen this child in the US they would have called Social Services immediately. Watching her inability to stop his crying and seeing his bruises baby neck made my mind race... I wonder if she stole this child from someone... I bet he wasn't hers... Everyone who isn't Asian think that all Asians look alike... so it would be easy to get away with.... ANYWAY.

heres a video of the baby... he wasnt at his full scream in it but you can totally see the bruises on his neck

We arrived in Barcelona at 2:45pm (8:45 am NY time) and I had basically gone 24 hours without sleeping. Toni was RIGHT on time to pick me up and I convinced the security people to let him come back and help me with my bags... I put on the maiden in distress act. It took about an hour for my bags and everything so good thing I didn't make Toni wait...

And of course his family's car is in the shop so he took his motorbike to the airport and I had to take the bus to Plaça Universita and he met me... from there we took the 64 bus to his stop and walked my stuff to his family's apartment where I was greeted by CUCAA!!!! (his dog).

We tried to get something to eat but at 5pm everything is closed... so we lounged around for a while and I took a short nap before we went and had tapas for dinner.

I had never had tapas beforeee!! So it was fun... and he was a wonderful tour guide (like always) and explained everything and picked out the best tapas to have. And I had a niiice beer with lemon. So nice.

Then we got all my bags and I got on the bus and took it to MY stop and he followed by motorbike and helped me bring everything to the apartment where Ignacio was waiting.

It feels so good to be back in Barcelona... I feel like I know the city and that I never left.

So today is Thursday. Leila told me to make sure I got my keys from the doorman before 2 since that's when he leaves... So I set my alarm for 11.... and I don't really remember what happened when it went off... I just know that I woke up at 1:50 and quickly put on a bra and ran downstairs to get my keys... which in my sleep drunkenness I called "las llevas" which means "thewear" instead of "las llaves" which means "the keys". But I got my keys =)

I went and picked up some essentials... zumo (juice), fanta, cacaolat (chocolate milk), vanilla mousse yogurt... andd.... A CREAM CROISSANT! I know the lady recognized me but I don't think she remembers that I don't speak Spanish because she was going on and on and on... but it was the most delicious croissant crema everrrrr =)

Now... time to find a job.