Lauren, Jackie, Michael, and I woke up to Andrew and Kevin busting into the prayer room shouting at 4am. Security was now open and we could proceed to our gates, or at least we thought we could. We passed through security but apparently they don’t post the gate number until forty minutes before flights take off, so were sat at a table and continued our long night of waiting. Fortunately, we received some comic relief from a nearby television playing popular music videos. In the corner of the young artist’s hip dance moves was an overweight woman in her forties signing the song. She honestly got way to into it and put her whole voluptuous body into signs that needed only a simple hand gesture. It got better when a video far a male artist came on and a Harley Davidson looking bald man appeared to sign. Once again we were dying laughing at his insane moves and had to shield our eyes to help from peeing our pants.
When our gate was finally posted we got on the plane and I think I fell asleep within ten minutes. We landed in Barcelona with huge smiles plastered across our faces and butterflies in our stomach, not knowing what to expect. Following the directions the apartment owner gave us we jumped in and headed off to our apartment, or at least we thought that’s where we were heading. After paying the cab driver an absurb amount of money we realized he took us to the wrong place. Michael asked a few dozen people where Salamanca 12 was. Fortunately, we found an extremely helpful group of construction workers. About fifteen of them came out to try and translate directions to us. It was definitely an educational experience not being able to communicate. One thing the construction workers stressed was not to trust cab drivers. That would have been helpful an hour previous.
Anyway, we headed off on an hour walk to our apartment and found out that team Navajo would be living in very close quarters. The small, but cute apartment had one double bed and a small pull out couch. We decided it would be best for four of us to sleep horizontally across the bed and two to sleep on the small pull out couch. Exhausted, we all laid down for our first Spanish siesta.
Since meals had not been scheduled into our day, we woke up and decided to find somewhere to eat and then explore. We walked along the beach and put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea. It was right out of a movie or more like the Navajo edition of the Real World in Barcelona. We ate an unbelievable dinner on the docks. After dinner we wandered around a bit just soaking in the breathtaking atmosphere. Michael bought us girls roses and we sat and talked about or dreams and aspirations while Kevin and Andrew left to find a pay phone. It was awesome getting to know everyone on a deeper level. Travelling together forces you to open up and be yourself.
When we arrived back at the apartment we all wrote in our journals and planned out the agenda for Friday. After we decided the game plan we all went to sleep as best we could in the tight sleeping arrangement.