a group of 64 students, teachers and parents (and of course our tourguide) departed kingston jamaica on monday 17 march. after a long tiring journey by air jamaica to miami and iberia from there to madrid then onward to barcelona (we would return to madrid to visit later on in our week long trip), we arrived at our 5 star hotel melia in sitges which is a touristic region about 20 minutes' drive from barcelona. the transatlantic flight was particularly taxing for me because i was the only vegetarian in the group and no special meal had been booked so i spent the ten hour flight eating fruits - a special gift from the iberia crew to me (so said the flight attendant who was serving my aisle).

anyway when i got to the hotel i was definitely starved but more in need of a shower since the last time i had one was the day before - when i first left my house for the airport. the reserved lunch at the hotel restaurant was good since on my request they made me a special meal which included a huge first course of raw veggies! hmm... the others in the group weren't totally happy with their main course because each person, whether child or adult, got a whole half of a chicken roasted with potatoes on the side. i don't know if the restaurant staff had heard about the jamaican appetite before we came but it was just too much and most people left a half of their meal on the plate. this turned out to be a waste that they were sad about especially when they heard that the cost of the lunch was 33 euros each!

after the meal we jumped on the tour bus and headed into the city to tour las ramblas, the most famous street in barcelona and a bootleg version of les champs-elysees in paris, according to one of my students! i guess it could have been fun but i was exhausted from the long journey. we toured el corte ingles, a big department store that again i couldn't really appreciate because i was busy chaperoning my group of ten persons (each teacher - six of us in all - had to be the chaperone of a group so we could monitor everyone better) and trying to will by tired legs to take the next step. everything in el corte ingles (the english court, by the way) was expensive and that first day was uneventful. however we would have a chance to have a real tour of las ramblas on the day following. i still prefer les champs-elysees in paris!!!