Jan 27th – Day of Returning to our Spanish homes

I woke up to hearing my friends talking to one of the guys that owns the hostel who was in our room telling us that we were half and hour late checking out and we needed to get a move on. Umm, okay number 1 I’m creeped out and number 2, you don’t have to tell me twice…we are out. Moral to that story, never return to that hostel…that was way to creepy and apparently he tried to follow Michelle into the elevator to go to the room. She took the stairs to avoid him the night before. We got dressed, packed our things, made a double-check of everything in the room and left. Victoria and I would look at each other and make hand motions of a 0 and start laughing and the rest of our friends weren’t doing so hot. Apparently it was a good thing we didn’t go because it wasn’t worth it. everyone ended up having a bad night and at the end of the night, they all got separated and had to find their own way home…on foot. Victoria and I were shocked! Why didn’t you stay together?! That was so senseless and what if something happened? The bar crawl took them far from Las Ramblas so it was most definitely dangerous and stupid. They agreed and scrambled to figure out how it happened. We were glad we didn’t go then. And we ended up having the better time. Now we were checked out, and normally I have to eat after I drink to keep my blood sugar level when I wake up, and I wasn’t able to. I didn’t have a hangover, fyi. My body hurt and needed to eat desperately, I had the shakes that were so bad I couldn’t hide them. And I had that sneaking feeling my body would make me pass out soon if I didn’t do something. I told Victoria and she walked across the street with me to a deli to help me get food while the other’s watched our things. I was so on the edge for my body to shut off and I knew it. I ate my yogurt and tried to drink more of my Aquarius (Spanish version of Gatorade). Once I finished, I started to eat my salmon and egg sandwich which felt like it took forever for me to motivate myself to eat it. Then, I had to wait. Wait for what seemed like forever for my body to re-boot itself. 20 minutes later, I felt able to move more and speak. I had told my friends the dinner last night about my hypoglycemia which of course no one understands or gets it until something happens. Like last night and this morning. When I came out, my friends didn’t say anything to me and we went to a restaurant to eat. Feeling better as time went on, my blood sugar got better and now my body was hungry to eat something for my stomach this time instead of my body. I ate my meal and felt completely better. Finally. My friends explained to me that they didn’t understand and thought I was sick, but now they got it. They just know now that when I say I need to eat, we need to stop immediately (or asap) to get me food, wait 15-20 minutes and I’ll be good to go again. And until then, to leave me be. I was so thankful because it was the first time I had friends that completely got it. They knew I wasn’t sick, didn’t treat me like a baby, knew I knew what to do, knew how to help if need be and knew when I needed it most and when to stop to let me fix it. I’ve rarely had that happen and to be perfectly honest, only my immediate family understands it like that and no one else. Thanks god for giving me friends here that could be this for me away from everything I knew. Yea sometimes they got dumb, but we are young and we all are like that occasionally. But what matters the most is in these instances. I didn’t know what to say and I know they would never know how much it meant to me. Just then, a parade/protest of hundreds of people went through Las Ramblas. It was awesome, and unfortunately I couldn’t understand what the chanting was about but it was for women’s rights. I’m not sure what for specifically. Then we took our bags and made our walk to the bus station. It was a long walk but it was a lovely day out and we needed something calming the wrap up our great weekend. Trevor was in a sour mood about the ending of the trip because he had the worst of luck. Earlier on Saturday, he had gotten hustled by a street performer playing a cup game and you had to find where the 50 was. And of course he got tricked into giving them a 50 Euro. And of course he lost it. Dumb! Then, at their bar crawl, and cute Spanish girl served as a distraction while his wallet was pickpocketed. And of course, silly trusting American, put it in the front pocket of his jacket and the man bumped into him. Which in a bar, he thought he slipped and moved out of the way. That wallet had everything…how dumb!! I couldn’t believe it! His driver’s license, insurance card, all cash, credit card, debit card and copy of his passport were in it! Sometimes it doesn’t help to be from a tiny backwoods town where nothing bad happens and he doesn’t have much life experience in those areas or know anyone who does. Then we came upon a parkway nearby the bus station with shading palm trees and soft grass. He was dying to take a nap while we waited in the grass but right when he set his hand in the grass to test if it was wet, his palm smashed a pile of dog poo. It was definitely a bad weekend for him and it hadn’t even hit him yet. Once we boarded the bus, we felt much more relieved because the bus this time was bigger and had more room. Yes! As the driver went through Barcelona to the interstate, we went by the sea…gorgeous sunset that made us in awe and a little saddened that our trip was over so soon. Then to the right we see the mountain side but there were crosses and marbled stones covered by glass. The mountain was where their cemetery was! So they could always be facing the sea….cool. Then we fell asleep. When Victoria and I woke up later, it was night and the windows on the bus gave us a panoramic view of everything. It was gorgeous. Stars that seemed to jump out from the sky, glistening white shadows of mountains and distant blue outlines of further mountains. The music channels we could listen to for both of us was accidentally turned to a 90s US playlist of love ballads. It had to be the most romantic bus ride (we had decided) of our lives. We heard ‘I will be right here waiting for you’, and song by Sting, one by Phil Collins, ‘I’ll stand by you’, ‘Sexual Healing’….and how funny that this moment was being shared with Victoria! We laughed about it and the fact that we shared it. Then we both dozed for the rest of the ride. Awakened by the bus driver telling us we were back in Madrid. We all got our luggage and walked to the next bus station to wait for the bus to Alcala. After we made the second bus and were back in Alcala, it was 2:30am. We were exhausted and ready to sleep in our warm beds. I grabbed a taxi and the others walked to their host homes since they were close. Once I arrived at my host home and was safely in the door, I took my things upstairs, unpacked and went to sleep. Safe and sound.