I am writing from the Madrid airport this time, seems like I get most of this blog accomplished on planes and in the airports. I guess that’s just traveling though! :D
To start with I must give a recap of this past week and then Madrid itself will be in a separate post.
As you could probably tell from my last post, the past few days have been more than hectic. I’ll start with Tuesday and I’ll try not to leave out any good details!
Tuesday – I went to Catalan! Yay! Turns out, I haven’t missed much; we were still working on the same things. Monday night I tried a couple of different options to get my video to work for class. Turns out, the only thing that worked was uploading it to facebook! My group met before class to look at it one last time and then decide what we were going to say for the presentation. As soon as we got into class Stephanie’s group had already volunteered to go first. Of course, their video had to be the best video ever made and then after they went no one else wanted to go! Lol I think we went 3rd or 4th. Either way, our presentation went good. For the most part all of them were good and during the class I think we all realized that this is all coming to an end soon. One of the girls actually sounded like she was going to cry when she was talking about her experience here and how sad it was going to be to leave. After class we were all relived because, not only were the presentations over, but this was also our last class with Marta. So, 2 down, 6 more to go! Lol After school on Tuesday I actually tried to do some studying for my LSAT but of course, as usual, I got distracted! At this point I’m sure you can only guess why! Lol It was a good night though, and later everyone went out to a bar while I accomplished one practice test!
Wednesday – We didn’t have events management this day because of the EIBTM conference. We were supposed to go to the conference and then write a paper instead of going to class. I was kinda dreading the entire thing and I wanted to go really early to get it over with so that I could do some site seeing around Barcelona. Wellll..I didn’t wake up until 10 and we got lost on the way to the conference so we didn’t actually arrive until 12:30ish! So much for a full day in Barcelona! Once I had arrived, checked in, and made my way to the main floor I found it to be very enjoyable. It was probably the most interesting conference I have ever attended. This was a meeting/event planner/conference planner conference. It was awesome and I really enjoyed myself. Almost every country was represented and people were there from all over the world. It was awesome. Each country had their own set up or stand or whatever, at Ireland they had people dressed up like sheep, Dubai of course went all out and had this entire adobe looking house built, Turkey had people making jewelry and other cool things from Turkey, Lyon had a model in a beautiful red dress handing out red roses, and Guatemala had people dressed up with incense, it was pretty outstanding! I was impressed with each country and they each had traditional food and drinks for the serious meeting planners. I spent an hour or two just wandering around and taking tourist info from each of the countries as well as eating all the chocolate that I could in Turkey! I also had to attend some stupid seminar; I went to this one for like 20 minutes and then left because it was so boring. I honestly just needed enough info to write a paper. Haha
After I made it home from the conference I decided that I would go to the Parc de la Ciutadella. The city park. I’ve been trying to go for a month now so I was excited to finally make it there! I took the metro and easily found my way. I started at the Arc de Triomph, which was very nice, a definite symbol of the city. It was built for the 1888 World Expo. – I’m not sure if that’s the right day or not. I continued walking into the park and went to the Geology and the Zoology museums. It was a cheap combined ticket and I actually found the Geology museum interesting. The Zoology one was a little outdated and kinda creepy. After these museums I went and checked out the botanical gardens and then made a loop around the park stopping at the fountain for some photos and then the lake. The fountain was beautiful, lots of detail and it was so much bigger than I had imagined. The park was very relaxing. For being in the center of the city it’s fairly quiet and makes for a great place to relax. I liked this area. I walked home instead of taking the metro because I can never pass up an opportunity for a stroll through the Gothic Quarter. I’m glad I decided to walk because I ended up in front of the Cathedral and right now they are having the Christmas market in the evenings so I checked out all the booths and bought a little something special to take back to my family so that we can have our own “Catalan” Christmas tradition. I’m not saying what it is though, and you’ll probably never guess! Just have to wait till Christmas! I also had to stop off and buy a pair of tights to replace the ones Stephanie let me have. They were cheap, thank goodness! After I got home I attempted to do some problems in my LSAT book.
Thursday – Started the day off with a nice Catalan lesson. We did a review of what is going to be on the exam next Thursday and then during break I had to go get the last of my traveler’s checks cashed to pay rent. This was the last time that we have to pay rent so I’m relieved! It was quite the fiasco trying to get them cashed this time though. I walked down to the bottom of the hill where I usually get them cashed but the lady that was at Barclays told me that the guy who usually does them wasn’t there that day and told me I had to go somewhere else. Of course, I’m mad because now I have to go find another bank that will do it. Now, finding a bank in Spain is not an issue, there is literally at least one bank on every block and most streets have a total of like 10 and I’m not exaggerating. They have so many banks here. So, I walked down the street and literally try 4 different banks before the people at one bank told me that I was just going to have to go to Plaza Catalunya. I was not happy about this because I was trying to make it back to school at a decent time to work on my event project with Stephanie because she is leaving for Paris. Well, I had to go to Plaza Catalunya and I ended up getting them cashed and having to pay 9 Euro and then I stopped at home really quick to get a water and then I headed back to school. While I was home I put my rent money in the envelope and the remaining 45 Euro in my wallet and left it on my bed because I didn’t need it at school. Well, right as I was getting off the metro at school I saw Stephanie leaving. I’m not sure why she was leaving at like 2 o’clock since her flight wasn’t until 7 something? But whatever, I’m really annoyed her at this point in my trip and the only good thing about leaving in 3 weeks is that I won’t have to see her everyday or clean her hair out of the shower every morning before I can take my own! Ugh.. So she emailed me the “updated” power point. All she did was add the budget slides that were already done and then inserted 5 new slides with titles at the top like..food?..where? hotel?....bike tour? I’m not sure if she considers this work or what but it certainly is not, so hey, I’ll just do the entire presentation???? Gezzz….again, not seeing her everyday isn’t going to kill me! So I decided that I would worry about that presentation after the LSAT was over with and I took the remaining time before class to double check on my flight & hotel reservations and to make sure I had everything I needed for the test. Class started at 4 and it was actually interesting. The last two groups gave their presentations and both of them were on southern Spain, a place where I’m trying to plan a trip to, so I was interested to hear all about them. I have become friends with the teacher and he knows that I’m trying to plan a trip so he kept pointing out things for me to do. I stayed after class to get some more advice from him about Madrid and we got home around 7. It was a long day to say the least…I was exhausted and as soon as we were walking up to our front door, Tiago and Goncalo were there! They came inside and stayed for a while and then shortly after our landlord came over to pick up the rent. This is where things got ugly. So, I counted my money and put it in the envelope, just like I said, all 290 Euro. Well, turns out, as I’m counting out the money, we are short 50 Euro. I didn’t want to assign blame immediately until we had talked to Stephanie and Sam but I was pretty pissed. I had to take the 45 Euro and the change out of my wallet to make up for it. I was not a happy camper. My funds tend to be dwindling fairly quickly and the fact that I probably just had 50 Euro stolen wasn’t going over well with me. I was angry and then upset there for a minute but then I decided that I wasn’t going to let this ruin the rest of my day and that I had to focus on getting packed and cramming in some last minute studying. The most important thing at this point was for me to remain calm because we all know how I can get sometimes. I tend to spaz out over the little things. The can be good and bad though. So Tiago left for work and we promised to come visit him later, Goncalo stayed and we made something to eat and I took what I thought was a small nap but I didn’t wake up until almost 1ish. I was packed for the most part so we all headed over to Tiago’s work and had a drink and then came home. I put a few more things in my bag and before I knew it, it was 4 am. I was supposed to leave around 5 or 5:30 for my 7:00 flight. No bien! I layed down for like an hour, basically I took another nap and then I woke up, headed to the metro, caught the train, and was at the airport by 6. Great timing really, it was all going good until I realized that I was at Terminal 2 and needed to be at Terminal 1. This was all due to expedia confirming that my flight was leaving out of Terminal 2. Well, it certainly was not and if I wouldn’t have made my flight I would have been really mad at expedia but they have been providing me with such great deals recently that I couldn’t be angry for long. I know your thinking, Terminal 1 or 2, probably close right. NO, it’s like a 10 – 15 min. bus ride in between the two. I got to the check in counter 30 mins before departure and the guy was like, well the gate closed 10 minutes ago. I was like ok, I just looked at him like, well what do you want me to say? So he asks for my passport and then he prints my boarding pass. I headed to security but as I approached the line I started to worry. Now, I’ve been to the Barcelona airport like 20 times, I know this place like the back of my own hand and I have never in my life seen it so busy. I know that it’s a holiday weekend in Spain but gezz, it was crazy! It took me forever to get through security but I made it on my flight in time and before I knew it I was on my way. I nearly got some sleep on the plane but I was too scared as usual. After we landed I made my way to the metro. I didn’t even have 2 Euro on me because of the fiasco with the rent money so I had to use an ATM to take out 20 Euro which I had to pay 5 dollars for. I finally got a ticket and got on the metro. I nearly missed my first stop. Their trains in Madrid are very confusing. Inside each of the metro cars is a map of each line not just the map for that particular line and also their metro’s here are really deep. I understand that in Barcelona they can’t be that deep because of the type of dirt I guess, probably some type of sand/dirt, but they were just so deep in Madrid. At one station I literally went down 4 large escalators to get to my train. They are so far underground that it almost hurts your ears. Like the Moscow subway, they could probably double as bomb shelters! Lol Nonetheless, after I figured out the metro it was all good, it’s also much cleaner compared to Barcelona. So after I exit the metro, I try to make my way to the hotel. It was definitely further away from the metro than I had imagined, a good 20 minute walk. I thought that I had made it to the hotel because I could see it in the distance but as I walked toward the hotel the street that I was on turned into a dead end. GREAT! So I turned around and went in the other direction and finally made it! It was probably about 9:30 in the morning but they let me check in early. The hotel was really nice and I didn’t have too much time to take it in because all I was concerned about was my head hitting the pillow. I got into my room, it was nice, took some photos, and took a BATH, first time since Finland that I have been able to take a bath, oh how I’ve missed that! After I got out I set an alarm to wake up and passed out. Well, I must have missed my alarm because I didn’t wake up until about 6 in the evening! I was so tired! After I woke up I broke out my LSAT book and did some studying and then I took a break to check out all the hotel facilities, the spa, the sauna, the hot tub, etc., and then I grabbed a bite to eat in the bar. I had a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich on wheat bread. It was so good! After dinner I got directions to the test center for the next day and some other touristy info from the front desk and then I went back upstairs and went over some more practice problems and the writing section of the test. I went to bed around 1 because I was still tired!
Saturday – TEST DAY - So, the next day I woke up around 10. I had to be at the test center no later than two so I made it a point to be there by 1. I left the hotel around 12, stopped and got some breakfast and a snack for my test break, and hit the metro. I easily found my way around the metro and once I had gotten over to the general area I had to wander around for a while before I figured out where I was. I kept thinking that I was late because I wasn’t able to bring a cell phone with me or anything and I don’t have a watch so I felt a little rushed. Turns out, I showed up with like 45 mins. to spare! I had to wait in a long line to check in and I was surrounded by American students. The were all talking to each other for the most part about where they were in Spain and such, the majority of them were working or teaching English and were taking the test for the 2nd, 3rd, and one girl a 4th time!! I was like woah! I would never take this test 4 times, if it doesn’t work out for you after the 2nd time and it’s something you really want then yea maybe I’d take it 3 but chances are your score isn’t going to improve THAT much! After I got checked in I used the bathroom and then headed into the testing room. I was definitely a little nervous because I felt like I had to wait around so long before the test actually started. After it started I felt like it was never going to end. There were no breaks between sections at all! The 1st section was arguments and I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on these so I’d say it went fairly well but I ran out of time at the end, you’ll see that this is a reoccurring problem! The 2nd section was Games or the Logic section. This section pretty much ruined the entire test for me. It was so confusing, I think I got maybe 2 or 3 questions right, literally out of like 23? At one point I was just staring at the questions for divine inspiration. It’s so tricky, when the proctor called 5 mins. I just bubbled everything in C because I didn’t really know what else to do! I think this section ruined all my hopes of having any legal career! Lol The 3rd section was reading comp, again the questions that I answered I felt confident about but I ran out of time at the end. At the end of section 3 we got a 15 minute break. I had time to recoup because after the games section I was definitely feeling a little bit intimidated and I was having trouble concentrating because I felt like I had already failed. The Games being 2nd really messed me up! After break all I could think about was getting through the next 2 sections and writing that essay so that I could leave! Next were another set of arguments and then another reading comp. Now, the LSAT always throws in an extra test to “test” the questions for future tests and such and one of the reading comp sections was their “test.” I honestly couldn’t tell which one it was though. Both were equally hard and I ran out of time on both sections, like I said, a reoccurring thing! After the last two sections were over I was relived because next was the essay and to me this kind of stuff is no sweat. I finished in twenty minutes with a good solid essay. I was so happy to be done!!
A recap of the test in general – This was honestly the hardest test I’ve ever had to take. It so tricky and the people who make the test word everything in extreme ways. I felt bad for the few Spanish students that were taking it! The games section was the worst and after taking the test for the first time I completely see why most people have to take it twice! The LSAT prep books prepare you a little bit but honestly until you actually take it you don’t know what to expect and now that I know what to expect I think that I could probably do better the next time around. Who knows, I guess we’ll find out in 3 weeks if I need to take it again, I might not though, there are a lot of other things I have on my mind.. a lot of other options for what to do next…Law school is definitely something I’m interested in BUT, it’s not the only thing ya know…
I went back to my hotel as fast as I could after I left, I was so mentally exhausted that I couldn’t even think. I don’t really remember the walk back and as soon as I got back to my hotel I took a bubble bath and then played around online all night and planned my Madrid site seeing activities for the next day!! I went to bed around 12 or 1 after having a sandwich in the hotel bar again.
Madrid will be in a separate post…. Coming soon!!
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