Barcelona Orientation

Continuing with the "themed" posts, let me explain about my first experience in Barcelona. Because I missed the orginial orientation in Barcelona on the 1st (due to the stikes and flight cancelations), there was a make-up session on October 6th. Six others missed their flights due to the strikes as well, so it was a mini-orientation sesssion for all. Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Javi waited in the freezing morning air with me until the train arrived in Montblanc. It seems like almost everyone is somehow connected to a teacher that someone in my school knows, and is the typical case, another man was headed on the train as well--a husband of a teacher who Javi knows. So as Javi saw me off, the teacher's husband watched out for me on the train, making sure I got off on the right stop. :-) Montblanc, amazing as it is, has very limited public transporation, so the only time I could arrive in Barcelona was about 15 minutes before my appointment. Once I got out of the train station, I flagged down one of the many taxis in a sea of vehicles. Like any big city, Barcelona is 1) huge and 2) packed with traffic! Once in the building, I had to show my passport to security in order to get in. Then came the hard part: finding the room! :-) I wandered on the elevator and asked two men where sector D something-or-other was, and they pushed one of the buttons and said I should go there. Either I misunderstood them, got off at the wrong time, or was given odd directions because when I got out of the elevator, it looked more like a parking garage of sorts. Ha! So I took some stairs and wandered through another door, already a little late for my appointment. Whom did I see? The two men again! :-) This time they literally rode with me in the elevator until we came to the right place. Notice how people kept showing up when I needed help? Coincidence? I think not!

I was then in the right place, but the secretary had trouble finding Marta Fonseca, the woman who was conducting the session and is the official head of the Department of Education in Catalunya. So we did more wandering around rooms until, at last, we found her! Marta Fonseca was one of my earliest contacts through this program, and I think since all of her emails were very formal and official, I picture her more as a middle-aged, slightly stern sort of person. She was the complete opposite! :-) She was a very sweet, very pregnant young woman who just radiated kindness. I quickly appoligized for my tardiness, and she just told me what pretty much everyone here tells me when I overreact or appoligize for something: "Tranquila, tranquila!" (Calm down, no worries, it's okay, etc.) :-) It turned out that all of the guys (four) were on time, and all of the girls (three of us) were late. Haha! We then went through the basics of the program, what to do, how to do the complicated legal stuff, etc. It was fine, and it was over fairly quickly. I was secretly hoping the other language assistants would want to do something together, but most scattered along on their own way. I started following them, but something stopped me. One, I didn't know where the train station was and wanted to ask for directions. Two, one of the girls stood out to me, and I really wanted to meet her. She and another guy were still in the room, talking to Marta Fonseca and another woman in charge of the program. Marta gave me directions, and because I didn't have a map, the girl I wanted to meet showed me hers. The guy and girl still left were both second-year participants in the program, and the three of us talked for awhile about the pros and cons of everything. I picked up some great tips from them, and the guy (Gus) later had to take a phone call, leaving the girl and I alone to talk. It turned out that we both had to go to the metro/bus station first, so we walked together. We connected right away, and it wasn't too long before we both discovered that we were Christians. My first contact with a believer in Spain! Talk about refreshing! Stephanie's probably in her mid-to-late twenties, and she lives about 15 minutes outside of Barcelona. She was kind enough to take me TO the train station, which turned out to be a biiiig help since I was both clueless and mapless! :-D We ate lunch together in a small restaurant, exchanged contact information, and by late afternoon, I was back in a train station.

I really, really don't like big train stations. The smaller ones are fine, but this one was very much like the HUGE one I had to deal with when I first came to Spain. I wandered up and down one area, and my instincts told me I was in the wrong place. I checked with a random guy and realized that I had to be on the OTHER side of the tracks. Sigh. I was pushing for time, so I quickly raced out one door, found another, and arrived at the other side. Now what? I didn't see anything like what I needed. Agh! I finally found one headed to Tarragona, and I decided to take that one because I knew it was headed in the right direction. I think a woman saw my hesitation because as I was boarding, she ran up to me and asked if I wanted to go to Tarragona (in Spanish). I shrugged and replied with a weak affirmative response, thanked her, and sat down. An older gentleman sat down next to me, and as the train started moving, I decided to check with him if I was on the right train. He was really helpful, and once he found out that I spoke English, immediately starting talking in English. He checked with the train conductor, and I was NOT on the right train. However, all I had to do was get off a certain stop, wait for about an hour, and then take one headed to Lleida. That's the key word, folks. Lleida. Not Tarragona. Lleida. :-) I'm SO remembering this when I have to do it all over again in November!

I had a good time talking with the guy, and he gave some advice on what cities and countries in Europe were the best to see. He also told some interesting stories, my favorite being about when his sister traveled to New York. When she first arrived, guess what happened to her? She was sent to jail! The poor woman had no idea why, and it turns out that her last name, Sánchez, was the last name of a wanted terrorist. Eventually everything was sorted out and she was released, but the guy told me that he never wants to go to the States because he has the same last name. :-)

As I got off on the needed stop, I stuck with my traveling advice and followed the crowd, which happened to be only two others in this case. Where did they go? Right over the train tracks. :-) As we were walking on the tracks, I kept thinking to myself, "Wait. Is this legal? Isn't this dangerous?" and then I heard a recorded message carried across the train station about not walking on the train tracks. Heh. Anyway, I checked which number was headed to Lleida/Montblanc, and proceeded to wait by number 1 for about an hour. Later, I was safely on my way to Montblanc, made it home, and was again awed at God's constant provision. Javi, the teacher's husband, the two men in the elevator, Marta, Stephanie, the man on the train...all people who helped me right when I needed it. God is so...so...incredible! I love it!

I really didn't see much of Barcelona, and I'm definitely going back for sight-seeing sometime! Stephanie invited me to her church as well, and we're hoping to meet up sometime. I'm still secretly dreading the session in Barcelona in November, but hopefully I can get a map somewhere and take the right trains! :-D I'd really, really like to figure out all of the public transportation systems. :-)

That's all for now about Barcelona, and I might actually have time for another post! Woo!