What a wonderful day =)

I have officially begun Semana Santa, and am SOOOO EXCITED!!! BAHHHH!!! ...anyways, to begin this wonderful week, I came down to Tarragona to visit a friend, and inquire about a summer camp that has it's headquarters on La Rambla (...it's like the Catalan version of "main street"). The journey here was quite an adventure, but totally worth it. Okayokayokay... to start, my host mom informed me the other day that there would be some construction on the Estation de Franca (I'm sans a keyboard with accents... for those of you who are of the grammatical and accentational (yeah, that's probably not a word... but it will be...) sticklers, I'm sorry... no I'm not. *evil laughter*) back to the station... that there might be some construction, and that I needed to double check where my train would be leaving from... SOOO, I looked online at the RENFE sight and it said that I would definitely be leaving from Franca... but... com'on... this is RENFE we're talking about here: they're reliable... eventually... so I went to the Saints station (there are seriously like 5 train stations in Barcelona, it's insane trying to keep them all straight!) and asked the man at the "quick questions desk" who gave me some quality information and then pointed me in the direction of the Customer Service desk. Once at the doors to customer service, I was stopped by another station attendant (repeat information here) and then was directed into the customer service office. I waited in line for about 5 minutes (they're quick in there, no fooling around!) and the repeated myself (yet again) and received a bit of a blank look... She asked me some specific questions about the train that I was taking, and right when I said to myself 'darn! I don't even know how to explain myself in English!', the two men from the other information desks that I had talked to previously popped out of nowhere and began drilling the customer service lady about my question. Long story short... according to the website and three RENFE employees, I can leave from Franca. Yay! It was incredibly nice of those men to take the time to help the very lost looking girl by herself out... ahhh, feeling the love! (no, seriously, that like... never happens! It's always: I have no idea... good luck!.)
Right, so I bought the ticket to Tarragona (which was a bit of an adventure, as well... but I won't bore you with the details) and then boarded the train (after calling a friend to make sure it was the right one... haha!) [note to my friend Joseph: I was NOT stressed out at this point. No! It's true... totally relaxed... well, okay... mildly worried... *sigh* Shut up! fine, you win... I was "antsy"]. OH! what a BEAUTIFUL ride that is! It's been raining for the past few days so everything was a vibrant shade of springtimey green (YUMMY!). That hour ride went by FAST. ...hmm... we should seriously have more trains in the US. Seriously...
Anyways, I got off in Tarragona and promptly realized that I had no map, and (even better!) no idea which direction I needed to go to find the office (but I knew what street it was on!) so, needless to say, I got lost rather quickly. After about 15 minutes of walking around a very "local" looking part of town (I needed to be where the tourists were...), I stopped a lady on the street and asked her where La Rambla was. She stopped and thought for a bit, and then said, "I think it'll be better if I just show you." Thinking that that meant hand signals, I was a bit surprised when she started walking away from me, so I followed her. She actually showed me where the street I needed to be was: as in lead me there! OHH! LOVE SMALL TOWNS!
I found the office with absolutely no trouble at all, but it wound up being the wrong office. They did, however, know exactly what I was looking for and referred me to the correct one. Once at "English Summer" (google it!), the staff was very warm and friendly, and answered about a million questions with unwavering patience.
I picked up an application and then headed out the door. (just playing around with a thought, don't get too freaked out!). At this point it was raining pretty hard, but I had come prepared with a hat, so naturally: out to the city I went! I have pictures, but no way of showing them to you. (they're coming soon, I promise!).
After running around Tarragona for about an hour, I got a bit tired of being wet, so I ducked into a local cafe. Mmmm... cafe amb llet! so good. My friend picked me up near the fountain of the kid wrangling a duck (some of the fountains... well. I don't think odd quite covers it... hmm... Unique. That's a good word). Anyways, she picked me up, and we had a lovely time making and enjoying dinner together. So now I'm all snuggled up and warm, and feeling quite sleepy...
That was my day! Hope you had a lovely one, as well. Talk to you soon!