Long Overdue with A Long Time to Write

My deepest apologies to the few that read this blog, for the delayed update. I had a post typed up in a Word document on my Dell computer to transfer. It was never able to make the switch.

Let me explain, backing up from two weeks ago and working towards the present.

The last I wrote I was about to head to Barcelona, to not only see Spain for the first time, but also to see a friend I haven't seen since early May. Troy and I packed our bags Thursday night and headed over towards Trastevere to meet up with some others. We dropped the bags off at the girls' apartment and all headed back to the mall which was a twenty minute train ride away. It was a rainy night so what better thing to do to occupy our time than to go bowling. It was a cutthroat game down to the wire, but yours truly pulled it out with an astounding 148. It was humorous to get the game underway though. Even though there was a guy with us that was fairly knowledgeable in the Italian language, I was still thrust to the font of the group to give it a go with the hardly english speaking guy behind the counter. After a bit we got down the part of needing one lane for six people. Then came shoes size. I told him 10. He looked at me rather peculiar. It was then that I looked behind him and noticed the lowest number was 28. No good for my 10 size foot. So, instead of trying to calculate numbers in my head (which we know never works well), I asked him what size *this* is. *This* would be me holding my hands apart about the same length as my foot. He laughed and tossed me a pair of shoes. 42 it is over. The others all followed suit which I thought was even more funny.

Let's see. After the bowling and hour or two of pool, we all headed back to the apartment. A few hours of card playing and chilling led us to 4 in the morning which was our time to call the cab and head to the airport. There were two others coming along with us for the plane over there. We figured all going to the airport together would cut in cost. What happened helped our wallets even more. We load up in the cab and I immediately think of the part in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's opening song with the cab. This guy had some style...and YMCA cranked up already. So, us being the slightly obnoxious Americans that we are, asked him to crank it up more and began seeing complete with sign motions. 15 minutes later the cab died. Just stopped running. Another cab was leaving from the direction of the airport, so our driver got out and flagged him down. We grabbed our bags and switched to the new, and more spacious, cab. Apparently if the cab has problems en route and has to pass you off, you don't pay. Five minutes of driving and 2 euro a piece later we got out at the airport.

Let me see if I can speed things up a bit (since this post is going to be longer than normal)
-checked in ahead of any other JCU students
-got our tickets and a priority pass that let us board in the first group
-I wanted to be first, so I sat in line...by myself...on the floor
-15 minutes later I broke out into song with "All By Myself"...the other three I was with took pity and camped out on the floor too
-Serenaded the bus with "You Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" on our way to the plane
-Boarded plane and fell asleep before the flight attendants could point out the (far too often used on RyanAir) emergency exits
-Woke up and boarded an hour bus to Barcelona from the airport...immediately fell back asleep...no singing this time.
-Got off the bus, grabbed a map, and set out for the hostel
-An hour later arrived at hostel to find the Denton Elder stretched out ready for a nap.
-Rained on that parade and then set out for an afternoon of walking around and taking in the sights
-Walked a lot, took a boat ride around the harbor, walked a lot more, got some lunch, did a bit more walking, and then found dinner with everyone
-Ate paella, a lot
-Went to the Gaudi, climbed the Guadi, and freaked at the open air heights of it all and quickly (but very very carefully since it was the tiniest spiral staircase I've ever seen) went back down
-Drank Sangria, a lot
-Saw a protest. Got close enough to take pictures and figure out what was going on. Did not, as fun as it did seem, join in.
-Got my alarm clock stolen by a man-beast who can only be compared to one, Mongrol, from Blazing Saddles
-Went to a Dow Jones bar where the price of drinks fluctuated like the stock market
-Took a ton of pictures and pretty much had a great time

It was really good to hang out and spend some time with a friend from home. At least then he knew about everything in Waco I was talking about. Most people just look at me blankly since they have a biased view of the city. Once I describe Dr. Pepper they seem to key in a bit more. So that was a fun trip that brought in the month of October on a good note.

Mr. Elder, it was a pleasure leaving an imprint on Barcelona with you.

By pass a week and a half of classes, a bit of studying, and some tests...and it brings you to this past week.

The parents came in to town! That was/is a lot of fun. It's been a while since we've been on a big family vacation. This one may be one of the biggest we've had. And it was very nice to be able to eat at restaurants again. They came into town on Thursday so I met up with them after class. Had some wine, walked around a bit, checked out there hotel and grabbed some dinner. Friday I met up with them for a day of sightseeing and showing them around the city. Saturday we were up early and touring the Vactican and St. Peter's. That was pretty cool since the tour we were on only had five of us plus the guide. So you got a lot more information, could ask all sorts of questions, and I definitely learned more in that morning than I could retain the next day. That afternoon we took a walking tour around the NE side of town near Piazza del Popolo. Found out a lot more information about that area. The trident of the churches and the roads meeting at the far gate of Rome, certain streets of the back area, and Augustus's tomb. Sunday was spent lounging around and doing some reading and studying. I met up with them later that evening and had some dinner. Then they came to Scholar's Lounge with me to check out where we all go watch Sunday football. Turns out most of the group was there so they met them all. They initially were going to stay for a few minutes and then head back. Two Peronis and a ton of conversation later they left a little bit before the rest of us. They seemed to really enjoy the place and all my friends loved getting to meet them and chatting. Got back to the school thing Monday and then they took of for Florence today. I'll be meeting up with them tomorrow night for a few days in Florence and then a return trip through Pisa. Should be a fun weekend.

Now for the bad news:

My computer bellied up this past weekend. It happened on a Sunday. It was in the middle of running Mission Impossible III. The battery was running low so I plugged in the outlet power. Smoke started billowing out of the top of the screen. For a second I thought perhaps the DVDs have become more life-like and my computer was a self-destruct message. I quickly snapped out of it and blew the smoke away unplugging it. The remaining power lasted until Monday afternoon. Then things went black and unrecoverable. That thing was with me from high school through my whole college experience. It has seen several different cities and continents. It has played music and movies with the best of them. It has helped me with late night papers and even later night conversations. It has even woken me up for class before. The memories on that machine were great, and it will always be missed.

I had the fortunate luck, and a very generous dad, who brought the backup computer from home. Now that the trips were locked in he had no more use for it over here. And with his computer waiting back in Waco, graciously left this one with me to use. Now I can still go about saving powerpoints, excel sheets, and class notes on the computer and bring them home to study.

I think this post is a bit long right now so I'll shut it down for the evening. Be back in a bit to add some more.