I'm here!

I am here! Oh my god, I am finally here.

I have been waiting for almost a year. It seemed like it would never come... and then I met Rubèn and the wait became more intense. But finally, on Friday, I arrived here in Catalonia.

At the moment, I'm sitting in the study of my home this summer. I'm in a town called El Vendrell in the region called Tarragona. I'm very close to Barcelona... 25 minutes by car, an hour by train... something like that. I haven't learned to use the public transportation yet. I've been so busy just settling in, trying to get over jet lag and just spending time with Rubèn. We have so much kissing to catch up on.

I don't know where to start!

Well, my flight was frustrating. My original itinerary was Houston-Miami-Barcelona. Well, my 10:30 flight to Miami was cancelled so they rerouted me Houston-Frankfurt-Barcelona. But I had to wait until 3:30 to flight to Frankfurt... it was so annoying having to wake up so early for nothing and then wait there all day so anxious and kind of freaking out. Oh well, it wasn't that bad. On the flight, I was sitting next to some Portuguese guy who had several glasses of wine with me on the flight and we both got kind of drunk and stupid. It's good times laughing with strangers and drinking. Anyway, when I arrived in Frankfurt, I was freaking out about my flight because my ticket had a certain gate written on it, but the gate had changed and I didn't know and everyone was speaking German and... well, finally I figured it out, just five minutes before departure!

I finally arrived in Barcelona at about 12:15pm, Catalonia time or 5:15am in Houston. I was exhausted... however, I was greeted at the airport by Rubèn and Prema. Prema is one of my favorite people on Earth. He is so special. We met while I was living in Brazil. He's a native of Belo Horizonte who, by coincidence, is now living in Barcelona. Life is perfect sometimes. Anyhow, I am so happy to see him.

And Rubèn... oh, Rubèn... we saw eachother and I think we didn't know what to do. I couldn't stop smiling or say anything, I was so nervous... until he greeted me with his usual "Hola, bonic" (Hello handsome). He put his arms around me and I melted. He gave me a little kiss on the neck while he hugged me. In that moment, he conquered me. I'm so in love with him.

I feel like it's not the first time we're meeting. It seems like we've already been dating for a while. Well, I mean, in a way, we have been (virtually, at least). We've been "together" for about five months and really it feels that way... except now we can make out all we want. He's such a beautiful person. He's so patient with me and treats me like a prince. He makes me laugh, he's smart, goofy, sweet... everything. Not to mention that he's handsome, tanned, has very blue eyes, and has a body like pornstar. No, really. He does. His body looks like art. It's even more beautiful in person than in photos. And he, this perfect man, thinks I'm perfect. It's amazing.

Anyway, so we spent that day (Friday) in Barcelona. We walked all over. It's such a beautiful city. It was so fun spending the day with Prema and Rubèn. We laughed so much. It was kind of strange, though, since Rubèn speaks to me exclusively in Catalan, I speak to Prema almost totally in Portuguese and sometimes English, while Prema and Rubèn speak to eachother in Spanish. We managed to communicate and still have a lot of laughs, though.

Saturday, I slept all day. Rubèn didn't wake me up early to help me adjust to my new time zone like I had asked. He said he couldn't because I look like such a little angel when I sleep. Too much mush. Hehehe. I got up around noon, we drove around to see some things around here. The beaches here in El Vendrell, then the beaches in Tarragona (the city), which were marvelous. Tarragona is also such a pretty city. I loved it. We had orxata which is similar to the horchata that we have back home, but I think it's not made with rice like the Mexicans back home make it. In any case, it was delicious. More sightseeing and such... then it was late and we went back home. Rubèn made us a truita espanyola (Spanish omelette) and we had a nice quiet dinner together. Oh, by the way, they have lots of Morrocan fast food places that make super good Arab food... mmm. I love me some Arab cuisine. Just thought I'd share that.

Sunday, Rubèn let me sleep until noon again. Then we got up to go and have lunch with his two best friends. Ramón and Joan. They are a cute gay couple in their forties who have been together for 18 years. They were really sweet and fun. Ramón is a great cook. He made us all this delicous seafood. We drank lots of cava (it's like champagne, but made in Catalonia) and shots of some sort of delicious liquor made with herbs. It was super smooth, well I think so. They couldn't believe that I thought it was smooth. I guess us Americans are just hardcore like that. After lunch, they went to get the desert. When they came back, they had a cake with sparklers on top for me with the words Benvingut a Catalunya, Charles! (Welcome to Catalonia, Charles!) Geez. They are so sweet. After that, we walked for a few hours along the coast of a beautiful city called Salou. It was a nice day.

Today, well, today Rubèn has to work and I still haven't learned how to use the public transportation here... so I'm taking advantage of the chance to update my blogs and let you guys know that I'm doing okay. Things are wonderful so far.

By the way, send me e-mails. I love e-mails. Or comments on my blogs. I promise to respond to everyone. ;)

Until next time.

Fins aviat!

Someday I'll Fly Away!

So I fly away in about 13.5 hours. I am so incredibly excited! I should totally be finishing up my packing, but I wanted to step away from my luggage for a moment.

I really doubt I'll sleep tonight.

If you are interested in seeing exactly where I am going to stay, click here and you can see a map of Spain with a little blue marker over the town where I'll be staying. You can zoom in and everything. Take a look. :)

Wrapping up!

So I wanted to start making entries more often, at least once a week. But these last few weeks before my trip I've been really a bit busy with so much stuff. I have finals this week and preparation and such... my friends are wanting to spend time with me and go out and do stuff and getting in their last minute Charles-time.

I can't believe I leave in fifteen days. Holy crap! (Yesterday, I said holy crap in public and some lady responded that crap isn't holy; only the Lord is holy. Of course I had to respond that her assumption was incorrect considering that crap may or may not sometimes be full of holes. Homophones, bitches. Then she tried to recruit me into some cult.)

Anyway... AH! So what are we doing this weekend?

Technorati tags: vacation, holiness, cults