In December 2010, at the beginning of my final year of High School (I was 19 years old), we went on a field trip in Valencia and Barcelona, in Spain.

I see you’re confused. Let me explain. When I did my fifth year of High School, at 18 years of age, in 2009-2010, I was fed up with my classmates’ attitude (during the third year, they managed to made that year’s math professor, at her last year of career, cry at the end of every lesson) at school, and, at home, my parents didn’t talk to each other anymore (this was 1 year before their separation). So, I practically started the year by giving up already at learning anything and get good grades. I knew, from the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have even gotten a chance to do my graduation exams. I must’ve been the only happy person ever to fail an entire year of High School. In Summer 2010, me and my mother moved away, in a little apartment in front of my school, and the fifth-year-bis went perfectly. I had new classmates, except for one who failed the year with me: A.S.! Remember him from Madrid? He was my classmate for 9 years!

Anyway, this new class hadn’t done the European field trip yet, and the professors decided to do it near the beginning of the year. In mid-December… The field trip was not well-organized: only half of my class decided to go (A.S. didn’t go) and half of another class; there were only 2 professors (my math and Italian ones); the first day we didn’t see anything (I’ll explain); 3 days were in Valencia and only 1 afternoon and night in Barcelona; when everybody chose their roommates, me and G.B., a good friend and former classmate (he moved in the other class a couple of years before) were not chosen by anyone, and we became roommates (the only group of 2 instead of 3 people), and things didn’t go very well.

The first day, we met at 10.30 A.M. at my school, and me and my math professor were the first ones. 11 A.M., journey in autobus from Oristano to Elmas Airport. Lunch at the Airport and plane flight from Elmas to Barcelona. Unfortunately, we needed to be in Valencia first… 4 or 5 P.M., journey in autobus from Barcelona to Valencia. 5 HOURS of autobus (with a few Shakira’s songs in the background)! We arrived at our hotel in Valencia at 10 P.M.! We went to the restaurant of the hotel (3 blocks AWAY from the hotel) to have dinner, and we were the ONLY people in the restaurant. I don’t know if it was the time of our dinners, but, for 3 consecutive dinners, we were always the ONLY ones in the restaurant. One evening, we even asked insistently if they had fava beans in our meals and not to put them (me and 5 others have favism, or G6PDD, Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency) and the ONLY waiter who worked there assured us the cook never used them.

My roommate, maybe not used to travel, decided that he needed to hold on on both keycards to our room. The next afternoon, I found myself locked out of my room, and I asked for an extra keycard, with the help of A.M.M., unbeknownst to G.B., and 2 of my classmates decided to punish him with a little prank: we put his shoes and other objects on his bed, under the top sheet. He was convinced the housemaid put all those things there! The next night, they wanted to make an heavier prank: cover half of our room’s floor with water, while we were in bed, and I had to tell G.B. to check who was at the door, so he would’ve slipped. Fortunately, he didn’t slip, but, instead, he yelled at me (the rooms next to ours heard him) for 10 minutes, while mopping the floor himself! The next day, we were friends like before, like nothing happened.

During our time in Valencia, we mainly saw the nearby Ciutat de les Arts y les Cìencìas (the City of Arts and Sciences), where you can try tons and tons of scientific experiments right there, on the spot, as if they were arcade games (but free). Absolutely amazing. If you can, go visit it: it’s a lot of fun!

We saw the Oceanographic, with all its tunnels in the shark tanks, where I took a wonderful picture of my math professor next to a shark who seemed to look right at the camera! He praised that photo with everybody, and he’s the son of a professional photographer! I always have a good student-teacher relationship with my teachers: during this field trip, which was in a period in which I wasn’t eating bread, I always gave all of my bread to him, even if he had the weird habit of jogging all alone at midnight (in Valencia)!

We saw the Esglèsia Catedral-Basilica Metropolitana de l’Assumpciò de la Mare de Déu de València (the Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady of Valencia), and we climbed, those of us who could (me and math prof included), the Miguelete Tower. 63 meters (or 206,7 feet) tall, with 207 narrow steps!

The last full day of school trip was Barcelona time!

The morning was 5 hours of autobus from Valencia to Barcelona. We divided into 3 groups (inside the bus), and I watched a movie with the middle group: Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), by Wes Craven and with Eddie Murphy! In the mid-morning break, I discovered what I think was Cola Cao or Cacaolat.

Lunch in Barcelona was me, 3 other classmates and the 2 profs in a minimalist restaurant, where the math prof and 2 classmates chose a plate of Jambòn for €20 (it was 4 slices of Prosciutto) and me and the Italian prof took a plate of 4 meatballs for €15. She even gave me half of her plate.

All we saw in Barcelona was the Sagrada Familia (still under construction) and the Hard Rock Café.

At the Sagrada Familia, the only obligatory stop in Barcelona, my classmates didn’t want to enter, and my math prof, enraged, bought the tickets to everyone, with the threat of having to give him his money back! Me and my roommate (the only ones who wanted to see it) gladly paid back our tickets. The Sagrada Familia is an authentic Wonder, outside and inside! We couldn’t go on the upper floors: they were only for the VIPs (and, apparently, there were some). My classmate F.D. suggested to take a portable ladder (like the ones you use at home to reach the top shelf of your library) to reach the ceiling!

The Hard Rock Café was… an adventure…

My classmates HAD to visit it, and, as soon as we got out of the Sagrada Familia, we divided into 3 groups and took different roads. With only 2 physical maps (we didn’t use our phones). I was in the group without the map and with my Italian prof. To this day, I still don’t know how we managed to reach the Hard Rock Café ALL 3 groups AT THE SAME TIME! We entered the Hard Rock, and ALL my classmates went straight to the gift shop, without even looking at any of the instruments, clothes or other memorabilia of famous singers. I laughed so hard there: in the left column at the entrance, a little high on the right side, there was a gorgeous red electric guitar; right in front of the entrance (same column), there was a tablet with the images of everything in that Hard Rock Café; the punchline was that an Asian family was looking, and ADMIRING, the red guitar’s image in the tablet, while the real thing was right above them!

That night, after settling in the hotel room (which entrance door had a window, right in front of the bathroom’s GLASS door, right in front of the shower’s GLASS door), while the other boys went exploring on their own, me, my roommate, the girls, and the math prof went to the disco to dance! And I loved it! It was my second time at the disco: the first was in Oristano, 2 years before, with my classmates, and the music was just TUNZ TUNZ TUNZ TUNZ. I almost took a ride back home with a group of strangers, that much I hated the experience! But in Barcelona, the music was all Shakira and Lady Gaga, and I had fun!

The next morning, plane from Barcelona to Elmas and autobus from Elmas to Oristano.

The rest of the school year went great. The classmates were awesome; I was serene, at home, with my mom; I already knew everything the professors were going to teach us, including my favorite lessons, the religion ones (that year was subliminal messages in media and the movie Rosemary’s Baby, 1968, by Roman Polanski and with Mia Farrow); at the graduation exams, I studied with A.M.M. and we helped each other!