Deep Breath

I have been off the blog scene for a minute due to various reasons. Some good things been happening lately that got a brotha distracted. But a big part was due to my spring break. I, along with 4 others went to Spain and Portugal for 10 days.

I was really looking forward to this trip. I mean Barcelona is suppose to be super nice. Ever since the 1992 USA Dream Team won gold there I had been wanting to go. OK, not only because of that but it was a small part of it. We had Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon, Portugal on the itinerary. I decided not to go to Morocco with the group and go to the South of Spain of my own. (4th best decision I've ever made)

I have never had the opportunity to do extensive traveling with someone outside of my family. I've never traveled anywhere with girls in a small group. Sure I have gone on Chorus trips with girls but that was with well over 40 people. I didn't really know what to expect seeing as I had never done it but I didn't expect it to be like this.

I believe it was during the second night in Barcelona I knew I was around some unique company. After the other two guys and myself separated from the two sisters for dinner, we met back up to go out. My boy Nick asked one of the girls if they had seafood for dinner and they responded with: "No, we had salmon". Dead serious they did not know salmon was considered seafood. No I can't blame someone for not knowing Einstein's theory or not knowing the capital of Venezuela but I can say there go some stupid folks if you don't know salmon is seafood.

The trip continued in this manner: stupid comments, lots of complaining without doing anything about it, and constantly starting days late. It got to the point that I sent my mom an email describing the trip.

Dear ma,

Things are cool. Portugal is real nice. I like it a lot. These two girls are driving me crazy. If I could get away with it, I'd kill them.

Love, Ari

I almost didn't write that. Not because I didn't want to tell my ma or because it wasn't true but because that could be used against me in a court of law. If things went down, they could go into my email records and use that as evidence. But I was so annoyed and fed up, I decided to go through with it.

I honestly would double major in Russian and Arabic before traveling with these girls again. Hell, I'd even adopt an entire family from Indonesia before taking a walk to the supermarket with them. People have asked me why are you saying all this. Why so mean? Its not mean. Its truth. When folks ask me how my trip was I tell them. I'm not a liar and I'm not gonna sugar coat nothing. "My trip was real cool. Spain and Portugal are great. Don't ever travel with these sisters"

Did I mention that one of the girls, while booking a plane ticket, put down this one guys name twice instead of my name? Oh, I must have forgot. That means I also forgot to mention she never admitted it was her fault, or said sorry. We had to pay a total of 90 Euros to change the ticket and pay the difference in the price of the flight.

I'm not a hater by nature. I'm not. But I will say what's going on. Did I say that these two girls sounded like a mix between Darth Vader and Paul Bunyan? Because they did. I could carry on and on but it is not worth my time nor yours to write everything here. If you want more stories, get at me.

I will say that one of the highlights of the trip was being on my own in the South of Spain. Granada and Malaga were great, small, peaceful cities. Barcelona was real cool but very touristy and real spread out. Definetly gotta be there when the weather is warm. Madrid was aight. Real big and nothing that was out of the ordinary. And Lisbon is the best city you've never been to. A lot like San Francisco, too.

What is really unfortunate is that some folks were like "Oh I knew it! " after I tell them about the trip. I'm just wondering why nobody told Ari? Everyone is so giddy that they knew it was gonna be like that but decided they were gonna play secrets. Heads up for everyone, if your friend is gonna travel with someone and you think it might be problematic, tell them. Please.

But, its over. Its in the past. Nothing to do about it now. I ate, drank, took pictures, and saw some great stuff. Now, its off to Sicily with my program. And one of the girls...

I'll be sure to keep my distance. And stay away from sharp objects that could tempt me.