Como?

Today has been interesting, breakfast turned into another language barrier struggle.  Almost all the shops are closed, as today is some Spanish holiday that couldn’t really be explained to me; National day is the best response that I get.  I ended up getting some sort of spaghetti with white sauce and ham.  I have noticed that most food in this area is either ham or fish based.  And quite literally I somehow ordered an entire plate of jamon the other night thinking that I was going to get cheese.

After we all returned from our breakfast adventure we readied ourselves for a beach journey.  There were seven of us so we had two taxis called and the language barrier struck us again.  “La playa por favor” Simone kept trying to explain.  Eventually we finally got the message through and we were off.  Chad commented on how the meter kept ticking even when we were stopped.  None of us were certain if this is the way that taxis work around here or not.  Upon finally arriving to the beach we asked were the other taxi with our friends was “otro taxi con mis amigos?”  Only to hear “no se” and the taxi driver drove away.  Amazingly everyone was able to find each other but it just seemed interesting to me that, having left together, the taxi drivers had little concern about having us arrive together.

Additionally I have noticed that Spain has numerous things in place towards the “green effort”.  Although these things that are in place are largely due to the high cost of energy and not much an environmental concern.  For example our hostel has a card slot as you enter the room that is supposed to have the room key in order for the lights and outlets to have power; I have figured out that it can be any card, even a business card will work.  Also our hostel has toilets that have two buttons for flushing, one releases more water the other less, an effort to conserve water.   The last feature of our hostel I have noticed is that the lights in the hall are motion activated; the lights only stay on for a few seconds.  I have actually stopped walking and had the lights turn off on me. Even out in the town I was at a bar that had all the lights off when I went to the bathroom; this would be rather uncommon from my experience in the states.