Gibraltar and Money Poorly Spent

There are certain phrases that people use (whether from desperation, frustration, or shock) no matter how immersed in another culture they may be. These phrases combined with people from the new culture, who don't speak the natural language, can make for some great stories. Such as:
On Tuesday we started our new schedule of classes, because our 3 week intensive period is now over, and I started my day with, "CRAP!" My alarm, once again, did not go off. I was running really late and made up for missing my morning workout with a hustled walk/jog to school. All went well, however, and I like my new classes. My Cultural Realities class (which I had during the first 3 weeks, too) has been cut down to only 8 people due to an overload of scheduling conflicts brought on by the new courses.
Wednesday I was late... again. But I figured out why! My alarm was affected by the 'automatic time change' feature on my phone and it was stuck on Morocco time. Wednesday got an, "AWESOME," due to the gelatto and catch-up time Angela (with whom I have NO classes) and I have set aside for this day. Both of us have classes ending at 6:10 so after said classes we can be found scoping the gelatto boys and laughing loudly in Plaza Nueva.
Thursday got a, "COME ON!" because I've been spoiled and even a 3-day week is too much for me now. We don't have classes on Fridays... EVER (I know, it's perfect). But, I did get to do a lot of relaxing and finally recover a little bit from my exhausting trip the weekend before.
Friday received an, "ARE YOU KIDDING?!" because IT IS STILL RAINING. It's rained 22x more these last few weeks than it usually does ALL YEAR. It's LITERALLY been sunny and without THREE of the days CC-CS kids have been here. It is ridiculous. No one was prepared for this. The houses, the Spaniards, my wardrobe... Thank God I have a space heater in my room to dry my boots everyday because it would take 3 days to get them dry without it.
Saturday got the best exclamation of all, however. It was a mass exclamation. This was the day I'd signed up to go to Gibraltar with "My other half" as she's been called, Angela. The bus was scheduled to leave at 9, and when I boarded 10 minutes before take off, I was one of the last to get on. Angela was still missing. Our tour guide made us call all of the people that weren't there to be sure they were awake/coming. Angela told me she'd be arriving with her roommate in about 5 minutes, not to worry. Lery, our tour guide, didn't make it seem like we were in any kind of rush. He was too busy passing out sheets with typed up lyrics to some songs we'd be forced to sing during the 3 hour ride to our destination (It was like a much-too-old version of summer camp). I called Angela again when she had only 2 minutes left and she said she was right around the corner. Lery continued dancing.
Not a minute later, with the seat next to me still vacant, did Lery, without consulting anyone on the bus, shake his head (which I originally misconstrued as another of his dance moves) in the direction of the bus driver signaling it was time to leave. The bus began moving and my stomach sank. This was a pretty expensive trip, and Angela'd already paid. To miss it would be a real bummer...
The girls around me started exchanging looks and saying we needed to stop the bus for our friend. I stood up to tell Lery to stop the bus and that Angela would be only a minute more, but he couldn't hear me over his blaring music. However, luck did smile on Ms. Angela when we slowly turned the corner to see her and her roommate jogging toward us.
A frazzled, shaken Angela grabbed her head in dismay as she figured out that the bus was full of her friends, and that she was supposed to be with them. (She later told me the looks on the faces of the people with window seats were priceless. When they'd spotted her on the sidewalk they were in full panic mode). Many people on the bus began screaming, "STOP! THEY'RE RIGHT THERE!!! STOP!" Unfortunately, Lery and the bus driver both don't speak English. But when they heard us all screaming the bus slowed and the two red-faced, short-of-breath girls boarded.
This wasn't the end of our bad luck.
The weather was horrible. The worst ever. At first it seemed our umbrellas would keep us dry, but the wind broke several of them and blew the rain at us in angles we couldn't predict. In a matter of minutes we were soaked, freezing and really pissed. If you don't know a lot about Gibraltar, suffice it to say there is ONE main, commercial road, some Spanish influence and a lot of Brits. It's basically a part of Spain that England still has it's mitts on.
There was very little to do during our THREE hours of free time we'd been allotted. After getting lunch, we walked up the ROAD (singular) and took in the absurdly priced products. Everything was really expensive. Two hours in, we were truly miserable. We still had an hour of free time and siesta had started, so the few stores that actually existed, were closed...
We finally got on to an AC'd bus (that's right, they were pumping cold air on us) and took a tour of the land. It finally got interesting when we got to go into a cave, hang with the monkeys and dry off.
I'd never been happier to see a towel than I was when I caught a glimpse of mine hanging in my apt. in Sevilla.
Good News: That night was Kelsey's b-day. We had a great time at: Long Island's, a bar on Calle Betis (the road where all the youngsters in Seville hang out) that is American, obviously, and has a special shot for each American state. Then, Rio Latino with dancing and Spanish boys. Finally ending at, Egotista.
This was a new bar for us. It was very strange and none of us could really put our finger on what it was that made this bar so different. A few minutes of observing later, I put it together, "THIS IS A GAY BAR!" I will never forget the looks on the faces of the guys in our group. No one had seen this coming. But, it was actually really cool. All the girls loved it. But the boys seemed to think they were going to get shot at and were always looking around with dart-y eyes.
Today, Sunday, I did a whole lot of nothing (which is exactly what Sunday is for, no?) Because there's nothing better than mass with your Senora (in case you were wondering, the answer is no, Catholics in Spain cannot sing... Just like the ones in the US of A), and then curling up with Glamour, Hot Tamales, and your iPod.