Too busy to sleep!

At around 11pm I find myself sitting on a city bus, alone, on my way to a friend's house in Cortadura for a birthday party.  Javi: a friend of a friend in Ciudad Real.  I went out with him once before and had a really fun time so I figured this would be another fun night with a local.  Too much was running through my mind: would I be able to keep up with the Spanish? Would I bond with these people who already knew each other and were all close friends with Javi? Would I just shut down?

The bus stopped at the final parada and I got off after the 20 minute bus ride of pure anxiety.  Delfin 12 enfrente de Holiday.  I found the apartment complex and got buzzed in.  Apartment 5b.  One flight of stairs, two, three...my heart pounds...four...I hear music and people.  Is it a lot of people?  What type of party is it?...Five.  As I go to grab the handle the door opens and I am face-to-face with Javi, mojito in hand, who pulls me in for a hug and a kiss on each cheek.  He takes me around the apartment and introduces me to a couple groups of friends.  Some were in the bedroom blasting music from the computer, some were smoking in the living room, and some were in the kitchen.  I didn't get welcoming vibes from that many people.

I stuck with Javi in the kitchen for a bit and talked with him and a couple of his friends.  He had to go about and socialize (it was his birthday) so I worked my way through the smoke cloud to the patio where I saw a couple of girls sitting.  I sat down and started with awkward ice-breaking questions and suddenly the girl next to me and I were having a full fledged conversation.  I could now cross "antisocial mess" off my worried-list.  I talked with these two girls for a while with Javi popping in and out as the night went on and by 2am we were ready to go to Anfi.

The two girls, Javi and I all took a taxi to Anfi while everyone else went home for the night since they had practicals in the morning for their marine biology classes.  We went discoteca-hopping for a bit until I looked down at my watch and realized that it was 5:50am.  Time sped by faster than I thought.  After a fun night of dancing and socializing we headed to the bus stop and I stayed with them until the bus came at 6:15.

Keep in mind that I needed to be at the bus stop for 7:30am.  Oh, must have forgotten to tell you that.  I walked back home, changed, and then walked back to the bus stop to meet Kirsten, Jacqueline, and Teri because today was our day to give back to mother-nature.  I volunteered to plant pine saplings in the Spanish countryside to do my part to fix deforestation.  Sitting next to Jacqueline and Kirsten, I realized that my legs ached and I was falling asleep...not a good start.  We got on the bus and headed out to site where we were given gloves, hoes, and a bunch of pine trees.  Trekking through the open area was actually pretty tough.  I wore shorts and there were briers and prickly holly bushes everywhere.  It looks like someone took razor blades to my legs.  I got sunburned as well which makes it feel like I'm constantly dragging my legs on sandpaper....even as I write this now... Lovely.

I dug and planted until 2pm, made some new Spanish friends, got a cool volunteer t-shirt, got some color, and overall enjoyed myself.  Even though I was sleep deprived, got cut up, and did manual labor I was extremely happy today.  Tonight I am going to sleep 100% content with my day.