It was near 12 when the plane finally came in to land. I glanced out of the window at the sweeping coastline, the deep blue behind us changing to a bright cerulean illuminated by the midday sun at the shallower beaches, hemmed in by deciduous hillsides, patched here and there with sense forrest. The sprawling city of *Barcelona* broke up the patchwork landscape, the grid like city coming closer as we flew lower.
I smiled to myself. I loved the beach, the sand, the sun, the strange coexistence of nature and city as the fittest fought with the fright of the city: everything about this climate.
As we pulled out suitcases over the Gangway I felt the first gusts of warm air through the joining and kicked myself for not packing something lighter and cooler to change into before we landed. As soon as we left the confines of the airport I knew my warm layers would soon become tiresome and hot. Soon enough we had traipsed outside and we're waiting on the hit curb for the coach to arrive. Keistley was on the phone, talking agitatedly to someone I assumed had something to do with our missing transport. I'd rejoined Seb, who was much better company now he was no longer looking so green, and we'd found some shade under a group of small asthenosphere trees near the entrance.
Amber somehow had managed to maintain not only her pristine appearance during the 5 hour flight, but her energy as well, and used it to full effect: pacing around, flouncing and posing just enough to draw attention as she And her friends chatted and laughed. Meanwhile, I was feeling tired and lethargic despite my nap, uncomfortably warm and I was sure my hair was was a mess from my disturbed sleep. I watched a little incredulously, as she swung her hips and fluttered her eyelashes at a group of some of the boys on our trip. They were certainly a little in awe of her. I was just fed up.
I glanced over at the teachers gathered in front the entrance a little way from our perch., Keistley had rejoined them and looked a little agitated and I could here fragments of his harried words.
"... not gone through... Nothing left... Have to.... Booked on..." I couldn't make much sense of it other than something was awry
I nudged Seb and looked pointedly at the commotion, "what do you think?" He asked,
"Not sure.." I strained my ears, not wanting to be to obvious in my eavesdropping. However there was soon no need as Keistley called us all over.
"There's been a bit of a mix up with our coach bookings," he explained, "and unfortunately the majority of our transport for this trip was through the same company." Muttering broke out among a few of the students.
"Do you think they'll cancel?" I hissed to Seb, "almost everyday of this trip involves travelling."
"Nah," he whispered, "I recon it's too late for that, they'd have to deal with 30 unexpected flights back and a failed Module which is more admin than they're willing to go though, I bet".
Sure enough Keistley cleared his throat and continued. "Sadly we can't afford to cut this short as much of the practical work is essential to your grades so we'll have to find alternate methods of transport. The current consensus is hiring a number of vans and cars. However this will take a while to sort out to in the meantime we'll get taxis to the hotel and spend the evening as planned. Recuperation and planning." He smiled brightly at the slightly dubious looks on our faces. This trip seemed to have more issues that it was worth to me.
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An hour or so later we'd all been ferried to our hotel for the night, and I decided to take full advantage of what would probably be our most luxurious stay of the trip - the geological trips didn't tend to splash out as they had so many ventures money was tightly stretched. Tonight's hotel was an exception to the inevitable hostels of varying quality we'd be staying in for the duration.
I stripped off my sweaty clothes and stepped under the cool jets of the shower in my little en suite. We had a little while to relax before dinner and then after that would start our proper work. I decided to take a short nap, and sank down into the sheets.
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The evening consisted of boring planning, mostly just going over the schedules of our first study point and safety checks since we hadn't collected any data yet. It was dull but necessary. We were working in fours and thankfully I was with Seb, a quiet girl with sandy blond hair called Erika and a boy, Charlie, I didn't know at all but who was part of a larger gang of friends. He was fairly helpful and not as loud and borish as he'd initially seemed when I'd observed him hanging out with his friends. It was strange: half comforting and half disturbing how different people acted depending on their company.
We worked through the sheets in front of us, ticking boxes and filling in charts. I was slowly falling asleep on my palm, my elbow propping me up as I stared down at the paper before me, when the woman I didn't know as a teacher clapped her hands and brought us to attention. She explained what we'd be doing tomorrow morning and what time to be down by etc, and then the carpooling arrangements.
They'd ended up renting a minibus and 2 cars and they read out the names. We'd be sticking with the same groups for the majority of the trip to keep everything simple and I prayed silently not to be stuck with Atkins in close confinement for those hours on the road.
My wish was granted, however I had forgotten the other aspect of the transport, my fellow passengers : Keistley was reading out the list still. "And in the car with Mrs Jones, Sarah Amber and Ellie." My heart sank. I really did not want to have to deal with ambers scathing comments for hours on end, with her only a few feet away. I looked at Seb and he mouthed an apologetic "sorry" and a shrug.
