February 13

I woke up feeling really rested, ready for an exciting day leading up to the huge MTV Winter Valencia concert that night. I read a little, posted my blog and had a quiet morning to myself before I met everyone at lunch.

After lunch a group of the dedicated puzzle-doers got to work and we spent the entire afternoon doing it but finally finished. Some of the UGA group left with the Spanish students at around 6:00 but I decided to wait at the dorm and eat before we left.

Ashley, Mary Claire, Nikki, and Caroline were all on the same page and we met down at dinner at 8:00. It was eerily quiet because everyone had already gone on to the concert. After we finished, the five of us walked over to the Torres del Serrano to catch a taxi over to the Arts and Sciences Buildings.

Taxi’s over here are a lot different then Athens. The taxi’s only hold four people and once you have four, that’s it. No squeezing. Niki, Caroline and Ashley got in one taxi and I rode with Mary Claire. We just decided to meet up when we got over to the concert area.

Mary Claire accidentally forgot her cell phone so we couldn’t get in touch with the other group. We decided to wait for a few minutes outside of the gate, hoping that we beat them to the entrance and they hadn’t left us. We saw them eventually and were happy we met up.

It was my first, but I have decided concerts in Europe are the best. Everyone is so much shorter here; it is so easy to see the stage. The five of us pushed through the crowd and found a little pocket really close to the stage. The main band that was headlining was the Artic Monkey’s (a band from the UK that has exploded in Europe). It’s not my choice music, but the concert was awesome! The stage had an incredible backdrop of futuristic looking buildings. We danced and had an awesome time. The highlight of the concert was during one of their last songs they launched confetti that covered the entire crowd that was really cool. The wind was blowing and it stayed up in the air for a long time.

After the concert was madness. There was at least 20,000 people there and there was only one exit. It was a huge bottleneck. All the five of us could do was link arms and just hold on for the ride. I don’t think I took a step for a good 200 hundred yards; I just got pushed and slid forward. I wish I had brought my camera but I was afraid with so many people there, it would have been stolen.

We caught a taxi home and decided to call it a night; after all, I had a big baseball game in the morning. I stopped at Doner Kebab on the way home and had a piece of chicken pizza with hot sauce on it. My bed felt really good.