Barcelona 13th - 17th December

The Background:

I had assignments to hand in for the final week of school, which ended on 10th December. Two assignments were due on the last day, at 2.30pm and 4.30pm. The earlier one was Programming Embedded Systems final assignment, worth 25% of the module. The later one was the Formal Lab Report, which was the fiendishly difficult Communications experiment (Transmission Lines). Earlier on I also had the irritating C++ assignment which was due on Wednesday. The program did not run properly in the end, which put paid to my hopes of clinching a first class in Process-Oriented Programming.
Much earlier, I had had to arrange my trip to Germany to either catch my brother in Berlin or when he travelled to Prague. The latter wasn’t a good choice as I would have to rush and meet him in unchartered Czech territory. I decided on Berlin which was his base for the month. This delay in decision-making led to my asking my friends to book their accommodation and flight for Barcelona first, and gave me a few problems in the planning of my trip. First of all, they booked a 3-man private room at Hostal Central (one of my choices in the ultimately unsuccessful bid on going to Barca and Italy last Easter), and that hostel only catered for private quarters. If I were to book a single room, I’d have to pay through my nose, which I didn’t want to since I had already paid more for the flight ticket (see posting, early December). So I had to look for the best accommodation (price, location and maybe facilities) close to them, which limited my choices somewhat. My situation was compounded by the fact that I had misplaced my credit card earlier and had to wait to collect my replacement card, which meant that I’d not be able to book my accommodation anyway.
In the end, a week before departure, I found a decent place, Ramblas Home 3, five minutes’ walk from theirs, but which cost the same as theirs even though I’d be in a 4-man mixed dorm.
In view of my extremely busy schedule in the final week of school, I left all the planning for the trip to them (including how we were going to get to the airport, etc). I mean, how much wrong can 3 girls go?

The truth:

Throughout the trip it would transpire that things could go very wrong, but nothing quite surprises me nowadays, so I guess I’m okay. Well on this trip I learnt that
1) things could still be a little further than the allocations you have given for what to expect, even if you feel you had been quite sure of things…
2) you can’t always go on faith alone when leaving planning to others
3) there’s only so much you can put faith in others. Beyond that you must be prepared to take action.
4) cool heads are always good. And be as reasonable as you can.
5) I can be very tolerant despite various pressures… especially when not everyone can be very patient…
6) I know how to read a map. Exactly.
7) I don’t over-react to things.
8) Sorry if it sounds narcissistic, but I feel I am in good control of my life. If you’re good, you’re good. Same thing like what I said when I had that in-depth discussion with good ol’ Jonathan last time. Not that I am arrogant, but you should know where you stand. If you think (know) that you are good, you don’t have to be afraid to say it, or show it. In certain situations you even need to show that you are in full control just so that others don’t take you lightly.
9) the “Second Lesson” *
10) it pays to be careful always. Taking care of yourself is so very easy. But I still have some way to go in terms of taking care of others. Remember to put others before self!
* sorry, internal joke