Tuesday June 25th

Tuesday Nikki came to work with me.  Rather, she “broke in” to the consulate.  We knew it was okay, of course, since the Consul had invited her and asked her to come in on Tuesday.  She came in and was meeting the people I work with when the Security Officer came down and was wondering how she got in without an access request.  Oops!  So we talked to the proper people and got that straightened out so that she will be cleared the rest of the time in Barcelona to come and visit me any day she wants!  She got to meet all the local staff I work with, my supervising officer, and the Consul General.  She thought Gerardo, Clyde, and Tanya were great!  I can vouch for that because she got along great with everyone and everyone loved her, (as I knew they would), especially the Consul General.  As an additional note, work was crazy today.  With the holiday weekend there were soooooo many people who came in needed help of one kind or another.  With so much time to work on her project, Nikki finished her very first embroidery project and I think it turned out amazing! 

It also happened to be Megan’s, another intern’s, birthday today.  She invited the interns and their significant others to a place called La Pepita for a birthday dinner.  Apparently this was a nicer restaurant in the Gracia area famous for its tapas.  A tapa is basically a very small plate of food, akin to what we would call sliders in the US.  Here they translate it as appetizers, but I dare say that the appetizers in the US are quite a bit larger!  We went three for four on the tapas.  We enjoyed the patatas bravas, the Argentinian beef with olive oil on a bed of wheat, and the glass of chocolate mousse.  Unfortunately, the cold pumpkin soup with cured ham and some green vegetable thing was a failure.  We made it through over half, mostly because I was too stubborn to pay for something and not eat it!