españa

it's all reversed now. i walk around the roundabout with the cañadio bar with the bacardi window (or if i go counterclockwise: past the frutos secos tienda with flashing neon lights) and past the hotel with buses filled to the brim with tourists, down the smooth (and slippery) slope to a busier street, cross, past the shoes and the hippie store with incense, past the groceries and ¡eh voilá! (our first date with gabe and jaime...ay), up the hill and past my art shop (but the palomas are gone and have been replaced by bulls--funny they begin with something no one would ever think to harm...then to the other. where's the difference?...). cross the skinny street, past the cafeterías (la biblioteca included), through the plaza where the couples and novios and friends stare me down for walking with exposed feet (que horror). continue, walking, finding shade, the bracelet store, the bread store on the corner, turn down jardines after more shoes, past the mini-dumpsters...home. but only for a few hours more... después: the past.

posted by me @ 2:24 AM 5 comments

a new ground has sprung up from beneath the rubble. i can walk my original path once more. they built me a walkway.

posted by me @ 2:23 AM 0 comments

i don't think i have anything interesting right now. meredit and i went shopping. we spent a lot of money. i got a free sfera pen. i have a blister on my foot from my birkenflopsknockoffs. i sing the body electric. my favorite word is still melocoton with an accent on the last o but i'm not on one of the computers that can type in spanish. how do you like them apples? ?como te gustan ellas manzanas?

posted by me @ 1:20 AM 0 comments

night before our finals. they make us our favorite meal. arroz a la cubana. pile of gooey white rice, fried egg, fried banana, tomate frito. patatas fritas también. and calimocho. and then martini. and then tequila shots. and then something that maite can't pronounce and i can't either because i'm uneducated in the world of alcohol. and then vodka. and then it's midnight and none of us have studied, written papers, looked at our notes, thought about school. hmm.

posted by me @ 11:50 PM 0 comments

buon giorno, principessa!

i miss the italians.

ivan - we met him because his cut-off jean shorts were not only cut above the knee, but also at butt-cheek level. so becca and i thought we should photo the fact. and ivan noticed. "you must come with me!" oh, we must, must we? so we did.

marco - he got a bad score in english class but has a crazy mad vast english vocabulary. he's only eighteen, but he's already been a lifeguard, pizzeria worker, and a breakdancer.

andrea - dolce & gabana ropa interior and all, andrea was beautiful. i think he felt constrained by clothing. he's harder to describe, but he made us laugh. he's very random (random: the most over-used word in the eng. lang.).

gion - gion didn't talk to us much, but he did help the others buy us roses, wine, and water.

what with goodbye, hello, goodbye, goodbye and all, we got at least thirty-six italian kisses on our cheeks. muy dulce.

posted by me @ 9:22 AM 0 comments

goodbyes.
[right here]
hellos.

i don't really like either of them. in the middle. i like it there.

posted by me @ 1:41 AM 0 comments

so even the ambulance drivers think it's acceptable to yell 'guapa' and follow young estado unidenses to school.

pitaya. yum. fresh juice. from the market. barcelona. we have a hotel. a real one. chocolate museum. sagrada familia. casa milá. maritime museum. let's go.

side note: women who are over 65 cannot tell me that everyone in line for the restroom has an emergency... menopause.

posted by me @ 5:01 AM 0 comments

if you read this, you deserve a postcard. so send me your address in some way or another.

correction: no postcards for anyone. sometimes individuals ruin things for the group. it's never been fair nor will it ever be fair.

posted by me @ 4:20 AM 4 comments

my family is home, but we are still drinking the coffee i made last week. :) spain has microwaves, so it's okay. vale. micro-olas. vale.

posted by me @ 4:19 AM 0 comments

four girls, two guys. five midwesterners, one texan. the six of us. we bought blue reversible bucket hats for eleven euros and fifty-four euro-cents. with the hats came free bus tickets from madrid to valladolid. hat, hat, hat, hat, hat, and hat. bobbing through the station. as if being estado unidenses doesn't draw us enough attention. grinning. giggling. belly laughing. let's take pictures to document the feeling. we are "bad ass." ha ha ha ha ha and ha. :)

posted by me @ 4:15 AM 1 comments

"it's just one branch of the tree."

posted by me @ 4:14 AM 1 comments

toledo is: small
interesting
with cathedral
confusing (streetwise)
deserted
gnat-infested
where el greco once lived
pretty
what you might imagine europe to be
full of things to do
on a hill
talented with mazapan (marzipan)

posted by me @ 4:11 AM 0 comments

our family is on vacation. i made coffee. i washed dishes. i did laundry. i am am spanish housewife with no husband.

posted by me @ 5:16 AM 2 comments

"maybe they sell abstinence here!"

"absinthe?"

posted by me @ 5:15 AM 1 comments