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There is an ocean breeze blowing through the wide open windows (read: no bugs) and Louis Armstrong is on the player, while Tin plays his blue recorder (a birthday gift from his godparents). Tatjana started school this morning – we met all her students last night for a dinner that is still with me (unfortunately – way too much food). She left 30 euros on the kitchen counter (grocery money) and a note to have…
We arrived in Cadiz yesterday and so did the World Cup and lots of yelling and people running through the streets with their faces painted in red stripes. Nice beginning to our month long sojourn here. I brewed up a Yogi tea I had brought from home as I was making Tin’s dinner. Dinner was pasta and peas as Sunday most everything is closed. The tea tag said whatever you do, do it with all…
Amazon has lost its cloud, parts of the U.S. are still without electricity, and I hear that at home our WiFi is out. Meanwhile, my formatting got changed and I’m trying to get it fixed but in the meantime, please bear with the electronic glitch – perhaps it means that we should all take a step back and focus on sun, sand, and ocean.
On the train from Madrid to Cadiz, we stopped at Jerez de la Frontera. The station is covered in blue and white porcelain tiles and had the feeling of almost having arrived at the coast as the light was changing and the air was sweeter. A crowd was standing on the platform, dressed to the nines, holding balloons and signs and each person wearing an ear to ear grin. We sat in our seats curiously…
My extended family continues to proliferate as if god came down from the mountain and said go forth and procreate. One great niece born a month ago, one great nephew born this week, and one niece midway through her pregnancy. In the meantime, Mississippi is about to make history for something other than its poor education and poverty – it might become the first state to outlaw abortion all together. What is the opposite of…
Before I left for Spain, I was speaking to a friend of mine and he said that his partner, who is not American, gets anxy after a while and starts talking trash about America. I said I know the lingo as I live with a European. It’s all America sucks, Americans do this, etc. My friend said, “Truth is I am an American but I like it here.” I said, I know and guess what,…
Decide how you want to live and who you want to be and start visualizing it. That is on my friend’s refrigerator and it is as true as true can get. I wanted to be a person who goes to Europe for two months and who experiences life in many cultures and languages. Step one – start now. Step two – enjoy it.
Everyone back home keeps asking me if I shaved my head again and I have to say no – Scott at Jupiter Salon shaved it for me when it first started falling out in March but I haven’t touched it since. It has started to grow, fallen out again, grown again, fallen out again and so on. What’s interesting is strangers tend to view me as probably sick except here in Spain where a few…
We arrived weary travelers and were taken in by our friend who so generously shared his apartment with us. He lives near Lavapies, an area known for immigrants but one that recently has seen a rise in Senegalese moving to the neighborhood. The Senegal men who gather in the square have taken a shine to Tin and he to them. Yesterday, one gave him way too much candy and later he moaned with a stomach…
The dawn was rosy on the bayou this morning, and the temperatures are already peaking. Guess it’s time to leave New Orleans and head to the coast – well a far away coast, but a coast nonetheless. Tin’s hair was cropped short last night, and mine hasn’t grown since I shaved it back in March, and Tatjana got her summer beach cut – so it looks like we’ve lost a pound or two of hair.…