When we were sitting on the beach in Zahara de los Atunes, we looked up at the 2:00 pm sun and saw this incredible phenomenon. The sun was surrounded by a dark black circle and surrounding the darkness was a beautiful rainbow. This phenomenon I later learned is called a solar halo and it was eery in the sense of awe and wonder and also had many of us questioning if it were the end…
We’ve been to Spain. Yes, that’s what the tickets say but it seems as if we have been living parallel lives from our regular one. There’s the getting used to each new place, there’s the schlepping baggage filled with god knows what – diapers, incense, books, computer, clothes, make-up, pills and such. There’s been different food, different routines, different people, different modes of being and at the end of it all – there we are.…
The Spanish have a saying – te voy a comer de besos – I will eat you with kisses. And the our friends’ kids are just those types of kids – the ones you want to eat with kisses all day long.
Spain adopted a motto for tourism that said simply Spain Is Different and it is. We are now in Zagreb, in Croatia, in Eastern Europe – difference is everywhere, but I digress. I was with a friend in Spain and we walked into a boutique to look at the new fall line of clothes. The shopkeeper who I knew from before was chatting with us and she asked my Spanish friend, “Do you only have…
Tomorrow we leave for Zahara de los Atunes – where we have no WiFi, no internet, no phone, no nada. Woo hoo – hello beach, hello sun, hello the books I have remaining to read. I’m in the midst of Hari Kunzru’s Gods Without Men, which I was digging until last night when I was going to bed I was reading the prose and it felt so contrived I paused several times to see if…
I spent the last twenty four or so hours in a state of mind that I’d like to throw out the window. You know the state – the one where you question everything you have ever done or are doing. I needed to be by myself so I could wring the frown right out of my face. Instead, I wasn’t alone and I picked up another book that I had brought – Gift from the…
The fruiterias are closed The grand market is closed. The groceries are closed. The bakeries are closed. The cafes are closed. The noise is absent except for the clanging of bells. Everyone everywhere is lounging for the lord.
Meanwhile, back at home I read the headlines and they are still stuck in death death death. Someone is killing someone every day in New Orleans. The New York Times this morning said that there is going to be a major overhaul of the police system – but the whole system is rotten from the top down. Someone commented, where is Vice President Jindal while this is all going on – you tell me. Here…
I walked up the stone city wall and followed the elevated path – there were only a few fishermen and some youths on bikes when I went up on the wall but all the way at the end before it turns and blends into Plaza España an old man was standing and looking out at sea. He beckoned me to look and I didn’t catch what he was watching – and he said, “Transatlantico” pointing…
Rare are the days that I have to myself but today is one of them. Tin and Tatjana left early this morning for Bolonia and Vejer de la Frontera on an excursion with the students. This is the last week of school and I finally had time to myself. I walked to the sea first thing – to breathe in the fresh salt air then I went to our favorite wine store – Magerite –…