Juen :)

It's Been a while since I've written - I went through rough patch for a while, but it's looking like things are on the up and up. I met someone who makes me really really happy.


One day when I was working at Crechas (charging people at the door of a concert) A really really good looking stranger walked down the stairs. I was just about the get off work and the band was playing their final song so I wasn't very interested in mingling. I sent the good looking stranger away, but just as he got to the top of the stairs he turned around and we made eye contact (you know that fireworksy, spark-inciting, little-red-cartoon-heart-circling-your-head kind of eye contact) and he came back down the stairs. He made up some stupid question as an excuse to talk to me and thankgod he did - we started talking and it was as natural as if I were talking with anyone of my friends. He explained how he lived far away and had basically just wound up in Santiago on a whim. He had only been here for 2 hours and didn't know where he was going. He just happened to pass by the bar where I worked and decided to pop in -- (three minutes before I got off work!) -- I'm so lucky he did. I asked him if he wanted to follow me to a bar nearby where my friends were playing a session. He did, and then he and he said he was enchanted to see the magical warm scene that I have here in Santiago. Then he followed me to the next bar to meet all of my friends from theater class. I was weary about men at this point and was not looking for anything in terms of a relationship, but he just seemed so sweet and charming. He spent the night at my house and the next day when it was time for him to leave he asked me what I was doing for Christmas. I said I didn't have any plans and he didn't either. He proposed something that at first sounded like crazy talk. We were pretty much total strangers, but he suggested that we spend the week together until Christmas since we were going to be alone anyways and we could keep each other company. He said that if at any point we got on each others nerves or decided we didn't like each other, that he would hop on the next bus back to Salamanca....That was more than a month and a half ago. Since then I've gone back with him to Salamanca to help him move his stuff to Santiago to be nearer to me. He's amazing. Funny, soulful, talented, sooooo cute, smart, playful, passionate, interesting etc., etc., I'm not making any predictions about the future, but for the moment I'm as pleased as punch :)

Cork and Galway

Boy, I wish I had written this right when I got home while it was still all fresh in my mind. Anywhoo -- My trip to Ireland was amazing. Exactly what I needed - Good music, good friends, good food (I know, in ireland...shocked me too) I stayed with my sweet lovely Caitriona in her huge falling apart mansion in Cork. We played sessions.... I met up with my dad and Cano and Javier and pat -
Drank Guinness....

Then Sinead and I went up to Galway (where I havent been in 7 years!!) And Saw old friends. Stayed with Anthony, made some new friends :)

Session in the bus....

hahahah, poor sinead and I, when we got on the bus we took the only two seats left... soon to realize we were sandwiched between two heroine junkies on their way to Limerick.... Mine kept trying to rub up against me until he told me he was going to pee in a plastic bottle and I had to make a run for it... The girl on the other side of Sinead was harmless (once we realized she was just really really high and not roadsick like it appeared, this was actually comforting because it really looked like she was going to hurl....) hahaha and then after my junkie finished peeing in the bottle, Sinead's junkie asked if she could have the bottle to take to her doctor for her piss test later on.... And just like that, a friendship was made.



Went to visit Ita Murphy and her kids Ruby-Jane and Eamonn (my old host family) ~ It was surprisingly emotional, brought back a lot of old memories.


Then on my way home - I freaked out on the plane and decided against getting on another flight - so I went to the train station where I met up with my old Cuban boyfriend Jorge in Madrid! It was really fun and nice to see him. I feel so lucky that I can go back and re-visit the people from my past and still feel so connected to them all!


It was a good trip~~

Las Islas Cies. . .

I spent 3 days on this amazing island with a complete womanizing sleezebag . . I made it clear that I wasn't interested in anything romantic with him, and once his gigantic ego got over the shock that his genius plan of inviting me into this island in order to seduce me was in fact a wasted effort -- we actually had a really good time :)

Corcubion

Sweet Diana took me out to the town where she grew up - It was great - beautiful music, good food, I met her family - went out on her brother's boat -- so nice.

(I caught Diana and her mother singing while they were cleaning the kitchen after lunch, SO beautiful :)

I'm Baaaack. . .

!!!! wow. I can't really describe the feeling I have when I walk around here - my heart just feels so full. I'm incredibly fortunate.

I have been having such an amazing time so far - playing music, going to concerts, eating delicious meals with my sweet wonderful charming friends, going to the river, to the beach . . . and to top it all off - today I found the apartment I was dreaming of. If there is a god, I swear she's trying to tell me something because I found this place by sheer coincidence. The agency that rents it is called 'inmobiliaria AMOR' . . . and it just happens to be right next to the very church where I played that concert with my dad and brother - the very concert that brought me to Santiago to first place, where I met Silvia and Xacobe and Xabier (my friends here) - the concert that inspired me to really start playing music...
Today when I went to go see the place, I got the keys and they didn't work. I stood there for 15 minutes trying to open the door but there was something else blocking it. I called the agency and they apologized but said there was nothing they could do to help. I had been sooo excited to see this place and I was equally as frustrated that I couldn't get in. I went to go have a tea to calm myself down, and wouldn't you know it, I spilled it all over myself and my book :/ I was about to return to the keys to the agency but I decided to go back and try one more time. As I was walking over there - just like clockwork - the sun came out. And the women who lives upstairs just happened to be looking out the window when I walked up, so I asked her to come down and let me in.
It's just like my dad once told me - sometimes the universe sends you little signs to tell you that your on the path your supposed to be on. I think today was one of those little signs :)

Maribel, Lucia and Me

Gon

The view from my new apartment

My 23rd.....

I had the best birthday ever !!! Really it was just perfect. I woke up and Gon made me a delicious meal. Then he and Catriona and I went to the beach. It was a hot beautiful day and the three of us laid in the sand laughing and swimming and talking for hours. we stopped at Castro de Beroñas to walk around some ancient Celtic ruins and watch the sunset. We, some friends of mine that we had run into and a group of 7 or 8 old people from the basque country all huddled together on a rock joking around and watching the sun go down. SO charming.

We had a peaceful drive home and then went for a kebab (my favorite!) and then to the session. I saw my sweet Silvia and played music with all my friends. it was just a perfect day.