Skye and pictures of x-mas

I'm on the isle of Skye right now. This morning I woke up before sunrise to catch the bus. The sun rose just as we were passing the Loch Ness. It's incredible. I'm not joking when I say it's so beautiful it makes me cry-- twice just on the way here!

When I got here I walked around for a while before I started getting lightheaded and had to stop and eat something. I went into a cute little pub and sat by the fire. The lady felt bad for me and gave me free soup and toast:) There's an intriguing cutie-pie blondie server there... I think I'll have a nap and then go to try to make friends with him.... heh heh..... have I mentioned how much I love Scotland?

And here's some pictures of Christmas and stuff before I left:

Our Chilean Christmas feast

eating my burnt Christmas cookies:)

My bedroom

And here's my roommate veronica and I doing some Christmas Gymnastics:)

Just what the doctor ordered......

I LOVE SCOTLAND!!! I swear my body knows this is the land it came from. I've broken into tears 3 times today just looking at scenery here. I'm convinced that this is the most beautiful place on earth. Tomorrow I'm off to the Isle of Skye - my idea of paradise.

So I'm not sure that it's appropriate to write about romantic matters on ones blog.... but seeing as how I'm a big blabbermouth anyway.... I'll go on.....

So. After a minor heartbreak, a fever and a hacking cough I was anxious about coming here. I was so dizzy the day before I left I couldn't even walk to the pharmacy to buy myself medicine. But, after a motivating conversation with dad (thanks dad) I packed my bag and got ready to go. Silvia picked me up and took me to the airport -- I didn't realize she was such a celebrity there! She knows everyone and I even got priority seating on the plane!

I had a minor difficulty getting through customs in London (they didn't want to let me through because didn't have an address of where I was going) thank god I had a bank statement and lots of mascara for batting my eyelashes :) Then I took the wrong bus and got lost in London. It was ok though, in fact, I'm so glad I did. I love riding the underground (even though I got lost there too) and people were soooo friendly and helpful when I stopped to ask for help. That's what I've been loving the most about all of this -- traveling to a new place with no plans or idea of where you're going is kind of like falling backwards, and I can't tell you how pleased I am that I've been caught by what feels like a big feathery pillow, it's really been restoring some of my faith in the world. Or at least my belief that if you put out good energy into the world, that it will come back to you. (most of the time)


SO - when I finally found the coach station I bought my ticket up to Inverness (a 12 hour bus ride) but it didn't leave until almost midnight so I had some time to kill. I wandered around for a while until I found a nice place to busk. (Probably not the best thing for my fever, but for my soul, it was just the thing!) I played until my fingers were frozen solid and I had made enough to get a nice big warm meal.

While I was sitting in the restaurant I started thinking about that F-ing magician again. Arg!!! I had promised myself I wasn't gonna contact him (the magician hurt my feelings so I was trying to cut him off) but, in an impulsive moment I lost my head and sent him a text message. The instant after I sent it I wanted to smack myself! WHY!!! why would I try to contact the person who made me feel so bad. I sat in the restaurant finishing my food and glancing every 2 minutes at my phone to see if he'd respond. After about 2 hours it became clear to me that he was not in fact going to respond.

When I got to the bus station there was nowhere to sit, so I sat shivering in the floor. It dawned on my that if I didn't warm myself up quickly it was quite possible that I might become one of those nice ice sculptures that rich people use as centerpieces at their dinner parties. I went up to buy myself a nice hot cup of peppermint tea when I locked eyes with REALLY good looking Scottish guy all dressed up in 1950's rockabilly clothes. We flirted for a second before I went to sit back down. He came and sat down too.

We were both shy and didn't have much to say to each other until a crazy looking man took a picture of two black pigeons sitting on top of the doorway. I can't explain to you why it creeped me out so badly, (the man taking that picture) but it did -- it really creeped me out. What creeped me out even more was the sound of his voice and the look on the man's face when he asked me if I would watch his suitcase for him for 5 minutes. I told him I wouldn't (I know, a little counter to what I was saying earlier about the big feathery pillow, but sometimes you have to be discerning) Because come on! It was a tiny little suitcase, why couldn't he just bring it with him? He gave me a scary look when I said no and he left, but then he came back and asked the Scot if he would watch the bag. The Scot shrugged his shoulders and the scary man whispered something into his weird wiry headset thing he had around his neck. I'm telling you -- I was convinced there was a bomb in the bag. Especially when he didn't come back for more than 20 minutes!! The upside was that it gave me something to talk to the hunky Scottish guy about, the downside was that I was fearing for my life.

Whenever I would get up to try to tell one of the security people about the bag, the man would reappear so I would sit back down... but then he would leave again, without his bag! Finally my bus showed up. The hunky Scottish greaser guy explained that he was trying to get on the same bus as me, but that his ticket wasn't until the 2ND of January. He said his father had just had a heart attack and was in the hospital so he was rushing up to go see him -- we weren't sure if the bus driver would let him exchange the ticket. Of course I had my fingers crossed. The funny thing is, the second, and I do mean the exact instant that I smiled at my new Scottish friend and overtly flirtily said the words, ''well if you do make it on the bus, should I save a seat for you?'' ... my pocket started vibrating. The magician had texted me back.

Long story even longer, the scary man with the suitcase was also supposed to be on the same bus, but was detained and not aloud on. Thank god. The magician wrote me a really nice flirty text message (to which I didn't respond) and the hunky Scottish (Stand-up bass player I found out later) DID make it on the bus and sat right next to me.

I can't say that I got a sufficient amount of sleep but I will tell you that when the sun rose this morning on the Snow capped Scottish Highland mountains, my heart had never felt so full.

P.s.
Just to make things clear, my heart being full had nothing to do with the guy.

The update:

I haven´t written for a while - Ive been really busy working and finishing my classes. I had an unfortunate hormonal overdose this weekend (I was really cranky) but I woke up yesterday with a huge smile on my face and it hasnt faded since :)

My band has gotten more organized, we´ve practiced a couple times now and its honestly a dream come true. The pressure is on though because everyone´s started talking about the elusive ¨chick band¨----

Yesterday I was invited to a dinner with the owner of the bar we always play in. It was another one of these ¨I have to pinch myself, can life really be this beautiful?¨ moments. (I can´t even count on one hand how many of these I´ve had since I´ve been here) But last night was really magical.
We had the whole restaurant to ourselves -- It was all older people, friends of the bar owner and his wife, and me. we ate DELICIOUS food and drank sweet wine. After a while of laughing and talking and getting comfortable, we started playing. The acoustics in this place were amazing and the wife of the bar owner had the most beautiful tradicional singing voice I think I´ve heard since I´ve been here. We played loud and for a really long time, the people who didnt have instruments were clanging away on percussion -- I just kept thinking to myself how lucky I was to be a apart of this world.

PLAYING IN CASA DE CRECHAS

roomies :)

Girls from the band

Some more pictures....

My house in the middle of the night

My neighborhood

Church by my house

My roomies :)

Veronica

Moises

Veronica and me

Moises being a little camera shy and below is our happy little family :)

The magician......

Yesterday I played in a concert in Bertamirans. Then Xavi, Arron, Silvia and I had dinner and went to the green pub for a session. At about 1 I was tired and thought about going home but I thought I´d call my friend Sinead first to see what she was doing. She told me to come to her friend Agatha´s party which was right near my house. I went, and it was so fun! Everyone was super friendly and fun. At one point someone pulled out a guitar and (geeky as this sounds) everyone, EVERYONE started singing cheesy Bob Marley songs together in the living room. I had my mandolin so I played a little bit too. It reminded me of the movie L´auberge Español.

There was a guy there--tall and funny, named ´Cayetano´. He was outgoing to say the least. We started talking and joking around and he asked if we could do an intercambio (a language trade). He told me he was a Magician and I didn't believe him until he pulled a deck of cards out of his mouth in mid-sentence... it was crazy! When he started balancing knives and chairs on his nose I knew I was in for a interesting night....

At about 330am when the party began to wind down, we all went out dancing and closed down this nightclub. Cayetano was HILARIOUS -- dancing with everyone he could see. He´s at least 7 feet tall and was wearing a green clown nose and a headband with two feathers in it. Needless to say he stood out. He dared me to steal the umbrella that was on the floor by my feet since I didnt have one and then he said ¨come on, lets go on an adventure¨. We went outside and under my broken, stolen umbrella walked to the next Club. This Cayetano guy was such a nut and everyone loved him! He was dancing and talking to everyone in bar- at one point he had a huge pink feather boa (don't know where he got it) and he was dancing like a drag queen and lassoing everyone in sight. After a while I started getting tired but he said¨We´re not done yet¨ and I kept thinking to myself ¨Who is this guy?!?¨

As we were leaving the bar this drunk girl came up to him and started begging him for his headband (the one with the two feathers) he told her it was special and she couldn't have it (it was plastic and couldn't have cost more that two dollars in a gift shop) but shewas insistant that he give it to her.... Finally he said, ¨Ill give you this headband if you give me your scarf¨.It was a really nice heavy wool scarf. She said she couldn't because it wasn't hers and because it was really expensive and bla bla bla, but she was drunk and ended up making the trade. He wrapped the scarf around his neck and gave her this silly little headband and we walked out....As soon as we got out the door, completely nonchalantly and without saying anything, he reached in his bag and pulled out this HUGE Indian headdress COVERED with feathers at least 20 times the size of the one he had been wearing earlier and kept walking. I have no idea how it fit in that tiny little bag of his or why he was carrying it around.

The rest of the night we were wandering the streets-- he, with his huge feathered headdress and new scarf and occasionally with me on piggy back... he was singing and I was laughing histerically. At one point he was twirling me around on a street corner and he roped some strangers into dancing with us... it was such a scene.....

Finally, at 7am, I said goodnight/goodmorning to the magician and walked home.

what a night.

SOME PICTURES FROM OVIEDO

(and Arron and Cat)

These are some pictures from other day. Cano and Joe (a funny little Irish man) and I, went out to ´Castro do Beronas´.

Life can be so sweet. Really, my life here is everything I could have asked for.

I love my new house -- my roomates are really fun (I´ll post some picture of them and the house soon) . It just feels safe here. I already feel like I´m part of this community and that´s something I´ve been longing for for so long.

I did go to the police station today and found out that come January 15th I´ll be illegal here and if I stay longer I could risk being detained in Spanish jail or something... hmm, so we´ll have to see how that goes. I already bought my ticket Scotland for new years so hopefully I won´t have any problems getting back into Spain after that..... jeez, that sure would be a downer wouldn´t it?

MY NEW HOME

SO -- here´s the story.

While I was still living with Cano I figured out that it would probably be a lot cheaper/more convenient/more fun if instead of living in the pre-arranged accommodation for my Spanish course, I found my own accommodation, i.e. a shared apartment with some interesting young people. One day before the course I went on a hunt - an unsuccessful hunt. No one called me back and I didn´t end up seeing any apartments. While I was walking home I walked through a sweet little neighborhood and thought to myself, ¨if only I could live here¨. Everyone told me I was going to have a hard time finding something in November seeing as how the majority of young people here are students and the semester ends in December. So, I gave up looking and decided to go with the sure thing and move in with Fatima. It was fine living there -- she's a kook and its really far away from EVERYTHING, but I was really enjoying all the walking. Two days ago I realized that it´s getting closer to the end of the month and I really had NO idea what I was going to do at the end of it. Sylvia sat with me and we starting plotting out some options. Just the thought of going through the whole process of running around town being interviewed by a million different strangers seemed daunting... to say the least, and I went home that night feeling depressed. --- In the middle of the night (5am) I got a text message from my friend Sinead asking if I was still looking for a place because she was with a friend of a friend who is looking for someone to move in right away. She gave me his phone number and told me the location, but it wasn't until I looked at the map the next day that I realized that is was EXACTLY where I was walking that day back when I was still staying with Cano. My dream neighborhood. Not only that, but it´s RIGHT next to my favorite park in Santiago and a 2 minute walk from all the pubs that we play in. I was beside myself with excitement but I didn´t want to get too worked up cause for all I knew, the people might have been total wacko´s and they may have already found someone. SO - I called the guy ¨Moises¨ (Moses in English) during my break from class. He was SO friendly I couldn´t believe it. I told him I´d come by at 6:30 to come check it out. I did and the whole walk up there I couldn't stop grinning at the prospect that this might be my new home. I´m talking cobblestone streets, beautiful views, the works. So I got there and when he came to meet me I was so pleasantly surprised to be greeted by an attractive and really friendly face. He showed me around the house, which is small, and compared to a place in the states might be considered ¨a little crusty¨ but I think there´s plenty that can be done. Moises and I were joking around immediately, he´s great. He´s studying to get his pilot license (a little ironic since I´m so afraid of flying). Also, interestingly, learned to speak English in Dubai... The other girl, whom I haven´t met yet -- is from Chile, she´s a psychologist for athletes and she´s here studying with one of the most famous psychologists of Santiago. Anyways, (long story even longer) I told them I was interested and Moises called me back last night and said, ¨congratulations! You´ve been selected out of hundreds of thousands to be our new flatmate!!¨I was grinning from ear to ear all night last night. Now I gotta go home and pack and figure out how I´m gonna get everything over there....



oh, and below are a couple videos of us playing in La Moha :)

This weekend (before I ate the bad egg) and yesterday :)

On Friday and Saturday I went out and played in some ¨foliadas¨ (sessions). Super fun. Sunday I woke up, fried an egg, ate it, and vomitted for the rest of the day. Not so fun.

Yesterday I played again with Cano, Javier and Manolo-- it´s become a regualar thing every tues/thurs, I LOVE it!

Here´s some more fotos :)

My classmates (the one next to me is the teacher)

The fam

Oh ya, p.s.

There was this really cute guy in the bar last night. I was eye-flirting with him a whole bunch. At one point I got up to goto the bathroom in a different bar (the toilet in la moha is literally just a hole in the ground). When I was walking back, I found that I had pulled my tights up just a little two high and was feeling a bit overly supported (I had a wedgie)-- so I reached in to adjust my panties (put them back where they belong) and I heard something behind me. Yes of course, my cutie from the bar had been walking behind me and had seen the whole thing go down/be pulled out.

On the upside, today in class I learned that they don´t have a word for ¨wedgie¨ here in Spain. Maybe its not a concept that they understand. Since language is a tool to that helps up define our experiences, and they don´t have this word in their vocabulary, maybe he didn´t even know how to process what he had seen... kinda like the ol´tree falling in the woods conundrum no?

HE WON!!!!!!!

Last night when I got home from playing music with Cano, I read a chapter of Obama´s book, kissed the cover and fell asleep --

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!


I woke up this morning (the first sunny morning in a week) turned on the news, and cried for 20 minutes. I´ve had chills all day - the kind of chills you get when you experience something really moving and beautiful.

I was let out of class to be interviewed on Spanish radio for 5 minutes! (in spanish!... dun dun dun.....) but I think/hope it went okay.

I´m living in a new apartment now. It´s not so close to the city center so it´s always kind of a trek to get around. The upside is that I´ve really been enjoying walking in the rain. My roomate it a kook. She´s funny though. She´s a professional runner in her mid-forties. The apartment is really cosy -- I feel super at home there already.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! (did I mention that already) HE WON!!!!

wow.

For Halloween we went out dancing...

So I have to complain about one thing. It´s not huge, but I feel I have to mention it --- It´s the bathrooms here. There are several things that I just can´t understand.

1st: They don´t have trash cans in the bathroom. I´m not talking about bathrooms out in town. I´m talking about right in people´s homes. Where do the put the old toilet paper roll? Where do they put the wrapping on a new bar of soap? It´s amazing how many things I find to throw away in a bathroom.... but not here.

2nd: There´s been several occasions when I´ve been out in a bar and the women´s bathroom has been occupied so I´ve had to use the men´s. Literally everytime I´ve been shocked (and just a little bit repulsed) to find that there is no soap to wash my hands with in the men´s bathroom. But there is soap in the Ladies room... What do they do when they´ve gone #2? This makes me weary to find boyfriend here.... Or at least to hold hands with him....

3rd: Now this isn´t really a complaint - it´s just an acknowledgment that I´ve never used a bidet before. I don´t really understand how they work. Every house here has a bidet. I´m just confused how they dry off after using them. Towels I guess, but then how come I never see towels lying around that look like they´ve been used to dry off someone´s private parts.... maybe they hide the towels by the garbage cans.

4th: Now this is perhaps the most perplexing. The light switches to the bathrooms are all on the outside of the bathroom. Not only that, but when you go out into town, many of the light switches are on timers.... short timers. This seems like some kind of an evil trick to me.

That´s all. I just had to get it out. <---- (heh heh, a little bathroom pun in case you didn´t catch that)

Love,
Molly

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

SYLVIA AND SALETA

CANO (a bagpiper playing the fiddle)

THE GANG

This is where I live!! well no. Not right here -- but you know what I mean....

I live over in there somewhere.