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.

eeee!

What a wonderful night! I can´t describe how happy I was tonight. Jeez Louise. I went out with Sylvia and we ate sunflower seeds in the park for about an hour. Then we walked around as usual and stopped in a little cafe infamous for its hot chocolate. All the bars and restaurants here are ANCIENT, Im talking made of stone... They are so incredible! Sylvia just started a new job working with Ryan air so she has to wake up really early. She walked me over to a bar called la Moha (short for Mohammed) and we said goodbye. This bar is the size of a small hallway. But sure enough, squished at the end of the hallway was Cano and Javier and some other man named manolo playing their bagpipe and accordions.
Yesterday cano recorded a couple songs for me and I spent all this morning learning them. He also made a list of stuff I already know, so when I got there we played for about an hour an a half, and it was all stuff I knew!! Every time we play Sandy boys (an old time tune) everyone goes wild... So we ended up playing it more than once. But everything we played was wonderful and I couldn't have felt more satisfied and content. Then, we left and went to a bar called Gramola. The Scottish guys I had met the other night were there and Gon and a couple other people I knew. As soon as we got there Cano pulled out his accordion and said, ¨Vale Molly, toca Sandy Boys otro vez!¨ So we played sandy boys and the Scottish guys had no idea where it came from. It was wonderful, we all played there for another hour or so, everyone was laughing and having a great time. It´s so normal for them so I couldn´t explain how delighted I was. Anyways, We left at about 1:30 in the morning and I literally couldn´t/can´t stop smiling. I´ve never played in sessions before, let alone been supported and appreciated like this! Thank you Dad for knowing and introducing me to these people! (and impressing them enough to make them want to keep me under their wing!) What a great evening in such a wonderful place :)

Cold and beautiful--

Well, the rain has begun. But it´s wonderful. Just like everyone said, it makes this place just that much more romantic. Santiago (for anyone reading this who doesn´t already know) was founded at the end of the 4th/beginning of the 5th century. Everyday this week Slyvia and I just go for long walks - stopping occasionally to have tea or coffee or just to rest. She´s lived here her whole life, but for me, walking on narrow cobblestone streets and looking up at cathedrals and even homes that were built long before my country was even founded is simply amazing. The air here is so fresh and the people are so nice! Everywhere I go I feel so welcomed - to be honest, I frequently feel guilty that I haven´t shown this kind of generosity and hospitality to foreigners in my own country.

Today was BEAUTIFUL. It´s Sunday so Cano and Maribel invited Alfonzo and Cibran to have lunch (the most important meal of the day) with us. Let me tell you it was a FEAST if I´ve ever had one. We sat outside (it was a sunny day) and ate every kind of meat you can imagine; potatoes, pimientos, salad, empanadas, bread, fruit cake (to celebrate Cano´s birthday a month late) and afterwards we sat for hours drinking wine and chupitos, coffee and tea and talking about politics and family and culture and music--- it was wonderful.

After lunch I helped with the dishes and went upstairs for a little siesta. Slyvia came and got me at 7pm and we went to her Aunts house so I could meet her family. Everywhere you go around here people try to feed you and give you something to drink-- they are the epitome of hospitable. Then we stopped by her house so I could give her lesson on the spoons. She´s wonderful, I couldn´t have asked to meet someone more generous and good hearted. When we got to Santiago we met up with a bunch of people and walked to a nearby pub. A couple of Scottish fiddlers are in town. I asked one man what the occasion was. He told me it was his 60th birthday and there was nowhere else in the world he´d rather be to celebrate it then here in Galicia. He said Santiago is like nowhere else in the world and he knows because the moment he got here wonderful things started to happen to him, he called it serendipity. So the gang (xacobe, Gon, sinead, Slyvia, Xavier etc., and I) Sat and listened to the music. Sinead said she wants to start a band with me and couple of other women, how fun would that be!!! And Gon and Xacobe were talking about taking me fishing :) We must have sat there for 5 hours. I´m in heaven. I just can´t believe that everything I had hoped it would be like here it exactly how it is. Its a fantasy world I swear.

MY camino to Santiago - by train

I had to get out of Jorge´s house. Every memory of why we broke up came flooding back to me this morning. My train wasn´t until 2 but I was at the station at 11. I love him, he´s a wonderful guy-- but enough´s enough and more than 4 hours with him was enough.

While at the train station I walked up to the board that displayed which platform the trains took off from. There were two very distinctly American guys standing there too-- I guessed immediately that they were from the south, from the looks of them I also presumed that they might also be members of the kkk. When I got on the train and found my seat, just guess who I was sitting across from.... yeah, that´s right. Well it turns out they were from Florida and not Nazis. Never judge a book by it´s southen drawl and skinhead I guess huh? We started talking and I danced around the subject of American politics for about an hour until one of them started talking about what an honorable man John McCain was. Well, I had already finished a small bottle of red wine by this point... just to make the ride a little more tolerable (I know you´re cringing mom... but my stomach is fine, I really think that Hypnotist is a miracle worker) But before I could begin my Obama rant-- The one who was talking said, ¨I´d take a bullet for McCain and all he´s done for this Country.... but I´m still voting for Obama.¨ I was dumbstruck -- if you woulda seen these guys you never would have guessed it. So after that and little more wine for me and 7 small bottles of wiskey for the hicks, we started playing stupid games and telling the type of personal stories you only tell to people you don´t respect terribly much and know you´ll never see again...

The moral of my 7 hour train ride with these guys was this: if at all possible avoid people who look like they might be carrying rifles were it legal -- but, if you have assigned seating and there´s nothing you can do, it might not be that bad.

Silvia picked me up in Santiago and it felt like we´ve been friends forever. We gabbed the whole ride to Cano´s house and we are going to hangout tomorrow. Cano´s family all came out to welcome me and I couldn´t have felt more welcome or more at home. After sitting around the table, snacking and chatting, Lucia and Sabella (two of the most charming little girls on the planet-- besides Sadie and Caliope of course) and I, ran upstairs to play with Sabella´s stuffed animals and read Juevos verdes con jamon (green eggs and ham in Spanish) which I brought as a gift for them, and which they made me read to them three times in a row.

I´m SOOOOOOO happy to be here. Santiago is so beautiful and feels so safe.

eeeee!

love,
Molly

I made it :)

MIKEL
JORGE MIGUEL

GISSY JORGE AND ME

If you´d seen me vomit before my flight - you would have expected that I´d have a miserable time on the plane. But you would be underestimating the power of hypnotism. Hypnotism and Valiuum. I had a wonderful and easy flight. I sat next to some hoodlum from the Ukraine and we shared the middle aisle. He and I stretched out and laid head to foot for most of the flight. It was quite comfortable. The flight from Amsterdam to Madrid was even more painless, I fell asleep before takeoff and woke up just as we landed. Customs took two seconds, they asked me nothing, and then a taxi driver walked up to me immediately and offered me a ride. The driver turned out to be a scum bag though--- he kept trying to convince me to have a drink with him. He also over charged me. But I made it successfully to Jorge´s house. He came down and met me and helped my lug my luggage (I now understand the true meaning of the word ¨luggage¨) up to the top floor of his apartment.
We´ve been having a great time although its becoming a little tiresome explaining why I won´t let him cheat on his girlfriend. So tiresome in fact that I´m going to have to cut the time I had planned on staying here a little short (aparently the only accommodations for me are in his SINGLE bed) so I´m going to leave for Santiago tomorrow. But just cause Jorge´s acting a little overly friendly doesn't mean I´m not thrilled to be around him. His brother and his cousin Gissy who I LOVE are both here too and we´ve all been having a great night. We went out to Chinese food which they all thought was delicious -- I didn´t have the heart to tell them that it tasted like fast food. But the atmosphere was nice!

well that´s all for post number one. I love you all, and I mean that. If you´re taking the time to read this -- you must really be a friend.

Love love love
until next time,
Molly