P.s.

The day before new years I got some really upsetting news - Paddy was back in the hospital. I just wanted to make a little note on here for you Paddy.  I love you much and I'm sending you lots of healing thoughts!! x

I'm in a cute little hostel in St. Andrews with Lakshmi right now:) 

The night I spent in Skye was wonderful, I made some friends with a cute Scottish couple who told me I should move to St. Andrews and go to University here. Then I had a really intense and long conversation with a woman named Rachael that lasted until they closed the pub. The next day I took a bus to the kintail lodge, a little hotel in the middle of nowhere --- I wasn't sure I was even in the right place until I saw a picture of Lincorne (Xavi, Xacobe and Gon's band) on a little poster on the wall.  

I had a wonderful new years with those guys --just everything I had hoped for. Gon's lady friend from France and two of her friend's from Belgium were there too. The next day went took their rented Mercedes on an excursion around the highlands with Chic (their alcoholic but entertaining friend/manager in Scotland). We wound up in a charming pub in some teeny tiny little village where Chic apparently used to live. The lady running the bar was so happy to see Chic that she asked that we stay and have a session and a free meal there.  I love playing with those guys :) Then we heard that there was a Ceili going on at the town hall right next door. A real traditional Scottish ceili!!!!  It was sooooooooooooo fun. I danced every dance until I couldn't dance anymore!! It was truly a magical night. Like one of dad's fairy tales :) 

Then I took the bus back down through Glasgow to Edinburgh to meet Laki. It's really great to see her! We wandered around last night in Edinburgh and when I told her I was considering going to College at St. Andrews, we decided to hop on a bus and come check it out. So here we are!  

I've covered almost all of Scotland by bus in the past week :) I feel quite accomplished. 

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.