Practice Hebrew

8/08/07

When I got on the train, I realized I had left my first Europe home – with Lysette Life is a mirror and with her – I liked what I saw.

Madrid is just another city. Made for shopping and eating. At first sight, I cannot find the charm – it reminds me of Sacramento. The hostel was filled with abnoxious American Kids and instead of feeling connected with them, I felt driven away. Spending the evening with a few new friends made the new city feel a little more comfortable, and I helped a guy dress a wound on his foot from a run-in with a sea urchin.

The following morning it took a surprising amount of time to make my way to the airport via metro to pick up my cousins. There was a lot of stress involved and when we all found eachother, I felt like crying because it was the first moment I felt completely sure and safe in a few days. We savorted the hospital-looking hostel beds and slep like squirrels in the afternoon. I’ve become quite proficient at making friends and in the kitchen I practiced my Hebrew with a couple Israeli girls and a few brazillian boys. The boys escorted is to a late night dessert hunt in Madrid and we found Peruvian pan-pipe players, us dancing in the street, ice cream, and a game of cards. I noticed that one of the boys was tyring very, very hard to get me to like him, and in the morning after I had not given him any of that kind of attention, he ignored me completely.

Kelly Anne is the best because of her “early bird gets the worm” attitude. We woke up at 8:30 sharp to reap the free breakfast benefits that the hostel had to offer. Traveling with the girls has been very fun because we are all Can-Do people, we each carry our own weight and have been working together as a hive-mind unit, being open and honest about our thoughts and emotions. Both of the girls are on a crea team together at home and I suspect that I am tagging on to a unit which already existed.

We hustled our way over to Barcelona on a train and were pleased to find a large, make love/not war – feeling hostel painted with lime green walls and playing Raggae music. The girls went out to eat with some new people, and Istayed in to cook my own meal (much cheaper). The kitchen was disgusting with dirty dishes piled – so I cleaned it. My cleaning attracted mixed responses – one came in commenting on how I am obsessive compulsive, other dropped in more dishes saying “thank you” then the grumpy front-desk man from Senegal came in and said “oh my god, thank you so much, I’ve worked here for 2 months and I’ve never seen this counter clean, nobody cares, and I always have to clean it.” Then I gave him one of my hard-boiled eggs and he was so thankful. I like making friends.

Valencian Rooftops

8/07/07
I made such a good friend at this Hostel – Her name is Lysette from Holland and she speaks a range of languages. There are two kinds of people: open and closed ones, and its very easy to spot the open ones when you arrive at a hostel.
There is a museum here with incredible modern architecture. Its buildings looked like exotic laien insects perching themselves on the ground, waiting or the next millennia to open themselves. There was only enough time to take photographs of the exterior, it was easy to create a good composition in my camera because a master architect had already thought out the perfect angle of every corner.
I met up with Lysette, Diana, and Kain at the beach and I felt like aI had injested a happy pill. Lysette and I played Frisbee, acting like Frisbee performance artists, and then acted like puppies and mermaids together in the warm sea.
I’ve found my favorite part about traveling is how quickly you can make a vest friend without even knowing them before.
Everyone try this Salad:
Get some exotic greens that you like (baby Lettuce, Spinache, Arugula, etc…) toss it with this dressing:
Honey
Olive Oil
Salt
Place halved cherry tomatoes, walnuts and a soft salad cheese like feta on the top.

I ate tapas with my new group of friends and we laughed and ate and drank. I feel so alive. Lysette invited me to stay the night at her house and I shared the living room with Kain and Marcello – who were both good people that I felt comfortable around. We sat on old couch cushions on the balcony drinking tea, overlooking the old roof tops and stars of Valencia. I feel very touched by being invited into someone’s home – I think this is one of the kindest mitzvahs which can be made.