a m o r e f a t i
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Dear Friends and Family,
Is this really a travelblog?
You have been invited to look over this life-blog of mine, to see where I have been in the last months.
We have been living/traveling through Cusco since November and will continue to do the same for another month until Guille and I move northbound...eventually returning to Portland.
Here and now, I am happy to share with you pi... full info
The Citythe city gave me a job on the first day and then a flat on the second...so i said, "okay, i am in." And that is our story, we have been together ever since.
Mi Barrio/Poblacion: EL BORNI live next to the Parc de la Ciutadella, close to the expansive Flea Market of everything, in between brick-chimmney remains where ancient factories, shunting yards, and seaside warehouses once operated. looking down my street, "La Mariana," Gaudi's Sagrada Familia towers look like a sand castle peaks in the distance or a fairy castle by night. . . i have been there once; it is fantastic.
in the afternoon..market, cafe, filmThe city provides for the people: always a free movie, outside jazz, museum to see, or telescopes in the park..... the streets get hosed down everynight at midnight (i walk on the wet stones after work) despite the serious drought in Spain....(good??/bad??)
the park is my favorite placeeveryday i take a nap in the park, walk 45 min. to work, and usually have coffee and some hard-almond-sugar cookie.
outside my windowEmme turned 80 this last week, lives on the bottom floor with the terazzo, has a suitcase of black and white portraits from when her twenties in Lebannon, over fifty dog racing trophies, and plates depicting Greek myths she does not understand. She leaves our fallen laundary hanging in the stairwell. We became friends when my glass jars full of basil, cilantro seeds, and tissue fell and shattered on her terrazzo. She was angry, so we shared tea and chocolate and now we are friends.
el equipo de argentinabecause my flat-mate, Bruno, and most of the flat neighbors are from Argentina, so are the flat's regulars.
a corner of my studioi spread clutter from corner to corner in some chaotic order...what they would call: SENY (common sense) and RAUXA (creative chaos) in Català.
Melinda, Ana and iMelinda works at the Bar at the hostel and Ana serves the breakfast. Here we are breakfasting at my flat.
Santa Maria Del Mar I often find myself marching in step with an antsy street flow, and then, without any notice, plumeting through the heavy doors of one of the thousand hidden cathedrals : to find the quiet.
Hostel ReceptionThis was my first week working at the Hostel: Jessica, me, and Marianna. The hostel crew has turned into something like my extended family. . . everyone behind the desk is Spanish (excpet for me), the cleaning ladies are from Ecuador, the Bartenders from Tenessee and Ireland, and Ana, the breakfast server is Australian. It is a good job these days.
The Blank Canvas of Todayafter a gallery space told me that i could hang in July IF i could put up larger works for their large walls, i walked out in the street and found these very large stretcher bars waiting for me by the garbage. . .
you know: sometimes when you start looking, you start finding.
Gus_Granada_Spain
Jose Luis Esteban
Argentinos: buena gente