The last weeks in Spain

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At this point Im actually back in good old Sweden, or more exact in Uppsala, but since I didnt have the time or the motivation to write during the last weeks of my trip, Ill give you guys an update of whats happened during the trip.

The life on the farm was very intensified during the last weeks, me getting closer to the people there and also understanding more of the Spanish, 3 birthdays within one week (including mine), some internal conflicts, trips to the beach. Then I went to Madrid on Friday and got the plane back to Sweden on Wednesday.

On the Saturday I went together with some people from the farm to Cabo de Gata, the famous nature beach (no big hotels which is normally what you find along Costa del Sol) in Andalusia, where we went many other days to enjoy the sun and swim in the sea. This is a small village where there was a reggae band playing in a tiny bar. It was a wonderful night with lots of happiness and dancing! And then on the Sunday we went to the beach, so I have to say I had an extraordinary birthday =)

After living a few weeks on the farm, I realised there are some tensions between the people living there, and during one of the weekly meetings the conflict was being ventilated, many strong words and emotions coming out. But I think thats what has to happen when people are living together and confronting eachother, the sad thing was just that it didnt seem like these persons had been talking about the problems they had had for such a long time. Of course, I didnt really feel like part of the conflict, since this was something that had been going on for at least a year, and Id only been there for a month or so. The following week, however, the atmosphere was not the best and a lot of people were talking about leaving, mainly among the volunteers but also two of the permanent residents decided to leave the farm a few months earlier than they had originally planned. This time on the farm showed me how important it is to be honest with the people youre living with, although I think the people who it concerned should have spoken more between four eyes. This was lacking from one part. And how you have to commit yourself to the communitylife, which was lacking from the other part. Well, this is complex stuff, I wont go deeper into it here. I just want to say that you can learn so much from living together with other people.

During the last week on the farm I helped two new girls who are moving in a small house not far from the farm, but who are going to create their own business with theater, improvisation, dancing and so on. They are just renovating the house and so I helped them to paint big flowers of one of the walls inside, unfortunately I dont have any pictures, because my camera has gone nuts... Then on the friday it was time to say goodbye to everybody, its always a little sad to say goodbye to people you hold dear, but I think I have learned a lot about that during my time on the farm, because of the flow of people coming through there. So still I was very happy and peaceful inside, I feel that I can enjoy more the people I am with and theres no need to miss the ones that are not there.

One of the girls from the little house (not on the prairie, although a lot of american western films were shot in Andalusia - you can see the western towns from the motorway!!) drove me to Almeria and we went for some tapas together with three ex-volunteers who happened to be around. Then I caught the train to Madrid. Just in the beginning of my stay at the farm, I met a woman from Madrid who was doing a Biodanza course. Shes a german teacher so we were able to communicate really well (yes I had some problems to communicate in Spanish then), and she invited me to stay at hers when I was going to come to Madrid. Although it turned out she would be in Berlin with her students that weekend, so I could stay at her friends (Karin) instead. I had a really beatiful time staying in her flat, I had my own room and everything! We would always have really long breakfasts together before I went out to discover the city of Madrid and she had to study. Madrid is a nice city, very big and to my surprise there were big parts of it built in the 19th century (I would guess). Its full of huge (made to impress the viewer)buildings and monuments. After two days walking around without seeing any really modern big buildings or sky scrapers, I asked Karin where to find the modern parts of the city, and yes Madrid has got some of that too. I really enjoy discovering the contrasts of a city, Madrid has also got some really picturesque little streets and a huge beatutiful park, filled with people. On Sunday Anabel (my friend from the course on the farm) came back to Madrid and we cooked together at Karins flat. They are such nice people and its really interesting when you can communicate with people in different languages, because you see different parts of their personality coming through in different languages.

On the tuesday I went to Toledo just by chance, since a girl I had got to know on the metro a few days earlier asked me to go. Toledo is an old, small town 45 minutes drive south of Madrid. All sand coloured uniform houses and some real narrow picturesque lanes. If youre interested in different religions this is an interesting town, because its got some old arabic parts (used to be the capital when the arabic people controlled a big part of Spain), of course christian parts (including a huge cathedral we didnt enter because we decided weve seen so many churches before) and big part of the town used to be jewish with a really beautiful synagoge. It was definetely worth entering, I got to learn a lot about the history of the jews in Spain.

On Wednesday I caught the plane back, ever so happy. My mind filled with beautiful memories and experiences. Every day I liked Spain more! Im starting to feel at home with the people and to understand parts of the mentality, which is very different from the Swedish, in many ways more open and full of energy. Im definetely going back, there are some places I want to see more of, Granada for example. But for now Im going to enjoy the time in Uppsala.

Hasta luego!!

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