La Cama

I could say la cama is the thing I've been most familiar with lately. I think the week of serious traveling and all of the new things to familiarize myself with in Spain finally caught up with me. The past couple days all I've been sleeping uncontrollably. Going to bed early and sleeping late. This morning I woke up at 6:30 and couldn't fall asleep. I was laying in bed and heard the sounds of people having sex. These apartments are SO close together. Luckily I fell asleep again.

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon (by afternoon I mean 5-8PM) at the cafe in the plaza outside our house. Laura's boyfriend, Sammy, works there. He doesn't charge us for anything we order and keeps brining us food and drinks. Coffee, lemon ice, papas, olives, gelato. We left feeling so full. Laura had been really helpful and gives me all kinds of advice about living here. She says I'm really lucky to be able to stay with Anna because she's a really good teacher/mama and her apartment is in the best location. As I live in the Barri Gótic longer I start to see it's kind of a bohemian area. There are so many hippie types and people with dreadlocks. And many genie pants. Lace-up sandals. Shops that look Moroccan or gypsy. But then one street over there are some chain stores. Two units down there's Calvin Klein. It's hard to imagine such an area of town like this in the US.

Anyway, so Laura and I are chatting and we see a line start to form outside the church next door to our house. It gets longer and longer until it's going past our front door. Sammy comes over and tells us it's for the Dalai Lama, who was in town. He'd given a talk at Montjuïc earlier in the day. We tried to get in, but tickets were required. Then we found out maybe it was just some of his monks that were going to sing. Either way, that's so cool!

This morning I woke up (late) and Laura came in to tell me they'd just finished filming a movie outside the apartment at the bar Sammy works at. He was an extra and had some lines. Apparently it was a Hollywood movie and he'd worked with one of the actresses. I wish I'd been able to see. This place does look like it's out of a movie.

Today is La Diada, to celebrate Cataluña. Most of the shops are closed so we've been hanging around inside most of the day. After lunch Anna started singing a song at the table, and it sounded just like a song I know by this Mexican singer I like. I got my computer and played it for her and she knew it! I ended up burning a Lila Downs mix for Anna and she loves it! We were all listening and dancing in the living room together.

Siempre que te pregunto
Que, cuándo, cómo y dónde
Tú siempre me respondes
Quizás, quizás, quizás

Y así pasan los días
Y yo, desesperando
Y tú, tú contestando
Quizás, quizás, quizás

Estás perdiendo el tiempo
Pensando, pensando
Por lo que más tú quieras
¿Hasta cuándo? ¿Hasta cuándo?

Everything is going well here, except I'm feeling slightly mental sometimes. At school I'm used to having a million things to do all the time and here I have almost no responsibilities. I have a placement test tomorrow, but that's it. I'm too free, in a sense. I kind of don't like it. I think I get depressed if I'm not busy. I want to feel productive. School starts Thursday, so maybe I'll begin to feel better. It's like...there is so much to see and do here, but I have so much time to do anything right now, I'm just being lazy and not taking advantage of what's in front of me. There are museums to go to, new parts of town to see, foods to try, people to meet and I'm just feeling tired all the time. It's like my mind and body are trying to shut down. As terrible and boring as it may be, I think I thrive on a routine. Plus, a lot of the people I initially met are living further away and I'm not seeing them at school, because there is no school yet. I'm just worried everyone else is going to meet Spaniards and make lots of friends and I'm going to be alone. And sometimes I miss home, er, rather my family and friends.