Invest in people who love you

Time is money, they say.  However, I will argue that time is more valuable than money because it is limited to an unknown amount.  Mysterious.  But seriously, we don't know how much time we have on this earth and we ought to spend our time wisely.  Also, there are emotions involved in time.  This might sound complex or like a third dimension but it is simply that you can feel good or bad, happy or sad when and/or after spending time doing something.  

Spend your time with people who love you.  Genuinely love you.  People who wish the best for you and want to see you smile.  People who think of you constantly and want you to be happy.  People who understand you or try.  Love isn't smothering another person or spending 24/7 with them, it's realizing that people need space and it's loving and respecting another person enough to give them that space.  But being close enough or available for you.  People who truly love you don't guilt trip you into hanging out with them because your love is a mutual one, they understand that you have things going on in your life and they do, too.  They also understand that you will reach out to them when you are able because you enjoy spending time with them.   

It might sound selfish but it's not.  It's self-preservation.  And just like your time, your self is limited and must be nurtured.  

Misunderstandings

It's amazing to me how relationships between humans work.  A human being's psyche is so complex but a relationship (mother/daughter, mother/son, boyfriend/girlfriend, friends, etc...) depends on the psyche of two people.  I watch daily, as people have relationships that do not work due to pride or misunderstandings.  How sad.  I am guilty of this, too.  My pride has gotten in the way of relationships in the past or my inability to empathize with the other half of the relationship.  Or my inability to explain myself.  It's not all up to one person, however.  When there is a misunderstanding between two people, one (the one who was misunderstood) must honestly explain themselves without getting mad and the other person has to be willing to listen and forgive.  Both require putting your pride aside and being honest, opening your heart a little bit and accepting that you might get hurt, the other person may run away or completely disagree with you.  Worse, they might say something hurtful to you or even worse yet, tell you that you hurt them.  Then there comes the feelings of guilt and shame and feeling bad, "how could I have said that?" "why did I say that?"  It's OK, you're human and you said it, but explain that you didn't mean it and when on the receiving end, trust that they didn't mean it, put yourself in the other person's shoes, be compassionate and understand that you, too have been there and done that.  It makes me think back to my sophomore year of high school, in Mr. Bussio's class when we read Nelle Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus says to Scout, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."  This piece of moral advice can be applied to many circumstances in life but in this scenario, I just urge that when you find yourself in a disagreement over a misunderstanding with a friend or loved one, to take a step back, step into his/her skin and walk around in it.  Try to experience what the other person is experiencing, why did they say this, what did they mean?  And accept at the end of the day that this person loves you and never meant to hurt you.  This is perhaps the most difficult of all and requires great strength, but give that to yourself. 

Hope Is The Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson

We all have those days when we feel sad or down.  It's not bad to feel that way, it's just a part of life, a duality so to speak - good and bad, day and night, light and dark, etc.  These exist naturally complimenting each other and therefore our emotions will not always be happy. The beautiful thing about having sad days is the memories with which you can cheer yourself up, or the friends you can call or a beautiful poem.  Also, being sad makes the happy times that much happier... 

This Emily Dickinson poem cheered me up today, nothing like a little hope.

Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

  

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Sip & Sea

Last night was the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sip & Sea Event.  A member's (and members' guests) event for the 21+.  The Aquarium was open after hours so that attendees could explore the exhibits, enjoy a drink and listen to live music.  I went with some friends and had a blast!  We enjoyed local beers and wines while admiring the jellyfish, fish, sharks, sea turtles, sea horses, otters, star fish, etc.  Did you know that sea horses dance while courting and before mating (see video)?

Jelly fish!

Sardines

Sandra, me and Shandy with a sea turtle in the background! (#MontereyBayAquarium)

The "Bang" outside the Aquarium

Barrio Bellavista y Los Dominicos

It's really not that cold but the Chileans are bundled up in all their winter gear, beanies, turtle neck sweaters, scarves, gloves, long parkas, boots.  It's winter, one must wear winter gear.

 

We got off the metro at Baquedano and made our way out to the street level through crowded metro tunnels.  Young girls were standing at the top of the stairs with styrofoam cups asking for change so that they could buy candy at the stand across the way.  There's a park that I recognize from the summer and I must take a photo of the pathway, both sides beautifully lined with trees, their leaves falling and street lights. 

 

Parque Forestral, Santiago de Chile

 

A woman in the backseat of a car stopped at a stoplight rolls down her window and poses, I shift the camera and snap her photo.  "De verdad?" (Seriously?) She shouts, a huge smile on her face. "Claro!, porque no?" (Of course, why not?) I call back. She asks where we're from and after I tell her she inquires as to if it's cold in California.  This is a very common question, you see the international synonym for California is Bay Watch. 

 

       

My Chilean friend posing for a picture

We cross the river, there's lots of cool (and politically loaded) graffiti on the sides of the river.  There are people with blankets on the ground selling things, socks, angry bird beanies, phone adaptors, you name it.  At the end of the bridge there is a couple making copper chains and selling sandwiches.  This is very common I have found in Chile, people walk around with tupperwares selling "soy hamburgers" or sandwiches.  We stop and watch them at work and introduce ourselves, they are Lauren and Leo a sweet couple who let me take their pictures.

 



Graffiti on the side of the river, Santiago de Chile



close up of graffiti





Sopaipillas, fried dough sold on the street, served with ketchup, and various salsas. 





copper chain being made and sold on the streets of Santiago





Lauren and Leo, making copper chains





We were looking to get to Cerro San Cristobal, a hill that prides views of the whole city and is home to a huge statue of the Virgen Mary. Walking up the street, we are stopped by tour companies, "HALLO!" We nod and thank them for the 657th time and continue on our way.  We reach a park that has an information booth and a castle with "FUNICULAR" written on it.  Bingo.  The funicular is a 5 car train that goes up about 250 meters to the top of the hill; it works on a pully, the train going down pulls the one coming up, and there's a section in the middle where the tracks split off for them to pass one another.  Brilliant! It was so cool! The funicular stops at the middle to drop passengers off at the Zoológico Nacional (National Zoo) and continues on its way.  The view from the top is breathtaking, there are snow-covered mountains to our right and the view of the city is spectacular.  

cute little gargoyle  things holding up a pillar at the funicular station in the Parque Municipal de Santiago

Awesome funicular track.  This is the section where the two cars, the one ascending and the one descending pass one another

squishy and his squishy friend (#Mags)

proud Chilean man :)

statue of the Virgin Mary at Cerro San Cristobol

cute couple at Cerro San Cristobol

candelabra at the base of the Virgen Mary Statue

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notes, photos, relics of thanks to the Virgen Mary that people leave at the statue after their prayers have been answered.  It seems that many people come here to pray to the Virgen Mary when they are having difficulty conceiving

I wind my way around the top of the hill and enter the small church.  It's empty except for a man who is cleaning the baptismal font near the altar.  He is using a small plastic cup and emptying the water into a larger bucket, one cupfull at a time.  I quietly make my way to the front of the church.  Upon closer look I notice that the man is cross-eyed; he wears jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt.  He works diligently and I try to make my observation of him discrete.  I kneel in the front pew to say a prayer and then go to light a candle, except there are no candles.  I ask the man where I can buy candles and he says at the gift shop but wait right there, I will bring you some.  He puts his tools down gently, unlocks a door and disappears behind the altar.  He returns a few minutes later with a bag of candles and a box of matches.  I thank him and light my candle; afterwards he tells me to leave hte candles and matches on the candelabra for the next person. 

Holy water in a big clam shell

Church at Cerro San Cristobol

The candle I lit for you

Super cool, palm tree in the foreground and snow-capped mountains in the background! 

pretty flowers

Me on the funicular ride back down to town

View from halfway up the hill

After getting down to the bottom of the hill, we wander the streets a bit.  There's a man selling gorgeous copper jewelry and we stop to admire his work and of course chat with him.  The most common gifts we see here are jewelry made of copper often with blue lapis stone.  Chile is the number 1 producer of copper in the world. Silver is also very common and so is a metal they refer to as "alpacca."  Alpacca, also known as "nickel silver," is a copper alloy with nickel and zinc.  The precious and semi-precious stones are also very common.  Anyway, the man was very friendly and pulled out a binder with photos of himself with various famous people and models.  He explained to us that his expertise is metal clothing.  Well, clothing is a stretch, I should say metal wear - bikinis and lingerie made in the style of chainmail.  He said he is one of two people in Chile that does this type of work and that his prices are cheaper because he doesn't have any overhead costs, he sells off the street.   Before we left I asked if he could recommend a place for us to have lunch and he pointed us to La Venezia, the oldest restaurant in this neighborhood, he boasted.  Chile is like the U.S. in that as a nation, it is very young.  Obviously there have been people living in the land that is now the nation of Chile (i.e. the Mapucha or Altacamena) but as the country we know it, it is new.  So this restaurant is from 1930.  Hehe. 

La Venezia is a mom and pop kind of place.  You walk in and seat yourself, the tablecloths are that thin red and white plastic, there's momma sitting behind a cash register and everyone is happily eating.  We sit down and are handed menus and also a food-stained piece of paper with the days specials written on it by hand.  The waiter runs off to attend to other people and comes back with a pen and crosses out some of the daily specials.  We order and the waiter comes back quickly with bread, butter, a tomato salsa (served here with bread, pre-meal) and our drinks.  They do not serve wine by the glass so I ordered a half bottle of wine and figured I would take what I could not finish home.  Our food arrives and we are taken back by the generous portions.  I ordered albacore and it's topped with butter and smoked pepper powder.  Two men walk in and one of them looks over at my plate and says yum, what's that.  I tell him and he asks where I'm from and we start to chat.  Halfway into my meal I offer my new friend, Juan, a glass of wine.  He says no thank you although he really wants some, but he has a meeting at four.  "It's just one glass," I insist and he quickly concedes. He makes a toast to our safe travels and reminds me that one must look in the eyes of their drinking companion when toasting.  You hear this in many cultures, the French say that you have seven years of bad luck in  bed if you don't, I've heard others say that it's simply bad luck to not.  I think it's just polite to look in someone's eyes but I have a further explanation.  I've heard two reasons for why people touch their glasses when they make a toast.  The first is that when you drink, you are invoking 4 of the 5 sense, touch, smell, taste and sight but sound is missing, so when you hit glasses, you are now making the act of drinking involve all five senses.  The other explanation I have heard is that back in the day, kings would often poison their enemy's drink over a meal by slipping the (poisonous) contents of their ring into their dining companion's (read: enemy's) drink.  The "guest"  of the king would then clink his glass to the king's and make sure some of his drink spilled into the king's; if the king drank it the guest was safe.  When you look into someone's eyes you are holding them accountable on a nonverbal level.  I have gone off on a tangent, so please excuse me. 

La Venezia en barrio Bellavista, Santiago de Chile (La Venezia restaurant in Bellavista neighborhood/district, Santiago, Chile)

Albacore

nifty way to pour lemon juice, slits in a cork (Papa B will love this!)

 

Let your mind dance with your body

It had just stopped raining when I stepped out for my walk, but you couldn't tell the difference, the fog was so thick it was like walking through a cold steam room.  Glorious.  On my walk, I was reflecting on the book I am reading, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  The novel tells the story of a girl, Victoria, who has lived in foster homes for her entire childhood.  It goes back and forth, alternating chapters of her present, adult life (age 18) and her childhood between group homes and foster homes, etc.  In the part about her childhood, we learn that at one point she lived with a woman who was versed on the language of flowers, the old Victorian way for lovers to communicate by sending each other flowers, each one having a meaning.  It is one of the only things young Victoria is interested in. (For example, the yellow carnation means rejection, disdain or "You have disappointed me," while the daisy symbolizes innocence, loyal love, purity or faith.  You can see how lovers would communicate sending these flowers - fresh, pressed or drawings of them, back and forth to one another.) Thus far, Victoria is incapable of having relationships, including friendships.  She has been so betrayed, damaged, hurt that she is unwilling to let anyone in.  I got to thinking about relationships.  I cringed at the internal wounds of ruined friendships or relationships.  We all have those people in our lives with whom we simply cannot communicate effectively.  Our words are misunderstood, we misunderstand theirs, we were young, unaware of our actions, etc.

My melancholy thoughts were dismissed by the song of the birds, beckoning the sun to rise - the sun I will not see behind the thick, drippy marine layer.  I sighed and took in my surroundings.  A bunny scampered across the path and I sped up to catch a glimpse of her/him.  The air smelled acidic, which is characteristic of the shrubbery growing down by the ocean, and although I do not particularly like the smell, I love what the smell is associated with - the beauty of the ocean and countless memories of running along the boardwalk.    Each footstep on the sandy path uncovered an oval of dry sand.  I noticed that I was not alone as there were hoof prints as well; the deer graze just off the path but know no such path. The ocean was calm, deep grey, which was the perfect contrast to the not-so-white sky.  I kept on my way, smiling at a bench that had been built into the fence of a person's home.  It was flanked on either side with rosemary - the deep green speckled with its characteristic light purple flowers, rosemary - remembrance.  How appropriate.  

Beautiful

I was talking to a dear friend on the phone.  Upon inquired about her life and how she is doing, she joyfully said "Sally, I'm so happy.  I'm in love."  She let out a sigh/giggle and said "you know, being in love makes your good days even better, and your bad days not so bad."

How beautiful!

I wish that for everybody.  

Tour of the BBC

We came back to London from Kettering on the train.  There were lots of kids riding the East Midlands train  home from school which just blew my mind!  I grew up in a small town and to think that these kids are riding public transport to go to school at such a young age was so unusual to me!  I'm sure kids in SF, NY, etc. do it all the time but not kids from PG.  

It was awful on the tube getting to our hotel during rush hour.  We are only traveling with backpacks and mine makes me 3x as wide as I normally am so I turn around and push people or knock them over and it's rather embarrassing and I get lots of looks.  Anyways, we made it to our hotel, checked in, dropped off our stuff and RAN to meet up with my friend.  

My friend works at the BBC and offered to take us on a tour!  How cool!  

We met my friend and got visitor passes, (which now resides in my trusty journal) and went up to the different floors to see all the different sections, or departments of the BBC.  It's amazing, it felt so, happening.  Like everything that is happening in the world is being covered there.  There were so many languages being spoken.  It was also super cool to see how people's looks changed when you went to the different language regions.  We got to go into BBC Arabic and they were just getting ready to go on air, make-up-ing the reporter.  The teleprompter was even in Arabic!  

The building has cutting edge technology, which you would imagine for the BBC.  There are booth-style tables kind of set apart from all the work stations for people to go and talk and have a little bit of peace, as you approach the tables, the lights turn on via a sensor mechanism and depending on the language that that table is dedicated to, there is a background photo of a city in a country which that language is spoken.  

My friend told us that it gets pretty loud there, too.  Reporters are calling people all over the world to do interviews and maybe the country they are calling has a bad connection so they are shouting and the person next to them then has to shout too to hear her/his interviewee on the other end of the line in say, Timbuktu, this results in a very loud building which I imagine to be multilingual shouting.  I think it would be rather chaotic but in the best possible way.    

the new addition to the BBC building 

the BBC!

view from the BBC building, overlooking Regents st., All Souls church and at the end is Oxford Circus tube stop

Recording studio for radio shows 

a picture of Jerusalem at the BBC building in London

Switchboards 

After our tour, my friend took us to Samarqand restaurant for Uzbeki food (they served some Russian and Georgian food, too).  It was lovely.  Afterwards we walked around the chilly evening streets of London and had ice cream, the perfect end to a perfect day.  

Moonrise Kingdom

I just got back from seeing Moonrise Kingdom at the Osio Cinemas and it was awesome. Just charming and innocent. It made me feel like a kid again which is a delightful feeling. 

It takes place on an island off the coast of New England in 1966 and is about two kids who are "troubled" or misunderstood and plot to run away together.  Sam (Jared Gilman) is a "khaki scout" and orphan who has been going from one unsuccessful foster home to the next and Suzy (Kara Hayward) is the daughter of these two work obsessed lawyers who are having a tough time with their blossoming, outrageous nerd of a daughter.  The interaction between the kids is genuine, so honest.  Dramatic, as kids are, you can really remember the days when you were just so passionate about something that it just consumed your everything.  (Some of us are still that way but it is considered a juvenile trait.)  It was also nice to see Bill Murray, who played Suzy's father and Bruce Willis, the island cop, in these awkward, sepia-tone roles.  

A really cool thing about the movie is that it opened with clips from the 1946 movie Instruments of the Orchestra which features The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, a musical composition by the British composer, Benjamin Britten.  In my research after seeing Moonrise Kingdom, I actually learned that Benjamin Britten wrote quite a bit of music for children and young performers.  Very fitting for the movie. I appreciated the musical selection for the film, it fit very well.  

The filming was done very appropriately for the plot.  The way the camera moved was like a child's attention span and focus, I found that to really accentuate the young theme and atmosphere of the movie. The way the camera person moves through the house or follows the characters is how a child would, focusing on random, interesting things and skimming over the boring adult stuff. 

And the guy narrating (Bob Balaban) is awesome with his glasses, red coat and monotone voice. 

The little kitten in the basket was also the cutest thing.

Overall, I recommend you see this movie, it's fun.  

Float on

on the Jordanian side, looking out at Israel

I went to the Dead Sea today.  What an experience!

I went down with some friends, a friend of a friend is a Swedish diplomat and was here, in Amman, for my cousin's wedding, he had a conference at a hotel on the Dead Sea and so we hitched a ride with him.  We purchased day passes and slowly made our way down to the pool.  We found one pool, chock full of children and so we decided to keep going.  We found another pool, much smaller but with a view of the Sea (see above) we got pool chairs set up and laid in the 44˚C (~114˚F) heat.  It felt amazing.  Dry and healing.

We took a swim in the pool, had some lunch and eventually made our way down to the dead sea.  I walked down the wooden dock, slipped my flip flops off and walked into the water.  The wood was slippery from all the salt.  I got in the water, expecting it to be really hot, but it was actually quite cool, about 24˚C (~75˚F).  Well, cool compared to the climate.  I immersed myself in the water and it felt as if there was a slimy layer of oil all over my body.  The water is so salty that you float!  Actually it is the deepest hypersaline lake in the world (thank you, wikipedia) with some 34% salinity.  I couldn't really get in the water, my body bobbed to the surface.  What a feeling! What an unusual sensation.  I didn't put my head in as I had heard about the water burning your eyes and face and I could even feel my mosquito bites burning from the salt and minerals.  I floated around rolling from my back to my stomach in the water.  We took turns photographing each other and after about ten minutes had had enough.  We rinsed off with fresh water, how refreshing, and made it back to lounge by the pool.  We did this for a couple more hours, taking dips in the pool to cool off, then dozing off in the shade of an umbrella, peering out towards Israel.

We eventually went back to the sea front.  We covered our bodies in mud from the dead sea, which is said to be full of minerals and great for the skin.  We covered our bodies and faces, scrubbing the black mud onto our skin.  We let it sit for some time and then floated in the water.  I have more pictures but there were taken with a friend's camera, as soon as I receive them, I'll post them so you can see the spectacle.

After rinsing off again, we laid around some more, swam a bit more, drank plenty of water and finally decided it was time to go.  Actually, the decision was made for us as one member of our party had to be at the airport to go home to London.

Our driver picked us up in the lobby and we drove to the airport, up, up, up, with our ears popping, you see the Dead Sea is the lowest elevation point on earth at 377m (1237 ft) below sea level (again, wikipedia works wonders). 

Not the best quality, but this is the sunset from the car + palm tree and in the foreground, we have the eye that wards off the evil eye...that's for another post.

Il Vecchio

Yesterday evening I had dinner at Il Vecchio, an Italian restaurant in Pacific Grove. It was awesome!

This restaurant has been open for 6 months and what success it has had! It is quite unique in that it was built and decorated by a young artist, native to the area, who now lives in New York. Her work is incredible, see her blog for more on her, her work, etc. She brought wood from NY and everywhere in between there and here and built the restaurant by hand! She made the tables, the bar, the everything and what a beautiful work of art it is! You must check it out.

In addition to the beauty of the place, the food is excellent, the people are incredibly friendly, and the ambiance is just right. The lights are just the perfect dimness. (Is that a word?) The wood gives it a warmth, a homey feeling, so that you feel like you're in a friend's cottage, not a restaurant. It is notable to mention that there are plenty of vegetarian options, gluten free options AND the pasta and gnocchi is made fresh daily! I could sit here and lengthily describe my dining experience to you, we all know I can talk, but I really think you should to go experience it yourself, as all things in life. The drinks are very reasonably priced and so is the food!

Tiramisu, I don't normally do dessert, I was simply being polite (wink wink)

Sea of Change

Yesterday a friend and I attended the TEDx conference "Sea of Change." For those of you unfamiliar with TED, it stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. Their catchphrase is "Ideas worth spreading," and you would be proud to know that they started out hosting their conferences at Asilomar Conference Grounds in 1984!

Basically what it is is experts or experienced people in a specific field, coming together to talk about that field/subject matter. For example, yesterday was Sea of Change, there were all sorts of people who had a personal or professional relationship with the Ocean. We heard from marine biologists, ecologists, students, environmentalists, naturalists, business owners, a fisherman, and even a woman who swam the Catalina Island Channel, English Channel, Bering Strait, the Cook Strait in New Zealand, Straits of Magellan in Chile and the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, among others. Oh, I would also like to mention that she swam the English Channel and broke both the women's and men's records at the age of 15!

It was so inspirational and beautiful. The fact that people get together to talk about what they do, what they are passionate about and what they see for the future. It is brilliant. If you ever get the chance to attend one of these events, do it! Or! You can even host a TEDx conference. Check out their website for more information and/or to watch a number of talks from previous events.

Keep thinking...keep spreading your ideas people, this is wonderful, this is what brings out innovation in our world. This is how we move forward, effectively and positively as a society and as a culture.

Sunday Excursion

Last year when I lived here, almost every Saturday morning, we would get together, our group, Sally y los intocables (Sally and the untouchables), to go for a hike and then have lunch. The schedule was, meet up somewhere, or rather, they pick me up in my apartment in the city and we drive somewhere on the outskirts of town, in the mountains, to Portugal, we would have a coffee at a café and maybe a cookie or something, we would find a restaurant and tell them that we would be back for lunch, sort of making a reservation and then hike for some hours and come back to said restaurant, have a huge meal, and then maybe walk some more in the afternoon, go to some monumental site in Galicia, have another coffee or soda or tea and then come back home.

Now that I´m back for a visit, the group got back together. They picked me up at the hot springs that are along the river Minño, I was there having a dip with my Spanish mom and her friend. We went to a different river, and now to be totally honest, I don´t remember exactly which. It was SUPER hot, unbelievable. And dry. This is very unusual for Galicia. We walked along the river and went for a little swim, it was very very cold but very very worth it. It made my heart skip a beat...or two, but how amazing, to feel so alive, to feel, period.

Typical bridge in Galicia

We saw some people fishing and bees were buzzing everywhere, it was beautiful.

We made our way back to the car and drove to a restaurant nearby at which had made reservations. On the way we stopped in search of a bar to have an apperative, we didn´t find anything open but we did find a beautiful church from 15th-18th century.

Statue in front of the church, also typical style of Galicia

We waited for some friends who were meeting up with us. We sat on the patio, in the sun and had a beer. A San Miguel Especial, which was delicious. It was darker than the normal San Miguel, and awesome. We had lunch. A mussle filled empanada made with a corn flour, rather than the typical wheat flour, red bell peppers filled with scallops and cod croquetas, croquetas are balls of any type of meat or fish, breaded and fried. For my entreé I had grilled hake with boiled potatoes and a little salad. The others had various cuts of pork or different fish. The bread was wonderful, like always, soft and hearty. Of course we had wine, a red Ribeira, Ribeira is a region of Spain known for its wine. After lunch, I was so full I couldn´t even have dessert...I know, I know, me, no dessert!

View from the restaurant

Afterwards, we went for another little walk along a different river. We took another swim in the water. Again, freezing but worth it. There was a lookout to a waterfall, on a big old rock, which was quite comfortable for my nap.

We finished our walk in the little village where we had parked the car, see photos below for images from the village, a church and the alleys. In the village there was one café. We stopped in to have a soda. There were old men playing cards at a table in the shade outside. Inside there were more old men playing a different game of cards. The café sold all types of things, toothbrushes, oranges, milk, and drinks, food, etc. We sat on the stairs of the neighboring house and watched three little boys jump on a mattress that had been left out as garbage. It was an 8 year old boys dream come true.

We then went to Castro de San Cibran de Las. A castro is the ruins of an old settlement. These castros were strategically made on the top of a mountain for defensive purposes. It was incredible, it is said to be from the 5th and 6th centuries B.C. See images below.

Lastly, I leave you with art. Below is an image of a rock along the river that was carved by someone. I can´t quite tell what it is of though....

;-)

Sipping Chocolate

It's safe to say that all of my good friends are those with whom I can enjoy a good meal. I don't mean good as in the size of the meal. I mean good as in the quality of the food, the time savored in appreciating it, the location of the meal, the conversation we share, you surely see where I'm going with this.

I just returned from my auntie's house. It was a really windy afternoon and I was irritated because I was cold and because I have done something to my ankle, and I cannot run or walk in high heels properly. You understand my frustration. I went over to her house because she called me saying she had something for me, not that I need an excuse to visit her. She was telling me a story and I interrupted her to request her famous sipping chocolate. Hopefully if you're reading this, you have experienced this drink or can interrupt me at some point and request that I make it for you. We bundled up, hopped in the car and ran to the local market to purchase half and half. We came back home and sat in the kitchen, chatting away as she whisked up one of her many specialties. It's half and half, solid chocolate (56%), coarse salt and a dash of vanilla. Served in thin, porcelain demitasse cups makes for an elegant affair. We curled up on the couch and sipped our food of the Goddesses accompanied by Spanish polverones (fine, Spanish, cinnamon, almond cookies). We talked and talked. Ranted and raved. The usual.

I remember the first thing I said when I took a sip, as I held the delicate cup about an inch away from my face so that I could still enjoy the olfactory part of the experience, was "I feel bad for people who don't ever do this."

I don't feel bad for them that they can't do it, but rather that they don't take the time to. I guess some people don't prioritize this kind of stuff and that's okay. I don't prioritize having fancy cars very high on my list of life ambitions, well I don't think having a fancy car is even on my list of ambitions. I don't prioritize having tons of money either, but I digress. I enjoy drinking extremely rich chocolate and talking with a person I love. And I hope you have something simple that you can do in your regular life that gives you great pleasure, that you don't feel guilty about, that is uninterrupted and enjoyed with every part of your being. I wish that for you, and for everybody.