deu, guapo!

I am in Spain now, wishing wishing that I spoke even a little Spanish or Catalan, or that my French was less broken. I am in Girona, in Catalunya, staying with the wonderful Elsa and her flatmates. They laugh and eat and drink and ply me with food and cocktails and make me feel welcome despite our not understanding each other too well most of the time. They have a beautiful apartment looking out onto a statue of a lion and over the city, and a jazz bar with dark recesses for sinking into and pictures of Billie Holiday above the bathroom, and a fluffy white ferocious cat named Floc. They are writers and feminists and spending time with them makes me feel like the world is a place full of endlessly interesting people. Spain is a late to bed late to rise kinda place, and I was the earliest to go to bed last night at half past 3 - it´s a different way of living for sure!

Ireland was great. It feels lifetimes ago already, maybe because of the days, getting darker faster, or because of the warmth of Spain. I had a delightful car ride from Dublin to Cork with Paddy, who I hope I stay in touch with - he is great, so engaged and engaging! I don´t think we were quiet for even a second of the ride, and now I see fishermen in a whole new light (he is doing his PhD on fisherman identity in Ireland), and have someone else to talk to about ethnography and the ups and downs of the institution, Deleuze and Guattari and Foucault. And then I met Claudia, and we ate flaky pastries and pizza in hostel stairwells, drank Beamish and visited bookshops, of which Cork has many. And then we went back to Camphill Kyle, where I wish I could have spent longer. Camphills are sort of Rudolph Steiner-y self-sustaining communities for developmentally disabled adults. I didn´t get to be there for nearly long enough, but all of the coworkers and the villagers are incredibly sweet and kind, and it seems like a good (if intense) place to live and work. And it goes without saying that the Irish countryside is drop dead gorgeous, with Green everywhere. Tonight I still am staying with Elsa, and then tomorrow off to Barcelona, for to explore, love-dazed by Gaudi, as I do there.

more soon
xxx
s