last nite @ c/ august font - by b

it's 11 pm or so here. for some unknown reason fireworks are shooting up from the center of the city. they are quite pretty and they are also very loud. its a bit foggy and i think it impacts how the sound and light both travel up to us on the mountain. dorian is fast asleep. arel is lying next to me trying to go to sleep. he has headphones on connected to the itunes on this computer... so every once in a while he asks to me to change songs or adjust the volume. kristin is on her computer. i can see the glow from behind her legs. maybe she's also writing a blog post also called "last night at c/ august font", karen is reading downstairs.. i'm trying to wind down and head to sleep. we leave for the airport at nine tomorrow morning... for a week in portugal with karen, nick, caio and senta (nick, caio and senta will meet us in portugal tomorrow evening). then we (kbad) will drive down to the south of spain for a few days before flying from malaga to london and then california for six weeks. packing up the house and packing for a trip like this has been a bit weird. it's kind of depressing in a way how much crap we managed to accumulate in just 10 months. mostly it's depressing to map out how much that adds up to over years and years.
we don't have a place yet to live when we come back here at the end of august. though we did make an offer on a place on friday and they accepted it. there is a good chance we will go for it (we are waiting on one or two more bits of data). if we take it it will be a very different livin arrangement from here. in the heart of the city. actually on the very street i imagined living on when i imagined living in barcelona. i will miss c/ august font --- even though i've complained about it a bunch. it has an incredible (really incredible) view of the city and the sea. and it is so peaceful being up on the mountain next to this huge, great park of collserolla. i will always remember this year as a very special one.. and where we lived as an important part of it.
catch u from portugal

comfort conversation - by b

kristin's sister karen arrived yesterday. and our friends ariege, john, stella and hugo left not too long ago --like a week or two. i really like the familiarity of people i have known for so long and am very comfortable with. i don't really realize it day to day when i don't have it --- but i when i have the chance to sit and talk with somebody so familiar, like karen, or ariege or john, i know that it is one of the things i miss about being here.

one thing i hate in spain by k

there are lots of little things that drive me crazy here...like anywhere. but there is one thing i hate...truly hate here! the love of firecrackers, and more than the love of them, the total acceptance that it is okay to light them day and night, anywhere and everywhere. i really and truly do not get it. throwing eggs or smashing a watermelon...that i can grasp on some level. but making a super loud noise and potentially blowing up your hand????

tonight is sant joan or san juan. i've asked several people what the day celebrates and they say the shortest night of the year. that doesn't exactly make sense to me because the 21st was the summer solstice...the longest day of the year, which i assume translates into the shortest night of the year. hummm.

anyway, sant joan is apparently all about setting off firecrackers and lighting bonfires and watching fireworks. there are stands selling firecrackers and fireworks set up all over the city in the most random places. people have been warming up for at least two weeks...there are random bangs day and night. dorian and i were walking home from the metro yesterday (victims of another unannounced bus strike!) and saw a group of teenage boys loitering around a bag of garbage. it took me a minute but then i realized they were looking for stuff to blow up! they had the courtesy to wait until we walked past, but then bam! dorian cried. i'm not looking forward to tonight!

i've been told that spanish parents dress their kids in long-sleeved shirts, long pants, gloves and put bandannas over their noses and mouths so they don't get burned or breathe in too much smoke. and this is supposed to be fun???

i can relax into the 3-hour lunch, i can roll with the bus strike (barely), i can take the fact that everything closes on sundays, but i just can't understand the firecrackers!

wish us luck tonight.

hot and balearic - by b

i have hardly seen kristin, arel and dorian this week. i was in london monday through tuesday night. and i left thursday morning for menorca (balearic islands) for a "conference" of the sort i've never actually been to before. there was no organized content except for one day when people introduced themselves, presented a problem they are having with their businesss with the idea of receiving advice from others here over the rest of the time. it's been really nice.. a chance to spend time with and get to know supersmart people. and the island is beautiful (and hot too). i'm heading back to barcelona in a couple of hours. i titled this blogpost as kind of a comment on kristin's last post. i too have been feeling hassled by our moving and not having a place, etc. but i know it's going to work out. lots of opportunities are just beginning to bloom, it feels. 

hot and bothered by k

it's hot! hot and humid with very little air moving this evening. it has been like this for a few days. part of me likes it...being able to wear a sundress and not have to worry about the fog rolling in. the fog and arctic wind i do not miss at all. but still, i'm hot and bothered because we leave barcelona in less than two weeks and we don't have a place to live when we come back at the end of august. we have looked and looked. we found a great house right near the school, but a french couple saw it first. i feel like we probably should have tried to stay in this place, even though we had our reasons for wanting to leave it behind. i'm sick of looking at apartments or hearing about a great place right next to school that costs 7,000 euros a month! and the most annoying thing about it is that we put ourselves in this position. it seems we have made things as difficult as possible!

school ends tomorrow and life goes on, housing or no housing. we're off soon to portugal with karen, nick, caio and senta. then to the south of spain and then back to san francisco until the end of august. time is moving very fast...