Granada part 2 part 2

Walking up to Bea's cave at night.



Bea is actually hyper beautiful, much more than mentioned by these pictures.



And --walking down from Bea's cave in the morning! I am wearing her dress: notice what the little man in the traffic sign is wearing.



This is why we would walk down the mountain:



Down down down.



Bless Granada.

granada pt. 2 pt. 1



So firstly, yah, we couldn't escape La Alhambra this trip. We couldn't get in it, either, but that's just so typical of omnipresences. Cuz Bea's cave home was up a mountain from whence the Alhambra was just always There. Plus if you go to Granada the Alhambra IS always there, in the good dark beer and in what people ask you about and in the heartz and soulz. So here, we got into the gardens, check it:



But most importantly we got around it.



You should wikipedia the Alhambra, man.

When Sam was here, man.



We lived the good life.



Thanks to Angie's little hiding head for photos.

They don't sell white eggs here.



So I used beet juice and old wine to dye some brown eggs murky.



Then I dropped them. That was an accident.



They're very tender and lovely inside. But are they easter?

Sam's life in Uganda:

"My average day:
1. I eat bread and coffee
2. Walk up and down hills to Buiga sunrise
3. Perform tasks like poster making, class teaching, handywork, etc
4. Help teach computer class
5. Eat beans and posha (Posha is maize mash)
6. More tasks
7. Maybe play volleyball with friends
8. Long walk home
9. Help in making fire pit by starting a fire in the designated area
10. Make dinner or buy dinner and Senator beer with Adibo (the security gaurd)
11. Sleep
12. Other things include washing dishes, taking malaria pills,
showering (Bucket of water), etc."

Just treasure the stuff they make us. Aida from second grade presented me with this pop-up card last week. Outside it says PARA SOUFi (for Sophie) and her name, and inside it says ¡PARA TI! (for you!) and there is a pop-up blonde crosseyed queen with heart cheeks. Ooh! I think it's me!

Dani, 3rd grade's "bad boy" (cute glam shorthand for "unparented neglected and probably hit kid with lots of aggression and no attention span") (who I think has made a lot of progress this year, what with special tutoring etc., and the first time he raised his hand to answer a question I nearly cried, and since then he has paid more and more attention in class, although his contributions are usually shouted word-associations)(also he has a rattail and laughs "ha-ha" like the simpson's bully) drew me a picture.

Pictured: two blue clouds snowing on a centerpage mountain with a brown peak. A sun shies away from the clouds, openmouthed. The mountain says "R" (scribbled out) (ha, was it originally for the other teacher's assistant? Her name starts with "R") and "Para Soufi." Spongebob stands front and center, proffering hugs. To the right, in a sheer skirt and either yellow boots with striped tops or green pants with striped bottoms, I am climbing the mountain.



Do you remember how long it took to draw those "snow" pictures when you were in school? I remember the snowflakes getting bigger and bigger as I went along. Dani's are pretty even, but they don't reach the bottom of the page.

Also, can you tell? Spongebob's legs were erased and redrawn. My striped cuffs are six-tone. Kid worked on this. He put it on the teacher's desk as soon as he got in (tardy) and spent about half the class trying to signal that it was for me, then that I should open it. (Dani is about the only student in the school who hasn't figured out that I understand Spanish). After class I squatted by his desk and opened it, and he hid his face. Waaaaaaaah.

Waaaaah.

(Also it's funny that in all of 3rd grade it's the two most difficult students, I mean the two I have actually yelled at, who have drawn me pictures) (And who both think I am named Soufi).

She came! And noticed things I'd never, like how the Madrid gov is hip to graywater and doesn't waste freshwater on it's public lawns nor streets. I'd only ever whined about how wastefully often the streets in the center are hosed down.

And noticed, on her own, things I had once noticed, but since forgotten. Like the extraordinary giant in the Cathedral of Toledo. When I went to the Cathedral, as a student, I had thought the giant mural represented Goliath (he being the only biblical huge guy I knew of) (is the respectful term for giants "big people"?) but was laughed at by a friend from these parts, who explained that the dude was lucky, a Saint whose image conferred blessings, and therefore was often represented out of scale for extravisibility. The internet just says it's Saint Christopher; apparently he was very big. Who knows!

There's old Cristobal. I think he's especially striking in person because HIS person is the entirety of the fresco. No background, yknow?

Ms. Aunt Darling also enjoyed and photographed many of my favorite places and people in Madrid, luckily for both of us:



The Reina Sofía extension entrance.



A charming fachada near my neighbourhood.



My Swedes, at their goodbye party, in a beautiful ancient bar.


Post-prandial silliness with my housemates.


And the same with Lolin! Who, along with all my friends/Spain, was very taken with my beautiful aunt.

Explaining "As much use as a chocolate fireguard" to an adult student:

"So a fireguard is a little iron wall, and you put it in front of the fire for safety. So the children can't get near."

-"Aaah, yes, I know.

"So, how useful is a chocolate fireguard?"

-"Not useful!"

"Good! And why not?" (I want to see if he knows the word "melt.")

-"It is not useful! The children will eat it!"

Oh.

Everyone should just make art their friends like.

Cuz no matter how special one's friends are, there are still tons of people like them.

These are my poem a day poems.

Every Day

There will be more.

Every day there will be more.

Color Party!
In an effort to peel off our winter crusts (because scabbing hides infection) we threw a color party in our flat. The theme was color both in defiance of winter and to encourage our guests to wear something other than slimming black. It didn't really work:



But I guess super beautiful people have flower faces anyway. See my housemates, Ivan and Elodie and Ewan, flanked by Gonzalo and Patri:



Elodie and I made colorful food. Some of it also tasted good.



I guess it was a good party. Our couch got moved. This is Rosanil who uses her excellent English to call me "little fellow."



Unfortunately I fell asleep with a headache a sore throat and jetlag early on, on a pile of coats.

Then Hannah came! We ate. She should live here.

Secret surprise!



Beginning: Mary Kate cut my hair! So see here's how it went down: I was shaggy, so shaggy. Then! It was the first day of school. So! I hopped on a bus and went to school, and there were maybe three teachers and six students and no coffee and it turned out the governor had decided that due to snow (snap out of it, europe) classes were canceled BUT schools were not closed. Yep: all schools must open, but no teaching allowed. So! I and the other auxiliar de conversación were sent home (we took cookies from the teachers lounge to make up for the 7 euro transportation costs) (not that we won't be paid for that day) while some of the other teachers who had not listened to the radio that morning stayed and watched the stranded kids whose parents had also not listened to the radio that morning.

End: So! That's why my hair is different.

okay Middle: Sooo I called Mary Kate, who also works for a snowstruck public school, and with sweets and coffee manipulated her into spending oh maybe an hour slivering my hair off. Mary Kate, as the Spanish say: muak muak muak.

Ah.



It's snowing.

Fifth grade ran out of steam today and the teacher declared a game of hangman. Fifth grade is tricky, partly because only three of the 20 students are girls, and partly because the bilingual program only came to the school two years ago. Because they didn't have the advantage of starting young, fifth is struggling with more or less the same lessons as the third graders: past, present, future, and whatever vocabulary their science book demands (jungle animals, currently).

Hangman is fun, though. A boy spaced this phrase on the blackboard:

"- - - - - - - - - - - -"

"A" someone said (yelled).

" - - A - - - - - - A - -"

One of the three girls shot a hand up. "Yes, I know, it is Play Football!" she said. Correct. Everyone laughed. Football=soccer, remember...all the kids are obsessed. "It's so easy to know what boys are thinking about" she said in Spanish as she spaced her word on the board. A long word:

"- - - - - - - - - -"

They still don't know how to guess. Instead of starting with vowels they choose the obscure consonants. The first correct guess, with half the man hanged, was "C"

"C - - C - - - - -"

"Crocodile!" said (yelled) one boy. Correct. "It's so easy to know what girls are thinking about."

Papa said photos, put up photos. So! While I wait for photos of Lisboa from Hannah, and photos of floor-mosaicking from Rocío, and photos of last summer from Elen...let's look at pictures of music.

Did I even mention how nice my single day back in Berlin and reunion with Heiko was? It was about as pleasant as something exciting can be. We just mainly were near guitars. I sang along with Heiko at somebody's birthday party and at this concert here at a patio bar/gallery:



We are in a box. The door is supposed to be closed, the musicians only visible by screen and peephole, but since all the kids at the event were playing inside when it was time for Heiko to perform we let them stay. They played all the instruments I had been nervous about having to play while Heiko sang his songs, and then we all sang "Beat it" and it was REALLY FUN only we were all yelling and one littler girl started to cry. Which is why we put children, generally, in cradles and parks and not in boom boxes.

Onward! In November I met these lovely Swedish ukulelists, and because they are tall and beautiful and like Beirut and the Magnetic Fields I took them to Eszenas, that flamenco/tea/hippie/unlicensed place I always talk about.



They are Martin and Inti, and for this month we are in a band called The Autism. We hope the name does not sound mean, it is meant in homage.



So this is what some people look like these days!

La EKKA is hosting a Free Market this Sunday. Baskets and buckets and barrels of free clothing, free coffee, art for to freely view music to freely hear.

Also Juliana will be doing her truly funny SCUM Manifesto one-woman show. ¡Julí!




I am to play the ukulele and lose my voice and forget things.



The picture is NOT retouched. It is lit up cuz the natch light was weak. It has nothing to do with I cannot balance a ukulele on my head and look pretty simultaneously.

Propaganda




In what sort of mood was I yesterday? The absolute best possible thing was Constructivism.