Ciao Barça, let me go…
Barcelona kept me for awhile. I couldn’t get to bed before 4 and I couldn’t leave the city. A few Quakers stayed on at Itaca hostel including Eszter from Hungary and Gunhild from Sweden.
So what’s the first thing you should do in this town? Gaudi and architecture can wait, go make friends with the Sikh community by visiting their Gurudwara (place to worship/eat) on C. de l’Hopital right off of la Rambla. My friend Kathryn is learning Punjabi so that she can be a professor of Persian studies. Our first afternoon she and I ate a yummy vegetarian meal at a place called simply “Organic” (their slogan “Organic is Orgasmic” made us leap through the door) and Kathryn spoke with our Pakistani waiter in Punjabi and Spanish. An hour later we left the restaraunt with stuffed bellies and set off around the corner to find the Gurudwara.
With a name like “Gurudwara” I expected a small palace and was surprised to find a run-down storefront instead, the gate was closed. Kathryn ran into the internet cafe next door and talked the owner into letting her into the Gurudwara. Not having a head covering, I hung around outside trying to fit in to the sketchy street in my tourist Teva’s and cargo pants. A group of Muslim men across the street were chuckling until one broke away to ask me “you a Christian waiting for your boyfriend in that place?” “No I’m waiting for my friend who is learning from the Sikh. I don’t have a head cover or I would be in there too.” He looked confused and walked back across the street as I stood awkwardly behind the gate. The Muslems and the Sikhs have a troubled history. I heard the Sikh version that day, in the 1700’s the Sikh were tortured by some Muslem’s prompting them to band together and become the strong community they are today. The Guru who Kathryn was speaking with finally saw me and gave me a bright orange head covering as I slipped my flip flops off and walked down a hallway on an old red carpet. I tried to follow their conversation in Spanish and Punjabi – in the end we were invited to see their important book which was covered and literally sleeping in a canopied bed. We were invited back for dinner later that evening. I will let Kathryn fill in the details on that. Dinner was incredible.
The last evening in Barcelona we met up with Eszter’s American friend Max. Actually he is the son of Eszter’s flatmate’s ex boyfriend’s current fiance. He will soon be traveling with an artist who installs arrows so beautiful that no one ever takes them down. Max, Eszter, Marcos from the hostel/Argentina and I walked through the city and behind the conteporary art museum to find a large deserted plaza with a stage, lighting, two drummers, one acoustic bass, and a dancer with large poles attached to her limbs with velcro. We sat outside with glasses of wine and watched the dancer’s shadow leap across the old buildings of the plaza to the band’s bizarre beat. After their rehersal the Parisian dancer invited us to play in the concert the next day and her drummer talked with us about how god is everything we do. How doing is god. He promised to visit Burlington and rolled himself a joint.
Yesterday evening I finally broke away from the Barça spell and found myself waiting for Euroline’s bus to Lyon with Paul, who turned up at the last minute looking like he’d been sleeping on the street since the Gathering (he had been and he’s my hero for it.) I love the openness of Spain but am SO happy to be back in a country were I can ask for directions in an actual language rather than pointing and grunting at a map.
Tags: Cộng Hòa Xã Hội Chủ Nghĩa Việt Nam, España, Laos, USA
Greta
Salut Greta! It has been so fun reading your updates..I miss you! It sounds like you have met so many great people and have done so many interesting things…I have some news for you..Jamie and I have knocked something off our fridge list…We bought an elliptical!!!! Well, we don’t have it yet, but the deal is sealed….:) Prends soins de toi en Lyon!!
Love, Skelly
Soooooo jealous!! Are you taking pictures so if we ever meet again, I will connect names to faces and events? Tr’es jaloux!!!! A bien tot, a amuse-toi bien en France!
Pictures are on the way. Elliptical, wow!
Qu’est-ce que tu fais en Suisse?!?!?!?! Ou es tu? A Lugano? Je suis dans la salle de classe. Ici a Chicago, il pleut et il fait froid. Bisoux.
greta!
your blog is update and provides excellent procrastination reading material! sounds like you are having quite the adventure! we miss you here in b-town especially at brookes ave. and yes, in a ploy to keep skel around an elliptical has been purchased 🙂
ok, keep the updates coming!
adios (thats the extent of my foreign language knowledge)
love- james
Greta,
This is thrilling; I find you are connecting for me your deep intersubjective love for the people and places you touch. Your ability to connect so quickly, to say Yes to each day, is just inspiring!
Thanks, as they say —
Ol’ Dad
(donating blood today at Red Cross)