Barcelona, the city of the week....

I still have no idea what I'm going to be doing with my life next- or more to the point, "where". I spent a week in London where I renewed friendships with some of my favorite people in the world- whom I met in odd corners (Texas, Argentina and New Zealand). We drank, we laughed, we walked, talked, ate and generally made merry.

London's a swell town.

Yesterday I hopped a plane to Barcelona to renew ties with old friends here.

The events in Madrid last week were tremendous. My deepest sympathy and prayers go out to not only those who were injured or lost loved ones, but to the people who were affected by the tragedy. On Friday half of the entire population of Spain participated in peaceful protests and demonstrations. Black ribbons are everywhere to show sympathy and solidarity.

At the airport, one of the statues so proudly standing, had been covered in photocopies of black ribbons, letters, drawings and finally there were religious candles burning in a kind of shrine on one side with a guest book for people to write whatever they needed.

As a direct result of hiding the information that the attack was from Al Queda and not ETA, the popular party lost the elections which they were expected to win easily. The Socialist party is now in power. They won by a landslide. Quite frankly, the Spanish people blame Bush for what happened, and the popular party for supporting him.

On a different note...

It's a beautiful thing to be back. I'm already reconsidering if I really want to leave or not even for a short contract. Ok, truth is that if the couple of snafoos with the contracts get ironed out, then I'm going. It's a simple matter of money. C'est la vie. We all must pay homage sometime, and I'm not nearly as bitter about it as D.H. Lawrence was (see some of his poetry- he was quite nasty and outspoken in his bitterness about the God Money).

I got in last night and took a bus to Placa Catalunia, where I then walked down Las Ramblas to the puerto where my friend lives. Antonio, the doorman surprised me from behind and joked with me that I was late (they only had one person doing passport control for all the planes). I got there 2 and 1/2 hrs after my plane landed.

The smells, the smiles, the shape of the trees, the architecture and the tiles beneath my feet. I was happy to be home.

This morning I set off in search of personal items that I can't get anywhere else I've been. The contraceptive that I use (for those of you who have seen me without it, you'll be rejoicing to high heaven that I found it just before its effects ran out) is available here in some farmacias for about 2.55?. In the states, as a homeless jobless person on the lowest possible rate, I had to pay about $27 (with a job it was $57-$65).

In the first farmacia was a handsome young man who was lovely and baffled, but helpful. He did find it after consulting with every other person in the place, and then sold it to me. The next few farmacias didn't have it, but told me that even if they did, I would need a prescription from a doctor. Oh? Thank you.

In the last farmacia was an exquisite woman about my own age and she explained that they had it, but I would need a prescription. I thought about it for a second, asked if this was a new law? Then I pulled the first one out of my bag and showed it to her. She went and got the one she had and agreed to sell it to me.

Now that I had an "in", I asked if I could buy more. I explained that in my country it was very hard to get and in some places didn't exist, but I had been using it for 10 years. She was very sympathetic. She said that since it was a heavy hormone I couldn't buy lots, but if I say wanted...four, she felt that would be ok. I exclaimed, "?Perfecto!" because that would be enough for an entire year. She then sold me the first one and told me I could come back later for the other 4 :-) This makes a grand total of 6 (enough for 18 months).

I love this country.

Next stop is to find a mobile phone.