St Jordi

St Jordi's Day (St George's Day) in the distance always feel very strange. To me, it is one of the more magical days in Catalonia, with roses and books, Spring in full bloom and, usually, accompanied with good weather (or that is how I always remember it). When you are away, you cannot see the flower and book stalls, people on the streets, with roses in their hands, couples meeting, the smell of the air, the particular light of that day, all that. Far away, it is not a special day for people around you, but it is still for you. And I always did something on this day if I could.


Today, after days of rain and clouds, we had a very sunny day, a blue sky with white clouds, and warm, as it should be. Perfect to remind me what day it was, even on the far end of Asia.

And yes, I could find a red rose, small but very pretty, to give to a beautiful girl.

Reading again

I was going over my e-mail last Sunday when, for some reason I cannot remember, I started reading again, for a good while, messages from my family of the weeks before and after coming to Taiwan. It was not planned, I just found myself doing it; but it was interesting. To remember funny or good sentences of one or the other; or when they told me about the latest deed of the little one or how she was beginning to do her own things; insightful exchanges between my brothers; flat-out rants over any subject that inevitably made laugh, etc. I spent a long while laughing and smiling.

I also realized, reading what I had written, how much things change from the beginning and comparing to months later. There is a lot of uncertainty during the first days, everything is new, the personal mood is very variable. Little things sink you, others lift you up. A few months later, all is much more stable and you begin forgetting those feelings, and think that they never happened. The new reading of those messages helps me to see, as if I needed that, how well I feel right now.

Street View

It is apparently one of the biggest news right now. Google put on-line the street view pictures of Barcelona and Valencia. It is a funny thing seen from the distance. I spent quite a while last Tuesday or Wednesday taking a look at it. I had done the same thing months ago with the pictures of Columbus and it is an interesting exercise. It can be a way to prove to yourself that you still remember how things are there, and you also have the chance to see if there is anything new: that building that was not finished when you left, how that street has changed in two or three years, etc. I think that the pictures of Barcelona are from last spring, but I have seen some things I did not know (or remembered the latest changes before I left).

Then you have the stories about people you know. I looked at the balconies of my family to see what was there. Not much, lowered blinds and hanging clothes, but I think I can see the building caretaker at the front door of my building. And the other day, a friend sent us the coordinates of his position: helping the economy in the terrace of a bar.

In short, if one day you fancy it, or maybe you really need it, you can just move the little yellow man along the blue streets of Google Maps and take a stroll down memory lane.

Places you will never see again

These internet communications work in a very funny way. At small bursts. These last three or four days, I have been able to talk, through e-mail or some kind of chat, with several people I first met or found again in the US. I had not heard from them for several weeks, or months in some cases, and now all at the same time. It is always good to be updated on each others' lives and getting the latest news.

Maybe that is why I remembered a thought that crossed my mind a couple of weeks ago, and then I thought that it was coming really early. Put in a simple way: there comes a day, when you are like me in a faraway place from which you know you will leave relatively soon, that you look around, to the places that you walk by almost every day, and realize that you will leave one day and you will probably never see them again. Then, I usually feel a mix of nostalgia (of the future) and disbelief at the possibility of such a thing like that ever happening. I began having that feeling in Columbus maybe six or seven months before my stay would finish, that is why I was so surprised of thinking about it so soon.

That can also be applied to the people you meet, but that is a completely different story. There are more chances to see each other again, but, at the same time, distance can be harder too.

Don't worry, it was a fleeting thought that has not come back... yet.

V-3

Sometimes in life, you spend days, or weeks, waiting for a phone call. Usually, if there is anybody in a very delicate situation, it is a call you do not want to get, ever, because it will definitely bring very bad news. At other times, it is the opposite, for instance if there is a small shawarma, as the home poets say, about to arrive. The first ones always find you. It looks like it is more difficult for the second type, especially if according to all the estimates, there were still two weeks left.

That is what happened to me yesterday. By chance, via Facebook, I got the news of the big event, or the happy circumstance. It can be a little cold that way, but that is how things are. A few minutes later, I got the confirmation via chat through the same poet mentioned above and, a few seconds later, a picture sent from the cellphone of the, I guess, happy father. One more joins the party!.

And I am so far again.

Well, for a name so rare, it is the most common one in the family.