Where the wild things are...

Down the street from my house, there is a store owned by a Chinese family. Every one in the neighborhood calls it Davíd´s store, after their five-year-old son, who has officially been adopted as the mascot of Calle San Miguel Alta. Today, I ran there to get some bread during siesta. Davíd, a gigantic sandwich in hand, came out from behind the counter and suddenly lashed his fingers towards me, striking me with some imaginary laser-ray gun. I pretend to be gravely injured, and in my death throes, he asks "Do you know what kind of animal I am?" I shook my head. "The most scary animal," he said, scrunching his face. I must have looked confused because he sighed and said "I´m a potato!"

Stupid American.

It´s a rainy day here in Granada, the first in more than a month. Figures, since I did laundry. I forget how much I love the rain, even if it puts me in a little bit of a melancholy mood. It made me a little homesick for Portland until I remembered my first winter there, with 100 straight days of rain, approximately a third of my class dropping out, and my hair never actually drying for three months. Ahhh, mildew.

Last week, Mike the Canadian and I went to Sierra Nevada to ski. It was so nice to be on a mountain in the sun. There is almost no snow, although the trails were actually covered pretty well. There just weren´t that many open. It would be a really great mountain if there were snow, though. A lot of open, steep slopes and not a lot of people. I am thinking of going there this weekend to climb Mulhacén (the highest peak on the Iberian peninsula) on my birthday.

My other birthday present is my tattoo, which I am working on with an artist at Unity Tattoo here in Granada. I went in the other day and am really impressed with every one of the guys there. I´ve been waiting almost three years to get this one, trying to perfect it or talk myself out of it. I have dreams about it every few months. Then two nights ago, I dreamed that I went in to get it, only this time I had to actually sit through the entire process. Jesus. If I am going to have to sit through it, just give me the goddamn tattoo! I am actually really excited about the design, which is based on the Tree of Life by my favorite artist, Gustav Klimt.

I told mom today, and her reaction was, as expected, less than enthusiastic. I think she´ll still love me, though.... More later. Love H