bye-a gaia

i left gaia on tuesday with very positive feelings of my experience and a mixed desire to stay longer. one part of me was glad to be going, back to a place where i can easily express myself in my mother tongue, and another part of me want to stay longer in this little community of very kind people, improving a little each day at expressing myself in spanish. anyhoo, my experience there now feels like a dream, except that from that dream i carry this new ability to speak a bit of another language. i have been in buenos aires the past two days. it is a complete turnaround! from small community to huge city; vegetarian food to meat based; speaking spanish with argentians to speaking english with travellers from all over the world; grass to concrete; cows in my surroundings to people in my surroundings; the list goes on and on.

doctor friends of my dad, named Alejandra and Jorge, kindly picked me up at the bus terminal on tuesday, showed me around some neighborhoods, and took me out to eat that evening. i am grateful to their hospitality, it was exactly what i need coming into a big unknown city alone. well that evening, after not having eaten meet (and almost no animal products period) for five weeks, i chowed down an egg salad, some sausage, and a big honkin´ steak. (enter applause from brother, and carnivore, josh). thus i experienced the more common form of argentine cuisine. in these days of gratefulness, i am also grateful to my stomach for gracefully receiving this carnivorous onslaught.

music has been my sanity equilibriumizer during my time at gaia. when my mind was all tired from listening to and speaking castellano, i would pick up the guitar and strum some bob dylan tunes. when i needed to relax a little during siesta or before bed, i would put on my headphones and doze to chopin nocturns. gaia also had an assortment of little drums and percussion instruments, and i had some great rhythm jams with jorge and edgardo after suppers. and every day in the kitchen monica, ariel and i sang all sorts of 70s songs she used to sing in her teen days. crosby, stills, nash; america; eagles. ahhh music, sweet, music.

have you ever smelled rotten cabbage? ooo, boy oh boy. people always say i´m crazy to smell unpleasant odors by choice. but you know though, i think i understand where dogs are coming from. sweet or unpleasant, wild or fresh or rotting, it is a rich experience, the world of olfaction.

off to peru! to meet up with sister jocelyn, mom, and max killorn, a family friend.