Oysters, etc.

Carla and me at the beach

view from Carla's apartment at night

Since I last wrote I got to spend a couple days in a little beach town outside Malaga with my old friend Carla, who went to church with me, Biz and Tim in Madrid. She was a member of our delightful outdoor and indoor picnic club--and has shared in some of my favorite memories from that era. Last time I saw her in Madrid, three years ago, she wanted to become a nurse and learn English. Well, she has become a nurse and has been learning English at a little academy in Torremolinos. And she's going to learn a ton more when she comes to visit me in SC. Or when we take our tour of Latin America together next summer... Depending on if either of us will actually have the time or funds to do that. ;) Anyway, I'm so proud of that girl.

Lovely Ronda

While visiting Torremolinos, I finally got to side-trip to Ronda, a white-hill town I'd read about in Rick Steve's guide and wanted to see three years ago. I invited along a sweet little Romanian man who, along with me, was the only visitor at Carla's church the night before. He's been coming to Torremolinos for twenty-seven years and has been half-heartedly trying to sell his apartment there since his wife died last year. He made me kind of sad. Has one son in Germany who he' not that close to (sons! I've noticed from working at the nursing home that daughters generally take much better care of their parents than sons do, with a few outstanding exceptions). Ronda was beautiful--I was impressed with its "New Bridge" that spanned across this green gorge. Really nice panoramas.

And the last week and a half I've been in Utopia: an olive farm three miles away from Orgiva, a pueblo of 6,000 people and at least five organic grocery stores. :) It's a well-touristed hippie town in the heart of the Alpujarra--a region of the Sierra Nevadas. I love the farmer there, Raquel. She's an amazinnnnng cook, has good taste (simple, bright, pleasant decorating), is learning the accordion, and is into medicinal plants. She makes her own face oils, soaps, and toothpaste. My kind of girl! Plus, she's a very patient Spanish teacher. I had my own little caravan there the first week (which I loved) then moved up to Raquel's stucco house when two lovely, kickass 20-year-old girls came to WWOOF with me (from CA/WA). One is studying directing/acting in San Fran and New Orleans and the other history/poli sic at Warren Wilson in Asheville, where Hannah and I used to frequent for their contra dance scene! It is a small world.

view from my little caravan at the farm

Speaking of, I ran into another South Carolinian in an ice cream line in Nerja about a month ago then ran into her again last weekend on a street in Granada, where she's studying abroad! So we had to hang out the next day--went on a hike then out for tapas. I love college kids. Their idealism inspires me--dreams of making bank working in Alaska for a summer or singing on a cruise ship, seeing South America on a shoestring, learning three more languages after mastering Spanish, falling head over heels for someone, making recordings on Garage Band, and someday working for Doctors Without Borders, after getting a free nursing degree from the University of Portland. Being in college is like living in a library: you're surrounded by so many people with good ideas, connections, and resources--these ideas are constantly circulating. I don't think we lose that "early twenties" idealism because the world screws us over--I think we lose it from years of good intentions that aren't followed through with. Maybe that feels like the world screwing us over. :) The world is still our oyster, friends.