"you're the honey and the moon, that lights up my night"

So babes, my month of general idleness is over. Mind you, I wasn't too idle, doing things for Playmakers! of course, but getting paid for work (other than in emotional satisfaction) was a thing of dreams.
BUT, now I am working for l'Arche part time and have a "trial shift" at Foster's. I am looking forward to it and hope to GOD that I can still bring plates to a table with flair.

Yesterday I had a fantastic day!! I woke up with a general plan of

• interview at 3pm
  
• hanging out with dad which usually consists of driving around stratford and chatting
  
• visiting Alyson

It ended up being

• Richard takes me to Telus and buys me a cellphone!! (that is right!! My OWN cell phone, now no one has an excuse not to call me!! Yay!)
  
• I go for my interview and get asked to work the next day
  
• I get home, get a message from my dad, call him and he picks me up right away
  
• He buys me shoes for work (yay! Black Converse skater boy shoes...I love them) and takes me out for dinner and then gives me some money!!
  
• I have a great evening drinking wine with Alyson
  
• I get home a little tipsy and make myself a delicious snack (crackers, summer sausage, chips, cheese and OLIVES--forgot we had hot peppers) and chat with my ma
  
• go to bed a happy girl

I am so thrilled!! I HAVE A CELL PHONE!! I love it!!

Viva la Jenni!

Nobody feels any pain, Tonight as I stand inside the rain

Inspiration is sitting just around the corner mocking me...

What can I write about?

Playmakers! is back in my life, and it makes me happy...
I am searching for a job...
I have not smoked for 5 days...
I am starting to finally recover from my weird case of insomnia...

Golly, thanks Liam...
Found something to write

Here is my music list/soundtrack thing.

Keep in mind, I could only use Windows Media Player and most of my new songs are NOT on WMP, so...it might be a bit out of date, but it is still pretty cool!

Opening Credits: Hollywood - Cranberries

Waking Up: Kissing the Lipless - The Shins

First Day At School: Dyer Maker - Led Zepplin (oh oh oh oh you don't have to go)

Falling In Love: Autumn's Monologue - From Autumn to Ashes (awww)

Fight Song: Bizzare Love Triangle - Frente

Breaking Up: Crazy in Love - Eminem (kinda scary, yes)

Prom: Underneath Your Clothes - Shakira (I never went to Prom)

Life: We Got More Bounce (In California) - Soul Kid

Mental Breakdown: Les Rois du Monde - Romeo Et Juliette

Driving: Sexy Girl - 2-Raum Wohnung

Flashback: The Top of the Morning - Mike Oldfeild

Getting Back Together: This Love - Maroon Five

Wedding: Hallelujah - John Cale

Birth of Child: Whiteflag - Dido

Funeral Song: Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm

End Credits: Misery - Soul Asylum


It really wraps up nicely doesn't it...
Well my loves
The clock is kind of hard to ignore at this late hour. I did my best and trudged through the night, but it is stronger than I am.

Goodnight my dears,

Viva la Jenni

to her's truly, my beautiful mommy

to embellish on my lack of confidence in my ability to survive being back in Stratford, it is NOT because I am back that I won't be able to survive, it is NOT because I am not happy here, cause I am, blissfully so, but it is just the travelling that I will miss. Clearly I am overjoyed to be back with the ones I love so dear and I missed you all like mad.

in with the new

Sweet Darlings, Sorry about the nonsense with the Blog no one was ever invited, so don't feel rejected because it was just my laziness and lack of access to the internet that is to blame...
Anyway, I AM BACK!! It is awesome to be home and I can't wait to leave again!! Probably not for as long, but I have such wanderlust already, I don't know how I will survive! But I am excited to get back into the 'life' again. Seeing all my people and then I have to get a REAL job. I have been able to go to work in my pyjamas for years now, so this might be a bit more of a culture shock than I had in all of Europe...
Gah, Brain can't write, I shall just catch up on some lost reading....

Lovah!!!!

Viva la Jenni

To Whom it May Concern!

Thanks for reading!

"The world is supposed to be full of possibilities, but they narrow down to pretty few, in most personal experience"

Well, I had to leave Witham, England...let it be known that there was fanfare in my heart as the bus pulled away from the drab little town. More on my escape in a personal format only as what I say about it, I might live to regret, and I don't want to poison the internet with my foul attitude about it...
Now I am staying with my (step) grandparents in Bedford. It is sweet. They are both so loving and nice, I am glad I am here now, despite the fact that they don't have the internet...what a cleansing experience that is for me...and so, what do you think takes up all my time now?? Reading Lady Chatterley's Lover and knitting?? You are darned right!! And, as I hold my head up high despite the shame creeping through me as I say this I also have been sucked into the show "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Outta Here!". Yes, twelve celebs in the Australian jungle doing trials for food and the voting public's favour. I cringed when I heard of it, but I do love it... (I knew that travelling would broaden my mind!), the fun this is, they have the celebrity attitude, but I have no idea who any of them are...David Gest...in the jungle...be still my beating heart...

Anyway, coming home soon lads and lasses and can't wait to see you all again...Things have changed in my heart and mind in such drastic ways since I left Canada, but I am sure things will balance out when I get back in the gay ol' town of Stratford!!!

Lovah Lovah!!

Viva la Jenni!!

$£€$£€ runnin through my mind

Lovelies....my blog attained a long overdue makeover. And doesn't she just look DARLIN'. I swear, she came out of editing and I jus' teared up with bliss, such a supreme looking blog...sigh, don't get much prettier than this.

Sorry if I have been keeping you out of the loop. There is not too much to be kept in though. I hang around in this house in Witham, England, just less than an hour northeast of London.

Last Wednesday I went to LONDON!!!

I love it!! It is one of my favourite cities! Unfortunately I did not get to go to the Globe! Booo! but we did all the free stuff the first time around and then we will go around with LondonPasses and focus on the attractions that are more expensive. I would move to Covent Garden tomorrow if I could though, wow! It is so adorable, and SOOOOOO many theatres, everywhere I turned...Mary Poppins, the MONTY PYTHON MUSICAL: Spamalot, Lion King, Wicked (a great book about the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by the way) and on and on and on...

That has been the highlight of my month, which seems great, but makes the whole past month I have been here seem even more DULL. Strapped for cash and miles away from even a coffee shop I can sit and read and act pretentious. Speaking of reading, I just finished reading Vanity Fair and I loved it, Rebecca Sharp is quite the character. Although (surprise surprise) the film starring Reese Witherspoon is total crap compared to the book, I think Miss Witherspoon did an excellent job with the dodgy amount of substance to her character that she was actually given.
Let me tell you a brief story on how I got this book from customs at the London Luton Airport (may I never see it again). I was retained in immigration for HOURS when I arrived here from Spain last month. They asked me a bunch of questions with sarcastic tones and little explanation of why they were keeping me, they took my passport and told me to sit down. That is when I waited...Previous to boarding the plane, in an effort to keep my exertion level low after the grueling past few days (story best told in person I imagine) I decided to check my bag. I took with me only my wallet and my passport. Having been relieved of my passport by the bird faced wench at the immigration desk I was forced to fumble through my wallet, looking for things to pass the time. Time passed slowly. Finally I had to pee. I asked the bird woman if I could use the washroom..."the what??" "um...the loo?" "oh right, SANDY CAN YOU TAKE THIS GIRL TO THE LOOOOO?????" I was actually escorted by someone ( I am assuming, Sandy) in a uniform to go to the washroom...And watching in wonder was a whole flight of people just landed from Amsterdam...I use the washroom/loo and then Sandy asks if I would like a drink...I see something...what is it?? BOOKS?
"No, thank you, but could I read a book?!?"
"Yes of course"
I scan the titles quickly, fearing at any second she will change her mind (why? I am not quite sure) and then out jumps the most beautiful title .... "Vanity Fair" I snatch it up at once and smile at her. She smiles and escorts me back to my little chair. I have been reading this book ever since. I dont think I have ever read so constantly, hours a day most likely. And now I have finally finished it. You must understand my pain (and realize that if this is all I am blogging about you really AREN'T out of the loop).
The past...I could blog about the past, yes I know, I mean, I guess that is all blogs are usually anyway (except one blogger I have come across who is blogging his imagination for the world).

But I am almost sick of the past now. I will come back to it again. When in Stratford I shall recount for any who want to hear it, my adventures through Europe. If anyone is really actually interested, I am sorry, but right now I dont have the heart for it. In summary Spain was this, we went out often, but got sicker and sicker, despite the hearty chest coughs and runny noses we did manage to lure in hoards of men of many different nationalities and levels of intelligence. I saw grand sights and did work on an olive farm on the side of a mountain. I woke up like Heidi every morning, looking into a mountian range. Ate grapes of the vines for breakfast, drank wine from a cardboard box late into the night with Gen, had great conversations from everything to English Literature to working at Tim Hortons, fled from a potential misfire during a wild boar hunt...all these things and more...

update

Hear ye, hear ye....look below to find a post on spain...

LOVAH!

Viva la Jenni

God help us all...

http://www.videodetective.com/trailer-preview.asp?publishedid=127479

Oh God...what is the world coming to? "It's spanky time"???? For the first time, I am glad the Bard is dead so he doesn't have to see this atrocity.

Love you all,

I am currently trying to write out my Spain adventures for the blog...

Viva la Jenni

Spain: Part One: As I Recall

Okay, so...Spain...there is sooo much to tell, I don't know how to do it...I shall sum up what I vaugely recall and hopefully it will drag out new memories that have hidden in the dark places of my mind. This will backtrack a bit, back to when I first entered Spain...
September 29th 2006 .
I land in Seville around 10am. I am to take a cab to the bus station and then call Gen's cell phone. I do this. Not only is it no answer and the voicemail, but the message for the voicemail is some weird noises and sounds of conversation in the distance. Well, she knows where the station is, she will probably come meet me. I wait, and wait. I wait for about an hour. No Gen. So, I walk around the bus station, she said the hostal is relatively close, so it would only take her a minute to walk there after I called. I can not see any hostal. I am lost in spain already!!! I dont know any Spanish and men are eyeing me up and calling out to me and I have no idea what they are saying. I hear english!! I look to the direction of the sound and I see four American students about early twenties sitting together. I walk up to them and ask if they have a map. figure that maybe there would be some indication on the map of a hostal in the area. No, there isn't. But one of them, a charming looking guy, who turns out to be named CJ, offers to ask the info place in the bus station. I accept. They just direct us to the tourist office of Seville. I have no idea where that is. So, CJ, freakin gentleman that he is, says he will walk me there. So we go, he walks me most of the way there, but will miss his bus if he is gone any longer so he gives me his phone number so we can meet up later if I want. So i go the rest of the way to the tourism office. The woman can barely speak English and she ends up being no help at all. So I decide to go to an internet cafe I saw on the way to the tourism office and see if Gen emailed me. SHE DID! She gives me the name of the hostal and address (why she didnt in the first place I will never know) and the guy sitting beside me at the cafe helps me figure out where it is and how to get there.
It takes 20 minutes to walk there and on the way a gypsy woman tries to offer me a little herb. Literally, not 'a little herb' as in slang for some pot, but just a little herb. I get to the hostal and....oh, I have not mentioned my 10kg bag that has been on my back this whole journey. Remember that every time we did not have accomodations we had to carry our heavy bags our backs. So I get to the hostal. The woman has no ideawho I am, who Gen is or how to speak English. Finally some other guy comes in and he works there too and knows who Gen is and knows she is looking for me and all is settled. I pay for the room and I go upstairs. The door is locked, and no Gen. So, I go back downstairs and the guy is still there and he directs me towhere he saw her last, at a bar just down the street. I go that way and there she is. She is talking to two guys and drinking a coffee. I walk up to her and the woman doesnt notice me! I stroke her back and she turns to look at who is touching her. She leaps out of her chair and we hug like two girls meeting after not seeing each other in years would when meeting in another country. We stay and talk to the guys for a bit longer. They were from Morocco and we all had to speak in French...haha, was interesting to say the least.
So, we finally go back to the hostal, get the key and I can get rid of my backpack for a while. We chat for a while and then determine that we will go to a grocery store and get some food and some alcohol for later.
We get to the grocery store and there are creepy things in there like chicken feet, nasty nasty!! We get the typical backpacking meal, baguette, meat and cheese slices, not like gross wrapped in plastic cheese slices, but just sliced gouda or whatever. We also settle on a bottle of Annis to break in our first evening in Spain. We will eat, go back to the hostal, have a nap and then have some drinks and then hit the town!!
We go to the river and eat the fine meal. I sigh and stare at the architechture and palm trees and revel the fact that I am in SPAIN!! Two cats, both white with grey blotches and clearly wild as most cats in Spain are, approach us. They are so skinny and we take pity on the poor dears and toss them some meat. The shoot away from us and take cover under some tall grass right alongside the river. They slowly creep back towards us, we look at them, they rush away again. We hear them again, timidly focused on the meat. They grab it up and rush away again. We laugh at their fearful ways and throw more meat out for them. They rush further away and then repeat the same process. This happens a few more times, before they have the courage to actually eat the meat near us, realizing finally that we are throwing it down for them.
Gen and I talk quite a bit in our time together, so much in fact that it was really a whirlwind of conversation, we both are quite similar in a lot of ways that are hard to find in other people in our age group, dealt with a lot of the same sort of thing growing up and love each other to bits. I can not include all our talks or even mention at all times what great conversations we had, because I will just end up repeating myself over and over, just know that throughout our whole trip we did have wonderful conversations and were able to open up to each other about things that are kept in the 'Deep Dark Secret' vault of our hearts. Also, we laugh and laugh together like mad women. Often so much so that my stomach would start to hurt or that it was difficult to breathe properly. Later, soon into the story the laughs turned into fits of coughing due to the fact that we both aquired horrible colds (one of the worst I think Ihave ever had). So, though it isnt mentioned we did spend most of our time talking...as is the case in the next sequence of events...or non events.
When we returned to our hostal room, which we christened the 'Banff Family Suite" due to the wood beamed ceiling, I wanted a shower and I was exhausted, having woke up at 3am for my flight to spain from London. It was siesta time anyway, so we figured a nap would not be out of place. I laid on the bed for a minute, or so the plan was, to get some energy up to have a shower and Gen was going to go to the cafe for a bit while I slept. First though we decided to try the Annis. We tried it all right. We ended up staying awake and in the hostal throughout siesta and beyond having our first of many 'wonderful conversations' I mentioned previously. We just talked and talked and drank and drank. It tasted a bit like black licorice, but better, more sweet and less dry. "It tastes like candy" I remember sighing, which set us into a fit of giggles, being half drunk as we were. We decided that we would have a quick nap and then go out and hit the town, show Sevilla a good time. Well, half drunk turned into all drunk, afternoon turned into evening and there was no napping. We realized in fact that we were quite drunk when we decided to stand up. Caused us to fall back onto one of our beds, where we remained silent there for some time. When we arose again, we were even more intoxicated than before. The room started spinning for Gen and I wanted a shower. I remember Gen saying she was sick and that is all...all of a sudden I wake up. I am not wearing a stitch of clothing...oh dear.
Gen was awake too, oddly we woke up at the same time...
"What time is it?" I ask her...
"Probably getting late now" she responds groggily, she looks at her alarm clock "that cant be right...it says 6:30"
We had passed out sometime in the night/probably early morning, fair enough, we did drink a lot of that ....oh God, I couldn't even think the word in my head...it made me sick just thinking of the bottle, but still, why was I naked??? Best not ask questions though, might get awkward
"I feel awful" Not only did I feel as though my head was attacked by an angry hammer the night before, but my throat had that feeling...you know, when it hurts to swallow and you just KNOW that a bad bout of the cold is coming your way.
"Me too" Gen replied
We ate an apple which made us feel even worse, and the nudity was starting to worry me...what had happened? I sat up and my hair was an absolute mess...and then I realized my hair was kind of damp and it hit me!
"Did I have a shower last night????"
Gen broke into laughter...yes I had...apparently I had showered. This is the story from Gen, my memory of these events a fog or non existant.
We were lying in our beds, she was vomiting like crazy and then I got up and said, "I feel like having a shower." and just walked into the bathroom and had one. I was in there for ages she said and steam was beginning to creep under the door and she was just getting worried about me, when I came out of the bathroom compltely naked and got in bed. She went into the bathroom a little later and was throwing up and I turn to the door and I say 'you can come cuddle here with me when you are done'. Ha ha ha ha ha. I remember NOTHING of this. I do remember feeling bad for Gen and her going to the washroom and saying she was fine, but not the shower or the proposal of cuddling to the girl who was practically making love to the toilet.

Anyway, we went back to sleep, no sense in getting up now. 7am, a ridiculous hour.

We woke a few hours later. Had showers, this time I remember the shower, which slightly makes me wonder about the shower I had had the night before...the water was really bizzare. It would continuously get hotter and hotter, so you had to turn the hot down or increase the cold water. How could I have managed that when I was so drunk? ( Please understand, I dont want to brag about my intoxication as if it were some sort of grand accomplishment that I was able to repeatedly put a bottle to mouth and consume the contents of said bottle, but I just want to stress that I have never experienced that sort of 'drunk' before and I felt so strange about it.) So, we were clean, though not too refreshed and we dragged our sorry selves downstairs and out into the streets of Seville and went to a nearby cafe. We had our morning pick me ups and were just about dying with hangovers. We walked around the downtown area, had some chicken and sardines for lunch and went back to the hostal for a proper nap before going out that night. Agreeing that though we would drink, we would definitely take it easier than our previous night.
After the nap we had proper showers at the right time, got ourselves all prettied up, giggled like school girls (this could be embarassing to some, but I feel I am allowed these rights as I took a miscalculated leap from 15 to 30, and then had to go back and retrace my steps) and decided to check out the Flamenco that Sevilla is so famous for. After losing our way a few times (we tried to avoid using maps in order to feel a bit less tourist-y, though we did hide behind a parked car once just to skim it over to make sure we were on the right track, which we weren't) we found a spot for Flamenco. We bargained with the doorman for a cheaper price for the show for awhile before settling on a price I will not mention. It was worth it though, it was amazing. The power these women have, the feminine strengh from the firm soles of their shoes to the edges of beautiful dresses, these women just LOOKED like beautiful music.
After the Flamenco we crossed the river to the party spot of Sevilla. Along a particular part of the river everyone just sits and drinks and has good times with friends. We were starving though, so we decided to get some beers and order some tapas. We searched for a restaurant with reasonable prices and shamefully decided on an Irish Pub. The menu was in English...and they still served Spanish cuisine, so it isnt as though we were selling out. Luckily we made this choice though, because we met an amazing Irish guy there named Brendan (awwww). He was a bit different than the Brendan we all know and love...Tall with curly light dirty blond hair, skinny as a rail and dressed in a faded brown courdoroy suit jacket and faded jeans. Adorable, but not exactly sexy. He was HILARIOUS. We were mostly laughing AT him than with him, but he was friendly and we had great 'banter' ( Oi loav this, jus' you gurls an' yer ban-terr'), all night. But first...We all left the pub together, his friends abandonned him and you will discover later the prediciment that left us all in, and went back to the river. It was his first night in Sevilla, first night in Spain, and though not technically true, it was mine as well. While being a great time, spending the evening in the Banff Family Suite did not count as partying in SPAIN. Whatever, we all just wanted to have a good night, and do things right. Party it up! We chatted about literature, politics, religion (he believes that Christianity is a horrid thing and railed against it for a good 15 mins, much to Gen's and my amusement), travelling, his house in Ireland, blah blah blah. He had to pee, so we went him off in the direction of the darkest most unpopulated area of the bank of the river. He was not gone two minutes before two guys came up to us and started talking.
Funny thing about a foreign country and travelling. Most of the time you dont meet locals, but other travellers. So, these guys were from Argentina. They spoke horrible English and Gen's Spanish was reasonable so needless to say, I was not very much involved in the conversation at first. But, it turned out the one guy could speak NO English, so he and Gen talked while me and the other guy, who Gen and I later nicknamed donkey-boy due to his weird shaped head and protruding teeth. These were no Don Juans, just some idiots with alcohol. They shared their drink and we shared our company. Donkey boy seemed to want to get out of there, there was a brief discussion in Spanish between our friends as Gen and I exchanged quick 'How-do-we-get-out-of-this-(and-find-Brendan-)without-being-rude?' looks. They asked us if we want to go dancing. Remember from a previous blog that I have determined that I will now be a Flamenco dancer so I gotta start practising.
"Well, we have to wait for our friend" we tell them
"You have friend? Good, we wait"
So we all keep talking. More people come and join us, two guys and a girl. So we are a group of 7 now, waiting for number 8. Here he comes, he seems to look right at us, but then sits a few metres away from us on the ledge and takes his cell phone out. We call him back over to us. Our new...friends'...faces fall when they see our friend, they were previously so happy about turned out to be a male. We drank a bit more and started walking to the club.
This is where things started going wrong-ish.
We see a group of women, all wearing lovely dresses, similar to the dresses we just saw at Flamenco, and Gen and I swoon over them. Donkey-boy (who had already earned this title with us by the way) actually turns to us and says,
"You think that is beautiful? I think it is ugly, they look like donkeys."
I think we actually cackled with laughter at this.
We found a club, the guys weren't allowed in because they were wearing running shoes. Which would have been perfect, we could have escaped the increasingly annoying Argentines and their friends without excuse in the club, but Brendan, who we had decided would be our pet for the evening was also wearing running shoes, and so we marched on.
Donkey-boy was clearly enamoured with me now, not that I am flattering myself, there were two girls, his friend had to be with Girl A, he had to be with girl B, therefore, he assumed he could have a chance with Girl B, Girl B happens to be yours truly, unfortunately. He asked his Spanish a question and his friend responded "enchanting". He turns to me:
"You are enchanting"
Gen's Romeo turns to her and says, without shame of lack of creativity,
"You are enchanting"
Cue eye roll.
Donkey-boy, seemingly pleased with himself, continues his pursuit. He puts his arm around me and asks if I like to dance. I unwind myself from the clutches of this invader of my space, tell him I do enjoy dancing and, tactlessly, slow down a few steps to talk to Brendan, who is, though a little drunk, a million times more a gentleman than our donkey friend.
We find a bar. We go in, I am ready for loud music, dark lights and a chance to escape from these prats with Gen and Brendan.
The establishment in question though, is about the 50m sq. and the music is forgetable. It is reasonably well lit and there are not many people inside. Brendan, true Irish man that he is, strides to the bar and gets in line to get a drink. He asks what Gen and I would like, and then offers to pay for the south american groupies as well. We tell him not to bother getting their drinks. As we are waiting though, things take a really awkward turn. I feel this slight pressure on my hair for a moment. I look over and donkey boy is doing a horrible impression of a naughty boy trying to look innocent, hands clasped and looking off into space. I look away, it happens again, this time I realize that he is actually BLOWING ON MY HAIR! I give him a 'stop it look' and move away. I end up beside one of the guys who joined us a bit after we met the Argentines. This guy starts talking to me, and I relieved that he can speak some English, not much, but some, and then he touches my ass. This is getting silly now, so I tell Gen, who is now half heartedly chatting with her wanna-be Romeo, that I am about ready to leave these people behind. She agrees and we look for Brendan. Not to be found. Okay, so we wait. He shows his face a few minutes later. We inform him that we are ready to leave and does he want to join us? Yes he does, the bar is closed dammit. We walk to the door, I can feel freedom from the donkey face and his strange friends close at hand. We get outside the door. They follow us.
I no longer try to be nice. I just walk with Brendan and ignore the freaks completely. Gen, with her wild sense of adventure and desire to practise her Spanish, and admittedly cuter Romeo still entertains her new amigo in conversation.
Brendan has no idea where his hotel is. His friend is not answering his phone, no doubt sleeping, we realize it is 5am. We snag Gen away from the guys for a moment. The plan? Wander around, in search for the hotel in the general area that we first met Brendan hopefully something looks familiar. Now we just need to get ride of the others.
This takes us about half an hour. With three guys in pursuit of two girls and one lost, slightly drunk irish darling patiently waiting for us, it was quite the procedure. The only way that they would actually leave is if we promised that we would see them the next day. Now, how do we ensure this? Well, we of course have no phone, so they have to give us their number. Gen has no pen. They suggest they walk with us, maybe the hotel will have a pen we can use. Noooooo!!! We just want to get rid of them!!! We aren't gonna call them!! We aren't even sure we will find the hotel. This is the moment when Brendan became our knight. I rushed from Gen and the hoards of guys and asked him,
"Brendan, do you have a pen" I pleaded.
He did! God love the man!! Gen had to write their number on her hand and then finally we were free to.... to what actually?
We roamed around the area but nothing looked familiar to our Irish friend. So we decided to give up and just roam the general downtown area. We crossed back to the other side of the river, and looked for an open bar, Brendan seemed to think everything would be solved with a drink. We saw a few and surprise surprise they were all closed as it was coming onto 6 in the morning.
We walked with Brendan, one of us on either of his arm. He was an angel and never made a move on either of us, which is why we both treasured him so much. He was quite eager though, to get another drink in his system. Bless his little Irish soul. Still, all the bars were closed...but, we remembered, we had a bottle of wine in our hostal room. We headed in that direction. The trivial trial with this is that we knew that the person at the desk would not allow Brendan to accompnay us up to the room so we could all drink in the Suite and maybe we could all get some sleep. Our check out time being 12 noon, and planning on going to Gibraltar the next day, we needed our sleep.
"Just wish we had some beer" Brendan often dropped into the conversation.
We debated getting an early morning snack but decided against it. "All I want is a beer" Brendan told us.
A light of revelation dawned on Gen and I..."There is a vending machine with beer in it at the hostal!!" We were so excited to get him the beer he seemed to so desperately want.
"Is-that-ALLL-you-girls-think-about??" he cried. After all his sighs for drink and we finally find an opportunity and the darling completely forgets that and acts like we are the ones who are crazy alcoholics.
And, yes, my dear friends, there IS beer in VENDING MACHINES in Spain...God love us, we were born in the wrong country, I know. And the cans are about $1.50.
Anyway, we return to the hostal and the doorperson is sleeping behind the locked door so we just sit on the step in front of the door and let him sleep while we drink our beers.
It was in a slice of this conversation that I decided that though Brendan was very smart and quite observant there are some things that he was completely ignorant about...I will quote him here:
"In my opinion William Shakespeare abused the English language.".
We, my fellow Will lovers know different, that Shakespeare made LOVE to the language and there was no violence involved, unless it was the vigour in which he wrote his amazing works. I argued this to him until I felt maybe I enforced it too far and upset him.
The tension was quickly sloughed off though and we continued in merry conversation until Gen and I could barely keep awake on the doorstep. He gave us his email address and told us to get in touch with him, and to come visit him in Ireland and he would take care of us, he would cook and we could all have more banter and write together ("All you gotta bring is your toothbrush, I'll take care o' everything else!"). Sadly we had to send Brendan into the morning completely alone and unaware of the city or where he was supposed to be going. Luckily he was armed with his cell phone so he could continue to call his friends until they woke.
Gen and I holding eachother for support, climbed the stairs to our rooms and crashed into our beds at 7am. Instead of sleeping right away, we chatted half an hour about the evening and finally drifted to sleep.
And thus ends day two...more to come!

huts in mountains, chairs at airports

Oh my god...have I just had the craziest time. I lived on a farm and picked olives and weeded gardens, drank wine and the farmer did an in depth horoscope for me, I lived halfway up a mountain on the same range but the other side of the Sierra Nevada. Money ran out....
I lived in an airport for the weekend and a day, perfected the art of sleeping on a chair leaning over a table...I can't even get into it right now, I am so much in shock and I am just exhausted, will post again soon (and don't even start with me Ben, it will be longer) and explain it all. But, right now, I am in the UK staying with my step uncle, some of you may remember him from awhile back, he is married now and has the most adorable boxer named Ozzie. I will ....get ready more plans (Please Note [if you haven't already, in which case you must be a tad slow or I just haven't been explaining things right] : My plans don't always go as planned...har har har) .....stay here until Christmas, go to Sebastian and his family for Christmas, then _______________ until the middle of january and then HOPEFULLY will be working in Germany at a l'Arche there.
As I said though, may not go like that, but that is what I have to put in front of myself for right now so that I don't go absolutely insane.
Viva la Jenni

a new way of life

Hey loves,

Just trying to kill some time here. We are slooooowly trying to prepare ourselves to take the looong walk grab our bags from the train station and bring them back to the hotel (that we believe is run by gypsies). We are still sick, but on the mend. Currently in Granada. The city that smells like exhaust, and the streeets are so confusing!! I think we have been lost 4 times already and it is just getting to 24 hours that we have been here. Whatever, all adventures!!
A super sweet French waiter and his French flatmate took us in for the night. The roomie was out drinking, but the waiter and Gen and I all stayed in and chatted. It was cool. We made dinner and drank tea in a small Spanish apartment, a kilometer from British territory with a French man. Weird stuff. The roommate woke me up at 4am by putting a blanket over me and so we had a beer together. He was really interesting. He was an engineer in France and just quit his job and moved to Spain and works as a waiter at a really nice restaurant in Gibraltar. They told us to let them know when we were in the area again....haha...
Little do they know...we have an opportunity to go to Morraco with a man who is doing a documentary on traditional storytelling. We are looking into it further, but I think it would be a great experience!
Well, I love you all, but I am starving and I´m gonna go get some cervasas and tapas!!

Viva la Jenni

Spain and Gibraltar...

I am in Gibraltar right now. Weird place. Really weird. We walked from Spain to the UK last night...good times. We slept outside on the beach and it got sooo damned cold. We were snuggled up to each other wearing all the clothes we could possibly fit on ourselves and it was still FREEZING. We kept waking up and wanting to cry. It was terrible. One time it was not the cold, nor the bugs, nor the uncomfortable ground that woke us up but the cops. Ha ha, was weird, they just asked if we were sleeping. Which we clearly were by the dazed looks on our faces and the fact that we had to take off the fabric we wrapped over our faces to protect us from the bugs.
"Yes, we were sleeping" we reply.
"Have you girls seen anyone?" .... we were SLEEPING!!!
"No"
"Okay"
And they walk away. The people here all look at us as if we are morons for even being here. We are both sick right now with bad colds and exhausted from carrying our heavy backpacks for so long ALL OVER the place.

In Seville we had a good time though. Lots of drinking and laughing. Met a really cool sweet Irish guy named Brendan. He studied philosophy for 6 years and was SO DAMN funny, mostly we were laughing at his crazy drunken comments. So we all roamed around and then some weird and clingy guys from Argentina were trying to get us to go to all kinds of bars and dance clubs with us and calling us enchanting and it was so strange. Finally we got away from them and the three of us drank together until 7am.
I saw Flamenco. It was great. I loved it!! The women are so beautiful and strong. Of course I decided while I was watching it that I wanted to stay in Seville and learn Flamenco and live the rest of my life doing shows in nice old theatres...but that faded fast.

Well I am totally spaced from reality. Over tired, over heated, hungry and sick. I love you all, hope you are taking care of yourselves!!

Viva la Jenni

Here I go again

Okay friends, fans and minions, only half an hour and then I am jumping in a car and being brought to the airport. My chest feels as Ben's might have when the weight fell on him. I am realizing that while I thought I like to fly, what I like really, is to look back on my successful flight adventures with fondness. I am not SCARED of flying, oh no, just scared of crashing.
My packing adventures, too tedious to actually describe to you all, trust me, have killed my spirits completely. WHAT THE HELL!! So, the site where I bought my ticket says '10kg' carry on luggage, the airport site says '8kg' carry on luggage. I found this out 20 mins ago. Shoot me now. I have probably invested HOURS of my life weighing my damned luggage, and finally I found a combination of my possessions that I can NOT live without and it weighs just 4kg over the max, which means 32€. Crap. But whatever, as I said, I can't live without this stuff, so I guess it has to be worth it. AND NOW, I have to add another 16€ to that lovely mix. I am wearing a darling combination of:
two pairs of socks, shoes, jeans, a sun dress, a long skirt, two tank tops, a sweater, my earrings, two necklaces and my glasses (that make me look smart, but will hinder my *bashful eye-batting* "can't you just overlook those few extra kilograms Mr. Strong and Powerful Airport Luggage Checker?"). SO, I am carting around 4kg of extra clothes, hoping to God that I don't get attacked by dogs for smuggling a sundress through security.
20 mins now.
Dear oh dear. I really ought to be doing something productive, like bringing my luggage down, so I am gonna jet.
Remember that I love you all, and everyone take care!!

Viva la Jenni!!