my favorite thing

My favorite thing about this city of Barcelona is a word.

"Tranquilo/a"

It is a very common word. And not just a word but a command.

It means, "Be calm."

You might ask a simple question to someone on the street or in a store or at the place where you reside, and their only response, "Tranquila."

I once asked the lady working at a deli if we should pay for our sandwiches before or after we ate them and, yes, her only response was that of "Tranquila." So we decided to pay after.

Calm. Be Calm. I like that.

balance (a poem)

sometimes we dance too much
and think too little
sometimes we think too much
and dance too little

the hardest thing
is balance
said the philosopher
to the king
then the king laughed
and then went to other things

the hardest thing
is balance
said the child
to the mother
the mother smiled nicely
and then went on to other things

the hardest thing
is balance
said the old man
to himself
on his death bed
and then went on no more

lookbook.nu

Sorry that all my posts have only been these, but it's just so easy to paste on in to the blog.....

lookbook

courtesy

So say you are driving in rush hour traffic, as I have recently been doing...all. the. time. And let's say you are trying to get into, say, the lane left of you. And let's say that the person in front of you is trying to get into that left lane as well. I find that it is a common courtesy to, if you get into that lane before the other person, wait to let them enter the lane as well. I am recently got the chance to exercise this courtesy and was happily greeted by a wave out the window of gratitude.

I am, honestly, so tired of the inhumane driving of personas locas. Crazy people. It has happened many times before when I sit with my blinker on, for aproximately a minute, and oh! see an opening in the traffic finally. I get excited to move in but OHHH the car behind jumps right into the opening before it has time to get to me. And then decide to put the petal to the metal like that one car length is going to save them an hour driving time. This is what my silly but also reasonable crusade is against. And also it's just a nice little bonding moment. Like saying, "Hey we were in the same boat, trying oh-so-hard to somehow enter into this impassable flow of traffic, so I'm going to help you out."

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