It seems as though receiving news from home often comes needing to have a preface of the passage of time in mind. Prepare yourself for the worst. We take this caution and knowledge of the shortness and uncertainty of life when dealing with losses. Lost jobs and lost loved ones. Lost dogs, lost balances, and minds, and everything in between. The preparedness usually gives way to grievance, sadness, and then toward a more positive perspective if we are large enough to manifest it.

There's a saying in Spanish that goes, "no hay mal que por bien no venga." And if we open our eyes wide enough, we'll see that there are always good/positive things coming out of the negative/bad. I see this in the eyes of our president, with hopes of rebirthing "the better angels of our nature". In the sleepy and newborn eyelids of my new baby sister. The sun that showed her teeth just for a moment today amongst the usual looming clouds. Everything, everything must have two sides.

And the side to this story always has myriad turns too. Most recently, I'm keeping fairly occupied studying for my finals that the university so unreasonably likes to spread over a stretch of almost a month. Long enough to leave me time for a trip to Córdoba to interview some Sephardic Jews for my Anthropology of religion class, sign myself up for a Spanish guitar class, and do various spurts of study sessions commingled with various mingling and hour long coffee breaks.

Well, before all this perspiring, I'll share with you how went my winter break. It wasn't full of putting up Christmas lights or decorating trees, nor lighting menorahs or visiting with family. Not a mom's popovers or pumpkin pie in sight. This one took place in Spain and Portugal. And although the terrain was unfamiliar at best, the sensation of good close companionship is never far out of reach.

Tashy came to visit in Granada first, where we spent a splendor of a week fitting all our puzzle pieces back together in the easiest of ways. It was like playing games made for ages 3+ and before dawn we were rolling under memories and news and laughter over tapas+cerveza like schoolkids.




Then off to Sevilla. We packed our bags and left our baggage behind. Aaron Casey, Aaron Shapiro, Sonya, Tashy, and myself (insert between aaron & sonya):

Sevilla was great. We spent Christmas wandering around empty streets with baby Jesus' everywhere and not a place to go. While we were a majority of Jewish ethnicity, this was nothing new to some. However I had much to miss. With already an nontraditional undertone of the sunny Christmas day, we played it up. Spent the day walking along the Guadalquivir river,

secretly buying each other futile and fruitful gifts,

and ended the night in a boom of bruchetta, an italian pasta feast and bottomless wine to boot. Safe to say that although it was hard sans all of you (fam), it was an original and equally warm festivity. Well from there, after the sad farewell to my bestie, we headed to Portugal, driven by only the beast of all beasts, our true friend, Panda:


Panda brought us through the marshy/wetlands of the empty beachfront in Tavira and Faro...


...Through the ancient city walls of Evora and its neighboring town Guadalupe; where we discovered giant neolithic megaliths, cork trees, grazing animals, and all sorts of hidden treasures

some megalithic yoga..

and a crazy bone church (kid you not)

..and then finally, Panda brought us to Lisbon. The life-force of Portugal. Where we discovered what was reminiscent of of a European San Francisco in all it's hilly, golden gate, friendly danger lived-in sort of glory.

With a little luck of a panda, and Sonya's mad stick-shift driving skills, we made it safe and sound back to Granada. With all our faculties intact, and little pieces of our adventures left trickling down the highways and cities of portugal and spain. And under my belt a grand New Years in Lisbon filled with all you can eat sushi buffet and fireworks on the port.

Well with all this extra given time to "study", the distractions look something like this:

butt-sliding in the Sierras (30 minutes from home)

AND, my new beautiful guitar, gracias a los reyes magos (a.k.a. Santa) (a.k.a. my buddy Diego)

With said time, we (Diego and I) have taken to flamenco guitar classes. Which is amazing and challenging.. and a band of amateur flamenco guitarists accompanied by our new flamenco dancing roommate (Maria) is in the works..

Enough said, while you all are enjoying your constant 70 degree and sunshiny weather, I'm stuck in the cold rain with the rest of Europe in Winter. Despite popular west cost American belief, Winter is in fact a season. And it bites especially in the morning and at night. However, I am withholding my jealousy because I am playing flamenco guitar in Spain. And I walk to school on cobblestone streets. And here there are separate worlds within hiking distances. And sometimes, after a long day of speaking solely Spanish my brain tends to collapse inward. And often, my life seems quite surreal as if I've dreamt it up entirely.

To your lives being waking dreams
And to full rounded positivity

Well, to get these good vibes a kickin, here's Cat with some words of advice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha3Rm4MSX-g

much love,
jen

PS.

I also invite you to check out more pictures on my Picasa:
http://picasaweb.google.com/llamsnej