So, I will be able to Dewey Decimalize soon...

Heh. We are discarding books from the library collection these days. And I have to confess, I have a tendency to take a few home with me... Its very sad... but pretty soon, seeing as how we are discarding tons, I will have my own library! Heh.

But its also frustrating. I wish we had book recycling in this country. There are so many old textbooks, travel books, etc, that just end up going to waste...

*sigh*

Why can't we recycle unwanted books, phone books, etc? Just such a waste of paper to be tossed in the trash...

The fabulous things people do with rice...

http://coolthingsinrandomplaces.com/rice-field-art/

and a funny:

http://www.sonnyradio.com/treadmillcats.html

Wow. I loved being on the cruise, but...

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruises/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=51075048.blog

As you know, I traveled back to the States on the Queen Mary 2. It was fabulous, luxurious, and surprisingly busy, but after 8 days on ship (Hamburg to New York), I was ready to get off. There were an amazing variety of people on the Queen Mary 2. There were people who knew the route, where the best spots were, who were old fans of the ship...who had been on all the Cunard cruise lines. There were folks 'trying it out' who went Southampton-Hamburg-Southampton. (There may have been folks who went Southampton-Hamburg, or Hamburg-Southampton, but the former, I obviously wouldn't have met..) There were even a group of about 200 people who were going round-trip Southampton-New York-Southampton. I think I would have gotten cabin fever! It amazed me how many people were regulars.

I can still see why this lady would like to live aboard, though. In this era of retirement homes with forced activities, poorly paid, overworked staff... to live in a place where you get to go all over the world, with meals included. They take care of your dietary needs, you can swim, you can go to lectures, plays, take a dance class, get a massage...there is a library, and for a nice chunk of change, even Internet. There are pretty up-to-date movies, and even TV (although you lose it in the Mid-Atlantic..Cunard needs to set up their own satellite for TV). You'd always meet new people. And the staff would really get to know you.

I would miss taking ceramics, seeing trees and greenery, seasons... I would miss having my own things around me, and I'd get tired of dressing for dinner every night. I'd want to get off the boat and walk around.

An ode to self-portraits at arm's length...

On traveling alone...

Travelling alone can be a lot of fun. You can stop at a museum that looks interesting, or run through the Picasso museum because you like his early stuff or later stuff, but not the in-between. (Just a tip, though, distance makes all the difference in looking at his pieces). You can go to a movie, a bookseller, or change your plans if you feel a little unenergetic. (Which is what happened to me today, too much tourista the past two days). I'm considering getting a couple magazines and going to Paris-Plage. (they have transformed the banks of the Seine into a 'beach', its very cool)

In Paris, there is no stigma about dining alone, or going to the butcher and getting one of something. You can stop, have a cafe, watch the world go by. You don't even get hit on all that much. I get hit on more often by sleazy characters in New York.

The only issue with traveling alone is that its difficult to take silly pictures of yourself thinking with The Thinker, or posing with 'Les Trois Ombres'. You will get a lot of pics of me, at arm's length, grinning like a fool into the camera... but that's about it. Otherwise there isn't much proof that I'm actually here... I don't want to come back!

And exhaustion hits...

This has been a great trip so far, but I am so tired! Its finally an afternoon of down time. Everyone came back and crashed after we sang.. (it was very cool though, as we sang this morning at the Pilgrim´s Mass at Santiago De Compostela). That was neat. And apparently the priest and nun were very complimentary. I messed up my knee earlier in the week, in Madrid, I think, and it finally got back to normal, more or less, this afternoon.

Its been an amazing trip, but I do have some issues with the planning. This is our first free afternoon (previously its been an hour here, half an hour there) and we are out in the boonies, away from the city. With the previous cities we visited, our hotels were in town, but we would get there at siesta time, have to leave when things opened, and were exhausted by the time we were done. There has to be a better way to plan a trip.

And if a person has a food allergy, the tour agency needs to talk to the restaurants, etc ahead of time, make sure that there will be something available for that person. I got the best meal of the trip when the director´s parents organised a dinner. I got a lovely salad, octopus, all kinds of things, because his mom knew what celiac disease is.

I shudder to think what will happen when this tour group gets someone with a peanut allergy.

But singing in all these old cathedrals has been truly, truly amazing. It really has. And singing as part of a Mass for all these people who had traveled from all over the world? Wow. (And they had this huge incense censer-I forget the name) which was amazing. Just a spectacular experience. Photos will be added in about a month.

Ole! Ole!

I could probably find the accent on this keyboard, considering I´m blogging from the lobby of the hotel...but I´m having enough trouble finding things like @ and ?

As you can tell, I am in lovely Madrid. I got a little pink today, but am having a blast. All kinds of new things to learn...this is probably going to be one of my more expensive summers...I´ve stopped trying to calculate how many dollars I am spending when I spend Euros....I start cringing. Its really, really sad how badly the dollar is doing, and only liable to get worse. It is gorgeous weather, wonderful people, wonderful things to see...I´ve already gotten in trouble by losing the group once... I just don´t like people telling me what I should be looking at! (you can tell I´m not a sheeple, can´t you?)

Dinner is in 15 minutes, and I am starving. I went to the Prado, overdosed on Goya, saw a few ´Bosco´. I saw one more today, but was pulled away forcibly by the choir director who came to find me because the group was leaving. Bah Humbug. Our first concert went well. And today we sang on the steps in front of the ´Valley of the Fallen´, which the other tourists enjoyed.

Anyway, other folks are waiting for computers, and its time for dinner and then flamenco dancing! So Ole until next time!