Bus Station Party

Pictures: ( they are backwards in order- Marina at Alicante, Javier and Edith, The boat with a dragon on the sides, a courtyard at Ken's casa, and the 'sails' I was working on.

Living in the moment... no point in trying to hold on to anything!

Yesterday morning Ken asked if I had decided whether to stay on for a month of 'training', which requires some kind of contract. I had already decided to leave on Monday morning, but had a feeling that as soon as I told him he would have some kind of reaction.

I was right- it took him a few hours, during which Jer and I helped him work on his beached boat in Denia's harbor. We scraped the dragon sculpture on the sides of his boat to get it ready for re-painting. (The boat had broken loose in a December storm and the sides were bashed against the rocks.) The boat is a strange creation that he built with fiberglass or resin, designed for eco-tourism.

All morning we were getting lectures about how the multinationals had ruined the planet. Ken's lecture's are arranged around a set of questions, which I unfortunately often fail to know how to answer. Like, if your baby is crawlin on the dirt floor, what do you do w' it? I said pick it up? which was wrong, apparently, and I missed the connection between that and the multinationals. Ken was losing patience with me, but i had lost patience with him days before. Every sentence in his linguistic pattern ends in a question that pretty much demands acquiescence. isn'i'? wasn'i'? didn'I? With his south Kent accent, or whatever it is. I usually responded with a question of my own, which apparently was mucking up the flow of his delivery.

Anyway, after a morning of scraping, waiting for the paint to be prepared, Ken offered to make tea, but then realized he was out of propane. We then set about to vacuum the sand off the sculpture, but he discovered he was out of gas for the generator. So then he got huffy and said we were leaving. It was a quiet ride back to the house- and as we were getting out of the car, he said, "Right then, you (looking at me) will go pack yer stuff and be off. And you too (Jer), since you are not enthusiastic about the program. Off w' ye, now." He walked off to his dark little rooms in the bottom of the casa.

We looked at each other. "Where did that come from?" Jer asked me.

"Heck if I know." Other guests- Javiar and Edith, were there working on getting a van ready for traveling. They just shook their heads; they were used to his sudden outburts and said he didn't mean it.

I quickly decided to go anyway. Jer did too, so we got on the internet and found bus schedules and made plans. I had a place set up for Monday- and thought that two days on my own sounded good. I found a little hotel in Alicante, a few hours down the coast. Jer found a helpx spot north of Barcelona. We decided it felt great to be leaving. So it was to be a 'bus station party'- Jer's words, and Javier and Edith would give us a ride. They thought it would be funny when Ken found out we actually did leave.

The bus ride is a favorite time for me- a free feeling, an in between place. Spain's bus system is especially convenient, the buses are nice and on time, and not very expensive. So far it has cost me less than 30 euros total to get from Barcelona to Alicante.

I watched the coast roll past on my left,- and more open farm land, small terraced orchards and vinyards, old stone houses in the hill sides on my right.

Then there are more piles of high rises and condos near a city like Benidorm, with Spanish McMansions spreading out over the hills.

I am now enjoying a private room in Hotel San Remo. I walked around a bit last night and plan to see more today. like the Castle Santa Barbara- a ninth century building on a hill nearby.

Tomorrow I take the bus again, for a place called Valor, to do some painting and gardening. These people have great recommendations on their helpx site, so I expect better treatment! I also have a house-sitting job near the coast for the next week. (Both Helpx). So, more soon. I plan to write about the other people out here on the helpx trail- most of them just out of school.