A relaxing Saturday morning for me.
I’ve been back in Barcelona for a week and a half now, and I’m still struggling with the last bits of jet lag. Friends who’ve never experienced jet lag are totally mystified and not quite sure it’s a real thing. Trust me, it is!
Rainy days make the pretty buildings turn incredible colors, like this semi-abandoned (I think) theater. 

Last night, I went to bed on a Friday at midnight and woke up at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, which is really really unlike me. 8:30 a.m. on Saturday has been my “Friday night” bedtime in the past. But it gave me lots of time to do some nice things this morning. 

A typical Saturday morning in Barcelona.

But it’s not so bad. I woke up and read 100 Years of Solitude for a few hours on my fancy new (to me) Kindle.* So far, so good, although I think my favorite of Gabriel García Márquez’s books is going to remain News of a Kidnapping, the nonfiction one about drug wars in Colombia.  Read this one now if you haven’t, it’s incredible. 

*Side note about the Kindle: I was so, so against e-books. Almost as much as Maurice Sendak here: 

And I pretty much still am 100% against them. HOWEVER. I like reading a lot, and while I’m abroad it makes my life easier. Plus it was an inherited gift, so I didn’t pay to support their evil empire. I was slightly more convinced when a friend gave me literally thousands of books for it.

Now I have basically an endless supply of things to read, without having to run all over the city to pay for expensive English-language books. So I’m considering it an almost-necessary evil. A nice evil, maybe. That doesn’t mean I support e-books!*

Anyway, it’s grey and overcast here today, and it’s been threatening to rain for the past few days. It finally started to gently drizzle mid-morning. The cars are going whooshing by on the street making that fun sound of wheels in water.

It actually muffles the traffic noise a bit too, and the construction workers aren’t here today. This is incredible in and of itself, because there are currently three massive construction projects on my 130-ish meters of street. There was a fourth on the back of my apartment building, but they finally left yesterday. 

The city really brightens up on gloomy days. The trees are all bare now though. 

When I got tired of reading, I watched my favorite new T.V. show Face Off. It’s an awesome competition show with movie makeup artists who do some incredible stuff. So much fun! 

I eventually wandered out of my room to find my flatmate making café con leches for everyone, and a visiting friend pressing a delicious fresh croissant into my hands. Seriously nice people and seriously lucky timing for me!

Now I’m back in bed contemplating finishing my unpacking (still not done…aaargh), or possibly heading to the rebajas. Those are the massive sales Spanish stores have twice annually, and they’re seriously amazing. They happen in January and July, and go for a month or two. Maybe I’ll go today.

Maybe I’ll just spend the afternoon napping instead so I’m not too tired to party tonight. I’m going to a multiple-DJ concert with a group of friends, and maybe to the big fashion fair that’s there before the show starts. We’ll see; it probably depends on the weather.

Barcelona is pretty in the rain and in the wintery light, but I’d almost always rather be inside when it’s raining. 

Maybe I’ll spend the day working on things inside in the dry. Right now, it’s actually nice to just have time to spend alone because life has been so so so tough for a while.

I’m trying really hard to start being more myself again and just enjoying things.

Usually I love being super social and active, and I’m relaxed and happy, so whenever I feel like staying in even I’m puzzled by my emotions! But I think to get back to this, I have to learn to let go of all my expectations. When I have expectations I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself and end up disappointed when I’m not perfect.

So I’m trying to just let go and relax and be ME again. I’m looking for that thing they try to get you to achieve at the end of yoga classes, where your mind is only focused on the immediate, not the past or the future, so you can just enjoy the real present.

Sounds easy, but it’s very, very hard to for me to do. Maybe if I pretend for long enough, I’ll start to be myself again.  

Still, in the immediate present, the rain is gentle and I’ve had a nice morning. And although jet lag isn’t very nice, it did give me some chill time this morning that I might not have had otherwise. So it could be worse!

Currently reading: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Currently listening: “Machu Picchu” by the Strokes

Besos!

-Jess