I have three hours a month that are considered private time. Not much. I´ve heard there are companies that give you a day. A whole day. I just have three hours. A month. 😦
And it´s Monday. And I´m trying to find a way to make Mondays more bearable. Today, I´m making use of those three hours so I´ll be home by noon and I´ll lay on my couch with the AC on and I´ll be lazy, pretending it´s a Saturday.
Let´s see if I can survive another Monday!!
We were all very excited about going to Uyuni and chatted cheerfully while having breakfast. Tati, Erika, Javi and me were all ready to go!!
We took a bus to La Quiaca and Javi and Erika ran into Julian, a Canadian guy they had met in Salta. Julián was going to Uyuni too but instead of taking the train he was going by bus and not to Uyuni if not to Tupiza.
He asked us why we were going to take the train and all the guys pointed in my direction, as if I were the one with the answers. I said it was because I liked trains. Julián tried to convince us to change plans and -again- my group expected me to make the right decision.
I said “We´ll see. We have time to decide”.
We crossed the border at noon. We had three hours before departure so we went to get something to eat. Julian asked me again about Tupiza and I said let´s go to the bus station and find out.
But when we were at the bus station, the bus was about to leave, there was no much time to make up my mind so I said “let´s go to Tupiza” and so we did!
Thing is that you can start the circuit from Uyuni to Tupiza and the other way around. So it didn´t really matter where to start so … why not??
And that´s why we ended up in Tupiza. Our Bolivian adventure had just started.
A long time ago a friend of mine was in trouble. Nothing serious but she didn´t know what to do. So I listened and asked her a series of questions as regards her problem. All of a sudden she said “got it! Thanks”. I hadn´t offered a piece of advice, I hadn´t found the solution, yet she thanked me. Years later, she was in trouble again and she came to me. Once again, I listened, asked her questions and she was the one that found a solution. And she thanked me again.
When we finished our studies, I didn´t see her again. Nothing in particular, just life I guess. It´s been more than 20 years since the last time we saw each other.
The other day I ran into her. It was a nice surprise! We didn´t have time to go for a coffee or something so we chatted in the street and tried to catch up in half an hour. She asked me what I was doing and was surprised to learn that I was working for a company and that I hadn´t pursued any field related to our initial studies. She said that she always remembered me and had imagined that I had gone into psychology or counseling or something like this.
I asked her why and she said she always referred to me as “her Socrates”, the girl who always guided her to find an answer on her own instead of giving it to her. She said that I had helped her more than any other person because she had learnt how to ask herself the right question and had profited from that skill throughout her life.
Imagine my surprise!! I didn´t know what to say. We waved goodbye. I took the subway and I couldn´t help but thinking about our little actions. And how our little actions can do either harm or good to a person without us being aware of it. . I never thought at the time that I was giving somebody a long-lasting lesson. I´m just glad that my little actions had a positive outcome and not the other way around.
My last day in Tilcara. There is one place I particularly love: the Pucará. It´s an indian construction at the top of a low mountain from where you can see the whole area. It´s partly reconstructed and every time I go I have this feeling of timelessness. I walk aimlessly through the site, picturing myself as a native living that simple life. Utter silence. Peacefulness. It feels really good. And I do wish I could stay longer but there comes this guard that says “lady, we are about to close”.
I didn´t want to leave but I had to. I had a second gift though. I found this coffee shop where I could enjoy a semi private concert while having my coffee. It was so magical … one of those moments you treasure for ever.
After this wonderful day, I came back to the hostel and had dinner with my “followers”. We were all very excited. Our Bolivian adventure was to start.
It´s been a month now.
She doesn´t even live in my building.
It´s the building across the street.
I heard her the first time, shouting.
“Sinner, you are a sinner. You cheated on me. I hate you. You and your whore”
And the story repeats since then. I hear the same argument, over and over again. She is on the phone. It seems he hangs up. I hear her shouting again. Saying “I´m not shouting, I´m just telling you”.
And I hear all from my balcony, where I´m supposed to relax after a long day. And I feel like shouting too. Please, get over it. It´s been a month. Get over it and stop shouting.
And I cannot understand. If they are shouting, they hear each other perfectly well. Why can´t they listen to each other instead?
After the hike, I decided to walk around Tilcara. It´s really a beautiful city, very colorful and cheerful.
Once in the hostel the girls and I talked about what we had done after the hike. I was telling Tati about my plans for the following day. Go to La Quiaca, cross the border and catch the train to Uyuni. Tati loved the idea but she wanted to spend another day in Tilcara. Then Javi and Erika joined us in the hammocks and I mentioned them my plans too. Erika had that look in the face, that look that says “I want in” . You could read it on her forehead. And Javi started asking lot of questions about it. Then a guy from North Africa joined us and said he had been there and how much he had enjoyed the trip.
In less than an hour Javi, Erika and Tati had decided to go with me, the only thing was they wanted to stay in Tilcara one more day . So I agreed to wait for them. I had some places to see too so it was not a big sacrifice.
Most of the times, when people say “I hate this or that” it´s just an expression to show how much we dislike something. But is it really “I hate”? In its deepest meaning? According to psychology books, “hate” is a “deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object.” Because hatred is believed to be long-lasting, many psychologists consider it to be more of an attitude or disposition than a temporary emotional state.
So I can say that I hate Mondays. It´s not a temporary emotional state. It´s an attitude and disposition. It´s not a way of saying. I truly hate Mondays. And I´ll have to find a way to love them.
Off to work now !!!
Almost two years ago some old schoolmates contacted me in Facebook. I´m always in two minds about Facebook. My theory is that what is in the past, it´s in the past for a reason. It´s not that I didn´t love my schoolmates. I have the best memories of those years. Really. It´s that in 35 years’ time people change. We were 12 year olds when we last saw each other.
But they wanted to see me and I –very reluctantly- went to that first meeting. There were just 4 of them, the ones that were close to me in those years. And we had a great time. It was like if all these years hadn´t gone by. It was easy to reconnect.
Now, two years later, I´m still in touch with three of them and I´m really happy that they are in my life. They turned out to be fabulous grownups. And they got to know me and accept me and my quirky moods. Well, this is a two-way street since I welcomed them into my life just the way they are.
Their acceptance includes that I can be talking to them and all of a sudden I grab my camera and I say “don´t move” and I shoot. Just like the other day when one of them came over for a coffee to talk about some issues that were getting on her nerves. In the middle of our conversation I made her stay put and go blind (according to her) just to take a picture because I liked the light. And because it was a pun, difficult to translate into English as most puns but let´s say that the Spanish word for “to be screwy” is striped and she was literally “striped/screwy”.
They didn´t mean to be picturse of artistic value, they were meant to be a joke but everybody liked them.
I guess that friendships that are based on true connections are meant to last. I cannot say what bonded us in the past. We were little kids, and kids bond easily unlike adults. But there must have been something more than just being kids in the same school. And I´m happy for that.
The Wanderer 