Poor yourselves a glass of wine, put this playlist on, and listen as you read… Then DANCE YOUR ASSES OFF!!! I LOVE YOU!
We’ve been settled into our permanent place for about two weeks. We moved in two weeks ago this upcoming Monday and jetted off to school. This is after our lovely Airbnb debacle occurred where we ended up going to a hotel and smuggling our cat in. If you want to stay close to us, I will give you the hotel name separately but do not want them to know we had breached their rules 😀
Once we checked out of our temporary home two weeks ago, we had an Airbnb set up for the two interim nights before we finally landed in our permanent home.
Matt and I took the steps for drugging the cat for the journey, packed everything up, checked out of temporary housing one at 1 and then took a cab to the Airbnb … Check in time was set up with the host for 2 p.m. We waited and waited, by 230 pm after two attempts to call via WhatsApp and emailing… Finally around 2:35 someone arrived. Unfortunately, she said she still needed to clean the apartment and ran ahead of us up the stairs to our place. When we finally caught up, she was still knocking on the door and not even inside. My heart sank. I think what she had said was the tenants were still in the condo and she would need to clean after. But my understanding of Spanish has diminished so much since I finished school that I am having a harder time with the language than I realized I would.
Finally the door opens and these two young men emerge looking as if they hadn’t slept in years and also had a joint lit… As they walked past us, the second young man blew out an exhale from the joint and they muttered something as they left. At this point in time, all I could think was how badly I had to pee. I asked the woman if I could use the bathroom and she said, “let me clean it first…” I stepped in and was appalled. The place was in horrendous condition! I couldn’t believe what they had done to 300 sq feet… It was as if it had been a drug den for sex and rolling. I was so grossed out. We recorded footage of the condition of the place and decided we’d be better off staying elsewhere. There was no way we could get the filth out of our minds, even if she had cleaned it. The entire place needed to have been completely bleached and aired out. It was hot boxed with cigarette and pot smoke. Those who know me understand that I am not a prude in many ways but the filth and the stains on the upholstery left little to the imagination. Thankfully we were able to get on the wi-fi, book a hotel, and immediately left. We contacted Airbnb once we were comfortably settled into the hotel and they instantly approved our refund as they saw the video footage of the place.
The past two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. Envision a storm cloud full of rainbows, lightening, hailing joy, sadness, disbelief, nostalgia, and the immense vulnerability that is pouring through each of us as we begin anew. We are both students again. The beginning of a new world of which we actively chose to begin. It’s the shock and awe that we were actually able to make it happen!
The immense “unlearning” and breaking down of constructs of which I personally had held so closely, I didn’t realize how much they had ultimately become shackles of a feigned comfort. It wasn’t a comfortable comfort but more of a familiarity. And why disrupt that familiarity? Well we chose to do this to shake things up.
And god damn, that is what we are doing. I am on week 3 ½ of not smoking any pot. This, for those of you who know me, is a HUGE challenge. I am so proud of myself but also often find it to be in the back of my head of “How nice it would be”… but would it? I am re-learning how to exist and be still without any distractions.
I am listening to Johnny Cash’s rendition of Hurt. It just came on and it is flowing through me…
“What have I become, my sweetest friend. Everyone I know goes away in the end.” I hope this isn’t true. I miss you all so goddamn much. The depth of gratitude and love to all of you in my community. I want to be sure we are still connected. But I guess that is the unlearning. We are all connected through our past memories and the impact we’ve left on one another.
I went to my first yoga class in Madrid today and bought a 10 class pack. It is right down the street from our place and the teacher was amazing. Check them out here:
Also, for a reward once I graduate, I have decided to do a yoga class in a sensory deprivation pool! Check it out here, such a cool concept that I haven’t heard about.
We accidentally used up all our internet for the month in these two weeks… SO, we will be MIA for a bit. But I will post pictures and all sorts of things periodically. Here are some gems from the past two weeks.
With so much love!
~Melanie
Be Bold with Buttonwillow 