Day 40: Tumbling towards fluency

I'm having a lot of strange feelings, a lot of new feelings.

Now feeling so far removed from my hometown, country, everything, I finally feel good in another city. This is new, to feel comfortable, yet continuously challenged, by a language, by men, by isolation. I cherish the people at bar fly for taking me in, showing me kindness.

Today, the city is booming with people from the festival, streets filled with pedestrians as far as the eye can see, music, clowns, street performers of all shapes and sizes and I blend in with my pack. But unlike the many tourists that come only for the final Cerventino Festival weekend, I have been here for nearly a month and I want them to leave.

I spend the afternoon taking a ciesta in my new hostel, Casa Mexicana, I awake to find the clock on the kitchen wall says the same time as it did when I fell asleep. I am late for my coffee/ice cream/spanish conversation date with Julio. I run up the stairs to bar fly (conveniently located next door to my hostel), look out the window and spot him across the street. As I go to run back down the stairs my head hits the low ceiling located at the curve in the stairs, my feet slip, my knee twists, and down I go in writhing pain.

Coffee date turns into 2 shots of tequila for me, a run to the pharmacy for Julio and the only conversation being "me duele la pierna." Dancing plans? Cancelled. I found myself a seat at the bar (around 7pm), and stayed there until 2am when the bar closed early because of a tear gas situation.