Temporary and Permanent Lodging

It's been quite a week here! My time in my temporary quarters through AirBnB.com is just about up.  I was able to extend my time a couple of days longer, but I needed to find another place to stay by April 2.  Through an American I met here (a friend of a friend), I thought that I had secured a place just a few blocks from my current location.  But on Friday night I got an urgent call from the owner saying that the current inhabitant of the room I was going to rent was not going to be able to move out by April 2.  So, I quickly had to think of other options!

Luckily, last weekend I decided to take a course at the Shambhala group here on contemplative photography, which is called Miksang (Tibetan for "Good Eye").  As I was exploring other options on Saturday morning, the coordinator of the program became interested in my dilemma.  She said that she and her husband had a room that they could rent to me.  She needed to check with her husband first.  On Sunday she thought it was more than likely that this would work and that we could go on that same day after the program to see the room and to meet her husband.  It all turned out well and on Wednesday I'll be living in my new temporary lodging until mid-June.

Why mid-June?  Well, because today I signed a contract for the flat that I will be in the Sant Antoni neighborhood of Eixample.  I'll tell you more about why I wanted to live in this

neighborhood in my next post. The pictures in my last post already had some photos of the place, so I am showing only one here.  The family that lives there will not be able to move out until June 9. I'll need to have some minor work done before I move in.  Also, an interesting aspect of buying a home in Spain is that it is common that the refrigerator, the washing machine, and possibly other appliances do not automatically convey with the house.  I will be having to buy and have these installed the week after I purchase the home.  But I am very excited!!  And I will enter the flat about two weeks before Chris visits me for a 3 week visit, which I am super- excited about.

Well, back to my last weekend workshop on contemplative photography.  It was taught by an American professor and Shambhala teacher, Lance Brunner, and was translated into Spanish.  I love that combination at times because I can hear how certain phrases that may be very common in English are translated into Spanish.  I was furiously taking notes on both the content and the translated phrases.  In terms of content, I find it fascinating to use the camera as an instrument to retrain the mind to deconstruct the way our conventional mind sees things, letting go of our interpretations of what we see, and just see things as they are - color, light, texture, pattern and space and I begin to get glimpses of true perception.  Here are a few photos that I took.  What I also found amazing was that in these last couple of days, as I walk around this city, whether it's on the metro, or on the streets, or in a restaurant or coffee bar, I notice that my mind is now looking at what I see with slightly different eyes and I begin to see how extraordinary the ordinary is. Fascinating!!