vida nova

Well, been in Sabadell for exactly a week. I am living in a bit of an intentional community in a monastery in the city's downtown. We do work for the city hall, including recycling runs, picking up furniture in the street (ie trash) and picking up donated clothing from bins around the city. We then take the clothing to a rented barn and sort it to sell in our 2 thrift stores. The money from the government jobs and the thrift stores pays for the house's utilities, food, etc, and we who live and work here have access to whatever we need from the thrift store. In sum, working here 30 or so hours a week, I have free room and board, access to things I may need, and an additional €40 a week, which is about $70. To me, the most important service rendered by the community is housing for immigrants. Immigrants can live in this house for free until they get Spanish citizenship and can legally work here, find their own livelihood. I am so excited every day that I get up for work (at 6 30!), knowing that money that I help generate houses people who may otherwise be in the street. Even if I am paid minimal, it feels so good that the money is going to help others. Our surplus money is sent overseas for local projects in developing countries, such as funding schools, sanitation.

Today was the 25th anniversary of the community, so we went on a trip to Tarragona, which I already knew pretty well from my days with Celia. The last half hour of the trip, I ducked out to visit her. We split a beer and chatted, very nice to see her. I met up with the others and we went to Altafulla, which was a very important Roman city. We had a nice lunch and then went to a museum to see the ruins. Really fascinating, there was a Roman bath that was very much still intact, waterways, cisterns, latrines, bedrooms, and work areas for sorting and storing grain. Wow! We left and went to a really beautiful cliff, about 25 foot vertical drop to the Mediterranean Sea. You could see boats on the horizon, and directly underneath, the water was clear enough to see right through it. I faintly heard a guitar, so I walked a bit down the beach and there were 2 girls and a guy on the beach, one of the girls was playing the guitar. Feeling a bit ambitious, I asked if I could play a little, and I actually played them 3 of my songs .. they enjoyed them. Cute girls! A lot of times I meet people here with whom I'd like to keep in touch. It's a bit difficult, I don't have a phone, and they live in Barcelona, I live in Sabadell.

Someone new moved into the house, his name is Gerald, and he's French. Really great guy! We seem to have a lot in common, easily influenced, curious nature, etc. He spent 10-15 years of his life as a street artist, living relatively comfortably, travelling to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greece, and Ibiza with watercolor as his only livelihood. Selling paintings in the street, able to rent an apartment, eat somewhat well, and rent a motorcycle. He's going to help me set up a portable stand to sell my drawings in the street, and give me tips on how to do so successfully. How exciting! Tomorrow I have off, I plan on waking up and laying in bed for an hour or two, just reading and relaxing, and then going out to buy some things for my future career as a street artist, etc. Thursday I'm going to see the swedish vampire movie "Let the right ones in" and then off to Bar Krasna, which has live jazz every thursday.