Home sweet home

I still can´t believe where I am as I´m writing this- I´m in Susana´s place!!! I´m in Valencia!!! I´m now with a friend who left Toronto just a month ago!!! It´s hard for me to believe that we´re seeing each other just now. But it feels SO good. Visiting a place where I know somebody is expecting me makes me feel special, for in that sense, I feel I´m more than just a visitor or tourist to a place. Very often I find people take heart more deeply than anything else. Of course architectures, landscapes, attractions of a place can be fascinating, but if you know somebody from a place, that place means more than just a name on the map !

Having been traveling for a month, I feel a bit homesick - homesick for a place that feels like home. Staying with Sus´family helps a whole lot - ´cause here I can have homemade-style food, a bedroom where I can throw out whatever I like and not have to worry about it, a fridge from which I can take anything I like and a mom and a dad. As Sus puts it, " My food is your food. My fridge is your fridge. My house is your house. Whenever you feel hungry, just open the fridge and take whatever you want from it."

This make-yourself-home thing makes me feel truly comfortable to be here!

(Oh btw, another "homey" thing I can do here is to watch Roland Garros ((Spanish Nadal vs Argentine Ruperta)) this year! I miss it SO much! I hardly forget I´m one big tennis geek had Sus not asked ...and also one big soccer fan!)

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Blessed by the Meditterranean´s weather, Valencia is drenched with pleasane sunshine all year-round. The beach here in Valencia is just AWESOME! I don´t know how true it is that one doesn´t want to go anywhere after s/he has been to the beach, as Sus insists, but the time spent lying and just enjoying the sun this afternoon was great! I LOVE the beach now! ^.^

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Talking about staying here, I now find Spanish people are by far the most hospitable. This couple Raul and Natalia are my host in Barcelona. They are the BEST host I´ve ever had!!! They are such nice host who would like to do something togther with me and getting to know me. Unexpectedly, they prepared lunch when I first arrived, brought me out for dinner and went to places where I won´t go alone normally. I´m glad that they have a genuine interest in meeting and getting to know people. Natalia was so excited when I told her we had the cartoon "Heidi" back home (Raul and I laughed so hard when she was singing the theme song of Heidi in Spanish. Yea- Natalia ws high that time!!! ) and Raul was very impressed when he found me knowing so many soccer players in Real Madrid and Barca (Of course!!! Rual´s actually one of my favorite players!!!).

Being their first guest from Asia, I found them so interested in knowing about me. Sometimes even the most trivial and slightest matter can trigger their curiosity. One night when i was eating noodles with chopstickes , Raul was looking at me in awe. He didn´t say a word. Eventually I turned my head, feeling embarrassed to tell him that - the way that i hold chopsticks is wrong!

"Comment?" He looked in disbelief.

Then I explained that my mom isn´t that strict and she never really corrects me like other parents do by hitting their kids´hands if they don´t hold it right. And - actaully I find a lot of Chinese don´t hold chopsticks correctly!

He rolled his eyes , looking even more puzzled ...