This morning I arrived to the bike station just after a skinny bald dude. There were three bikes, two non-operational. He quickly dashed to the one which was apparently available. “I hope you don’t get it” I thought. After a couple of seconds trying to unlock through the app, he shook his head, and walked away briskly.

Having my wish granted gave me no satisfaction, on the contrary, I was slightly saddened for the man. Should I had seen him pedal off on the last bike, the story might be different, but none of us getting it made me realize it was a double loss instead of a single one. What do I gain by wishing the same disgrace that has befallen upon me? Nothing, not even satisfaction or smugness.

Finding myself bikeless, I walked to the next bike station on my way to work, which was also devoid of working bikes. And then the next one with the same result. So I walked to work through a new route and looked at the houses of El Viso, a posh residential area near work. The houses were exactly the same externally except for the paint and the plants in their front porch, but this introduced sufficient variety that you would only recognize the houses as exactly the same after some observation.

I observed that on the corners they have a different kind of house, with a circular staircase in the center (a cylindrical volume would rarely be convenient except to house a staircase). As I walked through the posh neighborhood I saw the same house pattern repeat in different combinations and permutations, each sufficiently different from the next as for it to be interesting, yet the same as to create a coherence in the neighborhood.

Yesterday I went to a Jivamukti studio which I hand’t attended before. It was an exceedingly “devotional” class, almost like attending mass. The teacher welcomed me but I had to onboard myself to the studio by asking her how to check-in, where to change, if I could set up my mat, etc. In the middle of the class I started sweating to I took off my shirt. She quietly approached me and whispered to my ear “please put on your t-shirt”, to which I assented and quietly put it back on.

I was disconcerted for a couple of minutes, I’ve been practicing seven years and I have attended perhaps hundreds of studios in three different countries and not once I’ve seen this dress code, official Jivamukti studios included. I was just slightly embarrassed, but I shrugged it off: that was not my faux pas that was the teacher’s for not onboarding about her studio rules.

I just came back from lunch, this is what I bought at Mercadona:

  1. Meat stuffed eggplant
  2. Salmon with rice and vegetables
  3. Bag of salad greens
  4. Spaghetti Carbonara

This is to register a change in my diet. Now that I’m lacking a kitchen, I’m relying almost entirely on ready-made food to fulfill my nutrition needs. It’s difficult to maintain my weight with this constraint, and the concession I make to reach my calories are bread and pasta.

Before leaving for Athens I asked Claude for recommended readings to get a better understanding of the city. He recommended Lewis Mumford, which I had heard about through his work on history of technology, but his urban planning and architecture writing is top notch. The only problem was that I got a Spanish translation and it reads awkwardly. I can tell the original is profound to the point of the mystical, and I like the way in which his simple allusions point towards a deep erudition without making you feel stupid if you don’t get it. I must get my hands on an English original by Mumford.

I’m gathering my documents to become a Spanish citizen, now that I’ve been living legally in Spain for > 2 years (the length required for Latin American residents). I’m supposed to renounce to my Canadian citizenship, I’ll try not to do it but if I must, Canada will still recognize me as Canadian.

I feel as if I love and care about Spain enough as to become a Spanish citizen. I doubt I would even care about jumping through the hoops if it were only for the legal convenience. At the same time, I identify less and less with my passports and my nationality, but I develop more and more affection towards the places where I’ve lived and yearn to become a full participant of civic life, instead of a stranger who observes and keeps quiet.

My best friend, his wife and their daughter are celebrating their honeymoon after their wedding by coming to Europe, including a weeklong visit to Spain in which I will join them traveling to Toledo, Granada and Sevilla next month. I’m looking forward to them meeting my friends in Spain, I think they will have good chemistry with each other.