18 febrero 2015

The other day I was walking by Plaza Nueva. It was the morning, and I’d had my language class and then gone for a run up the hill past the Alhambra, out of the woods, and to the cemetery, where I’d been told to go. I felt weird walking around the cemetery, because there was this woman who I ran into twice who looked at me like it was weird that I was in the cemetery, and I was like, it’s probably weird that I’m in this cemetery, even if this cemetery has posters outside saying it’s a stop on Eurotours of cemeteries, which exist, and at least I don’t have my camera.

It was an interesting cemetery. There were modern parts, like these fountains that were square and rectangular, and reminded me of something Donald Judd would have made, either for a cemetery or for something else. And there were also old parts, where there were so many statues on top of graves—all of these sculptures of women draped over steps or just the grave markers themselves, and lots of crosses, etc., but bigger and more than I’m used to in the U.S. And there was an elevator at one part, to get to this higher part, since the cemetery is on a hill. And there were all these corridors that I’d never seen before, like seven coffins tall, which look like filing cabinets, or those Japanese hostels you hear about, except they were for coffins. And then I wound up wandering into this part where the slots were empty, because they were waiting to be filled with dead people, and I was like, I do not think this cemetery is for me. Also, I had been very impressed, because there were flowers everywhere, and it took me 30 minutes in this cemetery (it was a big cemetery, and I got kind of compulsive about seeing it) to realize that most of them were fake! Which is totally understandable. There were a few real ones, but they were mainly dead.

So I left the cemetery and go for the rest of my run, which is very nice. I went into this hillside neighborhood with roosters and all of these cacti, and ended up being surrounded by cacti, and I was like, you are so much better than coffins. And then I was in what I think was an olive grove, and I did some lunges. And then I ran back down the hill to the room in my study abroad program’s headquarters where I’d left my backpack, during my run, because the headquarters are in Plaza Nueva, which is closer to the hill where I wanted to run, on which there was the cemetery.

The cemetery was particularly significant because yesterday I had gone to church for the first time in my life with my host abuela, Trini(dad). We went to mass. And afterwards we talked about religion and I told her how I hadn’t been raised with any religion, but to say that I had to use the Spanish double negative (“No tengo ningún fe”), which I thought was kind of interesting, in the moment.

So I’m walking down the sidewalk of Reyes Catolicos, the avenue that leads up to Plaza Nueva, when I see this huge white dog. He’s really beautiful, like a wolf polar bear combo, and is completely clean and bright white, and he’s walking in the middle of this street, which has two lanes, and cars and motorcycles, but he’s walking on this rocky straight divider in the middle of the street, and totally slowly and calmly and completely straight, so he couldn’t actually get hit. And I’m looking at this dog, who is so noble and beautiful and apparently intelligent, and I have just been to church and then a cemetery, and I’m just like, God?

I keep walking, and at this point I have passed the dog, because we were going in opposite directions. But I am amazed by the dog, so I turn around after a few steps to see what he’s going to do once he gets to the end of the rock divider island in the middle of the street, because it’s about to end close to the plaza, but he will still be in the road. So I turn around, and he’s still walking straight, though now on the normal pavement, and more slowly. And then he crouches and literally sprays the street with the biggest dog shit I have ever seen in my life. A car goes around him, and honks, and I’m just like, I really like it here.