Outside the city is taking a long tropical shower. Like a voyeur I’m sipping my coffee inside, all fluffy in my peignoir. Windows open inhaling the fresh air, watching the city change colour, listening to it making sounds it hardly ever makes. The soothing song of pouring rain. June in Valencia, the buildings and its inhabitants are sleeping through sweaty nights, mosquitoes finding all the sweet spots to bite. So I gladly welcome in the rains. From my balcony I see a man in a suit riding his bike through this puddle of a street. Apart from a suit, he is wearing 3 plastic bags, 2 for shoes and 1 for a hat. Dry feet and hair, the rest of his body soaking wet. People are weird creatures.
Talking about weird creatures, I can’t wait to become one myself. I mean, fully embracing the weirdness and letting it out without the fear of being judged. To be able to live in a city I feel I need at least one (or two) weeks of letting go completely. No better place to do so than the desert, a regional burn called Nowhere. I’m going for the third year in a row and I already know the first days will be hard. The endless amounts of dust everywhere, but e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. The heat, the constant need for sleep, music all day and night, just a lot of everything, really. But after a day or 2, 3, something magical happens: I blend in.
I become one with the desert, I give up trying to fight the dust creeping into every crevice, I keep going on tiny particles of sleep, I connect to the sun as it sets, yelling along with the hippies and howl when the moon rises behind the hills. I let go of my fears and routines, I forget how to be a proper city girl and turn into a desert rat. My inner child gets out to play, big time. Dancing as if all my dances for an entire year need to take place within the span of a week. Laughing until I cry, crying until I laugh again. Workshops where I’m learning life skills (non-violent communication, money magic,…) and where I just learn to express my feelings as a chicken (yep).
I’ll be cooking for a whole lot of people and that might be one of my favourite things to do. Sipping on a cold beer, wearing some velvets and sparkles in a kitchen in the middle of the desert, cooking up a storm with a bunch of excellent humans. Desert dreams turning reality.
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