aroraborealis

I've tried twice to write up a succinct description of my Mexico trip, and there is no way to sum it up without turning it into a wall of text that I just don't think is that interesting to read, but I don't have enough perspective on it to be able to pull out the important or salient points. Suffice it to say that we couldn't find the rental house the first night, and after looking for it for over an hour in the dark, we gave up and got an emergency hotel room, and that was only one of at least three things going wrong at the time. It was pretty stressful and non-vacationy feeling.

We did eventually find the house the next day, and we got a discount on two nights' stay, because the owner hadn't given us instructions on how to find it. And the day after that, my suitcase arrived and I finally had swimsuits and tropical-friendly clothing, which really improved my mood a lot.

The middle of the trip was killer. We visited several cenotes, which were as magical as I've imagined (cave snorkeling!!!) and some ruins, and a super chill beach restaurant serving (among other things) whole fried fish and micheladas.

The house was just gorgeous, and private and magical, with a deck just above treetop height, so we had a long view across the top of the mangrove swamp to the sunset each night.

I hated the Tulum beach stretch. On the scale of 0="this place is for locals" and 10="this place is for tourists", my vacation sweet spot is probably about a 4-5. I occasionally like a 1-2, but not for a chilling vacation, which is what this was. I'm happy to be able to venture out and find a cocktail or some good coffee, but I don't want all the local flavor to have been steamrolled by the capitalistic race to the most tourist-oriented comforts of "home". This is the first and only time I've been to a tropical beach and found not a single store selling colorful sundresses. Almost all the clothes for sale were earth toned upscale hippy clothing in linen for $300-600 an item for people half my size. I know so many people who love Tulum, and now that I've been there, I can comfortably say: huh???

But we were toured around by a super earnest and friendly young taxi driver, who put together a great introduction to the area for us, and was a great tour guide and general company, and so we really did have a great time during the week.

Also, I spoke more Spanish than I have in YEARS, and I got a bunch of really surprised reactions to my accent, which is evidently better than I realized: more than once, someone handed me the Spanish version of the menu thinking that Spanish was my first language on the basis of my accent. Gratifying!

Which is good, because getting home was another shitshow, with my flight getting delayed by 6 hours after a flight attendant had to be evacuated by ambulance to the hospital and we waiting for a new flight attendant to arrive from NY. Then we took off only to turn around 5 minutes later when the captain said there was "a problem with the ventilation system" and we landed back in Cancun ... where we then had to go BACK through customs, because there was no other plane for us, so we spent another night in Cancun, only it was actually an hour away from Cancun, because where else will you find enough rooms for a plane full of people on short notice on a Saturday night in Spring Break Season in Cancun?

It does make a pretty good story over drinks, and I actually do feel like I had a vacation, but as one of my travel companions said once we were all home: "I am glad [that trip] happened but goddamn if it didn't feel like a test I didn't know I was taking in a subject I haven't studied."

I'm really glad to be home.

So, I'm in Costa Rica! It's beautiful and warm and lush and green. I have a sunburn and I hardly care. I've swum in the ocean each of the last three days, and my skin feels amazing. My Spanish is coming back to me more quickly and substantially than I exoected, even with relatively casual use. I even successfully deployed the subjunctive a few times today!

I want to have a lot to say about it, but I don't, really, at least not yet. It's nice to be away, spending pretty minimal time at a screen, soaking up sun and some real, solid relaxation.

For those of you wondering about the confessional: I can't host and moderate from here (nor would I want to), so I'll be posting it next week sometime.

In preparation for my vacation, commencing in 10 minutes, I just did tequila shots with HR.

I have done SO MANY THINGS today, and now all my to-dos are marked off my list.

Frankly, this is amazing.

Vacaycay!

Today, we fought off soda-thirsty wasps, wandered around Mitte, visited the DDR Museum (not what you game-players think), and took pictures of YA fiction translated into German. It was great.

I am in denial about flying back to Boston tomorrow. Deep, deep denial.

Since last I was on the internet, I have been magically transported(1) from Gniezno, Poland to Berlin, Germany. While Gniezno was picturesque and lovely, I must admit I'm happy to be in a less foreign-feeling locale. Many of the people here speak English, and even if a grouchy woman yelled at me for not knowing how to open the door into the ATM room at the bank, a nice man later made up for it by bringing me tasty food and drinks and being generally charming. Also, I like cities.

On the other hand, while in Poland I perfected my skills of pointing, nodding enthusiastically, and handing over way more money than the purchase calls for just to be sure I'm covering it. Overall, it was fine, and an adventure, but tiring.

Here, our freaky good luck continued when, though the key that was left for us to get into our apartment didn't work on the front door into the building, one of the doors was open, so we were able to slip in. The key DID work on our apartment, and inside, it contained two sets of keys that DO work on the front door. And also an unexpected ethernet cord, which we thought we would have to rent or buy. It's like the cord was an apology from the apartment gods for the key mixup.

Our apartment is sweet and welcoming.

We wandered around our neighborhood and found a small, cozy place for dinner -- the first place this trip (despite our time in Poland) to offer pirogi -- and then started what I intend to be a tradition of at least one ice cream cone per day, as ice cream seems to be ubiquitous and popular around here. Also, the charming man who brought us drinks gave us a suggestion for a park to visit tomorrow, which I think we will do.

(1) Which is to say, an extremely tolerant taxi driver who managed to suss out our destination despite not a word of shared language and a faulty google map, a rickety local train, a smooth but slightly smelly express train, an s-bahn train and a u-bahn train. Plus, some walking. But now we're here, so nevermind!

I like vacation.

It's hard to go wrong with a weekend involving 3 fantastic friends, 26 bottles of wine, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of tequila, a bottle of rye whiskey, and various other entertainments in a house with a hottub, a wood-fired sauna, a beautiful spiral staircase, and a lake.

Well, we didn't actually get to the lake, because we were terrified of the hordes of vicious mosquitos. Seriously, those things were congregating at the doorway plotting to carry one of us away if we stood still for more than five seconds in a stretch.

The house we were in was gorgeous, with big windows full of green, leafy light and skylights and quirky art. The woods of the back yard featured several windows and a door nailed to trees, like a house of airy forest.

I don't remember the last vacation I took that I did so much nothing, and though more would have been overkill, this was just perfect. I got enough sleep, and good sleep at that, and gave my brain a big, long rest, which has, unsurprisingly, set it spinning off in different directions. Good ones, I think. I hope.

The best things this weekend, unsurprisingly, were my companions, the sense of unhurried plenty, gales of uproarious laughter, and the huge smile that may have left my face when I was asleep, but may not.

So, I went to California, and I got back a week ago, and I haven't really succeeded in my goal of writing down some of my favorite or most moving moments of the trip, so I'm beginning to think I might not. Instead of the full posts I'd been envisioning, I want to capture the overall arc of my vacation, which started with me feeling somewhat out of sorts with myself, and ended up with me feeling much more settled in an important way:

On Thursday afternoon, I spent an hour sitting in the sun of the Berkeley farmer's market, with a curious-but-content baby on my lap, listening to folksy buskers and having delicious, juicy produce delivered to me by an industrious toddler and his adult-in-tow. It was one of the most do-nothing hours of my vacation in a curious way, and filled me up with quiet contentment that I love and have been missing.

On Friday evening, I attended a completely fantastic party, during which I would say I grazed more than settling in at any point, and somehow, along the way, reminded myself in a way that carried not only intellectual weight but emotional weight, that I like the path I'm on.

So, there was a lot of other good stuff, because vacation is better than not-vacation, but I brought some good, important things back with me.

I don't think I can say enough good things about a day that starts with conspiring to bring an extra person from Boston to the Bay Area for the weekend, leads into the perfect Bloody Mary, shopping along Haight Street, Bi-Rite ice cream in Dolores Park, and awesome margaritas in the Mission. Now, down time before a glittery party. Yay, glitter!

I like this place. And vacation. Yes.

Sleep good STOP Vacation awesome STOP sunshine mocha strolling kittens sandals STOP Moving to vacationland forever STOP Don't stop