Es Weird

I was walking to catch my bus this morning and I started to watch a squirrel that seemed to be trying to keep pace with me. As I watched his jerky movements I started to think that this is what people look like when walking under strobe lights. Then I started to think of a squirrel at a disco and it made me laugh. This is no small feat considering it was 7:30 am and I am not a morning person.

And on a completely unrelated topic, I stumbled onto my latest obsession thanks to the Seattle Public Library. I picked up a book Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island by Lea Aschkenas and was sucked into the plight of an American traveling to an island completely forbidden and being with a Cuban trying to get to America. I just finished my second book about Cuba, Ay, Cuba! by Andrei Codrescu, an NPR reporter. It was a totally different angle, as a tourist with nothing emotionally vested into the adventure than curiosity and compassion. Now, thanks to my curiosity and the compelling story of the country, I have to go to Cuba. Not that it will be easy. I do not expect some tropical paradise or super happy place with super happy people. I expect it to make me sad and angry and pissed off, but I still want to go. Some day.

So my international travel 'to-do' list is (in order): Japan, France (Paris), Cuba, India, Germany (Berlin), Iceland, Italy (Tuscany), Spain, Morocco, and Costa Rica.