February is over

This week has been a downer because the other American teacher at my school was stabbed in Granda. It looks like a mugging attempt. He'll recover without permanent damage, but it's still upsetting. (Sorry, all, for starting off with crummy news. But it's the most important thing, and I don't want to bury the lede.) I visited him in the hospital Tuesday, and although he was able to joke about it, he was clearly in pain, and worn out.

The sick thing is, one of my first reactions - once I was certain he'd be okay - was jealousy. I mean, that would be an adventure to tell people about! But mostly, I feel like I should be helping somehow, but can't figure out what to do.

Otherwise, not much is new here under the Martos sun (what little I've seen of it with all the rain). Almost immediately after setting what seemed like an impossible goal of practing guitar for an hour a day, I upgraded to 1.5 hours, and I'm actually following through with it. I'm getting good! Recently I've been obsessed with Whiskey in the Jar, but I'm trying to adapt a hybrid of the many versions, something that I can sing with, even though I hate the sound of my own voice. I like singing, even if I stink.

Since coming here, I decided to shift my attitude toward producing more and worryingless about perfecting things (mostly in writing, but in music too). It worked for poems for a while, and it works for guitar, because I have fun with the process as much as with the end result, but so far, it hasn't translated into writing fiction, or blogging, or travel stories, or email.

The excess of free time, combined with lack of money, is weird. I have so much freedom in terms of time, but so little otherwise - I can't really travel, or buy books, for example. I can't go out in Jaen, the regular-sized city next door, on weekends because the buses stop running at 9 p.m. I definitely have made gains (guitar, poems), but I still feel sluggish, as though my emotional metabolism has slowed to match the pace of my isolation.

On the other hand, teaching is still fun, and I haven't ruled out trying to come back next year. I'd try for another place, somewhere a little less sleepy, but I'd lose the advantage of living with friends. Ideally, I'd have some side work to keep me busy and give me a little extra cash. Freelance writing perhaps, or freelance copy editing. Anybody got ideas?

One of my students wrote this answer on a quiz: "It's quarter past o'clock." That's kind of how I feel; stuck in time, but not entirely unenjoyably. Tomorrow I'm finally going to Ubeda and Baeza, two Renaissance towns nearby that are World Heritage Sites. It may take me a month, but eventually I'll let you know how it went.