la mañana

today: i wake up.

i check the clock, it's 9:13. the sun is a bright square on the floor, and i remember i have class in 45 minutes.

i get dressed slowly. i do not make myself look cute for breakfast, because that is stupid. other people do. you know. i just wear the same shirt i slept in.

i go down two flights of stone stairs. they are wide and airy, and do not feel cloistered (this place used to be a convent). it's a nice morning walk, and i'm starving.

the dining hall is also pretty, and bright--an ancient mess hall. the morning server smiles at me, she's wearing lipstick. i can see the courtyard through big windows, and the radio's on: the voice of prince or rhinanna swims quietly through the room. as three or four people bend over their meals, i head straight for the coffee.

the coffee is greyish. and it's good...ish. there's a hot-milk carafe for adding, and packets of sugar and small spoons to stir. i like this ritual.

two tables are spread with breakfast. there are big ceramic bowls of cornflakes and chocolatey pellety things. there is very sweet milk (the best milk) in silver pitchers. the other table has toast, a bottomless basket of fruit, and row upon row of sugar-slicked pastries. oh. my. goodness. i stay close to the cornflakes, for protection.
the pastries are very persuasive.

sometimes i eat alone, sometimes not. today, mahayla and jinny are up and bleary. they mutter "hola" and ask how i slept. we are comfortable and not too chatty. many times we discuss what dreams we've had the night before. because...well because i don't know why.

we sit for a while and then leave at different times. mahayla has a test and jinny already needs a siesta. i stay later, because i like to drink more than one cup of coffee. and i like the empty yellow morning and the tinkling of the kitchen staff. they are tireless.

i go back up to my room and open the window. the white curtain billows in toward me, like a sail. i have ten minutes until class. my windowsill is wide, cool stone, and i can see curved red tiles on the roof below, embellised with dappled green fungi. there are high craggy hills in the distance and some guardian cypress trees. when i lean against the sill, i can see far.

toledo's waking up outside.