At Last
8/31/10
After two months of anticipation, I made it to Katerina’s. She picked me up from the bus station around 2pm when I got in and took me back to her place, making me give her my second bag to carry as soon as she finished giving me a hug. She did a bit of work and we talked awhile, sharing some of our travel stories before going out for a walk to a nice park area with a beautiful view overlooking the city. After, I made my world-famous nachos, which we had with a bottle of wine that was impossible to open. The process of opening the bottle took about a half hour and damaged my metal thermos. The only way to get it open in the end was to literally drill through the cork with a knife (I had tried everything else); we had to strain the cork out of the wine with a tea strainer. We were both laughing the whole time.
I don’t really know where I stand with Katerina right now. We were so close for four days in Spain; there are times when she opens up a bit and will flirt or laugh or just share that closeness, but other times (a lot of the time) it feels like the time in Spain meant more to me than it did her. I am sure that she probably has shared other attachments with people since then (she spent at least an hour last night on skype with a boy…I didn’t hear the conversation, but her tone of voice actually made me turn up the music so I would hear less). It would be embarrassing if I had built our time together up higher than I should have. I feel like a visitor, not a former–whatever we were.
All that said, she has been very sweet. I can tell she wants me to be as taken care of as possible–she got me maps, tried to get me to take her bed (I wouldn’t let her sleep on the floor, though), and even gave me a cell phone to keep in touch with her just in case of an emervency. She is a great host and I can sense that she feels responsible for me while I’m here, which is really sweet but unnecessary…I feel like it just adds another stressful element that prevents us from being on equal wavelengths. I am happy to be here, and I hope she opens up a bit more.
