the desert.

Bonne and I decided that we had been perfectly matched with our camels; hers wheezed every time it went up even a slight hill, and mine kept trying to deviate from the path. We named them Sean Preston and Jayden James.

Caught up in the moment, I took off my glasses and threw my head back, breathing and exhaling the cool desert air. I wanted no barrier between myself and the universe in that moment; I wanted to merge with the stars and the vast, unending sky, to feel the history of the dunes and sand, to hear nothing but that heavy silence blanketing the constant, steady trudge of camel feet. 

Soon I had spun away into elaborate fantasies of dark-featured men on horseback, swords and jewels and stealthy midnight caravans, of galloping away into darkness never to be heard from again....

Sighing, I looked back down, only to realize that my camel had come loose from the pack and was leading us all towards Algeria.

“H...Help!” I squeaked once I had fumbled my glasses back on and realized that there was indeed, only desert in front of me.

“Help!” I called again.

“What’s wrong?” Bonne said. Clearly, we are not the pair to rely upon when navigating the Sahara.

“Sean Preston came off his tether! HELP!” I yelled as SP strode jauntily over the edge of an embankment.

love on the beach in barcelona.

We (Bonne, Lorena, and I) went to the beach with the boys (Kent, Travis, and Joe). While we were there a man came along the beach in a jester hat. It had three plumes and three bells. 

"Do any of you guys want to buy love?" He asked. 

"YES!" I said right away. 

My compatriots groaned. 

The man was delighted to be indulged. He approached where I was sitting. 

"How much are you willing to pay?" He said. 

"Hmm." I said. I rummaged around at the bottom of my purse. 

"40 cents," I said, holding it out. 

He took the change and smiled. 

"Let me give you your gift," he said. 

"Oh no," said Joe. But I was excited for my love offering. 

"Here," the man said, pulling something from his pocket. It was a white paper heart. 

"This is yours to keep," he said, pressing it into my hand. 

"Oh BOY!" I said. "I truly have never had love so good as this."

Bonne rolled her eyes. "You are so self-DEPRICATING," she said. 

I started to ask the man who else he had sold love to, and for what price, but the incredulous stares of the boys told me that they wanted this stranger out of our midst as soon as possible. 

So I let the conversation wane, and soon the man was on his way again, his three-plumed hat bobbing off into the horizon. 

the cannibal in Cordoba

This is the story of when Lorena and I went to visit Cordoba, and it was the weekend of a festival, and we hadn't made any hostel reservations and everywhere was full, and so we ended up staying with a cannibal.

Lorena doesn't think she was a cannibal, but I am most certain that she was.

"I know a cannibal when I see one," I told Lorena.

We had arrived at the Cordoba bus station at 6, and by 11 we were on the verge of tears in a hostel lobby.

"Can't we just sleep in the corner, behind that plant?" We pleaded. "We'll pay you the price for a room. No one will even know we're there!"

The young man just turned his palms up. There was nothing he could do.

We heaved our bags back to the street and stood staring hopelessly up at the sky.

"Looks like we'll just have to go find an empty bench at the train station," said Lorena. "We can take turns sleeping." 

"OR," I proposed, "We can just go to a bar, get really drunk, and see what happens!" 

Lorena seemed to be contemplating it when an older man approached us.

"Do you girls still need a room?" He asked, sidelong. 

We exchanged looks. What did he have in mind? 

"There's a woman across the street," he said. "Her name is Pilar. We have sort of an... arrangement with her for when the hostel is full... she takes in