Emiliano Mancilla

San Diego was surprisingly windy and cold, and I just had a thin jumper. It wasn’t clear if I needed a transport card and the night was coming. Fortunately I could pay with my debit card, and once I got in, I could notice the abrupt difference with Chicago. San Diego felt more colorful, it didn’t have as many buildings as Chicago, it was a small city, and you could notice the Californian decadence, the bus had a big mix of addicts and poor whites, latinos, asian and blacks. You could hear the Spanish everywhere, making me feel as a stranger in my own country, with the subtle difference that it was not my country. 

The hostel I would be staying for two months was in the middle of the city in a famous block. I got out of the bus and on my walk to the place I could notice that it was full of restaurants, bars, clubs, homeless. I rang the bell, they let me in, and I had to go through an abomination of stairs in order to get to reception, which was a cubicle with a hallway on the right side that leaded to two doors, one of them resonating party noises. I said hi to the receptionist as if we were friends from elementary school, who was extremely confused and even offended by how my hand was going beyond the monitor to shake hands. The fella looked like a chicano, with his shaved head, brown skin, baggy clothes and his body full of tattoos. 

“Hey bro, how is it going?” 

“Hello, I’m good, are you checking in?” 

“Kind of, is Alison here?”

And Alison came from the party room with a gracious smile, a flowing floral small dress and a plastic glass of what seemed to be a margarita. 

“Hi Alison! I am Mariano”

“Hi! How are you doing? Did you find it difficult to make it to the hostel?”

And then she gave me a quick explanation of how was everything going to be, and gave me my key for a temporary room, which would be a guest room as there were still volunteers that were about to leave. 

“Get settled and come to the social room, we are having a karaoke night!” She told me

I was tired and my jaw was still hurting but I knew that I needed to get settled in as soon as possible, so I left my luggage next to my bed and went to the social room. Where I received the surprise that half of the volunteers where Spanish speakers. The girls I met first were Alison from the States, Yeraldeli from Mexico, Paty from Guatemala, Anya from Argentina, Maria from Spain and Olga from Brasil, and the boys were Erick (receptionist) from the States from a latino family, Leo from Brasil and David from Brasil. Everyone was chill and received me with open arms. I sang some karaoke with the girls and then talked for a good time with Leo who had been there for only two days. He was a tall blonde from Courithiba, you could notice the samba but it wasn’t as obvious as with other Brazilians, I could say he looked like a posh one, when you talked with him for the first time, if you skipped the accent you would suspect you where talking with a charismatic German guy. 

I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and then I saw her. This beautiful slender tall girl, with curly cinnamon hair and dark outfit, her black tights being the stars, which was the perfect combo for me, as I love tall pretty girls with long legs and I do like it when they use black tights. 

“Hi! What are you cooking?” 

“Ohh Just some dinner” 

“Looks good, where are you from?” 

“Haha thank you, I’m from Germany” 

“Ohh nice, I only have been in Berlin which means that maybe I haven’t been in Germany at all, buy I like the beer, the sausages and the football teams from there”

“Haha yes, they are pretty good”

“And so far, do you like California? How long have you been here?”

“Yes I’m really enjoying it, and I’ve been volunteering for a month”

“Ohh I’m the new volunteer, nice to meet you”

“Really? Welcome, how was your flight? 

“It was all right, thanks. So how long are you staying?”

“Oh I’m leaving next week”

“Ohh that’s terrible! I think you should stay longer”

“Haha yes, here is pretty good”

“Well, I’m going back to the party room, are you joining us when you finish?” 

“Yeah I’ll go later” 

“Great, what’s your name?” 

“Lina, what’s yours?”

“Mariano, nice to meet you Lina” 

And I went back to the room, to keep talking with Leo and the latinos. Alison was gone by now. 

Little by little, the guests started going out to their respective nightclub, and the volunteers decided to have a movie night. Lina came to the social room by that time and I started having a little chat with her, she was sitting in a couch next to me while I was sitting in a little table sticker to the windows. My jaw started giving me lots of trouble, but at that time I could do whatever Lina asked in order to be with her, I was lost in the way she talked, in the way she looked with this polite cool smile that didn’t show too much interest. 

We were about to see a Shrek movie, which I thought was wonderful, and I made my move getting in the couch in order to be next to my beautiful lady. I wondered if it was going to be the great first or the astonishing sequel, but the fools ended up chasing the atrocious third, and after twenty minutes I felt a sudden move from Lina. 

“Well, I’m going to bed”

“All right” 

“See you tomorrow” 

“Sweet dreams” 

And then she left. I waited 3 minutes, controlling the pain of my jaw and realizing that I had no purpose in being awake if she wasn’t with me, and left afterwards. 

I went for my toothbrush and when I was entering the communal bathrooms I found her again brushing her teeth. By that time, my dental care had to be very meticulous, as now I had four holes on the back of my teeth, where my wisdom teeth used to be and some food accumulated. It usually took me around 15 minutes to finish, but the good thing was that my mouth always incredibly fresh.

She finished much earlier that me and said goodbye again. Once I finished I took my pills and went to bed.