Latinale poetry and performance festival

Latinale.de is happening across Germany. I heard some good poetry Friday night and a new friend came to town, Roxana, a Peruvian poet who I'd met when she did a reading last summer in Berlin. Le dejaron en el aire a ella, pero presentía que algo no le iba a ir bien y se contactó conmigo, afortunadamente, con anticipación, para que nos pudimos reunir y por lo menos tuvo a dondé quedarse anoche! (Her German host left her hanging, but fortunately she suspected something might go wrong and had arranged to hook up with me). We had dinner at a Portuguese restaurant that I'd been meaning to try, then went dancing. Although my current apartment's really small, at least she didn't spend the night on the street or in who knows what kind of hotel! On top of everything, Air France lost her suitcase yesterday so I'm here working (or not working -- blogging, it would seem), waiting for it to be delivered.

One fun thing is they have several party boats on the Spree River that winds its way via various channels and canals through Berlin. The La Regla fiesta, which I'd been meaning to go to the whole time I've lived in Berlin, is on a ship only about 20 blocks from my new place here in Kreuzberg. It happened last night in conjunction with the Latinale, but a whole group, including the supposed hostess) didn't show up (something about a car breaking down on the way back from the reading in Potsdam). Potsdam is all of 20 miles from Berlin and with fabulous transit connections like everywhere here, so ... whatever.

But it turned out great because I am happy to get to know Roxana better; she is a fascinating woman. Can you believe that we will overlap in Delhi for two weeks in January? Sort of seems like one of those friendships that was karmically meant to happen!