That bench that you see in the background... is where i was sitting last Monday. I was waiting for my bus to come and reading a book. I read almost 200 pages while waiting for the freaking bus that will take me to Studio City. 

While i was immersed in how the Incas took over control and forged a vast empire in South America an Audi stop at the other side of the road and Rose, a teenage black haired girl, came out of the car and ran towards the light as fast as her short legs let her. She found herself stopped by a huge hand that threw invisible stopping lines at her and that didn't let her cross the street. 

The spanish looking villa on the back of the picture is a high school facility. Rose was a student at that institution. And you could see that she was late for class. Her wide open eyes, her body language, her look to one and other side of the street; all of this reflected the necessity of crossing the school doors as fast as the wind.

Finally, the walking guy, in other cities is a cold WALK sign, appeared. Rose crossed the street as fast as she could and rushed towards the entrance. I put my eyes on the book again, and forgot about her. 

Karin Muller's book was taking me to a time where the vast new empire fell against the old world in uneven confrontations and how this old world forced the new world to merge with it or die. Suddenly, 'puf', i felt that somebody sat on the other side of the bench, It was Rose!

She was speaking with her dad on the mobile phone and somehow ordering him to come back for her. Apparently, Dad did not want to please her demands. She hanged up. One could tell she was very upset. I check my watch. It was only 9 a.m and i thought that the gringos were very strict for not even letting her go to school because of being late. This would never happen back home, the most that they will do back in Colombia is that they would send a letter to her parents.

“How long does the 155 takes to arrive?”. Rose’s soft voice came gently into my ear. #155 was my bus too. Every hour they send one. I couldn’t resist to ask her what had happened to her. But I first asked, where she was going. “Burbank” she said. I pointed to her that Burbank was far from her school.  “That’s why I’m always late to it”, she responded. So, i asked her if this was what happenned today to her. “No. We should buy a calendar back at home. School starts in one week!” 

I didn’t laugh, it’s more common than it seems to be. I remembered back in college when I ran like crazy to an exam, just to find out that there was no class on that day:)

Where is this hotel entrance? There are only businesses in the first floor. I went to each one of them and there is no backdoor that leads into the hotel. There is a flag of Colombia on the left, and a big warehouse entrance that leads to nowhere. 

One can clearly see people inside pass by its windows. Guests might come by helicopter and enter through the roof? Maybe. But what if it's is a luxurious hotel designed for certain people. You, as a guest of this hotel, will see the gruesome reality on the park infront of it through your window, being secure that non of it will have access to the safe hotel. No need to be said, you couldn't go out and check tthe park as well. The only way will be jumping from one of the floors. But who will do that? "Not me", screamed one of the hotel residents when asked. 

It reminds me about another Astoria. 

I decided to go back to the place I grew up in. It wasn't easy getting there. I remembered the suburb but was it behind my old school or in front of it? Was it to the left or to the right of the intersection? I totally forgot and so I drove around for about twenty minutes listening to the Glee soundtrack until finally it came to me and I took a right and then did a u-turn and then a left and down that road with the speed bumps and there I was. I lived in a townhouse, a really ugly townhouse which was cool at the time I guess. It had green carpet and bamboo wallpaper. I loved it there and I have so many memories from so many years in the townhouse, but all are vague, like half-forgotten dreams. They are all half-formed memories which seem to mix with my imagination to form kind of surrealistic globs of stories in my head. So my picture is of a park inside the townhouse complex, right up the top and on the corner. The park always empty. There was no play equipment because I suppose they figured the kids could play or something. We never did because there was a much better park and a river down a secret path at the back of one of the townhouses. 

Funny thing is that I remember that little park so, so well even though I never played it in. I remember it better than almost anything else in my childhood. That's probably because i had a nightmare about it. It is the only nightmare I have ever had that I have never forgotten. My family and I were all playing in the park for some reason and then this american police car arrived which was strange since I lived in Australia. We didn't trust them and started to run which is a good thing because the american police car turned into an alien police car and the aliens started to chase my mother and I remember my mum screaming and telling me to run and running with my sister and my dad and some friends down the hill and then the Aliens caught them. And I kept running and head in this little white enclove which look like a chapel, where we had all our letterboxes. And I could hear them scream and somehow I knew the aliens were taking over their bodies. So then I had this horrible idea that I would need to go home for dinner or mum would be angry but mum was an alien now so how would I have dinner with an alien family and pretend everything was normal? So I guess that's why today I don't remember which townhouse I lived in (was it 5 or 7 or maybe it was 6 but definately not 4 or 8). But I remember the park.

I live overseas now and have for a long time. I haven't spent my last 4 birthdays nor my last 4 christmases at home. I love it and I love my life and my friends overseas and it has its hurdles sometimes but overall it's really good. So I'm glad that the little girl who didn't play in that park has grown up but I have to admit I was happy to find my old townhouses where there were, exactly as they were totally unchanged as if all this years were just a blink of an eye, as if they have been waiting in suspended animation for me to come home again. I'm going back overseas now and I wont see that park for a long time but I hope it stays the same just as it's always been, like I remember it.

Corner sent by Sarah.

It was seven o'clock when the bus where I was riding in stopped in front of this corner. I was a bit tired, so I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. I opened them again as I heard a whistle on the outside. I quickly noticed that the bus had not moved for the entire time that I had closed my eyes. Have you ever closed your eyes for a while and opened them back again asking yourself if you've slept for a long time? That is what I felt.

I looked to the front of the bus and saw the driver screaming bad words out the bus door. Then I looked to my right and what did I see? Four glamorous, covered in feathers, dressed in bright jewellery, looking spectacular drag queens were dancing and chanting along the side of the bus. Wearing high heels they where almost as tall as the bus itself. Their dresses where bright red, dark red, bright green, and bright yellow respectively; in my head those were their names.
 

"Bright red", "dark red" and "bright yellow" moved their shoulders back and forth to the rhythm of a caribbean song that "bright green" beautifully sang. Finishing their performance "bright green" stepped on a yellow bollard on one leg and bent back the other. "Bright red" and "bright yellow" were on both sides of "bright green". They stood still looking at us with a sexy but dangerous look. Finally, "dark red" grabbed one of the signs and put a leg around it and smiled at us.
 

Most of the passengers stood from their chairs and looked at the performance. Some of them even clapped and whistled when it ended. We felt like we were in Rio at the great carnival!