1 hitchhiker, 2 Spanish omelettes, 1 bike crash and 1 chocolate cake: Javi and Alia stumble upon each other and fall in love.

 

On February 16th, 2010, Javi was finishing his bicycle tour across the American West. However, this time he thought he could take a break from his bicycle and just hitchhike a ride. He could have never imagined he would stay that night at Alia's home in Missoula, MT. The next morning he prepared a Spanish tortilla for breakfast, and Alia fell in love with him. Yet, after breakfast, Alia left for school that morning, totally convinced she would not see the strange biker again. Javi, however, felt it would be a good idea to leave his contact information in a Thank-You note, before taking off to continue his ride towards Helena, MT.

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Mother and daughter together forever (Part 3): The curse.

Since the days Alia was a baby and her biological father committed suicide, Robyn has been telling her daughter, they will be together forever. Robyn did not even hesitate to use drugs to tie her daughter to her, to the point that mother and her teenage daughter doing drugs together was absorbed as a "great bonding experience" for both of them. Since very early, Robyn taught Alia she would always be right, she could always do whatever she felt like and always get her way, as long as she stays Robyn's little child. Alia got so into drugs at the early age of 11 and, being a brilliant student, dropped out of school when she was 14. Robyn was cool with all that, because "more than mother and daughter, they were best friends" and her concern was not the wellbeing of her daughter, but the wellbeing of the relationship with her. Alia is missing as many as 8 teeth in her mouth. It is really heartbreaking to listen to her explaining so very embarrassed, they had to extract those teeth, even before they had started coming out, because there was no space for them. She is then so ashamed to admit she continued sucking her thumb until so late in her childhood, that her jaws eventually got deformed, to the point there was not enough space for all of her adult teeth. She is so very embarrassed about it, but, fact of the matter is, nobody ever told her it was about time she stops sucking her thumb. Robyn certainly had never any interest in risking a conflict with her daughter by correcting her in anything.     

Alia's writings show how Robyn deeply ingrained in Alia's mind the conviction Robyn had been an awesome mother and her parenting deserved quite a lot of credit for Alia being so intelligent. Robyn very cleverly sweetened the message to make it really seductive to Alia: Robyn had been an awesome mother and thanks to her great parenting Alia had grown to be so intelligent, and since Alia was so intelligent, she always knew what she was doing and, therefore, everybody had to respect her decisions; even if those were to start doing drugs at 11 or drop out of school at 14. It was, however, unfortunate Robyn was really never honest believing in her own dogma: she never quite respected Alia's decision to marry me...

Read the full chapter: Mother and daughter together forever 

Mother and daughter together forever (Part II) - The shattered dreams of a young woman.

I have so many dreams for us, and I don't know if you share those dreams.  But, if you don't, it doesn't matter.  I know we will work things out.  Besides, I'm pretty sure we have some similar dreams.

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Mother and daughter together forever (Part 1) - If you know anything about what it means to love someone.

If you know anything about what it means to have someone so important in your life that you will risk everything to be with them, then maybe you can understand my dilemma. 

"Our love is heard in the stories we tell and the laughs we share. Our love is imprinted in every photo we have taken together. Our love is witnessed in the sacrifices we have taken to be together. 

I made many difficult choices so I could be with the man I love.

My marriage was difficult before it even began. I endured intense scrutiny from my family. They all selfishly wanted me to fulfill their own desires.

When I told my parents I was getting married, both of them began a dialogue of, "She HAS to..." They were convinced that my marriage was ruining my life. Every dream I ever had was being demolished. They never considered that dreams change, or that I could still accomplish my dreams. They had forgotten that my dreams were my own. They had selfishly taken on my dreams, and didn't want to let them go. They expected me to fulfill their dreams.

Robyn Floren (Affidavit for Immigration 2011): "Within  a year Alia began to establish the future she envisioned for herself and  determined the path in which she planned to make these dreams a reality. Her plan to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry was to be complemented  with entering the Peace Corps with the possibility of continuing her education  after the Peace Corps to achieve a master's degree."

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Memories of Africa (Part II): Hou could life be more beautiful

  I guess that is why Alia thanked me that morning of mid-October for having taken her to Africa. We were having breakfast and I almost choke with the surprise of her words. We had just entered the Republic of Congo and could, by then, very well consider we had reached the heart of Africa. We were all silent, enjoying the peace and tranquility of being in the middle of nowhere. Those days very often we found ourselves completely fascinated thinking we had really made it to Africa and we were now in the heart of Africa. It was an enormous accomplishment and we had quite some struggles trying to get full grasp of it and absorb it. I guess Alia must have been reflecting on something around that, when, all of a sudden, she thought to thank me for taking her to Africa. I certainly found it surprising she would come up with something like that. As a matter of fact, she had been the one who had been driving us all the way there from Spain; so, she definitely could had thought she deserved quite a lot of credit But, at least that morning, she felt she should give me full credit for it.  READ MORE

Alia got conquered and completely broke down (Part III) - Alia put the Fox to guard her henhouse.

 All of a sudden, everything seemed to have got resolved. It was clear to Alia I loved her and she seemed to love me too. That was, however, until I made my last mistake. Gary and Alia told me (or so I understood), that they had been earlier that day at the US Consulate in Cape Town. That was the reason why they had arrived so late in the afternoon. Alia had explained she had tried to commit suicide the night before and the consulate staff suggested to put her in the next flight back to the US. That, however, felt a bit rushed to Alia. But she still thought she needed to go back home as soon as possible. I understood Alia was in a very fragile and sensitive state and I should save her from all stress and conflict. Last weekend I had determined I needed to get Gary as far as possible from Alia, and had therefore planned to suggest to Alia that we go stay at a motel until she flies back home. However, now, for the most stupid reason ever, I assumed she would prefer staying with Gary and Monica and concluded I should not try to start an argument and oppose her plan to go with Gary. I therefore withdrew altogether my idea to suggest her to come with me to a motel. READ MORE 

  

Memories of Africa: The Adventure of our lives.

In Tarifa, we could finally see the hills of the African coast, on the other side of the Gibraltar Strait. Alia and I really struggled realizing we were finally there; the moment had finally arrived. Our first day in Africa was a total blast. We were really euphoric. We could not believe, two years after we had first talked about it, coming back from Daniel's cabin, we were finally in Africa! 

We absolutely loved Tangier. I think it would be fair to say, eventually, it became my favorite town in Morocco, because of its authenticity. We were so excited that, for what I believe was the first and last time in all our travels, we accepted to follow a professional guide. Larby took as all over town. Although, I think, what Alia enjoyed the most was the opportunity to indulge ourselves in the most awesome mid-day dinner, right in the middle of Ramadan. READ MORE  

Alia got conquered and completely broke down (Part II) - Alia gave up: "I do not deserve to have children." "

 Alia got conquered and completely broke down (Part II) - Alia gave up: "I do not deserve to have children." "

Alia Got Conquered And Completely Broke Down: "Javi, I am going to leave you, because I am sick of dragging you around the supermarkets".

 Alia got Conquered and completely broke down: "Javi, I am going to leave you, because I am sick of dragging you around the supermarkets".

Happy Burthday Letter to Alia, 10 years after our break-up

Happy Birthday Letter to Alia, 10 years after our break-up.