Maya en la playa: kwietnia 2008

wtorek, 22 kwietnia 2008

Nails and brains

It’s been over two weeks since I arrived in Mexico, and only today I have finally painted my nails (beige, almost skin-like colour, a bit shiny). I find painting the nails (the smell apart– although once I had nail enamel which smelt like redcurrant and actually had this colour) highly enjoyable, and since I’ve turned 22 or 23, it’s become a symbol of peace, and making myself at home, feeling relaxed and carefree wherever I were. For instance, I never used to paint the nails while backpack travelling, neither had I time to do it when I was working 9-21.
Painting the nails is more than the mere act of doing it. First, it’s choosing the colour, to suit my mood and, almost always, some part of my outfit, too. It’s never classically red or brown, or anything adult women would wear. It’s never French and my nails have never the right length. It’s any of the colours a little girl would paint her nails – or her doll’s ones (and little girls do normally look at my nails). It’s some of the colours that suit my non-social age and attitude, as if my fingers were little rebels of the civilised world’s rules and expectancies.
I have just painted my nails and thus made myself at home.
In Mexico, out of Mexico, my nails and my brains stay the same.