And so the list shortens as yet more names are ticked off.
You see, I leave Soto del Real in less than a week, so I have already started my goodbyes. You know, I find goodbyes quite interesting. You see, on the surface, goodbyes really are a bummer. And on the surface I don't like them. But they really are quite good. First of all, they make you actually realize who has impacted you and who you should appreciate. And they make you appreciate that person. I have probably already said goodbye to around 30 people, among them some of my best friends, and until I started to do goodbyes, I didn't even realize that some of them would be people I would feel the need to say goodbye to. For example, I just got back from an end of the year basketball thing, and I went thinking I would say goodbye and thanks to just my coach. But I found that I couldn't allow myself to leave until I said goodbye to a handful of other people in the organization. And until that goodbye moment, you don't really realize how important or how much some one has done for you over the course of your relationship with them. And realizing how much I have under-appreciated some of the people I have gotten to know over the course of my year here really almost makes me feel guilty, which, as those of you that know me well should know, is not very common. And that is what makes goodbyes a good thing.
The other thing that is good about goodbyes is that they allow you to see exactly what your relationship is with the person you are saying goodbye to. When you are saying goodbye, everything that you have built up with someone since you first met them is compressed into one single moment. And in that moment, you see exactly what your relationship was. Whether it was that of close friends, or that of friends who would go out and party together but not hang out every day together, or that of just passing business-like acquaintances. Because, in that moment, both parties step out from behind their walls, and just let their guard down, and just show exactly what they feel. And because of this, I, at least in a way, really do like goodbyes. And especially goodbyes between real friends. I mean, the feeling you get when you are giving a goodbye hug to a close friend is just beyond compare. The feeling of your love for them flowing out of you and into the hug, and their love for you seeping into you, it's just amazing. I mean, it is way better than any drug, or at least any drug I have tried. And really it is a feeling that you can't and won't get anywhere else, and that feeling really draws me in, and almost makes me enjoy the goodbye, even though I know that it means not seeing that person again, at least for a while.
But anyway, the point of the post was to say that the time for goodbyes has started. And, although I would rather just stay here and not have to say goodbye, they have to be done.
Well, at the moment I don't have anything more to say, so I will go ahead and leave y'all with a song that has kind of been my song of the moment over the past couple days. Here's a link to it: Closing Time - Semisonic
So, that is all. A few more random short posts might come over the next week as I slowly mentally destabilize as a result of the goodbyes, but I don't know. Till next time.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Last Orientation
I'm a tad overdue for a post, and right now I'm out of school early, and the Criterium de Dauphine doesn't start to be covered on tv until 14:40, so I decided I might as well try and write a post. A couple of things before I start though. First, I've had this song stuck in my head for the past pair of weeks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoLTPcD1S4Q . Anyway, you all should listen to it. It's quite good. The second thing is that I find my head a bit jumbled at the moment, so if that is reflected in my post, I'm sorry. Anyway, here is what I have been up to since my last post:
A couple of weeks ago I went to see the bulls with my Spanish grandma at Las Ventas, which is the bull stadium in Madrid. A while ago, I said I would explain how the bulls work. And I would still like to do that, but, unfortunately, I just don't have the time or energy at the moment, and probably won't over the next few weeks, to do that. Sorry. But, on the brightside, I will put up some photos in a post in the next couple days once I have time to look through the photos that I took there.
This past weekend was my final AFS Orientation. And I quite enjoyed having the opportunity to see all of my Madrid AFS buddies, as well as one from Galicia, one last time to say goodbye. And my internet just died, which means my music stopped, which means my thought train derailed.
I fixed it, so now my music is back. And I happen to be listening to another very good song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ddd70PMxTE), so I'm happy. Anyway, to continue, we headed up to Cercedilla, a town in the northern part of the Madrid community, for Saturday and Sunday, although for me it was only Saturday afternoon and Sunday because I had exams Saturday morning, which I should probably mention before going on with this past weekend.
So, as I was saying, this past Saturday I had exams. Three of them. And they were the SAT Subject Tests. Extremely fun. Not really though. But not as bad as normal exams. Anyway, I took the Spanish one, the Math II one, and the Chemistry one. I spent Monday-midday Friday studying Chemistry nonstop, spent Friday afternoon studying Math, and didn't spend anytime studying Spanish. Unfortunately, I can't tell y'all how I did on them because I don't find out for another 16 days, but I can tell you how I think you did. As some of you probably already know, the SAT Subject Tests are scored on a curved scale from 200-800, with 800 considered a perfect score. With that in mind, here is what I am expecting to get on each test: On Spanish, I feel like I will get between a 780 and 800. On Math, between a 760 and 800. And on Chemistry, between a 650 and 750. So, I was happy with the first two, but quite disappointed with the Chemistry. But hey, that kind of stuff happens sometimes.
Anyway, back to Cercedilla. As I was saying, I got in later than everyone else because of my exams. The problem was that I had forgotten to write down the name of the Albergue we were staying at, and I also forgot to write down directions of how to get there. You all see where this is going, but I'll go ahead and tell you what happened anyway. So, I get off the train at 2:20, walk out of the station, and realize that I don't have directions of how to get there. So, I figure I'll just walk into town, because I remember what the building looked like from a picture I saw of it, and I had seen a building that looked like it could be it when I was on the train. So off I go, towards where that building more or less was. And after about a kilometer of climbing and then going down hills, I got to that building. And I saw a nun shaking sheets out of a window, as well as a big sign saying 'Primary School of blahblahblah'. So I think to myself "This is a bit of a problem, but since I know it isn't in the middle part of town, I'll just keep on heading through town until I get to the other side." And so I do that. And I get to the other side of town, look around, and say to myself "Well, it doesn't look like anything is here". So I start to turn around and head back into town, but then after a couple of minutes, one of the AFS volunteers calls me to ask where I am. And I say I am in town already, but a bit lost. So I ask how to get there, and he says it is along the main road for awhile until it forks, and from there it is up the left fork and uphill. So I thank him, hang up, and turn around to follow the road, figuring that I just didn't see it the first time. And after a few minutes, I get a call from Erika, one of the AFS students, saying that they are all waiting for me to go on a hike and that I need to hurry up. So I start to walk faster, head about a half kilometer down the road, and then decide that I was right the first time and that there was nothing this way. So I turn around, call Jon, and ask him how they got there. And he says that he can't remember, but will find someone who remembers and call back. So we hang up, and I decide to start asking the townsfolk where it is, because by now I had remembered the name. And so I go up to the first person, and they aren't from town, so they don't know. So onto the second person, who this time is from town, but doesn't know either. So I enter a little bakery to ask the storekeeper, who is an older lady who I thought would undoubtedly know. But she doesn't, so she tells me to head up the road a block to the town office, because they will know. But I get there, and they're closed. So I ask a waiter at a bar in the main square, but he doesn't know either. And you get the idea. Well, this went on for 10 or 15 minutes until I finally got a call back from Jon's phone. Well, here is the important detail that ended up messing me up and causing me to get a tad lost. You see, when you leave the train station in Cercedilla, there is one main road, but it splits into two within about 50 meters. One of those splits heads into town, while the other heads up into the mountains and away from town. I, logically, headed down the former when I first arrived, but the albergue was down the latter. Anyway, I finally figured that out on this call. And so, I turned towards the train station and started walking as fast as I could to get to the albergue because they are supposedly waiting for me in order to go on the hike. So, about 3 kilometers later, I arrive at the albergue covered in sweat. I put my stuff in my room, and then I go to find a volunteer to tell her I was here and that we could now go on the hike. It turns out that they were also waiting on another volunteer and that we wouldn't leave for another 45 minutes, so I was a bit grumpy about being told to hurry, but I was glad to have a bit of time to relax, so it worked out. Anyway, at about 4:30 we left the albergue to go on the hike with the idea that we would be back by 8:15 in order to have dinner. Well, we went quite slowly on the way to the lookout, and then took a nice long snack break by a fountain we found on the way down. So, we found ourselves hurrying to get back before the cafeteria at the albergue closed. But we made it back for dinner, so it all worked out. Anyway, after dinner we did a couple more activities, and then just hung out until the volunteers said we had to go to bed.
The next day (Sunday), was nice and relaxed. A few activities, lunch, time to relax and hang out, and then goodbye. And it was weird saying goodbye. It wasn't a oh-I'm-going-to-miss-you-so-much goodbye like I expected. It was more of a I'll-see-you-again-sometime goodbye. Which is exactly what it should have been, because honestly, I'm hoping to see everyone of them again, and I am sure that I will see at least some of them again in the future. And what's really nice is that I don't feel like I expected I would. I thought I would be all sad and empty after saying goodbye and after being reminded how little time I had left. But I don't. Instead, I feel like I had fulfilled what I had come to Spain to do. That I had finally completely changed into the person that I really am. That I had formed relationships and friendships that time and distance won't wear out and break down. And so, although I'm not ready to go home, I'm ready to go home. If you get what I'm saying. I mean, I don't want to go back to Boulder a whole lot, but I now feel like there isn't really anything that I will leave uncompleted when I do head back to Boulder. And I believe that that really was the goal of this last orientation. And in hindsight, the orientation really did its job, so kudos to the AFS volunteers who ran it.
Anyway, I don't really have anything more to say at the moment. I will aim to get another post done with the bull photos in the next week, and one more before I head off on the 22nd, so until then.
A couple of weeks ago I went to see the bulls with my Spanish grandma at Las Ventas, which is the bull stadium in Madrid. A while ago, I said I would explain how the bulls work. And I would still like to do that, but, unfortunately, I just don't have the time or energy at the moment, and probably won't over the next few weeks, to do that. Sorry. But, on the brightside, I will put up some photos in a post in the next couple days once I have time to look through the photos that I took there.
This past weekend was my final AFS Orientation. And I quite enjoyed having the opportunity to see all of my Madrid AFS buddies, as well as one from Galicia, one last time to say goodbye. And my internet just died, which means my music stopped, which means my thought train derailed.
I fixed it, so now my music is back. And I happen to be listening to another very good song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ddd70PMxTE), so I'm happy. Anyway, to continue, we headed up to Cercedilla, a town in the northern part of the Madrid community, for Saturday and Sunday, although for me it was only Saturday afternoon and Sunday because I had exams Saturday morning, which I should probably mention before going on with this past weekend.
So, as I was saying, this past Saturday I had exams. Three of them. And they were the SAT Subject Tests. Extremely fun. Not really though. But not as bad as normal exams. Anyway, I took the Spanish one, the Math II one, and the Chemistry one. I spent Monday-midday Friday studying Chemistry nonstop, spent Friday afternoon studying Math, and didn't spend anytime studying Spanish. Unfortunately, I can't tell y'all how I did on them because I don't find out for another 16 days, but I can tell you how I think you did. As some of you probably already know, the SAT Subject Tests are scored on a curved scale from 200-800, with 800 considered a perfect score. With that in mind, here is what I am expecting to get on each test: On Spanish, I feel like I will get between a 780 and 800. On Math, between a 760 and 800. And on Chemistry, between a 650 and 750. So, I was happy with the first two, but quite disappointed with the Chemistry. But hey, that kind of stuff happens sometimes.
Anyway, back to Cercedilla. As I was saying, I got in later than everyone else because of my exams. The problem was that I had forgotten to write down the name of the Albergue we were staying at, and I also forgot to write down directions of how to get there. You all see where this is going, but I'll go ahead and tell you what happened anyway. So, I get off the train at 2:20, walk out of the station, and realize that I don't have directions of how to get there. So, I figure I'll just walk into town, because I remember what the building looked like from a picture I saw of it, and I had seen a building that looked like it could be it when I was on the train. So off I go, towards where that building more or less was. And after about a kilometer of climbing and then going down hills, I got to that building. And I saw a nun shaking sheets out of a window, as well as a big sign saying 'Primary School of blahblahblah'. So I think to myself "This is a bit of a problem, but since I know it isn't in the middle part of town, I'll just keep on heading through town until I get to the other side." And so I do that. And I get to the other side of town, look around, and say to myself "Well, it doesn't look like anything is here". So I start to turn around and head back into town, but then after a couple of minutes, one of the AFS volunteers calls me to ask where I am. And I say I am in town already, but a bit lost. So I ask how to get there, and he says it is along the main road for awhile until it forks, and from there it is up the left fork and uphill. So I thank him, hang up, and turn around to follow the road, figuring that I just didn't see it the first time. And after a few minutes, I get a call from Erika, one of the AFS students, saying that they are all waiting for me to go on a hike and that I need to hurry up. So I start to walk faster, head about a half kilometer down the road, and then decide that I was right the first time and that there was nothing this way. So I turn around, call Jon, and ask him how they got there. And he says that he can't remember, but will find someone who remembers and call back. So we hang up, and I decide to start asking the townsfolk where it is, because by now I had remembered the name. And so I go up to the first person, and they aren't from town, so they don't know. So onto the second person, who this time is from town, but doesn't know either. So I enter a little bakery to ask the storekeeper, who is an older lady who I thought would undoubtedly know. But she doesn't, so she tells me to head up the road a block to the town office, because they will know. But I get there, and they're closed. So I ask a waiter at a bar in the main square, but he doesn't know either. And you get the idea. Well, this went on for 10 or 15 minutes until I finally got a call back from Jon's phone. Well, here is the important detail that ended up messing me up and causing me to get a tad lost. You see, when you leave the train station in Cercedilla, there is one main road, but it splits into two within about 50 meters. One of those splits heads into town, while the other heads up into the mountains and away from town. I, logically, headed down the former when I first arrived, but the albergue was down the latter. Anyway, I finally figured that out on this call. And so, I turned towards the train station and started walking as fast as I could to get to the albergue because they are supposedly waiting for me in order to go on the hike. So, about 3 kilometers later, I arrive at the albergue covered in sweat. I put my stuff in my room, and then I go to find a volunteer to tell her I was here and that we could now go on the hike. It turns out that they were also waiting on another volunteer and that we wouldn't leave for another 45 minutes, so I was a bit grumpy about being told to hurry, but I was glad to have a bit of time to relax, so it worked out. Anyway, at about 4:30 we left the albergue to go on the hike with the idea that we would be back by 8:15 in order to have dinner. Well, we went quite slowly on the way to the lookout, and then took a nice long snack break by a fountain we found on the way down. So, we found ourselves hurrying to get back before the cafeteria at the albergue closed. But we made it back for dinner, so it all worked out. Anyway, after dinner we did a couple more activities, and then just hung out until the volunteers said we had to go to bed.
The next day (Sunday), was nice and relaxed. A few activities, lunch, time to relax and hang out, and then goodbye. And it was weird saying goodbye. It wasn't a oh-I'm-going-to-miss-you-so-much goodbye like I expected. It was more of a I'll-see-you-again-sometime goodbye. Which is exactly what it should have been, because honestly, I'm hoping to see everyone of them again, and I am sure that I will see at least some of them again in the future. And what's really nice is that I don't feel like I expected I would. I thought I would be all sad and empty after saying goodbye and after being reminded how little time I had left. But I don't. Instead, I feel like I had fulfilled what I had come to Spain to do. That I had finally completely changed into the person that I really am. That I had formed relationships and friendships that time and distance won't wear out and break down. And so, although I'm not ready to go home, I'm ready to go home. If you get what I'm saying. I mean, I don't want to go back to Boulder a whole lot, but I now feel like there isn't really anything that I will leave uncompleted when I do head back to Boulder. And I believe that that really was the goal of this last orientation. And in hindsight, the orientation really did its job, so kudos to the AFS volunteers who ran it.
Anyway, I don't really have anything more to say at the moment. I will aim to get another post done with the bull photos in the next week, and one more before I head off on the 22nd, so until then.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Update
Hello. How are y'all doing today? Me? Well, I'm doing quite well. I'm relaxed, and extremely content. The warm weather has finally come, and the rainy weather of the past two weeks is now gone. And so, everyone's moods here have lightened up. We've been hanging out making use of the first really good weather of the season everyday over the past week, and Friday we took our first jumps into the pool here in the backyard. And it felt great. Honestly, I have not been this content and relaxed in a long time. And I love it.
Anyway, right now I'm sitting on the terrace that overhangs the backyard of my house here in Soto. And, since I don't really have anything else to do, I thought I might as well update on y'all about what I have been up to over the past couple of weeks. So...
The biggest thing that happened since my last post was that my mom came to visit. Which was great, but also quite weird. I mean, it was great seeing her, and having her meet my host family, and just catching up about everything, but at the same time it almost felt like an invasion. I mean, I have been fairly disconnected from being in the States, and in general have really separated my life there from my life here. So when part of my old life and home comes to be present in my new life and home, it is kind of scary, and the truth is that it really threw me off. I mean, when I was waiting for her outside of her hotel, I was quite nervous. I was almost as nervous to see her as I was to meet my host family for the first time. But I am quite glad she came. It was quite nice seeing her for the first time in 8 months, and I had a great time with her. It is weird though, because before she came I hadn't really realized how much I had alienated myself from the States. I thought that I had kept my two lives intertwined fairly well. But I haven't. But I'm glad I haven't. Because my life here is just so different from the one I had before leaving that it wouldn't be worth the effort trying to keep them intertwined. And anyway, I don't really think I want to keep my old life that close. You see, this whole year I have reinvented myself, and me now wouldn't fit into my old life very well. So next year will be interesting. It will almost be like this year all over again. And I'm going to treat it that way. Because if I treat it that way, it will hopefully be almost as good as this year. After my year here ends, I'll be moving to a new place again, and I will once again have to create new social ties. And like the first few months here, the few first months when I return will be hard, but if I do it right, just like here, the last months will be incredible. And that really is the mindset with which I will be returning next year. And I am quite scared to have to return, and will really hate leaving here, but that is how life works. You can't hang onto every good moment you have, and you have to keep moving on, moving forward. And so, just like this year, I will remember the past, but I will have to live in the present and hope for the best and make the most of every opportunity I am given or I make. But, luckily, I don't have to worry about that for another two months.
Anyway, before I go back to living in the present, I will finish updating y'all on the past few weeks. Other than my mom visiting, nothing much has gone on. My basketball team won our matchups in the quater and semifinals, so next weekend we have the finals. School is normal. And all the social stuff is going good. Other than that there really is nothing I can think of.
So, since there is nothing more to write, I'm going to finish my drink, go take a shower, and then get ready to go to the football game that my host brother and I are going to with his grandpa this afternoon. So, till next time.
Anyway, right now I'm sitting on the terrace that overhangs the backyard of my house here in Soto. And, since I don't really have anything else to do, I thought I might as well update on y'all about what I have been up to over the past couple of weeks. So...
The biggest thing that happened since my last post was that my mom came to visit. Which was great, but also quite weird. I mean, it was great seeing her, and having her meet my host family, and just catching up about everything, but at the same time it almost felt like an invasion. I mean, I have been fairly disconnected from being in the States, and in general have really separated my life there from my life here. So when part of my old life and home comes to be present in my new life and home, it is kind of scary, and the truth is that it really threw me off. I mean, when I was waiting for her outside of her hotel, I was quite nervous. I was almost as nervous to see her as I was to meet my host family for the first time. But I am quite glad she came. It was quite nice seeing her for the first time in 8 months, and I had a great time with her. It is weird though, because before she came I hadn't really realized how much I had alienated myself from the States. I thought that I had kept my two lives intertwined fairly well. But I haven't. But I'm glad I haven't. Because my life here is just so different from the one I had before leaving that it wouldn't be worth the effort trying to keep them intertwined. And anyway, I don't really think I want to keep my old life that close. You see, this whole year I have reinvented myself, and me now wouldn't fit into my old life very well. So next year will be interesting. It will almost be like this year all over again. And I'm going to treat it that way. Because if I treat it that way, it will hopefully be almost as good as this year. After my year here ends, I'll be moving to a new place again, and I will once again have to create new social ties. And like the first few months here, the few first months when I return will be hard, but if I do it right, just like here, the last months will be incredible. And that really is the mindset with which I will be returning next year. And I am quite scared to have to return, and will really hate leaving here, but that is how life works. You can't hang onto every good moment you have, and you have to keep moving on, moving forward. And so, just like this year, I will remember the past, but I will have to live in the present and hope for the best and make the most of every opportunity I am given or I make. But, luckily, I don't have to worry about that for another two months.
Anyway, before I go back to living in the present, I will finish updating y'all on the past few weeks. Other than my mom visiting, nothing much has gone on. My basketball team won our matchups in the quater and semifinals, so next weekend we have the finals. School is normal. And all the social stuff is going good. Other than that there really is nothing I can think of.
So, since there is nothing more to write, I'm going to finish my drink, go take a shower, and then get ready to go to the football game that my host brother and I are going to with his grandpa this afternoon. So, till next time.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Dad's Birthday, and me getting sidetracked a tad
Well, today is my dad's birthday. And he's turning old. 60 to be precise. And 60 is a fairly significant birthday, so, logically, I am quite bummed I'm missing it. The worst part is that I'm am missing a trip to New York with my family to celebrate it. So, while I am in school wishing I could be there with them, they are all hanging around New York, eating extremely tasty food, and celebrating my dad's birthday. You know, now that I think about it, I kind of was given the short straw this week. Not only is my family in New York without me, but half of my class is in Santa Pola (a town on the waterfront in Valencia) hanging out on the beach. You see, half of our class takes Industrial Technology while the other half takes Biology, and those taking Biology got the opportunity to go on a extended field trip. So, they are all there for four days doing "biology-related activities", which I interpret as them going out during the first part of the day to look at fish and algae and all that kind of stuff and then hanging out on the beach having a good time for the second half of the day. Simply put, I am rather jealous.
Anyway, to get back to the main purpose of this post: rubbing in the fact my dad is a geezer. I mean he's 60 now, which in my mind is officially a geezer. His number jumped up from 59 to 60 today, while mine did just the opposite, dropping from 60 to 59. Yep, unfortunately I have only 59 days left here in Soto Del Real before heading off on my summer trip with a couple of my friends here. And of those 59 days, 39 of them will, theoretically, be spent in school. Basically, I don't have much time left here, which is something all of us exchange students here have been realizing over the past week or so. You see, almost all of us are counting down by now. But, it isn't one of those happy countdowns, such as the New Year's Eve ball-drop or the number of days left until graduation. It is the sad kind of countdown, the kind that makes you dread the moment when the number will hit 0. And as we all start reaching the 60 days left mark, the end starts to become more and more real. It is how our year started, and it is how our year ends, with a countdown. Just under a year ago, we all started this same countdown. A year ago, we started the countdown of the days we had left until we left for the biggest trip of our lives. And as we hit that 60 day mark, we were hit with two emotions. The first was fear. The fear of leaving our families, our friends, our home, our life that we knew and diving into a new world where we didn't have the protection of our parents or of experience. The second was eagerness. It was an eagerness to start a new life, to learn a new language and culture, to extract everything we could from the coming year. And now, almost a year later, as that countdown begins again, there are two emotions that stand out. The first is dread. Dread of saying goodbye to our family here, to our new friends, and, more than anything, to our new life that we all love so much. The second, though, overrides the first. You see, the second is a feeling that has been slowly swelling throughout this year here. It started the second we left our parents and stepped into our gateway orientation, and ever since then it has slowly been filling a glass that is now nearly full. Some days this glass is filled a lot, some days very little, but everyday it gets a little bit closer to reaching the top. You see, the feeling that will overwhelm all other emotions when I come to leave this summer will be a feeling of accomplishment and pride. You see, I will have just completed the greatest, most life-changing year of my life, and for that I will feel an overwhelming sense of pride in myself. And although I will hate to see it end, it must end. All experiences must have an end point for them to be experiences. Every experience that is considered great must end, because if life doesn't drop back down to a lower level, that experience is not great, but in fact normal. Without low points, the high points are not high, but average. And for that, although I will hate to see this year end, I continue this countdown with, not quite an eagerness, but an acceptance. Not with my head hanging in sadness and dread, but with my head held high, looking on toward the future and what will undoubtedly come to pass. And that is how all of us exchange students here should feel. We are about to complete the most life-changing experience we have ever had, and that should, and will, make us proud.
Well, that is all. This was originally supposed to just be me wishing my dad a happy 60th, but I got a bit sidetracked, but he probably won't mind. So happy birthday Dad, from me, my host family, and my friends who I left in order to write you this. I wish you a happy birthday, and I wish all you other exchange students an incredible last two months. Till next time.
Anyway, to get back to the main purpose of this post: rubbing in the fact my dad is a geezer. I mean he's 60 now, which in my mind is officially a geezer. His number jumped up from 59 to 60 today, while mine did just the opposite, dropping from 60 to 59. Yep, unfortunately I have only 59 days left here in Soto Del Real before heading off on my summer trip with a couple of my friends here. And of those 59 days, 39 of them will, theoretically, be spent in school. Basically, I don't have much time left here, which is something all of us exchange students here have been realizing over the past week or so. You see, almost all of us are counting down by now. But, it isn't one of those happy countdowns, such as the New Year's Eve ball-drop or the number of days left until graduation. It is the sad kind of countdown, the kind that makes you dread the moment when the number will hit 0. And as we all start reaching the 60 days left mark, the end starts to become more and more real. It is how our year started, and it is how our year ends, with a countdown. Just under a year ago, we all started this same countdown. A year ago, we started the countdown of the days we had left until we left for the biggest trip of our lives. And as we hit that 60 day mark, we were hit with two emotions. The first was fear. The fear of leaving our families, our friends, our home, our life that we knew and diving into a new world where we didn't have the protection of our parents or of experience. The second was eagerness. It was an eagerness to start a new life, to learn a new language and culture, to extract everything we could from the coming year. And now, almost a year later, as that countdown begins again, there are two emotions that stand out. The first is dread. Dread of saying goodbye to our family here, to our new friends, and, more than anything, to our new life that we all love so much. The second, though, overrides the first. You see, the second is a feeling that has been slowly swelling throughout this year here. It started the second we left our parents and stepped into our gateway orientation, and ever since then it has slowly been filling a glass that is now nearly full. Some days this glass is filled a lot, some days very little, but everyday it gets a little bit closer to reaching the top. You see, the feeling that will overwhelm all other emotions when I come to leave this summer will be a feeling of accomplishment and pride. You see, I will have just completed the greatest, most life-changing year of my life, and for that I will feel an overwhelming sense of pride in myself. And although I will hate to see it end, it must end. All experiences must have an end point for them to be experiences. Every experience that is considered great must end, because if life doesn't drop back down to a lower level, that experience is not great, but in fact normal. Without low points, the high points are not high, but average. And for that, although I will hate to see this year end, I continue this countdown with, not quite an eagerness, but an acceptance. Not with my head hanging in sadness and dread, but with my head held high, looking on toward the future and what will undoubtedly come to pass. And that is how all of us exchange students here should feel. We are about to complete the most life-changing experience we have ever had, and that should, and will, make us proud.
Well, that is all. This was originally supposed to just be me wishing my dad a happy 60th, but I got a bit sidetracked, but he probably won't mind. So happy birthday Dad, from me, my host family, and my friends who I left in order to write you this. I wish you a happy birthday, and I wish all you other exchange students an incredible last two months. Till next time.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Camino De Santiago
So, over the first part of Semana Santa, I went to walk a bit of the Camino De Santiago. To put it simply, I had a shitload of fun. The people were great, the walk was great, the food was great. Basically, everything was great.
So now for a little bit more detail:
My brother and I left home late Thursday (march 29) night to catch a bus that left Madrid for Santiago at 12:30 that night. I spent the first two hours of the bus ride pissing off the other passengers by talking with a kid from Portland, Oregon who is living in Cadiz and whom I was sitting next to. And then I spent the next 7 hours or so performing my traditional long-bus-ride ritual: I sit with my eyes closed, listen to my ipod, and wish that I wasn't on a stinking bus. You see, over the past year or so, I have developed the inability to sleep while sitting up. I have no problem sleeping on the bus while lying down, but as the bus was full, that was not an option. So I did not sleep at all. Actually, that is a lie; I slept for 20 minutes after the bus half-emptied out after stopping in A Coruña. Anyway, to continue, we got to Santiago at about 9:30 in the morning. Our bus to Sarria didn't leave until 6ish, so we walked from the bus station to the center of Santiago. After about a 15 minute walk, we reached the main touristy part of Santiago. We then found a tourist office, and after a few minutes there we headed to a nearby cafe to eat breakfast. After breakfast, we went to a nearby plaza to wait for a girl that was flying in from Belgium. The plaza we picked as a meeting place was full of people on strike, and was just busy in general, so, for the half hour we were there, I took random pictures of people on the street, which was quite fun. So fun, in fact, that I am thinking of going down to Madrid one day solely in order to take photos of the people there. Anyway, moving on; we then walked for awhile around Santiago until we reached the Cathedral. There, we split into two groups: one of those who needed to buy stuff (such as sleeping bags) and one of the rest of us who didn't want to go with the first group. We, meaning the second group, went to a huge park that was nearby. I managed to escape the rest of the group, find myself a bench which was in the shade and blocked away from the main walkway of the park by a row of bushes, and then sleep a nice little "siesta". Unfortunately, it was only about 30 or 40 minutes until two AFS girls came running and skipping up saying "we found you". Probably the most disappointed I have been all of 2012. Anyway, after playing cards for another 45 minutes or so, we went to eat in a small restaurant we saw while walking to the park. And that is when I fell in love with a dish that is one of their specialties up in Galicia. It is called pulpo, and is basically sliced up octopus tentacles that are cooked in some way and then covered in a tasty spice. Sorry, that wasn't a very good description, but it is the best I can do at the moment. Anyway, it is easily on of my favorite and most memorable foods that I have ever had. After lunch, we returned to the plaza where we had first waited in order to wait for another volunteer. This time, I spent the half hour taking pictures of a dog. We then split up into two groups another time. One went to buy food for dinner that night, and my group headed directly to the bus station in order to "get the bus tickets in advance". I put that in quotations because we actually got there, sat down, and started playing cards again. Anyway, after about an hour and a half of playing cards and relaxing in the bus station, we got a bus that was headed out to Sarria. This bus ride was a bit more fun than the first one, but, as it was a bus ride that lasted more than an hour and a half, was still not all that fun. Once we got to the Albergue we were staying at, the group who had done the buying went to the kitchen to attempt to make mac & cheese for dinner. After about 45 minutes of pestering them, I got them to allow me to help them (they were very stubborn and didn't want anyone else to come in to help because the kitchen was quite small and there were already 5 people there, but I was more stubborn, so I won and got to help). It didn't really turn out like mac & cheese because they had failed to buy enough cheese, but it still was somewhat tasty, and the international folks didn't really know the difference. After dinner, we went straight to bed because the goal was to be ready to go by 7:30 the next morning. And so started our trip.
We were all out waiting in front of the albergue by 7:30ish, which actually kind of impressed me. Once everyone was out the door, we walked up a small hill for about 15 seconds until we got to a little open area in front of a church. Once everyone had taken off the packs they had just spent five minutes putting on and adjusting until they were comfortable, we got into a circle to stretch and so that the volunteers could explain a little bit about the Camino, and so that they could tell us our one mandatory stop of the day. After we finished all that, we were finally on our way. For the first kilometer or so, we were all fairly close together, but once we hit the first hill, which was about a kilometer and a half into that days walk, the kid from Portland, whose name was Solomon, and I kind of broke away from the rest of the group. And so we got to the top of that first hill alone, and found ourselves in a huge field with fog hanging low over it. And it was incredibly beautiful. And we kept walking, and walking, and walking. After about two kilometers alone, my brother got close enough that we waited for him to catch up, and about a kilometer and a half after that the three of us stopped to take off our sweatshirts. During that short stop, the group that was following us caught up, but we ended up jumping out in front of them again, but this time with Jon, the other kid from Soto, as well. Anyway, we ended up staying out front until the mandatory stopping point. After waiting there for nearly an hour and a half, we, meaning about 15 or so of us, set off again. By the way, since I don't think I've mentioned this yet, there were 29 of us, including 4 volunteers. Anyway, we ended up walking together as a big group for the next 5 or 6 kilometers, until me and this girl from Maryland ended up out front. So, we walked and talked, and ended up getting to the albergue where we were sleeping before anyone else. So far in front of anyone else that I was getting out of the shower as the group behind her and I were getting in. So, after Jon, Solomon, and Dani had showered, we walked up to a park that overlooked the river that was ran below the town. And, because we had about two and a half hours of free time while waiting for the last group on the road to get in, I had a beautiful little nap up there in the park. And then I got bored and took some pictures of sheep and a tractor. Anyway, at 5:30, we had to walk back down the hill to the albergue in order to meet with everyone. We then proceeded to walk back up the hill to the park as a whole group. Once we were there, we split up into groups of 5 in order to do an activity that the volunteers had planned for us. So, we were given various questions and tasks to answer and complete and the next two hours to finish. So we went at a nice and relaxed pace, which was great. And the activity was somewhat fun as we got to walk around and see the town. Anyway, after we finished the activity, we ate, watched the Real Madrid game (Dani and I were the only Madrid fans, which was a bummer, but also quite fun when Madrid won both the games they played while we were on the trip), and then went to bed around 11.
Again we woke somewhat early and were on the trail all stretched out and ready by 8:15 or so. Almost the whole first half of that day's walk was uphill, and the uphill started roughly a quarter of a kilometer in, so the girl from Maryland, whose name was Claire, and I again ended up out front, and we remained out in front of everybody until the rest stop we all took roughly 15 kilometers in. The second day wasn't quite as pretty as the first, but there was another crest that we reached while it was still covered in fog, so I enjoyed that a lot. While Claire and I were out front, we met, and ended up walking with, a college girl from South Korea whose is going to school in Barcelona. She and Claire ended up talking about K-Pop, which is a basically Korean pop music, for about two kilometers of walking. I found it somewhat entertaining to follow and listen to for the first kilometer or so, as they were throwing out random band and song names that I didn't recognize and then responding with phrases such as "Oh my god! I know, right. I mean, that song is so much better than their earlier stuff." or with "Yeah, they are quite weird. Have you heard "such and such". It is the only one of theirs that I like." While somewhat enjoyable for a little while, I got bored of the conversation after a little while, but luckily, by then, we had arrived at the rest stop and some other AFSers had caught up to us. After eating, I set off again, but this time with a group of six other boys (from Brazil, Japan, Thailand, Cataluña, Iceland, and Turkey) that I stayed with until the end of the day. The second half was much more fun than the first half of the day, as we spent a good while singing, running down and up hills, and just goofing off in general. The most memorable part of that day, though, was when got stuck behind a group of 6 or 7 cows and calves that were being herded to a different pasture. We had to walk a kilometer behind them, and that kilometer was made entertaining by one cow that was half-shitting the whole time. When it first cut out in front of us, it already had shit slowly dripping out of its butt, and a kilometer later, when they were finally herded off the road, it was still shitting. So we were making jokes about it the whole time, and I got my camera out, put on my big telephoto lens, and took about 30 or so photos of the cow's butt, which I will post later on. Anyway, we spent the last what-turned-out-to-be-three kilometers running and sprinting to get to the hostel. You see, the guy herding the cows told us it was a little bit over one kilometer until the town, so we decided we would do it running and in bursts of sprinting. Unfortunately, it turned out to be over three kilometers to the hostel, so we would sprint until we found a person, ask them where the hostel was, sprint there, not find the hostel, ask another person, sprint to where they told us, not find it and so on. Anyway, we were panting a bit when we finally entered the hostel, but it made the shower feel that much better, so it turned out well. After those of us who had arrived had showered and relaxed for a little while, we went out in search of food because, well, we were basically dying of hunger. Some of us, myself included, ended up sitting down for a full meal, meaning two courses followed by dessert. I had a penne pasta with a blue cheese sauce and, for the second time, pulpo. After eating, we had what turned out to be our last organized after-walk activity; we had to give each other massages. So, we were paired up and we took turns giving each other 15 minute long massages that one of the volunteers directed. They felt quite good. Anyway, after massages, we spent the next hour or two playing cards outside, which turned out to be an almost daily activity. We then ate dinner, and went to bed.
The next morning we were up and out on the trail by 8:30ish. This time, I decided it would be fun to walk with some other people, so I hung back with a slower group of girls. At least for the first 10 km until I got tired of walking so slow and took off at a slightly faster than normal pace until I got the first group, which was about a half kilometer in front of us, roughly two kilometers later, right before getting to Melide. But more on that in a minute. You see, the coolest part about the Camino is meeting all the different people, meaning meeting both other AFSers that I didn't know before, as well as random people on the trail. Anyway, the group of people I spent the first bit walking with consisted of, for the first 5 kilometers, a girl from San Francisco and a girl from the Philippines, and, for the whole 10 km, a girl from Wisconsin and a girl from Arizona. So, we walked and talked and got to know each other, and then about 6 kilometers in, we encountered an American college student who the girl from Arizona had met the day before. Well, you know that cliche "what a small world". It comes from encounters like these. Let me explain: We started talking to this woman, and it turned out she was from a small town in Wisconsin, that I cannot remember the name of. Anyway, when she said where she was from, both of the girls I was with (the ones from Arizona and Wisconsin (you can probably see where this is going)) gave out little gasps of surprise/excitement/whatever-emotion-you-usually-feel-when-you-have-these-encounters. You see, the family of the girl from Wisconsin (her name was Erika) had moved to that town this year. You, as the educated person you are, probably already guessed something along those lines though. But you probably have not correctly guessed why the other girl gave out her squeal of surprise/excitement/whatever-emotion-you-usually-feel-when-you-have-these-encounters. You see, in that town, there is a house. An old house. So old, in fact, that it was one of the first houses ever to have electricity installed in it. And, that house is now a museum. And, the grandma of the girl from Arizona (Noelle) was the last owner of the house before it was turned into a museum. And, I would be quite surprised if you guessed that correctly. And, I am on a roll with these sentences starting with 'and'. And, ... I should probably continue on now. Anyway, they were somewhat excited and psyched about that, so they talked about "how small a world it is" and all that stuff and took a picture with her before we re-accelerated back to the pace we were walking at before. Anyway, on to Melide. Melide was our rest stop for the day. It also happened to be known for pulpo, my newest favorite food. So, a group of 12 of us that were scattered out front all stopped at a pulperia to share a pair of plates of pulpo, which, like all the times before, was incredibly tasty. After about an hour of eating, we broke up into two groups: one who wanted to stay and rest and eat awhile longer, and one which wanted to start walking again, which was the one I went with. After a couple of kilometers, we encountered the Erika and Noelle, the two girls I had left a few kilometers outside of Melide. It turned out that they had only taken about a half hour to eat, so they had ended up in front of us but thought that we were kilometers in front of them. Needless to say, they were surprised to see us come up from behind them. So, we continued on as a group for the next 6 kilometers or so, until I ended up dropping back with Erika and Noelle. You see, Erika hadn't finished the second day of walking because she ended up going to a hospital to have them look at her foot, which was hurting quite badly. That problem was fixed simply by resting it a bit, but she also had a blister that was real bad. And after 24 kilometers or so of walking, it had gotten a lot worse. So she ended up having to slow down a lot over the last 5 kilometers or so, and Noelle and I dropped back with her. Now, this is going to sound a bit mean, but it was quite fun walking the last few kilometers with her. That actually doesn't sound that mean, yet. You see, her pain made her quite moody. But it wasn't like a normal moody, it was an incredibly exaggerated moodiness. And, you see, I like messing with people. A lot. And so I did just that, which, in hindsight, was somewhat mean, but which, at the time, was quite fun. Her moodiness consisted of her laughing at everything and her cussing at everything. So, she would start out laughing, I would say something somewhat mean or discouraging or sarcastic, you would break down and start yelling and cussing about everything, I would encourage her until she felt better, she would start laughing at jokes and stuff, and then I would start over again. Kind of an assholey thing to do, but Jon, who caught up to us about 3 kilometers outside of the town the albergue was in, got a video of it that was incredibly funny. Anyway, moving on. We got to the albergue just before 3:30, which was the latest that I came in over the whole trip. Like the previous days, we showered, relaxed a little, and then went to buy something to eat. After getting back from the supermarket, we, just like on previous days, played cards and just kind of hung out until dinner. Unlike on previous days, I did something that I can remember after dinner other than go to bed. And, it was quite fun. You see, this kid from Turkey named Mert, a girl from Belgium named Leah, and I were all sitting in a sort of common room a floor below our room. There was a table with a bunch of magazines and books in front of us, and one of them found a bible. But the bible was written in German, French, and English. So, we, meaning Mert and I, attempted to read the bible in French, while Leah, who speaks French as a first language, and the person who wasn't reading would sit there and laugh at the horrible pronunciation of the reader. And, reading over that bit that I just wrote, it doesn't sound that fun. Well, I promise you it was. So much so that at one point we were all crying because we were laughing so hard. Anyway, after that we went to bed.
The next morning we were again out around 8:30 or so. This stage was shorter than any that we had done so far, which everyone was more or less looking forward to. We started the day out at a fairly fast pace, even those who usually went slower. It was fairly flat compared to previous days, and we knocked down the first five kilometers or so quite quickly. After stopping to get a sello (I don't think I have talked about sellos yet, but I don't feel like doing it at the moment, so I will do it later on in the post), Solomon and I jumped ahead of the others and ended up walking with a group of Irish women. They were probably the most interesting people outside of AFS that I met while on the trail. They were doing the trail as a family reunion, and they were 10 - 6 sisters, 2 brothers, and two sons. Anyway, we walked and talked together for about 7 kilometers. We talked mainly about the school system in Ireland when they were growing up, the school system that we have in the States, the school system here in Spain, and, more than anything, the difference in language between American English and British English. I found it all quite interesting, and it made the 7 kilometers go by quite quickly. After they stopped for a break, we continued on until reaching our designated rest point, which was only 4 or 5 kilometers away from the hostel. There we ate and waited for the group behind us to catch up. After they had also had a little time to eat, we continued on towards the town. After another kilometer or so, we stopped to buy fruit and talk to the guy at the fruit stand about why he was living in Galicia and if he liked it. After that, we continued on until we reached the hostel. This time, after showering, I didn't go out to get food with the others. Instead I stayed in the hostel and relaxed and played cards. After everyone had gotten in, we did another activity where we were put into groups and had to answer random questions that were given to us on a sheet of paper. It was rather pointless, at least from my standpoint. We then were split into different groups to do a second activity. The goal of this one was to make as many cubes of paper that had tape on them and were of certain dimensions as possible. The part that made it not a simple race though was that each group was given different resources to start with, and then you could go trading. My group ended up winning simply because we were given all of the tape minus one small strip. And, because the cubes weren't valid without tape, we went trading small strips of tape for sheets of paper, which we had none of to start out. So basically, we controlled the amount of cubes that the other groups could successfully make. After the time was up, the volunteers counted how many valid cubes each group made, and then explained that the activity kind of represented the world right now. Although the rich countries, represented by our group, who started with almost all the tape, a pair of scissors, a ruler, and 2 markers, lack the natural resources to build stuff, because they have artificial resources which are needed in the building and which the poor countries need, they are able to make unfair trades to the poor countries, represented by a group that started with only paper, for natural resources. Although when they explained it it sounded a lot better and clearer. Anyway, after we finished that activity, we headed off to dinner. After dinner and dessert, the people working at the restaurant got out the things needed to make queimada, a traditional Galician drink. It consists of orujo, a Galician liqueur made from the residue of wine production, sugar, lemon peels, and coffee beans. All of this is thrown into a large clay pot and then lit on fire. It is then slowly mixed until the flames turn blue. When this happens, the fire is put out, and it is served into small ceramic cups that are more or less the size of shot glasses. As the drink burns, a traditional "spell" is recited in Gallego, so a host sibling who was walking with us and was from Galicia was called upon to recite it as the drink was being mixed. When he finished, we all were given glasses, toasted, and drank. It was quite sweet, but also quite tasty. And it was extremely cool to watch it all being mixed while on fire. After that, we headed to the hostel, and all went to bed.
The next morning, we were off walking at 6:45 or 7:00. We were up and out earlier because we wanted to get to Santiago and finish before 12:00, when "misa" (mass) started in the cathedral. Anyway, it was dark when we started walking, which was quite cool, and because the sun was just starting to rise, the fog made the forest we were walking through look quite pretty. I walked the first 7 kilometers or so with the semi-cripples who started out at the back and way slow. But after the 4th kilometer or so, we started speeding up, and Claire, who was semi-crippled at this point, and I ended up catching up with the front group by the 12.5 kilometers to go mark, which was just under 7 kilometers into the day. We all stopped to take a picture in front of a marker with about 12 or 11.5 kilometers to go, passed the airport all together, and then started breaking up again as we entered into the little towns surrounding the city. And the next 10 kilometers passed by normally, with everyone just walking, talking, and singing a bit. As we entered the outskirts of the city, I was part of a group of six of us that were a fair ways ahead of everyone else. So, we waited for them in a small park right outside the city center. And 8 minutes later they came running by (they were in a hurry because of the time), so we were forced to quickly swing on our backs and go hurrying after them. They ended up waiting just outside the plaza for us, and the second we were in view, they went sprinting into the plaza in front of the cathedral, yelling and singing "We Are The Champions". Because we weren't that keen on the idea of sprinting (and because we didn't really want to be associated with the horrible singers in front of us), we meandered into the plaza behind them, walked up to where they were laying in the middle of the plaza, and shortly thereafter entered the Cathedral to catch the first part of mass. Now, if you give them your name the day you finish before 11:30, then it will be read at the start of mass. So, to start mass they read off the names and places of origin of the people who finished that day, but, because we were a large group, in place of reading off individual names, they named our group and all the different places we were from. Not quite as cool as hearing your name, but still fairly cool. Anyway, most of us stayed another 5 minutes or so before heading back outside. While some of the AFSers stayed for the whole of mass, the rest of us hung out and napped in the plaza. Then, when mass was over, those of us that wanted to went inside to see the Cathedral and hug the Saint and all that stuff. Just so you all know, it is a beautiful Cathedral, easily one of the most amazing I have ever seen. So, if you ever get the chance to, you should definitely go see it. Anyway, after seeing the Cathedral and all, we headed over to get the certificates they give you for finishing the Camino, and after that we began the hostel hunt. You see, we hadn't pre-booked an albergue for the last night, so we had to find one that day. Originally, the idea was to stay in the public albergue, so we walked across the city to it, only to find that it would cost more than we had originally thought. We then got a call from a guy who we had talked to earlier but who had said they didn't have room saying that they had room. So we walked all the way back to the center of town, where we were divided into rooms that were cheap. But not really all that nice, and not at all spacious. You see, in my room at least, we slept two to a one person bed, and we had six of us in a room originally designed for two. But we didn't mind that much. We were all probably tired enough to sleep on the street if we had to, so it wasn't a big problem. Anyway, after getting settled in our rooms, we walked around the city a bit, and just kind of hung out until we went back to our rooms around 11:00 or 11:30. We then hung out in the rooms for awhile, and at one point, those of us in our hostel (we were in two different ones that were separated by a block or two) went out to watch a bit of a parade that they do for Semana Santa, which was quite weird. After we watched the procession a bit, we went back inside, hung out a while longer, and then went to sleep.
The next morning, everyone in our hostel was up fairly early, simply because we had to be out of the hostel pretty early. At least I think. The truth is that I was up early because those of us going to Madrid left at 9:45, so we had to be up early. I don't really know why everyone else was up early. Anyway, those of us going to Madrid got our stuff together, said goodbye to everyone in our hostel, and headed off walking to the bus stop. We then got on our bus, and went home.
And that is how I spent most of my week and a bit between the second and third semesters of school here in Spain. I am now back in school, which is kind of a bummer (I liked walking the Camino a lot more), and not much else is going on. So, here are some pictures from the trip:
So, there you have it. That is more or less what I did over Semana Santa. Till next time, which will hopefully be soon. I realize it has been over a month since my last post, and I will try not to let that come to pass again. Anyway, till next time.
So now for a little bit more detail:
My brother and I left home late Thursday (march 29) night to catch a bus that left Madrid for Santiago at 12:30 that night. I spent the first two hours of the bus ride pissing off the other passengers by talking with a kid from Portland, Oregon who is living in Cadiz and whom I was sitting next to. And then I spent the next 7 hours or so performing my traditional long-bus-ride ritual: I sit with my eyes closed, listen to my ipod, and wish that I wasn't on a stinking bus. You see, over the past year or so, I have developed the inability to sleep while sitting up. I have no problem sleeping on the bus while lying down, but as the bus was full, that was not an option. So I did not sleep at all. Actually, that is a lie; I slept for 20 minutes after the bus half-emptied out after stopping in A Coruña. Anyway, to continue, we got to Santiago at about 9:30 in the morning. Our bus to Sarria didn't leave until 6ish, so we walked from the bus station to the center of Santiago. After about a 15 minute walk, we reached the main touristy part of Santiago. We then found a tourist office, and after a few minutes there we headed to a nearby cafe to eat breakfast. After breakfast, we went to a nearby plaza to wait for a girl that was flying in from Belgium. The plaza we picked as a meeting place was full of people on strike, and was just busy in general, so, for the half hour we were there, I took random pictures of people on the street, which was quite fun. So fun, in fact, that I am thinking of going down to Madrid one day solely in order to take photos of the people there. Anyway, moving on; we then walked for awhile around Santiago until we reached the Cathedral. There, we split into two groups: one of those who needed to buy stuff (such as sleeping bags) and one of the rest of us who didn't want to go with the first group. We, meaning the second group, went to a huge park that was nearby. I managed to escape the rest of the group, find myself a bench which was in the shade and blocked away from the main walkway of the park by a row of bushes, and then sleep a nice little "siesta". Unfortunately, it was only about 30 or 40 minutes until two AFS girls came running and skipping up saying "we found you". Probably the most disappointed I have been all of 2012. Anyway, after playing cards for another 45 minutes or so, we went to eat in a small restaurant we saw while walking to the park. And that is when I fell in love with a dish that is one of their specialties up in Galicia. It is called pulpo, and is basically sliced up octopus tentacles that are cooked in some way and then covered in a tasty spice. Sorry, that wasn't a very good description, but it is the best I can do at the moment. Anyway, it is easily on of my favorite and most memorable foods that I have ever had. After lunch, we returned to the plaza where we had first waited in order to wait for another volunteer. This time, I spent the half hour taking pictures of a dog. We then split up into two groups another time. One went to buy food for dinner that night, and my group headed directly to the bus station in order to "get the bus tickets in advance". I put that in quotations because we actually got there, sat down, and started playing cards again. Anyway, after about an hour and a half of playing cards and relaxing in the bus station, we got a bus that was headed out to Sarria. This bus ride was a bit more fun than the first one, but, as it was a bus ride that lasted more than an hour and a half, was still not all that fun. Once we got to the Albergue we were staying at, the group who had done the buying went to the kitchen to attempt to make mac & cheese for dinner. After about 45 minutes of pestering them, I got them to allow me to help them (they were very stubborn and didn't want anyone else to come in to help because the kitchen was quite small and there were already 5 people there, but I was more stubborn, so I won and got to help). It didn't really turn out like mac & cheese because they had failed to buy enough cheese, but it still was somewhat tasty, and the international folks didn't really know the difference. After dinner, we went straight to bed because the goal was to be ready to go by 7:30 the next morning. And so started our trip.
We were all out waiting in front of the albergue by 7:30ish, which actually kind of impressed me. Once everyone was out the door, we walked up a small hill for about 15 seconds until we got to a little open area in front of a church. Once everyone had taken off the packs they had just spent five minutes putting on and adjusting until they were comfortable, we got into a circle to stretch and so that the volunteers could explain a little bit about the Camino, and so that they could tell us our one mandatory stop of the day. After we finished all that, we were finally on our way. For the first kilometer or so, we were all fairly close together, but once we hit the first hill, which was about a kilometer and a half into that days walk, the kid from Portland, whose name was Solomon, and I kind of broke away from the rest of the group. And so we got to the top of that first hill alone, and found ourselves in a huge field with fog hanging low over it. And it was incredibly beautiful. And we kept walking, and walking, and walking. After about two kilometers alone, my brother got close enough that we waited for him to catch up, and about a kilometer and a half after that the three of us stopped to take off our sweatshirts. During that short stop, the group that was following us caught up, but we ended up jumping out in front of them again, but this time with Jon, the other kid from Soto, as well. Anyway, we ended up staying out front until the mandatory stopping point. After waiting there for nearly an hour and a half, we, meaning about 15 or so of us, set off again. By the way, since I don't think I've mentioned this yet, there were 29 of us, including 4 volunteers. Anyway, we ended up walking together as a big group for the next 5 or 6 kilometers, until me and this girl from Maryland ended up out front. So, we walked and talked, and ended up getting to the albergue where we were sleeping before anyone else. So far in front of anyone else that I was getting out of the shower as the group behind her and I were getting in. So, after Jon, Solomon, and Dani had showered, we walked up to a park that overlooked the river that was ran below the town. And, because we had about two and a half hours of free time while waiting for the last group on the road to get in, I had a beautiful little nap up there in the park. And then I got bored and took some pictures of sheep and a tractor. Anyway, at 5:30, we had to walk back down the hill to the albergue in order to meet with everyone. We then proceeded to walk back up the hill to the park as a whole group. Once we were there, we split up into groups of 5 in order to do an activity that the volunteers had planned for us. So, we were given various questions and tasks to answer and complete and the next two hours to finish. So we went at a nice and relaxed pace, which was great. And the activity was somewhat fun as we got to walk around and see the town. Anyway, after we finished the activity, we ate, watched the Real Madrid game (Dani and I were the only Madrid fans, which was a bummer, but also quite fun when Madrid won both the games they played while we were on the trip), and then went to bed around 11.
Again we woke somewhat early and were on the trail all stretched out and ready by 8:15 or so. Almost the whole first half of that day's walk was uphill, and the uphill started roughly a quarter of a kilometer in, so the girl from Maryland, whose name was Claire, and I again ended up out front, and we remained out in front of everybody until the rest stop we all took roughly 15 kilometers in. The second day wasn't quite as pretty as the first, but there was another crest that we reached while it was still covered in fog, so I enjoyed that a lot. While Claire and I were out front, we met, and ended up walking with, a college girl from South Korea whose is going to school in Barcelona. She and Claire ended up talking about K-Pop, which is a basically Korean pop music, for about two kilometers of walking. I found it somewhat entertaining to follow and listen to for the first kilometer or so, as they were throwing out random band and song names that I didn't recognize and then responding with phrases such as "Oh my god! I know, right. I mean, that song is so much better than their earlier stuff." or with "Yeah, they are quite weird. Have you heard "such and such". It is the only one of theirs that I like." While somewhat enjoyable for a little while, I got bored of the conversation after a little while, but luckily, by then, we had arrived at the rest stop and some other AFSers had caught up to us. After eating, I set off again, but this time with a group of six other boys (from Brazil, Japan, Thailand, Cataluña, Iceland, and Turkey) that I stayed with until the end of the day. The second half was much more fun than the first half of the day, as we spent a good while singing, running down and up hills, and just goofing off in general. The most memorable part of that day, though, was when got stuck behind a group of 6 or 7 cows and calves that were being herded to a different pasture. We had to walk a kilometer behind them, and that kilometer was made entertaining by one cow that was half-shitting the whole time. When it first cut out in front of us, it already had shit slowly dripping out of its butt, and a kilometer later, when they were finally herded off the road, it was still shitting. So we were making jokes about it the whole time, and I got my camera out, put on my big telephoto lens, and took about 30 or so photos of the cow's butt, which I will post later on. Anyway, we spent the last what-turned-out-to-be-three kilometers running and sprinting to get to the hostel. You see, the guy herding the cows told us it was a little bit over one kilometer until the town, so we decided we would do it running and in bursts of sprinting. Unfortunately, it turned out to be over three kilometers to the hostel, so we would sprint until we found a person, ask them where the hostel was, sprint there, not find the hostel, ask another person, sprint to where they told us, not find it and so on. Anyway, we were panting a bit when we finally entered the hostel, but it made the shower feel that much better, so it turned out well. After those of us who had arrived had showered and relaxed for a little while, we went out in search of food because, well, we were basically dying of hunger. Some of us, myself included, ended up sitting down for a full meal, meaning two courses followed by dessert. I had a penne pasta with a blue cheese sauce and, for the second time, pulpo. After eating, we had what turned out to be our last organized after-walk activity; we had to give each other massages. So, we were paired up and we took turns giving each other 15 minute long massages that one of the volunteers directed. They felt quite good. Anyway, after massages, we spent the next hour or two playing cards outside, which turned out to be an almost daily activity. We then ate dinner, and went to bed.
The next morning we were up and out on the trail by 8:30ish. This time, I decided it would be fun to walk with some other people, so I hung back with a slower group of girls. At least for the first 10 km until I got tired of walking so slow and took off at a slightly faster than normal pace until I got the first group, which was about a half kilometer in front of us, roughly two kilometers later, right before getting to Melide. But more on that in a minute. You see, the coolest part about the Camino is meeting all the different people, meaning meeting both other AFSers that I didn't know before, as well as random people on the trail. Anyway, the group of people I spent the first bit walking with consisted of, for the first 5 kilometers, a girl from San Francisco and a girl from the Philippines, and, for the whole 10 km, a girl from Wisconsin and a girl from Arizona. So, we walked and talked and got to know each other, and then about 6 kilometers in, we encountered an American college student who the girl from Arizona had met the day before. Well, you know that cliche "what a small world". It comes from encounters like these. Let me explain: We started talking to this woman, and it turned out she was from a small town in Wisconsin, that I cannot remember the name of. Anyway, when she said where she was from, both of the girls I was with (the ones from Arizona and Wisconsin (you can probably see where this is going)) gave out little gasps of surprise/excitement/whatever-emotion-you-usually-feel-when-you-have-these-encounters. You see, the family of the girl from Wisconsin (her name was Erika) had moved to that town this year. You, as the educated person you are, probably already guessed something along those lines though. But you probably have not correctly guessed why the other girl gave out her squeal of surprise/excitement/whatever-emotion-you-usually-feel-when-you-have-these-encounters. You see, in that town, there is a house. An old house. So old, in fact, that it was one of the first houses ever to have electricity installed in it. And, that house is now a museum. And, the grandma of the girl from Arizona (Noelle) was the last owner of the house before it was turned into a museum. And, I would be quite surprised if you guessed that correctly. And, I am on a roll with these sentences starting with 'and'. And, ... I should probably continue on now. Anyway, they were somewhat excited and psyched about that, so they talked about "how small a world it is" and all that stuff and took a picture with her before we re-accelerated back to the pace we were walking at before. Anyway, on to Melide. Melide was our rest stop for the day. It also happened to be known for pulpo, my newest favorite food. So, a group of 12 of us that were scattered out front all stopped at a pulperia to share a pair of plates of pulpo, which, like all the times before, was incredibly tasty. After about an hour of eating, we broke up into two groups: one who wanted to stay and rest and eat awhile longer, and one which wanted to start walking again, which was the one I went with. After a couple of kilometers, we encountered the Erika and Noelle, the two girls I had left a few kilometers outside of Melide. It turned out that they had only taken about a half hour to eat, so they had ended up in front of us but thought that we were kilometers in front of them. Needless to say, they were surprised to see us come up from behind them. So, we continued on as a group for the next 6 kilometers or so, until I ended up dropping back with Erika and Noelle. You see, Erika hadn't finished the second day of walking because she ended up going to a hospital to have them look at her foot, which was hurting quite badly. That problem was fixed simply by resting it a bit, but she also had a blister that was real bad. And after 24 kilometers or so of walking, it had gotten a lot worse. So she ended up having to slow down a lot over the last 5 kilometers or so, and Noelle and I dropped back with her. Now, this is going to sound a bit mean, but it was quite fun walking the last few kilometers with her. That actually doesn't sound that mean, yet. You see, her pain made her quite moody. But it wasn't like a normal moody, it was an incredibly exaggerated moodiness. And, you see, I like messing with people. A lot. And so I did just that, which, in hindsight, was somewhat mean, but which, at the time, was quite fun. Her moodiness consisted of her laughing at everything and her cussing at everything. So, she would start out laughing, I would say something somewhat mean or discouraging or sarcastic, you would break down and start yelling and cussing about everything, I would encourage her until she felt better, she would start laughing at jokes and stuff, and then I would start over again. Kind of an assholey thing to do, but Jon, who caught up to us about 3 kilometers outside of the town the albergue was in, got a video of it that was incredibly funny. Anyway, moving on. We got to the albergue just before 3:30, which was the latest that I came in over the whole trip. Like the previous days, we showered, relaxed a little, and then went to buy something to eat. After getting back from the supermarket, we, just like on previous days, played cards and just kind of hung out until dinner. Unlike on previous days, I did something that I can remember after dinner other than go to bed. And, it was quite fun. You see, this kid from Turkey named Mert, a girl from Belgium named Leah, and I were all sitting in a sort of common room a floor below our room. There was a table with a bunch of magazines and books in front of us, and one of them found a bible. But the bible was written in German, French, and English. So, we, meaning Mert and I, attempted to read the bible in French, while Leah, who speaks French as a first language, and the person who wasn't reading would sit there and laugh at the horrible pronunciation of the reader. And, reading over that bit that I just wrote, it doesn't sound that fun. Well, I promise you it was. So much so that at one point we were all crying because we were laughing so hard. Anyway, after that we went to bed.
The next morning we were again out around 8:30 or so. This stage was shorter than any that we had done so far, which everyone was more or less looking forward to. We started the day out at a fairly fast pace, even those who usually went slower. It was fairly flat compared to previous days, and we knocked down the first five kilometers or so quite quickly. After stopping to get a sello (I don't think I have talked about sellos yet, but I don't feel like doing it at the moment, so I will do it later on in the post), Solomon and I jumped ahead of the others and ended up walking with a group of Irish women. They were probably the most interesting people outside of AFS that I met while on the trail. They were doing the trail as a family reunion, and they were 10 - 6 sisters, 2 brothers, and two sons. Anyway, we walked and talked together for about 7 kilometers. We talked mainly about the school system in Ireland when they were growing up, the school system that we have in the States, the school system here in Spain, and, more than anything, the difference in language between American English and British English. I found it all quite interesting, and it made the 7 kilometers go by quite quickly. After they stopped for a break, we continued on until reaching our designated rest point, which was only 4 or 5 kilometers away from the hostel. There we ate and waited for the group behind us to catch up. After they had also had a little time to eat, we continued on towards the town. After another kilometer or so, we stopped to buy fruit and talk to the guy at the fruit stand about why he was living in Galicia and if he liked it. After that, we continued on until we reached the hostel. This time, after showering, I didn't go out to get food with the others. Instead I stayed in the hostel and relaxed and played cards. After everyone had gotten in, we did another activity where we were put into groups and had to answer random questions that were given to us on a sheet of paper. It was rather pointless, at least from my standpoint. We then were split into different groups to do a second activity. The goal of this one was to make as many cubes of paper that had tape on them and were of certain dimensions as possible. The part that made it not a simple race though was that each group was given different resources to start with, and then you could go trading. My group ended up winning simply because we were given all of the tape minus one small strip. And, because the cubes weren't valid without tape, we went trading small strips of tape for sheets of paper, which we had none of to start out. So basically, we controlled the amount of cubes that the other groups could successfully make. After the time was up, the volunteers counted how many valid cubes each group made, and then explained that the activity kind of represented the world right now. Although the rich countries, represented by our group, who started with almost all the tape, a pair of scissors, a ruler, and 2 markers, lack the natural resources to build stuff, because they have artificial resources which are needed in the building and which the poor countries need, they are able to make unfair trades to the poor countries, represented by a group that started with only paper, for natural resources. Although when they explained it it sounded a lot better and clearer. Anyway, after we finished that activity, we headed off to dinner. After dinner and dessert, the people working at the restaurant got out the things needed to make queimada, a traditional Galician drink. It consists of orujo, a Galician liqueur made from the residue of wine production, sugar, lemon peels, and coffee beans. All of this is thrown into a large clay pot and then lit on fire. It is then slowly mixed until the flames turn blue. When this happens, the fire is put out, and it is served into small ceramic cups that are more or less the size of shot glasses. As the drink burns, a traditional "spell" is recited in Gallego, so a host sibling who was walking with us and was from Galicia was called upon to recite it as the drink was being mixed. When he finished, we all were given glasses, toasted, and drank. It was quite sweet, but also quite tasty. And it was extremely cool to watch it all being mixed while on fire. After that, we headed to the hostel, and all went to bed.
The next morning, we were off walking at 6:45 or 7:00. We were up and out earlier because we wanted to get to Santiago and finish before 12:00, when "misa" (mass) started in the cathedral. Anyway, it was dark when we started walking, which was quite cool, and because the sun was just starting to rise, the fog made the forest we were walking through look quite pretty. I walked the first 7 kilometers or so with the semi-cripples who started out at the back and way slow. But after the 4th kilometer or so, we started speeding up, and Claire, who was semi-crippled at this point, and I ended up catching up with the front group by the 12.5 kilometers to go mark, which was just under 7 kilometers into the day. We all stopped to take a picture in front of a marker with about 12 or 11.5 kilometers to go, passed the airport all together, and then started breaking up again as we entered into the little towns surrounding the city. And the next 10 kilometers passed by normally, with everyone just walking, talking, and singing a bit. As we entered the outskirts of the city, I was part of a group of six of us that were a fair ways ahead of everyone else. So, we waited for them in a small park right outside the city center. And 8 minutes later they came running by (they were in a hurry because of the time), so we were forced to quickly swing on our backs and go hurrying after them. They ended up waiting just outside the plaza for us, and the second we were in view, they went sprinting into the plaza in front of the cathedral, yelling and singing "We Are The Champions". Because we weren't that keen on the idea of sprinting (and because we didn't really want to be associated with the horrible singers in front of us), we meandered into the plaza behind them, walked up to where they were laying in the middle of the plaza, and shortly thereafter entered the Cathedral to catch the first part of mass. Now, if you give them your name the day you finish before 11:30, then it will be read at the start of mass. So, to start mass they read off the names and places of origin of the people who finished that day, but, because we were a large group, in place of reading off individual names, they named our group and all the different places we were from. Not quite as cool as hearing your name, but still fairly cool. Anyway, most of us stayed another 5 minutes or so before heading back outside. While some of the AFSers stayed for the whole of mass, the rest of us hung out and napped in the plaza. Then, when mass was over, those of us that wanted to went inside to see the Cathedral and hug the Saint and all that stuff. Just so you all know, it is a beautiful Cathedral, easily one of the most amazing I have ever seen. So, if you ever get the chance to, you should definitely go see it. Anyway, after seeing the Cathedral and all, we headed over to get the certificates they give you for finishing the Camino, and after that we began the hostel hunt. You see, we hadn't pre-booked an albergue for the last night, so we had to find one that day. Originally, the idea was to stay in the public albergue, so we walked across the city to it, only to find that it would cost more than we had originally thought. We then got a call from a guy who we had talked to earlier but who had said they didn't have room saying that they had room. So we walked all the way back to the center of town, where we were divided into rooms that were cheap. But not really all that nice, and not at all spacious. You see, in my room at least, we slept two to a one person bed, and we had six of us in a room originally designed for two. But we didn't mind that much. We were all probably tired enough to sleep on the street if we had to, so it wasn't a big problem. Anyway, after getting settled in our rooms, we walked around the city a bit, and just kind of hung out until we went back to our rooms around 11:00 or 11:30. We then hung out in the rooms for awhile, and at one point, those of us in our hostel (we were in two different ones that were separated by a block or two) went out to watch a bit of a parade that they do for Semana Santa, which was quite weird. After we watched the procession a bit, we went back inside, hung out a while longer, and then went to sleep.
The next morning, everyone in our hostel was up fairly early, simply because we had to be out of the hostel pretty early. At least I think. The truth is that I was up early because those of us going to Madrid left at 9:45, so we had to be up early. I don't really know why everyone else was up early. Anyway, those of us going to Madrid got our stuff together, said goodbye to everyone in our hostel, and headed off walking to the bus stop. We then got on our bus, and went home.
And that is how I spent most of my week and a bit between the second and third semesters of school here in Spain. I am now back in school, which is kind of a bummer (I liked walking the Camino a lot more), and not much else is going on. So, here are some pictures from the trip:
People on strike the first day we arrived in Santiago.
Three guys I took pictures of while waiting for Leah (the Belgian) to arrive.
The dog from the first day in Santiago.
Another picture of it, but this time in black and white. I had started playing with the monochrome options a couple of the days while waiting, so I have a few more like this on my camera.
Our cooking team with our Mac & semi-cheese. (Photo taken by: Unknown)
Everyone waiting to start outside of the hostel the first morning. (Photo taken by: Andrea Chua)
Jon and I spent the 45 minutes we spent at the rest stop waiting for others the first day by taking pictures of random things, including each other.
The view from the park in Portomarin, the town we stayed in after our first day of walking.
Solomon and Dani lazing about in the park. (Photo taken by: Jon Reyr Johannesson)
Me napping. (Photo taken by: Jon Reyr Johannesson)
The sheep.
And the tractor
A burnt bit of forest Claire and I encountered the second day of walking. It looked really cool in the fog.
The group I walked with the second half of the second day (Brazilian not included). I also walked with all of them various other times over the course of the trip. (Photo taken by: Matheus Low Eizerik)
The cow shitting.
Another cow in the small herd that was in front of us
Massages after the second day of walking. (Photo taken by: Matheus Low Eizerik)
Cards after. (Photo taken by: Matheus Low Eizerik)
Pulpo. (Photo taken by: Andrea Chua)
A group of us at the 50 km to go marker. (Photo taken by: Matheus Low Eizerik)
Part of the daily blister ceremony. This was from the second day though, so the blisters had yet to get large. (Photo taken by: Andrea Chua)
Some of us playing cards after the third and longest day of walking. (Photo taken by: Jenny Bjorklund)
The majority of the group by a marker saying that we had finally reached the outskirts of Santiago. (Photo taken by: Unknown)
What I believe to be all of us in front of the cathedral in Santiago. (Photo taken by: Unknown)
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