This is EL CAMINO!!

Firstly my apologies for not posting in so long but there has just been a lot of the kinda usual thing going on here and I didn't really feel as though there was a lot to report, until now that is....
The weekend before last my friend Alex and I decided to do a small part of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a religious pilgrimage to the Cathedral of St. James in the city of Santiago de Compostela, in the northwestern part of Spain called Galicia. Also, it just so happens that we are using this to write our ICRP or inter-cultural research project which is one of the requirements of most of the Kalamazoo study abroad programs, since we figured what better way to experience Spanish culture than to go do something cool like hiking that we both enjoy and get to experience something that is very specific to a very famous historical Spanish place.
Anyways, since we decided to do this we were constantly hearing all sorts of things about the Camino, what a good experience it was, and how beautiful Galicia is, how the weather is awful in the winter, and how its completely empty in the winter because no one wants to go then. We ignored these last bits of advice, out of denial, hope, and necessity since at that point we had roped our selves in for the sake of the project. Sadly all of the advice was true with the exception of the fact that we thought that there were quite a few people there, but I guess that I would have called it empty if I had ever seen it in the summer when there are apparently literally hundreds of pilgrims going through each city every day.
Since we only had five days for our break from class we decided to start in a small city called Sarría about 120 km from Santiago and planned out or days so that we would make it to Santiago well before we needed to be worrying about missing our bus. However, it managed to be quite an adventure just to try to get to Sarría in the first place since it involved three buses, one of which was overnight and got us in to the city at one in the afternoon which didn't really leave us a ton of time to make our first 22 km to our first nights stay before dark, especially since we actually had no idea what we were doing and the general towns folk seemed to be useless in helping us as well. After about an hour of floundering around Sarría we finally had our bearings straight and got underway making sure to pick up some rocks once we got just outside the city so that we could leave them and our troubles behind in once we arrived in Santiago. That first day the weather managed to be great, not at all too cold and no rain at all really, it was almost enough to get our hopes up, but we knew that the instant we let that happen it was just asking for the weather to disappoint. We got into Portomarín just as the sun had set and walked over the unnervingly high modern bridge that absolutely dwarfed the ancient roman one at it's feet, and watched the beautifully lit church at the top of the hill preside over the city. We finally found our way to the albergue that was meant specifically for pilgrims and were greeted by what we thought was a surprisingly large group who had all been there for some time seemingly, and were sharing their meals, and welcomed us to join all of them. There was a large group of people from the Canary Islands who were all doing it together, and then several other smaller groups like us of two or three people but it really seemed as though a lot of these groups really already knew each other very well, apparently because they had all been walking together for the last we didn't know how long.
That night we got our first taste of dorm life in a hall of about 30 beds, almost all of which were occupied. The entire night there was one man who was snoring quite loudly and it was too warm the entire night since we were on the side away from the windows so it was really not a great nights sleep to say the least, but I suppose that for 3 euro a person the price was right.
The next morning we were rudely awakened by the light being turned on at the unpleasant hour of 6:45 and decided that we might as well just get up at that point despite our initial plans to get much more sleep than that. We got up and packed and grabbed a quick breakfast and were on our way by 8ish making us solidly the last ones out the door. We then however quickly proceeded to make up time by passing every single person in front of us over the course of the day, and receiving more than one joke about how we were practically running past people on the trail. We had a little bit of rain on and off during the day but nothing major and certainly nothing that could have prepared us for what we had to deal with for the last 3 km into Palas de Rei where we were spending the night. Right as we passed the 3 km to go marker the heavens opened up and it proceeded to pour without any variation in strength until we finally reached our albergue 30 minutes later. Since I had no rain-fly on my backpack it turned out to be a very good thing that everything not already waterproof was packed inside a trash bag inside my bag since everything that was not was damp at best. Since I had nothing to cover my bag and the next day's forecast was for more of the same i decided to find a place where i could by something of the sort. This however turned out to be an adventure in and of itself. I ended up being sent 15 minutes up a steep hill to find a store that didn't exist by the albergue owner (who should clearly know where to buy this type of thing) only to then on the way back down be sent to three different places none of which had them, only to end up buying a poncho at the store literally 20 yards from the door of the albergue. That night we ate dinner with some of the people from the Canary's in the dining room at the hostel and they forced us to try all sorts of different little things that they had and tried our potato chips and laughed at our "fuzzy lemon drink" which was nothing more than carbonated lemonade. They were really good people so nice and welcoming to us and so helpful as well. It really felt like we were all kind of coming together as a community, which was a really cool feeling to be a part of.
The next day we were up and getting ready before someone had the chance to turn the lights on on us, and were out the door earlier than most in hopes of avoiding the walking to fast jokes. That did however mean that we had to contend with the darkness which was an interesting time, but no where near as bad as it could have been since the Camino is excessively well marked, on occasion with three large yellow arrows on two trees and a building along with a large way stone telling you the direction and how far to Santiago. That said there were a couple of moments where we had doubts but for the most part it was smooth sailing, or at least as much as it could be in the interminable rain, which we later discovered was the worst in 10 years. Once the sun was up it became much easier and we really were moving right along until we came to a river that happened to be completely flooded and which for some reason had no bridge. Being the daring adventurers that we are, naturally, we looked for a good way to cross. At the thinnest point that we could find the water was at least 3 feet deep at the bank, and though i tried to wade out and find a path with raised stones, like there had been in many places along the Camino, the only result was a large amount of water in my boots. Eventually we gave up and went around on the highway which luckily enough directly intersected with the Camino after another km or so of walking. The day then continued without much interruption other than the occasional lament of the amount of rain (though at this point it mattered very little considering how wet we already were) until we finally reached what we thought had to be the outskirts of Arzúa where what should we find but another flooded river where the flooding had gone up around the base of the bridgerendering the bridge almost useless. Since we already had wet feet and were certainly not about to traverse the 2 km around to the next closest bridge, I took a stick to judge the depth in front of us and we plowed right through with almost no hesitation. It ended up being only about mid-shin deep but still enough to refill the boots with a new dose of frigid water. Luckily we thought we were only 1 more km from Arzúa so it was no problem. Wrong. Turned out we were actually two km from the city and then another full km once in the city to get to the albergue. It was a very frustrating three km since we were both very ready to be out of the rain and more importantly out of our wet boots. Finally we arrived, taking off wet boots: best feeling ever. However, as it was a Sunday in Spain, naturally it is asking far too much to have any store be open after 2 in the afternoon. As such we realized that we were not going to be able to do our normal go to a grocery store and buy all our food for 3 euro a person and sit in the hostel and eat it, but rather have to go out to a restaurant. In the end it turned out to be a great time since 12 of us all went to a pizza place together and got monstrous pizzas for only 7 euro each, and we just sat around talking, joking and just having a really good time.
It was also at the dinner that we made the ambitious decision to join Alex (a burly Catalan man who was very nice) and the three Swiss guys (all 19 years old, who had finished their apprenticeships this passed summer and then been walking 2,500 km from Switzerland since August 10th to get to this point, at most two days from Santiago) and leave the albergue at the absurd hour of 6 am a full 2 hours before sunrise. Somehow this plan actually managed to work out and we got up along with the rest of the group, packed in the dark, and were on our way. By the time the sun rose we had already walked 13 of the remaining 37 to Santiago, and though the Swiss guys were originally planning to stop halfway and arrive on Tuesday it took almost no convincing to get them to come along with us and finish the walk that day. The weather managed to hold out for us all day and we really moved right along, passing marker after marker counting down the km to Santiago. But after 11 the markers stopped, and it felt like those last 11 km had to have been more like 20 (and I really think they were). It certainly didn't help either that as a result of the rain the day before, our boots had worn down our feet pretty horribly and i could tell that I had at least two or three pretty bad blisters even with 25 km to go. But we struggled through and remembered how the Swiss guys' feet must feel and it kinda put it into perspective a little bit. We trudged along and finally crested the Monte de Gozo where the pilgrim can first see the city of Santiago, and we were all elated. This too, however, didn't really seem to make it any easier to finish the last 4km. We stopped at the city limits, for about 10 minutes to celebrate with the Swiss as they finished their 4 month journey setting off road flares and smoke bombs and dancing around on the highway. Then we finally made the long journey through the city and found the Cathedral of Santiago, and a moment of wonderful relief swept over us all as we sat in the square and took off our boots and stared up at the cathedral and realized that the Camino was over.
This was not however really the end of everything though since we still needed to attend the pilgrims mass the next day, so we took the bus (which feels so fast after 4 days of not being in a moving vehicle) and then had to walk up the hill to the albergue at Monte de Gozo. We relaxed for the evening ate dinner, watched a brief impromptu magic show, reveled in our victory together with all the people that we had met, it was a wonderful wonderful feeling. The next morning we went into town and walked around exploring a little bit and finally met up with the Swiss guys for the mass at 11.
Apparently the thing that the Cathedral is known for is the gigantic incense canister (bota fumeiro in Gallego) that is about 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide that they swing incredibly high across the entire lateral nave of this cathedral. The service included a mention of where all the pilgrims had come from which was kind of cool to be recognized, and finally after the mass ended we said our goodbyes to all of our new friends, made our way back to the albergue to collect our things, and then quietly on to the bus station.
Overall, it was just an incredible experience and though my feet still hurt, I don't regret anything about that trip. Such amazing people and such an amazing phenomenon to find people who were just so willing to help and look out for you, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Pictures

I realize now that it may be hard to notice, so I figured I would just tell you all that I added pictures to several of the posts, not just the one at the top, so it may or may not interest you to look at them, but either way they are there.

Portugal and catching up...

So these past few weeks have been a little bit crazy with actually trying to get things figured out with school and getting going in my classes. I have however been managing some successes on both of those fronts I think. My K classes continue to be very simple (a welcome fact) my university classes however are slightly more nightmarish. I do at this point feel reasonably comfortable in my Ecosistemas y paisaje class which is surprising mildly but again a welcome surprise. The biggest surprise however is how difficult my Introductory Spanish geography class is. The first thing that needs to be expressed about this is that for the first two weeks of class we were convinced that the professor wasn't ever going to come, and we even started to joke about how if he just never showed up until the end of the drop period, we were just gonna draw maps and tell our program directors that we didn't know what to do so we taught ourselves spanish geography. So finally though the last day of class before the drop period ended he finally arrived, and let me just say that this was not a pleasant surprise. For the first day of class, our prof. read out loud the 27 themes that would be covered in the class over the course of the year. Sounds easy enough, but when Chris Alex and I left that classroom our unanimous sentiment was that we had all just taken an oral exam final to a class that we had not attended for an entire semester. It was utterly impossible to understand what this man was trying to say. Our favorite was when he would start off the theme title clearly and then as though he had just been taunting us end it with "f;ha9egraouwbaour" or something equally intelligible. Anyways hopefully, it will improve and if not then at least we are all in it together....

As for the trip to Portugal, this weekend Joe, Chris, Drew and I managed to put together an extraordinarily last second trip to Costa da Caparica a small beach town just outside of Lisbon. By just outside of Lisbon I mean over an hour of public transport so although Drew and Joe decided to go into town for one day Chris and I opted for the staying at the beach and going surfing route and hence did not really get to see Lisbon at all other than from the buses. The trip there was a fairly long affair about 7 hours with a little over an hour layover in Badajoz but overall an uneventful bit of traveling until we reached Lisbon. Once there, we got off of the bus and walked down the stairs into the terminal. At this point we had no idea what we needed to do in order to get where we needed to be so we figured that the best thing to do would be to find an information desk. However, before we were able to really even start to look for one, a man carrying a bag came sprinting across the terminal and the next thing we knew a police man with nightstick drawn, was wrestling the bag from the man, who managed to wriggle out of the bags straps and run off. At this point the only response that any of us had was dumbfound looks of mild terror and a sudden feeling of extreme attachment toward our bags. After that, we managed to find a closed information desk and then finally asked one of the bus drivers who was incredibly helpful and was able to point us basically right to our hostel.

The hostel, once we finally arrived was amazing. A swimming pool, tennis court, a room to ourselves, just a few of the things listed among the high points of the place itself. So we settled in and went out to try to find some food. That first night we went out to a bar on the beach called "Da Wave" where it happened to be reggae night, with reggae music, as the DJ was constantly reminding us over the very loud speakers. However, despite being very loud and in many ways comical, it was really the perfect chill sort of atmosphere that we all had been looking for after our long day. The next two days went by in a flurry of walking into town walking to the beach surfing for hours on end in beautiful waves, and less beautiful waves but actually managing to surf, as in standing on the board for more than just milliseconds. By the end of it all I was very sunburned as we couldn't find room in the weekends budget for suntan lotion, and chaffed all over from the board, beat up by the waves, and feet cut up by the shells and rocks, but all in all it was an incredibly wonderful relaxing and yet completely exhausting weekend.

On the last night we played some cards and then decided to go to bed early since we were all beat. We had already decided that we needed to wake up at 7 in order to pack and eat and make it to the bus before it left at 7:50. So Drew and Chris set their alarms and we all go to bed. The morning comes with the sound of Drew's alarm and we all slowly get up and start to pack up our stuff. Eventually Chris and I went downstairs and we asked the man at the desk if we could have the breakfast that we had specially arranged for him to have ready for us, but he didn't have anything set up. He questioned us about the time that we were supposed to have been getting breakfast a couple of times but finally he opened it up and we managed to scarf down some food and took some with us and booked it out the door. We were a few minutes behind our scheduled timeline at this point and therefore Chris and Drew decided to jog ahead in hopes that they would be able to at least hold the bus until Joe and I who were walking quite briskly (since we both had more bags to carry) could get there behind them. We eventually lost sight of them and were quickly closing in on the departure time for our bus so we continued to pick up the pace. We kept on seeing buses coming by and we were really starting to worry about whether or not we might miss it. Suddenly Joe looks across the field beside us and realized that we had missed the turn and that he saw our bus coming up to the stop and therefore yells "This way!! We need to hurry!!" and proceeds to sprint out into this dark field and I have no choice but to follow him. I too take off every second just waiting to break an ankle in the completely unlit field (since the sun was strangely still not up yet at almost 8 in the morning) but finally we made it across and up to the bus stop where Drew and Chris were waiting for us. All of us were now sweating and panting as the two of them had run almost a mile, and then the two of us had sprinted at least 200 yards, but the good news was that we hadn't missed the bus. So as we sat there recovering from our runs and awaiting the bus that was now 10 minutes late, Chris's phone starts going off. We all look at Chris, and he looks to Drew and asks, "Did you factor in the time change?" Drew's responded with a sorrowful drop of the head and one word "Dammit..." We had all ran and sprinted to catch the bus one hour earlier than we had needed to explaining all sorts of things from the confusion of the hostel manager to the lack of sun. Luckily we were able to catch earlier buses into the main station and then sit there without any problems, but it was still a rather hilarious start to the morning.
The picture is the aftermath of the process getting to the central station...

A Long But Successful Day?

So, firstly the Spainish are completely nuts.

As today was the first day of school, naturally there would be some kind of hazing of the freshmen. This for whatever reason seems to be fairly universal across cultures as far as I have encountered though always to varying degrees of severity, and for that matter legality. Nothing that I could have possibly imagined could have prepared me for what I saw today.

As the bus pulled up to the school's campus the first thing that was very noticeable was the large groups of students gathered in front of all the individual facultades (subject specific universities within the greater university). As I looked closer it was clear that many of them were in matching T-shirts that seemed to have something to do with their respective facultades, but the other half that was not in uniform had something else on them. In addition to the normal clothes that one might wear, was a colorful trashbag, neatly placed over their shirts. though this seemed strange at first I was sure it was just a part of the procedure. In each group the leaders in uniform seemed to have megaphones so as to yell orders at the "novatadas" (freshmen), and they were seemingly a very obedient bunch.

As the bus finally reached our stop, and we encountered the group in front of our facultad it became clear to me what the system really was. All of the freshmen still adorned with their trashbags had writing in marker over every visible part of their bodies and many of them appeared to have white powder all over them as well. As I walked past the group one of the leaders was yelling at one of the freshmen, and it appeared that this particular freshmen was being ever so slightly insolent, so the leader turned to one of his compatriots and promptly an egg was tossed to him and he proceeded with no hesitation to smash said egg over the freshmen's head. This then was followed by a coating of flour in his hair and down onto his face as well. It was at this point that I realized the true purpose of the trashbags as a means to protect the clothing of the novatadas.

I went on to my class, glad not to have been a part of the celebration out front, and it flew by with introductions and handouts and syllybi just like any other first day of school. It was however exciting to have gotten through my first official class in Spain. Afterwards I went down to the gym to inquire about the existence of a tennis team, but was disappointed and was also dissapointed by my first real encounter with Spanish beurocracy. The gym said that I need a pay per time card so they sent me and Drew (another K student) to find this other building where they could help us get them. When we went to the building that we thought was the right one, and after being yelled at by the hazers outside we managed to make our way inside. There three girls approached us and asked us where we were from and after a two minute conversation decided that they were going to write their names on our arms. They told us where to go and we were on our way again not however without stopping and talking again to the hazers outside, who turned out to be really nice, but did want to sell us shirts and drink tickets for the party tomorrow. Anyways we finally found the building we were looking for and after waiting 5 minutes for the secretary to finish his phone call, were told that they can't give us what we needed without us first getting something from the place where we started and then going to the bank and paying for the thing that we weren't going to get until we brought the receipt back to the place where we were currently standing. We gave up for the day and I proceeded back to our building for my first real open to the university class.

This was a very terrifying experience for several reasons. First of all, the class had apparently started on time which I was expressly told by program directors never ever happens here, and hence I was essentially late. Secondly, I missed the professor's introduction and therefore had no idea what his name was and or what the instructions were as to the questions that we were supposed to answer as he went around the room pointing to each person all of whom knew perfectly what was going on. Fourthly, as it turned out Chris (another K student) never showed up so I was the only foreign student in the class and as I struggled to keep afloat with my spanish the professor kept on pointing at me any time the USA came up (which was frequently and by no means always in a good light) as we began to talk about the ecosistemas y paisaje.

I struggled through the hour and a half lecture and felt ok about it but am not sure I'm gonna be able to stay in it as I get the feeling I may be in way over my head. Regardless for a first day of class it could have been worse I think. So I made my way home for the siesta, all the while being reminded of the hazing going on as the back of the bus filled with freshmen and hazers jumped up and down while drinking their very alcoholic mixed drinks and screaming songs and rhymes at the top of all 40 of their lungs.

I needed to be back at school at 5 for class so I didn't really get the siesta that I wanted but it would have to do. And so I managed to struggle through my final class of the day and finally get through what seemed an unending story of twists and turns. It was certainly a lot more excitement than I would have expected out of just one day, but it seemed to be a success in the end so I suppose I can't complain.

First impressions

So as I am finally starting to get used to everything that is going on here I am beginning to notice several things, both good and not as good, about the place, the people, and most importantly the culture. Firstly, I have been surprised at the complete lack of sprawl that exists in this town. It is the strangest sensation to be walking through the streets with tall buildings on either side and then suddenly to have the road end and have there be nothing in front of you but empty land for the 20 miles to the next small town. It is so different from home, and so indicative of how community oriented things are here. Yesterday the streets were full of people out for a Sunday stroll despite the fact that not a single store was open but the heladerias and the dulcerias. The thought of the entire community flooding into the streets in the USA with no where in particular to go seems preposterous. And the best part is that everywhere you look people walking by each other will stop to talk to their old friends and this is the real reason why they are out, simply to be in the community and reconnect with whomever they happen to run into, resulting in an incredibly community oriented feel to this small Spanish city.

Secondly, I realize just how nice it is to be able to walk where ever I might want to go. The city is honestly the perfect size. With the exception of the university, I can walk anywhere in the city in 30 minutes or less. I have to say, I think if there were one cause that could be sited for the general difference in health between the USA and Europe in general it would probably be the lack of walking that we do back home, whereas that is simply such an inherent reality here that no one thinks twice about walking to places.

Thirdly, with regards to the culture here, the idea of a nap every day after lunch is probably the best thing ever. Definitely a schedule that I could get used to!! obviously there is more to be said here but that will have to be for another day. I have to go eat dinner soon so buenas noches a todos.

Ross

My address

For those of you who wanted my address, here it is:
Avenida de la Virgen de la Montana 26, A, 1(degree symbol) dcha.
10002 Caceres, Espana

These are my Padres.

I'm here!

So I've actually made it now and I have to say the whole time on the bus ride (that I was awake anyways) from Madrid to Caceres I was really excited and then as we finally pulled into the spot where all our families were waiting for us, and they stood there waving to us with huge smiles on their faces, I panicked. I suddenly realized that I was going to have to speak entirely in Spanish for the rest of the night and the next morning and then the whole day and then for the next months and then for the next four months after that, and in that moment that feat seemed entirely impossible. Now having slept on it for a night it seems a little bit more acceptable, though i still don't understand a single thing that most people are saying ( in particular my host padre who doesn't enunciate very well at all) but I think I already feel like it is getting better.
Anyways I have to go get ready to do program things so until later, wish me luck!

OH MY GOD SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I leave for SPAIN....TODAY!!!!!! This is kind of the most exciting thing to happen in quite a while!! Anyways I leave in less than 24 hours at this point and I'm finally going to get to go anead and get on my way!!!! Obviously at this point I'm definitely in the very excited mode of thinking and I can only hope that things stay that way, but I'll definitely keep you all updated as I finally get to Caceres and get settled in. Until then, wish me luck!!
Ross