Ok, so I normally reserve this blog for exciting adventures and foreign travels, but who says exciting things can't be found right at home, in our daily lives? What motivated this post is when, by slip of the tongue, my students found out about my blog. Next thing you know they wanted to know why they weren't on it.

 

Alright Honors Geometry - here you go! You all looked great in your Halloween costumes!

 

 Some were quite creative. Notice the drug-filled fanny-pack - nice Maxx.

Oh, and here's Sonoma Academy's garden. This is a picture of some of the students, Adam (an outside helper) and myself repeating the harvest. Look at those zucchinis!

Last Camino Entry

Hello Camino Companions,

Here's the wrap-up to my Camino experience. I hope you enjoy.

In the last days I found myself in some of the most beautiful parts of the whole trip. Things got a lot greener as I kept walking west to Santiago because it was getting closer to the coast.

This was the last morning. I got up early so I could make it to Santiago for the noon mass.

Here is the momument at the Monte de Gozo (Mt. of Joy). It is the last stop before you enter Santiago. People were singing and laughing as they walked from here into Santiago. You could feel the excitement.

At the monument I learned that Papa Juan Pablo II (Pope John Paul II) was a pilgrim, as was St. Francis of Assisi.

Much to my surprise 10 km before entering Santiago I heard, "Dan, Dan!" and found my old walking buddy Nick. He had pushed ahead when I got sick in Leon and I hadn't seen him in 9 or so days. It was nice to enter the city with a friend.

the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela - the symbolic end of the Camino

St. James

I hesitate to give you my opinion of arriving in Santiago because I don't want to influence your experience should you ever decide to walk the Camino, but I figure you're reading this so you want to know ... if you don't though, skip the rest of this paragraph. When I arrived there were no overwhelming emotions like some people said there would be. Walking into heart of the city, I was actually quite saddened by the large number of street beggers. I guess I thought everyone would be happy and joyful, but every corner I turned I saw desparate faces hoping for some change. At the mass, besides the fact that I had to stand for the whole thing and I felt like passing out, I found it very impersonal with the hordes of people taking pictures and the alter so far away you had to watch it on the sidewall TV's. I didn't stay there long, but not all was bad. The priest who gave the homily, reminded all the pilgrims that although this journey had come to an end, our pilgrimage of life continues. Away from the cathedral, however, I liked the city of Santiago. For the two evenings that I spent there you couldn't walk far without encountering musicians or entertainers on the street corner.

And I met up with old friends, a definite highlight!

As I mentioned Santiago is the symbolic end of the Camino, but you can continue 90 more kilometers west to the coast to reach the Camino's physical end, a place called Finisterre (or Fisterra in the local Galician language). This was once believed to be the most western point one could go and it had much significance in olden days being that Finisterre roughly translates to "the end of the world."  I didn't have the 3 days it takes to walk there, so I took the bus.

the harbor of Finisterre

Then you walk from the town to the cape (a couple kilometers beyond the city).

the end of the world

"Welcome to Finisterre, the end of the earthly camino below the Milky Way."

no more steps to be taken

I liked it here.

Tradition says that you are suppose to burn your clothes at Finnisterre to symbolize the end of your old self and the beginning of the new.

My Asics had come to "the end of their Camino" so ...

I decided burning them would be appropriate. I soon regretted this for several reasons. I knew this meant walking back down the cape to the bus station barefoot, but like when I stood next to the 790 km sign in Roncesvalles at the beginning of this trip, some things don't sink in at a gut level until you have to "walk it." On top of that a local about my age, who seemed to go barefoot all the time, noticed my barefeet and said, 'ah no shoes uhh?' I informed him that I had just burned them after which he proceeded to tell me how you shouldn't burn large things like shoes because it is bad for the environment and beause it is wasteful. Now feeling like an idiot and with sore feet I returned to Santiago with any hopes of feeling like a hardcore pilgrm completely destroyed. Oh, well, I guess a little ego-check is good once in a while.

Now back home from "the end of the world" I am happy, rejuvenated and seeing things a litte differently. I find myself thinking, "It would take me an hour to walk what I just drove in 10 minutes." T. S. Eliot said it best though - "We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."                                                                                                                                                       Thanks for keeping up with my blog and I hope our paths cross sooner than later. Buen Camino.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camino de Santiago - Entry 3

Another update from across the Atlantic. I´m sure you want to get back to watching the Olympics so I won´t keep you long, but here is a snap shot of my recent past, present and future on the Camino.

First off, here is where I currently am:

(sorry about the presentation ... technical issues)
Basically it´s in a little town just outside of Palas de Rei in the Northwestern region of Spain called Galicia. I have walked about 730 km (450 miles) now and have about 60 km (37 miles) to go. Today is my 26th day of walking, Monday, and I plan to arrive in Santiago on either Wednesday or Thursday. These past days have probably been my favorite so far. I´ll explain why here, but in short, things just keep getting better and better.

In the recent past there has been ...

beautiful towns

new friends (this was an Irish singing group that I joined for half a day ... they had me sing bass)

mountainous landscapes ... it is hard to express how wonderful this is after a week of walking through monotonous plains

quite near the highest point of the entire Camino is a landmark called La Cruz de Ferro (the Iron Cross); the tradition here is to bring a rock from you homeland and leave it there as a symbol of some burden you would like to no longer carry; sunrise here was memorable

solitude has been a big part of my recent walk, which has been great

present ... The solitude has acted as a classroom where I have been learning some lessons such as:

it´s not just about the destination

but about the journey itself as well (i.e. taking time to smell the flowers)

you have to follow your own path ... because that really is the only path there is

I am also learning to trust ... trust that what I need will be provided. You see, as we get closer to Santiago, two things are happening: first, many more people are joining the Camino and hostels fill up extremely quickly. You hear stories of people sleeping outside or in church doorways. You hope it doesn´t happen to you. Second the weather is becoming wetter. It is kinda of like Oregon, rain always seems to be threatening. With this combination, many pilgrims now seem to be rushing from one hostel to the next before the next guy. I haven´t had to sleep outside yet, but have had some close calls: walking in the rain or (quote of the Camino) ¨This is great we got a (hotel) room together, but I don´t even know your names.¨

future ...

The end is near. This is me at the 100 km marker. I have lots of thoughts about the end of the Camino. On one hand I am mentally, physically, emotionally and spitirually feeling great and could probably walk for another 500 miles. It is incredible how your body becomes accustomed to and gets stronger from consistent challenges. Unfortunately my Asics aren´t bouncing back. Maybe it is time to put my feet up for a while.

I also have been wondering what Santiago will be like. For the last month it been the center of the world. All pilgrims have endured blisters, sweat and stress trying to get to Santiago. We have laughed, ate and drank with each other over the days as well as helped each other ¨carry the load.¨ We will be greeted by those who have gone before us and there will be room for all who make it. Maybe I´ve been walking to long, but it sounds like heaven to me.

  

note:  So as not to lead anyone to believe that I should be confused with someone of intelligence :-) I should mention that some of the ideas and terms I used here are not my original thoughts: ¨classroom of solitude¨ - Matthew Kelly, ¨the only path is your own¨ - Lao Tzu, etc., but they resonated with me and so used them. (take that MLA formatting!) 

I hope this finds you well. Peace.

Camino Week 2

I normally don´t condone graffiti, but I´m glad someone took the time to do this.

Hello Again!

More from the Camino. 

It is day 19 of walking since I started on July 11 and have gone about 490 km (around 315 miles) and have about 300 km to go. I am now in a little city just beyond Leon (B on the map) and will walk to Santiago, which although is not pictured is relatively close to the northwestern city of A Coruna.

The walking for the past week of so has been tough ... not so much physically although there has been a lot of sun and little shade, but rather mentally. The landscape is monotonous with seemingly endless wheat fields - it is called the meseta. I was talking with an Englishman at dinner tonight and we were exchanging stories of how people have unexpectedly walked up on us to pass while we were singing or talking to ourselves.... no I haven´t lost my mind.

But friends help lighten the load.

This night we decided to make our own dinner instead of going out. Pretty good, right?

Everyday in the meseta, though, I cannot say that haven´t I learned a little lesson or came upon something that made me think. ¨Words that come from the heart arrive at the heart.¨

Nick and I arrived in Leon on Friday morning - a major city along the Camino.

There is an impressive cathedral there.

Most notable for its stained glass. According to the audioguide it, along with the Chartres cathedral in France, has the most stained glass in the world.

Myself and some walking buddies decided that Leon would be a good place to take a rest day. It was fun: seeing the city sites, eating at good restaurants and even seeing Spiderman in Spanish (although here it is pronouned Speederman). This is picture of the hostel where we stayed. We had planned on making it a one day rest, but a disagreeable seafood pasta changed my plans. 

I got to know this room real well. But 1000 mg of Ciproflaxin, 3 IB profen and 2 days later, I am back on the road and feeling better. The people ¨hospitaleros¨ were extremely good to me while I was sick. If there is one thing I have learned so far it is that people are very good to each other on the Camino.

Now that we are getting closer to the end more people are joining the Camino (not everyone has a whole month to take off for the full walk). The other night I met a 75 year old woman from Japan and this is a picture of a family walking with the (I´m guessing) 10 year old son.

I should be in Santiago on the 8th of August.

Hasta Luego!

El Camino de Santiago - Week 1

Hello World Again! It has been a little over a year since we spoke last and it is good to be out and about again. As I have told many of you, I have decided to do the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) - an ancient pilgrimage from the northeast of Spain, in the Pyrenees Mts., to the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, where supposedly the remains of St. James were discovered and buried. It is about 800 kilometers or 500 miles and will take about 1 month. In short, the idea of a physical challenge in a Spanish speaking country that also acted as a way to personally and spiritually grow is what drew me to do the Camino.... and after one week I am far from disappointed in my decision. Here are a few pics. to give you a taste of how things are going.

arrival in the Madrid airport

It didn´t sink in at a gut level how big of an undertaking this would be until I arrived at my starting town of Roncevalles. I´m smiling here, but questioning inside. On top of this, before I even got to my starting town while changing from plane to bus to bus, I had already met 3 three people who had experienced setbacks to their Spain experiences: a stolen bag, food sickness and a broken ankle from the Camino. I felt lucky to have arrived at Roncevalles without any problems and quickly realized that completing this walk is not to be assumed.

however, having a sense of humor goes a long way

The countryside is beautiful. My favorite time to walk is in the morning when it is cool and the sun is rising to your back.

As this graffiti shows though, with walking comes foot (and other bodypart) pain. We are averaging about 25 km per day (16 miles). It is funny that you can tell who the pilgrims are in the evenings when walking around town - they are the ones limping everywhere!

But with walking comes benefits, like seeing old churches.

Some of these have left me without words.

Maybe most valuable though has been the time to simply sit with my thoughts and as someone smarter than me said, ¨read the books inside of you that your never have time to read.¨

It has not all been solitude and contemplation however. Luck would have it that the festivities of San Fermines were happening in Pamplona the same week I passed through it. This is a week-long party where everyone dresses up in white and red, drinks, parades, watches fireworks, etc. It might be alikened to going to New Orleans for Mardigras. 

These festivals are most know for, however, the ¨running of the bulls.¨

Myself and some other travelers I was with were advised to go to the stadium to best view the action. It felt like I would imagine the Roman Coloseum to be.

and those bulls were no joke

other pilgims quickly become friends

and the end of the days when the walking is over and it is time to eat, socialize and rest is probably one of my favorite parts of this experience so far

although I came alone, as many others did, the short week I have been here has reminded me that this world is a very amicable place

Although I don´t have pictures of these things, this trip has been a deeply moving experience so far due to its simplicity, difficutly, the camaraderie of others, the hospitality of the Spanish, the ancientness of what we are witnessing and the time to reflect. I´ll end this entry with a quote from John, an Irishman, who I was chatting with after a long days walk, ¨It makes me want to challenge myself and be a better person when I get back home.¨

More to come later...