El Camino: The Way

“But the beauty is in the walking; we are betrayed by destinations.” - Gwyn Thomas

I did something exciting!

This weekend I took a bus to Logroño to hike two days of El Camino with Annette, Mark, and Lisa (friends I met at church). The Camino is something I wanted to do ever since seeing the movie The Way and reading about it online.

The Camino is organized in 30 etapas, or stages. We did two of the etapas and the details of each one are included for your reference. I hope you enjoy this brief photographic walk (no pun intended! except I did intend it...) through my short journey :)

Etapa 8

 

The first day we went from Logroño to Nájera, which is a total of 29.6 km, or 18.4 miles. We left Madrid at 8 AM (the 1 AM bus was full), which means I left my apartment at 7:15 AM. It doesn't normally take me that long to get there but I had to account for the strikes... again.

We arrived in Logroño at 12:30, which is the time that most peregrinos (pilgrims) are finishing. Nobody wants to walk in the afternoon heat. Except for us...

The tile arrow pointing the way through the city in Logroño. These are more trustworthy than the spray painted yellow arrows. Anyone could buy a can of spray paint and take the peregrinos 5 km out of the way...

 Nevertheless, we followed the spray painted arrows through the city.

The area we walked through was La Rioja, which is a region known for its red wine. We walked through vineyards both days.

 

You can always find an arrow leading the way... 

 

 

Sometimes the journey would take us along the road; luckily the cars know to avoid peregrinos. 

We walked alongside these crosses for about 30 minutes. Most consisted of sticks or flowers which were woven into the fence.

Then the camino would take you through tiny cities (like really tiny... one of the towns we wanted to stay in had a population of 220 people) where the locals would try to convince you to check out their historical land marks. I loved looking at the quaint buildings and if we had had more time, I would have loved to check out a church or two during the journey. Unfortunately, when you have so many hours of walking ahead of you, you're not too keen or reading every historical plaque.

 The cobbled streets of Navarette

After about 11 km, we arrived in Navarette. This took about 2 and a half hours and since we had to get our peregrino booklets to legitimize ourselves (many albergues will only allow peregrinos to stay there), we didn't leave Logroño until about 1:30 PM. During lunch, we tried to decide what to do with the rest of the day. 

 My first plate from lunch, a typical salad.

The etapa called for us to walk another 18 km, but since it was so late in the day, we thought we would stay in a smaller town and walk a little extra the next day. Unfortunately, when we called the albergues in Sotés and Ventosa, we found out that there was no room in the inn. Thus a little before 6 PM (we were delayed by some rain), we set out again on the Camino to walk another 4 hours. We played a lot of "Zap", a word game that I learned at Jackie's grad party and played on family vacation to kill downtime. I didn't know it was possible to play for 3 straight hours....

On a positive note, since we were walking at such an abnormal time, we saw the sun set over Nájera. It made walking with the sun in our eyes for hours on end worth it.

 Sunset over Nájera

When we finally got to our albergue, the girl sighed, "Finally! You guys took it nice and slow!" She totally thought it took us 16 hours to walk the 29 km. When we told her that we started at 1:30, she could hardly believe us. It seems they all thought the sun would melt us.

Etapa 9

On Saturday, we got up at 7:15 AM and left with a bunch of other peregrinos. 7:15 is actually kind of late though; the earlier the better since it is more comfortable to walk in the cool mornings. This walk was pretty flat and only consisted of 21 km, or 13 miles.

It was more fun to walk with the other peregrinos since we would run into the same groups multiple times throughout the day. We saw them in Azofra (where we stopped for breakfast) and then again at the watering hole at the top of a rather steep hill. (The hill wasn't too bad, except for the fact that it kept winding so that every time you thought you had reached the top you were sorely disappointed.) Then, lastly we saw them when we were sitting outside, eating our menú del peregrinos. The menú de peregrinos is the pilgrim's menu; it is a typical 3 course Spanish lunch but it has earlier hours to account for the early hours of the pilgrims. Needless to say, everyone had bigger smiles when they were out of their backpacks and eating, than when they were trekking up the hill.

 Hearty breakfast for a peregrino

We made friends with two Canadian ladies who were doing the entire Camino over about 40 days. There are 30 etapas (so normally it takes 30 days), but they were planning on breaking up the larger etapas (some etapas are 38 km!) into smaller chunks. Since they are retired and the one woman is 70 (awesome!!!), we approve of their methods.

They had discovered in their first 7 days that they had different walking paces, so we ended up splitting up and walking with them. Lisa was happy to have someone to walk with at a slower pace and gloated at breakfast about how she had found "her match". The fact that her match was 70 years old didn't bother her if she could claim that it was the wisdom of her elder that let her try the grapes, which we had discouraged her from doing the day before :)

Another great part of Saturday was the sheep! Right after we passed them, the shepherd brought them onto the Camino and they completely filled it. Although Lisa was convinced it would be fun to walk among them, I was happy to have avoided the excess of flies that accompanied them.

That would have been a lot of sheep to walk through!

Up closer and even more personal than the PA farm show.

Wahoo! Another awkward photo of me :) But here's some proof that I didn't just download all of these pictures from the internet. Also Jackie, please note that I am repping my t-shirt with Dutch on the back. Too bad he was covered up by my backpack.

Second plate of my lunch. The reward for arriving!

We finished in Santo Domingo, which is a city known for the legend about "El gallo y la gallina." In this story, a peregrino is wrongly accused of making advances on a local girl, and is hung. But wait! He is saved by Santo Domingo! His parents hear his voice and then go to the town to tell the judge that their son is as as alive as the chicken that he was about to eat. And obviously, the chicken on the judge's plate then began to sing. There you have it.

If you know Spanish (or want to pretend you do) here's a YouTube video recounting the story with a bit more detail:

Or if you could care less about the milagro, just know that it gave me reason to eat this cute little chocolate chicken.

Each chicken was a different kind of chocolate (milk, white, dark), filled with a truffle-ish chocolate inside of a different variety.

Well, that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed my brief experience with the Camino as much as I did! I can't wait to do more :)

Until next time,

Amber

Disclaimer: This blog records my personal thoughts and reflections; it is not reflective of the positions held by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

First day(s) of school!

Waiiiiiiiiiit, I came here to work?!?! Oh yeah! With all this hanging about and trying to get settled, I almost forgot that I had work responsibilities! Here's a brief recount of my first day(s) of school...

Monday

According to Fulbright, Monday was my first day of work. But when I e-mailed my coordinator, he decided it would be better for me to just come in for a tour. So while many of my peers were fighting the even heavier than usual morning commuter traffic (the Metro workers were striking during commute hours by only running half of the trains), I went for a run and lollygagged over to school to be there at 11:00. After a brief tour and a café, I was sent home and told not to come in the next day on account of my coordinator not having time to make me a schedule.

Tuesday

My job was a walk in the park. But literally... since I didn't have to go to work I took a very long walk in Parque de Buen Retiro (Park of the Pleasant Retreat). This park was once a private green space for the Royal Family, but is now one of the biggest and most popular parks in Madrid. I didn't know much about the history or features of the park until I googled it; here's the Madrid website where you can read a brief historical account if you like! Or you can just check out a few of my pictures...

 

 "The Galápagos fountain was created to honour the birth of Isabel II, and is also one of the more notable artistic works in the park. Built in 1832 by José de Mariategui, it consists of three different tiers decorated with water plants and equipped with water spouts that jet from Galapagos tortoises and frogs. Four small angels, with dolphins and a snail surmount the ensemble and adorn the top of the fountain. The structure has symbolic meaning which all sought to emphasise well-wishing on the occasion of the birth of the queen, so there are allegories of long life, fertility, and the upholding of traditional values such as wisdom and rectitude." (Source: www.esmadrid.com)

 Monument to King Alfonso XII, surrounded by a large artificial pond.

 One of the many statues in El Paseo de la Argentina (or as some call it, "El Paseo de las Estatuas"). This one in particular honors Alfonso I; I'm not sure who the head belongs to.

The site of the following akward conversation...

Enter Amber, sitting on a park bench reading The Poisonwood Bible. After a few moments, she looks up to see a guy on a bike (dressed in exercise clothing) stopped right in front of her, looking around. As soon as she looks up, he looks down at her as if he hadn't noticed he was 2 feet away from her. They make eye contact and the conversation begins... (English translation has been provided for your convenience).

Biker: Good afternoon.

Amber: Hello. Looks back down at book.

Biker: How are you doing?

Amber: Good. Again, looks down at book.

Biker: Good. Are you having a nice day at the park?

Amber: Yep, it's a really nice day. Wonders what the heck this guy is doing.

Biker: Yes, it is. Soooo, you are not from here, are you?

Amber: No (duh).

Biker: You are living here though?

Amber: Yep... Back to the book...

Biker: Where do you come from?

Amber: I'm from the U.S.

Biker: Ohhhh, good. So you speak English. Tries to impress her by saying a few things in English and telling her about his degree in languages.

Amber: Cool. Okay, buddy. Goodbye...

Biker: So you are working here?

Amber: Yes. I am a Conversation Assistant at a high school. Is reminding herself not to mention her school or neighborhood... and back to the book. Isn't he getting the hint?

Biker: Oh, great! Soooo... do you want to go get something to eat or drink?

Amber: Ummm, sorry. I'm waiting for some friends. This is actually true.

Biker: Oh, bummer. Well maybe some other day.

Amber: Smiles, saying nothing that could infer that she has any plans of ever going out with this man.

Biker: When we run into each other.

Amber: Okayyyyyyy. Bye! Thinks to herself, "As if I'm ever going to run into this guy/recognize him again..."
Biker: Okay, bye... Bikes away.
Amber returns to her book, wishing somebody else had been there to witness this bizarre interaction. END SCENE.

 Palacio de Cristal, which showcases exhibitions of modern art.

Picture in from the huge rose garden which was constructed in honor of one of the Chief Gardeners.

Looking out onto the pathway that leads to El Prado.

This monument, Puerta de la Álcala, was constructed in 1764 because King Carlos didn't think the previous gate was big enough to mark the Eastern boarder of the city. The national monument was moved to its current location, outside of Retiro Park, in the 19th century.

And last but not least, I visited El Campo del Moro with some friends from church. This is the park right outside of the Palace and it's filled with peacocks!

Wednesday & Thursday

After my late start, the past two days consisted of getting myself integrated into the classes. I won't bore you with the details but here are a few highlights:

My lovely powerpoint introduction was useless since none of the classes had computers or projects. Oh wait, two did... but the one computer was locked and the other wasn't even plugged in. I was happy I had with me a map of the U.S. (Thanks Dad and Jen!) and, since I hadn't moved in to my apartment yet, a few pictures of Hershey, Holland, and family!

One English class teacher decided that some of the kids were losing interest in my self-introduction, so he decided I would impersonate a famous singer from the U.S. Thus, I spent about 15 minutes answering (incorrectly) questions as if I were Lady Gaga. Some favorites included: How many times have you dyed your hair? Who is Alejandro? What do your parents think about your clothes? I said ridiculous things and got some laughs, but I was totally wishing I had Molly Rivera's knowledge about Lady Gaga.

On the way to the technology class, my cooperating teacher told me I would be introducing myself. After I explained that I had already introduced myself to the class during their English period (the classes don't change here... the students are together all day and the teachers travel to the students' rooms), he stopped me and asked, "What should we do then?" Ummmmm, not sure. I sure don't know Spain's technology curriculcum. After deciding that we would have a discussion about what life would be like without technology, we entered the classroom about 10 minutes late. He introduced me, the topic, and then motioned for me to take over and said he would be my scribe. Awesome.

Another technology class got out of an entire class by asking me questions. Every time they seemed to be finished the teacher would say, "Well if that is it, we will start boring technology...", to which the students responded by raising their hands with an obscure question about a city in the U.S. or my opinions about Spain.

My Global Classrooms teacher (who I spend most of my time with) is awesome! She has high expectations for the students and is very engaging. She also does this awesome spin thing when she decides she needs to change attitudes or start over... what a character! I'll explain more about the Global Classrooms bit later, but if you are too excited to wait, you can read a little bit about it here.

Okay, that's it! Tomorrow I leave to do part of El Camino de Santiago, from Logroño to Santo Domingo, with some friends from church! We are just going for two days, but it should be a fun introduction to the Camino!

Much love, as always.
Amber

Disclaimer: This blog records my personal thoughts and reflections; it is not reflective of the positions held by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

"And what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8:31

During my senior year at Hope I started to keep records of sermons in a notebook. After a while, I began to also take note of songs that resonated with me particularly strongly at that point in my life. Without a doubt, the most frequent lyrics noted in my black notebook are, "And if our God is for us, then who can ever stop us? And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?"

As I flip through I can remember it's encouragement on October 30th at Calvary,  November 6th at Dimnent, February 5th at Dimnent. Then I was reminded of it once again, in a note from my dear sister that she left on the car seat after our last visit together before I left.

When I was applying for the Fulbright, I was left in a waiting game for almost a year and a half. I was constantly wondering: "Will I get chosen? What would it be like? Should I be applying for jobs? When should I tell prospective employers about the grant possibility? Wherever, whenver, I move, who will be my friends?" Slowly, through the help of family and friends, I realized that as I walked into an uncertain future, I had to believe Romans 8:31 in the core of my being. I had to realize that God was above all and if he wanted me to be in Spain, I would be there. I had done my part, writing a hundred revisions of the same two one-page essays. The sense of peace had to come from trusting the God who provides.

Now, being in this wonderful city of Madrid, I am challenged to live up to what God desires for my life. In a James study that I did with Miss Natalie Daché this summer, I was struck by the reality of James 4:15, "Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" It finally dawned on me that our lives are truly but "a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14). My car accident this summer could have easily have been more traumatic than it was. A walk home alone from the metro stop will always have a risk associated with it. I am here, I am alive, because God has plans for me. It's my responsibility to live up to them during my time here.

"So," you may now ask, "What grand adventures are you having across the big pond?" To be honest, life here is not as exciting as you would think. I'm not on some tourist trip, touring all of the big attractions and staying up late every night with the plan of sleeping on the plane ride home. I'm slowly (but surely) making a life for myself here that is not too far off of what I would be doing at home. In fact, it may be slightly less interesting given that I haven't formed a group of close knit friends and I'm still living out of a suitcase. However, there are tiny moments of adventure which are enough to make my current homelessness situation worth it :) Here are some updates...

Okay, so this one isn't a foreign experience. But there are some things that make Saturday mornings perfect no matter what country you are in.

For those of you following my food consumption, here are a few of my current staples. Kiwi yogurt, addicting cookies, and Emergen-C (brought from the U.S.). I went running the other day and ended up with a sore throat. I guess I wasn't dressed warm enough for the 8:30 am temperatures (60 degrees... is my body already adjusted to the climate change?!?!).

 Speaking of running, there is a wonderful path through the park next door to my current apartment. I can run 40 minutes without seeing a single stop light! However, it's made my sneakers super dusty. I don't think this picture does it justice but if you look closely at the differences between the blackish part and the crevices, that is the change that happens when I wiped the dust off. I don't know that it competes with the dust on Ali's sneakers from Africa, but still...

Groupon Madrid! I get e-mails every day. I'm definitely planning on using some of these to my advantage...

 I met my nephew, for the first time! Granted he probably didn't get the whole person in the computer thing but whatevs. Josh and Tami have adopted B from Ethiopia and will return to the U.S on Thursday.

Then, of course I had to check in with my adorable niece (and adorable mother!)...

 And last night I took advantage of Euromanía at 100 Montaditos with Napala (fellow Fulbrighter) and Erica (fellow Michigander... who knew I would find someone in Madrid who has dutch danced?). 100 Montaditos a fabulous chain restaurant that has a menu of 100 little sandwiches (montaditos). They range on price depending on the ingredients, but on Wednesdays and Sundays, everything is 1 euro. It's basically amazing.

Sunday morning I checked out the Bundy's church, Hermanos en Cristo. Not knowing how long it would take me to get there, I left about an hour ahead of the service time and arrived about 10 minutes early. I walked in, knowing I would be early but hoping to slip in somewhat unnoticed, only to find that it was a classroom size room with about 40 chairs. The only people there were the two who would be doing the worship music and a few looking over powerpoint slides on the computer. Very inconspicuous, Amber. You blend right in.

The service was wonderful though; it was very similar to what I had experienced in Sevilla. When people wanted to speak up or pray, they did. In the middle of the service, they had new comers stand up and introduce themselves. (Public speaking in Spanish?!?) It was obvious it is a very tight-knit community. Afterwards, I talked to a bunch of people and went out to lunch with a young couple (from Miami) who had been living in Madrid for the past year while they do their Masters. Very exciting prospects!

AND last but not least... my first day of school! Here are a few tidbits of information about my school:

1. The staircases are marble.
2. The paintings on the wall are registered copies of masterpieces (as in registered in El Prado. Real life...).
3. The school is filled with children of government and various embassy officials. (No wonder the guy at the bank down the street was so impressed with my placement...)
4. From what I can understand of their sports leagues, the basketball team is the best in the region and leads into their equivalent of NBA teams.
5. The (beautiful) theater was painted on the dime of the future Queen of Spain since she went to the school when she was in colegio. No big deal.

The sign for the school, which is actually not on the school building. The school is behind a gym (this building) and an elementary school. Of course I walked into the wrong building first but I'm getting accustomed to this. Side note: Being behind the elementary school means I get to see countless cute small Spanish children every day without having to teach them!

So yeah, it's basically the same as Hershey High School or Black River. Jaja NOT. But to be serious, a beautiful building doesn't mean they have it all together. The education system is crazy; strikes are already being planned. Teachers have been fired and class sizes are soaring. (Sound familiar?) Check out this great article recommended to by my Uncle Jack!

Anyway, my coordinator is so overwhelmed with scheduling and balancing his three jobs in the school (Bilingual coordinator, Head of the technology department, and teacher) that I was sent home after an hour and a half chat/tour and told not to come in tomorrow. Guess that means laundry day? I can't avoid these tiny machines forever. Yes, I'm looking forward to having a schedule, but I'm getting to practice the virtue of patience on so many fronts that it is becoming much more natural.

Well, now I'm off to read some of my book and write some e-mails before going to house church tonight!
Much love,
Amber

P.S. Just one more thought from little A-Rog's card...

VagAMBERond

Well, my friends. I made it through orientation. Which means I learned all about:

Oh wait, sorry that was my doodle. We learned about...

Ayyyyyyy, my notes are in here somewhere...

Maybe I should just look at the booklet they gave us. Here's the shortened version:

If you really want to know the details, feel free to ask me. But the doodles infer that it consisted of very long sessions on very hard chairs.

 Don't be fooled by the cloth. These chairs are wood and there was not sufficient space between rows. Also, I'd like you to take note of the awesome name tags everyone is wearing. People wore these walking around the neighborhood in large packs. AKA it wasn't hard to find each other.

But anyway, it was really neat to meet people from all over the United States, with completely different backgrounds, all joining together because of a common interest in Spain. The range of majors in the ETAs is huge; however, when you throw in the researchers, you realize how much flexibility the Fulbright program allows scholars. There are researchers studying everything from skin cancer and marine chemistry (Never heard of that before... but the girl who is studying it comes from a school that is not to be named... cough cough CALVIN! cough) to the siesta and gender roles in flamenco dance. How cool!

 Rock paper scissor snake ice breaker. When you lost you had to join the line behind the person and then join the line of the person they lost to. The only downfall of said ice breaker is that once you lose (which, for me, was after the first game) you don't interact with anyone. Oops...

Chatting it up in the lobby before dinner

But now that orientation has (thankfully) come to an end, I am left to actually settle myself down in this wonderful city. And while I have received many requests for a snail mail address (how nice of all of you!), I have instead dubbed myself VagAMBERond. Cheesy, I know. But I have decided to go apartmentless until October 1st so that I can move in with one of Adrian's (Clara's boyfriend) friends. There is an opening in an apartment with an awesome location, a living room AND an oven. And buena gente, por supuesto.

Now you may ask, where will you be living until then? Well, since Clara and her mom found a renter for their apartment this past weekend (yay!), I moved out so that they can pack up their stuff. So when I came home from the hotel yeseterday, I packed up all of my stuff and moved to Carol's apartment! I think my switching of my living location at least once a month from May to August was preparing me to handle this.

 My bags packed for the third time... I added a bag of laundry this time. I had acquired some toiletries that pushed me over the edge of the three bags.

Clara's dog and I playing before I left. Her toy is as big as she is.

With all of the apartment hunting and switching and googling I've been doing, I must say my head is a mess of streets and metro stops and building numbers. So after I got back last night from going over the deposit details with my future flatmate, I walked into Carol's apartment building ready to settle in and unpack. But as I walked up the steps to the second floor, I was locked out of the floor. I tried the keys I had but since they didn't work, I decided I would get in the elevator at the floor below and get onto the floor that way. Well after the elevator (lethargically) descended and I was able to get the handle-less door all of the way shut so the elevator doors would close, I realized the elevator required a key to get to the second floor. After a moment of confusion, it dawned on me. I had gone into the apartment building of the number of my future apartment building. Oops. When I made it into Carol's apartment building (next door), I found out that a government official lives there and the place had been surrounded by body guards during the election. I hope they don't have video cameras...

Alright, friends, I think that's pretty much it. Here are a few quick highlights before I leave:

• I went salsa dancing on our last night of orientation! Folk social swing really came in handy. Most of the time I had no idea what I was doing but I surprised a couple of the male Fulbrighters who knew who to salsa by following pretty well... apparently my bun didn't scream salsa. WHAT?!?
• I got a bank account! Jorge is the bomb. After I said I needed to open an account he goes, "¿Eres un Fulbrighter?", to which I responsed "Sí...". Then he answered every question I would've asked and opened the account without even asking me what I needed. Apparently being the 12th person to go to that bank has an advantage.
• And alas, some food photos... 

Tapas, half devoured at our party the last night of orientation. Delicioso...

The only good food the hotel had to offer: breakfast. Yogurt bar (dried fruit and pumpkin seeds galore!), endless pastry options, tea, and fresh juices. I think this one was broccoli and grape or something? Mmmmmmmm....

Last, but not least, a wonderful vegetable stew. This was the first plate of the menú del día that I had for lunch today!

Okay, now that's really it. ¡Hasta pronto!
Much love, as always,

Amber

Disclaimer: This blog will record my personal thoughts and reflections; it is not reflective of the positions held by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.