Tag Archives: camino

camino this ‘n’ that

Over the last week I’ve spent about $130 $160 on things for the camino – socks, rain gear, first aid stuff, ANOTHER camp towel (worth the extra $$). I have inserts for my boots, a bar of soap that I can use in my hair as well as on my body, and a small borrowed pack that is going to work fabulously. And I’m starting to get anxious. Shane had a taste of this today – we were at Champaign Surplus and I started feeling frazzled a la “is there anything I’m forgetting?!”.

One of my professors mentioned my camino to some visiting Spanish researchers, who replied that if I needed an emergency contact, I was welcome to look them up – so I have a business card in my pack for the Universidad de Valladolid.

The woman I’m staying with in Porto emailed me this week to say she could pick me up at the airport on Wednesday, and that she’d love to join me for a day or two.

No luck lining up a couch in London yet, but I’m still looking.

Last night a friend told me that I’m an inspiration to her – being bold enough to go do something like this, even if it is scary and I feel unprepared.

My parents keep giving me stern talks about not going to bars with strangers.

I’m going to miss waking up with Shane and Basil, and the mornings that we (not Basil) go to breakfast and stare dazedly at each other over the first cup of coffee. Shane’s applying for a dream job in New York, and I’m trying not to think about what that might mean for us. I haven’t talked about this relationship much here – and that is deliberate – but the last 10 days have been really good, and I am going to miss him.

thursday this ‘n’ that

I just rode my bike to school. It is lovely here – 61 and sunny, with a little bit of a breeze. I’m sitting at my desk with a thermos full of lemon ginger tea – my attempt at staving off the bug that is going around. I can’t get sick now – I just don’t have time.

Speaking of bugs – there are bugs in my apartment, and it’s making my skin crawl. I’m the first to admit that I’m not the neatest housekeeper – but I’ve lived in far worse places, and have never had the kind of problems I’m having now. I have tiny ants in my cupboards – apparently a recurring problem – and ickier bugs elsewhere. As much as I like this apartment, I never would have signed a lease had I known this was a problem. I have traps lining my cupboards and floorboards, and I hope that will take care of things.

Bugs and ickiness notwithstanding, last night I made hummus and tabbouleh in my little kitchen from things I had lying around. Shane came over, and we ate everything out of glass bowls with cucumbers, olive oil, and warmed pita. I have a lot of tabbouleh chilling in my fridge, and I’m looking forward to eating more of it tonight.

This has been an exceptionally difficult week for me for a variety of reasons that I’m not going to go into – here, or anywhere else – so please don’t ask. I have a lot on my mind and heart right now as I wrap up a long semester and prepare for a trip that is going to be exhausting and challenging physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The other day my friend Leslie posted a list of songs she’s calling “Hoppity Hop Songs” – songs that evoke some kind of powerful emotion – happiness, sadness, anger, love, frustration – even if they have no logical association with anything that’s happened in her life. They are called “Hoppity Hop Songs” because of her exhilarating memories of her Hoppity Hop toy which she continued to play with long after she’d outgrown it, and which was cruelly taken from her by her parents. Here is one of mine:

Jem- Falling For You (right/command click, save as)

voy a viajar a santiago

I picked up The Pilgrimage just now while looking for something to read with my morning bagel and NPR. I flipped the book open and read St Jean Pied a Port and was hit with a wave of longing. After all the planning and reading and praying and doubting – it’s real. I still can’t believe it.

soy peregrina. voy a viajar a santiago.
estou peregrina. estou indo a santiago

deja vu

This weekend was awash in deja vu.

Thursday night I drove to Chicago to see Metric at the Metro. I drove home alone through a wicked storm, my ears and heart full of a conversation late at night, driving home from the Nine Inch Nails show a year ago, tired from the end of the semester, from wandering around on Fullerton in clunky boots, from months of wondering what this particular phone call and the conversations to follow would bring. My ears and heart were full of the Camino that night, and of things that I so desperately wanted, and things that would never come to pass. On this night I drove home white-knuckled and quiet.

Because I see and know so many people, I am constantly doing double-takes, making sure the person I see is who I actually think they are. On Saturday I was working at the cafe when my breath caught in my throat at the mis-sight of a customer. She had her back to the counter and was wearing a long skirt, a lace-y, macrame-y sweater, and had her hair clipped up in a messy ponytail. When she turned around, I knew she couldn’t possibly be who I thought she was – she was at least 20 years too old, with graying hair and a darker complexion – but when I waited on her and smelled the familiar sweet and warm vanilla perfume, I found stinging tears in my eyes. “You remind me so much of someone I used to know that it’s freaking me out a little,” I said, lowering my milk pitcher to make the foam for her cappuccino. She just laughed.

wednesday things ‘n’ things

things that are making me exceedingly happy include, but are not limited to:

  • the salad i just had at kopi – chunky chicken salad, some kind of interesting vinaigrette, toasted french bread, yum
  • suggested poster art for an imaginary snakes on a plane sequel
  • tom jones being knighted
  • being past the halfway point in the term
  • tomorrow morning’s exercise adventure with sonya
  • 24!! how many more people will jack choke?!
  • being in a good relationship. really good. with a bonus fuzzy cat.

things that are making me exceedingly stressed out include, but are not limited to:

  • spain in just over a month! !!!!! !!!!! !!!!! !!!!!
  • being past the halfway point in the term
  • realizing, after i sent out the email, that i neglected to include the EFFING CONSENT FORM in my research survey. it’s out there – i just didn’t link to it – and i hope i haven’t fucked myself.
  • being 20c short when checking out, and having my card declined because of unavailable funds.
  • needing to prepare for a two hour lecture (or something) in two weeks
  • the future.

On an unrelated-to-the-above note, this article came across my Bloglines this evening – it address what should and should not be blogged about, which is something I’m trying to deal with retrospectively. There are a lot of things I talked about 3-4 years ago that simply don’t need to be public. That’s all I’m going to say about that. The most important part of the post, I think, was this advice:

In choosing how much to divulge, consider:

  1. Will this hurt your family and friends?
  2. Will this put your job in jeopardy?
  3. Most importantly: Is such a disclosure really interesting anyway?

I think the last is the most interesting and salient point, and one I’m going to have to think through as well.

toward the camino

My schedule as it stands:

9 May: Depart Chicago, fly to London by way of Montreal.
10 May, early: Arrive in London, 10 hour layover.
10 May, later: Depart London, arrive in Porto. Stay with Couch Surfer Gabriella through 12 May.
11 May: Porto.
12-22 May (approx): Begin Camino. Porto > Villarinho > Barcelos > Ponte de Lima > Rubiaes > Valenca > Tui > Porrino > Redondela > Arcade > Pontevedra > Caldas De Reis > Padron. Lose track of time and body and spirit and language.
22 May (approx): Arrive in Santiago de Compostela. End of Camino.
23 May (approx): Depart for Finisterre.
26 May (approx): Arrive in Finisterre.
29 May (approx): Return to Santiago, return to London.
30 May, early: Depart London, fly to Chicago by way of Toronto.
30 May, late: Arrive in Chicago, returning to Champaign some time after.

doing the math

What a week! In the last six days I have:

  • self diagnosed an ear infection, had my diagnosis confirmed, and been put on antibiotics
  • self diagnosed the beginning of another infection, got medication, and headed it off at the pass by eating a lot of yogurt
  • had some sort of food poisoning and the associated excruciating abdominal cramping
  • PMS (enough said)

All these things have added up to very much wanting my mom here to give me soup and crackers and 7up stirred with a fork so the bubbles are gone. On the other hand, I’ve felt very grown up in that every time I’ve figured out what was wrong and what I needed to do to fix it. Three cheers for being in touch with my body!

On a series of very good notes, the following things have happened:

  • All the professors that I contacted gave me permission to conduct my study.
  • After some back-and-forth, the IRB approved my study.
  • I drank Guinness with a table full of friends on St Patrick’s day.
  • I made carrot cake!
  • I have a kitten-cat staying with me for 10 days.
  • My pilgrim’s passport arrived today.
  • I received a fantastic email regarding a plan that may rescue my financial future.

some news

I’m on break at Aroma, eating a chicken quesadilla. I didn’t particularly want a chicken quesadilla, but I also didn’t want to throw it away when a customer’s order was wrong (not my fault) and I was hungry. Also, I just got a catering order. Suck,

This week has been filled with news + excitement + running around. So much stuff has been going on, and I just don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been spending all my time at school, with friends, on my bike, here and there doing everything – it’s wonderful and dizzying and not conducive to productivity.

Yesterday I found out that I’ve been accepted into the PhD program – no one seems to have doubted my application except me, which is wonderful, and I’m totally thrilled. I spent most of yesterday making a high-pitched squealy noise. After so much anxiety the last few months, it’s good to know at least where I will be and what I will be doing for the next 4 and change years. On a related note, I need to buckle down and spend more time on my work, even though I don’t have that much to do at the moment.

On Wednesday I bought my plane ticket (boleto) to Portugal – I’m flying Chicago > Montreal > London > Porto, at which point I will join the Camino Portugues and follow the coast (costa) north to Santiago. I can’t – I just can’t believe it’s really happening. I have a lot of saving to do between now and then, and a lot of working out, but it’s really happening. I’ll be gone most of May. I started Spanish lessons last night – Mike’s going for full immersion, and would speak French if I didn’t understand the Spanish (I speak NONE), and English only as a last resort.

There has been a lot of really good time with friends lately – watching silly TV, working out, dancing, designating new hangouts, sleepovers, plans for summer adventures. We tried to figure out – complete with colored pencils, lists, and terrible drawings – if Coachella was feasible (the line-up is amazing), but have decided instead to travel en masse to Bonnaroo instead – it’s closer, more reasonable, a better time, etc etc. I can’t wait.

Much to the surprise of all parties, I’m actually in a relationship. It is good and simple and easy and I am really happy.

26

My 26th birthday is Monday. I’m celebrating by going rollerskating on Saturday with friends, and then I’m guessing having an intimate dinner or some such on the actual day, which is also a day off from school and work, which is good by me. A year and change ago I made a list of 25 things I wanted to accomplish this year – I didn’t finish all of them, but I made a damned fine dent in them. I couldn’t come up with 26 for this year, and I felt like that list = age constraint was all played out, but I did want to make another list, so, for your reading enjoyment, my 2006 To Do List:

  1. be more responsible financially
  2. take a vacation on the east coast
  3. get new docs
  4. have a successful garden (even if it’s only herbs)
  5. open a savings account and make deposits monthly
  6. read don quixote
  7. finish my masters
  8. go camping
  9. quit smoking
  10. read one book for pleasure every week
  11. learn how to knit something other than scarves
  12. get a new not-ghetto bike and ride it regularly
  13. learn how to make a really good dirty martini
  14. start learning another language (considerations: spanish, portugese, arabic)
  15. submit for at least two conferences (fingers crossed)
  16. keep swimming and improve breathing
  17. finish my survey of all CUMTD buses
  18. drink more water
  19. go to bonnaroo
  20. walk the camino portugues

in brief

i am very tired, and unable to really form proper sentences, so i’ll let this comic explain the last couple of weeks:

news in brief:

  • need a $1200 root canal (have >$500 in the bank)
  • thanksgiving break starts today
  • paper due yesterday being written today
  • nothing due after this til december 8
  • spain’s out for the spring – hopefully later
  • davenport-rockford-chicago run coming up soon
  • subversion in a new location, in love with the dance floor
  • dropped out of nano as of an hour ago
  • the end’s in sight!