Category: Food – Mind

For winter, I did all the reading and the writing. In our eval in winter, you said I would recieve full credit. For spring, I did not complete all my blog posts or write an academic statement. I did write 12 blog posts, a self eval and an independent project. I believe I should recieve 12 credits for spring.

While at evergreen and before my general outlook has been pretty negative. I always thought: oh no, I can’t get into a good college, I have to feel bad because I am suppose to. Winter quarter at Evergreen was one of my biggest trails of maximum suffering. I had barely any social life, I did minimum school work and had minimum things. While on the camino I have decided that I am over it. I am going home and living with my friends. I am going to community college so I can go somewhere where I actually want to. In a way the camino was like a suffering version of heroin. It was real quick and very intense. I spent weeks by myself with no people and no good food. I was in lots of pain every step I took. If the hostels didn’t have blankets I would sleep in the cold. I learned my suffering must end as soon as I get home. The only gains I make from this suffering is it distracts me from the fact that I am not satisfied with my life. These distractions are also just like heroin. They are a temporary fix to a problem. The camino taught me it’s time to do what I want and it’s not going to be easy. The walk was not easy but I completed it. It was only the first step though. The camino was mindless and robotic to complete but my future education won’t be. It will be harder, but unlike the camino, I will be surrounded by much more joy. I would like to believe that this joy will make the more studious work easier done. On the other hand, I learned a lot about religion. I had thought about becoming jewish while I walked. I listened to the old testament for hours a day, it was a good story but I did not agree with a lot that was said. It was too outlandish. For example, when the jews pray to an ox, God is so mad that he wants to kill all the jews. Moses has to convince him to not murder his beloved people. I decided I did not want to become jewish so I read an introduction to the Koran. Turns out I disagree with the Koran even more than the old testament. While on the camino, a catholic pilgrimage, I tried to dip my toes into two different religious. I realized neither were for me.

I have a camera that I have brought along with me. I like the idea of an actual camera because I feel like it makes pictures more important. I feel like people see a real camera and take more time to prepare themselves than if someone is taking a picture of them with a phone. I did not use it as much as I would have liked. It was just so awkward to carry it, I did not like to carry a fanny. I would occasionally carry it on my shoulder straps but it started to mess up the shudder because it was so tight. The pictures I did take with the camera were generally much better than using my phone. Not only the quality of the actual photograph, but in general I would spend more time thinking about the picture. I constantly wanted to ship the camera home, I always thought about how heavy it was. In the end I don’t know what the right answer is going to be. I really want to take some pictures of morocco with it. I have this goodwill painting in my room of a moroccan market place and that’s the picture that I want on that camera.

The amount of ivy is quite startling on the trail. Another one of my pass times was pulling at ivy. When I would be really tired I could find the biggest ivy vine and tear at it. I felt like it was a positive thing to do, just maybe give the tree some brief relief. On the other hand a large amount of time was spent slicing through tall plants. It was an evil activity but I was addicted. I would throw rocks to take down big stalked plants but I always would miss. My biggest enemy was this one specific invasive euphorbia but I only found it a couple times. I would get my dagger sticks and just take out poor harmless weeds while walking. If i disnt have a weaponized stick, then I would use my broken feet to kick at a plant.

The primitivo started with an albergue that looked like an old hospital or insane asylum. I was separating from the class. I had walked with Anne for 4-5 days and I wanted to be alone. The left over insane peoples ideas were getting into our heads. Anne was visibly upset that we were too late for dinner, it was the cherry on top of my reason for solitude. The next morning I wandered for a good long time before I could find the camino. I ate some apples that were more like jicamas. It was hot out and I was itchy from the heat. I listened to a little bit of the book all the pretty horses for a bit. I liked it but I was distracted by the heat and the anxiety of possible foot pain. I am always anxious about foot pain. One of my daily activities is trying to find out why I am anxious all the time. I tried to think about why I thought every thought. The biggest categories were how people thought about me and how I want to think differently than I am at that moment.

Me, Aidan Ripley and Annie Landis had been walking with some people for a couple days. A guy from Denmark who guys by Rhino, a hippie lady named julie and a girl from Spain named Elicia. We stopped in a town at a empty albergue, we wanted to get stamps and pay but the bar was closed. There was two blankets on the beds, thank the heavens. We all walked to the grocery store and purchased burger fixens. I got some pure cow ground beef along with the usual sandwich supplies. There was a rickety husk of a barbecue that a german man reinforced with sticks. There was no coal in the store so the barbecue was also sticks. Everyone went around and gathered the driest sticks they could find. I found some sticks and then started to drink wine while listening to an audiobook. I was waiting for the future coals to get ready for cooking and that would take some time. I decided that I would like to walk around in the river that the hostel was overlooking. I had been staring at it for about an hour when I finally set out. I was wearing the trusty reeboks with zero tread and the mud was ankle deep. I took my shoes off cuz they kept getting stuck in the mud. I finally made it to the middle island where I had been trying to go but I had cut my feet on hidden shells in the mud. I made my way back and it was time to cook. Another thing that had happened while I was gone was that a lot of people had come to join. Including an Irish guy who was doing the camino on a scooter.  The food was great but the meat was overcooked. We also had cheesy peppers along with roasted eggplant and perfectly cooked chicken.

Ive been in the north for three nights. I have only been staying at by donation hostels. They are all very minimum and none of them have wifi. Luckily, I have been able to find a blanket every night. The walking has been good, my limp has disappeared. The north is much more personal than the french route. I know most of the pilgrims that I see by name. It means that I can’t escape into the crowd, I am forced to be part of the camino people. I am wary of people because of how the bad guys were acting in the beginning. I want to be trusting but it is kind of hard. On another note, Aidan Ripley has been walking in reebok slippers for the last 45 kilometers. It is the most insane thing I have seen on the camino, so far. I have been walking with him for the entire time and we eat sandwiches everyday. The sandwiches include: 1€ cheese, 1€ meat, 0.4£ bread. Sometimes, I buy some lettuce which is nice. Mostly of the time there is no greenery at all in Spain. I ate canned squid for breakfast and pasta with meat for dinner. Carbs and meat only.