May 11--Curd and Diana
All right, the MOST memorable part of today had to be the first and last time of me EVER trying "curd". When I saw it on the menu for dinner, I thought, "Well, I don't KNOW if I'll like it, but when am I ever going to have the opportunity to try CURD again?!" So I ordered it as a dessert--it came with honey as well--and woah. I mean, like, WOAH. I didn't catch everything that our waitress explained about the process of making curd as she gave it to me, but I thought, with my very limited knowledge of curd coming from the cheese curds I get at Culver's, it was going to be like SUPER heavy cream or something. To put it simply...it was NOT like cheese curds from Culver's. Apparently burning or smoking of some kind is a major part of the process of making curd, and basically the entire jar of cottage cheese-looking stuff that they gave me tasted like SUPER burned...like...air. It just tasted like smoke and honey. And although the honey helped the flavor, I ended up not eating the rest of it because it was SO strange.
I had a revelation today about time versus cultural appreciation. I walked with a different set of students today, and while I LOVE stopping for sellos or to look at a cool monument or church, there is an element of TIME to walking on the Camino. We get up at 8 a.m., walk until we get to our destination, and then shower, wash clothes (the sooner the better because you need to give them as much time to dry as possible), then it is free time. I usually spend it calling my mom and napping. And all of this before we inevitably end up going to see the local church before dinner which usually lasts about an hour and a half. Then it's back to the hotel to write the journal entry for the day, write my blog posts, call Gordon, and then go to bed to wake up at 6:30 or 7:00 to get ready to leave at 8:00. Rinse and repeat, right?
So, out of all of that, the only time we have that is REALLY free is between when we get to our destination and the church visit, and after dinner which is quite limited. Yesterday, with the people with whom I was walking, because we took so many breaks, wasting time at churches and not appreciating culture (but instead goofing around), and just stopping to look at things along the way, we got to our destination at 3:00 which barely gave me enough time to call my mom, shower and wash my clothes. This was especially unfortunate because I didn't get to look for sellos, explore the town (which is too bad because it's bigger than the average town and I saw some cool stuff on the way in), look at the OTHER churches that we didn't tour that night, or do anything else relaxing. And I understand--it is good to stop and appreciate what is around us, but I really like looking around and having the freedom to do what I want instead of what my travel companions want to do. It's hard because I enjoyed being with these friends, but because we had to stay as a group, I didn't have a ton of freedom to do what I wanted.
With the very limited time I did have to explore the town, I found this SUPER fun comic and game store that I jumped into before dinner. It was seriously so fun and comfortable to be back in a nerd store. No matter what language, nerd is still nerd, you know?? I also went to the grocery store and got snacks--Milka chocolate OF COURSE, and Doritos...but not your run-of-the-mill Doritos. Oh no, I got the popular Spanish flavor of "Tex Mex" since the other options were BBQ Fritos or Extra-cheddar Cheetos...
Even though it was kind of a rough day of travel, I have to say that I really enjoy the company of these other students. You should have heard us at dinner--the witty banter was OFF the CHARTS, and our sides were literally splitting with laughter. I don't love spending 24/7 with some of the students, but even the ones I don't like as much are still really good people. Just a group of genuine, open, intelligent, adventurous people.
One very funny European thing that I wanted to mention. So Europe is all about energy and water conservation along with renewable energy sources (as evidenced by the windmills at the top of the Alto de Perdon). I see it too in motion sensor lights and timers. Most lights are ONLY motion sensor, and even those with light switches only turn on for a certain amount of time and then turn off without any activity. So, in the last town, I was on a top floor, and every time I went down the stairs, it was SUPER dark, and I expected motion sensor lights to turn on, but there weren't any in the stairwell. Then, later on, a student showed me there actually WERE lights but they are turned on with light switches.
So late at night, I leave my room so my roommate can go to sleep while I call Gordon, and where do I go to call him? You guessed it--the hallway with all the motion sensor lights. So I was sitting there, and all of a sudden ALL the lights turn off, and while I FRANTICALLY wave my arms around for the lights to come back on, I live in fear that Diana (the ghost in the movie) is going to attack me from the shadows. My imaginative mind isn't helping since everything here is so old, and I already expect ghosts to come out of the renovated walls and shadowed corners of the repurposed CHURCH that is now a hotel.
Comments
Post a Comment