June 17--The Red Man and Sock Balls

Last long hike of the trip! We ended up going about 17 miles today, and we are only 40k away from Santiago, so Monday and Tuesday of next week are going to be a breeze! I mean, they’ll be like 13 miles each, but that’s barely four hours of hiking! Today was a good day hiking, but of course, the curse of the last 100k continues. 

Anyone who has run in a race knows the feeling of being used as a marker. Often in races, if someone thinks you are running the right speed, they will use you to know when they can speed down and when they should speed up. Once the get in front of you, they will slow down, but as soon as you pass them or get close to where they are, they will speed up. So even if you are the one going a reasonable speed at a steady pace, you feel like you are just constantly getting mocked by these people passing you. Several of us noticed this type of behavior today during hiking – it doesn’t help that there are a bunch of over-competitive high schoolers on the trial, but besides them, several adults used us as markers, or felt the need to pass and get ahead of us. Although this behavior happens a lot in races, it hasn’t happened along the Camino like literally EVER up until now. 

Walking 13-18 miles a day, you learn that going at your own pace is WAY more important than making a competition over your walking speed. Granted, we do walk faster than your average peregrino – we aren’t carrying all of our possessions on our backs and we are a LOT younger than the average age on the Camino – but depending on the day, different students will get in first, we will walk in packs or alone, we will push or stay back, it’s whatever feels right for the day. But MAN, today – as you’ll see him in several of the pictures – there was this guy in a BRIGHT RED shirt that literally stayed RIGHT ahead of me for probably a good two miles. I was actually ahead of him, but then a peregrino flagged me down to take a picture of him at this old clothes-washing station, and the infamous red man passed me. For the next 15 minutes he walked barely faster than me – inevitably getting in all my pictures. Finally, on an uphill, I passed him, but as soon as that hill leveled out, I heard his footsteps CONSTANTLY behind me. Eventually I was so sick of it and it was getting so distracting that I went to a bar, got a sello, went to the bathroom and let him get ahead me so I didn’t have to deal with him anymore. Several other students shared similar experiences that have ONLY happened this week. 

Stopping actually ended up being a good thing because as soon as I started walking again, I spotted a small stand named “Oasis del Camino,” and you better believe I bee-lined it over there. I got a small container of raspberries (I already forgot the name of them in Spanish :D) and WOW you could tell those were fresh, straight from the garden behind the stand berries. The exciting thing was that our hotel for the next two days has a POOL! So that was all anyone was thinking about, but we got to the town so fast (around 12:45) that our hotel wasn’t open yet. So we all went and got some lunch, got checked in, and THEN went swimming.

Although the pool was pretty small, it was big enough for everyone’s swimming/pool needs. I was really surprised, a shocking number of kids only got in the pool briefly or just to soak their feet and then spent the rest of the time sunbathing on the seats outside the pool. I, on the other hand, was trying to figure out what we could use as a ball to toss around the pool. Since the outdoor clothesline was visible from the pool, I came up with the brilliant idea to use a sock/socks as a ball! We got about three tosses in with my wool hiking sock before I realized not only would it keep coming loose, but also those are EXPENSIVE and I didn’t need it getting tossed around the pool. So instead, I went into my suitcase and pulled out a pair of short non-running socks I only use on off days. I double wrapped those babies together and DANG did they work well. Like for REAL – they were like one of those water balls that floats but can get pretty heavy if you let it soak in water. Of course they weren’t perfect, and when Tim, our baseball player, would whip it across the pool, sometimes it would come undone, but for not having a ball and having to improvise on the spot, it worked pretty dang well! Eventually the fear of getting sunburned despite putting on sun-screen got the best of me, and I went back inside to take a shower and hide from the sun. I came back out, but to take refuge under the shade and draw. 

I usually communicate better through the written word (as you can witness through these blogposts), so whenever I have significant experiences with people, I like to write them a parting note. This habit comes from a tradition I came in contact with at the boarding summer camp I attended as a boarding and non-boarding camper throughout my childhood. They are called train letters, and we would write them at the end of every summer. They were called that because back in the good ol’ days, everyone took the train back home, so you would write them letters to read on the way back home while they rode on the train. So, I started making my train letters for everyone here. They are kind of inspired by sellos because I am drawing everyone a small personalized image that represents something I find iconic or important about them  Here are a few I got done today:

After dinner, we ended the night with an INTENSE round of arm wrestling – like literally 9 different people, girls and guys, all got SUPER into it. Having no upper-body strength and dainty, precious wrists and fingers from playing violin, I abstained from the competition, and was very glad I did after seeing the intensity of the sport. We also started the second Spider-Man movie which in my opinion is one of the BEST – Doc Ock is such a compelling villain. It was a good day, I’m a little behind on homework, but I was busy drawing and hanging out with friends. I’ll get it done tomorrow 