University of Michigan

Last night I had dinner with my older Californian friend, an older Dane I´ve seen a lot, and a very talkative older Frenchman who joined the ranks of people who´ve said I look like Nicholas Cage back in Tosantos. The conversation was very interesting and informative, though I took little part in it. The Frenchman and the Dane apparently found each other on some kind of online forum where people find partners with whom they can walk the Camino and have been travelling together from St. Jean-pied-de-Port. The Frenchman had an extremely materialistic view of life, saying that he hates religion, politics, and violence, and that he just tries to appreciate the beautiful parts of life. Neither he nor the Dane expressed any particular purpose for walking in the first place, which I took as proof that God leads everyone whether they know it or not.
Today was a rough day, despite the good sleep I had in Castrojeriz. It was about 15 miles, with the initial part a steep climb up and down a small plateau. After the halfway point I came upon my German friend and walked with her for the remainder of the journey to Fromísta. She warned me of bedbugs in the municipal albergue here, so I followed her to the private one where she had a reservation. As we approached, two French guys I met a week or so ago came out and told us it was already full/booked, but I went inside anyway so I could ask where else I should go. The hospitalera must have thought I looked too pitiful to deny when she told me they were indeed booked by a large group, so she went and set up a cot for me next to the bunks in the dormitory. Praise the Lord!
After I showered, did my laundry, and walked about town to return to the delightful bakery I remembered from last time (I felt I dserved some kind of sweet treat after my day), I returned to find a group of American students filling up the reserved beds. They all looked like high schoolers to me (my Quebecan friend agrees with me and added that I do not look that young. Then again, I would probably look about 30 right now were I not so skinny), but apparently they are students at the University of Michigan doing some sort of international studies program. They´ve been going quite a bit faster than I or anyone in my "group," so I don´t expect to run into them again, but they all looked super-impressed when I said this was my second time and explained my reason for coming back.
I´m finding my level of spiritual energy is waning fast, which I pray will allow the Holy Spirit to take even more charge of me and do the work he wants to do. So far I have not received any clear signs about a future location for an albergue or church, but I am not out of the Meseta yet! One thing I have noticed, though: there has been a huge increase of people singe Burgos, increasing the competition for bed-space, as my own experience proves. I have no idea what I´ll do when I get within 100 km of Santiago, which sees the most crowds due to it being within the distance required for an indulgence certificate (Compostela). We´ll cross that bridge when we come to it, though!
Something else I´ve been meaning to mention is that I really want to learn all the languages of the Camino, particularly Italian, French, and German. I could use some help on my Spanish as well, but the smile on one German woman´s face as I said goodnight to her (two of theo nly German words I know) showed me just how much of an impact one can have simply by engaging someone in his or her own language. Here´s an idea I received a while back for a way to learn. My girlfriend mentioned that she heard of a man whose brain was so addled by drugs that he could barely string a sentence together, so his pastor told him to read a chapter of Mark every day for a week and then move onto the next, and by the time he finished the book he was healed and now he has a PhD or something. Anyway, as I thought about that story and pondered the healing power of the Word of God, I thought perhaps I could learn from it the languages of the world. So I´m hoping to get a Bible in Spanish, Italian, French, and German, and maybe Dutch when I get home so I can begin to learn in yet another way from the Word of God. It may work, it may not, but at least I´ll have Bibles in those languages for when I learn in some other way!
On a completely unrelated note*, my birthday is coming up in less than four weeks. I´ll be in Santiago then, but will have to leave that night for Madrid in order to arrive the next morning for the 11:00 service at the Cathedral. I think I´ve mentioned it in every entry, but I´m really excited to worship with fellow Anglicans again and receive Communion that includes both Body and Blood for the first time since May 15th!
That´s about all I have to say. I guess that´s not too surprising since this is one of my longer posts. I miss you all and am very grateful for your prayers. Know that I am praying for you as well! God bless!


*Not really. This is actually my subtle way of adding those to my birthday list. So sneaky.