Many Meetings

Those of you math whizzes reading this will wonder why I´m up at this hour. Well, despite the peaceful and quiet sleep I had here last night, tonight (or this morning) I woke up twice, at 3:30 and at 5:30 to find people just coming in from what I can only assume was a night on the town. (The Spanish don´t start the party until around midnight and usually go until 6:00 or so Sunday morning. This is not a healthy country.) Now the couple in the top bunks next to me (who got back at 5:30) keeps whispering and giggling just loud enough to aid the two snorers in the room in keeping me awake. On to the events!
So pretty much none of the things that on the 17th I thought would happen on the 18th actually happened. I set my alarm for 7:00 (I know, late riser!) and woke up at 6:00 ready to go. I waited for a bit to have the pilgrim breakfast at the 5-star hotel and pretty much didn´t leave that 50-meter radius until dinner time. The reason was that I met an American from Louisiana who teaches at a Catholic high school and is almost completely like-minded to me, a German girl who walked all the way from her home town, and an older Belgian man who is a true nomad and has done this Camino and all the others and the one to Jerusalem more times than he can remember, all on his bike. The breakfast food itself turned out to be rather dull, just churros, rolls, and coffee, but the conversation was so good that the four of us just stayed in the little pilgrims´ eating room until it was time to go out and wait for lunch and then we stayed again until about 3:00 when we got kicked out by the cleaning crew, so we just sat in the cathedral square and continued to talk. The American and the Belgian (with small input from me) engaged in a respectful and personal discussion of faith, the former being a strong Catholic and the latter being a rather mystical Christian who seems more like a panreligionist. I got to talk to the German girl in the square about her experience and reason for walking. All in all, a good experience that was much better than walking around the city and shopping, which I can do tomorrow or the next day or anytime before I leave for Madrid on the night of the 25th.
It was about 5:30 and we were still talking when my friends from Quebec and Nebraska hailed me and we had a joyful reunion. Both of them apparently were about half a day behind my German friend and me and had just arrived to Santiago from Monte do Gozo that day (this is the 18th, I´m just trying to get my days straight because of the weird schedule my roommates have forced me to). We and my German friend went out to a very good (though lacking in hummus and falafel) dinner and then got icecream and sat in the park for a few hours. I got their contact info (which means infinite chances to plant seeds through our correspondence) and said "goodbye" to my Quebecan friend who flies out today and a tentative "see you later" to my Nebraskan friend who will take a bus back from Finisterre on Friday or Saturday.
It was about 10:00 when I returned to the albergue (it´s like a half-hour walk before I even see signs for the old town) and I quickly got ready for bed because I was tired from all the good but powerful interactions I´d had during the day. After I read Ephesians 6 and was praying through it, I felt a definite spiritual (note the lower-case S) presence in the room and fought my weariness to call on Jesus´name. I still fell asleep, but I had a nightmare between my 3:30 wakeup call and my 5:30 wakeup call (and subsequent "white noise" of whispering, giggling, and snoring) that was more just generally disturbing than truly frightening. But anyway, I´m up now and will be taking the first bus to Finisterre with my German friend to go see our Italian and hopefully Irish and Alabamian friends, not to mention the "End of the World." I might even get a chance to start undoing my farmer´s tan, but if not I plan to at least put my feet in the water to get some salt on my blisters.
Anyway, I don´t have much else to tell, so I´ll update you hopefully later today but definitely tomorrow. God bless!