i have six minutes left on the clock and no more euros, so i've got to make this fast. i'm in san sebastian on the north coast of spain, a stunningly beautiful beach town with the best damn tapas i've ever had. we're lucky to have found a place -- every single hotel, hostel and pension we could find was full when we called. we got the last room in a tiny place in the old town, although i'm sharing a room with my folks, which is a little weird. tomorrow i'm taking them up to the trailhead where they'll start their 500 mile hike to santiago de compostela. it's been cloudy here and there but it's been beautiful, especially a day's drive through cathar castles in southern france. i'm still jetlagged and i can't remember the last time i slept more than a couple hours, thanks to my extensive partying before leaving town. that was dumb.
i'd forgotten the incredible thrill of complete helplessness -- depending on sign language and good graces to get by puts you in a special place. i've realized that i'm tired of traveling alone -- it was a novelty for six months in africa but i'm totally over it now. so i'm headed to madrid to see some friends, even though it's hours and hours away. i've always wanted to see the prado anyways.
time's up. more later hopefully.
One of the best things I've learned is how to have a convesation with someone by using a bilingual dictionary. I actually learned this when I couldn't talk with a school secretary in Poland because I didn't speak enough Polish and she didn't speak enough English. We did sign language and looking things up. This came in handy when I was teaching English to Spanish-speaking adults, too.
ReplyDeleteI'll be away for 5 weeks this summer. It will be interesting to see if this makes me tired of not speaking the language -- and when I go to the Ukraine, I can't read anything either!