If It Be Your Will
Well after being a cranky pants on Thursday, I woke up and went down to the hotel buffet. The buffet. It had lots of yummy things, including cornflakes and my favorite cookies. I also had a view of the Plaza out of the dining room so I took a few pictures. Then I asked the woman working there if she could get me some ice for my knee and she said she would be happy to do that. So I went back to my room and iced my knee. While I was icing it I wrote to Anai and said if she had any spots available anywhere for the first two weeks of June, I would be happy to be a hospitalera. I thought the chances were slim because that is less than two weeks away and certainly they would be all posted by now. So I let it be and waited to hear from her.
I decided since I was going to lay in bed all day and I have excellent wifi. I would finish sorting my photos. As I was going through the photos to date on the Via Plata, I thought how lovely it had been and how grateful I was to have had the opportunity to do it. I was thinking if I don't get to walk another step, this is enough. Then for some reason, I continued back through my pictures. There were pictures of last years Camino on the Frances, including my time spent as a hospitalera in Bercianos and working in the Pilgrims Office in Santiago as an Amiga. Good memories. Then there were photos of my three months in Salamanca living with a Spanish family and the person I call "Spanish Mom," Torjí. I studied Spanish at a school here. It was a study abroad program with students from Saddleback Community College. The other students were mostly under 21. I like to call it my trip to Spain with "Sixteen Drunken Teenagers." Though they weren't all teenagers, three were even over 21, and they weren't all drunk, at least not all the time. It was a good time and I had lots of pictures of my solitary walks along the river sometimes one of the Bears would accompany me.
In the Salamanca pictures were also pictures of the trips I took while I was living in Salamanca. My friend Eileen, who was living in London during that same three-month period, and I went to Lisbon, Amsterdam, and Prague. I also spent a weekend with her in London and a few days with old friends on the Southern coast of Spain. Fond memories.
Then I went through the pictures of the three weeks I spent with my youngest daughter traveling to Morocco (including a hot air balloon trip and a camel ride,) Istanbul, and Barcelona. After that, she went back to the US and I went to SJPP to start my first Camino.
Then I went through the pictures of the three month trip I took with my youngest daughter in 2009 when we wandered all over Spain until towards the end we went to Barcelona, where I had emergency surgery, and then we went to Paris for ten days, where I was thankful for every day I got to be alive.
Then there were the photos of the three-month trip when my husband and I wandered around Spain by bus and Caravana, starting in Barcelona, going across the north coast, spending time in Santiago, where I learned about the Camino. Our youngest daughter joined us for two weeks in the Caravana and we saw Seville and Granada. Then she went home and we wandered back to the Southern Coast and hung out. It was an amazing trip. That was followed by a trip to the States and then to Costa Rica for a month in Tamarindo.
There were photos of my Bicycle Tour of China during the SARS epidemic. It was supposed to be 16 people on bikes, but I was the only one who showed up on China. It was amazing!
Then in my memory was the time I fell in love. I was on another school type tour organized by a very disorganized person in the art department. But before I met up with the "tour" I went to Paris, Madrid and Barcelona. By the time I met up with the tour, I was in love, with Spain! I was already in love with my husband, had been for quite some time, but I had never been in love with a country. I appreciate the one I live in, but I don't think I'm in love with it.
Anyway, after this, there were pictures of my family and friends from Holidays and other celebrations.
Well, after this I had to laugh at my silly self. Who could be a cranky pants with memories like that? And then I saw the picture that I had posted of my Camino pin that says, "Turn It Over" and I did. I heard from Anai. She had not one, but two possible hospitalera postings for me for the first two weeks of June. One was in Zamora, about four days walk from here, and one was in Estella, on the Camino Frances, a couple of bus or train rides from here. I told her Zamora. Then I thought about it and I thought that is just what would be easiest for me. It may not be what is needed most. So I wrote again and ask her to tell me which one would be most helpful. She said, Zamora. So that is where I will be with a Spanish man named Jose Luís. She says he is a veteran Hospitalero. Geesh, I hope it's not the guy I ran into earlier on the Via Plata. The one I thought should retire. lol 
My knee is better. I'm going to stay here into Tuesday. So hopefully, I can see the Plaza Mayor in it's pure form without all the clutter, visit my Spanish Mom and drop in on some friends Monday night. Then I'll walk Tuesday and the next nine days until it is time to go to Zamora, or back to Zamora because hopefully I will have passed it walking. : )
Well, that's all for now!
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