Week of May 13 – Teacher Life and Camino Prep

So remember when I said I was going to post weekly up until I left for El Camino? Yeah, I lied. In my defense, I did say I was super unreliable with these kind of things. However, I’m here now to give an update.

A lot of stuff has been going on these past couple weeks. I started a new job, oddly enough with leaving for Europe so soon. I kind of stumbled into the job actually. It’s funny how God shows His plan sometimes and other times you’re completely lost. I’ve been lost for a very long time, and now it seems things are falling together and I know it’s His plan. I always denied when other teachers would tell me that some day I too would be a teacher. Yet somehow, here we are years later, after dropping out of school for zoology, and I’ve somehow found my way into a permanent substitute position at Pinkerton Academy with plans of going back to school for English Education. So for now, I’m on a teaching schedule until school lets out in the summer, then it’s off to Spain for summer break, and I have a great job to come back to.

While this new position has definitely thrown a wrench into me and Maverick’s walking schedule for Camino prep, it has made planning this trip logistically much easier. Being a teacher, there is a lot of time spent sitting at a desk while kids work on their own. I’ve been lucky enough to fill this time with planning. After looking and looking for so long about Albergues along The Way that allow dogs and coming up empty, I had resigned myself to planning on just winging it. Kind of how I just go through life. Maverick and I will be carrying a tent and sleeping along The Way wherever we can find a space that would allow us. This week, I stumbled upon a website, and while it was all in Spanish (that I’m lucky enough to understand) it told me everything I need to know about different Albergues along The Way. Specifically, if dogs were welcome. I’ve taken hours to combine all the different sources I’ve got into a list of Albergues that will allow us all along El Camino Francés. To be honest, it took a full day of research to do all that.

Along with that, I’ve also done a steady amount of research into flying into France with a dog and then taking the metro through Paris as Maverick and I have to change airports in Paris before continuing on to Biarritz and St. Jean Pied de Port. I’ve been a bit on edge about this, because I know absolutely no French and how am I supposed to get across Paris in a specific amount of time with dog??? But I’m fairly confident I can do it after all this research. Stay tuned in a month to see if I really can. The last bit of planning I’ve done is book us a cute little cottage to stay in for our time in Barcelona after El Camino de Santiago.

While this is all menial stuff, it really does alleviate stress before heading over to have a lot of tiny details figured out. I’m the type of person who is content to just figure things out as I go. However, having Maverick with me for everything in life has definitely made me take a different view on things. It truly is like having a baby. I have to worry about his needs. I have to think of places to accommodate not only me but him, too. And as I have a tendency to care a lot more about his comfort and happiness than my own, I am sure to put a lot more effort in. It takes a lot from me, but he gives so much more. I would rather do anything for him than breeze through life for just me. I couldn’t imagine life without him. I couldn’t imagine this trip without him, it just wouldn’t be the same.