A day of culinary firsts, gin & tonic, and a cement mixer

I felt silly this morning – I woke up and no one was around. The remains of people being around were present... coffee that was just reaching cold from warm, a fresh load of laundry spinning in the washing machine, keys hanging in the door. For some reason though I had the feeling that everyone had left. I was all alone. Stranded in the middle of a foreign country, knowing so little of the language, and only my two feet to get me where I needed to go. Aside from realizing that perhaps I should have learned earlier in life how to properly drive a manual car, I felt a brief moment of panic. All I could think to do was to get some clean clothes, take a shower, brush my teeth. Not long after I finished grooming myself Rebekah and Paddy returned with Una (their terrier mix breed dog, whom I don't think I've mentioned until now) from their morning walk. What a relief.

We drove into Sahagùn to get some groceries, run a couple errands and indulge in some Internet use. I went to the local bank and learned a new word: “cambiar: to exchange.” It made me so sad when I handed over my five twenty dollar bills and only got sixty-eight Euros back. Thus is life though. I've not really needed much money at while I've been here. There were some initial upfront costs associated with getting settled in, but at this point I hardly need to spend more than twenty or so Euros a week. Food is mostly free (unless I'm chipping in for a meal that I'm preparing, or buying lunch in a café while on a daytrip), lodging is thankfully free and all I need do in return is help out when and where needed, which doesn't bother me one bit. While I've had my computer and cell phone still, it's been nice to not be sitting in front of the screen all day browsing and busying myself. And being making phone calls with Cingular is rather pricey right now, I've been keeping my phone use to the minimum. Tomorrow we're tripping into Palencia, the region's capital, and there I should be able to get a new SIM card for my cell phone.

I'm getting off topic though and rambling. We got some groceries, the most interesting of which was a bag of mixed seafood – mussels, squid, prawns, crab, and bits of seafood stick and smaller shrimp – and then I went off on my own to find the Internet café that has a wireless signal. I checked my email, replied to some I had, did a couple Google searches, and when Rebekah showed up she checked her own email and then we headed over to pick up the cement mixer we'd come into town to get. The men working on the outside of the house need it so they can reinforce the walls, so Rebekah and Paddy are renting one for the week. It wasn't “difficult” per se to get it into the truck, though the seating arrangements proved interesting after it was in, and getting it out later was a challenge all of it's own.

Back at home Paddy made paella, a dish based on rice and saffron and miscellaneous other food. It's typical of how many people make soup or stew out of leftovers in the fridge. We used some of the crazy seafood mix, and I thought it was pretty good – though Paddy said it wasn't a decent representation of paella at all. We also had some gin and tonics special with the gin we bought while in town. Delicious. I don't know how more people don't enjoy gin. Also from the grocery store we brought home a bag of ham flavored Lay's potato chips. While it doesn't sound very appetizing they were probably some of the better flavored chips I've ever had! I really don't think people in America though would be to keen on trying some oddity like ham flavored crisps.

After lunch I took my siesta, and ended up sleeping for close to two hours, the result of continuously snoozing the alarm on my cell phone. I woke up just before some local men started sawing away at the large tree in the courtyard – much to my delight as I don't think I'd have liked being woken up by a chainsaw outside my window. After getting up, I took Una over to The Alamo to see how things were going with the work there. Paddy, James, Sebastien, and another man was there who was supposedly there to handle the plumbing. Now that Berndt is gone they will probably need some extra help over at The Alamo, and I offered to lend a hand when needed. Concerning Berndt now that I think about it... He lost some of his things on his way out of Moratinos last night, and Rebekah found them. We asked around town earlier when we were there to see if anyone had seen him. Granted what he did wasn't something good, he at the very least deserves to have his belongings, and in all honesty his crime was based for the most part on speculation and rumor. It's really too bad that things weren't worked out in a different manner.

Anyhow, after peeking in at The Alamo, Una and I walked along the Camino eastward toward Burgos for about a kilometer or two at the most. It was nice to get out, and it really made me anxious to get out and start the pilgrimage myself. Though I don't think I'd be inclined to take the dog, or any animal for that matter along with me!

We came back to the house, had some green tea, and then went out back to unload the cement mixer from the truck. I wrote some post cards and took them over to the local mail drop, and then stopped over at The Alamo to let Sebastien know that dinner was almost ready. We had “Cocideo Asturina,” translated literally as Asturian Stew, which was a mixture of white beans, tomato base, onion, and three different types of sausage. It was simple but really great with bread and a nice hard Spanish cheese made from goat's milk and aged. The wine that we're drinking lately is a local variety called Crianza. It's made in the region of Palencia where we live, and the particular one that we've bought a case of is called Los Molinos, made by Felix Solis Bodegas. It's a darker red, but despite it's 2001 vintage tastes like it was bottled fairly recently. No bother however, wine here is so incredibly cheap it's not an issue to buy a case and not care for it – it still gets drunk, and then there's more of a different kind after that anyhow!

Sebastien headed to bed shortly after dinner and now Rebekah, Paddy, and I are relaxing in the kitchen – the main congregating area of the house – reading an writing. Una is vying for attention from anyone who is willing to give it, and we've moved on from Edith Piaf to some nice string music. Life here, in Spain, and in most of Europe I'm coming to find, can be so very simple and unassuming. I've only been here a week and already I'm afraid that it's going to be so much more difficult to leave in August than it was last time.

No worries though. It doesn't do any good to anticipate the future like that. I've got so many more experiences awaiting, and from just the last week it's apparent that new discoveries and learning opportunities are waiting around every bend of my adventure.