Sorry I have been away so long. I have been working on a new project called HI-SEAS: Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. I will be spending 4 months living in a Mars simulated environment in Hawaii. The study takes place from April – August, 2013. I am the education outreach officer for the mission. I have created a new website: HI-SEAS.org.

Here is a video I created with some details about the mission:

Here is an introduction to the crew:

If you would like to follow this new adventure then make sure you go to the website HI-SEAS.org.

Thanks!
Sian

Check out the website for EMI: http://training.fema.gov/EMI/

When I return to Phoenix in late October I will do an 8 week internship with the Arizona Department of Emergency Management.

This will give me a good understanding of how we deal with disasters on both a national and state level. I will use this information to add a preparedness section to my disasters class. I currently teach people how, why, and where disasters occur but I don’t teach them what to do before, during, and after a disaster. My goal is to be able to provide that component after my sabbatical is done.

The certificate says: For demonstrated excellence in education in the spirit of Christa McAuliffe…

That’s so cool. They also gave me a check for $250 which I will use toward the squadrons aerospace education program.

In the end, Portugal is worth visiting. I truly loved it. Porto was awesome. I think a lot of people don’t put Portugal at the top of the travel list. I didn’t. It was an afterthought to Spain. I say change that. The most fun I had was surfing for the first time. I had two lessons, one in the morning and the other in the evening. It was terrific. I couldn’t stand up for long, but I did stand up. We had 3-5 foot waves and it was so much fun battling the sea. I can’t wait to try surfing again.

1. Life is too short. There are so many amazing things to do and experience and there just isn’t enough time. But not experiencing what life has to offer is far worse then tasting even the smallest slice. So get out and see/experience the world.

2. The Camino gives you what you need, not what you want. If it gave me what I wanted, I wouldn’t be alone. That’s clearly not what I needed. I needed to learn to not be afraid of opening up and loving who I am and the things that I have accomplished. Finding peace.

3. People are amazing if you get to know them. Everyone has a story, insight, and can give you something you didn’t know you were missing. But you’ve got to be willing to expend the energy to get the reward.

4. Change is a constant part of life and shouldn’t be feared. The more I embrace this notion, the more optimistic about the future I become. The future is scary because we don’t know what will happen but we can’t stop the future, and change, from coming. It’s far better to embrace the future and its changes then to hide and hope they never come. Embrace the transitions in your life and make them yours.

5. There are far worse things in life then being alone. I know I would rather be alone then be surrounded by negative people and bad energy.

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My second Camino Song by Nickelback: If today was your last day!

11. Don’t take the free ride in your own life. be opportunistic. Seek new challenges and grow.

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Goodbye Camino. You are now just a memory!

The very first people I met on the Camino were my Portuguese friends who live in Switzerland. They were only on the Camino for a week and I was so lucky to run into and hang out with them. They introduced me to being open and trusting on the Camino.

I met my California friends, Sarah and Abby, a few days into the journey and I walked the most with them on my trip. This is an example of how the Camino works. The girls got a few days ahead of me about halfway through the journey, but as I walked into Santiago on the 25th (bottom picture) they are the first people I see. It was awesome.

I met Xavi and Raul (Spaniards) while walking with Sarah and Abby. It was funny how we would all start the day alone and at different times, but we would all end up at the same alburgue at night. So I would see these guys again and again until they got ahead of me on way. I never got to say goodbye to Raul, but Xavi was one of the last persons I ran into on the street in Finisterre.

Brian (below) was my a cool civil engineering Irish professor. I only spent one day with him but we just chatted the whole time. I didn’t get to see him in the end and say goodbye but the next time I’m in Ireland I’ll be tracking him down.

Karen was another person I spent the day walking with and I wish I’d gotten the chance to say goodbye. She was from New York and hopefully we will run into each other again down the road.

I met Silvia about halfway into the journey. She’s Italian but lives in Belgium and has traveled and lived in some really cool places. So on my last day in Spain I am walking back to my swank lighthouse hotel on the coast of Finisterre and who do I run into on the road…Silvia!

So she turned around and came back to the lighthouse and we watched the sun set on the Atlantic with a glass of wine.

I met Canadian John and Australian Susan at around the same time. We spent a terrific day in Moliniska together hanging by the river, eating dinner, and watching the town nearly burn down. John’s son met him on the Camino a week out of Santiago so he got behind me. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again, but there he was on my last day in Santiago outside the church. So glad I got to say goodbye to him because we had a really great connection.

Susan became one of my best friends on the Camino. She is in the middle of an around-the-world ticket and was one of the last people I hung out with in Finisterre. I know we will be traveling together or meet up somewhere in the world. See you again Susan!

So I am walking alone and this young Polish girl comes up and asks if she can walk with me. We walked together for only a short time period but I really enjoyed her company. She was doing the Camino with her brother. It made me wonder what it would be like to do something of this scale with one of my brothers.

And, of course, I run into her and her brother in Finisterre and I get to say goodbye.

I met Francois from South Africa about halfway into my trip but I didn’t talk with him until one night Canadian John and I ate dinner with him. I love Francois and I really want to go visit him in South Africa. Once we got to know each other we had the best time hanging out.

We spent time together in Finisterre eating pizza, going to the beach, and just chatting about life.

Near the end of the Camino I walked with Frank from Germany and my Spaniard Javier (who always smelled terrific).

Frank and I took some really great photos at the Cathedral in Santiago.

Meeting Javier made me wish I knew Spanish. He’s so nice and has such positive energy. He was a lot of fun to walk with but the language barrier was brutal. Time for me to buy a copy of Rosetta Stone so I can go back to Spain!

Below are some pictures of other people and times from along the way and here is my second song by Kris Allen: Let’s live like we’re dying!

In the end, I had the time of my life!

Day 30: Just a memory

This post will be broken into categories such as breakfast, lunch, etc. and, of course I include alcohol as its on category. The first category I will cover is breakfast.

Breakfast

Now, I have never considered myself a breakfast person. I know they say it is the most important meal of the day but my body just doesn’t like it when I eat first thing in the morning. Luckily for me, pictured above is the standard breakfast of Spain. Toast with butter and jam, along with coffee/tea and orange juice. I’m sorry but this ain’t worth getting out of bed for.

If you are lucky they might give you a piece of meat with your croissant but you’ll pay extra for it. This standard breakfast of bread and jam is about 3€ and sometimes I had to ask for butter and jam to go with my bread.

Now I don’t want you think I’m going to trash my Spanish food experience because that’s definitely not my intention. What I realized is that what you eat depends a lot on what you experienced growing up.

It wasn’t long into my journey when I discovered a bit of breakfast heaven and that is coffee con leche and tortilla. A Spanish tortilla is simple an egg and potato quiche like pie. Totally delicious… most of the time. Posted above was one of my favorite tortillas because it came with a ham in the middle. I only experienced this once but I really enjoyed eating tortillas.

A typical food day for me started with walking before eating. I would usually walk about 7-12km before sitting down to my coffee and tortilla. The keep me going I had granola bars. They were great especially on the long hall mornings when I had 2 hours before the first bar. I also carried nuts, usually cashews with me. That have this really interesting but mix with corn seeds.

Toward the end of the Camino I started staying in hotels and eating a more traditional eggs over easy with bacon. This is about as sophisticated breakfast you can order in Spain. A typical cafe or bar breakfast menu only consists of 5 things. It’s literally written in a small piece of single sided paper.

It makes me wonder what a spaniard visiting the states thinks when they eat at a cafe and the breakfast menu is 5+ pages. What would they order??

Lunch: the pilgrim’s meal
One of the coolest things about walking the Camino is pilgrim’s meal or meal of the day. Spaniards prefer to eat their big big meal at lunch and have a lighter meal in the evening.

The pilgrim’s meal is the best deal in the house. For 8€-10€ you get a three course meal (1st serving, 2nd serving, and dessert). It also comes with a bottle, yes, you read correctly, a bottle of either red or white wine or water if you don’t feel like drinking. So let’s start with the 1st course.

My favorite thing to get was called the salad mixta or mixed salad.

You can see from the pictures that the mixed salad typically comes with lettuce, tomato, red beats, carrots, corn, olives, egg, and almost always tuna. Tuna is considered a veggie in Spain.

But no two mixed salads are the same. You never know exactly what you are going to get or how it will be presented. All you know is it will be delicious.

The mixed salad is always served with olive oil and vinegar, usually white vinegar but I’ve had a few occasions in which balsamic was given, and salt/pepper.

If you love dressings then I suggest you carry a bottle with you because, in Spain, condiments and variety don’t really exist. You either like olive oil and vinegar on your salad or you like it plain.

I quickly overcame my ranch dressing addiction for the only choice available and, in the end, wonder if I’ll go back. Maybe the spaniards just know the way it should be served and anything else just isn’t acceptable. All I know is that when I get home and eat out for the first time, I wonder which dressing I will choose. Will I stay Spanish with oil and vinegar or will I always be American where variety and options rule.

Another option I had for my first course, but only on a few occasions, was soup. I LOVE soup and was excited to try the different varieties.

I had two cream of vegetable soups and they were okay. Nothing overly special about them. Then I was in this little town and was walking past a small alburgue and, for some reason I just had to stop in. It was run by a foreigner, British I think, and she made me a delicious homemade tomato soup with fresh bread. I’ve never been a huge fan of just plain tomato soup but this was really good. Having the bread, or a nice grilled cheese sandwich always helps.

But by far the best soup I had on the Camino was the garlic soup. It was so good I ate it three days in a row. Look at how slightly different each serving is.

The next two versions had bread and egg mixed in with the garlic soup.

Garlic soup is something I really want to try making. It’s one of the best soups I’ve ever had. As I moved into Galicia, the soup changed to greens and potato mix. I love greens. I grew up eating collard and mustard greens. In the Colony, I made a lot of soup with a green called dock. This soup was really good. What I liked most is that they would bring you a whole cauldron of soup. You could eat as much as you wanted. Which in a way was bad because this was the 1st course. Every single time I had this soup I over ate.

The Main Course
The main dish is always meat and usually potatoes. No veggies and the potato was french fries 90% of the time. My first dish on the camino was actually at a buffet with some exotic meats. I had a choice of chicken, rabbit, or fish. I decided to try the rabbit.

It was delicious. It was so good. I went back for seconds. Below is a variety of main dishes. You can see that it was a ton of food between the starter and the main dish.

Yes, this is pizza and it has tuna on it. I ordered the vegetarian pizza. Well in Spain, tuna is a vegetable!

The trout above was one of the best meals I had in Spain. It was so juicy and stuffed with ham. It also came with a bowl of garlic soup as a started. I had this in the one place I stayed an extra night and had my rest day. It was so good, I went back the second night and ordered the same thing.

Above is jelly fish. Yes, that’s correct. Jelly fish! I didn’t order it but my friend Javier, who took me to dinner, did order it and I tried a little piece. It wasn’t too bad. A little chewy but not as bad as other sea animals. The fact that it was swimming in garlic and butter helped. That was the most exotic thing I had on the Camino. A lot of people had the octopus but I just wasn’t going to go that far but I heard it was delicious.

This was the best pizza I had in Spain. I ate it with my South African friend Francois. We were in Finisterre together at the end of the Camino. We were right on the coast so seafood was a must.

Desserts
The third course was dessert. You usually had your choice of some kind of cake, ice cream, or flan. Flan was really big in Spain. I don’t like it so you won’t see it here. Every once in a while I got cheesecake or some kind of cool cake.

Overall it was fun choosing, in Spanish, my meals. Sometimes I wasn’t sure what I was going to get. But the bottom line is food in Spain is cheap. The meal of the day, or pilgrims meal is such a bargain. Remember, it comes with a bottle of wine or water. I really looked forward to eating everyday because I didn’t know what my options were going to be. Just one more fun daily surprise on the Camino.

Day 29: The People

I am generally a guarded individual. The only people I like to share information with are my closest friends.

I knew before I started the Camino that I was going to write. I just didn’t know what. My first thoughts were to do a food travelogue. But that just didn’t feel right.

Then I thought about writing a novel while in the moment of travel. The pictures and locations would be real, some of the encounters true, but the main story would be fiction. Made up along the way.

I figured my friends would have a great time trying to figure out which bits were true and which were false. I even started the novel on the plane ride over.

But when I started the Camino I knew relatively quickly that what I would write about was my emotional and spiritual awakening along the way.

Now this huge fore me. My website is public. Anyone can access it. I’ve applied for the NASA astronaut program again and I’m still waiting to here back from them. And here I am being open in ways I never imagined. Being exposed and vulnerable.

But I think that’s what the Camino wanted to teach me. It wanted me to lower my guard, take away the fear, expose me to myself.

I found myself having conversations with people I just met. Deep and philosophical conversations about life, love, happiness, self-awareness, feelings, etc.

There was certainly a reason why I was there interacting with certain individuals at that exact moment in time.

If I took the time, and was open, I was rewarded with nuggets of insight for my own growth and development.

I am still amazed by the variety of individuals, conversations, and insight I encountered on this journey. It’s certainly difficult to put it into meaningful words.

In the end I realize that there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to being open and approachable and so much to gain.

I’m not sure how much of this will translate into my real world. The world I go back to in a week.

I know I am not the same person I was before the Camino. I can feel that in my heart and soul. But transition is a continuous process. I am on a life journey, not just a pilgrimage across northern Spain.

I now see the value of that life journey in a new way and I’m excited about it. I don’t mind change and now I don’t mind openness.

So I give you pictures of sunrises and sunsets along the Camino.

Sunrises represent the breaking down and new beginnings, new opportunities, new challenges, and insights.

It represents all the hope and beauty that the future represents. It’s gold.

The sunsets represent change, transition, release, and acceptance.

Above is my last sunset in Spain and on the Camino. It is time for me to accept what was given to me and to move on. Now I look forward to tomorrow and what the breaking dawn brings.

Day 28: For the love of food

My pace has always been fast. Not sure why. Maybe because I am a futurist and I’m always looking, thinking, and moving ahead.

On the Camino I thought a lot about pace. Not just on this journey, but also through life.

My father died young. He was only 49. I’ve always wondered if I would out live my father’s life.

I know that sounds silly because the statistics are all in my favor. But what if? What if I die young? Will I have had enough time to accomplish everything I’ve always wanted to do? Will I leave with regrets? Does it matter?

On the Camino I have come to three simple conclusion. 1. My pace is set. I tried adjusting it. Slowing it down. But I couldn’t. Maybe it takes more time. I don’t know. But I accept it.

2. It’s hard to be at other peoples pace, both on the Camino and in life. When you meet someone you want to journey with, someone in the group sets the pace. Sometimes it just clicks and it’s easy breezy keeping pace. Other times it’s like oil and water. You struggle to adjust and you have to decide if it, are they, worth it.

3. I have some regrets in life, but they are few. I’m happy with who I am and what I have done. I’m not completely at peace with my accomplishments and legacy but I know I am moving in the right direction.

My conversations with other pilgrims, listening to the power of now, and my own self reflections have helped me to gain a new perspective on my life.

So I’m no longer worried about out living my father or how much time my life journey will have. I think of the lyric from the Band Perry song If I Die Young… I’ve had just enough time!

We all have a pace in life, learning to live with your pace and the amount of time it gives you, is important. The Camino helped me find and accept my pace.

Day 27: Openness

I have asked a lot of them over the past month and they’ve responded well. Not a single blister! Now I’ve seen some jacked-up feet along the way. Some people have so many blisters I don’t know how they are walking.

I met a polish girl walking with her brother and they have a saying, “the number of blisters you get on your pilgrimage is equal to your number of sins.” I can live with that. Her brother had 12 blisters.

Now I know that the right pair of shoes can make a big difference. I tried on numerous boots, light hikers, and trail runners before finding the perfect shoe.

My advise if you ever do the Camino, take sneakers or trail runners. You don’t need hiking boots. You want something light and breathable. A lot of people are wearing their sandals because they had too much trouble with their shoes.

I asked a girl if the sandals bothered her and she said no. She could finally walk without pain.

My shoes are Vasque Mindbinders and after 700km they are trashed – mainly from all the dirt. I will be throwing them out and ordering a new pair when I get home.

I have seen all kinds of people walking the Camino. I mean anyone can do it. I’ve seen old, young, kids, couples, families, siblings, best friends, church groups, school groups, solo, and even a baby on a guys back.

The Camino is all access. All it takes is desire and will power. I stayed a night in an alburgue with a mom and her three boys probably age 10 – 15. I thought to myself there is no way I could do this with three kids in tow. But there she was, making it work.

There are three things that I think all the pilgrims I’ve seen and met have. 1. An adventurous spirit. 2. A desire to do something or experience something that is bigger than themselves. And 3. Persistence.

I’ve met or seen people who are recovering stroke victims. I even passed a guy with one leg. The Camino doesn’t care if you are disabled, if you are out of shape, if you are depressed, or any hardships you have, it only asks you to try. If you try to walk the Camino, you might not finish, but you will be rewarded for your efforts in ways you can’t imagine.

So my message to those of you reading my blog is: just do it! You won’t regret it.

Day 26: Pace