Team America vs. Team Spain-dex

I know this may be redundant for those of you reading Catie and Michael´s blog but it´s totally worth repeating....

We have dubbed the 3 of us Team America because we continue to represent you, America, as some of the only Americans many of these pilgrims meet. Thus far, this is what we´ve done...
1. Standing in an overcrowded kitchen, Catie reached for the bottle of wine and proceeded to bring it to her lips as all the Europeans watched in horror. At the last second, she said oops, giggled, put it down and grabbed her glass as she meant to.
2. I tried to lick my elbow in another crowded dining hall. It´s physically impossible and Michael and Catie didn´t believe me!!
3. Someone shared a bite of their salad (they were german) with Catie. She took one bite and exclaimed ´mmmm this tastes german!´ The one german still in the room walked over, sat down and sat ´so what exactly does german taste like?´ Embarrassing.
4. We have laughing fits. A lot. Last night in a spanish church we were all crying we were laughing so hard, but we don´t think anyone heard us. We hope.
5. Again, imagine a crowded dining room. Catie began dancing and as I watched and laughed she continued to find her groove. A german man was sitting next to her completely staring, trying to figure out what she was doing. That is why I was laughing, but Catie just continued to entertain me and dance, clueless of her audience.
6. Michael has thus far lost a pair of underwear, a pair of socks and a bandana.

Proud of us yet?

So there´s a group of young 20 year old spanish kiddos also doing the camino. Catie said it well when she said they look like they rolled out of bed and decided to throw whatever was on the floor next to them in a backpack (we saw a stuffed animal) and walk the camino. For some reason, we feel competitive with them. They are one group that we feel pretty ashamed when they reach the destination town before us because they began only a week or so ago and are in the embarrassing limping and hobbling stage. But the best part... they were spandex (hence their name). We´re not talking cute little volleyball spandex... we´re talking about full body beginning at the knees spandex. And not just the girls. Oh no.
So Catie and Michael and I devised a point system for our rivals the other day. We lose a point for all the dumb things we do (you´d be surprised how often it happens). We also loose a point when we tell people about our game... like the German we told yesterday that did NOT look impressed. Apparently this is only a funny game if you´re a dorky american. PS the german had dinner with team spaindex last night. We´re worried he´s a spy. And here´s how we redeem ourselves- we get points by beating them to the town! Somehow, limping and spandex sporting, they still manage to beat us half the time. They loose points for dumb things we see them do. When I was buying allergy meds the other day they knocked over the nail polish display. Minus 1. And, OF COURSE, they loose points for the spandex. Minus 4 if it´s a guy, minus 2 for the girls. Overrall score today: Team America 93, Team Spaindex -45

Woke up this morning on the plastic sheet and jumped out of bed, eager to get out of that albeurge! This morning was tough as I felt like I was sleep walking. I had absolutely no pep to my step and it was dampered even more by the new pilgrims that walked by with an all too cheery HOLA with no bag on their back as they had it shipped ahead. Cheaters. We stopped 9 miles in for our coffee, which I´m worried helped pick me up. Bad coffee. We finished the last 7 miles together and arrived in Palas de REI, a quiet town. We´re in a nice albeurge tonight after torturing ourselves last night. This afternoon will be a day of relaxing, making a nice salmon pasta dinner and enjoying the quiet with our little family.

Hope this finds you all well. Only 3 days left, we´re trying not to count every mile but can´t really help it after 202 total!!

Buen Camino