Bonjhola

EP 70: Aimee and Rebecca Are Prepping for the Camino de Santiago!

• Rebecca West

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Welcome to Bon Jola, a podcast about two women, Amy and Rebecca, who each move from the United States to Europe to become expats. Amy to Spain and Rebecca to France. We're here to share the highs, the lows, and the logistics of this adventure. Encourage you to follow your own, move abroad dreams, and remind you that you're not alone when the going gets tough. Enjoy.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Bon Jola, Rebecca,

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Anjola Amy, I get to see you in human form again in 12 days for our Camino de Santiago walk.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

It's so funny that now that we both live in Europe in different countries within the European Union, and we see each other now more than we have in P well, since we were working together, right, in a professional capacity.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

the, the social. Dynamics of being here in Europe, like the literal social dynamics are so different from the United States. My feeling is that people here in Europe still take the time to see each other in corporeal form. It's, it's like in the air here that you see each other and hang out rather than not. Does that make sense?

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I what I'm, what my interpretation of those words is that there is more of a cultural, not just an expectation, but a cultural knowing that humans socialize face-to-face, and that is normal and appropriate. And optimal. And therefore what is done rather than. My priority is efficiency. My priority is covering my bills. I'll see you when I see you.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

You know, we, in COVID times, everybody had to retreat to their own spaces, whatever that looked like. And of course, here in Europe, the spaces, well, at least here in Paris, the spaces are so small. So I think in the United States, we have such relatively such big homes and so much independent personal space that it was really comfortable to de socialize ourselves and not undo that. I'm gonna call it damage because I. While I don't actually often enjoy being around other humans, I think it's really important for our mental wellbeing and like the fact that the houses here are just too small to squirrel yourself away in long term, forces you to be healthier. In yet another way that I don't feel in the United States.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

That's an interesting point that I don't necessarily agree with, but here in Spain it's uh, the houses are too dark to just be inside all the time. And even when you have all the lights on, like it's just not, I mean, you're in Spain, why would you be inside when you can go outside? Because it's Spain and obviously a native born Spaniard probably doesn't quite have that same. Um, novelty stepping outside that I do as an American, but what I have heard is that yeah, Spanish apartments, Spanish homes are too dark, too cold, too and also too small, right to just kind of sequester in. That said, I think introverts. Found it easy to sequester themselves in their home and not go out and, you know, haven't really reestablished socializing. But I don't think that that is typical human behavior.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Wait, did you just call all of us introverts, non-typical humans?

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I mean, in the grand scheme of things, we are not like. Um, I think lions don't hang out with each other unless it's to breed or maybe to, I think even hunting. They're solitary, right?

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I think that depends on the gender, but that's really not

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Hmm. Yeah, I think you're right. But humans are, humans are social animals. We have evolved and been successful in our evolution because we are social creatures and we work together and utilize the sum of our resources for success. So I think, you know, introvert, extrovert personalities aside, because I don't think being an introvert changes this. But we need each other and we do best with one another in a community, kind of small community kind of setting.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

and I think what COVID did, at least for me, was really highlighted that even though I'm fairly, I'm kind of an ambivert, I am more an introvert, which always surprises people because I have a fairly outgoing personality when I'm social, but they say that to really identify which one you are, it's how you recharge. So being social is a draining of my battery. I have a great time, but I wanna go back to my charger, which is my home. Um, the other thing I wanna go back to you saying it's dark.'cause one of the big things that we really noticed when we moved here and even before that. Is that the US homes use a tremendous amount of electricity to be lit to daylight levels. And when we first moved here, I always wanted to turn on more and more and more lights, and I've gotten more acco accustomed to it being dimmer inside of our home and that that's not where it's supposed to be. Daylight. Daylight is outside. But it's been an incremental change because when you brought that up, I was like, oh yeah, I remember how dark it felt when I first moved here.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

So we're gonna spend 10 days outside basically when I see you in human form, because we're going to be walking for 72 miles, I believe.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Is it 72? I thought it was a hundred, or maybe it's a hundred kilometers.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

the kilometers.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Okay.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

So how are you feeling about it? This walk,

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Well in the moment, given that you've just revealed the nature of your introversion and the fact that you don't like people, I feel really honored that you're willing to spend 10 days with me

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

that's a, that's a real thing.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

yeah. I think I realize now more than magnitude of how much you must actually like me, or at least you hate me less than most.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I find you more tolerable.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Exactly.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I actually have come to realize that for me, the mark of what I would consider a good friend, because I've spent a lot of my life evaluating whether I am a good friend. Um. It's that feeling that you don't have to be anything

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

you're with somebody else. I don't have to be, I can be happy, I could be sad, I could be anything with you. You are an example of this kind of friend and I have a lot of people I enjoy spending time with, but it is that battery draining feeling. And while I wouldn't, I don't know that I would say anybody but my husband. Fills my battery. In terms of the human, the people I could consider good friends are at least neutral in terms of the energy output.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

They don't deplete?

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I can't believe I'm saying this. It makes me sound so robotic like,

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I need you to charge me.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

No. No. I don't think it's that at all. And I would be really surprised if anybody held judgment for that, because that seems we all have relationship. Hopefully we all have relationships with people who feed us. Who nurture us, who nourish us. You're describing it in a robotic way, but there are so many other words that you could use that would effectively mean the same thing that aren't as mechanical. Right? We have people in relationships that feed us, that nourish us, that refill our cup. We have, you know, interactions which are neutral. They neither fill nor deplete us. And then we all know those people, and there's a word for them now, energy vampires who suck the life out of us. So I think what you're describing is something that probably every listener can totally relate to.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Although it does make me laugh'cause as you describe it, I'm like Yeah, but some things nourish you like kale where you're like, afterwards you're like, I'm really glad I had that salad. But you don't go into the salad going, this is going to be a great salad.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

And I think a lot of my friends, honestly, my good friends, like you have tolerated me through. Thinking, Ugh, more salad. And then after a while I'm like, wow, I actually really enjoy that experience of being social.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

That tracks because my clients who come in and start off saying, oh God, more vegetables, that many vegetables in, you know, three to five weeks. They're like, I'm craving vegetables. What have you done to me? So it tracks,

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

No, it actually really does, and it goes back to the beginning of this conversation where you can basically lose the habit.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Hmm.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Muscles for running or for being social or for interviewing for a job or for eating vegetables, and what we replace those things with doesn't tend to be nourishing. It tends to be quick fix sugars in all those categories, and it can be really hard to build up those good habits of putting clothes on and going out for the evening again.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

It's true. It is true. You know, a. A body at rest stays at rest, and a, a body in action, you know, is more likely to stay in action. Yeah.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

but I am curious about this walk and my husband's main concern for me is that there'll be a, a whiner on the route. Somebody who just won't stop complaining, um, which could be any of us. You never know who's gonna have the, the blues. I don't know if I will be. A talker on the trail because I am a talker or if I will wanna be very quiet and meditative. So those are the things, aside from worrying about the weather and if I have the right shoes, it's more, I'm really curious how the experience is gonna unfold from the perspective of an inner experience versus a social experience.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I haven't given that much of any thought at all.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Really?

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah. Um, there, what, there's like 10 of us that are going,

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

And

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

you're the only. You're the only one I know.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

yeah. And I technically only know you and our friend Kelly, who you will meet, who listens to us talk all the time. So Hi guys. We're talking about you.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

And actually, by the time this airs, I will have met her in person.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

It'll be long since over. Yeah. We'll all befriend.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

yeah, yeah. I haven't given, I haven't given the group dynamic very much consideration. I. Because in my imagination, we're going to have different paces, different speeds, different intentions for all of it. And I think there will be, we will just sort of naturally break into the folks who are like, the goal is, you know, the goal is 14 miles. We're going, let's go, boom. And they're treating it almost as like a race or a mission. And there will be those who are want, who are like, I'm here for a very intensive pur for a very intentional purpose. I'm going to drop in and I'm gonna do my thing. And they will tend to probably remove themselves from the group. And so my, in my imagination, we would just end up gravitating towards or away from whatever our respective energies are and that it wouldn't necessarily be. A big deal. I never considered a whiner. That's, um, makes me glad I'm rooming with you.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

What if I'm the one?

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

What if you're the whiner? Okay. Okay. How would you like me to respond? Because I, I'm, I'm assuming, I'm, I'm making the assumption that you don't want to be the whiner, but you may fall into whining.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I don't actually think I will be. I. There are things I need to work on in myself. And it's interesting having this conversation'cause I'm aware that part of why I am thinking so much about the interpersonal dynamics is because one of the things that is changing for me in my life right now is that feeling of being responsible for everybody else's experience.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Can I just say I'm so thrilled that you are revisiting this and considering a change.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

This is huge for me.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

It is. It really is.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Um. And so and so to hear you say, oh yeah, that hasn't even crossed my mind. Makes sense'cause this is not something that you obsess about. But I worked so hard to see the world through optimistic eyes back in my teens when I changed literally my verbal habits. So I think, I think this is one of the things. That won't show up in me. And if it does, I would want my dear friend Amy, to say to me, is that really the experience you wanna have on this trip?

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Okay, I can do that.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

thing is when you fall, or at least when I fall into negative emotions, it's hard to climb back out of them.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah. Yeah.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

And I think it's partly because I end up beating myself up. About crying in the first place. And so now I'm like piling bad on top of bad and, and you dig that hole deeper. It's such a

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Right.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

.spiral

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

It's like as soon as the tears fall, you invite the little, itty bitty shitty committee to come in and have a seat, and then just like rail into you.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah. You'll be like, Rebecca, you are living in Paris and the sun is shining and the birds are singing and this is what we're doing. We're crying right now.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I have had that conversation with myself this past week too. I wonder, you know, I'm not super into astrology at all. You know, I don't like take it very seriously. But there are times, and I will say the past 10 days or so, my clients myself, um. Some family members like are just having fucking hard times and people are like uh, like fall. Like fall. I, when I say falling apart, I mean it in, in like the, in the, this necessitates intervention level of falling apart. Um. Not anybody in my, in my circle of people that I know, but I know people who know people, right? For what? For in which this is happening. And it, it's feels very strong and acute and all at once in the last week. Um, last week for me was horrible. I had a horrible week last week. No motivation to do anything. No desire, just the sort of like, my life is over kind of thing. Why do I, oh, I mean. My career is gonna be over here pretty soon. Like I'm gonna have

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

you haven't really talked about that. If you wanna just throw that on our listeners,

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

we're talking about El Camino, Rebecca, we're not talking about me.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

would you like

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

can put a pin in that

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Okay. So listeners, don't worry, Amy's fine, but she might be facing some life transitions, which we've alluded to in, I think a previous

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah, so previous episode that's recently dropped live. Yeah. Um, you know, I, I did spend a couple days in bed just like, what is the effing point? And then I'm also like, Amy, you're in Spain. It's beautiful outside. When you do like, take all of the will of the universe to pull yourself out of bed and go for a run. Your runs are really fantastic right now. Which I'm super, yeah, they're great. They're great. I'm performing really well with my runs, which is something that hasn't happened, um, in a while, especially given that I have not trained this year, but I'm gonna go walk at a hundred kilometers. Um, and, you know, I can objectively look at all of the tangible things in my life and be like, why are you. Why are you doing this to yourself? Enjoy the moment that you're in. And one message that kept coming back to me in the latter part of the week last week, uh, that really helped out like different ways that this sort of like kept hitting me. It was, you choose your actions, you choose your life, you choose your outlook. You get to say how your life goes. So it's just a matter of like, are you going to consciously make the choices for the life that you want, or are you going to lay here in bed being a victim of your fears?

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

It's, I love that we're having this conversation because I, I know everybody listening can identify with this, the fact that sometimes dark clouds just come in over the sunshine and it's like it's outta your control. What is in your control is. Learning to recognize it. And for my, my mom gave me a really great phrase at one point. She said, feelings are not a good basis for decision making. You know, have the feelings, but they don't necessarily get to dictate what happens next. That was always really helpful for me.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

100% and the feelings are often stronger than the rationale, and it's easy to then let them call the shots, but. Yeah, but you gotta like, just because again, not to get too political, but just because the loudest voice is saying something doesn't mean it's true or accurate.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah, and sometimes it's very seductive. It can feel good to wallow in self-pity or whatever, decided to show up that day, but that doesn't mean it's helping you. Right. And. Another thing that I've really been repeating to myself lately is stop finding things to worry about because things are so good in my life right now. Things aren't perfect and there's some things that need to continue growing, especially around my business. But in fact, in this moment in my life, there's very little for me to legitimately worry about. So I need to choose to stop it, to cut it out.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

You know what would be really fun for me to watch you do?

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

No.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

If you started El Camino with a kilogram of rocks in your backpack, and every time you let a worry go and you decided you weren't gonna worry about it, you left a rock on the trail.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I don't hate that idea. So for the, for the listeners, this is apparently a common thing to bring something or pick something up at the beginning of the root, and then somewhere along the root let it go when you feel it. I don't know, some catharsis has happened and I really like that idea. Um, and I kind of love your spin on that for me, like more than one thing, like truly lowering that weight every mile that passes.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah, well, not every mile that passes, but every time you shift your mindset and, and release the worry, right, that you literally, like, not just release the worry internally. But symbolically and literally take a weight out of your backpack in that rock and leave it on the trail behind you.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Well, I really

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

could be so freaking powerful. And if you were my personal training client, I would be like, guess what? We're not walking. We're rocking.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

wait, are we rocking?

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

We're rocking.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I really, I do love that because I do believe in physical manifestations of our choices, that my whole thing with interior design was, get the new bedding or choose the new paint color so that you do see something physical that says something has changed. There is the possibility of something different in your life. And so this is just that same concept of. Feeling, physically feeling something that you're trying to change internally. I think that's really brilliant, and I am not promising to do it because that sounds like a lot of rocks. But I also might do it because t.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Awesome. Yeah. So go. I mean, going back to like concerns and stuff, I, I haven't been as worried about the group dynamic. I am a little worried that I too won't get enough solo time, um, because I am stepping into, I. I am stepping into, uh, was not when I booked this trip, not at all thinking about anything other than great. This was on the bucket list. Here's, it's showing up. We are gonna do this, otherwise it won't happen. But as things have developed over the last, eight months for me, I, I do see it as kind of a, a spiritual pil pilgrimage for me and a, a pilgrimage of, and I'm not, I'm not a religious person, but a pilgrimage of prayer for, you know, for some of the things that are happening in, in, in life right now for people I care about. So. I don't know. And again, I like, I don't know how that's gonna show up. I don't know what to really expect from it. and I think somebody in the WhatsApp Camino group had said that they had, someone had started their El Camino thinking that they were going to be sort of meditating on this one thing and then, or healing this one aspect of their life, and then something else showed up that they weren't expecting. And that was when they left their rock,

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

that's right. Mm-hmm.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah. So. Who knows.'cause the road will bring, what the road will bring. But I do have, I do have a, a thought and an intention and a, a prayer that I'll be taking with me, um, on, on travel. And I, I don't want to treat this as a solo trip where I am just spending, you know, the whole week thinking about that. But I also don't want to get sidetracked and not. Not have that be part of, part of this experience for me. So, um, I'm actually going to be collecting rocks as part of, part of the process, for what I'm gonna be doing for myself. My concerns have mostly been logistical because you know, I have some of my colleagues that I worked with in Seattle, we used to do, you know, athletic things together. We're all kind of sporty ladies, and, uh, and I had messaged them and, and said like, I'm gonna walk. The final a hundred of El Camino in less than two weeks, and I am in the worst shape that I have been in since 2020. I have not done, like, my running miles are super low, or no, not as low as they were in when I was Alaska, but my running miles are low. I've been working on rebuilding them up and I haven't done anything extra other than that and the weight training that I do. So, um, but what I have been telling myself is that. Because I survived the Enchantments, I can do this. Like if I can walk the enchantments mostly in stalking feet, I can. I got this. And so, you know, I had texted, I texted my colleagues about that and it was like. You know, this is what I'm telling myself, so I wanna let you guys know,'cause one of them had gone with me on the Enchantments and bore witness to that experience, uh, and she responded and she was like, yeah, you're, you're totally right. You can do this. No problem. and I said, you know, I wouldn't expect you to say anything less because you are like an unhinged optimist. Like you're crazy optimistic all the time. And then, and then she responded back and was like, I watched you walk 15 miles in your socks over what is commonly considered the hardest day hike in the entire state. Your Camino readiness is an objective fact. I was like, all right, I'm not gonna argue that.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Uh, yeah, and I'm just, I'm hearing you, I'm hearing us. Doubt ourselves in ways that are, we just keep doing in all kinds of different aspects of our life. Like, can I really do this? I wish I were the kind of person that could just believe in myself without needing that outside encouragement, but maybe none of us are that way. Again, maybe that's why we need each other.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I, I would argue that the current president of the United States doesn't need much, uh, external opinion to believe in himself. I think he's pretty, pretty solidly established in the, in the self-confidence scale. I.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

But to be fair, we never know what's going on in somebody else's psyche because to be that blustery usually is an indication that you're trying to get that accolade that says, yes, you are good enough.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah, you got me there.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah, for me, the reason this was on my bucket list is because I want to see if I can do it. Um, you know, I've, I've done very, very, very long walks before, but I've never done it many days in a row. So that's a very big different thing and I like that it's happening now because it feels like a really lovely way to mark going into my fifties. You know, this year I turned 48. I think I've got my years correct. And so I want to basically connect with my body and understand my body a little bit better. I don't spend much time connected to my body. That's a, that's

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Right.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

lack in my life. So what does it feel to be uncomfortable and still be okay? These are things that I wanna start exploring because I think it's part of aging of, um. Being okay with your body changing, but also not letting that be a limitation in living.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Right.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

So, and that's not really about being solo or with other people, except for that I want the quiet space to be connecting with my own physical experience. And I'm not really planning on bringing any podcasts or music or anything, because I want. This is a bit, I don't wanna put this also not being a religious person, it's funny to say that I want this to be an experience of faith. I don't wanna over bring, but I also want it to be an experience of majesty and awesomeness. Because for me, the mere existence of myself on this planet is

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

It's a miracle.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah. In the, in a, in city living and in running my business and literally just running everywhere. I don't often pause to see this and I don't want to miss it, and I miss it way too often.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

yeah, yeah. I have, um, I do have confidence because of the enchantments. I. Which since nobody but you and I know what I'm talking about. you can, you can look up the enchantments, in Washington state on Google if you're so inclined. But it's a 17, I think it's a 17 mile day through hike. So point to point, um, with a really wicked climb, scramble really up a mountain. Face, that's all rock and not really secure rock. There were some rocks that were sliding about and that that happens after the first 5K. So you kind of hike in about two and a half, three miles and you go up, I think it's a mile and a half up the mountain climbing, and then it's, it's, you know, rolling fields and stuff. A lot of it I didn't see'cause it was dark by time, what time we got up and threw some stuff. But, um. It's, uh, I, I used a pair of hiking boots, and this is an excellent lesson for everybody. I used a pair of hiking boots that were not new per se, but that I had had for 15 years and hadn't used because they were super, super robust, like Alpine hiking boots, and I just didn't. Have any significant hikes that warranted wearing them, but they were an expensive pair of boots and so I never got rid of them and I brought them out to wear them. And about a mile, mile and a half in I remembered, oh yeah. One of the reasons I didn't wear these is because they rub my ankle the wrong way and they aggravate a tendon on my right ankle. That, um, became debilitating. By the time we finished that scramble up as guard's pass, and so the final, the final, yeah, I don't know, 12, 15 miles or so. I did much of it. I did about half of it with one shoe on and one shoe off because I could go faster, and then eventually took both boots off and hiked the last seven miles in my socks because I could go one mile an hour at that pace rather than half a mile an hour. I mean, the pain was excruciating,

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Now, Dean, were you hiking into camp? You must have been.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

n no. we car camped at the finish, and then in the morning took a, a shuttle bus that picks people up to the start,

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Got it.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

and then from the start, hiked, hiked all the way through. And I wasn't, I wasn't gravely injured. It wasn't that I couldn't get out, it's just that I was. Real, I was so slow that teenagers wearing Converse tennis shoes with their mother who very likely had COVID I,'cause this was in the kind of early days, um, beat me and beat us out of the trail. And, and so, because I wasn't. I was mobile. I didn't wanna call search and rescue. It's like there's no reason for that, and we would have to sit and wait and it's getting cold because it's dark. That seems like a bad idea. So we just keep going. Right? We just keep going. That is the answer. It's the only reasonable, logical answer is we just keep walking. Kudos to Kristen for being like the unhinged optimist who was like, yeah, let's go for it. All right, we got this, we can do this. And you know, we, we made it through in 23 and a half hours. Uh, we were not expecting to take that long, I think. Yeah. I think we had estimated that we would be done in, in seven to nine hours, I think is what our original guess was.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

smokes.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah. I.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah, I think you've got Camino. I don't think it's gonna be a problem.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

But that was one hike in 1 24 hour period.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

It's the multiple thing.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

it's the multiple days where I, that's the only thing that makes me nervous, but I do trust that I have the grit

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

to do it.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah, and I think that's really what defines us as people. We are, we do belong to a tribe that has grit. We will see it through, maybe not as fast as we hoped,

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

And we may come out with some scars on the other side, but

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

pretty sure it's called life.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

we will get through

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah. You know, I wasn't actually very nervous until last week's storms, so we had huge hail storms here in Paris.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

really

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah, like break hail, and it was the size of ice cubes out of the freezer. They were really big.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

smokes.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

And um, and then you had the huge rain down in Gerona. And so I've been thinking the whole time, okay, I gotta prepare for heat, I gotta prepare for dry. And all of a sudden I'm like, I gotta prepare for monsoon. And the, and it's just that reminder. You can't fully prepare. You've got to trust that it will take care of itself.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Yeah. I did order lightweight rain pants.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

I do.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I did. Yeah. Um, and I did get a rain jacket because I looked at the 10 day forecast out in Galicia, and it is rain and even like some thunderstorms in the very early, like the first day or so that we're going out.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

thunder.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I mean, it is a long forecast out, so of course it could totally change in a heartbeat. But I definitely am anticipating given how the weather has been in Catalonia this spring, that I should not think that it's going to be me the entire time

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Yeah.

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

I.

2 37 audioRebeccaWest,Busi12863453527:

Well, in a couple of episodes we'll be able to tell everybody how it went. I dunno if we'll record on the trail. I doubt it. Um, so stay tuned everybody to how our feet turned out and how our turned out. Two different kinds of

1 37 audioAimeeGallo22863453527:

Until then.

Speaker 2:

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Banla. If you did, the best thing you can do is share it with another person, brave enough to move abroad. See you next time.