I've discovered that it's hard to motivate oneself to clean house, or do any sort of life upkeep/maintenance, really, when you know in the back of your mind that you're leaving for a long trip in 12 days. In some ways, it's very Ecclesiastical: clean the cars? You're not going to drive them, and they'll be dirty when you get back. Put gas in them? Certainly not, not at $70 a tank per car. Clean the house? Meh... Yardwork? Double-meh. Everything is meaningless.
No, mostly I've been focused on the fact that there are 384 different little ducks that all need to be in a row before I get on the plane June 11. In the last month, I've got the itinerary sorted out, all the travel arrangements made, received the Pilgrim Passports for the group, ordered and distributed tablets to the students that need them, and finished creating the course I'm supposed to teach. Not to mention all the regular job responsibilities to go along with the 40-hour a week gig that keeps Dexter the cat in the lifestyle to which he's become accustomed.
Let me tell you, though, that course was a bear. It's one thing to teach a course like Accounting, where you have a book, and most likely, a syllabus from another professor that you can borrow from. Side note, kids: once you're out of college, this sort of borrowing is known as "not reinventing the wheel" as opposed to plagiarism. But, this is my first time teaching a non-Accounting course, and in fact the course I'm teaching, Culture and History of the Camino de Santiago, hasn't been taught at Pepperdine, ever. Guess who just became an intellectual property owner? Yep, me.
Putting together the syllabus, course schedule and the grading scale was relatively easy. The hard part was going back and building the assignments, the grading rubrics, and the course lectures. What's important, what's not? What's reasonable as far as expectations for learning? And how do you measure that when, essentially, your classroom is a walking trail, and the journey is as much spiritual as physical? Now, add to that the fact that I'm teaching this as a dual-listed course; in English for non-majors, in Spanish for majors. Talk about a stretch. I'm going to learn as much on this trip, if not more, than my students.
But, I got through that. There have been some other hiccups. My good friend Tanya, who was supposed to accompany me on the trip hurt her foot, and had to drop out at the last minute. She was heartbroken, and I'll miss having her along, but it was the right decision. We'll make do just fine, I hope. We had some trouble finding a hotel in St. Jean, and when we did, it blew the budget a bit. But, I am the Controller, so if I can't solve that problem, I need a new job I suppose.
Weekends are now being spent taking care of errands and picking up random little items I think I'll need for the trip. I broke yet another one of my cardinal rules and went to Costco on a Saturday morning. I bought four boxes of Gummi Bears. If you followed Camino 1.0, you know that those things are life savers. Where I will pack them is a whole 'nother issue, but one thing at a time. I ordered a global SIM card for my cellphone from the UK, and the US Postal Service, in their infinite wisdom decided to send it somewhere else, even though I signed for delivery at my house. Hopefully we can catch it and get it back before I leave.
The cats know I'm up to something, as there has been a marked increase in the time I spend on hairball patrol and litterbox duty. I've got a couple of more bills to take care, lest I forget them when they come due while I'm gone.
Training has tapered; I will admit I'm leery of injuring myself, so I've dialed back to three days a week in the gym and walking the campus the other two days. I may wish I had kept up the long hikes right up to departure, but I'm trying to play it safe in one sense.
So, nothing earth-shattering in this post; but this is how the final preparations go, yes? I'm sure things will get more exciting as we get closer, and as we depart. Thanks for tuning in.
