Today was the cut-off I gave myself for my knee; if I could not walk normally without pain by today, I needed more rest before going to Pamplona to start walking again. And Im happy to say that I just confirmed a room in a pilgrim’s hostel in Pamplona for Saturday night! And I’m planning to start really slowly, maybe 5 k a day. There are enough hostels open in Spain that I can be much more flexible and stop when I need to stop. It still bothers me a little when going downhill, and occasionally twinges when I make a funny sudden movement, but in general it is much better. No limping today!

I think one major accomplishment has been forcing myself to sleep on my back; The condition that I was informally diagnosed with (for my other knee) is called PFPS (patellafemoral pain syndrome) and I learned through all of the googling Ive done (I know, medical information on the web is ridiculous) that a lot of people get pain after sitting (or in my case lying on my side) with their legs bent for long periods. So now no more pain at night or in the mornings. Ive also been taking a lot of ibuprofen to bring down any inflammation, and relaxing in legs-up-the-wall pose at least twice a day. And of course resting and elevating it as much as possible.

Although today I couldn’t help myself, it was so beautiful and sunny outside i had to take a walk, so I took a bus up the hill to the Park Guell which was designed by Gaudi. All of the famous mosaic stuff was at the entrance to the park, which was mobbed with tourists and school groups, but I managed to get some decent pictures.

(Mom, I took a lot of photos of the mosaics for you, but I won’t put them all here!) I think it was a good test for my legs but I need to take an easy day tomorrow. Maybe to the beach (it’s supposed to be 70 degrees and sunny!)

The Spanish classes are going pretty well. Half of the class is ‘discussion,’ meaning they just get you to talk, which I’m already very comfortable doing. But the other half is grammar, which i really do need to work on. Janet, since you asked, a few times I have been corrected from using Central American ways of saying things, usually for nouns (they use coche instead of carro, ordenado instead if computadora) and once I was told I said something ‘muy Hondureno’ which made me happy! Some of the things we’re learning I know already, but I’m trying to keep the mindset that everything that well get me more immersed in Spanish will be for the better. I even downloaded a free novel in Spanish on my Nook! I’m surprised how much I can understand and it’s helping me wih my vocab too.

A quick update on food: today was a budget day so I got a cheese and vegetable sandwich (‘bocadillo’) for about $4. But before you get disappointed, Robin, let me impress you. This is not your simple American two-slices-of-bread, provolone, and iceberg. The bread is half of a fresh baguette, and the cheese! I literally watched her slice Manchego off the wheel. Look at that fresh cheese!!

Update: Ive been fighting with intermittent internet here, sorry for the multiple emails and other issues. And Ill try to make the pictures bigger in the future, i didn’t realize they came through so small!