On the Open Road…on Foot

Greetings All,

El Camino de Santiago brings a brand new meaning to the concept of a ¨road trip¨for me. As I mentioned in my last post, I´m right now traveling across the entirety of Northern Spain on foot along the ancient pilgrimage road that leads to Santiago de Compostela. The city holds the remains of Santiago, or Saint James, one of the disciples. So, for this next post, I bring you a view of my journey across Spain. It´s not exactly a slice of life at Bates, but it certainly is a slice of life thanks to Bates, since the money for this trip came entirely from the Phillips Fellowship that I received from Bates.

As I said, the Camino is historically a Catholic trail, but in the 17 days that I´ve been walking I have found mostly other seekers somewhat like myself, who do not identify as Catholic, or even as Christian, but who walk the Camino for other reasons. Interestingly, most people who I´ve spoken with–and they come from all over the world–are at major junctures in their lives, and are walking to create space in their heads, so that they can make a more informed decision about their next step. Not completely unlike one of my goals for this trip. For example, one of my friends on the road, a young South Korean, is literally 3 weeks out of his mandatory 2-year stint in the South Korean army, and is getting his first real taste of freedom in many months here in Spain. He´s not sure about how to continue at school, and is hoping to figure out a few things here.

There are so many characters on the Road, some of them totally loony, but I´m consistently amazed by everyone I meet. This older French guy was nice enough to give me half a bottle of wine after he had had his fill. Another time, these two chatty Spanish ladies (I speak no Spanish, by the way), were talking a mile a minute while informing me that the hostel I thought was up ahead did not exist, and so called their friend with a car and gave me a little lift to the next town, and then toured me around its sights! Awesome.

After 500 km of walking, I´ve seen some of the most beautiful sights of my life, without question. The landscape here is bursting with history, unlike anything we have back in the U.S. There are old ruins from times long since passed all over the place, just lying about in fields or in old neighborhoods alongside computer stores and laundromats. The cathedrals are so impressive, be it because of their delicately and intricately carved exteriors, their ornate interior worship nooks, or at the other end of the scale because of their spartan character. You don´t have to be Christian to be moved. And, of course, the Spanish countryside is beyond description, so I won´t really try here. I´ve been taking pictures, but I forgot a legit camera, so I´ve been using disposables. If any of the photos end up being worth it, I will post them when I return to the states.

I´ve got 300 km to go on this journey, and no more time for internet in this hostel, so I must be off. Until next time!

Be Well,

Jake

Home Base!

Greetings All,

Well, it’s all over now. After a pretty packed Short Term, semester, year, I am back at home sitting on my real bed writing to you all. It feels really good. My mother and I made the 5-hr drive back to Katonah, NY in pretty good time, and when I got back I said Hi to my family, napped for 5 hours, ate dinner, and went to bed. Gotta recharge the batteries.

Short Term wrapped up very nicely. As I mentioned, I was working really hard on my two plays. Well, Gilgamesh, the one outside of Bates, was a huge hit! I’ll throw some photo’s in at the bottom of this post. But what I’m a bit more proud of is my one-man show that I did as an Independent Study class over Short Term. I worked with a friend and a professor to create a working script, rehearse it, block it, light it, dress it, the whole deal, and then put it up in Black Box Theater on campus. And you know what? People really liked it! A very rewarding experience all around, and I got class credit for it. Nice.

Now, though, I’m not doing much of anything. This is, of course, the calm before the storm, the respite before my next big adventure. You see, in the beginning of Second Semester, right after I got back from abroad, I decided to apply for a grant, the Phillips Fellowship, through Bates. My plan: to walk el Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage trail that traverses northern Spain. My goal: to understand why a traditionally Catholic pilgrimage has begun to attract pilgrims who don’t identify as Catholics, or even as a particular religion (like myself), yet still walk it.

I am super stoked about this trip, and it is right around the corner. My flight out of the country leaves on the 29th of May (real soon), so right now I’m resting and preparing my body and my gear for a big journey. But the kicker of it all is that this grant I received from Bates covers the whole trip! Really nice.

Be Well,

Jake

P.S. Here are some photos of Gilgamesh, as promised:

 

This is me as Enkidu, the wild man of the steppe, and that’s Gilgamesh and I battling.

 

Show Me To the Stage

Greetings All,

You can do so many things with your Short Term. You can get a solid tan from sunbathing on the quad (or if you’re me, a solid sunburn), you can take a thought-provoking class that stretches your academic boundaries, you can work on a research project…the list goes on and on. For me, Short Term has meant one thing: theater.

I love theater. I took a break from the stage when I came back from my semester abroad in India, since I figured I’d need some time to be myself a bit before I started pretending to be other people all of the time. Now I’m up to my eyeballs in plays, and I’m loving it. My biggest project right now is a play outside of Bates College in Newcastle, ME, about an hour drive away.

I landed the job (my first professional gig) through a dance professor here, Sarah McCormick. She is the choreographer for the piece, and the director was looking for dancers. I’ve just recently started dancing at Bates, so Sarah had worked with me and thought I should audition as a dancer. The director, however, was still looking for actors, and when he heard that I was primarily an actor, he asked me to audition as such. And so, six weeks ago, he offered me this great part with a whole bunch of lines, a lot of dancing and movement, a meaty character, and an on-stage death! What more could I ask for? The play, by the way, is called “Gilgamesh.” It’s an original work that parallels the epic of Gilgamesh with the life story of the British archeologist who discovered the story, translated it, and then went crazy and died in the desert. Pretty sweet.

This play has been a huge amount of work. Couple that with my one-man show that I am working on as an Independent Study class right now, and it’s been a busy Short Term! The one-man show that I’m working on is called “The Last Days of Heath Ledger,” and I play Heath Ledger recounting his last days of life. A bit morbid, perhaps, but it is a really interesting character study as well. This is the last weekend of “Gilgamesh;” just in time for me to drop that character and pick up an Australian accent for my one-man a week from Monday. I just hope I don’t start mixing up the lines!

Be Well,

Jake