In an effort to introduce myself as a fellow pilgrim, the Camino was my cumulative experience after spending one year abroad in Seville. I saw it as a potential catalyst for personal change and growth through reflection and stillness of mind. I walked for one month, from Pamplona to Fisterra, and left The Way with a feeling of absolute fascination for what it represents within the framework of modernity, as well as on a more intimate level for the perpetually wandering individual.
I am back in California finishing my last year at Mills College as an undergraduate student of Anthropology and Sociology.
I'm still processing the pilgrimage and my reintegration, and this has manifested itself in my thesis. Entitled "Ultreďa," it is an ethnographic exploration of the modern pilgrim to Santiago.
As far as I know, it is also the only study ever conducted to deal solely with pilgrims that have returned home from their journey.
I'm hoping you out there on the Camino Forum would like to participate in an interview with me regarding your experiences on the road to Santiago and upon returning to your daily-life.
We could do a face-to-face simulation with a web cam interview through Skype or I could simply call you, whichever you prefer.
Depending on how talkative we are, the interviews generally last about an hour.
I've gotten excellent feedback from my previous interviews. It feels great to have someone "in the know" to talk to about your experiences on the Camino.
Hi,
I am very interested. I am doing a documentary on the transformative nature of the Camino because once I got home I couldn't stop thinking about the Camino. I would love to talk with you. I'm new to posting on list servs so please email me at lydia@caminodocumentary.org or The Camino Documentary | Facebook
There are photos of scenes that impacted me on my journey I have tried to attach them here.
I was also guided by Goethe's poem
The Holy Longing
Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
Because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
What longs to be burned to death.
In the calm water of love nights,
Where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
A strange feeling comes over you
When you see the silent candle burning.
Now you are no longer caught
In the obsession with darkness,
And a desire for higher lovemaking
Sweeps you forward.
Distance does not make you falter
Now, arriving in magic, flying
And finally insane for the light,
You are the butterfly, and you are gone.
And so long as you haven't experienced this:
To die, and so to grow,
You are only a troubled guest
On the dark earth.
This sense of returning but not fitting in the same way is a kind of death, and an invitation to new life, its not comfortable, but then again, nor was the Camino comfortable in any conventional way!
Hi I walked from late Sept through October 2010, finishing in Santiago....I walked alone . Home now, I am still, possibly just beginning, to notice and feel the repercussions of this curiously challenging experience....manifested in the physical as well internal self. Would be interested in your thesis(es)....and your findings....both on the returning (transformed, always) pilgrim as well as the question of "sustainability" as it pertains both to the earth and those who inhabit her. Lorraine
Your Camino, my thesis! 
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