Blog 1)

Augie and I have been awake for over 30 hours! The preparation for this project has kept us busy but it’s all clicking together. Our Project is a sustainable bike tour through Spain. To be sustainable, we are aiming to leave as little of a carbon footprint as possible. To do so, we are camping every night, not washing unless in a river (sane with laundry), providing our own food, and picking up trash along the way. We flew to Madrid from Boston smoothly yet neither of us slept on the plain. To switch time zones as efficiently as possible, we promised each other that we would not sleep all day to force our bodies into a deep sleep at the appropriate time of the night. Once we landed in Madrid, we hopped on a bus to Segovia where the project begins and met up with the Spain group! The day consisted of keeping ourselves awake by joining the Spain crew in their daily activities and running last minute errands. On Euro this past winter we got to visit Spain which I loved. I enjoyed being able to compare the winter group with the spring group and seeing how they take advantage of the area. Because Augie and I don’t start the trek until tomorrow, we spent the day practicing by riding through parks and picking up trash. One of the highlights of the day was cleaning up a cement soccer pitch because as we were cleaning, kids came out to play soccer and welcomed up to play with them. We played around with them for about twenty minutes until we decided we should begin to wrap up our day. Although this first day did not include any long treks, we still used our time to clean up the community and connect with its members. People showed gratitude when they saw us picking up trash which expressed how our work was appreciated. Our day ended with with a nice goodbye to our mentors Ryan and Mikaela who we will call every afternoon. The first day was a packed one and I know that the future will hold many more with this project!