3-19-2012

3-14-2012

Sorry for the lack of blogging, as I said before the Internet here is just unpredictable. But maybe we are keeping our readers on our toes, maybe, even, we are getting followers that are checking daily, and consistently being let down because we don't have any new material up. That would make me happy, in a sort of contradictory way. So yesterday, a new WOOFer came to the farm. Jason and I were doing some extremely repetitive, irksome task of unraveling this corn starch tarp to lay down for the tomato plants when Taquino, the farm owner (TURKEY), pulled up in his European car and out walked a averagely tall, very caucasian, ginger bearded 30 year old. When I say bearded I mean a full on, what would take me 2 years, mane on his chin. We shook hands and had a few awkward seconds, and that was that. We didn't really meet him again until dinner that night. Turns out he's a really cool guy. He comes from Northern Michigan and he graduated from a small school around there with a Illustration degree. After college he went out into the real world, searching for a job. Some three years later he ended up working a 5-9 job in a cubicle staring at a computer. Classic real world. This is his last shot, he says. To see the rest of the world, and figure out what he really wants to do. I respect that a lot. Kudos, CJ, Kudos. So this morning I woke up at around 8:30 and then the three of us had a silent 5 minute walk to the house. Sometimes, I am always too tired to tired to talk. We got into the house, and I had my usual oranges, and some cookies. I also, stopped wearing my watch. Its really annoying to conciously check your watch every 10 minutes, whether it be working or anything. And obvioulsy if I needed to be on time, Jason has one. After we ate Jason and I did a load of laundry, and then it was to the greenhouses. Without the main farm worker, the Fonz, we were a little lost. Alicia, another worker on the farm, told us what to do for the day. Jason and I would be unraveling the terrible tarp, and CJ was planting tomatoes. So, Jason and I plugged into our iPods, and worked on figuring this puzzle out. After a couple hours, we were summoned to plant tomatoes for the rest of the morning. I was drilling holes through the lain corn starch and the dirt so that CJ could come behind me and plant the tomatoes. One thing I have noticed: The Fonz was hired 2 years ago to run their farm. The direction that the farm is going in seems to be less and less organic. Fauno started buying machine based planted plants. They come in little blocks of dirt, that at my last farm I was making by hand. And now recently, after scoffing at the task of unraveling the corn starch tarp, he informed us he would be buying inorganic tarp that would last 20 years. How productive right? Eh, not so much Fonz. So today we had some spaghetti, and leftover gnocchi. Let me tell you, that the gnocchi we had when it was fresh, was quite possibly the best thing that has ever been placed in my mouth. They were little balls of egg, and goodness. The savory was unprecedented. After every meal here you feel the need to take a good hour nap. You will never be dissapointed by the food. After lunch we hung out for awhile. Turns out CJ knows guitar pretty well, so that was really fun. He can definitely teach me some tricks of the trade. And yes, I have gotten a lot better at guitar. Obviously not amazing yet, but I can play the basic chords, and some basic songs. Then after hanging for awhile, I had to figure out how Jason and I are going to get to Croatia next week. I spent a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes waiting on the phone to get a rep. at rail europe. After waiting forever, I finally managed to get someone on the phone, and not only was she hard to understand but she was asking me for zip codes, and addresses, and of course I didn't know them. I quickly sprinted to the nearest adult and barely managed to get my question across. They had to write down address, and by the time I ran back I thought the rep. would've hung up. But, luckily she was still waiting. I got everything settled, and yea I will be taking a 14 hour train ride that day, but at least its figured out, haha. While I was on the phone CJ and Jason had been working with the cows, and when they finished we all met up and hung out for a little before we took showers. Jason and I did our 5 minute abs, and CJ tried to learn some more Italian. When Jason went in the shower first CJ and I had a nice talk about life. About work, and about being happy. It was a marvelous conversation that ended with, if you love what you are doing you never have to work a day in your life. True for the most part, or at least I would like to think its true. The night times are pretty quiet around here. After dinner I either blog a little, or play guitar, or even play card games with the youngest son. He loves to hang out with us. Its been really nice here, and I cant believe we are already leaving next week; moreover, that I am already coming home in a month. Well, hopefully I can post this now.

3-12-2012

So these are a bunch of pictures that we have taken recently. Sorry for the lack of posts Rome was a crazy fun time, and the Internet Connection here at the farm is a joke.

3-9-2012

We truly will try to download photos and videos from our new farm but its hard when the internet is so cray at Damanhur.

3-5-2012

Today was the first working day we had, so there were bound to be some mishaps.  We woke up at around 9 and walked to the house to grab a quick bite and get right to work in the greenhouses.  We walked to the house and were a little lost as to what to eat for breakfast.  We weren't sure what a traditional Italian breakfast was, so we relied on watching for what other people were eating.  Just our luck no one was really at the table.  We decided that some fruit would do us justice so we grabbed ourselves two blood red oranges, and went to town.  After breakfast we met the greenhouse specialist Fauno ( Maybe? I really have no clue what his name was ).  He showed us around the greenhouses and asked us what our previous experience had been.  I, with a little smirk, told him that I had been on two previous farms, one where I was solely working in a greenhouse.  He didn't take much note of what I said, because he started teaching me how to walk around plants in a greenhouse....uhhh yea, anyone/ everyone knows how to walk on the paths Fauno.  After he showed us how to walk on paths he continued to show us what weeds were, and then show us the tools.  A rake...A shovel...A hoe.  This is square one stuff Fauns, even unexperienced farm workers know this garbage.  Once he showed us all around the greenhouses, he took us to some fields with different vegetables on them.  After the grand tour he told us what we would be doing for the morning portion until lunch.  On the greenhouses here they have full sides of the house that can be propped up  with a metal rod.  The only problem is that when you try to close the doors after being propped up, dirt accumulates where  where the doors need to be so it will stay open a few inches.  Our job was to shovel all of the dirt out of the way for the doors to close.  Easy enough.  So we started on our first door where Fauns was watching us with a weary eye.  We were working fast and a little inefficiently.  After about 10 minutes of shoveling we asked if he thought it was okay to close.  He said, try it and if it doesn't work try again.  So Jason and I unpropped the metal rods and brought the door down.  The door was a still a little far from the sides of the greenhouse.  So we propped up the door again and shoveled some more dirt, and leveled it a bit.  The next try it shut perfectly.  We had about 4 more doors to shovel, so we went to the next side.  We cleared the dirt, and the door closed first try this time.  The next door we went to, Fauns wasn't anywhere in sight.  We walked into the next greenhouse and we found one of the doors' metal rods wasn't connected to the door, so it would be near impossible to prop it up.  With a chip on my shoulder I told him we could still prop the door up.  I propped my side up and Jason ( who was on the side without the metal rod ) slowly followed behind, and when the door was at a proppable position I ran in and put the disconnected metal rod in place to hold the door up.  It worked fine for the time being, and we even managed to clear all the dirt out.  So then it was time to drop the door down to close it.  Jason was a little hesitant to bring the door down fast, but I went full force.  When the doors come down from being propped up they drop fast.  And not only that, but the door is heavy as well.  So My side of the door went down easy, but Jason on the other hand was having some problems.  As he brought his side down, I saw him holding the weight of the door with hands.  The next instant Jason was standing where the door should have been.  In a few words he had successfully poked a portion of the door out on the greenhouse.  Oh boy.  He looked back at me, and I could tell how bad he already felt.  I was in pure awe of what happened, and I had never heard or seen anything like this happen before.  Jason and I stood there looking at the damage, and then it was time for Jason to go tell Fauns what happened.   Fauns came out with a very welcoming tone telling Jason it was ok what happened, and mistakes are bound to happen.  Good attitude.  But then when he looked loser he began to tell how hard of a job this was going to be.  I tried to offer some helpful advice, because on previous farms my farm owners were always open to trying out fresh ideas.  Not Fauns.  Everything I said he shut down.  He told us to try and fix it.  Do the best you can, he said.  After he told us this he walked back into the house.  Without any sort of direction Jason and I started taking apart more of the door to fit back in what we had knocked out.  It will be too hard to explain what we went through trying to put this door back, but just know that it was the most thought and strength I have put towards any project since my last farm, and on top of all this it was cold and raining.  In the end Fauns came back an told us to leave what we had, because he would be coming back tomorrow and we could finish it then.  We both felt extremely bad.  After this we went back and did two other doors, being extremely cautious.  After the last doors we fixed we went in for lunch.  We had an amazing meat pasta, and some more vegetables, and some sort of sausage inside of a bell pepper.  Delicious.  After lunch the Ottario told us we had to go tell the  Damanhur doctor if we had any severe ilness history.  We thought this was a little strange, but we went along with it because we had to.  They just want to make sure that no one has any serious illness when living in this lose of quarters.  At 3 PM she drove us to the little town and we went inside a Damanhur building.  We went downstairs and talked to a doctor about nothing for 5 minutes.  I told her I had a kidney stone a while back, but I am on meds for them now, and Jason said he was a healthy boy.  Then that was it.  We were off the chain.  We hung around this Damanhur builiding, going into some small art exhibit, which was a little different.  I am still learning about this way of life, but one thing is for sure, that I never have felt pressured or anything while at the house, which means everything is fine Mom.  After we got home we ended up playing basketball with the youngest son and an older girl staying at the house solely to learn about Damanhur.  Let me tell you that since I played basketball in elementary school my skills have only sky rocketed.  Goodness, I was shooting baby jumpers, that even Kobe would be proud of.  Yea I was playing against a child and a girl who had never played, but thats besides the point.  After getting to involved in basketball, the whole house basically went to a meditation class.  So from then on the night was prety quiet, Jason and I ate inner with the few that were still there, and then played guitar a little until it was time to go to bed.  Unfortunately, for us it was raining on our walk back at night.  Otherwise everything is great.  Cheerio. 

3-4-2012

Well hey there.  It's pretty hard to be consistent with our blogging when we are traveling because the Wifi use is pretty limited.  Let me see, so basically on Wednesday on our farm, Deberklauw, we each decided that we would like to move on and experience new things.  Its not that we didn't like the farm, we just felt that Italy would offer much much more.  We were a little confused by the lack of structure, and found ourselves reading in our room to use up the day until night came.  Night was always a party at Deberk;  even if nothing was happening.  There is this inexplicable vibe that the living room holds at night.  Its a familiar, cozy place, where everyone can talk, smoke, drink, listen to music and have a good time.  Jason and I won't ever forget some of the amazing people we met on that farm, and I hope thats likewise.  We won't forget Antoine, the 19 year old cleft lipped badass who took us under his wing when we first arrived.  Or the amazing Cels, a divorced father from Brazil, who guest starred in our last video blog.  But we had made the executive decision leave, so on Friday morning we set sail with our luggage in hand.  We walked down the long drive way, me rolling my oversized suitcase, and Jason hauling his duffel bag and guitar ( which has caused a lot of fuss because of the weight, but we have devised a contraption where Jason puts his duffel on top of my suitcase to create one monster bag ).  We hadn't actually confirmed any plans of getting to the train station ( by bus ), or even going anywhere from the train station.  As we came to the street, a strike of luck hit us as we saw a bus just stopping on the other side of the street.  We ran over and onto the bus, which could've come at any time, literally.  We arrived at the train station and found our way to the ticket booth where we told some unfortunate news.  Apparently these Eurail passes that we bought aren't as useful as Doug, the STA travel agent, claimed them to be.  Shocker.  If we are traveling Internationally we need to make reservations before we go.  Not a big deal.  "Wait, did you say we needed to make these reservations 3 months before our travels..?".  Yea thats pretty classic I guess.  So Jason and I went along with this crazy train system, and splurged a full price train ticket to Paris, France.  We decided to go to Paris because we could get to Italy from there, and if we wanted to stay the night, we had a mutual friend studying abroad there, or so we thought.  At the train station, still in Brussels, Jason and I were in a mad dash to find Wifi so that we could contact our camp friend, Maddie, or even a hostel if Maddie wasn't available.  Both of our phones were on the brink on shutting off, but we managed to eat at Steve's Cafe and join the wifi network.  We face booked Maddie, and decided that was the best we could do until we got to Paris.  We took the 2-3 hour train ride, and arrived in France where we in a stressful scramble to again find some internet to give us some direction of what we were doing that night.  it was 630 PM when we got off the train, and we asked a nearby attendant where the nearest Wifi was.  We meet again, McDonalds.  Jason and I stuffed our baggage under a small McDonalds table, and logged on to the internet.  I for whatever reason, could not get my computer working, so it was up to our iPhones.  Maddie hadn't responded, and it was around 7 o clock at night.  I decided to make a plan B, and what a plan B it was.  I called Julie Brown, all the way back in Palos Verdes, and asked if she had a number for Maddie while she was abroad ( if you didn't already know Maddie Mayerson is a cousin of the Brown family ).  Julie informed us that Maddie was in London for the weekend....classic.  So Jason and I are now in a McDonalds in Paris with nowhere to go really.  Me being the clutch person I am, I decided to go on Hostelworld.com on my phone, and booked a hostel within 5 minutes for one night on my phone.  Technology at its finest.  Jason and I barely managed to find our Caulincourt hostel, but we checked in and finally could take a breath.  Also, I never really mentioned that at Deberk, hygiene was merely a guideline in an instruction manual that Gosse had probably thrown away right when he got to the farm, because in one whole week of staying there Jason and I showered once, and brushed our teeth once.  So being in a hostel where we had our own bathroom, hot water, and a decently working toilet was sheer bliss.  I volunteered to take the first shower, and I truly took advantage of the hot water.  Washing my hair for the first time in about a week?  I had to use two whole handfuls.  But I can't say this is the first time I have gone that long without washing my hair.  The summer going into Junior Year I didn't wash my hair for a straight three weeks, my only shampoo was the salty ocean water.  After showering, and brushing my teeth, I was forced to put on dirty boxers, and basically dirty everything else.  But I did feel cleaner, at least.  I went down to the lobby of the hostel and had to update myself on the latest American Idol news.  After a sufficient 30 minutes of finding out who is in the top 13, Jason and I went back up to the room, and we met two other roommates of ours in the hostel.   One was from Venezuela, and the other from Tokyo, Japan.  They both seemed like very nice guys, and we told them after JAson and I ate that we should all go out together.  So Jason and I walked into a more populated area than the hostel was located in, and found a small restaurant to eat at.  We both got mediocre caesar salads, but it was fine because we were in France.  After, we walked around a little and then went to the nearest supermarket and got two beers that I remember buying when I was in France this past summer.  Desperados, a beer with a hint of tequila that tastes like soda, but its 5.9% alcohol content will creep up on you.  We brought the beer back to the hostel, and were rejoiced with our two new friends.  They soon understood that we were excited to have a fun a time, and they too went into a beer vault they had in the hostel.  We all drank for awhile talking about where we each grew up, an then after Jason and I went back to the supermarket for another round, the night really took off.  We came back and immediately started playing little drinking games and singing to the broken guitar songs we knew.  Later on two of our other roommates came back, one from Australia who works as a photographer, and one from Venezuela.  At around 2 AM we called it a night and each went to bed in our respective 4 by 8 cots.  Jason and I woke up at 930 to catch breakfast by ten.  We truly could have gone without it though, because a mediocre croissant and a bowl of oats doesn't usually fill me up.  After checking out we went to the laundromat to do our first laundry load in Europe.  Boy, was it well needed.  Then we found our way back to the train station where another surprise lay ahead of us.  When we went to buy tickets to Torino, Italy we were told that our Eurail passes were useless because we hadn't made a reservation.  No surprise here really, but then she told us that we had to pay the full fledge price of the ticket.  Yea...not classic.  We dropped the cash and then sat a deathly 7 hours on the train to Italy.  We arrived in Torino at 915 PM and called our farm owner who  told us where to go next.  Chivasso, Italy is a very small town, and when we arrived at 1015 PM our farm owner let us know that he would be picking us up at 9 AM the following morning.  "But we really would feel more comfortable if we could get to the farm tonight.  We don't know our way around this town at all.."  So Jason and I were forced to search Chivasso for the nearest hotel.  We found a hotel about 10 mints form the train station, that had one room left. We'll take it!  Yea, but there is only one bed?  We'll take it!  We got settled, took a deep breath and went out in Chivasso to search for somewhere to eat at 1130 at night.  the only thing we came across was an Istanbul Kebab restaurant that are al around Europe.  It seems to me that these hole in the walls are the fast foods of Europe.  After being stared down more than I ever have in any volleyball game we decided to head back to our hotel after we finished eating.  We got back to the room, winded down and fell asleep pretty late.  The bed was just about as big as the cot I slept in the night before in Paris, but this time Jason and I were sharing it.  I didn't sleep all that well but nothing to complain about.  The next morning we woke up at 10 AM and called the farm.  The farm owner told us that his wife was coming in ten minutes to pick us up, at a location we had never heard of.  We checked out of the hotel, and hauled our luggage to the train station.  From there we waited for a call from the wife, and had to walk only a little farther to meet up with her.  Ottavio, or Sea Otter, is the wifes' name.  On our farm in Italy we live with a community known as Damanhur.  This community doesn't affiliate itself with religion, but I find it hard not to.  I am just learning that Damanhur is a kind of community that branches from neopagan belief and New Age movement, a sort of spiritual movement.  I have been on the farm for about two days now, and haven't at all felt pressured or uncomfortable by their way of lifestyle, meaning its totally fine here Mom.  So we arrived at the farm at 1230 PM and met some 15 new friends.  There isn't a chance  will remember anyones name here.  Not a chance.  After a little tour, the sea otter showed us to where we wold be staying.  A healthy 5 minute walk form the house is a log cabin, right near the cow stables.  The little cabin is very nice, compared to our caravan at Deberk at least.  We each have our own room, and after unpacking we came back to the house for lunch.  We walked into the dining room which holds four huge tables connected to each other and when we walked in every seat was almost filled.  It reminded me of being at my aunts house for this last passover.  It was a very homey feel, and on top of that the food was quite possibly the best I have ever eaten.  Even though it was leftover pasta and just a few vegetables, I was thoroughly impressed.  the pasta sauce was to die for, and even the broccoli was delicious.  I thought i gained weight at my first farm in Maryland, I will be in for a treat to see how much I gain here.  After lunch we ate a marvelous cake made by the sea otter.  My words wouldn't do it justice at all, but it was a sort of date cake, with a crust that melted in my mouth.  After lunch Jason and I walked back to our cabin where we felt a nap coming on.  You can't trust Box with naps because he either sleeps too long, or never wants to get up.  So following his title he slept for 3 and a half hours, while I took a mere hour and a half, and was up and ready to shower and blog.  Unfortunately for me, when I tried to post this last night the internet went down.  So here I am.  But anyways last night we had a sort of risotto that was purely amazing.  Now I have had risotto before, but never ever like this.  I congratulated the chef.  " I do not eh speak eh english".  The food was good! (with hand motions of course) AHH Gratzie.  After dinner we hung out with some of the younger kids, Ravelle, 21, and Eric, 14.  We talked for awhile about music form the states, and the schooling they were going through.  After we went up to their room and watched a futbol game.  Neither Jason nor I knew much about soccer, but it was nice to watch a game with some new friends.  After the game we called it a night and went to bed in the cabin.  Hopefully we can post more videos and pictures but for now we only have this silly one.  Night.