magical world: WWOOFing thus far

Hi everybody,

I thought I'd give a more thorough update on my experience in Asturias. I actually have only been here for about a week and a half so far, but it feels extraordinarily longer. Also, Greg and I took a 3 day trip to Galicia to visit a friend so I've only been working for about a week, maybe less. Nevertheless, I'm going to barf out everything I've been feeling, thinking, doing, because maybe when this month is over I'll find it interesting. Or someone else will.

So! We got here 2 Thursdays ago and I was immediately paralyzed by the beauty of this area. Literally numb. The views are unbelievable.. green mountains, blue sea, little white houses dotting the valleys, cows mooing and silence actually silent.. no cars or air conditioning buzzing or crowds of people. It fit the romanticized image of farm life in my head perfectly. We get the eggs from the chickens, the veggies from the garden, the cheese and milk from a neighbor. The couple we live with is so impressive, building their own houses, doing their own compost, growing their own everything. I've forgotton that in life, we don't have to buy everything.. that us humans are capable of making and growing and producing ourselves. Wild! But of course, this beautiful, natural life I wanted to try for a month isn't like those happy cow commercials. Farm life is hard.

I always try to paint the best picture of myself to myself, think of how I want to be and then just imagine I am that way. I like to think of myself as super outdoorsy and down for anything and strong and fearless when I have to be. But I'm not really. 1. I don't know shit about gardening. So many basic questions I had to ask about which plants were weeds and how best to hold the hose and where to throw all the mulch. Maybe I feel weird squishing slugs with my fingers. Maybe I am afraid a spider will hit my face when I'm hacking away at that plant I forgot the name of. I had no idea stinging nettles could be brewed and drinken. I didn't know onion plants had flowers. And man, I was pulling sprouts off of old potatoes for a whole afternoon and thought it meant they were rotten. Nope, they're just reproducing, we can still eat them. Silly Connie. 2. Despite the morning runs around my highschool track while in the US in July, despite the Comcast On-Demand yoga sessions and the tennis games with my parents, despite despite despite, my body was not prepared for this sort of work. I have an entirely new admiration for any and all people working on farms and in fields. I ache! It feels good because I sleep wonderfully at the end of the day, but ooof I need to stretch every few hours or my body hates me later. Am I old? I think I'm just terribly unprepared.

WWOOFing here is definitely putting me further outside my comfort zone than I've been in a very long time. But it's what I wanted, and it's what I still want. I don't want to be afraid of spiders! I don't want to be clueless when it comes to growing vegetables and herbs and taking care of animals and composting and being smart and sustainable. Not even for the environment, for me. To know I can grow my own food and raise chickens and get eggs and not be so dependent on the luxuries surrounding me. The things done on this farm are so basic and natural to us humans, but I am so far removed from anything like it in my everyday life. I planted kale and bok choy and turnips and when I saw them growing, felt like a proud mother. The first time I collected eggs I thought "OMG they just come out like that? And then we just crack 'em and eat 'em?". I've literally had so many thoughts that would classify me as straight idiot, but it's cool. I like being surprised by the obvious.

We've done other things in the late afternoons and on weekends, like taken hikes around the mountains (often accompanied by their dog, Lex) or to the beach, which was about 2 hours away on foot (we got lost/confused a few times).

This is a long entry. Summary: This is beautiful and interesting and tough and I feel really good.

It's been nice to have Greg here too. He makes things lighter.

Here are some PHOTOS! All taken by Greg except for the ones with him in it, and the ones of the kittens (who have also made the work much lighter).