My short affair with Barcelona

My plan, after leaving Orgíva and La Jimena, was to meet my friend Kim in Barcelona to celebrate New Year's. Nici was also going to be in the city after me and we all were to have an epic time ringing in the New Year together! I got to the city after an all night bus ride from Granada where, as the sun began to rise, I looked out the window and caught my first glances of the Mediterranean Sea. Ooo, that was exciting for me! When I got to the city I found a hostel and booked for the night and got online to see where Kim was and when and where we would meet. She was supposed to arrive the next day in the evening and I would meet her at the bus station. Then I set out to get to know Barcelona... Abbie had been staying in the city for three months before going to La Jimena and suggested things to see and places to go. But I decided I would just wander until I had company. My hostel was right in the middle of the center of the city and it wasn't long before I found La Rambla, a beautiful street famous for its markets, art, and living statues. I didn't wander too far but, using a map, saw some nice shops and beautiful buildings and generally scoped out the area. In my adventures I met Sollo, a Nigerian artist who talked me about his art and wanting to live in the states. I went to bed fairly early in anticipation for more adventures with Kim. In the morning I had my complimentary breakfast and then went to do my laundry. It is rather amusing that I was in one of the most beautiful and famous cities in the world doing my laundry, but it had to be done... I checked up on Kim and found a message from her saying that she wouldn't be able to come to Barcelona at all and that she would explain later, much to my disappointment. But I thought I ought not to waste my day in worry so I posted some cards and continued my wandering around the city. I walked all the way up and down La Rambla. The living statues were sensational but most of the shops and stands looked expensive. I also found La Bocquería, a food market just off La Rambla, which had stands packed with beautiful, vibrant arrangements of fresh fruits, nuts, vegetables, meat, fish, candies, and anything almost anything else you can eat! I knew that once I was hungry I would find some bites there rather than going to a restaurant. As I continued down La Rambla I met another Nigerian who followed me around and chatted with me... it was a little strange how many Nigeria I seemed to be attracting in Barcelona... But once I got rid of him I grabbed some cheese, dates, and coconut from the market and headed back to the hostel. Upon my return, I got online, and that's when all my plans turned upside down. It turned out Kim was all ready to come meet me when she discovered that her passport and boarding pass had fallen out before she could get on the plane... And without a passport she couldn't leave the country until she got a new one, which would certainly take money and time. And without a second thought I said "Well, I'll find a plane to Germany as soon as possible then and come see you!" And that's what I did. I didn't particularly want to stay in Barcelona alone and I really wanted to see Kim, so I found a flight for the next day and got everything ready. I still can't believe how quickly and drastically my plans changed and how comfortable I've been with it... But my flight didn't leave until the next evening and I had one more day to enjoy Barcelona alone. I left my luggage at the hostel and let my feet take me all over the city. I had hot chocolate and churros and walked all the way to Parc Montjuic! As I walked I thought about my general impression of big cities and how I enjoy visiting them but am definitely more of a small town or country girl. Really big cities look very similar when you are just walking around them, although I haven't visited that many, really. And I certainly appreciate the wonder that arises in me as I walk out and see an epic piece of architecture or art or sculpture or even just people. Also, Barcelona has an interesting mix of Spanish and Catalan, both spoken and written on signs and shops. I never knew what to expect but for the most part my limited Spanish got me by and the languages were similar enough that I could decipher the signs, although the Catalan certainly caught me by surprise at times. Parc Montjuic was particularly beautiful and I walked all the way through it, which was quite a task, but very enjoyable. I even got close to the sea and tried to follow my wandering feet toward it but it somehow eluded me, always being just beyond one group of buildings and then the next. Eventually the time and distance caused me to surrender and I headed back to the hostel to get my bags and go to the airport. I would describe the park and other sights in more detail but words won't quite do. I will make sure and post pictures though!

Christmas, more rain, and farewells

A lot has been happening. So much so that I haven't been able to get online or write. The rain continues to hinder the harvest and work has been switched to repairing holes in the nets. But things have certainly been interesting thanks to the holidays. We still had Thursday off, but it was pouring rain. I tried using internet in town but got very wet rather than very online. That night we decorated the Christmas tree, one made from an olive branch of course! We set it up in the guest house where we sang, shared our hopes for the coming year, and opened presents, ate cookies, and drank mulled wine or cider. It was yet another magical evening of celebration. As we had been playing Wichtel, we revealed our mortals and opened our final presents! I gave Birta a choker I had made and Nici gave me a beautiful string of beads, kitty soap, and her favorite German children's book as well as her contact info so I could visit her in Germany! I was very touched and thankful that I had made such a good and thoughtful friend. Christmas day we had our late breakfast of sweet bread and muesli, like we usually have on Sundays! I was very happy because it was my very last Sunday breakfast at La Jimena. Then we worked, mostly as usual, and had a late dinner of homemade gnocchi! The table was set beautifully and while everyone enjoyed the holiday we still worried about the weather. We had gotten more than the average annual rainfall for the area in just a week. The river had flooded and taken some caravans with it and there were mudslides everywhere. Mathis said there were already 800 reported accidents due to flooding or mudslides in the region. The roads were treacherous and terraces and mud buildings threatened to collapse. How typical of Christmas! But we still managed to enjoy our company and our food and made the best of it. After dinner we watched Michel, a Danish film that is traditional to watch on Christmas. It was in German so I didn't really follow it. Then we ate Milan's lovely, homemade gingerbread house with a lovely fruit pudding Mariann had prepared! Afterwards, Nici, Abbie, Guillaume, and I went down to the yurt and watched "La Vie En Rose" on my laptop. That was my last night at La Jimena. Saturday we worked half the day. I planned on leaving after lunch but worried about mudslides blocking the roads and making it night impossible for me to leave. But I read some stories to Florina, packed my things and had my last lunch with the Rosenbusch family and my fellow wwoofers. We had potato pancakes! When we finished the sky had finally cleared a bit and I said goodbye. It was still hard to believe I was leaving. I'm so grateful for my experiences and my new friendships and it was hard to say goodbye. I made sure to give everyone big hugs and Mariann and Abbie drove me to the bus stop and saw me off. I amde sure to get contact info from everyone so we could reconnect someday. I've learned so much and gained so much over the past six weeks and can only hope I gave as much as I received. Farewell, La Jimena. May we meet again someday.

Spirals: The beginning of an end of a beginning

Luckily things went well at the coop mill and Mathis cheered up in time for Solstice! He had been looking to celebrating the holiday as well and we got our day off for it even though it was probably the last sunny, nice day for the rest of the week. Technically it was Solstice Eve but we wanted to celebrate on Sunday anyway. We had our usual tasty Sunday breakfast of sweet bread, honey, and muesli and planned a ceremony for the evening. I had a few traditional foods in mind for the occasion and Mariann had the wonderful idea of setting up a spiral to walk at sundown. The whole day was a delight! We set up the spiral on the ground with olive branches and then went to Grete's to give her some homemade sheep's milk cheese and bread where we of course were introduced to one of her daughters and chatted over juice, coffee, and muffins. The rest of the day Abbie and I worked on baking some treats. As the sun began to set we grabbed some lanterns, drums, and songs and headed to the spiral we'd set up. Mariann explained to everyone that people could sing and play music and each person, when they were ready, could take a lantern and walk in meditation into the spiral. At the center was a little altar set with water, rocks, a lantern, feathers, and angel cards which had words of wisdom for everyone. Then you walked back out the spiral, contemplating your angel card and the return of the sun in the coming weeks and months. It was enchanting and fulfilling. Afterward we walked back to the house and everyone sat down while Abbie and I served homemade egg nog! No one besides the Americans (Abbie, Will, and I) had tried it before but the kids didn't like it as much as the pumpkin pie. Then we served some left-over soup and Yorkshire pudding! I almost didn't make the pudding because I had never made it before but it turned out beautifully and everyone love it, which made me very happy. It was a nice taste of home, even without the roast beef. And, of course, there was pumpkin pie for desert. The next couple days were wet, windy, and cold. We worked inside and helped French/Spanish David on his building project. It was a nice change of pace but it didn't take long for people to begin missing the sun and the olives. People have also started leaving. Will left on Monday to possibly meet a friend in France for some snowboarding and then to Germany to spend Christmas with his family, visiting from American. F/S David left on Tuesday for France to be with his family again and won't return until February. It was rather disheartening to be reminded that soon we'll all be leaving for one reason or another, but exciting to see what was in store for the next part of my journey.

Living in a Cloud

Several weeks ago (four to be exact) I got my first exposure to the celebrating of Advent. Florina has been especially cute about checking the Advent calendar at breakfast over the past month. So last week, in preparation for the coming holiday, we decided to play Wichtel. This is the German version of Secret Santa only better! It actually means Angels and Mortals, and you play by drawing a name of the person who then becomes your mortal and you their angel and you leave them little gifts or do them favors and things. Everyone is playing and people have been finding little treasures from their angels daily and been trying to figure out who is getting gifts for who. But not all has been cheery at La Jimena. Mathis has been increasingly anxious due to the weather. It is forecast to be rainy and windy for all of the coming week. This makes it very difficult to work and he's been worrying about changing work days and times to accomodate for the weather without upsetting us wwoofers. I think he's also worried about having so many workers to feed and no work for them to do. I certainily want to make sure I'm earning my keep, whatever the weather. However, today was supposed to be miserable but we had some suna and worked all day and got a lot done. And the local cooperative mill opened and Mathis took a full load of olives to be processed there! Hopefully that will ease his anxieties. Personally I found the weather for the day to be enchanting. It was continuously changing. At one point a cloud rolled over the mountain and we couldn't even see the short distance across the barranca (the little valley that cuts through Mathis' land). I got rather giddy about being inside the cloud where it wasn't actually raining. Our day off for the week did get changed and we went to town on Friday rather than Thursday. As you may recall, I had met with much luck at the little internet cafe in town, in particular for a Dutchman who allowed me to continue surfing the net during siesta and gave me a bite to eat. I had been working on a little knitted potholder for him and I finally finished and gave it to him. I also got a ride from a sweet local named Sonya who even invited me over for a drink and was surprised hear that my home had snow but was not very far north nor in the mountains. I thought it was quaint. I have constant reminder that if you put positive energy into the world it always comes back to you.

A week of fun and excitement!

I'm sure many may notice that I'm posting fewer entries. I'm over the initial shock of everything and things aren't so new and I don't have to share every interesting detail here. So the number of entries will decrease I think, until perhaps I go to Barcelona in two weeks and everything is new again. I also have some spelling clarifications. The fruit I was raving about is actually called caqui in Spanish, persimmons to us English speakers. Also, the oldest daughter of my host is named Birta, the wwoofer from France is Guillaume, the German wwoofer is Nici... I'm pretty sure that's it. Cinja (Sinya), the German wwoofer who already left, has emailed a few more times and is not planning on coming back. Apparently her experience at the other host was bad enough that she just wants to distance herself from that place (which is only over the mountain from here). Everyone is very disappointed, especially Mathis. But there's not much we can do. Oh, and Abbie, that's the other spelling correction. Time is going by quickly here and it seems like the time we have off is long and often. Last Thursday we went to the market and found more books. There was also a special Christmas market where Abbie and I bought some chili chocolate and some chili sauce to share at breakfast. Friday night Marianne sang with a local choir at an outdoor fundraiser. There was a Scottish/Irish group dance afterwards. The food was tasty and the music was beautiful but it was very cold and there were too many people so I didn't join in the dancing. Saturday was hard work planting in the garden and most everyone went to bed early. Then Sunday we were invited over to Grete's, the elderly Danish neighbor who broke her ribs. She's a difficult person to say no to and she insisted on having all twelve of us over for dinner. It was lovely! She is such a sweet, generous, spunky lady and she served us a huge, delicious meal. Course after course we stuffed ourselves silly and then we all watched Dances with Wolves! The subtitles were in Danish which made the Lakota difficult to understand but because it was French David's favorite movie he explained to everyone what they were saying (he'd seen it that many times). I didn't get to bed until after midnight, which is very late for me these days. During that night there was a huge storm with thunder and hail! It was very loud but beautiful. Mathis had told me it only storms once every few years here and I was honored to witness one. Abbie and I were quite excited by it but mostly slept through it but everyone else complained that they didn't sleep and were worried about the freshly planted vegetables and blown down olives. Whoops.

Good and bad news, mostly good

German lessons have been going well. Nici is a firm and thorough teacher, quizzing me whenever she gets a chance. So far I have found the lesson on telling time to be most useful and I try to check and read it in German if I remember. So much for Spanish! We did get some not so good news this week. For one thing the mother of Nici's boyfriend had to go into surgery on Tuesday. Then we found out that Cinja's new wwoof host didn't work out and rather than coming back here, which was a given option, she went to Málaga. We've become very much like a family so everyone has been concerned. Luckily Nici's boyfriend's mom had a successful operation. However, we haven't heard anything more about Cinja. We also got another wwoofer today. We are now fifteen strong! It makes meals very crowded but there is always something to do and people to enjoy and lots of work that gets done. The new arrival is also named Will. He's from New Jersey but just finished a semester studying business in Belgium. It's hard to believe the family can manage to fee and shelter us all but the diversity of people is very enjoyable and I think the family appreciates it. A note for future entries: I have plans to meet Kim (a friend from Iowa studying in Germany) in Barcelona after Christmas. So I'll be here for the holidays, yay!

Birthday Mayhem!

Sunday was Milan's birthday! He turned thirteen. Saturday night we worked all evening making a cake, which Nici intended to do but we learned that Abby, the new wwoofer, is a trained pastry chef! Cake-making more or less, shifted hands but lots of people helped and it turned out beautifully. I was also asked to make more pumpkin pie for the occasion, which I did. So Sunday morning we had our usual Sunday breakfast of müesli and sweet bread and we sang happy birthday in, I think, five languages, different versions as well (I like the German one best). Afterwards we went to town for the first day of a three day fiesta and had meat platters and bounce fights! Abby and I stayed in town a little longer than everyone else and hung out at a cafe and then walked all the way back. It was a difficult but nice walk and nice to chat with someone. Abby and I have become fast friends. When we got back we joined the inside table as people filtered in and we had mulled cider and our amazing cake! We stuffed ourselves with cake and had no room for pie, which I was not surprised about at all. And the Scots invited us over to the guest house for games: Hunters and Gatherers of Carcassonne is tons of fun and encourages creative and cooperative efforts. It was a lot of fun to see everyone's playing style and fun to spend time with the Scottish guests. Even Milan had to admit he had an awesome birthday and everyone else enjoyed the day as well.

Language News

Frida was a day filled with new faces. I already mentioned that Cinja left and David arrived (who was actually born in France but to Spanish parents). But on Friday Abby arrived, another American wwoofer from Eugene, Oregon! As well as three guests from Scotland, Will, Sue, and Marion. I didn't even notice until recently but behind the family house is an adorable, cozy guest house. So the Scots work four hours a day and pay a small fee for a vacation from their cold, wet home to enjoy the Andalucian sun. They also live in an agricultural community in Scotland and are very helpful, interesting and friendly people. So now the vast majority of people here speak English. While this is useful, it is not encouraging me to learn Spanish. However, Nici (I've learned this is how Nicky spells her name) has decided to teach me German! As I may have mentioned, I am getting good at vaguely following the conversation in German but not well. I am very enthusiastic about learning another language, even if it's not the one I expected. And for those who don't know, this will help for my next destination as well because one of my hosts for next year is also German! I'm having a lot of fun now, learning new things and meeting lots of interesting new people. And have I mentioned the amazing food...

The Olive Cycle

Thursday, as some may have noticed, I traded my day of internet for a day at the olive mill! After breakfast I gathered myself and hopped in the lorry with Mathis. We drove into town to grab some nosh for the day and headed first to Johan's farm. This is the olive farm we harvested when I first arrived and Mathis and I rolled there. Rolling is done to pick up olives that have fallen on the ground and because of strong winds over the past several days many olives had fallen. We spent an hour pushing around these little contraptions with rollers covered in little spikes and a basket to catch the olives stabbed by the spikes. Very dull work. As we were packing up everything we helped ourselves to a whole crate of fresh oranges! Johan was gone and we grabbed the nice oranges that had already fallen down. Then it was off to the mill! The ride was much shorter than I expected but we had to wait because the mill is first come first served. So we munched on bread, chocolate, and oranges until our turn. It was fun to chat with Mathis and have some one on one time with my host. When it was our tuen we backed the lorry up next to the chute and dumped our boxes in. We must have had around fifty boxes! Then the olives were conveyed up to the washer that had a fan to blow out the leaves and then rinsed them with water. They were then taken up again to where they were weighed (ours were nearly 1700kg, which is how you are charged). Then they sit in another machine where they are heated and ground, pits and all. The heating takes a while and I wandered into town alone to explore. It was about four in the evening and everything was closed for siesta so I sat in front of the church and read for a while. I went back around five and watched as all the hard work I'd been doing over the past two weeks was churned and separated and made into a beautiful river of tasty olive oil. I even tasted it as it flowed into a large vat. And I sat and filled all seventeen, five liter jugs with our finished product. It was really profound. So, batting trees I made olive rain which I watched form into an olive river: the olive cycle!

The Gentleman Farmer

So maybe I haven't given the impression that Mathis is much of a gentleman. What I mean is that even though Mathis is living the hard rugged life of a farmer he is very well educated and informed, and learning more about farming as he goes. Obviously living the most sustainable life he can requires a certain knowledge and ideal. Mathis spends a lot of time reading news online and rambling about politics. As I've said, I don't mind and quite enjoy discussing it with him. He even complimented me the other day for being so informed and having similar politics. I of course gave my mother credit and he asked me to thank her (Thanks, Mom!). He also loves the Earth Children series (probably my favorite book series ever!) and I recently learned he studied bio-dynamics. Mathis is very opinionated but it seems to me that his opinions are well grounded and he tries not to push them on others. He said to me recently that even if he feels very strongly about something he also doesn't like to be dogmatic. It seemed like when I first arrived he was very stern about rules and about the environmental problems facing the world and anyone who doesn't agree is stupid and irresponsible. However much it may seem like he is trying to shove his political/environmental agenda on people I have realized that this is only because I am living on his land and by his lifestyle. When it comes to people in general he is accepting of the fact that others live differently and he's not going to tell other what to do or how to live. He instead leads by example and knows it is the best and most important thing he can do. Mathis is quite the admirable gentleman.

A little change

Tuesday we said goodbye to Cinja. She's going away for a month and then coming back in January. I may never see her again so I hugged her and said it was lovely knowing her before going to work. When I came back someone new had arrived. New David had apparently been here about a month before. He's a real Spaniard! So conversation at the table went from mostly German to mostly Spanish! With plenty of English conveniently mixed in. Spanish David actually lives in France and comes here to work on building a group home for troubled French youngsters. It's an inspiring project. Other than that, life here is getting quite comfortable. I've become very at ease with life and while I still miss everyone at home a lot, I don't long for home like I did at first.