entonces

i like this word, entonces. it's the english equivalent of so, and i think i prefer it; it's just more exciting. makes me feel like a dance party is about to happen. even if in reality, another sentence about how to till the soil for tomates is about to happen instead. also, i recently discovered that it is used sporadically  in the background of the animal collective song, "peacebone". great song. kendel the goonis (in case you ever happen upon my blog), i would like to publicly thank you for introducing me to this band.

anyway, today is my last day at the current farm, and i have to say, i have mixed feelings about leaving. i'm proud to announce that since i've been here, my spanish has upgraded to basic. i recently held an abbreviated conversation with three people who speak no english whatsoever. 
as far as farming, i've also done quite a bit of planting, pruning, and tilling here. last week, i was even introduced to grafting trees, which i've been interested in ever since i watched the botany of desire. my time here has allowed me the freedom to be a novice and explore. 
i've hiked to the top of some of the highest mountains in the alpujarras and seen some capricorns running across them...ok i missed the capricorns, but my fellow WWOOFer, julia, filmed them and showed them to me later. 
volunteering at just this one farm, i've met people from all over europe, africa, india and latin america, learned some new games (munchkin and the indian game that merely goes by the name of "dice"...no sé), and snuggled some of the cutest dogs i've ever seen. 

(a big) but, all that snuggling has recently given me a plethora of flea bites. yes, fleas. i can't wait to get out of here and clean all my shit for good. i mean they'll never go away as long as i'm here, because the dogs are not being treated. it's quite sad. 
interestingly, arriana also has flea bites in the same exact areas as me. we seem to both attract the same plight around here. in case you didn't hear, she and i both caught the same ferocious stomach virus which had us out of commission for 7 days. 
and one bitter-sweet detail is that i've had unlimited internet access for a change. of course it's great to be able to plug into the outside world when i'm living in such a remote place (not accessible by mass transit; the nearest town is 1 hour walk away, and it only has homes, a pharmacy, 2 bars, and a healer that people travel to see). on the other hand, i have watched three entire television series and countless movies online when i could (should) have been hiking, or you know, studying spanish. 

what's nice about this trip, though is that half of my goals (experiencing eco-living and growing) is happening by default. the other half (studying spanish) is the hardest part, and it's not even that hard. accordingly, i spend the rest of my time doing whatever i want, and i have little to no guilt around that. #lifeisgood

i think i'm gonna order a couple books though for the next few weeks. 

the next farm is in the same province (granada), but there will be only 2 of us volunteers. it's also solo spanish speaking, so i'm looking forward to another upgrade. this time, i'm gonna try to muster up the discipline to actually study regularly on my own. i'll let you know how that goes. 

meanwhile, here're some photos from the past week or so: 

Sara snuggling peppito, the perro.

see that black one? that's the one with all the fleas. cute and dangerous!

had to hide behind this tree to get a good (?) shot.

the lettuce we planted a few weeks ago. looking good.

onions also doing their thing.

Julia snapped a few photos on one of our hikes.

Juaquin, the brain and brawn behind this whole operation. he wanted me to get a photo of him wearing my hat. 

an interesting rock we found on a hike.

Julia wanted to practice using her new camera app.

more photos by Julia.

i found a michigan rock!

mierda

so this week i ate my words; i've been sick with a stomach virus for the past 7 days. well, officially, i think i'm better today, but the last week has been shitty, both literally and figuratively. we won't get into my frequent and disappointing trips to the bano, but let's just say that the sight of food made me want to curl up in a ball and beg joaquin to put me out of my misery. i don't recall ever having anything like this, but according to the internets, it's quite common. in fact, one other volunteer had the same exact virus. one of us would go to the bathroom only to find the other one already in there. both missing meals and having to force each other to eat. at least i had a compadre.

speaking of mierda, all 7 of us volunteers collaborated in an epic mission this week: shoveling a mountain of 20-year-old goat poop out of a cave to nourish joaquine's grass and apple trees. seriously, this guy from the area owns a cave (at least 100 feet deep) where he housed his goats for over 20 years and where they pooped and pooped and pooped. when i walked into this dark, damp, slightly stinky cave, i thought i was looking at a dirt floor. but no. it was poop, about 2 feet tall, all the way to the end of the cave.  and we shoveled that shit for 5 hours each on wednesday and thursday. then today, we spread it across acres of grass and apple tree seedlings.

here're some photos:

Arianna rolling the poop out of the cave and dumping it into the pile outside.

Arianna, triumphant at the end of our mission.

entrance to the cave

poop being gathered for transport to the farm.

inside of the cave. i'm standing on top of poop. and you see all that ground space behind me? poop. 

triumphant!

poop being dumped so we can spread it across the plants.

some great puns came out of this week's poop escapades. you'd have to be there in order to find it as funny as we did. good times. i seriously never thought i would have such a comfortable relationship with animal feces. but i guess it's a part of permaculture and eco-living. after all, shit makes for some great plant nourishment. ask any green thumb you know...
hasta luego.

cortijo de joaquin

i'm doing some hard work out here. i got my first blister today (since i've been here):

i've been weeding like a madwoman, and i'm not talkin bout kneeling down with no little trowel in a little garden. i'm talkin bout pulling up large amounts of weeds in a vast field where the plants we wanna keep (garbanzo beans/chick peas) are scarce. yes, we are using garden hoes to destroy multiple weeds at once, but the tools are heavy, the sun is hot, and there are a lot of weeds:

the field

the garbanzos with the weeds

the garbanzos after weeding

it's been great a great work-out, though. 

yesterday, i planted my first veggies (since i've been here):

onions

lettuce

and then we went to town for shopping. i found a spanish healthfood store. no matter what country, they always smell the same. #everythingnice

and there are these cheap, little all purpose stores (like dollar stores) which have also been awesome to have around. apparently, they have a similar reputation to beauty supply stores in detroit in that they're usually owned by chinese people:

earlier this week, joaquin whipped out the solar kitchen...!!! never seen this before, but it really works and is totally efficient:

so my day goes like this: 

work at 8am

breakfast at 10am: usually includes bread, chorizo links, cheese, some leftover salad from yesterday, wine, coffee, and cigarettes. i'm typically the only one not participating in the last three. lol.  

more work at 11am

lunch at 2pm: joaquine's wife cooks lunch every day, and we set the table and make a salad. by this point, wine is right on time!

rest around 3pm: maybe wash dishes from lunch, but after that i'm free. i usually spend the rest of the day socializing, studying spanish (thanks lingot!), studying gardening (thanks martha!), watching the cosby show, writing to you, or napping. sometimes i clean or go into town. 

dinner at 8ish pm: leftovers/whatever we can find from lunch from the same or previous day.

bed around whatever time my hand hurts from journaling

comida

ok so over the last month or so,  i've realized a few things about myself when it comes to food. some things are because i'm now eating with other people for every meal and eating the food that they provide. other things are because i'm a tourist:

1. i am addicted to sugar. i cannot get enough. i need to have something that either 
    a. has sugar/is sweet or
    b. becomes sugar when digested (bread/starch)
even when i am completely full (which speaks to something i already knew about myself, but that has also become unmistakably apparent under these circumstances: i eat a lot!), i will make space for sweetness. and this happens throughout the day, not just after meals. it's a problem. let me know if you have ideas for therapy. lol. but seriously. 

2. i cannot mess with gelato. i just can't. i've told myself over and over again that it's worth the stomach aches, stomach growling, and you-know-what follows if i can have that cold creamy catastrophe clinging to my taste buds. just this once, i think to myself. but i'm wrong; one cone means at least 2 urgent trips per day to the servicio for the following 2 days. thank goodness sugar comes in other forms. 

3. drinking mucho agua while traveling really works! in vienna, i drank almost no water, as was my habit in states as a 20-year-old. and i was sick for 2 of the three months that i spent there. here, only the ice cream (and the effing pollen) have affected me. i haven't caught one cold, and i don't plan to. wish me luck for peru, though.

4. eating fruit never gets old. ever. i've been eating at least one orange every day for the last 33 days (yesterday i ate 3 oranges, plus sliced oranges in my salad), and i am still excited every time i'm 'bout to have one. the same was true when i was a child; for more years than i can count, i ate a pear for lunch every day. and before i came here, i was eating apples like an elementary school teacher tryina to keep the doctor away. but just now have i realized this. fruit is my jam! maybe i can use it to ween myself off the sugar...hm...

5. washing dishes ain't so bad. there was a long time -- the 16 years between first learning how to wash the dishes and about 4 months ago -- when i thoroughly despised this necessary chore. but other volunteers and i have had to do it as a condition of our WWOOFing arrangements. and am i really gonna try to duck and dodge like i've done with previous roommates (and my mom)? naaa. i'm tryina make a good impression so i can say i have some spanish friends when i get back to the states. lol. and something about picking up llama shit with your bare hands allows a little slack for scrubbing a pot with soggy, brown/green/white what-is-it that was once on my plate with food that has passed through my body. in other words my threshold for disgust has raised. so mommy, kettia, nicole, morgan, jennie, you'll be happy to know that i wash dishes every day...though maybe you would have been happier if that was true while i lived with you =/ #growingpains

6. i cook delicious food. i don't use a recipe (marc), nor do i have many staple dishes memorized. i just go into the kitchen and its contents tell me what i'll make. and, based on reviews from friends and family, 99% of the time it comes out delicious. lizzie and i share this skill, and she says it's because we're creative (she's a photographer and self-taught architect). i like to think of it that way. after all, cooking is an artistic expression. 

7. a tortilla in spain ≠ a tortilla in the us or mexico. i'm sitting in the pension in torvizcon a few weeks ago when my spanish and familiarity with local cuisine were quite minimal. the server gets to asking me what i wanna eat, what i want with my salad and chicken, do i want womp womp this, womp tortilla that, or womp womp the other. oh! yes, tortilla. something i recognize, i thought. a few minutes later, she brings what looks like a circle-shaped omlette with potatoes and spinach in it. it was wonderful, but there was not a lick of corn in sight. apparently tortilla means omlette in spanish spanish...? #pleasantsurprise

nuevo

alright, so i arrived in torvizcon on thursday morning, and waited for joaquin (farmer/owner) to pick me up so we could drive up 1250 meters altitude to cortijo la casería marcado. 

unlike the other farm, this land is vast. i mean, if you're particularly curious, it'd take half a day to get around the whole area that he owns. 

yesterday, i thought i was doin' somethin' by going for a jog around the farm to see just how big it was. i really thought i'd wrapped my mind around it by the time i got back to my room. but, today, a couple other volunteers arrived and we all went on a tour. i was wrong. the land goes across the street and down the road to yet another house and plants and a small stream. and then back up in another direction toward olive trees and prickly blackberries. 
and i can't begin to tell you all the plants that grow around here, but it's a buncha herbs, fruits, vegatables, many of the names i've only heard in spanish. 

so a bit about joaquin: he is spanish and also speaks german, but very little english (yeee!). he lives in orgiva with his wife (who is chilean) and two children. he comes to the farm daily to work with his family members, friends, and WWOOFers on various building and gardening projects. he's really funny and charismatic. and a wonderful cook (as is his wife). in fact, i think he used to be a professional chef. 

about the other WWOOFers: so when i first got here, 3 dudes were leaving but an italian woman and a portuguese man (a couple, who met here at the farm) are still here. and today another italian woman and french guy (also a couple) arrived. there are two older men and 2 middle-aged men. i think they're all joaquin's relatives, and they help with the building and/or growing. 

and just like i wanted it, just about everyone speaks fluent spanish only, and most are spanish. i've only been here about 4 days, and my vocabulary has already grown significantly.

i will update later on the work i'll be doing, as so far i've only worked one day (ariana and i did some weeding and cooking).

here're some photos: 

goats

goats

tourists/guest housing

WWOOF accommodation

joaquin's place when he stays overnight

peacocks. 

work in progress. i believe this will also be for guests.

walkway between the WWOOF and visitor accommodation and the rest of the buildings on the farm.

adorable!

garlic, chamomile, greens, etc. this is where i weeded on friday.

WWOOFer kitchen area

instructions in 6 languages on how to use the toilet

upstairs patio in the WWOOF house

view from the patio

my bedroom

Ariana with dog.

we went to a street festival on friday night. i bought a candy apple. it was wonderful. 

entrance to the farm where i'm staying

i jogged to the top of a large hill yesterday. found this beautiful scenery, among many others.

entrance to the other land that joaquin owns.

hanging with the animals on a sunday afternoon.