Sara's French Adventure

That's All, Folks!

2008-07-23T06:42:00.003-04:00

I have some time extra time before lunch because it's extremely hot outside, so I'll take advantage of this freedom to write my last blog post from France during this organic farming adventure!

On Sunday, I enjoyed having a feast that Chérif and Ja-Ja put on for some friends. I asked Mishka why they wanted to have this party, and she said that there wasn't any particular reason except that her parents just like to have people over and have a good time. Chérif and Ja-Ja certainly love having company over and spending time with everyone. At least 10 people had arrived by the end of the night. Some even stayed after Chérif and Ja-Ja had gone to bed, haha, but nobody seemed to mind. We ate a fresh tomato and olive salad that Fred the neighbor made, a cold green bean and potato salad, fresh bread with a butter and herb spread, watermelon, cantalope, and a spicy lamb sausage called mergeuse. Fred had made pork sausage himself, too, which tasted spectacular! We all had a cheerful time in the backyard with candlelight. We started shooting watermelon seeds at the parents, so they shot cantalope rinds back, haha! For dessert, I ate fresh Algerian dates that Ja-Ja had bought just for me from the Arab market that morning. She had also bought an incredibly large round of bread that was in the shape of a donut! Ummm... donuts.

Ja-Ja has been making a lot of things in the kitchen just for me! She had Mishka make crèpes, which I ate with strawberry and black currant jam. Everyone munched on them and I watched Mishka so I can hopefully make them in French fashion back in the States. Last night, after collecting crates full of potatoes at around 8pm, Ja-Ja decided to make mashed potatoes for me. They were unbelievable! They were made with organic milk and butter, too. No gravy was necessary at all! I hope to take something of hers before I leave, such as the black currant jam. I will certainly remember her for her exotic and neverending cooking skills that always satisfied any appetite!

It's nearly 1pm here now. I've already completed most of my packing and vacuumed my room. I've been wrapping my gifts and souvenirs in my clothes, trying to protect things efficiently while still respecting the airline weight limits. I brought an extra duffle bag with me, which will come in good use. Tomorrow morning, I will leave with Fred at 5am to go to the Nimes train station. He will already be driving there because he will be picking up his wife who arrives at 6am. My train will leave at 7:50am, so the plan works out pretty perfectly. Hopefully, I will be able to play tourist a little bit before boarding the train.

I've been spending my last work on the farm weeding, which seems appropriate considering that organic farms need this task to be done constantly. I also hope to take my last photos, give the family a gift that I bought them (a pizza cutter, haha, because they actually don't have one but eat pizza and tarts often), take a last jog to see the scenery, finish packing, enjoy the last of Ja-Ja's cooking, and fall into bed early! Tomorrow will be a big traveling day! Please keep me iin your prayers for I will need lots of guidance and strength.

I promise to write again soon when Im home about more of my thoughts on this experience and to answer any questions that anyone might have. I can say now that I do not plan on being a farmer in response to Rayne's question. I do hope to have a garden of my own wherever I live for the rest of my life if possible, but I don't believe that my strengths and passions rest in the fields. I will think about and write about this more. Au revoir for now!

My Last Weekend in France!

2008-07-20T08:53:00.002-04:00

Although I'm trying to get the most out of my last days here, I am definitely excited to be going back home! Trying to learn and understand French all the time has become pretty stressful. I believe I'm improving, and it's fun acting as an interpreter sometimes, but there are times when I just want to be alone so I don't have to struggle to understand everyone. I can keep to my own English thoughts, or listen to my English songs on my iPod while taking a walk along the scenic roads.

I've started preparing for my departure a bit. I think I've got all my gifts together and accounted for, as well as things I bought just for myself. I've started running a bit more. I haven't been running much because it's so hot here. Since it is so difficult to run during mid-day with the sun so high, the bets time to run is in the evening. We usually work from 5-7:30 or 8pm, so I don't have much energy left to go on a run. I'm squeezing them in just before I go back to work in the evenings and on the weekends, though. I feel like I'm at home again, but with the smell of the Cevennes in the air!

The house is very full at the moment, so finding peace and quiet means leaving to go off the farm usually. There are two more younger girls here from Paris. They come from underpriveleged families who can't afford vacations during the summer months. Chérif, who grew up in the Paris suburbs, belongs to an association who arranges for these children to have vacations on farms during summer. Chérif has taken in two girls this year for 10 days. They are the same age as Inès, Chérif's youngest daughter, so she is very happy. The girls even help out with farm chores, like collecting red currents from the bushes for the market. They are very sweet and enjoy being on the farm. One of the girls is called Amandine, which means "little almond" in French!

Other farm work that they have helped out with is getting fruit from fruit trees on the property. There is a plum tree near a stream where we collected lots of plums. We tried to gather the most yellow and the largest. Chérif also drove us to another tree on the property where there is a very old pear tree. The pears are so small and very green with some red spots meaning that they are ripe. They are super sweet! We all couldn't stop eating them, haha, but since they were for the market, we had to save most of them. When it rains pears on a summer evening, everyone is smiling and happy!

The fruit amazingly didn't sell so well at the market on Saturday. I was shocked! The prices weren't high at all and the fruit is wild. I think that since fruit trees are so abundant in the region, many people already have access to these fruits near their houses. One vendor at the market had fresh figs for the first time this year. Ja-Ja knows that I adore figs, so she bought a little basket of them just for me! I shared of course, but finished them all by the end of the day. What a treat!

The day at the market was pretty normal. There were less tourists, though, it seemed. The green beans, eggs, and tomatoes disappeared. An Italian man bought nearly 10 basil bunches off the table, which is all that we brought. The little eggplants and zucchinis were popular, so I think it must be ratatouille season! Our four potoato varieties sold well. Getting organic potatoes is very important if you want to it the skins. Otherwise, the skin can absorb a lot of pesticides and fertilizers. The same goes for carrots, which are gigantic now! The rhubarb, Swiss chard, and lettuce also sold well.

One night, I got to see plenty of pictures of Algeria and the village of Chérif. It seems so beautiful! There are fig trees all around and monkeys can be spotted swinging around the trees. There are also banana trees and lots of other greenery. The clothes are very colorful and many people still wear traditional robes and pants. I'm glad I got to see another part of the world that I'm really not familiar with. I love the Mediterranean culture and climate! I hope to travel around the sea a lot more!

I don't know if this will be my last blog post while in France. I hope to write another on Wednesday, but I'm not certain if I will be able to do so. I hope that everyone has been able to learn about another part of the world and organic agriculture just as I have. Thanks for reading, learning, and sending back input for me to read. I've had a wonderful time, and look forward to having a similar experience (but shorter!) somewhere else in the United States. Anyone interested?

Potato Patch Princesses

2008-07-17T08:17:00.004-04:00

Our fireworks excursion was very fun on Monday. We set out in cars at around 8:30pm and arrived in another town closer to the top of the mountains here. We then hiked over an hour to the summit. We mostly walked along a gravel road, but also squeezed through some brush and climbed rocks to get the best view we could. Along the way, we saw a grave for a French soldier who was "assinated by the Nazis" in 1944. There were beautiful flowers around the engraved rock. There is so much history here. The firework display was fun to wathc, but since we were so high up, it didn't seem very extravagant. They were mostly red and white, too. We could see them from at least four villages, which was neat, but I think fireworks are better from ground view (just a suggestion for the future). We had a great time joking around, nevertheless, and trying to make our way back to the cars by flashlight. We also had a mini-picnic near midnight, eating chocolate cake and drinking hot tea.

The next day, Tuesday, we woke up at our normal time to leave at 9am with another farmer who needed help collecting potatoes from their potato field. The two older daughters, the other two WWOOfer volonteers, and I all went. We spent all morning and some of the afternoon collecting potatoes from a large field. I had fun because it was like hunting for Easter eggs, haha. The soil was also very cool, so I enjoyed running my fingers through the Earth. In the end, we had about 55 crates full of potatoes! We stacked them in a building where it was cooler and they keep their tools. I had dirt all over my legs, arms, and even around my toes through my shoes and socks! They fed us all lunch. I enjoyed eating their beets and red onion salad. It was so sweet, so I mixed it with lettuce. I walked around the farm and saw a lot more raspberry bushes, tomato rows, and rhubarb plants. There were so many tomato varieties! The wife makes her own rhubarb and strawberry jam, which were delicious!

Yesterday, I did a lot more spraying. The rain clouds over the United States must be sending their friends over here because it has also been too wet and humid. I sprayed the zucchini, cucumber and onion plants, as well as the zucchini plants inside the greenhouse. It took two hours! Refilling my tank with the copper-sulfur solution also took some time. I wear a 10-liter tank on my back over a jacket to keep me dry. I was definitely sweating in the sun! I saw mold even growing in between the onions. Not a good sign.

Otherwise, on the farm, I have been weeding more and being Ja-Ja's assistant when she needs an extra hand. We picked potatoes this morning already for Saturday's market. The smallest variety of potato they have is called rat potatoes and are the most expensive. Chérif called them "potates de luxe," hehe. We also collected the rest of the black currants from the grandfather's house. We will sell some of them at the market, but also make jam for the house.

This morning, I saw my second animal killing. Someone ordered meat from half a sheep for this weekend, so Chérif killed on this morning. The family will keep the rest of the meat and parts for themselves. They are giving the skin to the neighbors who have a baby on the way and can use the wool and skin for a blanket or clothes for the baby. Chérif first tied up the legs, killed the sheep by the throat, and started the process to skin the animal. Naoko, Heather, and I all watched. It was a very clean process. Chérif had learned how to do everything from his father and uncle when he was 15-years-old. He didn't start cutting the meat, though. He will wait until tomorrow afternoon when the meat has dried a bit. It is resting in their celler now. I hope to watch again. I did cry a bit so I had to walk away. I don't know why I cried, but it just happened. I think I cried because the proces was so fast and I felt like the animal needed to be respected a bit more before skinning it. I hope to eat more meat now from farms like this where the animal probably enjoyed a normal animal life while it lived and isn't treated like a product to be bought and sold.

I am looking forward to Saturday's market now. I am a creature for the market! I love making interactions and serving the needs of people with pride in what I give them. I only have ONE WEEK LEFT, so this Saturday's market will be my last. I hope everyone is having some summer fun! If you see someone French, say "A mort, le roi" ("death to the king") for their Independence Day!

Joyeux 14 Juillet!

2008-07-14T08:58:00.002-04:00

Happy July 14th! Today is the Independence Day celebrated in France. In short, this day marks the end of monarchism in France. Hurray for democratic zealots!

I'm a market zealot, myself. I have discovered that I really have a passion for going to the market, helping Ja-Ja sell her garden produce, and mingle with the people. I have made a lot of friends: a woman working in the local pharmacy, a woman my age with lots of pins on her purse, a Berlin couple with whom I try to speak my University-learned German, a British couple with two little dogs, and a French guy with dreadlocks who lives in the woods with his brothers. I like talking with all the other tourists, tryiing to make them feel welcome at Ja-Ja's stand. I hope I am bringing her business. The shy average Frenchman or Frenchwoman seems scared and unsure about how to respond with my outward friendliness. They usually smile and put on their sunglasses. Eep!

Saturday's market was extremely successful and busy. We ended up making nearly 1,000 Euros! We brought crates of green beans, potatoes, zucchinis, tomatoes, lettuce greens, and carrots. The beets, strawberries (our second harvest), raspberries, and onions sold fast. We had a new bean today: les haricots cocos. They look like large pea pods, but have a white and red pattern on the pod. This would be the giraffe of the bean world. My personal goal was to sell all of the eggplants. Ja-Ja grew a baby variety this year, so they are small and cute. Ja-Ja and Chérif are upset because they love the huge ones. Somebody has to love these miniature ones, so I will! We ended up selling them all. The basil and parsley were also easy sellers. The potatoes and tetragone (similar to baby spinach) didn't all sell, so then they were for our home. For dinner that night, Ja-Ja made a tart using the leftover tetragone, and seemed some leftover potatoes and pattypan squash. She made a garlic aioli to go with it. I tummy was singing and satisfied!

During the weekend, I have been relaxing more, so I don't have much to write about. I watched the Edith Piaf movie in French with the kids and other WWOOFers. I have also been trying to do some tanning and yoga in the gardens, walking around the roads, copying recipes onto my laptop, reading in the plaza in Lasalle, and sleeping. It is still incredibly green here and all of the flowers and trees seem to be holding up well. There are a lot of mold spots even on tree trunks. The blackberries are getting ripe now, so I picked some of a tree. They are very soft and sweet. The trees are tall, though, so I couldn't eat much.

The market this morning in Lasalle was packed! Tourists are here for the 14 Juillet events, I believe. Naoko and I had a coffee at the café. It's becoming part of our routine now to sit and talk for a long time there and then walk back to the house after Ja-Ja has already left in the car. We have become friends with one of the waiters, so we got some drinks on the house today! I ordered an Orangina! He put ice in the glass. I felt like a was having a taste of heaven: an ice cold soda on a summer day! It's these small things that we take for granted in the States, haha. I think soda is truly good for the soul. I was smiling a lot, and so was Naoko with her cold tomato-carrot juice! What a healthy lady!

Only 10 days left! I will be able to enjoy fireworks tonight for the holiday and hopefully some other special outings before I leave France. Have a good week everyone!

Hockey in the Heat

2008-07-11T06:03:00.002-04:00

The last few days have been incredibly fun and busy, which is a recipe to make time fly by quickly. I feel like I just wrote my last blog post! I do have only less than two weeks left, so perhaps I am just pushing myself to get as much done as I can and do those things that are on my To Do list.

One of those things on list was bake brownies! In the care package that my Mom sent here, she included dry brownie mix with instructions written down for me. The family has often been asking me questions about the brownies with shy smiles on their faces, so I figured I better bake them soon before their chocoholic cravings get any larger! All I needed was water, an egg, and oil, so it was extremely easy to prepare. I offered the spoon to the girls in the kitchen so they could lick the batter. After putting the brownies in the oven, the bowl was already licked clean, too! After dinner, we ate the brownies and everyone loved them! They were a bit burnt on the bottom, but nobody seemed to mind chewing chocolate in their mouth for a little longer from the crunchiness. Many people had seconds. Heather, the Canadian volonteer, was in heaven. WE had a few pieces left over, so I gave them to the neighbors. I'm just trying to spread the love.

We have been working longer hours on the farm recently. We work from 9am-noon in the morning, take a long break to eat lunch and avoid the midday heat, and then resume work at around 4-5pm. The day ends at around 7:30-8pm. We all run in to take our showers. There is only one bathroom, so it's quite a race. We eat dinner now more at around 9:30pm or even 10pm. It's a pretty strange schedule, but it's the best for what needs to be done on the farm.

We have still been doing plenty of weeding. A lot of salad plants and onions have been pulled, so the gardens need to be cleared and replanted with other vegetables plants or seeds. I watched a really neat sterilization process to help kill weeds. After Ja-Ja tilled a few rows in one of her gardens, they put a larger steamer over the soil. It was about 3x4 feet and pretty flat. It was hooked up to a nuclear power tank. They would lay the steamer over the soil for a period of time and then move it down the row. Basically, the weeds were being fried. Hopefully, less weeds will grow later on. This technique is very common in organic farming here. Larger farms even have marger steamers and they move using a GPS system. Pretty incredible!

While weeding, I've felt like I am practicing for ice hockey again. The ground has been very hard because it has been very sunny and hot lately. I had to use a large hoe to break the ground so we could still pull out the weeds by the roots. I was using all of my muscles, especially my back. I felt like I was taking slap shots on the ice, one after another without stopping. Then, on other afternoons, we have been raking the the last hay fields and baling the hay. Chérif's baler actually broke (whoa!), but a friend brought his so we could finish. The needles (large steel spears) cracked in half in Chérif's machine. I looked for replacement ones on eBay, which he thought was amusing, but couldn't find any for the maker of his machine, Claas, which was unfortunate. We still finished, at least, with the help of his friend. We raked on steep hills, so I was running up and down, throwing hay with the rake, doing cross-overs with my feet to move sideways up and down the hill. Once again, I felt as if I was at hockey practice. I'm getting good workouts here! I like this exercise a bit better now, though, because I can tan at the same time, hehe.

It's raining today, so I took a run in the mist to see the clouds around the mountains. It's very beautiful here when it rains. The cows seem happy, too! I felt well energized after eating a big French meal last night. Ja-Ja made a Provencal tart (tomatoes and cheese with some mustard) and Chérif grilled sheep from his own farm! Everything was juicy and fresh! It was a feast, along with the Californian wine that Ja-Ja bought us as a gift and salad picked from the garden. For dessert, Ja-Ja made a fresh apricot tart. There was a hint of almond in the dough! It was super sweet. I am certainly being well-fed here. I hope you all are enjoying summer's tomatoes and fresh fruit in the States! I bet peaches are out! Talk to you soon and have un bon weekend! (a good weekend!)

My Polar Fur, Please

2008-07-08T07:15:00.003-04:00

Even though I first hoped that the farm would have Mediterranean-like weather, I have finally accepted that I am really living in the mountains. This weekend has actually been pretty chilly, as well as yesterday. The mornings are a bit nippy, and the wind seems to continue throughout the day. I have had to wear my fleece often. In French, it's called une fourrure polaire, which translates into "a polar fur." I think that is quite amusing.

Sunday was a free day for me. I slept in, of course, until around 10am. I then watched a Japanese animation film with Naoko. She wanted to show me a film from her country. We watched it in French with French subtitles so that we could both practice our French. The title in English is "Howl's Moving Castle." She told me that it is a popular film in Japan and made by a well-known film maker, Hayao Miyazaki. I thought that it was very creative and the animation was incredible, but the story didn't make much sense and was somewhat boring for me. I guess I'm just not the sci-fi type. I'm glad that I got to see something of her culture though and share the moment with her! I had a good time just relaxing with her.

For the rest of the afternoon, I took a very long walk. It was good walking weather since it was cool and cloudy. I brought a book along with me: "Animal, Vegtable, Miracle: A Year of Food Love" by Barbara Kingsolver. I love the book, especially because it mostly takes place in southern Virginia and she recalls her childhood in Kentucky. Her family have started their own farm and have committed to eating only locally grown foods. It's extremely fascinating, especially since I can learn more about our lovely Appalachia region and the larger picture of food system issues in the United States. I strongly recommend the book. Thanks, Mom, for getting it for me! I read it while taking some stops along my walk, sitting in a spot overlooking fields or in Lasalle.

I also met a Spaniard named Victor on my walk. He just moved here, but speaks French very well. He moved here after splitting up with his wife. Coincidentally, Naoko decided to come here after breaking up with her boyfriend. I guess these types of life changes deserve a change of scenery. If you have recently left a significant other, then maybe coming to Lasalle is the right move to make, or any other cozy French village. Just a thought.

Yesterday, a new WWOOFer volunteer arrived. She is from Manitoba, Canada. She is in her late twenties and learning French like me. She is taking classes for law in organic farming issues. I am looking forward to talking to her about what she has learned and issues that Canada is facing. She is writing a paper now comparing France and Canada on this topic. She brought her laptop, like me. North Americans can be so studious!

Hadda, a friend of the family who is also Berber and lat me stay at her house the first night I arrived here in Nimes, is staying here for a few days. She is on vacation and helping some on the farm. She cooked an Algerian specialty last night. It was a special soft, flaky rice with diced dates. It was fabulously sweet! We also ate ratatouille for the first time of the year on Sunday night! Finally! It tasted so fresh: eggplant, tomatoes, and onions all from the garden. Chérif said that the best ratatouille is made by cooking all of the ingredients separately, and then mixing them together at the end. Ja-Ja didn't have the time, or probably the kitchen space as well, to cook in this fashion. Instead, she cooked everything together. On top of rice, it was still magnificant! Inès, the youngest daughter, doesn't like ratatouille and just wanted to put ketchup on her rice, haha. She did, and ate it all up! She loves ketchup, and Ja-Ja says it's because Americans love ketchup. I argued and said that during the summer, Americans love cold cucumbers salads! A minute later, Inès was sliding cucumbers onto her plate from the salad bowl. I'll leave it at that.

On the farm, I've pretty much just been weeding. I also sprayed the tomatos and eggplant leaves with an organic insect spray to stop the worm and bugs from eating the tomatoes and the spiders from making webs all over the eggplant leaves. The chemical I sprayed was a bacteria that serves as a virus for these animals. I think the bacteria called Actium or something like that (the bottle was in German, anyway, so I have to idea). It's natural, though, sense it's just a bacteria in liquid form. Walking around the gardens, more flowers a blooming, butternut squashes are getting orange and large, and the onions are breaking the surface of the soil.

That's all the news I have for you. I hope it's sunny and beautiful in the States. The heat will come back here for sure. The sun is incredible hot. Shade is a blessing. Enjoy your air-conditioning and iced lattes. Talk to you soon!

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-05T09:10:00.002-04:00

I certainly showed my patriotism on Friday the best way I could on the farm: preparing a feast, the American way. After all, the French helped us during our fight against the British. I should thank them for support. I think I'm making the holiday sound like Thanksgiving now with a French spin. I'll just say that I wanted to share my native culture in a foreign country on the day we celebrate our birth as a country.

I starting cooking on Thursday night. I made homemade barbeque sause. I was a bit surprised how much ketchup went into it, but the end result was great. I think the fresh ginger really boosted the flavor. On Friday morning, Chérif cut two chickens into pieces for me and salt and peppered them. I did work on the farm collecting greens to sell at Saturday's market and weeding around tomato plants. She has many varieties here. The eggplant plants are about a little more than a foot high now. I think that this plant is the corn of France then because it is "knee high by the fourth of July!"

At around 2pm, I continued my cooking. I made all of the following: fresh lemonade, watermelon and cantalope fruit salad, baked beans, corn bread, grean bean stew, fried chicken, and sweet potato fries. It took a lot of time of finish everything. I took breaks throughout the afternoon to hang up laundry, take my shower, and do other things around the farm, so I didn't finish cooking until very late: 10pm! I know that sounds strange, but it was actually good timing. We ate the neighbor's house and Ja-Ja and Fred (the neighbor) arrived just at that time from gathering things in the gardens for Saturday's market. They work very late here sometimes because there is still enough light outside until very late at night. During the middle of the day, farmers usually take a break and stay inside for some time because it is so hot outside.

Anyway, all 10 of us sat down to eat together very late. They all were looking at me a lot, probably waiting for me to say which dish is better to start with. Finally, someone asked if they should eat the fruit first. I said that you can eat whatever you want. There aren't any courses. Just put on your plate, "comme tu veux." Fred liked that. He liked telling his daughters to take whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. Everyone still started with the fruit, though, haha, and then went for the meat. Afterwards, more people just started taking whatever they wanted. Finally a little more freedom was at the table.

The kids (all five of them) loved the lemonade! Thanks for the idea, Uncle Rick. Naoko liked the fruit salad the best. Fruit is very expensive and somewhat luxurious in Japan, so she was very happy to be enjoying summer fruit in France. Fried chicken was a first for everyone at the table (except me, of course). They all loved it, especially with the sweet and tangy barbeque sauce! Ja-Ja and Chérif particularly liked the sweet potato fries since they love the sweet potatoes from Algeria. The way I cooked them was new to them (I baked the fries in the oven). Everyone put ketchup on them! Thanks Mom for sending the US Heintz ketchup bottle and the Old Bay seasoning! They all gasped at the size of the bottle, haha, saying it was huge! I said that they are lucky my Mom sent the big one for them to enjoy because everyone was pouring it on their plates. I also sprinkled the Old Bay seasoning on the fries. It was perfect! Everyone was very interested in the spice, so I got to show off some of my Maryland pride, too. Fred loved the baked beans, and the corn bread was nearly all finished. They thought it was very strange to put corn in bread, but then loved the idea after eating it.

Dessert was a fruit mousse cake that Chérif's brother, a professional pastry chef, made just for the occasion. It was beautiful! Don't worry, I took photos. It was good, but very light. I needed some ice cream or chocolate syrup! I still felt so happy since everyone celebrated this day with me. Fred told me that he played baseball when he was younger in school and loves the game. He also knew some of the Founding Fathers and said he liked the wine he tasted form the US, even though they were a bit sweet for his palette. He said he would love to go their and experience the big cities. I'm very glad we had dinner with the neighbors so that I could hear this from Fred and have pride in my country.

We din't go to bed until very late, but I still got up at 6:15am to go to the market. We put out the first baskets of small tomatoes and eggplants that were grown in the greenhouses. They have already grown because it is so much hotter in the greenhouses and were sheltered from all of that rain in May and June. We also brought and sold a lot of bunches of basil, four different potato varieties (one is called Mona Lisa, hehe), really large green beans, and the first batches of red currants and gooseberries. Most people looked at the goosberries awkwardly having no idea what they were. I would be with them if it wasn't for my work on the farm. I saw a lot of tourists, too: British, German, French, etc. I got to practice my German! Chérif came to help this time, which was a blessing because it was very busy. The customers came in waves and often like to chat with Ja-Ja, so his assistance was surely needed. Naoko came, too, so we were a good team behind the tables of the farm's produce.

I hope that everyone celebrated well, no matter where you were. I guess life will continue as normal now for a while. The produce is really peaking here, so the food is superb. Ja-Ja has made fresh basil pesto twice now and I can't get enough of it! The fruit is also getting very sweet. Ja-Ja had us pick all of the gooseberries from their plants because some are even drying out. The plant has lots of thorns, though, so my hands certainly didn't enjoy the work, but my tummy did!

Oh, I should mention that I never found any molasses and used brown sugar and water as a substitute. It worked, but I could tell their was a difference in the beans and barbeque sauce. I hope that you all are grilling outside this time of year and enjoying the seasonal produce as well!

Chicks and Champs

2008-07-03T09:12:00.003-04:00

Did you all watch the soccer game, the European Cup Final?! It was really fun, even though Germany lost, the team I was hoping would win. Spain won instead. There were many wonderful plays, so I still had a great time watching the game. I think that will be the end of sports while I am here. There is a foosball table in the house. Maybe we can have our own live games!

On Monday morning, I did get to sleep in. I sent a package from the post office. France is so expensive! I won't say how much I paid, but it is more expensive than sending things from the States. I don't think I could live in France because I would fear going to the post office. The system is pretty confusing, too. Even the name of the family of the place of destination has to be on the package or letter being sent within France. I think our system is much more efficient because the name doesn't matter. Oh, the small things I take for granted back home, like trusting the postal service!

I quickly got out of the evil post office and didn't look back. I walked straight to the Monday market going on in Lasalle. I said hello to some friends I've made: two men from Senegal who sell their artwork there and a Thai woman who sells lots of random things (Thai jewelry, Thai food, painted woodwork, spice baskets, etc.). One of the Senegal guys has a sister living in Rhode Island. He called her on his cell phone so I could talk to her, haha! She was very sweet and spoke English very well. I also bought some fruit from a family that always gives me free samples of what they have. I bought watermelon and cantalope, which I will cut up and put in a lime-honey-mint sauce for July 4th, and some dates to share with the family and Naoko in particular because she has never eaten them before. I had a great time running around and visiting these familiar faces. I even got some free items because I come to say hi when I can and sometimes buy things from them. I like being with these foreigners and supporting their way of life! They are all very generous and friendly!

On the farm, Ja-Ja has already been preparing for Saturday's market. She has picked a lot of potatoes, which is what she usually starts out gathering because they can last in good condition for quite a long time off the plant. She has also been collecting a lot of squash, zucchini, and green beans. All of these vegetables are starting to get very large! She wanted to pick them before they get too big and difficult for her customers to cook with. Naoko, Amena, Mishka, and I have been gathering the black currants. They are fairly ripe now. Some are sweet and addictively delicious, but others are still a bit tart. We are picking them all anyway because Ja-Ja plans on making a lot of jam with them. Black currant jam is pretty spectacluar if you get a chance to try it! It takes a long time to pick the currants, though. The pants look somewhat like grape plants, and the currants grow in small bunches sort of like grapes, too. The plant and its leaves are beautiful. Try to put one in your garden if you can!

We also have been trying to fill orders placed by other farmers and neighbors. One order was for 10,000 leeks! My job was to help count them and carefully place them in crates in a very orderly fashion. These are baby plants and the farmer plans on replanting them, farther apart than from what they were here in the ground, so that they grow into larger leeks. My other big job here has been helping out with the hay. We are still cutting, raking, bailing, transporting, and storing the hay. It takes a lot of people, a lot of arm strength, a lot of sun screen, and a lot of patience. The process can last all day, depending on the size of the field, the driness of the hay (wet hay can brake the bailing machine and make the bails heavier), the amount of wind spreading out our hay piles that we have to re-rake, and the amount of workers. You also have to have a tolerance for bad tan lines because my sock tan is getting pretty obvious now, eep!

There is a new addition to the farm: baby chicks! There are five in total: four black and one yellow! They are extremely small and furry. They like to hide under their Mom's belly a lot. I will keep you updates in their growth! They like to stay indoors, but they can't hide from me!

On Tuesday evening, we all went to watch Inès in her school play. It is the end of the school year now for the elementary school here (yes, I think it's pretty late, too). This event is mostly to help raise money for the next school year. The kids sang songs, which were actually mostly all in English, read poetry that they wrote, and did small skits. The major theme was nature and using every items, like tin cans and wood boards, to play games or do silly things with your body. I got to drink a free kir as an apéritif. It was a mix of white wine with black currant liquor. It is a regional favorite. The wine was really cheap and bad, though. I'm glad it was free. My head hurt the next day, even though I only drank half a glass! Chérif knew my headache was because of the wine and he felt bad because he wants me to enjoy the culture and food here. He let me work less that day.

The food here has pretty much been the same. We are eating a lot more onions and leeks because they are in season here now. They are especially sweet and very good in omelettes or salads. Ja-Ja made a lasagne with a lot of diced carrots. I thought it was a great idea for a healthier dish. I like it, but it gave the lasagne a sweeter taste, which I didn't like much. Maybe diced zucchini would be a better substitute for me. On the night of Inès's event, I pan fried steak for Naoko, Amena, Mishka, and I. Naoko wanted me to show her how to make gravy with the left over sauce. She had it before in London and wanted to know how to make it from scratch. I showed everyone and they loved it! Thank you Aunt Linda for teaching me! Your cooking expertise has now traveled to France, hehe!

I am now looking forward to cooking for July 4th tomorrow! Wish me luck. I hope that everyone has a great holiday and celebrates well! Eat some cake, drink some ice cold soda, and watch some fire works or parades for me! I want to lastly thank you all for the ideas for the molasses substitutions. I appreciate the help. The grocery stores here don't really cater for foreign tastes. Rubbish! (N'importe quoi!)

Sleepless in the Cévennes

2008-06-29T09:48:00.002-04:00

I have the best family ever! Thanks for writing all of the comments everyone! Aunt Linda, I have seen whole chickens in our grocery stores, and have cooked with them often. I should have been more clear in my blog. I just don't know many people who typically buy the whole chicken, especially my age. I think that more people find it easier and more simple just to buy pre-packaged pieces, such as chicken breasts or wings. I'll still take you up on the shopping trip though so you can teach me more cooking secrets of yours, hehe! Uncle Rick, I hope that we do start spraying less! Many plants are still sick because it is still humid. On Friday, I sprayed the green bean, squash, and cucumber plants! I also sprayed the eggplant plants quickly because their flowers don't like the extra copper. I am really looking forward to July 4th, and the 14th! Thanks for the recipe! I'm not sure if I will be able to find cans of creamed corn here, though. If not, I'll be baking corn bread, and I think I'll take up your idea of sprinkling cardamom on top of the bread. Thanks for the great idea! Mom, I'll get back to you if I need to recipe. The sweet potatoes here are not orange (they're white), so I may not do the sweet potato fries. Pooie! I'll get back to you on what I do. Thanks, everyone!

Aside from the spraying on Friday, I did experience something new: I witnessed my first kill of a bird with a knife. Ja-Ja killed a duck because it was young, lonely, and bothering the chickens. She explained to me something about it not staying with other ducks, but I couldn't really understand. She said that I didn't have to watch because we would be eating the duck one day, but I thought that it would be good for me. It wasn't too shocking for me. I'll leave out the details. I did get a bit emotional later when I was on my own. I realized that we eat God's creatures to stay alive and keep well-nourished, without giving much regard to the lives of the animals. I hope to sat grace more at meal time and thank God for what I eat. What we consume has already had a life, whether it's an animal, vegetable, fruit, or anything else.

Saturday's market was fun. One of the daughters, Amena, came for the first time of the summer. Now that school is out, the girls will come more often. I was extremely tired. We leave by 7am for these Saturday markets, so I got up early. Ja-Ja saw that and let me relax a bit more than usual. I mostly helped with refilling the baskets and crates with more produce. Ja-Ja brought some strawberries, tomatoes, and baby eggplants for loyal customers since they are limited on the farm now. We had a lot of green beans, huge lettuce heads, raspberries, monster zucchinis, fresh basil and parsley, and black currants. The currants are sweeter now and taste fabulous (I couldn't stop snacking on them when I was picking them, hehe, and they make excellent jam). There were no radishes this time. I went to the grocery store in town meanwhile to get July 4th ingredients. I found pretty much everything I needed (even Heintz ketchup, phew), but no molasses! Ja-Ja doesn't even know what it is herself. This is a crucial ingredient for my BBQ sauce and baked beans. Ja-Ja is going to ask Chérif's brother, who is a baker living in rown here, if he has some. Otherwise, I think I will have to substitute with corn syrup. Any other suggestions?

I also made a trip around the market. I bought some gifts, hehe! I has a good time talking with the producers, trying their samples, and learning about some of the ingredients. For example, one lady selling fig products told me that the first picking happens in July/August, and the second in September/October. The figs if the second picking are always sweeter and better! I'm sure that rule goes for other things, too, like maybe strawberries.

We spent at least three hours on Saturday afternoon bailing the hay. We are nearly done with the first harvest. Chérif said that he will cut the same fields again in about another month for the second harvest. He said that the sheep like this hay better (like the figs, right!). I think that I will be on my way home by then, but I may catch the beginning of the second harvest. My arms are certainly getting a workout, raking up the fields after the bailer passes attached to the tractor and throwing around the bails in the barn to stack them to the ceiling. It's fun, and I feel very productive. To keep up my momentum because it can get boring sometimes, I just keep thinking that I am cooking for the sheep and putting everything in the freezer to eat later. A little grass here, some of that herb here, a sprinkle of those leaves...

We didn't eat dinner until around 9:30! Ja-Ja wanted to cook a healthy meal for everyone, though. We ate freash, steamed vegetables that were not sold at the market: green beans, potatoes, and some carrots. I have been eating more french cuisine here. I think it's because the onions are getting big and sweet. We ate an onion tart and an onion omelette over the weekend. Both were incredibly sweet and flavorful! Eating off the farm is truly special.

I was a zombie agin this morning because we got up early to go to the flea market in Andouze, a nearby town. Naoko really wanted to go to keep cheap clothes and the daughters want to go to get DVDs. It was hot and crowded. I bought a ring for 1 Euro and a gift for the family. We then walked around the town and ate lunch. I had a salmon salad. I saw a lot of American tourists, wearing Broncos and San Francisco T-shirts. The fresh fish and American voices made me feel like I was back in the States. I was definitely attracted to the touristy streets just so I could be with my kind. Tourists turn out to be a good thing sometimes when you are one yourself.

Hopefully I will get more sleep. Oh wait, the UEFA Final is on tonight! I am certainly doing a lot here to get as much as possible out of this experience. Chérif is letting Naoko and I have the morning off tomorrow, so I'll sleep in then. Yippee! I'll dream of my sheep in the mountains, where it's cool and breezy. I hope we take a trip to see them soon! Bonne nuit. (Good night.)

It's Going to be a Bright and Sun-Shiny Day!

2008-06-26T05:59:00.002-04:00

The sun is still making it's grand entrance here. The clouds have disappeared. They were out only one morning and some of another afternoon, and that was pure bliss. My skin was surely thankful. I here that the sun will still be strong here throughout the summer. I am enjoying feeling the sun in the afternoon, though, when it is lower. The sun sets very slow here. When I close my shutters to my bedroom at around 10:30pm, the sky is still a deep blue and I can easily see the outline of the mountains. Evening and night-time walks are really pleasant!

On Tuesday, we spent over 5 hours in the late afternoon bringing in the hay! We had a total of six people working in the fields, including the neighbor, Fred, who willingly helped out. For a bit if a boost of energy, Ja-Ja picked some fresh cherries off of some cherry trees. They were very sweet and a deep red! We also spotted some snakes in the fields. They were small, but numerous. Amena, one of the daughters, threw one at me and I screamed so loud! I think that I am used to them now and I am not so scared. Thank you, Amena! My favorite part of the day was just smelling the hay. I love the smell! I told Chérif that there should be a hay-scented candle. He laughed and like the idea, but the girls thought the idea was really strange, haha. I brought a waterbottle with me that had fresh rosemary sprigs in it. If you enjoy a different taste to your water, try putting in some rosemary, or mint! It's very refreshing.

For dinner that night, I enjoyed a glass of my organic Louis Julian wine! It was definitely necessary and helped me relax before falling into bed. I also ate raw beet slices for the first time. I can't believe that there wasn't any sugar injected in them. They were super sweet and delicious. Dad, I am a beet fan now! Other wonder dishes that I ate were finally traditional French recipes. One of the dishes was a whole, roasted chicken with a lot of tarragon stuffed in the cavity. Tarragon and chicken is an amazing match! Naoko was shocked to see a whole chicken on the table. She said that Japanese markets and grocery stores usually sell the pieces separate. I told her it was similar in the United States, probably because cooking the pieces is quicker than cooking an entire chicken. Ja-Ja also cooked a casserole of Swiss chard and potatos in a creamy sauce topped with a layer of Gruyère cheese. I loved it! All of the vegetables and herbs come from the farm, adding a huge flavor punch to each dish.

I was disappointed with the steak, though. It was grilled, tender, and organic, which is how I like it, but lacked good flavor. There is nothing like Dad's steaks! Period. I also think that Americans just know and love their cows and have better ways of fixing and eating steak.

Last night, I went over to the grandparents' house to watch the soccer game of Germany vs. Turkey with the daughters. It was a great game! Germany won 3-2. The final game is this weekend. I suggest trying to watch some of it! During half-time, Said, the grandfather, gave me a Coca-Cola. I gave a huge smile, with the tips of my mouth reaching my ears. This Coke was the first one I have had since arriving in Europe. I have never felt so satisfied after just taking the first sip! I guess I really missed soda, haha! Desperate Housewives was on TV after the match and we watched it in French! I couldn't understand what was going on, really, but seeing the familiar show and Eva Longoria doing her yoga made me smile, too.

On July 4th, I will be cooking a feast for the family to celebrate Independence Day of the United States! Chérif's brother will be making a cake for us. I said that it has to be red, white, and blue, but everything else is up to him. I have prepared a basic outline of what I will cook: sweet potato fries, corn pudding, green bean stew, fried chicken with BBQ sauce, corn bread, bean chili, and a fruit salad. I will also have grilled cinnamon peaches and vanilla ice cream for dessert. If you have any recipes to share with me, or have any other suggestions to make, please let me know! I made this first draft based on what is available here and could represent an all-American meal (with a southern touch!).

I miss you all and I am very much looking forward to coming home! I have only 4 weeks left now! Vous me manquez! (I miss you all!)

Farewell, Alison!

2008-06-23T07:47:00.004-04:00

First, I would really like to thank you all for writing comments on my posts. It's so uplifting and encouraging for me to know that you enjoy reading the posts, and to read about any information that you give to add to my posts. Thanks, Ann, for giving more information about Steiner! I hope these posts give you a better idea about what your son will be up to in Ireland!

To reply to Uncle Rick's comment, I followed up with Chérif about the copper. He described the copper as being a sort of preventative agent to stop "microscopic mushrooms" from growing in the plant. When Chérif and Ja-Ja see these spots on the leaves of the plant, they know it is possible that this type of mold could go further into the legume or fruit (potato, grape, onion bulb, etc.), ruining the crop. The spots are appearing because it has been so humid and wet here. The weather is getting hotter and dryer, so the plants are getting healthier. I figure that means that the pH may be changing. I hope so! Alison, who has WWOOFed (volunteered) in many other farms around France and Italy has seen this practice many times. She told me she thought that it was an accepted method among organic farmers, or else so many of their plants might die. I don't know what happens in the United States, though. As for the French cuisine, I guess I really haven't had much at all, haha! I have eaten pizza with olives, french fries dipped in mustard, sausage links in baguette bread with mayonnaise, fish baked with lemon and rosemary, duck from a can to spread like paté, and maybe some other things that I am forgetting. We haven't had ratatouille because eggplants and tomatoes still aren't ripe to pick of the vines yet, and no bouillabaise because their actually isn't very much fresh seafood available here, particularily shellfish. Ja-Ja, I have found, likes to cook traditional Algerian dishes that she probably learned about from her youth in Algeria. The eggplants are growing, though, so I am looking forward to some ratatouille! Oh, I've also been buying some French wine, so I do feel a bit more French with that, and having cheese after dinner all the time. I will have to return to Provence with you so that you can show me the real French cuisine!

This weekend has been a quiet one, but Alison did leave to go back to the UK on Sunday morning. Chérif and Ja-Ja drove her to the train station. I woke up to say goodbye, give her a big hug, wish her luck, and wave goodbye. It's bitter-sweet to see her go. I know that she will have more adventures coming up and she will be traveling more, so I am happy for her. At the same time, I wish she would stay. It's nice to talk to someone about everything: feelings about the host family, how it can be tough to be an American abroad now, missing home, cooking, traveling, favorite food indulgences, music, etc. I just have to feel fortunate that we crossed paths at least. I guess it's the same situation that happens when you work somewhere for a short time or meet someone while on vacation with whom you would like to have a longer friendship. These people are the ingrediants that add flavor to our lives, even though they may seem to disappear from sight. You can still taste something that they left, though, and it will stay with you forever. Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what flavor you will taste next, but you will remember it!

Saturday's market was beautiful. More tourists are coming, so I think Ja-Ja's glad I'm there to speak English with them. They are typically from England or Holland now. One English woman who I have seen for the past three weeks invited me to her chateau! Her and her husband are retired and own a chateau a few miles from the market where they live during the winter and summer. What a wonderful lifestyle! I said that I couldn't drive here, though, since I don't think my driver's licence means anything here, and I can't drive Chérif's manual car, urgh! Maybe we can work something else out! This week was the last day for us to sell peas and fava beans. We are already pulling out the plants from the soil to make way for other things. Ja-Ja is keeping some of the beans, though, to freeze for the family for winter time. We brought a lot of black currants and raspberries to sell, and they sold well! I think that the prices are expensive for the fruit, but the French and tourists can't seem to resist! The zucchini, squash, lettuce greens, and carrots are getting much larger as well. Hurray for the sun!

When we got back to the house, Naoko was already preparing lunch! She made us a type of Japanese pancakes called Econoyaki. I believe that they were made with eggs, flour, soy sauce, water, green onions, yellow onion, and salad greens. Usually Japanese bouillon goes in it, too, and cabbage instead of onions and salad, but it's not the season for cabbage now. I was surprised to see no milk in it. They were supurb! She made a sauce with soy sauce and shredded ginger to drizzle on top. Japanese cooking seems so wonderful to me! I will have to try it more when I get home. I think that using fresh, local ingredients makes it taste much batter, though, no matter what is supposed to go in it.

Alison also made cheese biscuits one day, which surely took me back home! Fluffy biscuits with butter was a heavenly reminder of home for me. I also tried to cook the family a Tex-Mex dinner on Friday as a farewell dinner for Alison. She had told me that she would love to go to South America some day and Mexican food isn't very popular in the UK. So I got avocados, chicken, salsa, beans, canned corn, tabasco sauce, and more to cook up guacamole, cinnamon rice with raisins, and a Mexican salad, which had a bean, corn, and tomato topping, spicy chicken, and a honey dressing. Everyone enjoyed it, even the kids. The guacamole disappeared, and Ja-Ja put the salsa on everything (and still does, haha)! They don't have jalapeno peppers here, nor black beans, chicken breast, or haas avocados (only little, weak ones from Israel). Even so, it worked.

Today marks the half-way point of my trip here. Wahoo! I can start counting down the days for my flight back home, where I can't wait to see my family, Andrew, and friends and share more of my stories (and shop for some new clothes and eat some of Mom's chocolate brownies and perfect sweet potatoes, hehe)! Thanks again for leaving your comments! C'est très gentille. (It's very nice.)

Busy in the Kitchen

2008-06-20T08:37:00.003-04:00

It's heating up here! It's finally staying sunny and hot. The tomato plants are perking up, the eggplants are starting to grow, and the zucchinis are getting huge! The mosquitos are coming out, too! I have a lot of bites now, so I'm getting used to it, but I'm certainly learning that they don't like to be out in the sun; these mosquitos would rather swarm around in the shade or as the sun goes down. The sun is my best friend here. All the farmers are happier as well.

Besides the weather, the kitchen is heating up also! On Tuesday night, I made the warak 'enab dish, which is Lebanese stuffed grape leaves. Even though the measurement system here is different (they use grams instead of cups) and the stove top doesn't have a low setting (only high, haha), the final dish was a success! The family had never ate it before, but they enjoyed it. The girls didn't seem used to having a salty dish, but they still tried it. The other WWOOFers loved it! The Japanese one hopes to make it in Japan for her friends. She said that putting lemon with rice is a new taste for her.

On Wednesday, the other WWOOFers cooked! Naoko made a fried Udon noodle dish with zucchini, sautéed potatoes and carrots in soy sauce, and a basic noodle soup. For dessert, Alison made Eve's pudding, which was a baked cake with apples on the bottom. She added a strawberry sauce to it, and said that we should pour heavy cream on top, too. It was terrific, but not the sweet kind of cake that I'm familiar with. I guess I have an American sweet-tooth, and she cooked something I would find to be bland British cuisine. Even so, it tasted great, and the smell of baked apples in the oven reminded me of home.

While on the topic of fruit, I got to pick my first fresh fruit from the farm to sell for the market: red currents! The plant is beautiful. The leaves look like those of grape vines. I didn't find the fruit so great, though. It tasted very tart. In the gardens, I have also been spraying with more copper nutrients because there still has not been enough sun for the potato and onion plants. I have also been weeding. Ja-Ja just planted a lot of new salad plants. The varieties are endless! Even at the market, customers really seem to be picky about their lettuce. The Freanch seem to know what varieties they like best. I sneakily planted a red lettuce plant myself. I think I'll watch over it as if it were mine, hehe. We also did more raking of hay in the fields. They smell of fresh-cut hay is spectacular, in my opinion. It's similar to burning wood, in a way.

I learned that Chérif and Ja-Ja have a certain rotation for their plants. Once a vegetable has been completely gathered from a garden, they weed it, put some dung on top as fertilizer, and till the soil. When they put in more seeds or baby plants, it's always of a different vegetable. For example, potatoes followed by lettuce. They never replant the same vegetable within a three-year span. With this system, the plants are less likely to get diseases. There are other benefits for the soil as well. Perhaps that could be a tip for you gardeners out there!

Okay, time to go back to the kitchen! Naoko and I are cooking a "Goodbye dinner" for Alison tonight because she is leaving Sunday morning. She has always wanted to go to South America, so we are cooking Mexican for dinner: guacamole, cinnamon rice, and a spicy chicken salad. The avocados are very expensive here, and come from Israel. It's times like these I am very thankful for California and its produce. Hurray for American farming!

Misty Mountain Top

2008-06-17T08:02:00.002-04:00

It's been extremely rainy here lately, so I haven't been assigned much work to do. Ja-Ja and Chérif are taking this opportunity to do lots of errands, such as getting baby plants from other farmers. They have an arrangement or system with a few other farmers in which one farmer will grow a lot of one type of plant from their seeds and then distribute them as baby plants to the other farmers in this network. Then, during the next month, it's somebody else's turn; another farmer distributes their baby plants to the other farmers in the network. I think that they do it pretty much only with lettuce, but I'm not sure. Even so, I've ever seen so many lettuce varieties in my life here! Tomatoes, too! Chérif told me that they get all of their tomato plants from South America, which I thought was interesting. I think that they do that because they know that they are organic plants. They also get there organic sugar from South America because France does not produce any organic sugar. Thus, in order for the family to sell fruit preserves at the market with their organic certification, they are waiting now for the sugar to arrive. Sometimes it takes a long time because customs agents think that the powdery substance from South America could be hiding something else, if you know what I mean.

So we've been doing a lot of waiting on the farm, especially for the rain to go away. I got cabin fever a bit and decided to go running, even when it was still drizzling a bit. Of course, it then poured later on in my run, but c'est la vie. At least a got to see beautiful scenery! The clouds were low around the mountains, which gave the forests a very calming and mystical feel. I later watched a French film with French subtitles, too, so I've been working on my French. I bonded a lot with the other two volunteers here as well. This experience is definitely producing relationships that will last for a long time. I hope so, at least!

I hope to have more news in my next post. There are still lot more fields to collect hay at, so I will hopefully be more active and productive soon. Tonight I am going to watch a highly-anticipated soccer game: France vs. Italy. Watch it if you can, or the highlights later on. It ought to be a thriller! Both of these great teams are fighting to stay in the tournament (this game is for the elimination of the loser). It's crazy! (C'est fou!)

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

2008-06-15T14:02:00.003-04:00

I've certainly learned that you've got to have brains to be a farmer! First of all, there's got to be a method for the madness. Farmers seem to work non-stop. There is always soemthing to do on the farm. Since everything is right outside your front door, then it's easy to be overly committed. Ja-Ja decides what she will be doing for the day based on the color of the moon in the morning. Chérif told me that her madness is based a theory by a German named Steiner (or maybe Schteiner, I don't know). Many other farmers use his theory as well. I'll definitely look into it more soon, but it's very interesting, even somewhat mysterical. Secondly, the farmer should probably be a mechanic, haha. Even most organic farmers depend on machinery. I guess that shows how industrial we have become. Two of Chérif's machines have broken down in the past few days. Both are for cutting and gathering hay. One got fixed because another farmer was watching nearby when it broke and he came over to help. Thank God he was there! He even stayed for the rest of the evening just in case we needed help again. What great solidarity and teamwork in the farming community!

Speaking of hay, that has been the focus for the past few days. The sun has finally been staying around and the storms have stayed away. All of the farmers in the area are cutting, gathering, stacking, and storing the hay. The whole family has been involved here! I have been raking hay mostly so that the bailing machine can get to it easier. I have also been turning hay with a pitchfork in a smaller field so that it can dry faster. While gathering the haystacks, I helped load them on a trailer, organize them, rid on top of them up to a storing building, and then throw them off to be stacked inside. My back hurt a bit and my arms got pricked a lot from the tough ends of the hay, but I felt so good being able to help. This was productive exercise! I also got to work on my tan some more, hehe. I got my first feelings of really feeling like a farmer girl! I almost felt like I was on the prairies of central USA. It probably smelled the same at least!

There is a new WWOOfer volunteer here from Japan! Her name is Nowko. She speaks English alright, but is learning French for the first time. I have been providing a lot of interpreting and translation services. Hurray! It's good reinforcement that reminds me that my French is getting better and I am hopefully on my way to becoming bilingual. Nowko is extremely polite and friendly. She studied in college to be a dietrician and she is very interested in medicinal herbs. She is always curious and anxious to learn. It's great to learn from her to about Japan. For example, she said that Starbucks is everywhere and a common snack to buy on the streets of Japan are rice balls filled with cooked tuna! I love her passion for knowledge and healthy way of looking at life. She always makes me smile more!

Even though she doesn't know much about soccer, she came with me to Chérif's parent's house to watch a soccer game. The UEFA Cup is going on now. This tournament involve many teams from around Europe. I think that 2 games are played everyday. Italy has already been knocked out, and Poland beat Germany! It's very exciting. Try watching if you can!

I've still been eating and drinking merrily here. We ate fresh fish fillets from the Mediterranean for the first time. It was a lot like tilapia. We have also had more potatoes in honey, steamed green beans, ground beef patties with rice, roasting chicken with baby potatoes, vegetable stew, and more. I southern French specialty is a spread made of cod and oil. It is so good on hearty bread! It is made in Portugal, too, but they ate potato to the mix, too, I hear. We are always eating salad with are meals still, with a homemade vinegarette. The berries are getting very red and ripe now, so Ja-Ja made a berry cake. I ate it with mango ice cream! I also bought some chestnut spread and chocolate spread from the store. They are very unique to Europe, I think. Chérif told me more about organic wines and I am anxious to try them. They are often unfiltered and don't have and strange additives that some wines have to make them stronger, but takes away from the pure taste of the wine. One I can't wait to get is from Louis Julian. The winery is actually in this region! I also tried a local, amber beer on tap. It was extremely refreshing and crisp. There are a lot of natural springs water sources here that contain water from the mountains, so I think this attribute made the beer taste superb!

I went to the markey again on Saturday with Nowko. I saw some familiar British people who are here now living in their summer homes. For the first time, Ja-Ja brought fava beans, red currents, and a different type of baby squash. She brought more eggs, green beans, raspberries, and squash. The eggs, green beans, and strawberries are very popular here. I got some complements on ly French, but most people like to bring up that I have an English accent. I like to correct them by saying that I have an American accent, thank you very much.

It's probably going to rain again tomorrow, so I'm not sure if we will continue getting more hay from the other fields. We already have about 200 bundles or haystacks, but there a plenty more fields to go! As I already said, though, there is always something to do on the farm. Maybe I'll get to watch a movie if it rains a lot, hehe. They have a lot of Disney movies I would like to watch, yeah!

I miss you all and hope everyone had a spectacular Father's Day weekend! Bon fete! (Have a great holiday!)

The Transhumance!

2008-06-11T11:47:00.002-04:00

On Monday morning, I awoke at 5am to go with Chérif and Alison on the Transhumance! This event is when the sheep farmers (although some farmers of other animals also participate) bring their herds up into the mountains to be in the cooler climate. I already talked about it a bit in one of my earlier posts when I described how we were marking the animals. On Monday, I actually got to witness the ritual!

We started out with the sheep at about 6am. The sun was already rising. The sheep were ready to go. Chérif had already put on the larger bells on a few of the sheep, which gave them the clue that the trip to the mountains was coming. Chérif took the lead and all 76 sheep followed him. Alison and I took the rear end, making sure that none of the sheep would fall behind. The sheep kept nibbling at trees and grasses all morning along the journey. We went real slow because Chérif wanted them to eat and to not stress their bodies from so much exercise.

We took some breaks. We had a small breakfast with tea and breads. We all had waterbottles to sip, too. We met up with another herd at around 9am. We had already walked about 4.5 miles! Two farmers were leading the other herd. They both had strong southern French accents, so I couldn't understand a word they were saying, haha! I'm glad Alison was with me. We all walked the second half together. We mostly stayed on the roads. The drivers of cars that came into our path were very understanding of the whole process. Some even stopped their cars to let us pass (European roads are very narrow, so much that two European cars must slow to pass one another). Many of the drivers were smiling and waving.

Chérif and the farmers all had sticks that they used to control the sheep. They make them themselves. They look like walking sticks, but they are made out of chestnut wood (their are a lot of those trees in this region), over an inch thick, with a thicker and rounder end to tap the sheep, and a long strip of leather at the other end to make signs for the sheep (like twirling the leather to tell sheep to move). It was interesting to watch them. The scenery was also amazing to see. We were high up, overlooking scattered houses, green trees, and rolling hills. The air smelled like mint because wild mint was growing all around. The wild flowers and bushes were very diverse. There were also many terraced gardens with all types of produce: tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peaches, etc. What a hike!

We arrived at the top of a mountain at aroung noon. We walked about a total of 9 miles! Ja-Ja drove up and met up with us to have a picnic. We had nuts, chips, chicken, salad, bread, chocolate, coffee, and more. The sky was still blue and I really wanted to sleep then, hehe. The sheep had the same idea. There was an ancient tower near us, which was now a residence and a café, but was built by the Arabs (Moors) in around the 800s! What a truly historical experience this has all been. At around 3pm, more sheep came to make the heard total more than 1,000 sheep! Other farmers took the sheep further. The walk for the sheep will be about 3 days until they reach their destination. We said goodbye and drove back home. I will miss them!

Back at the farm, things are a bit slower. Chérif said that he would normaly be cutting the hay now, but it has been too wet. He must might until the rains and storms stop, and we will cut the hay. Some farmers are getting anxious because they need the hay as feed. Weather really controls so much around here, even dramatically changing the taste of the produce. With more sun lately, the strawberries are tasting sweeting and the radishes much stronger. I'm glad I get to connect with the rural life more on this trip and see how food is grown. I have a lot more appreciation for the risks these farmers take and how some things are just out of their control.

So, back to more weeding! We have started collecting some of the onions for a German client who will sell them in their country. These onions are a bit milder from this region, so the clients come to Chérif's farm every year to sell these particular onions back home. I am having a great time with Alison and learning more about Britain. Did you know that many Brits call soda "Pop?" Haha, hurray for the midwest in the USA then (since they normally call soda "Pop"). Try to shine some sun our way out here, please! Talk to you all soon!

More People in Town

2008-06-08T08:36:00.002-04:00

I am meeting and seeing more and more people all the time here. This area seems to be very quiet during the winter, but then springs into action during the summer months. Since the farm really borders the mountains, there are a lot of people who only come here during the summer because the flowers are in bloom and there are a lot of summer festivals. In fact, there will be a music festival coming up this week and a cherry festival is going on today (there is actually a cherry tree right outside my bedroom window, and the cherries are turning red now). Next weekend is a festival for the transhumance, which is when all the sheep farmers bring the animals up to the mountains. Chérif and I will do that tomorrow. I bet I'll have some interesting stories to share!

We will also go with the new WWOOFer that is here. Her name is Alison and she comes from Britain. She is about50 years old and has been volunteering around Europe on separate, small trips for about 10 years now! She is a true nomad at heart and loves moving around. She seems fascinated with the Hippie movement, hehe. She is very sweet and does translation for a living, so she is helping me with my French when I don't understand things. It's nice to have someone to speak English with, too. Trying to speak French all the time is becoming stressful for me.

Speaking French at the Saturday market is always stressful! Everyone notices my accent and like to point it out, haha. I say that I'm American. They either become silent, haha, or engage in a long conversation about something, like Israel or how they have family living in the USA. I did see some familiar faces at the market this time. They seem to have more patience with me. Ja-Ja brought fresh pea pods, sugar snap peas, baby spinach leaves, and raspberries to the market for the first time. The strawberries are looking better since it hasn't been raining so much. The carrots, radishes, and green beans seem to be favorites.

I've still be eating very good: tomato and egg tarts, friend tuna and egg rolls, salad greens, Asian stir-fry with tofu, zucchini sautées, runny eggs with bread, cardamum-spiced rice pilaf, and more. I'm certainly having those cravings for food back home, though: sweet potatoes, broccoli, salmon, chicken, corn, pork BBQ, chocolate cake, and more. I've realized that I live in a wonderful part of the world! There's air conditioning and heat systems, cheaper food, movie theaters and shopping all around, safe roads to go on walks and jogs, and family! I miss my family very much, especially Mom's home cooking, Dad's flowers, and even watching sports with Alex. Sometimes discovering new ways of life makes you understand how special home is, no matter what the differences are or if one way seems better than the other. Love you all!

The Sun has Arrived!

2008-06-05T07:43:00.004-04:00

The past couple of days have finally been sunny. I'm putting on my suntan lotion and wearing white clothing. The sun is very hot and high here since geographically I am closer to the equator than back home. I think that my neck is getting red though. I'm turning into a redneck, haha, just kidding! But I might return home with a strange accent!

I've been weeding a lot on the farm. I especially weeded thoroughly in the green house where Ja-Ja planted some basil and tomatoes. The onion plants seem to need lots of weeding, too. At the moment, I am actually removing onions from the garden to through away beacuse they are very sick, or even dead. With so much rain, many of the onions suffered. After I pull these up, Ja-Ja is going to plant lettuce instead. One farmer nearby planted almost only onions in his gardens. He has had to throw a lot of them away too. Lesson: Don't put all of your eggs in one basket!

Yesterday, Chérif, Ja-Ja, and I went to mark the sheep. There are 66 of them, plus a couple of younger, smaller ones. We put them all in one room in the stable. The, Chérif would hold one while Ja-Ja markes them with a specific symbol (like a clover) in red paint, once on the back and once near the tail. Then, I would let the marked one into another room. The sheep are very strong and it was a bit of a struggle. I got a deep scrape on my knee from the door when one of the sheep rammed against it. I later washed it off in the fountain, and put a Band-Aid and some Neosporn on it when I got back to the house (thanks for the reminder to bring those Aunt Linda!). The sheep seemed so innocent and cut, though! Oh, and soft, of course. On Monday, Chérif will take the sheep up to a mountain where it is cooler in the summer. They will have their vacation up there for about two months, just to eat, play, and make baby sheep. The marks will help Chérif identify the sheep when August comes. With more exercise, the meat of the sheep will be better as well. Everyone is happy, but I will miss them!

On Monday afternoon, Chérif took me to a community center where neighbors gather to dance. They dance to traditional, live music. I learned a bit. I never danced the way they do, in such a folkish fashion. The participants were very nice, though, and helped me out a bit extra. The volunteer instructir, Guillome, also had new dances to teach. They were all French folk dances. I had a lot of fun, and even me a New Yorker! He had a British accent, though, haha, because he grew up in Britain. It was nice to speak some English with someone. I told Chérif about American square dancing, an he seemed to like it. I wonder if we have clubs like this?

On Tuesday night, I helped cook dinner. I made a Lebanese bean stew. Ja-Ja really liked it, since was born and grew up in Algeria. The beans aren't popular in France, but she ate them a lot in her childhood. They bought me dried, bulk beans, which I wasn't used to. I usually get them out of the can! So I had to soak them overnight and shell them Tuesday afternoon, which took about an hour! The dish turned out good, but the beans were a bit dry, no matter how much water I added while cooking them. Cooking is always a learning process.

We still have been eating salad a lot since it is in season. There are often radishes on the table to nibble at. The are very soft and refreshing! Protein is usually beans, lamb, or frech eggs from the chickens on the farm. Last night, we ate a bunch of steamed potatoes with butter. I addes some salt and pepper, and the taste really took me back home! Today, Ja-Ja made french fries. Ignesse, the youngest daughter, ate them with sweet and sour sauce! I never tries that. I ate them the European way with mustard. I told them about Heintz ketchup and how it was more salty. Ketchup here is usually sweeter. I've got to find them some Heintz!

Today marks two weeks since I arrived in France and seven weeks until I go back home! I am learning a lot and trying to stick up for Americans! I hope you enjoy reading the posts. Leave some comments if there is something you would like me to write about. Chao!

Weekend with the Swiss Couple

2008-06-02T08:01:00.002-04:00

The couple from Switzerland, Arnould and Kristeen, arrived Friday night with their one-and-a-half year old son, Joseph. None of them spoke English or had been to the United States. I am beginning to find out more and more that no one I have met has ever really been to the United States. They have a lot to say about America and Americans, but have never really experienced a day within the borders. I don't know what to say about that, except that Europeans seem to love to travel, but just within Europe. That's just what I've noticed. Are Americans like that, too, in general?

Anyway, we ate a wonderful meal with leg of lamb and potatoes, salad, and Algerian bread. The lamb was very tasty and tough. For lunch on Saturday, we had lamb sausages! They were tough as will, but seemed healthier because they were less fatty. Ja-Ja also made a crab cake loaf, but it was mostly bread with sprinkles of crab. Still, the smell and taste of crab brought me back to Maryland! All I needed was some Old Bay! We also had ice cream for dessert. We did that Sunday, too. They usually have dessert after lunch, rather than dinner, although sometimes it's after dinner. That's new to me. There is still always cheese after the meal, though! On Sunday, we had a vegetable stew from the gardens on the farm. I helped Ja-Ja shell fresh peas! That's for you, Dad! We will definitely have to have fresh peas more at home! They really were sweeter.

On Saturday morning, I awoke at 6:45am to go with Ja-Ja and Arnould to sell produce at the market in a nearby village called St. Jean du Gard. We sold nearly everything on the table: radishes, salad greens, parsley, lemon verbana, chives, potatoes, squash, leeks, apple juice bottles, a few vegetable plants, and more. It was a lot of fun. I am definitely more comfortable with the Metric system now. I was trying to be extra friendly, saying "Bonjour!" to those who passed, smiling, and talking a bit. Arnould told me not to be too outgoing though. He said the French are somewhat strange in that they don't like to be talked to a lot. They feel pressured to come to the table to buy something, I guess. So then, I just smiled and waited for them to start talking, haha. It felt strange to hold myself back, but with this culture of discreet people, it works. One woman was very interested in fact that I was American and said she would call the farm one day and we could hang out. I think she wants to see what Americans are like and have a cultural exchange or something. Pretty cool!

Later that day, we all went searching for mushrooms in the national park here while Chérif went to the sheep. Kristeen thought it was "incroyable" (unbelievable) that I had never done that before... okay, right. We looked for orange ones. If found about 5! Later on that night, Ja-Ja sautéed what we found with onions for dinner. The mixture became very watery, though, because it has been raining so much here and the mushrooms were soaking it up a lot.

On Sunday, after the couple and the baby left, I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Ignesse, the eight-year-old daughter. It was all in French, so I understood some of it. The visual aspect of the film is amazing! I was always astonished with all of the colorful nd imaginative scenes. Chérif told me that Tim Burton is very popular in France. It must be the love for surrealism of the French. The family also have Harry Potter in French, so I can't wait to watch that!

For the rest of Sunday, I took a nice, long walk and jog, a hot shower, and then downloaded some of their Arabic and North African music to my laptop. I shared my Lebanese music with them. They really liked the classical rhythms, especially Ja-Ja who was born in Algeria (Chérif was actually born in Paris). I let Amena, another daughter, listen to my iPod. She enjoyed it and recognized a lot of the American artists. During dinner, Chérif and I talked a lot about the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is trying to change France a lot. His approval ratings are falling. He is privatizing a lot and changing the system to be a bit more American. Chérif is very disappointed and thinks that capitalism is a failing system, even in America. He said that he probably thinks this way because as a Muslim, wealth really should be distributed to the poor and the state should have the power to do so. As an American, I said that we don't really have that "safety net" mentality and believe that we shouldn't have to rely on the government to support ourselves. It was a good dispute, and we laughed a lot, but it's interesting to see the differences and how histories and cultures form government systems.

I hope everyone had a terrific weekend! I'll write again later this week. A tout alors! (until then!)

End of the First Week of Work

2008-05-30T07:50:00.002-04:00

I certainly feel like I am getting stronger by the day! I have to use my arms so much to carry crates of vegetables around, pull huge weeds, and pump large spray containers in the gardens. My back feels sore from bending down so much and wearing things on my back, but it I feel better after resting some. Farming is surely hard work!

For the past few days, it has rained every day... still. And thunder sometimes comes at night time as well. The sun my peak through for some time as a tease, and heat up the air, and the disappear. Today it is sunnier, and dramatically warmer outside. I'm pretty much wearing short sleeves for the first time while working outside. Due to all of the rain, I have been spraying the onion and potato plants with a sulfur and copper water-based mixture that serves as a sort of vitamin for the plants. The humidity is really getting to them, so the minerals ought to give them a boost. People are already stopping by the farm to buy onions, but Chérif says that they probably won't be picked until next week, or even the next.

Ja-Ja is still deciding whether or not to go to the market tomorrow. If she goes, then I will probably go with her! I am very excited! The markets are a lot of fun for me. She is hesitating to go because she has a lot to do this weekend. There is a couple with a baby coming today from Switzerland to stay until Sunday just to visit. She is preparing the house for them in addition to what she must do to get ready for the market. I'm trying to help her out, by cleaning the guest room and washing dishes. Work never seizes here. As Ja-Ja said yesterday to me, the house is always in movement, prticularily with people coming and going. I replied that it's a mark of Arab culture to me, to be so hospitable and accomodating for others.

Other chores of mine has been weeding the greenhouses and other vegetable gardens. I saw my first green bean and zucchini/squash plants. They are absolutely beautiful! I promise to take photos. The squash plants have leaves that are as big as a steering wheel! Also, I sprayed the tomato plants with an herb water-based mixture because thay are also sick from too much humidity. I can't wait to put my knowledge to use in my own garden one day! Oh, fresh tomatoes!

On Tuesday night, we didn't have dinner as a family as usual. Rather, that day was a national holiday to celebrate neighbors! All around the country, communities gather at some location, bring their own dishes of food or drinks, and have a feast together! So I got to meet lots of neighbors. Most are older and speak a little bit of English. Ja-Ja made wonderful North African cuisine, but I also tried the local things: quiches, salads, wines, sausage, flan, and an orange-flavored cake. The sausage and the salads were so fresh and tasty, and the wine was very sweet. There is a special grape variety popularly grown in southern France called Muskat. It originated in Germany, though, I believe, but grows well here. There are even some of these plants on my farm! The feast took place in an empty building nearby where there used to be a restaurant. The chairs and signs are still around, even though it closed about 20 years ago. There are a lot of these strange empty, ancient buildings around.

All in all, I am having fun here. I watched the movie Snatch in French with Ja-Ja, Chérif, and a neighbor the other day. I play with the kitten and puppy sometimes, too, although the puppy likes to bite my pants, haha. The kitten is much more friendly. She keeps on geting stuck in trees, though, hehe! I am reading a lot, too, and learning a few cooking techniques from Ja-Ja. She also taught me how to use a European washing machine, which is much smaller and works very differently. It takes over one and a half hours to wash one load of laundry! Oh my. I miss American washing machines, haha, and dryers, urgh.

Keep in touch everyone, and thanks for voting in the polls! There will be new ones every now and then, maybe each week. 55 days left until my farm adventure est fini!

My First Work Day on the Farm

2008-05-27T08:12:00.002-04:00

It is just after 2pm on Tuesday right now. This is when I usually get my computer time because it is the time of the siesta; after lunch, many people take an afternoon nap or break for an hour or two. I like to have this time to connect back home and write about my adventures on the farm.

Yesterday, I awoke a little before 8am to go to have breakfast with the family. I drank hot coffee, which I was very thankful for since the weather is still very cool and gloomy here. It has rained everyday since I arrived here! Everything is very green, but there is actually too much water in the ground that some farmers can't plant new seeds now for fear that they will get washed away!

Chérif's mother came to visit for breakfast. She actually lives no more than 2 miles away! How nice! After breakfast and getting ready in old jeans and athletic clothes, I borrowed some boots and Chérif, the Swedes, and I, all went to the stable where the sheep are. There are two rooms. While all the sheep were in one room, we dug up all of the dung from the other room and piled it outside in a large mountain! It really wasn't too bad, especially since we sang songs, talked to one another, and told jokes. The dung will rest over winter as it ferments, and then next year it will be used as ferilizer. How natural and organic! Hurray for goats! As we were leaving to go back to the house for lunch, Chérif showed me another large room where they keep the hay to feed the goats. All the hay comes from there from. They are very self-sufficient and save money this way. The smell reminded me of being in a brewery, as if hops were in the room, too.

For lunch, I ate salad (as with every meal) and pizza that had a little black olive on the slice! There was lasagne, too, but I ate that for dinner instead. The Swedish guy ate so much of the lasagne! I think that lasagne is a favorite food for all guys, haha, no matter where they come from. We each had a little Belgian chocolate. I chose one that was flavored with ginger, which I highly recommend trying if you ever get the chance! After the lunch and the siesta, the Swedes and I went to pull weeds from within a greenhouse ob the farm. They were huge, climbing the walls and sprouting at least three feet high sometimes! There were snails around, too, eww! But I survived (I love gloves now!), and helped put some baby plants in a shallow, wide well where they would get lots of water. There were many different kinds: tomatoes, herbs, flowers, etc.

Dinner was a stew made with vegetables from the farm: carrots, green beans, peas, potatoes, and they used purple potatoes that come from Belgium! We ate Algerian bread, which tastes a bit like corn bread, but not sweet. Dessert was cheese, which is extremely rich with flavor here! I ate a soft, white Italian cheese. I went to bed earlier than usually, but couldn't fall asleep because of a terrible thunder storm. Living near the mountains can be so strange, even though they are so beautiful.

Today, the Swedes left. I got a nice photo taken with them and wished them luck. They will be going back to Sweden for a few weeks, and then spend another year in France at a French university! They are so brave! We are not working much on the farm, though, because of the rain. Instead, we took Chérif's father to a larger city near the Mediterranean coast, Montpellier, to renew his Algerian passport. The city was very beautiful. There are Roman aquaducts still in use and many universities for medicine. Chérif even told me that there is a special house where American students can stay! While waiting for Chérif's father to do the paperwork at the consul, Chérif and Ja-Ja took me to the Arabic neighborhood. It was so nice! Venders sel herbs, especially mint, throughout the streets, and the markets are full of all kinds of fruit! In a store, they bought some books and Algerian ingredients. They bought some Lebanese ingredients for me (fava beans, pine nuts, pistachios) so that I can cook for them soon. Yeah! The food is very inexpensive, such as getting a whole pack of pita bread for less than 1.50 dollars. Wow! They bought me a lamb sandwich to eat once we all got back home. I think it was the biggest sandwich I ever ate! It even had french fries in it!

It's siesta now and my tummy is very happy. I think that we will pull some more weeds from the greenhouse, but this time from the soil and with tools! I hope to take a nice walk or jog in the afternoon, too, which is very relaxing. I an definitely getting closer to everyone, especially the youngest daughter, Ignesse, who is eight years old. She likes to read to me, and I help her with her homework sometimes. I am feeling like a fit in with the family more and more. I am lucky to have chosen this family to stay with.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! I want to make a special shout-out to Miss Janet and Mary Poston for giving me the journal as a graduation gift. I write in it everyday! I am so glad that I can do that so that I can remember this trip better in the years to come.

Have a great week! Soak up lots of sun and Vitamin D for me!

The First Weekend: Fini!

2008-05-25T13:11:00.003-04:00

Wow! Thank you everyone for the encourageing and kind comments! I really appreciate them. They definitely put a smile on my face. Hearing back from loved ones back at home is truely amazing. I realized on my last post, too, that there were a lot of spelling errors. That will probably continue because I am using a French keyboard of the family's computer. Sorry, I'll try to type better!

This weekend has been very relaxing, but very rainy as well. I slept until 12:30pm on Saturday! I guess jet-lag really caught up to me, or my body is happy to get some sleep. I ate lunch with the family, then took a jog later to the nearby town, Lasalle, and read during the afternoon. Sunday has gone pretty much the same.

We do a lot of things together. In fact, the family that their previous American volunteers were to individualistic, but I think that they just meant that they kept to themselves a lot. We play games together as a family, like card games, foosball, and chinese checkers. Everyone always eats together during meal time. The sun does not really fall until really late at night, like 8-9pm, so we usually eat dinner at around those times! By the way, the family consists of the father, Chérif, the mother, Ja-Ja, and three daughters. They are all from France, I believe, but coming from Berber ancestory. The Berbers are a group of people without a state who typically live in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and other Magreb countries. I suggest you Google it if you are interested!

I am certainly well-fed here. They just picked the first strawberried of the season off their farm and we have had them each night for dessert with ice cream. They also cook often with potatoes from their farm. They are small and soft! Today for lunch, they were sauteed with honey! They alse eat salad and rice a lot. Everything has been delicious: duck, chicken pieces, fried cheese, hummus, homemade bread, lentil stew, and more! I can't wait to share what I have tasted when I return to the States!

There are also two Swedish volunteers here. They are a couple in their mid-twenties. They are very sweet and speak American English very very well, even though they have never been to America. They said that they watch American TV a lot and listen to American music. Most Swedes also start learning English in school at around the age of 13. Today, they drove me to a small country store to look at the local goods. I couldn't drive since my driver's license doesn't mean anything here and all the cars are manual. The Swedish couple leaves on Tuesday (they were already here for a month). More volunteers may come. Chérif said that they have gotten volunteers from many countries: Canada, USA, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Costa Rica, Japan, Tahiti, Australia, and more. SOme speak french, and some don't.

I did't go to the market this weekend because there wasn't enough room in the van (small Euro cars!). Maybe next weekend. I will start working the farm this week. Hopefully I can keep up with my posts. I definitely feel safe and taken care of well. I miss you all! 60 days left!

Finally on the farm!

2008-05-23T12:04:00.002-04:00

On Friday at around 2pm, I finally arrived at the farm. Here is the story...

The plane ride from Dulles to London Heathrow was very smooth, except for the baby constantly crying in the seat behind me and the overhead light that kept turning on randomly while I was trying to sleep, urgh. But I just kept thinking about the happy smile of my family who all drove to the airport with me to drop me off! Thanks guys!

Once at Heathrow, I took the Underground subway system to an international train station where I bought my train tickets from London to Paris, and then Paris to Nimes. I also bought my tickets for the way back in July, getting a cheaper price, which is key since the dollar is doing bad all over Europe.

The trains were very nice. I got so sleepy on them and was able to catch up on ky lack of sleep. I also met lots of Americans who I talked with a lot. Some from South Carolina and some from Wisconsin. None of them really spoke any French, which probably was very difficult since I realized that so many of the French really do not speak any English!

I arrived at Nimes very late at around 8:15pm. All of the ticket offices were closed and no more buses were really running. I needed to take a bus to smaller village, where the family was to pick me up. The transportation workers were on strike, too, which helped explain why traveling took all day and offices were closed. So a man working at the Nimes train station garage used his cell phone to call my farming family. I was told to go with one of the daughters, who was already staying in Nimes for school and would come get me from the station. We stayed at the apartment of a family friend. She was very nice and told me to take a nice, hot shower. She spoke some English, which she learned mostly from watching American TV. She really likes the show House, hehe!

In the morning, she gave me breakfast, drove me to the train station, and lended me Euros for the bus since the bank where we stopped to get some had an ATM that would not accept my bankcard. She took care of me very well!

The bus ride was beautiful. There are a lot of vineyards here, some olive trees, and some cows. A lot of kids were on the bus. They seem to go to school in Nimes, staying with friends or sharing apartments, and then return to their home villages for the weekend. This is what the daughter does, too.

I am at the farm now where I will be for the next two months. I am using their computer, so I do not know if I will be able to load any photos. I hope so! The train stations are gorgeous, as well as the countryside. I will write more about the farm later. I got to see the sheep already and taste fresh, sweet strawberries! I am excited for tomorrow because the father, Chérif, is going to the market. I hope to go with him. Talk to you all soon. Enjoy the beginning of your lovely Memorial Day Weekends!

Awaiting Departure

2008-05-21T11:59:00.005-04:00

Wow, I ought to be taking off from US soil in 6.5 hours. Craziness!!! Before that happens, though, I need to finish packing, haha. I really need to get the baggage requirements figured out, too, which can be so confusing. There are some positives now as well: I will be blow-drying my hair for the last time for a while and promising myself that wearing old clothes while in France means that I get to go on a shopping spree when I return!!!

I am feeling anxious and ready to learn, but also with butterflies in my stomach because I don't know what to expect exactly or how the train rides from London Heathrow airport to Nimes will go. I guess I'll just go with the flow. Being on French soil ought make me smile anyway, just to see fields of sunflowers and lavender.

Peace out, everyone. Talk to you in a few days from l'hexagon (France, they're a shape, hehe)!!!