Saturday, July 9, 2011

Back to the States!

Well.

Past- 2? 3?- weeks have been fantastic. Spent another couple of nights in London at the end of my time in England; did some touristy things (saw the Tower of London, London Bridge) and watched a lot of Prison Break (for some reason).
Then, finally, off to Berlin! I hadn't realized, but it had been two months since I had seen Mwanzaa. In retrospect, I'm not sure how I managed to make it through for that long. Most of my time in Berlin was spent indoors; lots of days I/ we didn't leave the apartment before 1 pm. Nice and relaxing time. Got to hang out with Carlie a bit more (one of Mwanzaa's friends on the study abroad program, also a vegetarian). We didn't end up going clubbing or really "out" at all while I was there (went out for lots of meals, of course, but no partying in the evening). We did attend the gay pride parade (called the Columbus Street Day Parade, or something, in honor of Columbus Street in NYC where the pride parade is). Fun; nice, relaxed atmosphere, and lots of pretty outrageous costumes.
Then we went to Paris for 4 days. (You know, the usual). We stayed 3 of the 4 nights in this really nice little studio apartment in Oberkampf, which we got a pretty good price on. I definitely preferred doing a short-term apartment rental over a hotel; it was nice to have a space that really felt like our own to come back to. I also did a lot more walking that I had really ever done when studying abroad; it was interesting to see the proximity of areas that I was familiar with, but had never walked between. We were only about 20 minutes on foot from the Marais, so we went down there and got falafel at L'As du Falafel (of course). Also went to the Centre Pompidou, Louvre, and we made sure we got to the Cluny museum to see the exhibition "L'EpÈe" (The Sword). Had crÍpes, LOTS of pastries, baguette sandwiches, and some generally delicious dinners. I forget how much I like Paris when I'm not there by myself.
After Mwanzaa headed back to Berlin on Monday, I headed to play some ultimate with the team I had played with when I studied abroad and at the beach ultimate tournament this trip. Their season is mostly over, so we just had a scrimmage (after some pretty intense warm-ups). I met a girl, Clare, who is studying abroad, and who goes to Smith; we chatted for a while. Spent that night and last night at Justin's studio apartment (he's on the Ultimate team, the guy I got to know best when we were at the tournament in Italy). Hung out with him, Clare, and some other English-speakers at a bar last night. Meeting new people is really fun when a) I'm not anxious about my ability to speak the language and b) they're open and friendly (and c) when we have a mutual friend there). Fortunately, all these criteria were met, so it was quite a fun evening.

And now, here I am sitting on the plane on the runway at Charles de Gaulle Airport! And not only that, but in seat 2B- Business Class! When I was booking my tickets for France, I was using frequent flyer miles; I discovered that for 75,000 miles I would have an Economy ticket both ways, but for 80,000 I could fly back Business Class. Which of course, I went for. So far, it's been nice- got to go to the short lines for Passport Control and Security. Unfortunately didn't have enough time to visit the lounge (I likely would have if I hadn't had to spend an hour going back to the apartment where Mwanzaa and I stayed to pick up the pair of eyeglasses I had left there...). On board, I've already had a glass of champagne, but the real advantage is the leg room- even with legs as long as mine, I can stretch them out fully in front of me, which is basically impossible on any other flight or train ride I've been on (at least, since I've been above 5'6" in height...).

Will update this post after with the rest of the niceties offered to me.


Live-blogging style (as requested by Dan):

2:55 pm The mixed nuts are served in a ceramic dish, and they've actually been warmed.
3:06 pm A small tablecloth on my fold-out table before the meal is served.
3:15-40 pm: Meal consisting of: Appetizer of shrimp with quinoa and a carrot ginger soup, Salad (a real one, with olives and feta cheese), Main course (the weakest- basically pasta with fancy-ish tomato sauce; the other options looked tastier but all had meat. The woman sitting next to me remarked that it "wasn't the best pasta she's had." I refrained from pointing out that it was pretty damn good for airline food; I kind of think she hasn't flown Economy class maybe ever). And finally dessert: cheese (3 kinds), fresh fruit, ice cream, and lemon tart. Don't worry: it's all been photo-documented.
Also they served wine, though they did card me, which I found amusing- apparently American drinking age applies when you're headed to America?

Part II:

I can see why people like to travel Business Class. This seems like an obvious statement, but it made more of a difference in how I felt during and after the flight than I would have thought. Usually I find flying pretty draining; this was more like a train ride in that it wasn't stressful to be in that setting. I also had never realized that airline stewards/ stewardesses are really more like servers in fancy restaurants; it was clear that a significant part of their job description was making people in Business Class feel really taken care of in the same way that you would expect in a place you've paid a lot to be in or where you're paying a lot for food/ drinks/ etc.

Got picked up at the airport by Mwanzaa's parents (as usual; really nice that they've done so for me several times). Spent a few hours with them at their house, then headed home; crashed out. One day at home (opening mail, sorting through various things in my room, unpacking, re-packing), and now I'm down in DC for the weekend, seeing some friends from my trip to Israel, and meeting my nephew for the first time tomorrow!

This will probably be the last update for a while- for some reason, it feels odd to blog about traveling in the US (or at least to places I've already been). But we will see.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Home.

Back.

(Details to follow).

Sunday, June 19, 2011

End of WWOOFing... for now

So, I left the third and final farm today. I had considered not WWOOFing and just traveling around the UK for my weeks here; I'm glad I ended up going for another round. Part of my reluctance was that I knew it would be hard for the next farm (or anywhere, really) to match up to the last farm in France. But I definitely ended up having a good time. Didn't connect to the family as much here, but certainly enjoyed them; did some good old-fashioned manual labor outside, and saw some nice coastlines. Also went to a few pubs and had some really good, local beers. I had been pretty disappointed with the beer selection in Germany; I'm glad England lived up to its reputation as a place to get good beer.
On one of my days off, I also biked to the nearby town of Cheddar, where cheddar cheese was in fact invented. While there, I sampled cheddar cheese, watched it being made, and drank some cider. This was pretty amusing to me, as when I have gone up to Vermont to visit my friend Anna, we always go get cheddar cheese samples, drink cider, and watch cider being made. (Notable differences: "cider" here is what we call "hard cider.") I was most impressed with the cheddar-cheese making; they had one of those videos telling and showing how its made, and in fact, one of the people in the video making the cheese was the very same guy that was making the cheese behind the big glass windows. Legit.
At the moment, I'm in a town called Beer. (Though I plan to have a beer here, so I will have drank beer in Beer and eaten cheddar in Cheddar, it is not actually the birthplace of beer, and in fact isn't even named for the drink). It's a town on what's known as the "Jurassic Coast" due to the fossil-rich cliffs that run along it. The cliffs around Beer are white chalk, so no fossils here (at least, none visible to the naked eye), but still quite pretty. I got here around 1 pm; check-in at the hostel wasn't until 5 pm, so I walked along the beach, created and Andy Goldsworthy-inspired sculpture out of black pebbles on a chunk of the white chalk, and walked along the coastal path. Despite the steady rain (which made taking pictures somewhat difficult), it was enjoyable; the weather meant that very few other people were around, and the wind made it feel that much more of a savage and wild place. (I am glad to have had a hot shower and be in dry clothes, however.)
Tomorrow, will probably stick around here (was considering heading to another area of the coast with more fossils, but I want to limit my travel time); spending the night at a hostel in Exeter because this one was booked up for Saturday night and my friend Steve in London is away for the weekend. Sunday day will probably be mostly traveling, maybe explore Exeter in the morning; Sunday evening/ night through Tuesday in London, then (finally!) Berlin to see Mwanzaa!

Part 2

So, this morning, in a kind of spur of the moment, I decided to indeed head to one of the nearby towns with more fossils. Got on the bus with the original plan of going on a guided "fossil walk," but ended up getting off a stop before the planned town, in a town called Lyme Regis. (Decided I didn't really need to be guided). I was really glad I ended up going- at certain points along the beach, there are long, flat layers of stone that are just filled with ammonites! (They're the nautilus-type thing that you often see in fossil shops). Really amazing to see. You can't really extract them, as they're embedded in these huge pieces of stone, but plenty of fossil hunters come and break open stones looking for specimens. I didn't find much (didn't have a hammer, so just picked up rocks and hurled them at bigger rocks until they broke open). Also had a delicious fish and chips.
In the afternoon/ evening, headed back to Exeter by bus to the next hostel. I foolishly failed to write down any information about the Exeter hostel, assuming that there would be internet access at the hostel in Beer, which there wasn't. No worries; I'll just find a place with free WiFi in Exeter. Public library? Closed. Starbucks? Have to buy a membership card; was going to do that, but then the nice cashier offered to log in using his username and password; but then the signal was too weak and it wouldn't load. He pointed me towards a nearby pub with free WiFi- but it wasn't configured correctly, so I could connect, but couldn't get any pages to load. So finally, I called my parents (who were visiting my sister, brother-in-law, and the baby), and between all of them managed to talk them through logging in to my Yahoo account, where they found the necessary email, gave me the address and directions, and I finally made it to the hostel. Nice little place; good atmosphere; a true backpacker's hostel.

Part 3

Short: Got up this morning (Saturday), walked around Exeter, took the bus to London, and spent the rest of the evening watching Prison Break and drinking some beer with Steve. Tomorrow, I'm on my own to explore London- should be fun!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Willow Farm

So, I'm at the next (and last, for this trip) farm. Of the farms I've been to, this one is the least like a farm. Basically, they live in a small town with a backyard garden ("they" being Rob, with whom we spend the most time, his wife Chrissy, and 2 of his kids (Liam, 16, and Helena, 18; 2 other daughters each live nearby). And they recently (2 years ago) bought a plot of land (~3 acres) that's 3-4 miles away. So most days, we drive out to the plot of land and do work there, haven lunch there, then come back to the house for dinner.
I will admit, when I first arrived I was a bit dubious. The plot of land is nice and peaceful, but not incredibly beautiful; the house is nice, but the area it's in is, again, not that beautiful. But by the end of the first day, I was feeling much better about it. Rob took us ("us" being Gavin, the 32-year-old British WWOOFer who arrived the same day I did) for a short drive to the coast, which is really nice- part mudflat with coastal grasses, then some steeper areas where the ocean has made little coves of super-smooth rocks which lead to abruptly-eroded land. And yesterday, he took us on another drive to see an old priory, as well as more of the coast.
The work has mostly involved efforts to improve the soil at their land plot (or at least, in the small area they're trying to grow things in). As Gavin put it, "This is the worst soil I've ever seen." It's basically clay. So, lots of moving of manure. We've also done some planting (beans and corn), though I have my doubts about how well any of it will do. What Rob really needs to do is get a lot of good compost, and put that down anywhere he's going to plant something. At the moment, he's just using manure, which, while rich in nutrients, still comes from the miniature Shetland ponies that are grazing right nearby; thus he's not really adding any nutrients to the system. And the manure isn't broken down enough yet; I don't think the plants can use it yet.
Other notables: the pets (of course). 2 spaniels (a springer and her daughter, a springer/ cocker mix apparently called a "sprocker") and a chihauha. My favorite is the sprocker; she is, as Rob puts it, "ball-obsessed." When she has a ball, she will bring it near you, put it down, then lie down about a foot away from it, staring at either it or you. Until you throw it. Several times, while working in the plot, I've thrown it, gone back to working for 15-20 minutes, then realized that she's brought it back and has been waiting there the entire time for me to throw it.

Speaking of pets, I realized that I never posted about Lima! This is the kitten that I picked out as my favorite when I was at the second farm. I chose her out when she was about a week old, and I chose rightly: she was the first one to be scampering about the house exploring things. (Lima is pronounced "Lee-ma" and is short for limace ("lee-mahss"), which means slug in French. I thought this would be an amusing name because Lima is a pretty name, but... its short for "slug." And despite her liveliness, all the kittens looked kind of like slugs when they were first leaving their box and wandering around the floor.

Monday, June 6, 2011

London

[Note: Updates are often posted with a bit of a delay; this is why the following post about being in London for a weekend comes a day after my post about leaving the farm.]

Spent the weekend in London with my Buck's Rock friend Steve Leach. I hadn't really realized, but it's been quite a long time since I'd been there (last time was maybe about 10 years ago with my parents). Didn't do too many touristy things (saw "the Gurkin" (sp? Apparently it's gherkin.) the big, bullet-shaped tower (gherkin is what pickles are called here), the Houses of Parliament, the Thames, etc; didn't go in any of those places; just saw them from afar). But did plenty of British things nonetheless- went to pubs and had a good amount of beer, ate some scones with jam and clotted cream, drank lots of tea, etc. I had a kilo of honey that Véronique and Vincent gave me as a parting gift; good thing too, because apparently the Brits don't ever put honey in their tea! Shocking. Steve and I had a good time figuring out various differences between American and English culture, expressions, etc. (I've noticed that there are lots of idiomatic expressions that are almost identical in terms of meaning, but just using different words. I can't actually remember the ones that I remarked on, however, so... not that exciting for you to read about).
Spent most of yesterday in Hyde Park, playing a bit of Frisbee and hanging out with a friend of Steve and that guy's friends. Generally friendly crew, fun to hang out with. I find that I can pretty easily chat with groups of people my age if I have an "in" into the group; ie, a friend of mine knows people in the group. And I can also start chatting with people if there's some reason for us to be doing so (ie, hanging out at an Ultimate tourney, or, as is the case right now, chatting with the two American girls that are sitting near me on the train I'm on).
So, now I'm off to the next farm. I managed to miss the first train I was going to take (we got to the train station with about 8 minutes to spare, but I had to get my ticket from the self-service kiosk, and, as is the case in France, British credit cards have chips in them, and sometimes cards without chips (ie, American cards) won't work in kiosks like that. So, I missed the train; fortunately, Steven and I were able to look up the phone number of the farm I'm headed to (which I had failed to write down); they were nice and understanding on the phone, and sounded quite friendly- encouraging! So I got a train an hour later to Bristol, which is about half an hour from where they live.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Combeuil, round 2

Well, my second stay at Combeuil has come and gone. (Combeuil is the name of the little village where the farm is; they don't really ever refer to it as La Combe des Saveurs, its title on the WWOOF France website). So glad I came back; this second time felt like an extension of the first; it really seemed like I hadn't left. Plus, the strawberries were ripe!
This farm was definitely a life-changing experience. Last night, we had a mini-party partly in my honor (some neighbors plus a couple friends of Tom and Léo and the friends' mother). It was supposed to be an outdoor BBQ, but the last two days it's been raining steadily (which is good in general, as it was really dry for a while before hand); however, it did mean that my last two days there I mostly just sort of sat around the house (they don't do a lot of outdoor work when it rains; we had been planning to plant two new rows of raspberry plants, but as it was mid-40s (Fahrenheit), it was too cold to do so. But definitely a nice send-off with the gathering last night (chatting, drinking some wine, generally a warm and nice atmosphere). And this morning, I gave the family a few gifts, which they seemed to appreciate; everyone expressed mutual regret that I was leaving. They sent me off with a kilo of honey as well as an ammonite fossil that Vincent had found in the Alps (they have a lot of nice fossils that they found during their years as shepherds in the Alps). I plan to go back someday, and I will definitely stay in touch with them.
At the dinner last night, one of the neighbors asked me what I would be taking away from this place (figuratively). I told her that being there has opened my eyes to the possibility of different life-paths. As Vincent said on multiple occasions, there is a particular path/ framework that lots of people (especially people like me, and most of my family friends) feel more or less constrained by, consciously or unconsciously: college, graduate degree, decent-paying, mostly-indoor job with the ability to climb the ladder within that career. I admit it was a bit of shock for me when Véronique talked about how Léo probably wouldn't go to college; he's a smart, motivated kid, but, as she put it, it just wasn't really his thing. Off the top of my head, I can't actually think of anyone that I know well who didn't go to college. And I never even questioned that fact- somehow, I had more or less discounted the vast number of people in the Western world that never went (or will go) to college. I'm not suggesting that I'm sorry I went to college, or that it's problematic in some way to do so. But through my conversations with Vincent, I recognize now that my way of thinking, my worldview, and the available life-paths for myself have all been very much constrained by the the world I grew up in. Don't worry: I am still planning on going to Yale in the fall. But other ideas for my "career" now seem much less like crazy, wouldn't-it-be-nice dreams, and more like real possibilities.
Another thing that I will "take away" from my WWOOFing experience in general is that I am indeed still young. (I feel that I may already have written about this...?) In any case. I could conceivably take 10 years to find my "path" and still be perfectly fine. Since graduating from Amherst, I've felt a sense of urgency, both within myself but especially from friends/ acquaintances who have also graduated, that you have to "get going" right away. Find your career, and start working towards that career. Clearly, for some people this path is clear and non-problematic. But for others (like me), I think it will take a while to figure out what I am actually going to be doing long-term.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Strawberries

This morning: picked strawberries.

This afternoon: ate strawberry jam made from said strawberries.

(I'm back on the farm, if that wasn't clear...)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Week with the Fam

Trains provide the perfect situation for blog-writing. Not only are they relatively long, providing me with plenty of writing time, but they nicely divide different parts of my trip.

So, at the moment I'm headed back to the farm, having spent the last 8 days or so with my parents. Definitely a fun time; spent maximum 2 nights at each destination, a combination of small towns and (at the end) a big city (Toulouse). Highlights were the caves with wall paintings/ carvings that are relatively well-known in the region. I'm not sure why, but we were really taken with some of them, especially the paintings. I guess the idea of being in the same spot where someone, 20-25,000 years ago, was painting, and seeing their work, has a certain je-ne-sais-quoi about it. (We didn't go to the most famous cave, Lascaux, because it has recently (in the past few years, I believe) been closed to visitors due to degradation of the works; there is a replica you can go to, which apparently is very well done, it seems like it just wouldn't at all be the same). Our favorite was Pech-Merle; you'll have to Google search for pictures, because in all the caves photography was strictly forbidden. (They gave varying reasons for this, but I suspect it's a) because they are worried about flashes, and b) they want to control the sale of images of the caves).
Another highlight was the fact that my parents had rented a car, so we got to pass through these tiny villages between destinations. Each one has a little church (sometimes slightly bigger churches), each one has stone houses, and each one feels so typically European. It was nice to discover that there are still so many places like that. And for both my mom and me, it was our first time getting a taste of France outside of the major destinations (with the exception of the farms I've been on so far). I wonder what I would discover by driving on non-highways around the United States.
We spent one day and night at Domme, which is a small, walled town at the top of what's basically an isolated foothill- I don't know what its geological origins are, but it provides a remarkable view of the countryside (with the Dordogne River flowing right by it). I really need to start posting some pictures- descriptions of places like this really aren't sufficient. But it was definitely one of the more beautiful views I've seen in France, especially the morning of the second day, when we could see the thick fog covering the countryside well below us.
We also spent 3 nights at a B&B near Rocamadour, run by a really nice British couple. And they have an option for eating there, which we did all three nights- full meal (appetizer, entree, cheese, dessert, wine) prepared by them. They usually do meat-based dishes, but managed to cope with my mom's and my dietary restrictions.
Last two nights were in Toulouse, which I might try to return to someday (not this trip, but... someday). The nightlife is really vibrant, varied, and with lots of people about my age, it seems (I walked around the city one of the nights; didn't do much, as I'm not a fan of going to bars/ clubs on my own, but with someone else I think it could be really great).
And of course, we did a good amount of shopping (got a some new clothes... I can't resist doing so when I'm in France, and especially not if I'm being encouraged by my mom) and ate lots of good food.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Encounters

There are certainly some interesting people in the world.
Two nights ago, a guy stopped by the house for dinner that Vincent had met earlier that day; he's one of those people you can bring gold/ coins/ precious stones to, and he'll (possibly) buy them from you). (Tom and Léo brought some things they had and ended up with about 150 euros each- not too bad (though who knows whether it was actually worth more)). Apparently Vincent chatted with him, found out he would be passing by the house on his way to his next destination, and invited him to stop by. And this is one of those guys who likes to talk and likes to tell stories; fortunately, he's also one of those people who is fun to listen to. So, apparently he was in the army when he was young; since then, he worked as head of security for Jacques Cousteau for 11 years (apparently Cousteau's boat would sometimes be attacked, since I guess on some of his dives he ended up with some pretty valuable things); he also has spent long periods of time in South America, both traveling and looking for gold. Basically, his life has been ridiculous and awesome. Most of the stories he told seemed more or less genuine; some had the aura of myths about them (like the story about his friend, who was working on a boat for some scientists; apparently they lowered a giant metal cage with meat in it into a trench in the ocean; when they pulled it up (and this happened multiple times) the bars of the cage were all twisted and destroyed; apparently one time, a foot-long tooth was also embedded in the metal of the cage).

Then there's Vincent's good friend Hervé, who lives (for the moment) nearby. It's clear these two guys are cut from the same cloth; travelers/ adventurers (Hervé once spent 2 years in a Moroccan prison); genuine (such that if they're displeased with something, you'll find out- this hasn't happened firsthand, but I've heard enough stories from Vincent to understand that it's the case). And apparently, they both performed in the past; Hervé apparently was a professional dancer in the Opera (and I don't know if I mentioned this, but Vincent once spent 6 months traveling up the coast of Italy with a friend, paying for his entire trip by being a street performer as one of those robot mimes).

Speaking of Vincent, some more about this guy. It's clear (and he states this himself) that the life he's lived is a world apart from one like mine. Didn't go to college, left his family when he was about 16, spent many years herding sheep up and down the Alps, traveled around alone and eventually with Véronique and his sons (it's only the last 3 years that they've been "permanently" settled. And now, he runs a farm in a small valley in France!

In terms of interesting people, I also had my first-ever encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses yesterday. I was in the living room, and I heard a knock that I thought was from Véronique upstairs. Then I heard her calling out to me softly; I went to the base of the stairs where she whispered down to me "Tell them I'm not here!" Momentarily confused, I realized that there were two people at the door. I proceeded to talk to them for about 15-20 minutes. They seemed nice (it was an older woman and and older man; the man dominated the conversation, however); interested in why I was in France and how I had come to the Valley of the Desges (the small river that runs through the property), which he referred to as one of the most hidden corners of France; and relatively intelligent. What bothered me was that while we were having a nice chat in French about the area and my travels, I knew it was eventually going to turn to religious proselytizing. Which of course it did, but from an interesting perspective; he read several passages from the Bible but phrased them in terms of environmental ideas, which was a relatively new thing for me in terms of religious ideology.
One good thing that did come about (besides the ability to practice my French) was that the conversation made me think about what my response would be in the future to his question, "Are you a believer?" ("Est-ce que vous êtes croyant?") I hemmed and hawwed and he didn't wait for more than that. But I now have a response that I feel good about. (Not sure this is the right medium to explain my religious and spiritual beliefs, however).

Yesterday we moved the sheep again, from where they had been pastured up by the nearby village of Pébrac to a lower field near Hervé's house. As before, I was in charge of bringing up the rear (last time, it was me at the back with Gaia, the dog, and Vincent following in the car and shouting instructions to Gaia out the window). However, this time Vincent had to take a different route, so it was going to be just me at the back. Didn't start out great- one thing that I absolutely had to make sure of was that Gaia didn't run to the front of the herd, because if she did so the sheep would scare and either turn around or leave the route they were supposed to be following. About 2 minutes in 3, 3 sheep went to the left of a fence, and I had to get them to go on the right side of it; while I was doing that, Gaia ran to the front. Wasn't much of a problem until we got to one of the lower fields; the sheep were supposed to consider straight on, but they went right into a field (apparently the same thing that had happened last year). Part of the problem was apparently that they were quite hungry (having stayed at the previous pasture a bit too long), so any time they saw a nice field with long grass, they went right for it. Eventually, Vincent showed up, and he, Gaia and I managed to get the sheep out of the field and back on the path. Things were going well again when one of the sheep saw another field and jumped over a barbed wire fence to get to it.
This demonstrated well the widely-held idea that sheep will follow each other blindly. I knew of this stereotype (if one can call it that), but I had never really seen it in action before coming to La Combe des Saveurs. It's really fascinating- along the route to the lower pasture, sheep would stop along the side to nibble at grass; however, as soon as they perceived that most of the herd was passing them, they would run to rejoin it. And Véro and Vincent told me about one time when they had a large herd (on the order of 1 or 2 thousand) in the Alps; there was a cliff, and one sheep spooked and ran off it- and about 300 followed before they were able to head them off. It's clearly something hardwired into their biology, the importance of staying with the herd. And if one gets separated- especially if it's a lamb- it's a huge headache to capture it again, because it will just run all over the place if it doesn't have a herd to follow.
Anyway- so the rest of the herd followed the first sheep into this field, knocking over a section of the barbed wire to get in. At this point, it was just me and Gaia at the back again (Vincent had gone to get the tractor to bring up the rear). However, I was able, with Gaia, to get the herd back onto the path on my own, and we finally made it to the lower pasture. Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with myself, and pretty exhilarated with the whole sheep-herding thing. Not that I would ever want to keep sheep myself- seems like more work than it's worth; plus I would feel bad about selling the meat, and it's even more work to keep them for sheep's milk.

As I've mentioned before, Vincent likes to talk about his life philosophies. Once, he was telling me about the virtues of being alone for long periods of time (which he of course did while working as a shepherd; there would be months at a time when the only other human contact he had was a bi-monthly decent into a small village to buy supplies). He estimates that in his 45 years, 10 of them have been spent in total solitude (I think it might be a bit less, but still clearly huge amounts of time alone). And I realized that as far as I can remember, I don't think I've ever spent even one day without communicating/ interacting with another person. Before college, I lived at home, and if I was alone in a day I still had the phone/ internet; at college, there was always someone around, and even now, traveling by myself, I'm either in a city, seeing people I know, or at a farm with the people that live at that farm. I have resolved to try to spend at least a few days totally alone (probably on some sort of camping trip) in the near future.

Speaking of things I haven't done, one thing I've realized for a while is that I've never had a real adventure. This, I think, is pretty typical, if going by my definition: for it to be a real adventure, one's life or well-being can't be totally assured. I'm not talking about super-dangerous things, but an adventure has to have much less of a support net than one is/ I am used to. An example would be backpacking through non-First-World countries. Problem is, I think it would be pretty hard for me to set out on a trip with that level of uncertainty or danger; however, the idea of living my life without ever having a real adventure, of course, is insupportable. But can you really "plan" to have an adventure? (I suppose planning one is kind of antithetical, but, as with the example above, I think it can be done). And an unplanned adventure, even if it's more genuine, is probably more dangerous too. We'll have to see what life serves up, and maybe shake things up a bit if it doesn't look like adventure is on the menu. (That metaphor didn't really work as well as I wanted it to. I was also trying to work in something about "spicing up the stew." I'll work on it).

About to arrive in Bordeaux to travel around with my parents for about a week, then back to the farm (as I said to Véro and Vincent, I'm quite glad I'm going back, otherwise the last few days would have been really sad! This way, I don't have to think about leaving the farm for good until after I see my parents).

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New experiences

New experiences of the day:
1. Eating battered, fried acacia flowers
2. Herding sheep half a mile up the road to their new grazing area.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Cooking!

So, one of the "traditions" at this farm is that each WWOOFer cooks a meal for the family while they are here. Elly cooked the last night shttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhe was here, so I got to have some as well- it was ravioli (I helped make each little ravioli "pouch"), and it was ridiculously good; they were filled with either mushrooms and cheese or broccoli and cheeshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifand they had a white cream sauce.
I cooked last night; I decided to make the lentil daal that I had made at the first farm (but this time with the experience of the first time, which made a significant difference). I used this recipe but tried to add extra garlic, ginger, and spices. I also made raita (recipe) two nights earlier to go along with it, as well as naan (recipe).
Verdict: success. Everyone seemed to like it, and everyone ate a lot (even the kids! Well, they didn't eat a lot, but they finished what they had on their plates, which they don't always do) which is the real test of how good a dish is. I have to say, I was also really pleased. The daal was nicely spiced; the raita was tasty and went well with the daal, and the naan was not only super simple to make, but honestly really good! The daal seemed to me like it lacked a bit of sweetness; next time I might try to caramalize the onions a bit more. I think adding a bit more tomato paste (based on how much I made, I don't think I added enough) as well as even more ginger and garlic (really, can you ever have enough?) and it will even more delicious. Cooking is fun! Who knew!
I leave in 4 days to meet up with my parents; so glad I'm coming back afterwards, or else I would start to be sad. I also bought my ticket to go to London (leaving from this farm on June 2nd), and switched my plane ticket to July 6 from Paris (still Business Class, yes!) Should probably start looking at farms in the UK (and figuring out the best way to get around). I'm torn between wanting to go to Ireland, and wanting to stay in England or Scotland due to relative ease of transportation. But... Guinness! We will see.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

More about the farm

Still super happy here. So much so, that I am indeed coming back for about 10 days after I see my parents for a week. As I explained earlier, I only had about that much time between seeing my parents and heading over to the UK; it didn't really seem like enough time to go to a new farm (as soon as I would start feeling really settled in, it would be time to leave) so I am very pleased it has worked out so well here.

So, some more about the farm. Their main product is actually sheep- they raise lambs and sell them for meat at the end of the summer. But I haven't really done anything with the sheep; apparently I got here a few days after Elly helped clip all their hooves (which involved picking up each of them), move them to the hillside, and clean out their barn. But I get to help move them to a new grazing area tomorrow, which should be fun, and is apparently in an even more beautiful area. I also helped with the shearing yesterday- didn't too too much, just picked up the sheared wool and put it into sacks. But the wool was a lot softer and less scratchy than I had imagined it would be based on my experience with wool sweaters; it was also pretty cool to be holding wool that was so "fresh" it was still warm from the sheep that it had previously been attached to.
Véronique and Viencent also produce some fruit (apples and apple juice, raspberries, strawberries), and their own honey. Of these, I have had jams made from the fruits, the apple juice, and lots and lots of honey. Véronique also makes bread every few days, which is the main constituent of the breakfasts- that, and honey.

I spend most of my time with Vincent; it seems like he does more of the farm work, while Véronique does more of the house work (as well as some farm work, of course; she also has her own garden that she is in charge of). He loves to talk about his life. Which is OK, because a) he's pretty funny and b) his life has been kind of crazy. He grew up in Belgium, but was always, as he describes it, kind of a "rock and roll rebel"; he has spent most of his life traveling around France being a shepherd (he spent many years, and met Véronique, while herding sheep up and down the mountains in the Alps). (He's also got a tattoo on his arm of "Native American style" feathers dangling from a small circle- with an Anarchist A in it). He talks a lot about solitude, and how he misses that life sometimes. Apparently he also has a bit of a reputation in this area, since he is apparently pretty blunt with people when they do things that displease him. I guess people are actually kind of afraid of him, which I find pretty amusing; he seems really nice and friendly to me, but I can see that he's the kind of guy you don't want to mess with.

I spent the day on Thursday in the city of Puy-en-Velay, as Vincent had some stuff to do so that he could get subsidy money for the farm. It's got a lot of religious monuments that are up on these giant fingers of basalt (one is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary with baby/ toddler Jesus, another is a small chapel dedicated to Saint Michael). I actually spent about an hour in the chapel; there was nice monk-chanting music on, and it was almost empty most of the time I was there (usually just one or 2 others) so it was really nice to sit quietly, and also to take a bunch of pictures as the lighting and the columns were pretty cool.

Last night the three of us shared the bottle of Verveine liqueur that I had bought in Puy-en-Velay (it's a city/ region specialty). It was fun drinking and chatting with them; as usual, Vincent dominated the conversation (which is fine, because as I said, he's quite a character).

Sunday, May 1, 2011

La Combe des Saveurs

Oh new farm, how do I love you? Let me list the ways...

The family. They are amazing. I felt comfortable chatting with Véronique (the mother) before we had even made it to the farm from the train station. On the way back, we picked up her kids, Leo and Tom, as well as 2 of their friends, Rémy and Yanis. The four of them (plus Rémy's brother Loic) hung out at the house a lot for the past few days (they're all on vacation; Loic and Rémy left yesterday). But the kids are fun to hang out with, joke around with, and play some Frisbee with (yes, I've been spreading the Ultimate gospel in France). Vincent, the father, is always joking around (such that I have to pay extra close attention when he's talking to figure out if I should be smiling). But Véronique and Vincent are just so relaxed about everything! They get work done, they have things to worry about, but I just feel really comfortable here. Also, for the first 3 days, another WWOOFer (an American named Elly) was here; it was nice to a) be able to talk to her about how things worked around here, and b) she was cool and friendly and fun to work with/ chat with.

The location. This place is just unbelievably beautiful. The farm is technically in a little "village" at the bend of a road, just over a small bridge with a stream/ river flowing by it (the village is made up of about 4 houses, plus a bunch of buildings belonging to the farm. But it's got it's own little signs that say Combeuil, so it's an officially designated... something). It's basically nestled in a tiny valley, foothills all around (the Massif Central is a mountainous region). And the water in the tiny river is so clear! Also, the hike I went on today was to find the ruins of an old castle; not much left, but enough walls (and a full room with an arched doorway) that you could still feel that yes, someone built this and lived in it.

The food. While I was pleased that I had to do some cooking at the first farm in terms of life experience, it did kind of stress me out- I was always worried that I would ruin the food, and then a) I would have wasted food and b) there wouldn't be anything to eat for dinner. But here, not only do Véronique and Vincent do all the cooking, but they cook delicious things- and not just for the major meals! But once in the morning, and once in the afternoon, we take breaks from the work; about half the time, Vincent or Véronique will cook something- so far, we have had crêpes (that rival those you buy in Paris) and gaufres (those sugary waffles that you can get on the slopes at ski resorts). And not just one, but really as much as you can eat! And they encourage me to keep eating, so I don't even feel bad for eating so much! Also, they have their own water source (from a spring on one of the mountains), and it's possible the best water I've ever tasted. Sorry, New York City!

The pets. Specifically, one of their 2 dogs, named Gaia. She's ridiculously full of energy (she went with me on a hike today, and was always running ahead, then stopping for a second to look back at me before continuing). Apparently I'm the first WWOOFer she's gone on a hike with, so I guess she likes me too!

As for the work, it's perhaps a little more taxing than at the first farm (mowing, weed-whacking, lifting/ moving large amounts of logs), but nothing I can't handle. Shoulder is holding up OK (hurts some during the day before it gets warmed up, hurts a bit at night) but I'm hopeful it will continue to improve. And the schedule is good- work, then a break, then work, then lunch, then work, then a break/ dinner. So I feel like I do my share, but we take breaks often enough that it doesn't feel like a lot of work.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Paganello- Short Version

I'm going to write the update for Paganello (the beach Ultimate tourney in Italy) in two parts: a shorter one for those who want just a few highlights, and a longer, more detailed one.

Short version:

Highlights:

-Party the first night. Huge amount of people out on the beach, getting plate after plate of free spaghetti and eating freshly-roasted sardine-like fish as well (not to mention the endless free wine). Great atmosphere, everyone was clearly excited to be there, and I ran in to Tom Cave, a friend from Buck's Rock who lives in England!

-Being able to lay out. The sand on the beaches in Rimini is super soft and laying out, as Alejo (one of the captains put it) is "paradise." Don't think I got any lay-out D's, but I definitely had quite a few for catches and scores.

Paganello- Long Version

So, the long version is indeed going to be quite long, because right now we are leaving Paganello/ Rimini (the town where Paganello is), and this is my first chyance to post about it.

First, for those that are unaware: Paganello is a Beach Ultimate tournament. Beach Ultimate is like Ultimate Frisbee, except on a slightly smaller field and with fewer players (5 vs 5, in this case, though the tournement I've played at in Wildwood, NJ is 4 v 4). Most people (including me) play barefoot, though some wear specifically-designed "sand socks" (neoprene socks with a thin rubber sole) to make running a bit easier.

Anyway: the first night was amazing. Outdoor party with endless free spaghetti, fresh-roasted sardines, free wine, and just generally good sentiment all around; everyone was clearly excited to be there. The night was really nice, and there was even a fantastic fireworks display. I was sure, with that many Ultimate players around, that I would find someone I knew; I turned out to be correct, as I came across Tom Cave, a friend from Buck's Rock Camp (he had been a counselor there when I was a camper, as well as when I was a counselor). We later found out that we're also staying in the same hotel; he's playing for a mixed team (our team is open, which means 99% men and the occasional super-good girl), so that means I've been able to go see some of his matches, and he's been able to come see some of mine.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Berlin to Paris to Milan (to Rimini!)

The week in Berlin wrapped up nicely, though too quickly- I'm already planning on heading back at the end of my Europe travels (hopefully for 10 days this time). And it looks like I'll have to give up the Business Class ticket I scored for my return flight from Paris if I want to fly directly from Berlin- a sacrifice that seems to be worth it.

Spent the last 2 nights in Paris, crashing at the apartment of a friend from the team I played with when I studied there (and the team I'm playing with at Paganello). The first night, I went directly from the airport to practice; discovered that while I am dreadfully out of shape, I can indeed still play Ultimate. Also, my shoulder continues to be holding up, fortunately.

My only full day in Paris this stopover (yesterday), I was wandering around the Marais (hoping to get some fresh-baked matzo, a goal that did not succeed), when I heard my name called out from someone nearby. And who should I look up to see but Jake Reibel, my classmate from Amherst, fellow Senior Week-er, and cousin of Aaron Reibel, someone I became good friends with on my Birthright trip! He's been teaching English in Dijon, but was up in Paris on vacation with his parents. We chatted, then parted ways (they had freshly-bought falafel that I didn't want to keep them from). Then, an hour later (having at least found a sheep's-milk cheese filled matzo pastry), I ran in to them again- and they told me that about a minute after they had seen me, they had run in to Sam Schiavone (whom I stayed with in Vendôme at the beginning of my trip, and was also on our Senior Week trip)! He was also in Paris with his parents; his teaching job has just finished up. So (after some phone issues) I ended up meeting up with Sam and his parents; we went to the Musée Carnavalet in the Marais (free museum about the history of Paris!) and then got some delicious gelato. Later that evening, Sam and I met up at the apartment they were staying at (only a few metro stops from where I was staying) and walked from Père Lachaise to Hôtel de Ville (a fairly lengthy walk) and then met up with Jake again. We decided to go to Rue Mouffetard (the favorite hangout spot for the people I mostly hung out with when I was studying in Paris). Unfortunately, the bar we usually frequented had changed ownership (but not the red velvet decor), so we mostly wandered around the street, got a drink at a bar, then called it a night.

So that brings us to today. Made it to the Orly Airport in Paris; met up with my teammates for this tourney, and made it to Milan relatively smoothly. We had a few hours to kill when we got there, so we walked to this amazingly ornate cathedral (can't look up the name while writing this, as I don't have internet access), then waited a long time for pizza at a nearby restaurant, got some gelato, and then walked (again, quite far) to the train station. And now I am on the train to Rimini! However, there are some unfortunate things: my computer power adapter does not work with the outlets on the train; hopefully this will not also be the case at the hotel. Also, my phone refuses to connect to any of the Italian cell networks; since I don't have internet, I can't verify that Italy is one of the countries that it works in. So I am feeling relatively cut off at the moment, though I imagine that I will be able to get internet access when we are in Rimini, even if I have to pay for it.

Should be excited about the tournament, but right now a bit preoccupied with the aforementioned issues; however, once we're in and settled, I imagine the excitement will kick in and the worries will melt away (as is so often the case with me).

Addendum: So, when I bought the ticket for the train, the site informed me that all I needed was the confirmation code, which could be verified on board. Though I was a bit dubious, I figured that it wouldn't lie to me. The conductor just came by for the ticket; I showed her the code, she checked my seat number and punched something into what looks like a smartphone, then said "Grazie" (sp?) and moved on to the next person. I am impressed.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Berlin

I like Berlin. A lot.
One of the first things that struck me about this city was how empty it seems. But empty in a good way, as in, not over-crowded, as Paris and New York (the two other major cities I am most familiar with) often feel. Apparently, this has a variety of reasons, but a large part of it has to do with the fact that it simply has a larger geographic size and smaller population than Paris. But it is still clearly full of people, culture, and food; it's uncrowded-ness (plus the general attitude of Germans) makes it feel like a really laid-back place, again, unlike Paris or NYC (a lot of the time).
I've also been pretty much hungry/ eating the entire time I've been here. I suspect this is due to spending several weeks on a farm with food that is relatively simple and relatively low in fat and sugar. Here, there are pastry shops on every street. And damn, has the food been GOOD. Again, this perception is likely in part due to the fact that on the farm, there wasn't food constantly available (at least, I felt that I couldn't constantly be eating, because it wasn't "my" food). But here, I can rarely resist the urge to buy a pastry/ cookie/ falafel when the opportunity presents itself. So far, my favorite thing has been the jelly-filled donut (these are a bit different than those in the US; they are glazed, not powdered, and the jelly is actual jelly, with real fruit, instead of that gelatinous pectin-y stuff that you get in the states). I may need to get some exercise before this beach Ultimate tourney next week...
Another difference to be remarked on in this city is the lack of open-container laws. From about 5 pm on, every 4th or 5th person you pass has a bottle of beer in hand; this proportion increases as the evening progresses (especially on weekends). Walking down the street, on the subway, on the bus, wherever. And it adds to the generally relaxed atmosphere in this city.
So far, most of my activities have consisted of food, bars, clubs, watching 'Archer' (a TV show) and of course lying in bed until (at least) noon. Planning to visit the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial tomorrow (already my last full day here!) Mwanzaa's host family is as friendly and laid-back as he had claimed; within 15 minutes of arriving, I was giving a piggy-back ride to the youngest child. Unfortunately, I haven't actually seen much of them, due to our schedule of getting up around 1 pm and then heading out after breakfast. But when I do encounter the parents, they are full of smiles and greetings (fortunately, they, like most Germans, speak very good English). Mwanzaa's friends on the program are also generally delightful; we've spent the most time with Carlie, who is from Buffalo but goes to Pomona. She, like Mwanzaa, has a particular attitude and sense of humor that consists of sarcasm/ feigned judgement of others; it's clear to me why they're friends, and also why I had no trouble befriending her as well. (She is also always ready to buy a snack or some food, which makes me feel less guilty about wanting to do so as well).

Also, the Germans are crazy about recycling. They have six- six!- different bins for recycling things, including compost and electronics! Amazing.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Hostels

While we're on the topic of shared spaces, hostels are another intriguing example. You're sharing a (small) sleeping area with (in my case) 3 people you've never met before, with whom you might or might not have a language in common.

So far, I've met 2 of my 3 "roommates." The first is a super-friendly Canadian from Montreal, with whom I chatted a bit (in French) soon after I arrived. The second roommate demonstrated the effects of body language and tone; I encountered him as I was coming out of the bathroom, and though we both said "Bonjour" it was clear he was not really interested in having more of a conversation than that. So it goes (I heard him speaking on the phone when I went back to the room a moment ago; I think it was Russian, but possibly another Slavic language).

So during my time in Paris so far, I wandered to the Sacré Coeur (quite close to the hostel), bought a sandwich and watched the sun setting over Paris. Nice. Then I wandered around for another hour or so (buying a Nutella crêpe along the way, which, to be honest, was a large part of the reason I decided to spend a night in Paris. It was a little disappointing, cause I got it near the super-touristy area around Sacré Coeur, but really, it's pretty hard to have a "bad" Nutella crêpe).

Tomorrow check-out is by 11 am, but my flight isn't until 3 pm; because of the bags I'll have, I will likely just find a park and eat a sandwich and a pastry. Mmm... Paris, que tu es delicieux!

Reflections

If you think about it (which I have been doing), WWOOFing is pretty incredible. You are presented with this list of hundreds (maybe even 1-2 thousand) of descriptions of farms, most of which are just households. And based on these, you choose one or several, and eventually end up in someone's home, a part of their daily life from morning to evening. But the crazy thing is that each description represents a totally different experience from another, yet they are all just lined up on the website, one after the other, in the same font and format.
I don't really know what my point is here. But I came to this line of thought as I left La Lombarde Ouest today. I am very happy that I ended up there, and it's been an experience that will certainly affect how I look at the world as well as my future. And yet I know that if I had clicked on a different region of France to search for farms, and chosen a different one, I would have had new and different experiences there as well.
In any case, Ingrid was happy to have me there; yesterday she invited me to come back next summer, telling me I was the first WWOOFer that she trusted to help her with clearing out an area in terms of recognizing which types of trees to cut down (and which to spare) as well as appearing to truly enjoy that work. And (to indeed toot my own horn- people should embrace doing so instead of denying it) she told me today that I was one of the best WWOOFers they had had, because, basically, I was relatively responsible and she didn't need to make sure I had closed doors, cleaned up after myself, etc. You'd think others my age would learn to do these things too... I guess it's a bit of a rarety.

At the moment, I'm on a train to Paris, where I'll spend the night, and then tomorrow I fly to Berlin to see Mwanzaa for a week! I am excited both to see Mwanzaa (as I haven't done so since mid-February(!)) and to spend time in Berlin, which I hear is a pretty awesome place.

I emailed the farm I want to WWOOF at next a couple of days ago, and got a great response from them, so I'll be in the Haute-Loire (haven't looked up exactly where this is yet) from April 27-May 13. To choose farms, I basically go through the descriptions, and the ones that seem truly excited about having a WWOOFer there, or use warm/ inviting language are the ones I choose. (I avoid vineyards, because the work there, I think, is pretty repetitive and tedious). This farm is a family, parents plus 2 young kids (not sure of their ages), apparently on the edge of a conservation area (that I should also probably look up). Looking forward to that, certainly, but more focused on Mwanzaa and Berlin at the moment.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Schedule

Hard to believe I only have one day of work left (tomorrow is Saturday, thus day off/ market day; work Sunday, then leave Monday!).

I realized I never gave a full schedule of my work here:

Non-days off (i.e., not Saturday or Wednesday):

Wake up ~8:15 am; eat some breakfast
Start work ~9 am; work until ~12.
Lunch is the main meal of the day; one person cooks (we switch off each day) and the other does the salad.
After lunch, usually have a chat with Ingrid about something, then a siesta until 3 pm.
Work 3 pm- 6 pm or so; shower, then dinner, then various evening activities (usually watch the sun set and go online).

Saturdays are fun; we go to the market about 25 minutes away; the past 2 times Ingrid or Wolfgang has treated me to a pastry from their go-to chef and then we go to a cafe.

Also, I want to note that I made risotto today, and it was damn good (under-spiced, but otherwise a good texture, which I imagine is the hard part). I am pleased with myself (clearly).

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Energy Discussions

Haven't updated because it would just mostly be a list of what I've been doing: painting a wall, cutting down saplings, more weeding. Today was my day off; I opted to sort of lounge about the house/ property rather than explore further afield (though I like traveling to far-off places, I also like to just sort of be a homebody once in a while too).

I've had some interesting discussions (some of them in French!) while I've been here, of course about environmental issues. I've noticed a few things: one, people mostly fixate on nuclear as the significant problem when it comes to environmental energy issues. This is likely due in part to the disaster in Japan, but it seems like it's generally what people turn to. There has, in fact, been very little mention of global climate change, which is what dominates similar conversations in the US.

I've been told by both Ingrid and Wolfgang that I should watch Food, Inc., which I have been meaning to; I recently watched King Corn, which I believe covers a few of the same topics. Neither Ingrid nor Wolfgang had heard of Omnivore's Dilemma; while it is clearly based on the US food industry, I think it's still worth reading for non-US folks as well.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Changeover

Weeded (around) lettuce in the greenhouse today. This is more difficult than it sounds: lettuce leaves are very fragile.
Wolfgang left this morning, so now I am alone with Ingrid (who got back from her meditation retreat yesterday). She is much more talkative than Wolfgang; also, we have been speaking almost entirely in French (Wolfgang and I mostly ended up speaking in English, which was good in that otherwise I don't think we would have formed much of a rapport). Cogs are turning again; if I keep it up with the speaking of French (which I will not be doing when visiting Mwanzaa or seeing my parents... oh well), I may well improve to where I was 2 years ago! We'll see.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Health

This trip was supposed to be super healthy. I was going to stick to my physical therapy regiment and eat lots of organic food.
Instead, I hurt my shoulder the first week, and now I've been sick for the past 3 days. High fevers at night, and feeling drained and exhausted during the day. Hope it's not malaria! Went to the medical lab today to get some blood tests done, mostly to rule out malaria. I wasn't quite certain of what the doctor there said about the blood tests, but he seemed to indicate that other than seeing if it was malaria, the blood tests would say whether it was a bacterial or viral infection, but not which bacteria or virus. We'll see what they say when I go back this evening.

Edit: Not malaria yay! And most likely just a virus. Hopefully I will be over it soon; optimistic because at this point yesterday and the day before my fever was already going back up, which it is not doing now.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Cooking adventure went acceptably (it was edible). However, couldn't really taste the ginger... or the garlic... and I think I used too much soy sauce. Hopefully will improve next time.

Today, I dug holes for fence posts, cleared out some more of an old fence, and shoveled out the chicken barn. Fucking satisfied.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Food!

Let's talk about food. A significant motivation for going WWOOFing was that I imagined I would be eating fresh, delicious, wholesome, healthy food at these organic farms. In my head, these meals were pretty expansive; lots of spices and dishes. While in reality, the food that I've had so far has been pretty simple, it has definitely fulfilled all those other expectations. The salads, as mentioned previously, couldn't get much fresher or more local. And the food itself is fresh from the market we went to on Saturday (if not from this farm itself), and, though simple, really satisfying. Also, they make their own bread here, which I have now resolved to start doing (key ingredient is spelt in addition to wheat flour). A notable exception to the simpleness is the piece of apple and berry crumble that Wolfgang bought for me at the market, from their preferred baker. I was going to say that it was classic French baking, but the guy we bought it from is actually German. Whatever, it was great.

I think I'm going to cook tomorrow- hopefully it won't be disastrous. I won't say "I can't imagine it will be" so I don't jinx myself, but still, I'm going to fry up some tofu with a few spices. This is something I can (should be able) to do.

Now, let's talk briefly about barbed wire fences. They are extremely frustrating to take down (rolling up a line of barbed wire is annoying, as it gets caught on everything, including but not limited to gloves and shirts). However, putting up barbed wire fences is kind of fun. (Not much to it, as the posts were already in the ground, but still, compared to taking down the other fence, much more enjoyable).

Also, it's really pretty here. (I was going to illustrate that sentence with a picture I took today, but I'm too tired to upload it to the computer and give it the necessary tweakings to put it online. Next time.)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

La Lombarde Ouest


Whew. So, I made it through my first 24 hours as a real WWOOFer. It's been emotional.

Got in last night, train was relatively on time. Recognized Wolfgang from a couple of pics I had seen of the farm and the people; I'm sure he had no trouble picking out me from the 4 other French people (only one of whom was male, and did not have a large camping backpack or hoodie). He's Austrian, and thus speaks English and German in addition to French; however, we've mostly been conversing in French. In the fading light as we drove from the train station to his house/ the farm, it was clear that this was a pretty middle-of-nowhere area; not much more than vineyards around. We drove through the tiny village of St Vivien (where La Lombarde is technically located); I may have to go explore that on a day off. The house/ farm itself is a house, a barn, several acres (18 hectares= how many acres?) 12 chickens, 2 donkeys, 3 cats, a greenhouse, and various fruit and nut trees. He took me on a bit of a tour around the property before it got dark (including an artifically-dug pond with lots of frogs and frog eggs around the edge; I'm listening to a lovely chorus of frogs (unidentified as of yet) as I sit in my room right now).
I then got to meet his wife Ingrid, who left this morning for a 6-day meditation retreat in Switzerland (they are both very into meditation; Wolfgang has apparently been doing so for 30 years). She's nice (they're both nice) but much more talkative than he is. Dinner consisted of a thick slice of home-made bread with some local, organic goat's cheese (not a problem; as I was kind of anxious, I didn't have much of an appetite). Small talk, practicalities, then bed. I discovered that I am addicted to screen-based entertainment; no WiFi available, so I watched part of a movie I had on my flash drive, and felt much better/ less anxious. Hooray for escapism.

Today was the really interesting part. Got up to see the sun just coming over the nearby ridge and illuminating the prayer flags they have strung up in front of the house; beautiful. Breakfast = toast (still the home-made bread) with the same cheese; however, other options appear to be available. Then- to work! This consisted mostly of filling a wheelbarrow with cut pine branches and bringing them to the woodchipper, then shoveling the newly-created mulch into either aforementioned wheelbarrow or into the back of the tractor's small trailer. During the morning, I went through a variety of emotions; in descending order of magnitude: anxiety about my shoulder and whether I would be able to actually do farm work; general anxiety at being in a new place, doing new things; excitement at actually being on a farm, doing field work; sudden, intense pleasure at a random moment while feeding a branch into the chopper; anxiety at having to cook lunch for us tomorrow. Lunch is the main meal here, so we stopped and I prepared the salad (following Wolfgang's instructions) as he cooked the meal. My anxiety about my cooking abilities dissipated somewhat when the meal was a simple affair of rice, fried tofu slices, and the salad, plus some steamed brussel sprouts. Tofu was so-so, the salad was quite fresh (I saw him go cut it from the greenhouse while I was working) but kind of bitter, and the brussel sprouts were delicious. But the best part was just eating outside in the beautiful day, watching the birds, the cats, and the chickens. Yes, this is why I'm in France working on farms.

Felt much less anxious in the PM (work started back up at 3 PM after a nice siesta). Shoulder seemed to be holding up acceptably, and I was feeling more comfortable here. At about 5:30, he told me I could stop working, saying I had worked enough today (I am supposed to work about 5 hours per day; at that point I was probably at around 5.5-6 hours. But I decided to finish the pile of branches next to the chipper. I realized that had he not told me I could stop working, I would have ended up doing the same amount of work, but would have felt much less good about it; it seemed to be the fact that I was choosing to continue working that made the difference.

By the evening, after a shower, I was feeling great. As long as my shoulder feels OK tomorrow, I think I'm good to go. Dinner is "self-serve" (like breakfast); we each made some fried eggs, had the rest of the salad, and some bread. I feel as though I am eating less food than I normally do; however, I don't feel like I'm going hungry. Maybe I usually eat more food than I need.

Tomorrow is market day (they don't sell things, but we will go buy things). Coming on a Thursday evening was probably a smart move. Also, one of the cats is sitting on the windowsill outside my window and staring at me/ the bugs around the window.

Friday, March 25, 2011

To the farm!


I'm on a TGV right now, headed towards my first farm. The past few days at Sam's have been mostly good; we spent an afternoon in Tours, a beautiful city with a cathedral, a church, and random other cool-looking buildings. Also the Loire runs through it. Sam spent a few weeks there before his semester abroad in Paris, so he knew his way around a bit. I spent a day on my own while Sam was working; didn't do too much of import, but I talked to a few French people while buying various foodstuffs/ mailing a postcard, so I felt relatively accomplished.
One not-so-great thing was that while playing handball (the European version, a bit like a combination of basketball and soccer), I managed to hurt my (right) shoulder while taking a shot. I don't think it's anything too serious, but the shoulder's been sore and a bit swollen since then. I'm hoping I will still be able to perform my necessary farm duties, but I will probably let the farmer(s) know that I probably shouldn't be doing any heavy lifting for the first few days.
My broken body aside, I'm quite excited to be on my way to the farm. This is something that I've been planning to do for years. I'm also realizing that this doesn't feel like a "trip" as the other trips this year (Israel, Kenya) have. I'm in Europe for 4 months, so there's much less urgency to see/ do things; I assume I'll have th etime to do and see the things I want to. It's also quite different in that there will be things expected of me while on the farms, whereas in Israel and Kenya (and, indeed, so far in France) there's been someone who is taking point on everything; all I have to do is follow along.
My French is occasionally decent, more often not so great. I get flustered and forget simple vocab/ easy constructions pretty easily. Since I also get flustered relatively easily when talking to strangers in English, this shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Still, I expect that my French will eventually pick up, though only if I actually start speaking French more often (spoke mostly English with Sam). Of the two farmers, I know one of them is German; I'm hoping the other is French, though I know they both speak English, so I will have to have some force of will and make myself speak French with them. Maybe for my next farm I will choose one where they only speak French.

Time for some random thoughts.
There's a lot of graffiti in France. A lot of it is really good, artistically, and it generally seems to be the case that people appreciate this and don't take it down. And sometimes there are some nice messages: just passed under a bridge where someone had spraypainted "SExISM = FACHISM" [sic].

Some notes for potential future WWOOFERs: pack lighter than you think you will need to. If possible, bring one camping backpack with extra room in it. Don't pack it to the brim, and DON'T bring more than one very small other bag.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Vendôme

Vendôme is a pretty cool place.

I've mostly been hanging out with Sam's friends, a few French guys and girls around our age (plus a 30-year-old English woman) who live near him. Friendly group, they seem to enjoy having me around and occasionally trying out their English on me. I'm realizing my French is not nearly as good as I thought it would be. I have a pretty easy time following conversations with 1 or 2 other people, but when it gets to be a larger group, it's pretty tough for me to keep track of everything going on, plus the speed of speech tends to increase, as does the amount of slang used. But still, some things are coming back to me; I expect to significantly improve my French during the months I am here.

Sam and I biked through a bit of Vendôme today. It's a beautiful small-ish (~20,000 inhabitants) French town, with an abandoned castle on a hill, a beautiful abbey with amazing carvings that you just sort of come upon suddenly, as well as a church with a steeple that's illuminated at night. Haven't actually gone in to any of these yet, but that's the plan for tomorrow. We drove around on Saturday to a few of the castles/ manors in the area (we're on the very edge of the Loire Valley, so there are a good number of "chateaux" around).

Also been drinking a good deal of pastis, another anise liquor that you add water to (it turns milky white when you do so). Delish.

Friday, March 18, 2011

My next adventure begins

At the moment, I am sitting against a wall in the corner of Gare Montparnasse, a train station in the middle (more or less) of Paris. I left my house yesterday at 2 pm (EST) with Deidra, made it (eventually, despite some train troubles) to 125th St Station in New York, where Mwanzaa's parents picked us up (Deidra lives near JFK).
Flight over was relatively uneventful; I was in a swanky new A380. Since my last 2 trips each required multiple long flights, this jaunt over to Europe seemed downright quick.

(If you're just joining us, quick rundown: I'll be in France and Europe for about 4 months, mostly WWOOFing (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), working for room and board at various places around France, and occasionally taking trips to visit my boyfriend in Berlin, other people I know in other places in Europe, and the odd ultimate tourney with the team I played with in Paris).

I love Paris. I don't have time to go walk around (plus I have my bags, which, despite my best efforts, are pretty bulky), but it's nice to be back after living here for a semester junior year. It still feels pretty familiar; I may have to spend a week or so here (not farming, of course...)

A dilemma while packing was what kind of clothes to bring. Since I'll be mostly on farms, I opted for mostly practical clothes (synthetic t-shirts, hiking pants, etc.) BUt I do hate being in Paris and having all these well-dressed people around, and knowing that I could easily fit in if I had brought other clothes. But again, I overpacked as it is, so that wasn't really an option.

Plan for today: Get to Sam's place in Vendome, hang out, probably fall asleep early. I'll be visiting Sam for a few days, and then I'm off to my first farm (somewhere in Dordogne) on Thursday!

Side note: Apparent recurring theme: my watch band breaking on the first day of a trip. Happened in Africa (repaired it); happened today on the RER into Paris (different part of the watch band). Tant pis.

Part 2
I'm finally at Sam's place. This seemed like it would not be a big deal: 40-minute TGV ride from Paris to Vendome. What I didn't count on was the massive TGV delays due to some sort of "technical accident," such that we sat on the train in Paris for about an hour and a half (getting updates every 20 minutes or so saying we would be departing in "a few minutes." It got to the point where we would all laugh every time they said this; it was actually a kind of nice, collective, good-natured resignation to the fact that we were going to be quite late). We had to stop a few times on the track for unclear reasons, but the worst was when they announced that we were approaching Vendome, and then the train came to a stop (NOT at the station); we found out there was some unclear issue, and we were again stopped on the tracks for about 15 minutes. Finally, I got to the station to find out that the bus I was supposed to take to Sam's wouldn't get there for an hour. Fortunately, Sam got his friend to drive me (only 10-15 mins), and now I am here, showered, somehow a bit awake (lots of napping on the train), and ready to go!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Young Lion

Young Lion by GeoffSJG
Young Lion a photo by GeoffSJG on Flickr.

Hasn't got his full mane yet, but he's got the "look" down!

Monday, March 14, 2011

At last, some images

I'll be putting up some select images from these, obviously. But this should give a good sense of what we saw. Special thanks to Heather for the music selection and general aesthetic suggestions.


Kenya in 3700 Photos from Geoff Giller on Vimeo.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Reflections

Flights back were relatively smooth and uneventful. Had some of the best airplane food I've had on the Air Kenya flight to Amsterdam (found a chunk of real cinnamon in the lentils!); ended up with my own 3 seats of an exit row on the KLM Dutch Royal flight from Amsterdam to JFK, where I watched The King's Speech (solid, but not amazing in my opinion) and Inception (again) (dozing off during Inception does indeed make for weird, brief dreams).

When I got to JFK, I realized that my American phone was totally dead. I had failed (rather, decided) not to bring my charger with me because I figured my phone would be off while in Kenya, so it would have a charge when I returned. Wrong, and the charging cord weighs almost nothing- lesson learned. After a call home via payphone to try (unsuccessfully) to get Mwanzaa's parents' phone numbers (they were picking me up from the airport), I decided to check outside at the pick-up area; thankfully, Mwanzaa's dad was indeed there. Spent last night at their house, where I feel pretty familiar/ comfortable by now (even without Mwanzaa there); now, on a train back to CT.

So I figure this is a good time to reflect on the trip. Unquestionably, it was one of the most incredible places I've been. The Masai Mara is probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited; each day we saw something amazing and new. And being there not on safari, but with people doing real research, made it that much more meaningful. I know that if I had been there on safari, staying in a lodge, it would have been great, but the fact that we could stay in one place for an hour to watch hyenas interact instead of feeling the need to drive elsewhere in order to add to the tally of animals seen meant that I really got a feel for how these animals behave in the wild. This also meant that I could take different kinds of pictures of the same scene, and left me the leeway to experiment with framing, exposure, etc. that I don't think I would have had otherwise. And, since we were in a research vehicle, we were allowed to go off-road whereas safari drivers aren't permitted to do so; this let us get much closer to the animals. And the hyenas were familiar enough with the research cars that they would sometimes come right up to it.

As for the pictures themselves, I of course have not yet had a chance to look at them on the computer, but I definitely think I got some good ones. A lot of them are "portrait-style," meaning it's mostly the animal's face or body without much in the way of environment. I also got some wide-angle shots of lions and hyenas, but what I think I lacked was a mid-range zoom lens (such as my 24-70mm lens); most of the time, I had my 300mm (super telephoto) and my 17-40mm (wide-angle), but not much in between (I also had my 70-200mm lens out some, but still, it would have been nice to fill the 40mm to 70mm gap). But I expect to be quite pleased with the results. Unfortunately, I will likely not have enough time before my departure for France in 8 days (!) to go through all 5,000 or so pictures (final tally coming soon), but I will definitely get a few up online.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Out of the Mara... for now

Today, we drive back to Nairobi. Skeist's flight leaves at 11:30 pm; mine leaves the following (Tuesday) morning at 8:15. But, of course, the trip doesn't go smoothly. We leave camp at 10 am after a brief drive around (Meg sleeps in, so it's just a drive to see animals, not do obs), which is what time we wanted to do so. At the gate to the entrance/ exit of this part of the Mara (it's managed by a different group than the part Talek camp is in), one of the rangers asks if we can give him a ride to Narok (about 5 hours away; he actually ends up going with us all the way to Nairobi). We cram in to the back; it gets a little roomier after we drop Brian off back at Talek camp. After another brief goodbye to Joseph, Benson, and Joseph's daughter Gloria (who was pretty shy/ afraid of us when we first arrived, but had progressed to playing games with us and giving us high-fives by the last day). And we're off!

That is, until our first flat tire, about an hour outside of camp. For some reason, the car we're in now seems to get lots of flat tires. Possibly because they keep getting the tires repaired and they're really old. In any case, Tracy is more than proficient in the exquisite art of changing tires. Having not done so before, I am eager to help/ learn to do so as well. Basically, it involves a lot of lying on the ground, ratcheting, and heavy lifting. But we succeed in getting the spare on (as 3 Maasai men watch us and comment). We stop after about 45 minutes to get the flat repaired, in the (likely) event of another flat tire. That takes about 20-30 minutes, and we're off again. We stop several more times to tie the tarp down that's covering our things in the back, as well as to buy samosas at a gas station we stopped at on the way up as well (and where Tracy stops every time she makes this drive). I'd forgotten during the week in the Mara how crazy driving around Nairobi is. Rules are few and flexible. But finally we make it to the mall near the cottage, where we've decided to have a drink, get some food, and relax for an hour before we leave for the airport to drop off Skeist. I hadn't really noticed how dirty I was (being in the bush can do that, I guess) until we were back in a city where everyone was wearing normal clothes, and I had my dirty field pants, a grimy t-shirt, and large amounts of dirt under my fingernails. Whatevs.

At 8:15, we go back to the truck to drive to the airport. But what's this? The spare tire that we put on is now flat? Baffling. It must have been a slow leak, because we hadn't noticed it on the drive. Good thing we got that other tire repaired. Fortunately, now I was familiar with how to change a tire too, and Tracy knew exactly where to put the jack for this car, so we got the tire changed (with the help of a friendly mall parking lot security guard) in about 15 minutes, and made it to the airport with plenty of time.

Once we had seen Skeist off, Tracy and I drove back to the cottage. Both of us would have loved nothing more than to sleep for about 10 hours, but such was not to be. She had to finish accounting before I brought the receipts back to the USA to send to the head of her project; each sheet of receipts also had to be photographed (usually we photocopy them, but we didn't have time) in case the originals got lost along the way. Next I had to re-pack my bags. But the best part was taking a shower again (there is no running water at the camps). I knew it was going to feel good, but I was unprepared for how amazing it feels to have a hot shower after a week of cold bucket baths.

Finally, we head to bed around 1, with our alarms set for 4:30 the next morning.

Now it is that morning (I am writing this while waiting for my flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam; afterwards, on to New York!) Fortunately, no problems getting out the door and to the airport this morning. Fingers crossed for the flights and for my bags getting to New York with me as well.

Serena

Though this has likely been the case earlier this week, it's an interesting feeling to know for a certainty that somewhere nearby in the darkness is a large, sharp-toothed carnivore that could kill and eat you if it really wanted to.

We've made it to Serena camp, which was of course not a sure thing. After morning obs (during which we again saw about 30 hyenas traveling together, though this time less excitedly and without a clear purpose), we struggled to get one of the cars working. Both cars need to be working so that we can go to Nairobi while Brian stays at Talek to keep performing obs. Various contingency plans are formed while we finish up inventory, packing, saying goodbye to Joseph and Benson (the cooks/ assistants) and Joseph's daughter Gloria, etc. Brian drives the car (that they manage to start by towing) to the mechanic 30 minutes away, only to remember that it is Sunday and he is not there. Eventually, we come up with a plan whereby Tracy, Skeist and I bring our stuff, pick up Brian (leaving the car there to get fixed), and drive to Serena.

The drive is beautiful; leaving the border of the Maasai lands and the lodges relatively near Talek camp makes us feel even more isolated. There is some rainfall in the distance; we see a lone bull elephant, a crowned something (crane?) which I have only seen in zoos, and eventually make it to Serena.

Serena camp has a totally different feel from Talek camp. It's only 3 years old, compared to Talek's 22 years, which explains why all the tents seem nice and new. But the layout is also different; it's on a bit of a hill, overlooking a valley through some trees. We wanted to make it there in time for evening obs, but didn't quite succeed; instead, we left camp around 6 with Meg (the research assistant at Serena). Tracy, Brian, and I were in the back in benches that faced each other; we had a bit of a party. Meg took us to the hyena dens of one of the clans she had been studying. We had yet to see any hyena cubs, as the dens of Tracy's clans were either inaccessible, hidden, or in an unknown location. I could describe how adorable they are, but the hundreds of pictures I took will help. They basically act like puppies, running around, tussling with each other, and curiously approaching our car (one of them came up, then decided to explore underneath the car). It was hard to resist jumping out and petting them.

Just to say we did, Brian, Tracy and I tossed a disc for about a minute; we eventually headed back to camp when it got too dark. Meg's cooks/ camp assistants are as good cooks as those at Tracy's camp, so the food was delicious.

Normally this is when I would explain how tired I am, but since I'm actually writing this the day after Serena, there is more. The sharp-toothed carnivore to which I referred was a leopard; there is apparently one that lives around Serena camp. I awoke sometime in the early morning hours to hear a sound that sounded like a combination of a car trying to start and wood being sawed (I will try to find a sound clip online). This is called "chuffing," and it's the sound the leopard makes (I'm unclear why). I laid in my very thin-walled tent, enjoying the sound of this giant cat somewhere nearby. So we never saw a leopard (in the wild), but at least we heard one. (One of the camp assistants confirmed that there had been one around that night; I had thought that it was a leopard based on Meg's description of their chuffing, but was glad to have it confirmed).

Monday, March 7, 2011

Last full day in Talek(!)

What a morning.
Not a great start: got bitten a few times by the seyafu (sp?), ants that form these cool lines from location to location, but if you step in the line, they will swarm up your leg and bite you a lot. Fortunately I only got 2 or 3 bites, and they're painful, but brief- once you brush the ant off, the pain goes away. (There are apparently also the warrior ants, bigger with much larger mandibles, which are the same species but a different "caste" and whose bites are much worse).

However, as soon as we got out to West for obs, it was clear something was going down. The first 2 hyenas we saw were running together faster than we've seen any others run, and very steadily: they clearly had a destination in mind. As we followed those, more joined, slowing down but still clearly with a place to be. Suddenly, about 15 of them appeared, and all were clearly excited; their tails were up (called "bristle-tailing") and they were all loping rather quickly. We got to hear one give the "wooping" call (which they do while pointing their face at the ground; it looks bizarre).

Finally, we came around a bunch of bushes and saw what the fuss was about: 3 lions at a kill! Two females were gnawing away, as the hyenas circled around them; the male (not fully adult, but older than the one we had seen yesterday) was off to the side. They were beautiful in the rising sunlight. And watching the hyenas was fascinating; they were displaying all kinds of behaviors that Tracy and Brian did an impressive job of recording. And we heard all their different calls: "giggles," "groans," "squeals" are the ones I can remember.

Eventually the lions ran off, leaving the hyenas to grab whatever scraps of meat were left. Tracy once again expressed to Skeist and me how luck we have been this week, which we appreciate- see has only seen hyenas and lions face off like this 2 or 3 other times during her 8 months here, and she says this was the biggest such confrontation she has seen.

The afternoon was spent helping Brian and Tracy with doing the inventory of the storage tent while Skeist napped. Not too exciting, but I felt good about helping them, considering that I am being put up, fed, and driven around the Mara basically for free. (I am told that the cheapest safari tours cost at least $200/day).

In the evening, it looked like we might actually get some rain for the first time, and we were right: as we headed out to the Fig Tree clan area, dark storm clouds rolled in, making for a very interesting sunset. We headed back as the lightning and rain bore down on us. I had suggested at the beginning of obs that Tracy and I frolic in the rain; as it started to pour on the car, Brian reminded us of this promise. Fair enough: we headed into the truck bed. Brian predicted that we wouldn't last 5 minutes. If he hadn't said this, we definitely wouldn't have; it was windy, there was some hail in the rain, and it was extremely cold. But our competitive streaks could not let him win. After 6 painfully long minutes, we declared our victory. Shortly thereafter, the rain stopped, and Brian stopped the car; for a bit, we watch the rain clouds and the very frequent lightning bolts; eventually I took some pictures that came out quite well.

In the evening, we finally played "Bang!," a card game that is a favorite of mine and Tracy's ever since senior week, when we played it almost non-stop down in the Outer Banks.

Tomorrow: Serena camp, about 2 hours away in the Mara; it's another research camp for the same project, but with different hyena clans. We still have some inventory and other things to finish up, as we will only be briefly stopping by Talek camp again on the way to Nairobi on Monday.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Best obs yet?


There has not been one single day of this trip when I haven't been amazed at the ability of this place to be breathtakingly beautiful and incredible. During the afternoon, we drove to a safari lodge about 30 minutes away to get drinking water for the camp. As we drove along, Skeist suddenly started saying "Woah. Woah. Woah!" We looked up to see four lions walking along, headed for the road. We stopped, and about 10 yards in front of us, 3 female lions crossed the road, followed about 20 or 30 feet back by an adolescent male lion. Had we left even a minute earlier or later, we wouldn't have seen them; they were out of sight almost the moment they crossed the road.

The morning obs session was eventful in terms of hyenas; we saw more of the West clan than we had all week (about 25 hyenas all told). When we returned, Skeist and I assisted Tracy in doing the inventory of the camp supplies (pulling our weight around camp, at least a bit!) and then went on a bird walk with Benson, one of the chefs/ general camp assisant. He has been studying birds and trees, and is hoping to be a safari guide. My favorite bird we had seen up until today was the lilac-breasted roller, which has beautiful blue-green iridescent wings (and a lilac-colored breast). But on the walk, I saw a pygmy kingfisher- bright red head, bright blue iridescent body. Didn't get any good pics (he's quite speedy and shy) but it's worth looking up a photo. (Benson also demonstrated how to make fire using a stick and another piece of wood. Impressive).

The real gem of the day, however, was evening obs. We decided to go out to look for the Fig Tree clan again; last time we did this, we saw the elephants and ostrich. While we didn't find them, we did see quite a few remarkable things.
First was 2 adult male lions. As we drove along, suddenly I saw out of the corner of my right eye something bright and orange-brown, lit up by the setting sun. Lion! We swung around, and sat watching him. He was utterly uninterested in us, going to sleep after about 10 minutes (and 150 pictures) . Then, as we drove deeper into the bushes, we came across another one, already dozing (or "sacked out" as the hyena researchers say). We pulled up close to it, and as Tracy leaned out of her window (we were maybe 10-15 feet from it), the lion suddenly flipped around and jumped to its feet. Tracy and I on that side of the car quickly ducked our heads back into the car, and rolled up our windows a bit for good measure. (There was also some shouting and swearing). But it wasn't attacking- I think we had just startled it. We watched it look around lazily for a bit before we decided that 10 feet was too close to be to a lion that wasn't sleeping, and drove off.

Next up: hippos! It's been quite dry here, but we came to a part of the Talek River that was still a bit deep; 10-12 hippos were submerged there. They're quite funny; of aquatic mammals, they seem the least likely. It's as though they were standing on land, and then simply didn't move when water filled up the area they were in. They look quite cute (especially the baby one) with just the tops of their heads above water, periodically submerging (I assume to eat), but we knew to keep our distance on the raised shore- they're big and dangerous animals.

Nothing that unusual the rest of the night; just drove around until it got dark and headed back to camp. They had made ugali for dinner, along with a cabbage and carrot dish that they've made before and butternut squash soup. Ugali is apparently a very common and popular dish made from cornmeal; it reminded me of polenta. A bit bland by itself, but delicious with cheese or as a base for other dishes.