SO...
oh, i feel like i have so much to say, but not much time...not enough time to really say everything that is happening here...well, i am still really loving wwoofing. everyday is different, and everyday, i can´t believe that i am here, living with this family in spain. okay. well, i´m not really in spain. people keep reminding me of that when they are speaking catalan, and i don´t understand. i tell them i speak a little spanish, and then they tell me, ¨but you are in Catalunya, not Spain¨ okay, well, then i am going to spain in a few days. but until then, i am soaking up as much as i can of catalunya, even though it is really starting to feel like winter is coming.
i have a little chant i sing at least a few times a day:
hace frio
hace frio
no me gusta
hace frio
(it´s cold
it´s cold
i don´t like it
ít´s cold) mas o menos

it is really laid-back here. i work a lot, but i like it because the family is really nice, and i´m having a great time. of course i want to give them something in return. it is an exchange. i laugh a lot here. there are parrots landing on our shoulders while we eat. they are eating octupus, snails, and rabbit, amongst other things. they took one of the other wwoofers and me to the olive museum which was fun. we got to see all different kinds of olive presses for making oil, and saw some really old olive trees, one (dead) was 2000 years old.
the other 2 wwoofers and i went to a movie a week or 2 ago, called The Take. It is a documentary done by a couple Canadians about the people who work in factories that get closed down or abandoned. They take over the factories to run them themselves, cooperatively. I was really inspired, and sometimes depressed by the way the goverment/police try to stop them from doing this. The people just want to work in good conditions. Anyway, you should see it if you can. It´s half in english, and half in Spanish with subtitles. of course, when i saw it, the subtitles were in spanish during the english part.
i think i mentioned before that i got to go to the circus, which i really liked, even though it was in Catalan. Usually it didn´t really matter what was being said.
On one of my days off, i went for a walk in the park which is basically right next to their house. There is a beautiful river, and ducks and egrets and other birds. Even though i don´t like the cold, i really love autumn, with all the different color leaves covering the ground. And Pusa (which means flea), one of the dogs, came with me for the whole walk.
I´m realizing that wwoofing in the fall and winter is not really the best idea, which is why i´m making my way south. But i do a lot of raking leaves, which is actually a nice break from this huge hole we´re digging (for the pyramid i told you about before). I have just found where i´m going next. It´s a place near Alicante and Valencia, an adventure center/guesthouse. I´ll be picking olives for a while, and helping with groups coming. And maybe, just maybe, i might get to go kayaking. we´ll see. and then i think i´m going to ibiza after that.
but it´s not time to go yet, and when i do go, i will miss el xop. hanging out in the kitchen, eating, or putting olives in jars with red wine vinegar for preserving, listening to Xavier´s favorite radio station, which luckily is classic rock/oldies. He was humming along to Cindy Lauper´s, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and i told him what the words were. He said, sometimes it´s better not to know the words.
if you want to see some pictures, since i still don´t have any to share with you, you can go to the website, which is www.elxop.com (i think). it´s all in catalan, so even if you know spanish, good luck figuring out what it says. maybe if you know both spanish and french really well, you´ll be able to figure it out.
so, that´s all for now. i wish i could give you all big hugs. i hope everyone is doing well, and healthy, and happy...
hasta luego