my brain hurts a little bit from so much happening.
family meals...
presents presents presents....
old friends i haven't seen in over a year...
spending hours in bookstores, so many ideas crammed in one building, which ones do i want?...
so many cars, so many restaurants, so many people... not to mention all the alcohol and sugar...

but then i'm walking outside all the stores, and there's music playing on the loudspeakers...
it's journey!
and i remember amelia singing and dancing to this song, holding a spatula for a microphone. or was it a wooden spoon? and the guy walking by me sings along, and i laugh.
joy is not in things, it is in us.

i realize how much i love the quiet life on the farm, cooking my own meals,
walking around with Eoin: discovering the ice breaking on frozen puddles, sitting on an old tractor pretending to drive it, playing in the bed of a pickup truck, peekaboo, watching big diggers dig huge holes in the earth (where the farmers are having a cohousing community built), watching geese fly overhead.

























i was still doing some farmwork until a couple weeks ago... picking kale in the snow, planting lettuce inside hoophouses, covering radishes in crazy wind. the farmers are still farming, but not me anymore.
and they have asked me to stay a while longer, so i won't be leaving on my cross-country trip until sometime in march, which makes more sense anyway, because the weather will be a little better.

november
girls speaking german here in the purcellville coffee shop. i live right off the Berlin Turnpike.
today, on a walk with my favorite 15-month-old, Eoin, I met a guy from the czech republic dropping off old pumpkins for the pigs. people speaking spanish at the restaurant tonight. all of it reminds me of my travels and friends in europe. a year ago, i had just made it to spain, or at least i was in france. now, the farm is my home, loudoun county, virginia, and it feels like i have been here forever.
although, many of my friends are disappearing every day, leaving only the true farmers who live here all year, and a few of us stragglers. i happily leave my rubber boots in my room when i go off to work these days. it's gotten cold, and now i am doing the babysitting thing, pushing a stroller, trying to interpret toddler babble, watching Eoin master this whole walking thing. a couple days a week, i go out and harvest kale and mustard greens, collards and broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and carrots.
oh, and goodbye barn















with the beautiful vines growing over the window, chickens living below me, sleeping on crates and plywood, and the cold wind blowing through, almost as if there were no walls at all.







hello, real house (stone house) with kitchen and bathroom right outside the door to my room, but all in the same building.












farmer's markets are dwindling as the frost kills peppers and eggplant. but the greens love it, so we still go to at least one, and my new boss, the one with the baby i watch, is growing vegetables all year. i'm only staying until christmas time, when i plan on buying a van and driving across the country, going west to settle down for a while....unless i go to mexico...always a possibility.



anyway, here's a chicken searching my old room in the barn for bugs or other scrumptious delicacies....



i'll put up pictures of my cute friend Eoin soon.








oh, and i got a record player at the rummage sale!! i already found 4 cat stevens records, a herbie hancock, and some willie nelson albums! yes!

if you're anywhere between the atlantic ocean and the pacific ocean, well, if you live in the US, you should probably be expecting a visit from me in the first couple months of the year. once i get my van, i am going on a cross-country adventure. see you soon!!

it's starting to get cold. fall is almost here. this means less tomatoes, less cucumbers and squash.
instead, we will be harvesting more greens...arugula, lettuce, kale, mustard greens,
cabbage, and broccoli. i am so immersed in the changing of the seasons,
spending almost no time indoors. it is so cool to be connected to the weather in more than
just the way i dress, but also the food i eat, and the work i do.
i play in the dirt, the mud, the plants all day.
i hear crickets chirping while i work, crows and hawks fighting above me.
grasshoppers land on my nose, gnats fly into my eyes.
i tickle a chicken under her chin, and she sticks out her tongue at me.
i can name at least 20 different varieties of tomato.
i ride in the back of pickup trucks and drive tractors
what i really love is that i get to sell the vegetables i pick all day to the city folk at the markets.
i look people in the eye, knowing that i am feeding them.
they realize how important it is to know where their food is coming from.
some people are not ready to pay 2.50 for one tomato, no matter how big and tasty it is.

me, i don't know how i am going to eat tomatoes from the grocery store. i don't think i can.
i will have to wait until they are in season again.




and now, my favorite vegetable is eggplant. it's so good!!!



peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall.

goodbye summer squash, hello winter squash!


life is good out on the farm, and everyone is welcome to come and visit me here.
peace

Why are you shopping at the grocery store??? Why would you buy fruits and vegetables in that strange florescent-lit, air-conditioned building, where all the tomatoes look the same, and you have no idea where they came from???
if it were winter, i could give you a break...
if you are poor, maybe i'll let it slide, but i'll tell you later an alternative.
if you don't know where else to shop,

have you ever heard of a farmer's market??

i can pretty much guarantee that wherever you live, you wouldn't have to go too far to find one. you can get local, organic (maybe not certified, but close enough), fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season, and didn't have to travel more than a couple hours. you can meet the people that picked your peaches, that picked your tomatoes and squash, and you can ask them questions about how to cook with vegetables you may not be as familiar with. (usually the answer is cut em up and fry them with oil and salt)..

not only can you get fruits and vegetables at a farmer's market, but homemade cheese, bread, sweet stuff, granola, herbs, eggs, free-range meat, flowers, and even soap. maybe even clothes. and when you eat your fresh, local food, you can feel good that you are supporting local farmers instead of big business factory farms.

so go to the farmer's market!! be healthy!! appreciate where food comes from!!!
appreciate the people who grow your food!! what would you do without them??? support farmers!!

okay, fine, so you want some mangoes, i love mangoes! fine so you want bananas. so you want beer, you want rice and oreo cookies and tofu and soy sauce. well, i'm not saying you shouldn't go buy those things, but go there on your way back from the farmer's market.

and here's a little secret.... if you can't afford to pay real prices for real food, you can still go to the farmer's market. they sell "seconds" of a lot of things for really cheap, and they're not bad, they just don't look perfect. or if you have a few free hours on the weekends, you can ask the farmer if they need help selling, and you can usually get paid in money and food. also, if you're poor and you have a lot of time, you should go to the farmer's market at the end, when there's all this food they couldn't sell, and offer to take it to people who need it, like a food bank, or food not bombs, or something, and then have some for yourself.

so,
find your local farmer's market.
and go!
every week!
twice a week!
tell your friends!
meet new friends there!
be healthy!

i've been here at the farm about a month now.
people are leaving to go back to college, and i'm only just beginning.
tomatoes so many tomatoes
too many to sell. if you like tomatoes, and you live in the dc area, please, come buy them. falls church on saturdays, takoma park maryland on sundays. the ones we can't sell, we give away to food banks, and eat ourselves back at the farm, but a lot of them get composted, food for the chickens.
i pick tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, green beans, lettuce, basil, parsley, blueberries, beets, leeks, garlic, and onions, even okra.
i'm working hard for my money these days.
gnats in my eyes, arms itching from tomatoes, legs itching from squash, the rest of my body itching from mosquito bites...my back sore from bending over all day, all so people can have tasty, organic, local vegetables.
at the end of the days, i swim in the pond, which is getting closer to being a puddle every day. we eat dinner all together, taking turns cooking. our food comes from the farm, the co-op, costco, and the dumpster.
i hang my laundry on a chicken tractor
i watch the little chicks get big so fast
i hear bullfrogs at night, and let fireflies light my way from the kitchen to the barn i sleep in
i help load and unload the market truck 3 times a week
i drink fresh raw milk
i watch birthing videos
i take sweaty naps in the middle of the day
i love working on a farm
but i don't think i'll do it again after this season, at least for a while
it's really kinda strange to be in this new place, but be so close to where i grew up, driving down the same highways, but it's cool to sell vegetables to my mom.

so life is good. i'm reading The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan and Johnny Appleseed is now my new hero.

anyone is welcome to come visit me at the farm, especially on mondays, our day off.

MOVIN' TO THE FARM!

all cleaned up, re-energized, restocked, all caught up in the magical TeeVeeLand
(same ole same ole)
can't stay here forever
people dressed too nice here, smell too "good"
i've turned into an indoor cat
imprisoned myself in the conditioned air
looking out the window
longing for the breeze on my skin

so here i go
on a new adventure
as familiar and different as the others
new people
new work
new land
like diving into a cold mountain lake
stunning
refreshing
no matter how many times you've done it before
best when you just jump in
takes a little time to get used to
but then you can't stop smiling
swimming
dragonflies flying around your head
floating on your back
looking at the sky
one of my favorite places

here i go
to pick tomatoes, squash, blueberries
sleeping in the barn
eating fresh eggs
body tired, dirty, and smelly
but nobody notices
because they are too
this is where i love to be

Wheatland Vegetable Farms is where i'm going...out at the end of the Dulles
Toll Road(for those of you who know Northern Virginia), an hour west of DC,
almost to West Virginia, out in farm country. I'm gonna be workin 60 hours
a week, making money this time...until winter.

i'll still have my cell phone(same colorado #), and i'll check my e-mail, and be writing this blog.

oh, and i would like to say that i got a library card and have been reading a lot of books since i've been at my mom's house, and i love: edward abbey, wendell berry, starhawk, honeybees, john taylor gatto, annie dillard, tom brown jr., and libraries--that you can borrow as many books as you want, and it's free!!! this will never cease to amaze me, especially in this society where nothing is free.

What's Strange Now....


is that i can understand what people all around me on the streets are saying

is that stores are open on sundays, and in the nightime, AND in the middle of the day

is that people have been living their lives as they always have been while i've been gone

is that the world has not ended even though i am missing a front tooth at the moment

is that all of a sudden i have money again because of a nice thing called a tax refund, which means i can go see bjork!!!! in washington state this weekend!! (i know i AM crazy. but it's bjork. and i also get to see my good friend brit who lives in seattle.)

is that i'm here and i'm not feeling lost like i thought i might...

is that i live in this country which is so big it covers 4 time zones

and i grew up here in Virginia, and even though i have been in more than half of the states, i still have not really explored so much of this one.



What's Not Strange Now...

is that i miss all the amazing people i met in europe

is that i am really enjoying being alone...having a house all to myself(my mom is out of town for a week)...so i was travelling alone, but i was never ever really alone

is that i love having all my music and clothes and books and art supplies and driving a car

i am still thinking that i would like to create a community with some good people, so now i'm choosing to do things that will help me realize this vision. maybe it won't happen for a few years, so that gives me time...to learn some more, get some more experience growing food, talk to people who have done this before, find more good people who want to do this, make some money, and i would like to work with children in nature. so i'm going to find an internship or job at an alternative school or camp where children are learning holistically, experientially, and close to the earth.

until then, i've got some dancing to do

and i turned on my cell phone

and just because i'm not technically traveling anymore doesn't mean my adventures are over...so i'm gonna keep blogging i think, so if you're curious, check in here sometimes. oh.... and let's give you some pictures now.

Lazy Bike Tour 2007

So, i am back in Vienna now to tell my story. Actually we returned almost a week ago... making what was supposed to be a bike tour from Vienna, Austria down through Italy for an indefinite amount of time, possibly the whole summer, performing and making crafts on the street to earn money for food, and possibly going to the island of Sardenga to live in caves near the beach for a while... making it actually a one-week bike tour of southeastern Austria, and parts of Hungary.
which is just fine.
as i said before, Sigh, the other American going with us, decided not to come, going back to the States a day before we left on our bicycles. We were sad about this for many reasons, one being that he is Super Bicycle Repair Man. oh well, we´ll miss you, Bye Sigh.

Day 1: Thursday: Finally!!
So we took off on our bikes from Soffi´s apartment in Vienna...
We didn´t leave until 5 in the evening, giving us a late start, but at least we could get out of the city. The Danube River flows right through Vienna, and there are really good bike paths along it, so we followed those east, toward Slovakia and Hungary. We only rode for about an hour or two before we decided to find a spot in the forest to sleep.
It was a beautiful place to sleep, the moon full, and no tent this night. It is such a wonderful experience to wake up at dawn to the sound of hundreds of birds, open your eyes, look up, and see the trees and the sky. This is where i first heard the sound of the cuckoo bird, which would wake me up every morning for the next week.

Day 2: Friday: Lazy Day
We took our time getting out of our sleeping bags, drinking tea, and eating rice and beans for breakfast. By 10 or 11 in the morning we were back on our bikes, riding east along the Danube. This route is almost completely flat, making it a good way to start the trip, since we had done no physical training.
I think we rode only for a few hours before we stopped in a town called Orth to buy food and rest a little, and then we found ourselves a nice grassy field outside of the little town, and ate lunch there. We ended up sitting there for at least 2 hours, napping, because none of us slept very well the night before on the hard forest floor.
I was starting to think we should hurry up and keep going, but then i asked myself why? We don´t have to hurry. This is our time, our bike tour, and if we want to lie around in the sun all day, then we will. So this is when i accepted the fact that this was to be a lazy bike tour.
While we sat there, we decided that we would like to visit the Neusiedlr See, a large lake south of Vienna, which would be beautiful, and also on the way to Soffi´s friends´ house in the countryside. So, since we were on the north side of the river, we decided to take the "ferry" across to the south side. We took our bikes down onto a kind of boat i am used to being a ferry. Then the man working there, opened a gate on the side, and started putting our bikes on this little wooden motor boat, that only had room for us, our bikes and the ferry man. Less than 5 minutes later, we were on the other side of the river, looking for the bike route.
Now, we hadn´t brought on any bike maps, just a couple of road atlases, so we were relying on signs, people, and Axel´s compass (which had helped us on a long walk we took in Spain a couple months ago). Luckily, Austria has great bike routes, with a lot of signs, so just when we thought maybe we didn´t know where we were going, a sign would appear to help us.
We rode a few more hours on dirt roads through farmlands, seeing many big rabbits, pheasants, and storks. Eventually, when it was starting to get dark, we walked our bikes into some forest, making sure no one saw us, and put up the tent. I was going to sleep outside again, but just as i got in my sleeping bag, it started to rain, so i climbed into the tent with Soffi and Axel. I´m really glad we brought a tent.

Day 3: Saturday: The Lake
Sleeping in the tent, as we would do for the rest of the week, makes it easier to sleep later, because you don´t realize how late it is. So in the late morning, we started again, following the signs we had found yesterday toward the lake. That day, we rode through lots of farmland and small towns, and by the evening, we had made it to the lake. This time, we were in a national park, so we had to find a really good hiding place to camp, and we did, but it was right next to the bike path, and when we heard people going by, we would have to duck down, and be really quiet. I think we could have gotten a ticket if we had gotten caught.
It rained again that night, and was still a little rainy in the morning, and we were thinking we should stop being so lazy, so we could get to the friends´ house, where it would be dry. I think rain is one of the worst things that can happen to a bike tour, even if you do have a tent and rain gear.

Day 4: Sunday, Axel´s Unlucky Day
Aaaah...Sunday, cloudy, cool, wet, a little rainy... so we might as well sleep in. This we did very well--i think until 11 or 12. We took our time getting packed and ready to go. As we sneaked out of our perfect hiding place, i looked over at Axel, struggling to push his beautiful bicycle up the bumpy, grassy hill.
Axel´s bicycle: fire sticks tied in place, folder with art paper for painting safe and dry under the waterproof cover, and even a hand-painted flag, one side a pirate flag, the other a star. But there was something not right about it all:
"How are your tires, Axel?" i asked, hoping that i was wrong. Looking down, "they are both totally flat" he said with a smile on his face.
We spent another hour, while Axel repaired the three holes in his tubes, probably caused by the rose bushes we were camping in. At least, now i have learned how to use a patch repair kit.
We ride less than 8 kilometers to the next town, and there is the surfing World Cup (windsurfing - this is a lake). But we only stop so Axel can fix his flag, which is falling down. We don´t stay for the Surf World Cup because we want to make it as far as we can toward Soffi´s friends´ house because we are tired of being wet. So we decided not to stop until we get to Sopron, a town in Hungary, down the eastern side of the lake, around the southern side, and a little bit south. It should only take us about 2 hours, we thought.
We were making pretty good time, riding riding riding, to the border, almost to Hungary. And then the man asks for our passports. Shiza! Axel has forgotten his. So we turn around, going back to the last town, not far, to eat and reorganize.
This is when Axel says it is his unlucky day. The flat tires, the flag, the passport, and we remember that the zipper on the bag carrying his tent also broke. Poor Axel... But he is still smiling, even when he is says, "I AM SO ANGRY!!" - he is laughing.
We decide to take the ferry across the lake the next day, but tonight, we just watch the sunset over the lake, and cute little goose families (even though i hate geese because they´re mean), drink some magic tea, zauber!, laugh a lot and go to sleep hidden in some trees.

Day 5: Monday: Goodbye Axel :(
Unfortunately, when we woke up this morning, it was still Axel´s unlucky day. He was in a lot of pain, and needed to go home. I mean, he was okay, but not enough to ride the bike anymore. So we spent our laziest day at the lake, lying in the sun, eating and drinking. Around 4:30, we took the ferry boat to the other side, and waited for Axel´s mom to come and pick him up. It was so strange to think that after 4 days of riding our bikes (okay, 4 lazy days), his mother could drive only an hour to come pick him up.
Soffi and i actually left before his mother came because it was getting dark, and we wanted to get to Sopron -- we could go there now, since Axel without his passport was going home -- and find a place to camp before dark...
As soon as we left Axel, it took us about 10 minutes to get to the border, and this is when the hills began. They weren´t so hard, but i was definitely thinking about getting off and walking a couple times. We made it to the city, and asked some people where a camping place was. Some people spoke English, and the others spoke German, so we were lucky because Hungarian is a very hard language, and neither of us knew any. Three separate groups of people sent us to the same camping place, our first time camping legally. And when we get there, the guy working there has to call his boss to see if it´s okay. We are confused, and then when he says it´s okay, and he´s showing us to a grassy field where we can put our tent, we ask him how much it costs, and he says nothing. We are more confused, but happy.
Later, the only other camper there, a German woman, who is on a walking tour, tells us that the campground is actually closed, and that´s why it is free. So, we still haven´t paid for sleeping once on this whole trip. Cool.

Day 6: Tuesday: no maps
No more lazy bike tour for Soffi and me. We really want to make it to her friend´s house by Wednesday, the next day, and compared to the distance we had already gone, it looked like a long way. So we ate a good breakfast in Hungary, and then headed south toward Austria again. As soon, as we started riding, it started raining, of course. And as soon as it started raining, my bike chain got stuck. As i was trying to fix it, it started raining cats and dogs... and chickens and pigs. i was soaked in 5 minutes. I started walking my bike, wondering where Super Bicycle Repair Man was at that moment, and when i started coasting my bike downhill, playing with the gears, my chain fixed itself. cool. and then it stopped raining, and the sun came out. awesome. and then we were at the border. All this in 15 minutes.
Then we spent the rest of the day riding up big hills through farmland, and forest, And riding Down big hills, which is why i didn´t mind the hills, because it was so fun to go down these big hills, i couldn´t stop laughing sometimes.
This is the day i really wish we had some sort of bike route map, but really, i don´t think they exist. We stopped in every small town, every 15 minutes, looking at all the different directions of bike routes, checking our road atlas and compass, and hoping we were choosing the right direction. But in the end it all worked out. We made it back into Hungary and to a camping place, where all the people were older German people, and we only had to pay 3 euros each, and we got hot showers!

Day 7: Wednesday: 9 hours
More big hills, more beautiful farmland and forest, more rabbits, deer, more rain, feeling lost on dirt roads in Hungarian forest, more bike chain trouble (but not too bad), until finally 9 hours later, we made it to Soffi´s friends´ house.
Maria and Norbert, are an older couple, living in a very very small town in the southeast of Austria. She is an herbalist and gardener, and he is a builder and an artist. When we arrived, just as the streetlights were turning on, we found no one in the house. So we went back to the gardens, and found them with their flashlights looking at frogs in their pond. If i hadn´t been so tired, i would have been really excited and wanted to look too. But they took us into the house, told us to take hot showers, and made us a wonderful dinner. They even washed our clothes. We ate and ate and then went to bed. Aahhh, bed. so comfortable. i felt so lucky to be there, and also like i had really earned it.

Day 8: Thursday: Discovery
We slept until 11 in the morning, unable to make ourselves leave such comfortable beds. And when we went into the kitchen, there was bread and jam and tea on the table waiting for us. Thank you so much!
We ate breakfast for a long time, and then took a tour of the place.
Soffi had told me that i had to see this house a lot before we even left on our bike tour, because they had built it all themselves and there were beautiful gardens, and everything, but i was not prepared for what i found.
Norbert had studied theater set design in a university, so entering each room was like entering a whole new world. A bathroom was designed in a Tuscany style. And it sounds like it would be really cheesy, but it´s exactly the opposite. Each room feels completely natural and perfect and real, not fake at all. I don´t even know if i could describe it. There are many spaces for painting and other artwork, an herb drying room, a sewing room, little doors to the roof, oh, you really have to see it to believe it. There is even a beautiful meditation room. Sorry i can´t show you pictures here.
The gardens are so beautiful, and they even have four ducks, and then finally we made it to the pond that they had built. Soffi and i spent the rest of the day sitting on the wooden walkways on the pond, talking, resting, watching frogs and fish and birds, and drinking tea with Maria and Norbert. This place is truly magical. I really want to live in a place like this one day.
After our relaxing day, Norbert put our bikes in his van and took us to the train station. Completely satisfied with our bike tour, Soffi and i were happy to take a train back to Vienna. Maybe one day, i will return to Europe, and we can actually do a bike tour through Italy...or maybe to Istanbul...or to Greece?

We´re Going!!
in 2 hours, we are meeting at Soffi´s place.
Soffi, Axel, and me
Our plans: ride east along the Danube
Then,
maybe go north through Czech Republic, where we´ve never been before
or go south through Austria, where there is a big lake and Soffi´s friends´ house

We´ll be back in Vienna in a couple weeks because then,
i´m flying home!
to my mommy
in DC

but for now i´ll be ridin´ my bike

waiting is hard.
especially when it is because other people are not ready. i am learning about the differences between travelling alone and travelling with a group.
if i were going on this bike trip alone, i would be on a bicycle by now. but my friends aren´t ready. but, if i were going alone, i wouldn´t be in vienna, probably, and i probably wouldn´t have a free bike i could borrow, and i probably wouldn´t have really amazing people letting me stay in their really amazing apartments and showing me around the city, taking me to beautiful parks, crazy concerts, botanical gardens and restaurants with all-you-can-eat yummy food for cheap.
so i guess the waiting could be worse.
but all this waiting just makes me wonder if we´re actually going.
travelling with a group is just a little more complicated. timing is more important. deciding where to go is harder...getting organized takes more organization.
but hopefully by the end of the week, we´ll be on our way, and i´ll see how nice it is to travel with other people.
oh yeah, i almost forgot...waiting while hitchhiking is way harder than this. okay i can stop whining now. i´m having a great time here.

ICH LIEBE FRÜHLING!!
i think that means I LOVE SPRING!! in german
at least i hope it does because i love spring!
and rivers, like the Danube
and ducks, like the mallard ducks floating/swimming in the Danube
and flowers and trees
and riding my bike through all of these things
and lying in the grass in the park

it makes me so happy, the springtime. does anyone know if there is a magical land where it is always spring? because i would like to go there.

and,
our bike trip, which was supposed to begin today, is a teeny bit delayed until thursday. but we´re going! but now we are only 3, not 4. and i don´t think we will go to italy, or at least i won´t.... because i am becoming more and more ready to go back to the states. so maybe we will do a short 3 weeks or one month bike tour through eastern europe...hungary...czech republic...slovenia...
...i´m not sure...
...check back in a week or so for the latest change of plans....

i write to you now from vienna, austria. yes. i made it. safely. and quickly. even though it felt like forever. 8 days. how many rides? oh, i think it was 16. how many beds? 2. 2 nights out of 7, people offered us their house. how many countries? 5. spain. france. switzerland. germany. austria. how many times did i feel like i was going crazy, wondering why didn´t we just take a bus? about 53. but mostly i knew that we were doing a revolutionary thing. good. i was reminded of this when people would tell us that they used to hitchhike when they were young. so we weren´t crazy. but that they almost never see anyone doing it anymore. we were meeting some really wonderful people. how many people asked us what we thought of george bush? at least half. how many times did the police come and tell us we had to move to a different place? 4 or 5. how many ticks did i find on me after sleeping in the woods one night? 3 itty bitty ones. how many other hitchhikers did we meet? one guy with his guitar and his dog. and 2 girls who were on their way to a building job. it is an old german tradition that people who have just spent 3 years in a building apprenticeship spend 3 years and one day travelling around, spending no money, not allowed to go within a 50 km radius of their home, working at different places, wearing these traditional black and white uniforms, and letting other people help them. we met both the guy with his dog and the 2 girls at the last gas station. once, in spain, we also saw 3 punk kids with a dog, playing music by the side of the highway, with their dog. people gave us so much: coffee, bread, smiles, honks, rides of course, beds, meals, luck, water, a little money even, advice, and most importantly the knowledge that at least there are still some people in the world who have not subscribed to the idea that governments and media try to sell to people everywhere that you should be afraid of people you don´t know, especially people who are "different".
It is so interesting to watch how people react to seeing 2 people standing with their thumbs out. Some people are happy(staring and smiling as they drive by), some are pitying(frowning and shaking their heads), some disapproving (shaking their fingers at us), some outraged (staring, shaking their heads, their fingers, frowning, scowling, and speeding away), and some just downright confused (staring with their eyes glazed over and mouths hanging open). Many people stopped, but were going the wrong direction. Some of the friendliest people were the truck drivers. We got no rides from them, but only because they were going to the wrong place for us, or because they can´t take 2 people.
After this experience, i think i will never hitchhike such a long distance again. Maybe somewhere close, or one city to the next, but no more. It takes a lot of energy. Some people think we are just trying to get something for free. Some people work hard for their money which pays for their transportation. We spent hours standing in the sun, asking people if they can take us, bypassing the money, just working directly for the transportation. But when one day, i have a car or something, which will be run on biodiesel, i will always pick up a hitchhiker, and if i can, even go out of my way to take them to a good place.
I heard that there is a new movie coming out about a hitchhiker who kills people. Great.

I am so happy to be in Vienna now. i just wish i knew a little more German than how to count to 10 and beir ist gut. Sigh, Soffi, Axel, and i should be leaving in a week or so on our bicycle trip through italy. it´s really going to happen! and then maybe i will head home?? i can never be sure.

hola,
hopefully this is the last time i will be saying that, because we are on our way to austria now. sigh and i are in barcelona(unfortunately), but we´re taking the train outside the city, and if we are lucky, we could be in france by the night. it´s only been one day since we started our journey, but already there are plenty of crazy stories to tell, which i promise to tell soon, but now we are in a hurry. but just wanted to check in(mom), say that i´m safe, and actually slept in one of the most comfortable beds i´ve slept in since i got to spain last night. people are really cool around here.
hasta luego

just a short one today, just so certain people(mom) know i´m safe and alive and not drowned in the ocean or kidnapped by gypsies(whom, by the way, i have yet to encounter, let alone be worried about, which is what people are telling me all the time "watch out for those gypsies") or fallen off of a cliff or joined some punk beach cult that makes me swim in the ocean naked everyday, make bread for the beach folk, and live in a valley with fresh running water, the bluest water i´ve seen since belize and a half fallen down castle. but i did get a little wet because my "vacation" got rained on a little bit. and just so you know this tarp and rope thing works just as well as any tent. even though i wish i still had my tent, which got ripped apart at burning man.
i´m on my way to valencia tonight, on the bus, to meet my friend who´s supposed to go to vienna with me. but i haven´t heard from him yet. so maybe i´m going to spend the weekend in valencia. if he decides not to come, i´m not sure i´m still going to vienna. maybe to another wwoof farm in spain. or something else. still living day by day.
so....we´ll see what happens...

back into the unknown. my last days in spain. i feel at home here. but today i go where i don´t know anyone. but it´s okay because i have coffee and a bottle of rum. oh and chocolate. like when little kids take their blanky and teddy bear to school with them, they are safe and confident. so i bring rum and chocolate. unfortunately these things don´t last forever, but i think i´m old enough now to make it on my own.
the beach of san pedro, in cabo de gata, is supposed to be beautiful. and i´m going there for a week. kind of like a vacation. i won´t be working for anyone for a little while now. i am free. are you free? i may be travelling alone. but i never feel alone. i meet such wonderful people here, and keep in contact with family and friends back home.
i have some cuts on my hand to remind me of my good friend funky, the cat. and dog hairs on my coat from djembe. i hope the garden i´ve been spending my days in remains beautiful and that some of the seeds i planted will grow. i hope i can one day create a place as beautiful as the valle de sensaciones. did i ever tell you the website? www.sensaciones.de
and yesterday, a rainy day after the party, we watched the movie, loose change. hopefully you all have seen it.
i´m on my way to the beach now. hasta luego

i looked down at the squished snail on my thumb as i was taking down the borrowed tent, and thought, "oh". i had been thinking that i would get a tattoo of a snail on my hand recently, partly because i love snails, partly because i am a snail, with my home on my back, and also to remind myself to slow down, and take things one moment at a time. But i guess i don´t need one, as long as there are enough snails around for me to absent-mindedly squash, although he was mostly intact, so it was more of a pinch.
i was leaving the dragon festival because my festival buddy had abandoned me for madrid, and i had just spent the last night feeling a little sick, very uncomfortable, and wishing that i were out dancing to the awesome, and really loud, irish music that was played live for st. patty´s day. i met some irish people, and they told me they don´t waste time worrying about what color to wear on a day like this. every minute is needed for a day made exclusively for getting as pissed as possible.
people came from all over europe, england, portugal, czech republic, france, germany, holland, probably more to come to this free festival with so much music, good people, and in such a beautiful river valley in southern spain. after two good nights, and one sick night, and my new friend gone, i decided to hitchhike back to the valle de sensaciones. this is the beautiful place i had been wwoofing at for the two weeks previous to the festival.
the first person to pick me up was the guy who had taken all of us wwoofers to the festival in his van. mathias used to wwoof at this place a few years ago, and still lives in the area, so he visits a lot. he was on his way back to the festival, so he dropped me off at a better spot to hitchhike from. 10 minutes later, a nice man from barcelona, picked me up and took me all the way to where i needed to go. it is so nice to know spanish well enough to carry on a conversation with someone. no uncomfortable silences or sign language, although that can be fun sometimes too, but not after this weekend.
so the snail, which i apologized to and then sleepily flicked onto the wet grass, the snail reminded me that i don´t have to see the whole world in one year, or even all of europe in one month, or the rest of spain in one week. i had been trying to decide whether to go to this beautiful beach called san pedro, which is in a beautiful national park near here, where some people are living in caves, or whether to go to a rainbow gathering in northern portugal, or the rainbow community near the dragon festival, or walk the GR-7 from southern spain to greece, or go to another wwoof farm in northern spain, or go to a raw food ecovillage wwoof farm in southern spain, or just go home and hug my mommy and get a job, letting it drive me crazy. So when i got back to homebase, where i had left a lot of my stuff for the weekend, the people there reminded me what a horrible situation this is, to have so many wonderful options in my life.
In the end, i decided to stay at the valle at least until the end of march, which is when i am hoping to meet up with another american wwoofer i met, the festival buddy who left me, and we can hitchhike to vienna to meet the two austrian wwoofers we met, and we can ride bikes down through italy.
So, this... along with gardening, falling in love with funky the cat (sorry sebastian), living in a circus caravan and a hexagon house, eating really good birthday cake for my birthday, meeting really great people, climbing mountains, helping to build living houses, wondering if i can really grow a chair, planning to wash my clothes tomorrow on the bicycle-powered washing machine, learning new constellations because i can see so many stars every night, finding myself surrounded by people speaking german and wondering how this happened, eating knudel, running out of money, wishing i had all of my clothes, missing all of you, and thinking about finally learning how to play chess but probably not but maybe... is what i´ve been doing since i last wrote on this blog, which i´ve recently updated to the new version. hopefully you can tell the difference.
oh, and the invitation still stands for anyone who wants to come out and join me on my travels. you don´t need that much money, because i´m alive and happy without it, which means you could be too. but join soon because the offer may end--who am i kidding, i could be doing this for years. especially if i get that tattoo, or stay away from catalunya where they were eating all those snails.

spoons in the compost, knives in the swimming pool:

i´ve learned that chickens do kiss, especially when you save their rooster from being stuck in the net.
i got to eat the last mango of the season from the farm today...mmmmmmmmm...
i´m growing lots of broccoli at the farm, which reminds me of our three brave little broccolis at 2039 Pine Street, who survived that crazy hailstorm the day Andy and I went to see Widespread Panic.
Sitting on the couch on the porch with Mathias also reminds me of 2039 Pine Street. It really is one of my favorite places on the world...a couch on a porch? or 2039 Pine Street? well the two of them combined are fantastic, but i´ll take just one any day.
Carnaval is better than Burning Man. I´ve decided. It´s free. It´s in the city, people are dancing in the streets, wearing their costumes and I saw Pac-Man being chased by those scary ghosts that are always chasing him, but this was real life. And it was all night. So the alcohol wasn´t free and there wasn´t any drum´n´bass, but there were plenty of guys wearing short skirts and art cars everywhere.
I´m leaving this farm soon, maybe to go to another island, or maybe to go to another wwoof farm in mainland Spain, or some other option that has yet to present itself.
Okay, well, keep thinking about this community idea guys okay, i´ve already got 1 or 2 people who seem to be interested. I´m so far away from everyone i know, and i am technically homeless, but i am serious. One day, it´s gonna happen.

an american girl in tenerife

i am in this weird world. where everyone is speaking my language, but then i realize no one speaks my language. i thought i spoke english, but it´s not true. the english people speak english. even australians speak more english than i do. i thought i was in spain, or at least islands that belong to spain. but there are so many tourists here and english people living on the island, that i am lucky if i get to practice my spanish at all in a week.
and these people who supposedly speak the same language as me, they don´t eat eggplants, butternut squash or zucchini. they eat aubergines, pumpkins, and courgettes (spelling?). they don´t eat dessert either, they eat pudding.
oh, but it is strange, to be the only american on this island. it´s highly possible. i don´t know why it´s strange, but it is. just believe me.

life on the farm is still nice. the family is on vacation in england, so it´s really just me and matthias, the other wwoofer, running the place. there are 9 parts of the farm, separated by concrete walls, on different levels, because the farm is on a big hill. but we talk about turning #1 into a labyrinth, #2 is going to be the miniature golf course... what was #3 going to be?, oh, and #4 is going to be a field of violets. that one was my idea. or we might just have the biggest party on the island. or we might just keep feeding the chickens, eating bananas, and grow some vegetables.

it´s really nice to help other people with their farms and their businesses, and learn a lot in the process, but i am realizing every day how much i really would like my own land, or my own land with other people. i want to build treehouses in the forest and grow lots of gardens, and fruit too. and so much more!! the way that we want to do it. and i am telling you all this, because i am wondering if any of you want to come and be part of this we, or know of anyone who has land already and wants to start something. Yeah, that´s the hard part. Land. Money. Where? How? Who? I am hoping that it will be easier than it sounds, but until then, i am just going to be writing down all my ideas, and taking people´s names down who might be interested. It would be nice to find some land with a castle on it. but i guess that might be a little out of my price range, not that land without a castle on it is in my price range. but a river would be nice too. and we could have a bamboo forest and goats and ducks. does anyone feel me on this one? okay, well we don´t have to have goats, but there have to be at least 2 ducks...

oh, and i´m still looking for someone to go on a canoe with me to row, row row our boat gently down the stream. and i think i still want to go down through mexico, central america, and probably south america too. i mean why not? okay, well, because there´s still africa to cover, and eastern europe. anyone want to ride a camel with me from morocco to timbuktu? my sources say it takes about 52 days. that´s less than 2 months.

okay, well, there´s my little advertisement. you have some time to think about these things because i´m probably not going to be done with spain until summer, or after summer, and really, i have no idea what´s going to happen in the next month. Except i´m going to the Festival of the Green Dragon on the 16th of March, which is a free music and arts festival in orgiva, in granada.

LOVE!!

and then there were 2...
so now there are only 2 of us wwoofers left at this farm. there is a wonderful woman that lives here, with her 2 children, a 7 year old boy, and a 9 year old girl. Now that there are only 2 wwoofers, we are all eating together, and it feels more like the other wwoof farms i´ve been at. before, all of us wwoofers were a lot more separate from the family.
so, still getting to know the chickens, maybe a little too well. i caught two of them in a little box that i didn´t realize they could get into, which i now call the love shack. oh my, were they embarrassed when i caught the hen and the rooster in there together. and i have also been getting to love this family of black cocker spaniels, mama dog, papa dog, and 5 little puppies, oh, they are so cute, even if they do make caca all over the house. i was taking care of them, feeding them and cuddling them and loving them for the last week while their mama was gone to england. did i mention how cute they are!
last weekend, 5 of us, wwoofers and friends of wwoofers, rented a car, and drove up to Mt. Teide, which is a dormant volcano, and actually the highest point in all of Spain. we didn´t go all the way to the top, but pretty close. there was a lot of snow on the mountain, and we went for a hike down below the snow line. it´s really a beautiful place.
what else what else? well, i´ve decided to stay at this farm until around the 24th of february, but i think i´ll still get a chance to go to carnaval for a couple days. i´ve gotta start working on some costumes. i´ve got lots of palm leaves, birds of paradise flowers, and some red prickly pear cactus juice. hmmmm...now what can we do with these?
i´m still missing all of my good friends and family, but now that it´s been 4 months, i´m starting to feel farther and farther away. but this is what travelling is all about.

greetings from the funny farm...
so i´ve been here on the island of Tenerife for about 2 weeks now, wwoofing of course, at what i have just begun to call the funny farm. i wouldn´t say it´s bad here, just kinda funny. there are 4 1/2 other wwoofers too. How can there be half a wwoofer? Well, Willow doesn´t do that much work, but he does do some, he feeds nitrogen to banana plants all over the farm, and he´s really good with a hammer. But the thing is that he´s not even 2 years old yet. I´ve been having a really good time hanging out with him, and he reminds me of my little friends from the Elm Tree, and i am remembering how much i love to be with children. But unfortunately for me, he and his parents left today for the next wwoof farm, leaving just 3 of us.
But it doesn´t make the funny farm any less funny, well maybe a little, he is a pretty funny guy. I can´t really explain why it´s a funny farm, but let me just emphasize that by funny i mean crazy. I think of the song Manic Monday, even on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
It´s nice though, there are plenty of avocados from the farm, and bananas sometimes. These are the 2 main crops being grown. We have a nice big salad everyday, all grown on the farm. And i´m making friends with the chickens, and planting seeds, and the other wwoofers are cool, so it all balances out.
wwoofing is just so awesome. you call someone up and ask if you can come, you ask a few questions, talk for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden you´re living together for a month, and you barely know each other, but 9 times out of 10, it really works out. Okay well 8 times out of 10 it really works out, 1 time it doesn´t work at all, and 1 time it´s just a little weird, but good. These statistics should not be taken as fact.
So, 2 more weeks here, and then i don´t know, Carnaval. Yes, i think i will take a vacation from wwoofing for about 10 days to put on costumes and party. Well maybe not all 10 days, but until i get tired or realize that i should start saving my money so i can get off this island in March, which is when i think i will go back to the mainland of Spain.
who knows though?

welcome to the wonderful world of whims. here in the land of christy, we get an idea of what to do, and we just go. forget about research, planning, reservations...what fun would there be in those things? in my world, it is easier to go somewhere hours away by bus and ask in person how much the ferry is, instead of calling someone or looking up on the internet how much it is. or even what time the bus leaves.
so i got to the bus station in alicante around 10 in the morning, but the bus didnt leave until 3. so a little waiting. then a bus ride where i watched some movie with julia roberts and hugh grant in spanish. i get to granada, halfway, and find out that i have to wait 7 hours, until 3 in the morning, for the next bus to cadiz. it ends up being a good thing, because i get to cadiz in the morning about 24 hours after i left the farm. i get off the bus, and head to the hostel my lonely planet guide told me about. oh, and in the world of christy, we dont take taxis, even when we have money, and the taxis are right there across the street from the bus station. so i walk for about fifteen minutes with my backpacks, and finally find the hostel, which isnt a hostel anymore. mierda! so i find the next cheapest hotel in the lonely planet, get there and it says cerrado, closed. one down the street, closed as well. mierda! mierda! mierda! but in my world, i know there is always something good that happens next. so i walk a little bit to find a place to sit down and think. and after a couple blocks i see the banyan trees. ohhhh how i love banyan trees. it is my favorite tree. so it must be a good sign. i am about to sit down on a bench underneath it, when i look over to the left, and i see the tourist office. i figure at least i can ask when the ferry leaves. maybe it will be leaving today, and i can just get on it now. the guy tells me about casa caracol, the snail house, the youth hostel in town. not in my lonely planet guide. i get there, and nick the owner tells me to get myself a rough guide guidebook. but anyway, i can relax now.
later that day, i find out that the ferry is 260 euros to the canary islands, and doesnt leave until saturday. 5 days away... no way.
so tomorrow, i will take a bus to seville, a little backtracking, but only an hour and a half away, and then i take a plane to tenerife, the island where i will be for at least one month, probably 2. one month at the wwoof farm, and then there is carnaval and a rainbow gathering.
i am happy that i came here to cadiz to this hostel because there are so many great people staying here. i feel like i am on vacation. i am not the one sweeping the floor, folding the laundry...and i dont have to wake up at anytime, so i can stay out until 4 in the morning. which is what i did. i went with 5 or 6 people to reggae night at this bar. we danced, drank a little beer, and met some other travellers. i actually met a guy from colorado there. crazy.

so, this is how i do it. and i like it. tomorrow i have no idea what will happen. i know there is a woman, with 3 kids, and 2 other wwoofers. and a 1 hour time difference. i have directions to get to the farm. i dont know how it will be, what i will be doing. but i think i will be warm, and i know i will be on an island. thats all i need to know for now.

well, i was finally going to give you some pictures, but this computer hates me, so you are all just going to have to use your imaginations. which is what i've been doing. i've been building castles out of firewood, rescuing princesses from dragons, and casting spells of invisibility. as well as some sea kayaking, where i realized that it is harder than it looks. oh, and of course, we celebrated the new year. here in spain, there is no ball dropping, or anything like that. once the bells start ringing, you know the ones that ring 12 times for midnight, the bells in the church in the village across the valley, you have until the bells stop ringing to eat your grapes, 12 of them (which is actually easier than it sounds). so there was a group of about 15 people here, mostly all from Spain, and after an incredible dinner, a few drinks, and some bad dancing, we went outside, and waited for the bells, once the bells were done, and the grapes eaten, there were fireworks, which were pretty awesome. And then a lot more bad dancing. Well, i guess it wasn't bad enough to say that twice.
So a few days ago, the whole family, got in the van with all their camping gear, which includes surfboards and a kayak, and mattresses, to go to Portugal for about 8 days. i have been here with the grandmothers and grandfather, doing a little cleaning, and a little help with plowing the fields, but mostly just relaxing, reading, playing with the cats, watching movies, and some walking. i have also been planning where i am going next. i thought this time for sure i would go to ibiza, but i changed my mind. and it's my adventure, so i can do that. i've decided to take a bus to Cadiz tomorrow, which is all the way on the other side of the country, the western side in the south, just below Portugal (which really means i should have figured this out before they went to Portugal, and gotten a ride there, but oh well). I will stay in a hostel for a few days, and then i will take the 48 hour ferry to the Canary Islands. I am actually really excited about this, and i hope that i find a wwoof farm that i can stay at there. i've written to 3, and there are like 10 more as well, but i figure, even if i don't hear from them soon, it will be warm there, warmer than here, which is pretty warm, so i can just camp for awhile on the beach...or some other kind of craziness.

oh, and i guess if you want to see some pictures of where i've been the past few weeks, you can go to www.aqua-ventura.com