so sorry about not blogging the last week, ive either been super busy or super un motivated. but due to my mother complaining about me not blogging, here you go.
also, im motivated.
so lets go through my week
last friday: i dont really remember anything else other than waking up at 430 am to milk the sheep and work around the barn and then i made stuffed peppers for lunch and passed out in a 6 hour nap until dinner (which was more sleep than i got the night before!)
saturday: i dont quite remember what happened in the morning, but i know that sarah melanie and i went to dinner. earlier that day sarah, mauritzio, tamara and i went to a small farmers market in belleforte, about 3 km away from the farm. sarah and i dressed up and we ended up walking home bc it was only like 10 or so stands so it wasnt very exciting. we got home around 930 and right away melanie sarah and i walked to radicondoli, a whole 5 k, not far, but all uphill and in nice clothes and windy streets. it was nice though, we talked about everything from the amish to abortion to a.d.d. to really everything. we had dinner around 1015 and stayed until 1230. i had salami on this puffy baked bread, cecchi beans with salvia and a pizza with sausage and other delicious things. giovanni picked us up and drove us home.
sunday: i went to san gimignano with melanie and tamara. its so beautiful and its my moms favorite place so i really wanted to go. also, they have gelato thats won the best gelato in the world for 3 years. i had passion fruit and pear. we also brought home and kg for the fam, including blackberry with lavender, melone, cafe, pistacchio, crema, e albicocca. YUM. melanie and i walked around and went to a torture museum, and to say the least, chastity belts are terrifying. we got giovanna a present and went home. i guess we didint really do anything else that day.
monday: i was very unhappy because the whole day i stayed in and pitted fruit and cleaned. the last week ive really just been inside doing housework and cleaning, which makes me really unhappy and i start stress eating bc im really anxious so i ate a ton for the last week. i had a nice skype chat with my mom and she and giovanni chatted. he mentioned that some wood needed to be moved, so i volunteered and pretty much moved a huge pile of wood for an hour and a half, but it made me really happy bc i was out and active and doing something that i felt was productive. we have guests here who have rented an apartment for a year, and we were chatting and they own a horse farm near here and invited me to come and work for them for the day (yay!)
tuesday: got up at 730 and drove to the farm with them at 8. right away we cleaned out the horse stalls for a good hour and a half, which is good bc i was near the horses and i like the smell of horse poop, dont judge. after that, i helped the son (who is quite the fellow i must say) build an electric fence, and he showed me how to use power tools. so i am now about to use a drill! after that he gave me a tour of their HUGE farm via motorcycle, which was quite thrilling if i say so myself. they have 30 pigs (incluidng babies!) which turn into salami every year. then the dad gave me a tour and on their property are 3 abaondoned buildings, including a church with a family buried in it and a school room. everything was very beautiful and im kind of mad that i didnt take pictures! they turned the other building into a tack room for their horses and a kitchen.
so after the tour, they decided it was too hot to work so we headed over to one of the horse trainers houses so they could get bathinsuits. of course i didnt have one so i went in my sport bra and i borrowed the sons shorts. we drove to a natural pool in pisa and hung out and swam for 2 hours. after, we returend back to their farm for lunch, which consisted of a southern italian dish from napoli made with vermicelli spaghetti, giant capers, garlic and tuna. after lunch the son and i worked more on the fence until 530 and then the dad took us to radicondoli for a beer and then we went back to my farm. we had DELICIOUS x 10 chicken for dinner and tiramisu for dinner. i also finally took a shower, which was very much needed after 4 days of being gross. im getting small dreads bc i havnt brushed my hair since i got here, but i did (if you can keep a secret) borrow a little of sarahs facial exfoliator and fancy shampoo. that is the cleanest ive EVER been. like i took a whole 10 minutes just to scrub with soap. then, i watered the veggie garden and….may or may not have stepped on 4 of the new onion plants and severely damaged them….
today: woke up at 645 to start my new hard labor routine. i have to dig 40 cm across by 40 cm deep holes for planting roses. this includes batteling rocks of many sizes and using this huge iron pole to break up the ground. i think i got like 4 done and melanie came and did 1. by then it was around 11. during this time, apartantly the military decided to parachute into our fields and so we went to investigate and heres how our convo went
them; where are you from
melanie; switzerland
them; were from the sky!
and then we left to take a water break which ended up lasting until 3 or 4. so, tonight, melanie sarah and i decided to share our (at least for melanie and i) jewish culture and we made haroset, kugal and latkes for dinner. they were a little frightened of the haroset (“dolce for dinner??”) but they really liked everything, which is good.
okay, it is now 1237 in the am and i need to be up bright and early to move more logs (which i enjoy more than you would realize)!! also, no gap year, but i would like to take a year off and come back next year or even better, just wwoof around the US whenever i get a chance, bc all i need to do really is take a bus somewhere and its like the cheapest thing to do, also a cool way to travel-backpack the US. anyone up for that? if not, its all cool.
also, quick delicious recipe:
take fresh zucchini flowers and leaving them whole, dip them in a mix of flour and water and then fry them and roll them in sugar. MMMMM. also good with salt for an appetizer insteade of a dolce.
p.s. i booked a hostel in florence and i cancelled my one in rome bc im going to stay with adrianos family there (which i am forever grateful for!!!)
much love,
abby
