Update from Afar...

Sorry.  I think this is the second post that includes some hairy details about myself that may make readers think, Geez, Jo!  TMI!  But alas...

I think it's not only bucks who can smell me. I have been hit on more times this week than I can count.  I have gotten asked out to coffee, lunch, what the time was (and then gotten my wrist caressed).  It's been ridiculous.  Harmless, technically, but emotionally disturbing (and stressful) nonetheless.  And don't worry.  I've been safe.  And I'm keeping safe, but still.  It's weird.  I think men can definitely smell me.  Maybe without even knowing they are.  Gross.

Anyway, on to my second to last farm.  This one is ... I don't even know what the town is called.  It's really difficult to find.  But the station is Simpele, Finland, and you'll be able to find it through Google maps on the eastern part of Finland.  I'm excited to go, but I read their profile a few days ago, and I forgot they're vegetarians.  So I may be leaving sooner than I thought.  Anyway, I really want to go to Norway, where the American lady is living a simple Norwegian lifestyle.  She's very nice.  And she has animals.  I think I'll have to WWOOF more in America so that I can learn about animal care.  Or maybe in Australia.  I hear really good things about WWOOFing in Australia. 

So, one thing that I feel like I have learned from being over here.  I think everyone should go overseas and experience people outside of the touristy cities. Most people are surprised to hear that I'm American.  I don't think many Americans travel.  Probably because of the economy and whatnot.  I know times are hard financially, but I encourage you to make international traveling a priority.  If nothing else, to see that the universe does not revolve around America.  I love all that I have learned, and it's a good experience.  But second piece of advice: take someone you like (or love) with you.  Just one person.  Then you decide where to go and what to do, but you have one person to share the experience with.  :)

I think that's all for now.  My train will leave soon.

Love,
Jo 

A quick post about why I don't post more often...

Whew!  It's been a long journey thus far.  And now I continue on my way from Belgium.  I think I'm going to stop in Aachen to go to the spa (because it's cheap and I've never been to one), and then on to Copenhagen for a day and then on to Finland.  It's going to be quite a journey.  I think it takes 24 hours or so to get to Finland, so I've split it in half with Copenhagen.

Anyway, Belgium has been great, probably one of my favorite countries so far.  It's interesting because they all have something different to offer, but I like the diversity of Belgium.  Most people here are multi-lingual because there is not one official language of Belgium, but three (French, German, and "Dutch" or Finnish, depending on who you talk to) and most people also know English.  It's a cute country, very close together, and very nice.

But the time comes to move on.  On to Finland - the last stretch in my journey. Scandinavia.  I'm so excited.  A lot of people think I"m crazy for going this time of year.  But then I explain to them that usually in my state in America, we have 2-3 feet of snow and 6 months of winter.  Then they kind of understand, but probably still think I'm crazy.

I hope to write more soon, but it's tough for a lot of reasons.  I don't want my hosts finding my blog (which they could easily do, as it's linked to the email I've been contacting them with), and I don't often know what to write, or want to write so much that I don't know what to choose.  Then the moment passes because I'm on to my next country.

But don't be upset - I definitely am writing down my experiences for myself and my own records.  I think if you sat down with me, I could answer more of your questions about Belgium, or France, or this host or that host.  We could have a good conversation.  So don't worry - I won't forget (hopefully!) most things...

Hope you all are well.  Much love,
Jo

SO EXCITED

Ok.  Bear with me.  Go to this website:http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coing

Then go to this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince

AWESOME, right?  We're in the middle of making marmalade out of the fruit.  SO EXCITED!!! It's called "coing."  Prounounced KWAH.  (said, of course, through the nose)
...

...

...

...

... you don't get it, do you? ...

...

...

... you're... NOT excited???

...

Ugh.  If Wikipedia could send you the scent, you would understand.  Shice.  How's that for "lost in translation"?

love,
Jo

A Brief Update

Hey, all!

I'm currently sitting in a hotel in Poitiers, France, waiting for 6:00 PM so that I can take the bus in to Mirebeau and be picked up by the bee farmers, Paula and Jean-Marc.  I'll stay there about a week, and leave on the 25th, going to Belgium to help start people create a kindergarten, making natural toys and constructing buildings!  I'll stay there about a week or maybe two.  Now I have no plans after that until I head out to Finland, probably around 10 November.  Maybe earlier, if I can't find a farm.

It's very frustrating emailing multiple farms and getting one or two responses back.  I understand that they are farmers, but come on.  Even some of them list specifically that they would like help this time of year, so I feel there is little excuse.  It's been two or three weeks since I've emailed most of them, so I emailed a few again today.  But who knows if that'll help or not.  It won't help if they don't check their email.

I am doing well.  It gets tiring to travel.  And French travel, I found out is very expensive.  Even after purchasing a Eurail pass, I still have to pay up to 27 euro to reserve a spot on the train - all because the French trains are constantly busy.  In Germany, this is not true.  You can hop on whatever train you want in Germany, as long as you write it down on your Eurail pass. 

At least I had internet today and last night.  It was definitely a blessing.  I thank you so much for your prayers and your support.  Hope you all are doing well in this busy fall season! Blessings to you as you do your projects and papers and programs and plans.  Much love to you all!

One of my email responses ended so quaintly and cutely, so I'm going to steal the phrase.

Heartfull greetings,
Jo

Catching Up

I'm sorry that I haven't written in so long.  It has been an eventful time.  I felt, last week, that I had been here almost two months.  It had only been two weeks.  So, eventful.  And now I must catch you up on things.  I hope that you don't mind, but I am going to try and post a couple of times today... all retroactively.

I was at a farm outside of Lisieux, France, in the region of Normandy.  I was supposed to stay for four weeks and stay with the family - mom - Lucille, dad - Nicolas, children - Etienne and Helene. Lucille was the head of the farm, and I was there to learn about her goats and cows.  It was a beautiful farm, she picked me up from the train station and spoke English well.  They spoke French in the home, but Nicolas and Lucille both spoke English because they had been WWOOFers years ago.  Very nice family.  Lucille told me two principles of the house right away: 1) Help yourself, and 2) No one is a prisoner here.

We started off on Monday morning walking the goats.  Lucille explained that goats are like kids - they eat better when you are around.  She also said it was love season for the goats and her one buck would be mating with the ladies soon... probably that week.  Anyway, she was going to get the milking things ready, so left me with the goats.  The male, a huge buck about 5 feet long with curled horns, came up to me and nudging me.  He started chasing me. He wouldn't leave me alone, and I didn't know what to do.  I knew Lucille would be coming back soon, and I figured I could hold him off until then.  I fell down once, but got up quickly.  I was really afraid he would trample me or bruise my internal organs or something.

When Lucille came, he was still following me like crazy.  She ran over to me, put herself between her and I, and she started whacking him with a huge stick she had.  It broke.  Then, he charged her with his horns down.  He charged her all the way into a tree, smacking her hard.  I didn't know what to do.  This was my first day ever on a farm, and I didn't know how to handle anything.  They both fell to the ground and she planted his horns in the ground, somewhat defeating him temporarily.  He got up and we walked away.

"Are you bleeding?" She asked me.  I said, no, I think I have bruises but I don't think he drew blood.  I was confused. "No, are you bleeding?"  I put two and two together.  It was, after all, love season.

"No.  But I got done a few days ago,"  I confessed.

I thought that maybe it would be the one event and it would be over.  It wasn't, and this story wasn't the worst.  He came after me again two days later, and I decided to leave.  I didn't want to keep defending myself every single day.  It was too exhausting.  And Lucille and I discussed, he wouldn't forget me.  I didn't want to leave.  The family was great, and I was growing closer to them.  But I couldn't stay in the house all day.  I wasn't "learning how to farm."

Lucille set me up with another farm, one nearby, that normally accepted WWOOFers.  After speaking on the phone for quite some time (French ladies sure can talk!), she said that the lady, Veronique, had previously hosted an English girl, so she probably knew enough English for me to stay.  She did have animals, but they were used to having children around.  I got there and found out - she teaches everyone about everything farming.  I sat in on a class from literally 9:30 AM until 5:30 PM, including the lunch we had as a class - of course, all in French.  It was interesting, about medicinal herbs and such.  What I could understand, anyway.  There are field trips who come to her farm basically every Friday.  They learn about apple cidre or make bread and then meet all the animals.  Anyway, I spent days there not knowing what to do or what was being said, or what I was being told to do.  The fact was, Veronique did not have a lot of time and didn't speak much English.  I learned more French, but I also did the wrong thing almost every day because one of us didn't communicate well enough, or didn't have time to explain in depth. 

Anyway, I left, with difficulty due to communication, but made it to Frankfurt, Germany, where I have stayed with my dear friends Andy and Stephanie Jones, for about two weeks.  My first two weeks of getting here and my last two weeks of being here have been like night and day.  Seriously.  The first two weeks stretched on for forever, and these last two seem like I've hardly been in Frankfurt.  I am safe, and now I'll be moving on.  Probably going to Berlin for a day, and then moving on to a farm (with bees!!!) near Poitiers, France.

But anyway, this is the brief BRIEF overview from my time thus far.  And now for one last funny quip, courtesy Andy Jones:

Steph:  Look, there are so many women in dirndls!
Jo:  Yeah, Oktoberfest is over, right?  What is today?  Is there something going on?
Steph: That lady has pink hair.
Jo: Well, maybe when you're 50, you'll want to dye your hair pink.  You know, put some spice in your life. 
Andy:  ...Well, eat a pepper.

Au revoir! 

A Tale from France about Food

Hello, dear blog readers!

Sorry its been a while and my grammar is poor. This is the cost for not bringing my computer to France: paying for the internet, and not always having an american keyboard. oh, what I would give to have my w be in the same spot every time i type!

Anyway, the Paris mess is over. Not that it was a mess, just that it was hectic and interesting to try and see everything in a few days... you know how it is when youre only in a large city and want to see everything...  Anyway, Paris was good. Did not get beef tartar like I wanted to before I left, but like I said, there was not room for everything.

At the hostel; we were served croissants every single morning. A real croissant with REAL butter because they know it'll be eaten promptly because no one can visit Paris without eating ten croissants daily.  I also opened my first bottle of champagne when my hostel roommate (who was from Quebec, Canada and spoke French in her house growing up) and I visited the Eiffel tower at night. It was quite lovely to see the Eiffel Tower (it lights up at the top of each hour and sparkles for five minutes) and drink French champagne.  Even the cheap brand was delicious!

And now, I am at my first farm about an hour and a half away from Paris.  The food here is FANTASTIC also.  The dad, Nicolas, makes delicious bread every day.  The honey is less purified than ours, and seems to melt on the tongue.  The mom, Lucille, makes tons of jams from her fruit trees, and the peach jam is to die for.  The meat was pretty good, but the goat cheese is really where it's at.  It crumbles easily on food and when fresh, can be mixed with Lucille's jam to make a perfect dessert.

I have never been a fan of mushrooms.  The other day, this lady came over to the house when I was the only one there, and she tried to talk to me in French, and I was like uhh... and she gave us wild mushrooms.  lucille sauteed them in butter and I tried one... really tasty. But nothing like American mushrooms.  So I maintain that I do not like MOST mushrooms.

Have you ever had a three minute egg before?  You boil the egg for three minutes, put it in a little stand so it sits upright, take the top off, like a little hat, and dunk buttered bread slices in it and eat the whites out zhen youre through,  Its quite delicious. Im doing it when I come home.  Yum!

And now it is time for me to leave my first farm and head off to the next one.  This family was so wonderful, going above and beyond to make me feel welcome and at home. I hate to leave, I have to though... Into the woods to journey's end...

Sorry for that random reference. And sorry these blogs suck.  I just feel like at the end of the day, the only news you get is weird news that comes to me in the late hours of the day and is, in short, ...weird.  Anyway, hope for better blogs to come.  Much love!
Jo

Welp...

I bought a short time on the internet.  I tried really hard not to. I sent emails from my phone today (or so I thought, until I checked my sent outbox a few minutes ago); I borrowed my room-hostel-mate's computer (which was in Mandarin Chinese, so I accidentally signed on as her to skype and couldn't access any English websites).

I failed.  Also I had cereal with real milk for breakfast this morning.

However, despite this sad post, there is an awesome one coming.... because today was really awesome.  Just internet has been sad.

More soon!
Jo