HOF

Well, I've always wanted to live in a barn loft.

i.e. I've made it! Finally on the farm, and it seems really fantastic. First of all, it's gorgeous. Like, idyllic to the extreme. The house is overgrown with ivy and wildflowers and the fields are beautiful and full of green things and tonight I cooked pasta with wild mushrooms and onions and spinach and fresh herbs all picked right before dinner. I mean dang.

And then of course, when the trio of ducks comes flapping up the road to greet you, you really can't help but laugh. I've also met their two half-wild rabbits that pretty much just run around the yard; their goat, Momo; the two geese; ten chickens, which they keep for eggs; two horses; a herd of about ten cows; and a million bajillion barn swallows ("Schwalbenhof" means Swallow Farm).

Already I've pulled weeds, cooked, fed the horses, and brought in the cows from pasture for the night. And tomorrow is when the fun really starts, at 7am.

Did I mention I live in a barn loft? It's pretty hilarious. Like, my mom would have a heart attack. There's no door and no window panes and a mosquito net over the bed (which is a real bed). Then a couple random pieces of furniture, surrounded by old farming implements and a year's supply of firewood. Basically, it's rustic as hell and totally awesome. Now I just need to build some kind of dresser...

Anyway I'll take pictures really soon, assuming I ever have a free moment during daylight hours. I'm sure I will though. Everyone here is super nice. There's the couple who owns the farm, their two daughters, the two younger farm employees (between 23 and 30 yrs old?), and the adorable old grandma that takes care of the flower garden and of whom I can't understand a damn word because her dialect is so thick. Ah well. It seems great, and they all seem to really know their stuff.

Like I said, photos to come soon. Probably first of my room, then later I'll take some of the farm when I start feeling less like a tourist. Because the ducks are wicked cute.

Verkehr

I was listening to German news radio last night and heard the following traffic report (in approximate translation), which I found endlessly funny:

"...Traffic is slow between Point A and Point B because of a deer on the Autobahn... Between Point C and Point F there is a backup due to people on the road... There is a detour on Road X because of a deer carcass..."

Would that all really be reported in an American traffic report? I don't know, maybe in Wyoming or something.

I also just have to mention that I love grocery shopping in Germany. Every grocery store is as small as Trader Joe's (which was founded, of course, by the people who brought you Aldi), and when you don't feel like a supermarket, there are fruit and vegetable stands on almost every corner where you can buy as many or as few mushrooms as you like while a Turkish man chopping melons with a huge cleaver yells at you to buy peaches you don't want.

Berlin Berlin

It's interesting to me how different it is coming to Berlin this time around. When I got on that plane for my study abroad year, I was majorly freaking out, as is probably understandable. Am I going to make friends? Will people be mean? What if I try to speak German and nothing comes out but choked gurgling?! But this time it's just...easy. I know people, I know the city, I know how to find things to do. In fact, I know how to find events and things in Berlin better than in Chicago. And while my German doesn't feel quite as 100% strong as it did oh those many years ago, it all came back very quickly and it's getting easier day by day. My college degree isn't completely useless! Well, in that sense, at least.

Assorted Berlin activities:
> Birthday party with a friend - boom boom club dancing, fist pumping, etc
> A couple dinner parties, of varying degrees of schmanciness
> Frisbee in the park
> Flea market
> A literary reading
> A trip to the newly restored Neues Museum to see the famous Bust of Nefertiti
> An exhibit showcasing the personal Polaroid photos of Sybille Bergman, a renowned fashion photographer in the BRD

So much to do! Ja ich lieb dich auch, Berlin.

Willkommen in Deutschland

Woah! Here already. And finally getting down to this blog business. I swear, it does not bode well that it's taken me all this time to get things up and running. I hope for this posting business to be a more regular thing once I'm doing farm labor.

But let's back up a minute... Hi! I'm James. You might remember me from such roles as Northwestern University or Chicago. On July 2nd I left on a journey, sure to be deemed "magical," that will take me across the wilds of the Old World and New.

A week was spent at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games with my father and a bunch of people in kilts. I then trekked to New York City, where I was shown a lovely time by various friends who had moved there in the great post-college artist diaspora. I am currently lodged in Berlin. On the 31st of July, I will be headed to Möglingen, Germany (in the South) to work on a farm.

Woah woah! A farm you say? But James, you studied theatre n' shit! What are you doing? Well, in the past year and a half I have become increasingly interested in global food policy and sustainable agriculture. But James, isn't that just yuppies buying expensive heirloom lettuces at the farmers market? Well, it's actually a lot more than that - the way our food is produced has serious consequences in terms of environmental protection, social justice, water resources, nutrition, and global hunger and poverty. Dang that's a lot of stuff! I know, and I may talk more about individual items as the blog progresses, little that I know.

In any case, I'll be doing this through a program called WWOOF, a loose network that connects volunteers with interested farms. In theory, you work for room and board (and hopefully some knowledge) and no money is exchanged. Why Germany? Because I speak German. Call it a working vacation. But it will also be interesting to see how the issue is handled in a country other than my own. Maybe larn somethin'!

Here is a link to the farm's website - if you don't speak German, you can at least look at the pretty pictures: http://schwalbenhof-biogemuese.de/

But for now I'm hanging out in Berlin, where, for those who don't know, I studied for my junior year. It's a wonderful city, and I have dearly missed it. Already I've gone to a 3 euro concert and met up with some friends for grilling in the park. I plan on seeing as many old friends as possible while I'm here and simply having a bit of good-old-fashioned fun before the hard labor begins.

Please keep in mind that I'll be writing this blog mostly for myself, to keep as a sort of journal, but of course I'll try to make it so that other people at least won't HATE reading it. The posts will be grammatically correct, in any case, so you can rest easy there. And since I've had trouble with spamming in Google Groups before, I'm just going to send out updates via email.

Hugs and kisses,

James