In Exeter!

We are now staying in the empty dorm rooms the University of Exeter. We're only going to be staying here for two nights, but it's nice to be able to sleep in! I will definitely miss the farm we've just left. But, this entire trip is going to be a whole lot of meeting new people and growing attached to an area, and then leaving. I've only met one person that's closer to my age, and she was sixteen. She was really nice and we hung out with everyone when she came to visit the farm. We were at the farm for the entire day time hours, and then we would go out to eat or pick up some groceries in the village. I would see kids that looked my age, but I never talked to them or was introduced to one. Hopefully I'll meet more people my age that I can talk to even after I leave that area.

It's really awkward when we are traveling form place to place with all our luggage. That's when I feel most out of place because we as tourist are so obvious. I think I'm going to go through my bag and send back some things... but I'll let you know how that goes haha.

Longest Entry Ever

Ok! The work we do, pretty much we start projects and then we finish them. Some of them take a couple days to finish, some of them take a few hours. We ask our hosts what they would like us to do, or what part of the farm we should focus on. Or, like if it's raining, we just ask to work in a specific area, like the green houses. (where it's way warmer and drier) If we see an area that looks like it needs some work, we just start doing it really. The first week we worked a lot with the pigs because they needed new runs, so we used this electric tape fencing to make a new area for them. The pigs are really crazy, they can clear a field without any problems. They eat all the weeds and everything, and they're super tough. Our host was telling us how one time they brought a male pig with a female, and he took his tusk and jammed it right in her neck. There was a big hole and they thought she wasn't going to make it, but a week later it had healed up and you could barely tell it had even happened.

Every morning and evening we let out and put away the birds. Birds. meaning chickens and geese and ducks. Theres about 8 different enclosures that we have to get everyone into and out of. There is a main flock of geese who have free range of a big field, they're pretty feisty because there are goslings and the parents are really... attentive. We also put away one of the horses, who has an eating problem so she has to wear a muzzle all day that makes it harder for her to eat. We check on water twice a day, and collect chicken eggs in the morning. I'm not usually up at this time though (ha ha) I like putting the animals away, especially when we put the goats in the stables. They are actually really sweet! We named them too.

In the past couple days we worked A LOT in the green house, (they are called polytunnels) We cleared out one of them and harvested some of the lettuce. They have these horrible weeds here. I hate stinging nettles and thistles. We called the stinging nettles fire plants because they make you feel like your on fire when they touch you and they leave red welts. (It's pretty bad) With all the weeds and dirty straw (from the chicken/duck houses) we put in the compost piles. There's a bunch all around the farm. We planted new seeds of lettuce in the green house and transferred already grown plants in the green house we cleared out. But, there was an infestation of flying ants, so we had to stop in certain areas. I didn't even know they had ants here and then I find out they had biting, flying ants, crazy.

We eat like normal, three times a day. For breakfast I've had yogurt and granola for about a week and a half straight. Yum. They have corn flakes here and other cereal that are back in the U.S. We walk down to the village to get all our food. But then we have to carry it all the way back, which is nice actually because I appreciate the food more. For lunch we have sandwiches, I've had the same sandwich every day. As you might be able to tell, once I find something I like I usually eat it a lot. They have all the regular stuff here, salami and turkey, but they have a lot of cheddar cheese. I wake up around 10, and work till around 4. I like the just working straight through and then eating after all the work is done, but some of us take a lunch break around 1 or 2. We eat dinner with our host. Which is really fun because there are always things we laugh at because of the differences between the U.S and the U.K. There are a lot of clothes differences, like the different names we have for clothing. We were talking about dress pants and then we were told that pants actually means what we know as underwear. So dress pants was pretty funny because it was like fancy underwear. We have a lot of potatoes and ratatouille, and I've never had ratatouille before, I've only seen it in the movie.. with the rat. But it's really cool because we pick the potatoes and the zucchinis (in the ratatouille) They actually call zucchinis corshettes, and when they get really big (they have monster ones here) they're called marrows. The main difference with meals is how they hold their knife a fork. There is always a knife on the table, and you hold the fork in your left and the knife in your right, the whole meal. I've been sticking to the usual way, just the fork in my right hand. I forget that I'm supposed to hold the knife until I pay attention to some one else.

Our host family is great, and their friend who stays on the farm is really sweet. I think you don't really have a choice or not to get comfortable with whoever your staying at. If you didn't, it would be one awkward stay. my family and the friend all share one toilet and shower, which we are lucky enough to have a flushable toilet and hot water that never runs out. I've been backpacking before, so I know what it's like to not have plumbing, let alone a toilet seat to sit on. There are slugs that get into the shower sometimes, and we just have to watch where we step. The only thing that I'm REALLY uncomfortable with is all the spiders. I mean, it's crazy. They're not just everywhere, they are HUGE and everywhere.

They're fat too, and fast. We have this thing called the shed, but it's actually the size of a living room. It has the shower, the toilet, the sink, a portable oven, a table, a bench and chairs, and a counter top. When we first got here I just stood in the middle of the shed and stared at the ceiling. Spiders were all over and I was freaked out. There is also a ton of spiders when we were pulling weeds, they just crawled out all over my boots and gloves. But, I am proud to say that I now have a tolerance that could be considered respectable. I even killed one that was on the window next to my bed, which is like a big deal for me.

Me, my mom, and sister sleep in a caravan, a trailer. I actually like living in these things, except for the spiders. My brother and dad sleep in this thing called a dobulus. It looks like a giant onion, and is actually a prototype for disaster relief shelters. Look for it in the near future, 'cause it's gonna go far. We both have electricity, so there's no difference in that.

I feel like I'm going back to San Diego next week. For some reason, it's hard for me to get it through my head that I'm in the U.K. I've always wanted to come here, and travel through Europe, but I always thought I was going to have to wait till after college. I think I have a problem with plane trips. If I'm not by a window seat, it doesn't feel like I'm going anywhere. Like I'm just sitting in this metal box and not traveling over a hundred miles an hour. I think if they spoke a different language here, I'd feel more out of place. The only reason why I feel different is that the community is so small, and everyone knows each other. I'm an outsider because I didn't grow up here. Everyone is pretty nice, except for the odd rude person that swears when you don't move out off of the road fast enough. Oh, that's another thing, everyone drives super fast. And their cars are tiny! Everything small, the kitchen is small, the rooms, cars, and roads. Everything feels so contained. I guess the farm is different though because it's on 7 acres.

I'm not sad about leaving our house, I was ready for a change. I'm sort of a pack rat, ok not sort of I am. So it was hard for me to decide what I should keep and what was junk. I kept all my books, my guitars, and a few pieces of clothing that didn't fit in my bag. That's another thing that was hard, deciding what clothes to take. It was really hard to leave my friends and family, because even though we're probably coming back to San Diego, it's not set in stone. I'm ready for an adventure though, something different than the regular summer and 10th grade. We're meeting a lot of people who do a lot of different things. There's an artist community up the hill who work in Napoleon time war bunkers. We met a guy who worked with the guy who created the internet. There's a lord that owns an estate a few miles down the road. A lord! All these people exist I didn't even know. I'm excited for all the new people I'll meet, and it's been a while since I've been really excited for something.

So, I hope that wasn't too much information, it's the longest I've written about our trip, but thanks for the questions and giving me a chance to reflect!

I'm tired.

It kinda feels like school all over again! Waking up early(ish), waiting till four to relax, and then doing it al over again the next day. I like the farm work, it's really satisfying to see your work actually make a difference! The greenhouses look a lot better now that we are working on them... we planted a lot of lettuce. It's weird cutting lettuce off straight from the plant and then putting it in a bag to eat it. Same with carrots! I think everyone should in some way be a part of growing their own food, because then you know where it comes from. If the lettuce we buy in stores is anything like the lettuce we pick here, I will definitely wash it VERY GOOD. We learned here that snails are the enemy... the people we are staying with said that the only good thing about the French is that they eat snails. Mostly everyone here is really nice and really cool, we've met a lot of interesting people who do a bunch of different things. It's bonkers! (like the English say)

I will try to write soon!

-Oooolivia

The SUN BURNS

I know I should know better, but I got sun burnt. My hands are burning and my face is red (I don't remember the last time it wasn't) I'm trying to get rid of my farmer tan. We walked down to the little village today after working, I got some 5 gum! My favorite flavor too haha. We moved this HUGE pig, Cornelius, to a new pen we made today. Check out the video on the website... you can see how big he is. He likes his back scratched... but it's kind of gross because he just lays down in his poo and wee. Wee! haha. We're about to eat cake right now so I will talk to you guys later!

Farm!!

So it's really hard to believe that even though it's only around 12:oopm back in the U.S, my day is basically done. It's almost 8:00pm... 20:00! Today was a full day. I can say that I've done things I've never done before. Disgusting things. Haha! Like cleaning out a chicken coop while the chicken starts pooing right in front of me and is getting mad that I'm putting fresh bedding in... or feeding pigs! So this is only the third day but it's been fuller than two weeks worth back home. I took a lot of pictures today because we went to this really small beach and it was totally awesome!! So pretty. I'll write soon!

Arrival

Alright. We are now, right now, in the U.K! The plane ride was pretty horrible because it was so hard to sleep. It's about 6am back in San Diego, but it's already 2:00pm here. Wait, I need to use military time, so it's 14:00 here. It feels really strange being here, like it's not even real. Everyone has accents and they actually say cheerio! David Beckem walked by about 20 minutes ago, but I didn't see because I was too busy on this computer. So, maybe I will sign off for now and look around and maybe I wont miss another famous person walking past just 20 feet away.

Goodbye for now!

-Olivia