Oh how time flies...

It's been a very long time ago since I've written on my blog. I suppose this could be looked at in two ways, good and bad. Bad because I told myself I was going to keep up with this thing, but good because I've been busy doing other things that I've enjoyed.

With this trip I somehow feel like I'm busy all the time and on the move or doing nothing and sitting down for hours at a time. When we first started traveling back in summer, whenever we were on trains or buses for hours I would always watch a movie, answer messages, whatever, but now it's different. Now all I do is look out the window, and really enjoy sitting down without walking across cities with luggage or just moving moving moving moving feeling tense tense tense waiting to sit sit then walk walk and moving moving moving on and on and on and then finally! 3 hour train ride I'm saved.

I think that if I didn't have to bring any clothes or sleep sacks and it was only two people I wouldn't feel so reluctant to be on the move again.

The past seven months have been an adventure, they've been worth it, they've been exciting, exhausting, comical, delirious, enlightening, full of hard work and fun times.

A lot has happened since England, we've been to Ireland, where we visited Dublin for a night and then made are way across the country to the Cliffs of Moher. Which was extremely cool for me because the Cliffs of Moher was in a project for my 9th grade year. That's one of things that's so interesting about traveling over here, a lot of the things that I've heard of in school (or not in school), mostly historical sites or things like national monuments, it's like they actually exist over here! People actually go about their day in the shadow of the Eiffel tower, people live in apartments across the street from the Colloseum, people have their farms backed up to the Cliffs of Moher. It's amazing to me, though I don't know what I had expected.

From Ireland we took a ferry to France, where our first week we stayed in Paris. I loved Paris, it was the perfect size. Everything was so beautiful! The city had a muchness of life and people and vendors and food and language and art, but it wasn't crowded. I was surprised for my feelings for Paris.

From the city we went straight to a small holding in southern France where we stayed with a woman for two weeks. It was one of the most prettiest places! We stayed in a hamlet, which I never I thought I'd be able to say. The work we did there varied, anything from cleaning out the chicken house to gathering, drying, and shelling walnuts. Our host also had a dog, which we were so happy to have a canine companion once again. We baked our own bread, our own cake, and all around had a very wonderful time with our host in a very beautiful place.

From that farm we stayed in a city for a couple nights before heading to another farm, The Eco Etho Research & Education Centre, at La Combe, where we stayed for two months. Unlike the previous farm, there were other wwoofers and students who were there most of the time. Our two hosts are one of the most interesting people I've ever met, the conversations at meal times could stand alone. When we first got there we did a lot of varying jobs, and unlike the other farms there were a lot of animals! There are eight horses, two milking cows, (and then one calf after one gave birth!), three dogs, sheep, chickens, and a small herd of cattle. Along with the garden and greenhouse. Much of the work was building projects, like a big extension on the barn or building up the dam. Everyone helped out with the varied jobs, like firewood day where we all went out to the woods and gathered the dead wood, which was then taken into the arena and cut up with the chainsaw and axe into wood-burning stove size. We cleared a hillside for the sheep to move into, planted lettuce, mucked, dug up radish, got them ready for storing, and really learned a lot. But unlike all the other farms, in our second month it was just us and one of the hosts, and we each had our own individual jobs. Before everyone left, I was taught how I would do my job. My job was dairy. The dairy room was where I went first every morning at 7:30, and gathered the milk and cream jugs from the house to bring them and wash them. During this time my mom would be milking the cow out in the barn. The milk from the morning before would sit over night, and in the morning the milk and cream would separate, and I would fill the house's milk and cream jug for the day. All the extra milk would be set aside until there was enough to make something out of it.

On the days when there was enough milk, I would either make yogurt, soft cheese, or hard cheese, and when there was enough extra cream, I would make butter. Looking back at the past couple paragraphs it still surprises me that I was actually learning and doing these things. Not just surprised, but excited that my cheese actually turned out well, that I learned how to do something I never knew how to do before! I could say this about so many things in so many situations. I now know how to make a cake from scratch (without a measuring cup) and how to make a chair seat out of baler twine. La Combe is a place of learning, I'm lucky to have called it my home in those two months.

Leaving somewhere is always hard, just like sticking a plant in the ground and then wrenching it up again. Most of the time I am ready to move on, but it's a great effort to pack everything up and get on the move again. It's these moments when I miss home. Home as in a place that is mine, a place that I'm not going to leave and a place where I feel like ahh, I'm home. Up until recently if someone had asked where home was I would have said San Diego! No pause. Now home is wherever I'm at for longer than a couple days. When we're out walking around all day and someone says, "I want to go home," everyone knows they don't mean America, they just mean wherever our belongings are. Where everything we have is residing, where we can rest and be on our own. It's strange how things have changed. San Diego is where are family is, where are friends are, where the people we love live, is it home? Sure, if that's where we are.

In the general sense, America is my home. Never thought I'd get patriotic, but I do love us "yankees" with our backyard bbq and surf towns and diners.

From France we took an overnight train to Venice, Italy. Venice was amazing, even more like a dream than Paris. We only stayed one night, but it was worth it. (even if I absolutely hated walking halfway across the city to get to our hotel from the train station) It was really cold, but we got gelato anyways.

From Venice to Lanciano, where we stayed for five weeks and spent our Christmas and new years. It was so nice to be on our own and in one place for a while. We stayed in the medieval part of the city which was so beautiful! Everything was so old, and yet it's part of everyone's every day life. It was here that we ordered my first course in Geometry and I spent time on school work. I want to learn Geometry, so it wasn't annoying to work on it for as long as needed. Our Christmas was one to remember, there was no where that sold real and life sized christmas trees, so we wound up buying our two foot fake one at a street vendor in front of the Basilica! It was so cute, we kept it up until we left. We met friendly people in Lanciano. We were invited to have breakfast at the language school and we became friends with the lady we saw at the market almost every day. We are constantly meeting new people and exchanging stories.

From Lanciano we took a bus to Rome! Luckily we didn't have to walk far with our luggage (just a subway ride). The next day we took a subway to the Colloseum, walking out of the metro and looking across the street to see this ancient monument was so unreal! I mean it's literally like walking out of the subway and it's just there, in the middle of the city with people living in apartments and restaurants and people going about their day. It's pretty crazy. I didn't realize how much was actually being excavated and preserved, it's amazing how much is left! The next day we went to the Vatican City, where we saw St. Peter's and the museum with the Sistine Chapel. St. Peter's was so enormous, I had no idea! It's really something everyone should see. But it doesn't make you feel small, which is interesting because it seems like it would when you're standing at the top of the dome looking down and everything is so far. The museum was also nice, the modern religious art was interesting, and seeing all the different collections the different Popes had added. The Sistine Chapel was very dark, the paintings themselves were bright but the room was dark. We sat for long time just looking all around, it was really nice being able to just take in everything. The Vatican was definitely breathtaking.

From Rome we went to Sorrento, where we took a day trip to Pompeii and bus ride down the Amalfi coast. Pompeii was really one of my favorite parts of Italy. It actually looked like a city, unlike a lot of other ruins we've seen. I could just imagine the streets and houses and people. What was really crazy is that they had moulds of actual bodies from the moment when Mt. Vesuvius struck. The bodies that we're stuck in the hardened lava eventually decomposed, but since the lava had already hardened around the form of the intact body, there were cavities that matched the shape of the person! It was really amazing.

From Italy we took another ferry to Greece, where we landed in Patras on my birthday! (though technically I wasn't 16 until the next day at 2am because of the time difference) Unlike all my other birthday's I actually felt older, which was strange but almost settling. We took a bus to Nafplio, where we're at now, and arrived at night. We got settled in the apartment we rented and set out to go find a restaurant to eat at (I wanted meat and french fries…) but we wound up finding a cake store where we attempted to buy cheesecake (but it turned out not to be) and we got take away from the food place on our street. It was a really nice birthday, I got the Red Hot Chili Peppers record that I had seen all the way back in Lanciano!! I was so excited. I've fallen in love with vinyl.

Unfortunately this past week has been pretty cold weather and really just grey and gloomy. We've taken day trips out of Nafplio to Mycenae and Epidaurus. Mycenae was really crazy because it was more than a thousand years before Pompeii, and it is still standing! (for the most part) We had dog follow us around the entire time, which happened again with another dog when we went to Epidaurus. Maybe it's because there is a pack of us.. ha ha. The amphitheater at Epidaurus was sooo much bigger than I had expected it to be, and it was so amazing that so much of it was intact. That was a pretty cold day, there was snow up on the nearby mountains.

But, today there was sun! Not a cloud in the sky and it was so nice to see blue overhead. We went walking around the city finally because it was so warm, (like 60!) The sea is so clear, and so blue and green! Walking along the water's edge is beautiful, hopefully I will get pictures up soon. Today was a good last day, tomorrow we're on our way to Athens for a week, then Spain! Time has gone by so fast, I still think of Spain as 6 months away instead of a couple weeks.

Well, time for packing up once again.

-Olivia

Catching Up!

Wow. It's really hard to believe it's been a month since I've last posted! I've wound up posting a lot more on face book, but I really should be doing this too. A lot has happened since Exeter.

Our host for our new farm picked us up from Exeter train station. (thank god! it was so much better than taking trains and buses) We headed off to our new home for the next 6 weeks, Embercombe. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting. Just another farm I guess. But when we got there, it was obviously not the regular wwoofing place. The main difference between our first farm and Embercombe was that there was a core team who lived there year-round. So we were always working with people, eating, and hanging out with new people. We ended up making a lot of good friends and meeting so many more people. We cooked meals together in a big kitchen and worked a lot in the main garden where most of the food was grown.

We learned how to make ratatouille! We had a lot of soups and bread, but it was really good. I loved having the close group of new people that we were able to spend a lot of time with. Cooking in the kitchen was always fun, and I learned some new recipes. Our friend, John, taught us how to make flapjacks! But there not like pancakes, there a kind of dessert, like a softer and much sweeter granola bar. You can put chocolate spread or marshmallows or fruit or really whatever you want.

Embercombe isn't just a place that wwoofers and volunteers come too, they also host groups that come for a program. During our stay we had a corporate group come to do team building activities. That was really interesting, they were dressed really nice and some lady actually had heels on... which was bizarre in the rural setting.

We stayed in a small cabin that had a wood burning stove and running water, but everyone else stayed in these things called yurts. They are these circular structures that can fit four mattresses and a small wood stove. They're really cool and we helped set up all the beds at least two times for the different groups that came through.

As far as the work goes, some was different but much was the same from the last farm. We dug up a lot of potatoes, we clipped the runners off strawberry plants, we weeded, planted lettuce, dug up onions, braided garlic, made compost piles, cooked, cleaned, and did a lot of things in the poly tunnel. I have no complaints about the work, but I really hated waking up early. Give me dirt and mud, but please let me sleep in!

During our stay it was also the 50th birthday of one of the permanent staff members, and he had a big birthday celebration. I have actually brought one dress from San Diego, and I finally got to use it! It was really strange though dressing up on the farm.

Embercombe also owns a lot of the surrounding woods, and it was so great to go explore and hang out. They have this swing that goes out over a hill, so when you swing out you're really high up. It's so awesome! We stood up on the seat part and we could touch the really high branches of the trees that were growing further down the hill. They also have these platforms built that are really cool for just sitting on and relaxing. We had a lot of fires by the main building and hung out in the big living room space with everyone. They also had a TV with a DVD player! We had a sleepover with our friend who's dad is a permanent staff member and our other friend who was volunteering for a while.

Our last weekend there was actually the few days that Embercombe hosted a huge story telling festival. 500 people came from all over to stay on Embercombe or come just for the day. We had bunch of food stands and us Americans were charged with the waffle making stand. Apparently Embercombe had been donated two waffle makers, and no one knew how to use them. So when they heard that we knew how to make them, it was great! We sold so many waffles it was just insane. And everybody hung out by our stand because the waffles took a few minutes to cook. There was live music during the festival, it was a great experience.

Beforehand though I was on the team that made all the signs for the festival. We made food stand signs with menus, directional signs, a big map, things like trash and recycling, urinals, and others. I think it was my favorite job the entire time! Our signs turned out really good, we used chalk paint that worked really great.

It was really hard to leave Embercombe, but just like every part of our trip it was really special because it was so short. It was definitely the people that made Embercombe so amazing. I mean of course the scenery and the work were part of the experience, but the people were the hardest to leave. There are so many good people out there, and we are missing the ones at Embercombe!

There's a lot more I could say about our time at Embercombe, especially talking about all the people, but moving on....

We were dropped off at the Exeter train station by our two new good friends, and were sent on our way to London.

I loved London, it was so amazing. It was also very strange to be actually standing in front of Big Ben and driving over the London bridge in a tour bus, but it was so awesome! We rented a flat for a week, so it was nice to have some time for ourselves and hanging out. We had to take the tube into the city everyday, which was really tiring, but it was fun people watching. We saw Buckingham palace and saw the guards withe big hats. We also went to an art walk in a neighborhood that was really interesting to walk through the street markets (that reminded me of Mexico) and seeing the local library. It was definitely a change from the farms, but it was great. If I lived there however, I would have to be in the middle of London and not on the outskirts. It's such a pain taking the tube to go anywhere!

I also went to the Volcom store, which was so cool to actually be in the store that I've always seen on the website! We also saw a theatre production called Warhorse, which was pretty sad but happy in the ending. We bought our tickets an hour before the show started, so they were really cheap, and even though we were all the way on the side, it was a great show.

It was also interesting to see the difference between the wealthy parts of London (like where J.K Rowling lives) and what would be called the hood back in SD. The people were also so much more diverse than what we've seen in the U.K. There were a lot of Indian restaurants and we ended up getting take-out twice from the Chinese place by our flat.

I love London's architecture, and even though most days it was overcast, it somehow felt light and spacious even though there was so many buildings and people. There were a lot of parks and greenery that also broke up the concrete.

We took one day to be tourists, and we rode on a tour bus all over. We saw a lot of things like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The Old Globe Theatre, Buckingham and Kensington Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, London Bridge, The London Eye, and a lot of not so famous but equally interesting sights.

On our own went to this place called Speakers Corner, where anyone can just stand at an empty spot in the park and speak to anyone who passes by. Basically it's a place where people can exercise free speech, and they often draw a crowd doing it.

Where I was loving London, my mom wasn't so happy in the city. I have to admit though, after running into a few rude people, it's hard to not want to live out in the country where people actually take the time to say hello and have a conversation.

From London we went to a place called Birmingham to stay with my old archery coach who is now coaching Great Britain's Olympic archery team. We only stayed a couple of days, but we got to go to the training center and a see a tournament . It was great and it really got me itching to start shooting again. My coach drove us to Nottingham where we are staying now, but about to leave in a couple days.

We're staying in a hotel right now, but the room is really small for five people. Nottingham is the home of Robin Hood, and there's a lot of things that have to do with him around town, but our sole reason for coming here was the Warhammer museum and head quarters is located a little ways from our hotel. For those of you who don't know what Warhammer is, it's a miniature figure war game that are played with huge boards that are set up with elaborate scenery and and terrain. Now, brother has explained to me a little about the game, and I've seen him play with his friends, playing battles that last for literally hours and having inch and half rule books. I've helped him paint some of his armies, and I knew that the figures you buy at the stores are so detailed it's to imagine a brush so fine it can do things like that. So even though I admired the artistic side, I wasn't expecting much from going to the museum.

I was proved wrong in my assumptions. When we first walked in there was a life sized figure of the head ork in Sauran's in Lord of the Rings, so real looking it actually looked freaky like it was going to come to life. So, that in itself was pretty cool. Then we went into this huge room that had shelves of metal casing with thousands of tiny figures that were amazingly painted. There are a bunch of different armies in Warhammer, armies called from Dark Elves to Space Marines. It was pretty impressive. While we were looking in the room and worker came in. We had actually come on the one week in the entire year where they deep clean their monstrous gaming room, the main part of the museum. So we asked the guy if there was any behind the scenes tours they give or something, he said no, but he told Alex he had the keys to all the cabinets in the room and that he could take some figures out to take pictures out. I think Alex was in heaven.

It turns out the worker was actually the head guy for the Heavy Metal painting team, and he had actually painted hundreds of the figures in the cases. it was pretty cool. We went down into the store, and we talked with workers a lot. It turns out there is this huge background story to each army and how there all connected and huge novels that explain in depth. It's really cool. So, by surprise, it was really a great time and we ended going two days in a row, hanging out in the pub that is connected to the museum and painting in the shop. Everyone was really nice there and really happy to answer all of our questions and talk about Warhammer.

So, that pretty much catches us up, I think tomorrow we're going to visit the castle from Robin Hood, so that should be pretty fun. We're on our way to Ireland next, I will try to write again soon!

-Olivia

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