Sponsored by the letter "S": Slowly but Surely

It is amazing how much one can learn in a week and a half. Having been in Vic (which is a beautiful town about an hour north of Barcelona) at Mas Bellpuig (Bell-pooch) for a little more than a week now, my Spanish has vastly improved. This is not to say that I can understand people speaking Spanish on the street, but if my host Gerard speaks to me slowly and uses very simple words, I can follow the thread of the conversation and make simple responses. Hooray for learning.

My time here got off to a rather rocky start because Gerard was away for the first two days I was here, and no one in the house spoke more than a little English. So I spent two days relying pretty solely upon charade worthy hand gestures and sound effects. However, now that Gerard is back and I have been joined by another American WWOOFer named Marisa who just graduated from Yale, as well as a really wonderful young German family, things have been a lot better. The house itself is really beautiful, and parts of the original structure date to the 12th century. Gerard's family has owned it for roughly 30 generations. There is no doubt that the house has the weight of history behind it, the finished parts are really beautiful with high ceiling and exposed beams, and the unfinished parts (aka zona de WWOOFer) have old wood and stone revealed, and make it feel like I am living in a castle. We just started to work on renovating and finishing zona de WWOOFer, which has been a very interesting experience involving chipping away at these old stone walls. I've been lucky thus far, and for space reasons, my room is in the finished part, and easily 3 times as big as the caravan in Nerja, and there is a chandelier hanging over my bed. Pure luxury. I really wish that, like the kitchen table in Bossgarden, this house could come alive and tell me stories of the things it has seen.

The work has been hard but varied and enjoyable here. The daily schedule is very relaxed and very Spanish. We start work at 8...or 8:15...or 8:30...or 9, and work until about 2 when we have lunch, which always takes over an hour, and then it is siesta time for the WWOOFers at least, and we are free for the rest of the day. We usually eat an evening meal at around 9 or 9:30, and then sit and chat until bed. My jobs have mostly been in the field and have included harvesting potatoes, different types of beans, peeling about 12 kilos of garlic so we can plant it, and planting fava beans. There are also a bunch of animals here, including cows, chickens, pigs (which always sound and smell just wonderful), cats, a big beautiful horse named Moreno, and a dog named Bobby. The food we have been eating has been really, really good, and I have had to be very diligent about portion control. We have mostly been cooking for ourselves, but every so often we get the leftovers from Gerard's parents or from his grandmother, and they can cook, let me tell you. I've been taking notes on good ideas to incorporate into my own cooking when I get home, but I don't think it will be the same without the garden fresh ingredients. One can hope though.

So far I don't have too many adventures to report. I have been into Vic twice, to get coffee and a tour of the city with Gerard and the other WWOOFers, and to go to the market which takes place every Saturday. The market is a pretty incredible scene. There is a big plaza in the middle of the city which vendor upon vendor squeeze into and sell everything from bread and pasteries, to live chickens and cheap clothing. I'm also pretty sure the entire population of the city squeezes into this market, such that the atmosphere is bustling with the energy of both shopping and weekly socializing. It is really exciting for someone who has never seen a market like this before, like me.