The Americans

Last night Sofie thought I was cool because I showed her some really tricky dance moves. The kind of moves that would leave you dateless at prom.  In some cases, that probably would have been the better option, looking back. But Sofie loved it, and she can now slide back and forth on the wooden floors of the loft by doing a little heel-toe-swisherooni action.  Hard to describe.  It’s so advanced.  Anna did not want to participate, but that’s what happens when you become a teenager.

This week has actually been fairly identical to the last one, minus cow trampeling, add in cow chasing.  For some reason the cows kept getting out yesterday.  Also yesterday the grandparents had their kitchen painted by this guy and he was terrible! There was paint everywhere.  I just kept wondering to myself if maybe he was some kind of charity case or family friend or maybe they weren’t even paying him…I don’t know.  It was bad.  They also picked that day to clean the whole kitchen in detail and they’ve got a lot of crap in there.  Helping them was like payback for all the times I didn’t clean my room as a kid. 

Sofie took me on a tour of the farm last Friday and I made a video of it all.  I figured that would be a cool way to show you all around, instead of just pictures.  The trouble is that it’s taking forever to upload to YouTube, so this link may not be ready yet, but give it a shot: http://youtu.be/maRxyKP1kcs. By tomorrow it should work.

Here's some random pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Sofie helping us bake bread

Monster, snake, HAYLEY

Here's the brick oven..

Oma

Demeter is a certification in Germany that all of your products are organic

In they all go!

Looks exactly like me.  After this picture, Sofie and I cut me in half and ate me.

They're ready to come out and go straight over to the store!

Here's an angry cat

Just follows me around sometimes

Today, I basically get the day off.  Which means I just help with the morning and evening milking, and have the whole rest of the day free.  I’ll take it. My chocolate supply is fresh out and I need to bike into town to reload.  If you think I’m kidding, I’m 100% not.  That is the only reason I will be going into Burghausen today.  Plus the biking cancels out the calories.  I didn’t say it canceled out all of them, Mom, you head shaker. The plural form of calorie can mean as little as two.

I had an interesting talk with Georg the other day as we were milking.  I feel like he had a bone to pick with Americans.  It seems like a lot of people I meet do.  Not that they are picking specifically at me, but using me as an instrument to confirm or deny their suspicions.  Georg was talking about how there are a lot more Americans that are full of themselves than Germans.  I told him right away that he was correct, but it’s because we are actually better than them, that’s why.  If it’s true, it’s allowed.

I actually just stood there and listened, waiting to see how he would make his argument.  He said that one American woman that emailed them about WWOOFing basically just said, “Oh I’m really good at this and I do this well and I’m super good at this…etc.” And his second body of proof was how Steve Jobs made a speech one time where he commended himself for being Steve Jobs.  Of course, we both agreed, Steve Jobs can probably say what he wants, he’s Steve Jobs.  Georg may have had more experiences than that, but he didn’t share them with me.  I kept thinking back to the email that I sent them to introduce myself and ask if I could stay with them, wondering if I sounded full of myself, self-centered, or like I was bragging. I came to the conclusion that my German probably isn’t even good enough to be able to sound conceited. It was definitely an unfair generalization to make about Americans, about any people, and there’s obviously no way to prove either side, but as I sat there and mulled over this conversation in my head, what bothered me the most was thinking about all of the important people in my life, “the Americans”, and wondering how anyone could just peg them as one thing without considering any other aspects of their lives or personalities.  And when did opinions become facts?  When did “I think” become “There is”?   

It’s difficult to understand different cultures and how they contribute to people’s behavior or personalities.  I get that.  It’s easy to say these people are one way, and these, another, and then go to bed and feel good about yourself because you’re in the better group.  Bullshit.  People are people. Let’s leave it at that.

On a less rant-y note, Heidelberg is only a week away!  I keep thinking about how weird it’s going to be to live a “student” life again. I feel like I’ve been past that part of my life for the last year or so, besides the whole, “going to classes” thing.  I’ll be living in an apartment with three other German students (probably weirdos, nobody else would sign up to live with an international student because they all have other friends, but my dad told me I could just teach them how to say bad words in English, so I think it’ll be fine).  I’m excited and ready to get to it.  Not that I’m overly-confident or anything, not that I’m better than anyone else or anything, not that I—well, you get it. 

I bet someday Georg is going to be like, see Hayley?  Americans are so full of themselves.  And then he’s going to pull up my blog on his stupid iPad that Steve Jobs created and I’m going to say, that girl sounds like a catch.