The Bite

Today Melanie was bit by a horse for the very first time in her life! After 33 years of working with horses. She pulled up her sleeve a minute after it happened and there was already a gigantic, mouth-shaped bruise on her arm.  I feel honored to have been there for this special moment and also felt very glad it did not happen to me. Melanie went to grab one of the hay nets and Maggie, the horse, didn’t like that for some reason. Chomp. Things are a little crazy on the farm right now.  Maggie is a new boarder and has only been here since I have, so she is still on her own and slowly being integrated into the group.  Then there are five more new horses who are being boarded here.  They were all raised together and have lived in the same place for all 19 years of their lives. Until yesterday.  Needless to say, coming here was very confusing for them. So all of the confusion may have led to “the bite”.

In other news, I think I have found a favorite horse.  As I was shoveling and hauling poop around yesterday morning, I stopped to pet a brown horse with a white stripe down her nose.  She’s quite big.  I scratched her for a while and then went on my way to dump the poop out.  About ten minutes later, back and shoveling, I saw her head pop around the corner and watch me.  Cute, I thought, kept shoveling.  Next thing I know, I see some horse legs standing to the side of me and when I turn to see which one it is, she puts her head down and rests her whole forehead against my stomach.  I have no idea what this means in horse language, but I felt like I was in a Disney movie breakthrough moment.  I also have no idea what her name is.  I think it’s Emi or something, which would make sense because why would I ever love an animal that ISN’T named after my best best friend?

In other, other news, I finally got to leave the house last night.  It was amazing, refreshing, wonderful.  We went to the grocery store.  Going to the grocery store isn’t as simple as it seems here.  First, you have to drive 15 minutes or so to get cat and dog food from a friend of Melanie’s, then you go to the Bioladen to get fresh fruit and vegetables, then you go to the butcher for meat, the bakery for bread, and the actual grocery store, Norma, for the other remaining items.  I saw Pumpkin Seed Oil and got so excited.  Oh how I have missed it. The yogurt too.  It was a beautiful thing, grocery shopping. 

To answer questions: No, there is no car here for my use, especially because I can’t drive a stick.  The village of Kescheid is 3 km away, so I suppose if I had time and energy, I could go for a run and have a look around.  I’m sure I will do that at some point soon, but…it is a village still.  There are only a few shops/buildings in the actual center of Kescheid.  Yes, and pictures/videos.  Those will also come in time.  I am planning a whole tour of the house and stalls and land.  It snowed all day today, so that will make for some cool pictures tomorrow. 

Interestingly enough, Guido, Melanie’s co-habitator/manfriend/whatever you want to call him, was the very first WWOOFer here just three years ago. Two years later, he moved in! He is very nice and will come out and check on me during the day time to make sure “alles gut”.  He’s definitely more shy and quiet than Melanie, who is very extroverted and likes to laugh.  It’s a good mix. Frederick likes to watch TV and that’s all I know about him because all he does is sit and watch TV when he’s not at school.  To each their own.

As for my German, I think it’s getting slightly better all the time, but it is still difficult not to be able to participate in conversations the way I would like to.  Today, for instance, we were having a discussion over breakfast about dogs.  I get all fired up about dogs.  Well, Melanie was telling me about different rules and regulations in Germany for owning a dog and about how they test “aggressive” breeds to make sure they won’t bite kids or anything, which in itself was kindling.  Then she went on to tell me that in the Netherlands, dogs like Pit Bulls or Boxers or Rottweilers aren’t even allowed, and apparently at some point, someone brought their Boxer on vacation with them to the Netherlands and it was taken away from them and put down immediately.  AGH! I had no German words to be able to say what I wanted to say, all I could do was make noises of disbelief. This was frustrating. Oh well, maybe in six months I will come back and finish all of the conversations we started.

 

And now, as a special treat, here is a short video of the horses getting to know each other today.  Aaron and Nuts vs. Sky. Notice all their names are English...interesting.

 

 

The New Room

Well it's Sunday. I have finally moved into a room of my own. When Melanie sent me upstairs with my bags I thought, where the heck am I going? The stairs are in the barn part of the house kind of, super steep, and it looked like I was just heading into a loft with a bunch of hay in it. Once I got further up I saw that it was much bigger than expected, but still, it all looked more like a garage than a place to sleep. I was so confused. I knew that Melanie's mom lived up there, but I couldn't figure out where. There were no beds, it was cold....Finally I found a door and opened it up to find a very nice, big and modern apartment. The room that I live in was originally a storage room, but now is used as a room for WWOOFers. It's off to the side of the apartment, so I don't have to actually go through Grandma's house to get in.  

5 Things:

1. Gave a horse a bucket of water, he took a big gulp, then spit it back up on my shoes. (It was a little bit like Winema '08 Em, "This isn't Nike brand water!")

2. Learned that they drink water with rocks in it to get minerals...a little strange.

3. SLEPT FOR 11 HOURS LAST NIGHT. I went to bed at 7, totally skipped out on dinner. It was amazing. I have been so tired.

4. Was listening to the radio while filling hay nets yesterday, and of course all they play is American music. Except it's the bad music from America, not even anything good. I heard a song for the first time, it was called, "Sex Bomb". I know it was called that because those were the only lyrics, combined with "You're my..."

5. It doesn't exactly feel like I'm in Germany right now. It just feels like I'm on a farm with people who randomly speak German, but I could be anywhere. I am looking forward to living more of a city life-style, but this is good for now. And maybe when I get the chance to go explore the area, I won't feel so cooped up.

5 New Words:

1.  die Hafer (oats)--Melanie kept using this word on my first night here and when I heard it, I just kept thinking "half" in my head, not knowing what it actually meant. Made things a little confusing, but now I know.

2. fleißig (diligent, hard-working)--When I was up at 6 am the first morning, Guido, Melanie's boyfriend...manfriend I should say, passed me in the hallway and said, "Schon fleißig?" I just laughed and nodded, but had no idea what it meant, so I went and looked it up really quick. "Already up and going?" Since 4 am, Guido, since 4 am.

3. das Heu (HAY!)--I just like this word. It looks cool, sounds cool, plus it's Hafer of my name. You see how that gets confusing?

4. die Schubkarre (wheelbarrow)--Yeah...We are best friends by now.

5. die Spülmaschine (dishwasher)--I already knew this word, but I am adding it to the list because Melanie just got a new one a few days ago. It's me. They have no dishwasher. Unfortunately that means their Leo doesn't know how to close it.

Okay, I better go be fleißig again. Horses can't feed themselves, you know. They are such stupid animals. JUST kidding. I like them. 

(Tried to post pictures, but it's just not working.  Let's pretend it's 1278 and there are no cameras.  What would you do?)

The First Day

I have officially been in Germany for 25 hours.  It’s pretty much the exact same experience as when I went to Salzburg. Only exchange the college students for horses, the English for German, and the city for a village. Actually, the horses probably pee in more appropriate places than some of my classmates did at the time.  Okay, okay, it’s not like Salzburg at all.  Fine.  

I left my home in Gladstone at 6:00 am Wednesday morning and arrived in Frankfurt by 3:00 am Pacific time.  I was just a little tired. Then I hopped on a train to Siegburg/Bonn and really hoped that my host, Melanie, would be waiting for me, even though I was an hour later than we agreed to meet.  I came up the stairs to the entrance of the train station and saw a woman standing there… “Sind Sie Melanie?” And just like that, the German speaking began.  We got into her car (which smelled of horses) and started making our way back to her house. 

On the way we stopped at her favorite vegetable store.  It was just a small place with a bunch of fresh vegetables and fruit, a little farmers market.  Everyone knew each other by name.  The owners asked where I was from, and then didn’t believe me when I answered because I don’t have blonde hair and long fingernails...no comment. But I got a free apple.  It was a pretty drive after that, the buildings becoming sparse as we approached farmland.  When we arrived, Melanie’s son, Friederick, came out and took my bags in for me.  He’s got a Jamaican look going on, dreads, baggy clothes, but very, very white.  I met the dog, Leo, and the two cats, Toby and Sam.  (Make new friends? Check.)  Then I met all of the horses.  There are currently nine and they’re all very nice.  Che Gueverra had a nibble on my coat and seemed to think I was okay, and since he’s the head honcho, all the other horses agreed. 

We had some dinner and then did the nightly feeding and watering of the horses and by then it was 7:00 pm and I was exhausted.  I went from understanding half of the German I was hearing, to about a fifth of it.  Yeah, it was time for bed.  I took a shower in my worst nightmare of a shower, the one thing I dislike about Europe.  It’s a bathtub with a showerhead that is stationed by your knees.  So you hold it up and get yourself wet and then when you put it back in the holder to soap yourself up, the water goes everywhere and also your whole upper half is freezing.  But it felt good to get clean. And then I got in bed and passed out within minutes.

Promptly woke up at 4 am this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep.  Once 6:30 hit, there was movement in the house and I heard Friederick in the kitchen with that song playing “You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals…” Laughed.  Melanie and I had some breakfast, bread, meats, cheeses, yum! Then the work began.  I felt like I got a second breakfast with all of the hay that seemed to find its way into my mouth.   I stuffed all of the hay bags for the horses and then shoveled poop and wheelbarrowed it out to the poop pile, more like a poop mountain, and then dumped it out.  Over and over and over again.  I willingly picked up horse poop with bare hands today because I was too lazy to go get the shovel when some fell out of the wheelbarrow.  Don’t worry, it wasn’t warm or anything. 

 For the most part, I can understand Melanie enough to figure out what she wants me to do.  Sometimes she tells stories and I only get bits and pieces, but luckily, I do understand body language, so I know when to laugh at least.  Today she asked me to do something, and then asked if I understood.  I said, we’ll see.  Turned out I didn’t understand, but she is nice enough to just laugh and explain it again.  

Although, this morning, she did tell me that I speak with good grammar.  Score.  Alright, well, we just had lunch and now I am sitting on my bed.  There is more work to be done soon, but I figured I should update the blog, you know, for all of my fans out there (i.e. MOM).  Okay, pictures and more interesting stories to come.

The Wait

 

I bet you’ve all been wondering where I’ve been for the past two years.  The truth is that I’ve been hiding out on the west coast and studying German, preparing for my last semester as an undergrad at the Universität Heidelberg.  The countdown is slowly becoming less and less imaginary.  We’re standing at three and half months to departure.  I’m ready.  





Universität Heidelberg

I don’t mean to be keeping myself as busy as possible right now, but it sure is helping time go by quicker. Somehow I’m already one month in to the school year.  My class schedule is probably the most challenging one I’ve had so far, which isn’t saying much considering the American university system becomes more and more of a joke each year.  Let’s get one thing straight, not everybody should be able to earn a college degree, that’s what makes it different from high school.  At this rate I’m going to be getting a PhD no problem.  Anyway, all that to say that this semester in Heidelberg is going to kick my ass because the German university system is actually meant to be challenging.  Plus all the classes are in German…so…

Am Neckar

Technically my semester abroad won’t begin until March.  I’ll begin with a one month preliminary course with the other Americans in my group to improve our German and get settled before starting University classes.  Then in mid-April we begin our actual classes which last until late July.  There will probably be about 20 Americans attending this program, but it won’t be like in Salzburg when we all lived together and took classes together.  We will be living in separate German dormitories with other German students spread throughout the city of Heidelberg.  Sometimes we’ll take trips together that are organized by the program and of course we’ll all take the same preliminary course, but that’s about it.  My professors in Redlands have been saying the best way to improve your German while over there is to hang out with Germans instead of the Americans in your group, because you will inevitably be speaking English with them.  We are required to take up one community activity while there and I’m thinking about joining some kind of recreational soccer team, so hopefully that will get me some German friends, even if it’s just on the bench.  

 

  

  

Before I even get to Heidelberg though, I plan to spend two months traveling on my own in Germany.  Big step, I know, but I’m growing up.  I’m going to be going through an organization called WWOOF (World Wide Organization for Organic Farming).  Basically you can go anywhere in the world and stay with somebody on their farm and in return for helping them with daily work, you get a free place to stay and food to eat.  It’s not the most glamorous way to travel, but it will gain me the opportunity to speak and be surrounded by German on a daily basis for two months, for free.  In January I’ll be staying on a farm with the Liebscher family near Köln where I’ll mainly be helping take care of their eight horses.  Melanie, the wife, has sent me a few pictures of what the farm will look like during that time of year…pretty gorgeous, right?  She has also offered to take me into Köln and Bonn nearby when we have an afternoon free from work.

 

 

 

 

In February I’ll be traveling down to Bavaria and staying on a farm an hour north of Salzburg (!) with a couple in their thirties and their three kids.  They have a lot more animals on this farm (cows, chickens, horses, goats, etc.), but most exciting will be the baby calves that I’ll get to help with!  I’ll be coming just in time for them to hatch. Just kidding, I know cows don’t hatch, but I’m sure I’ll be learning a lot more about farming this winter than I ever thought I would!  It only took 21 years, but I’ll be getting my farm yet, dear Parents.  Now cough up those 200 bucks you promised…

 Or just come visit me.  

All together I’ll be living in Germany for a total of seven months, and I can’t say that I’m at all nervous about it.  What’s more nerve-wracking is the fact that after my seven months of heaven are up, I’m going to have to enter the real world and find a job.  But I’ll save that for another post.