I haven't been very up to date on the pictures....but these were actually taken today! Can you believe it?

I was thinking today and I think that my trip could kind of be like in Eat Pray Love and these months in the countryside could be the pray part! That way I could be like Julia Roberts! Except I really don't know how the Eat Pray Love story goes at all since I did see it, but it was in Spanish, back when I understood nothing, and I fell asleep. But I can imagine that I can be like her. Although, I fell asleep for the end....so really I don't even know if I want to be like her, it must've hada happy ending eh? I need to get my hands on the book.

Wwoofing. Week one.

Get this, it's awesome.
Day one at my new home for the week on a farm in Portugal.

Me: So what can I do to help out today?
Boss guy: Well, here everything just flows. So I just want you to flow and to do whats best for you.
Me: uh, okay....... (to myself: flow, flow, shoot. what if I don't know how to flow?)

Ha I love it. There are no hours here. We don't force anything. What kind of farm am I working on? The kind that is also a meditative retreat centre. Yay, that's right, do I know how to pick 'em or what.
That's what I thought at the beginning. Then I realized that I may suck at meditating. It may even be against my religion. (Jesus: You have a religion? Me: uh.....well I guess thats debatable..) I could practice praying. (Jesus: you are going to practice praying? Seriously Annie, what are we, eight years old again? Me: okay okay good point.) Oh oh I know! I could do devotions! ( Jesus: are you looking at me? I'm rolling my eyes. Besides, you would want chocolate to do "devotions." Me: Oh ya, didn't think about that one. And boss guy told me that chocolate is the same thing as heroin. That one won't work out either.)

Anyways, you get the picture. This place is too quiet for me. Too peaceful. They even have two kids under the age of three and their house is still peaceful. I think I need hours, and a schedule and a list of things that need to get done. I've spent most of my time weeding and caring for bamboo. Bamboo. I feel like it is very fitting.

Although, all this fresh air, vegetables, and lack of coffee is making me feel ridiculously healthy and I've been here hardly a week. Another thing that I find I'm fascinated by is how most of the time I can get the gist of their conversations in Portuguese. Sometimes a word is like Spanish, sometimes French, and sometimes I don't remember where it comes from I just know what it means. It's a weird thing though, to understand but to not be able to say one word. And it's even more amazing to be laughing and having a good time while  playing with a Portuguese 2 year old and a Latvian 7 year old and realizing that none of us can communicate in each other's languages.

This place is full of curious experiences. It is a meditative retreat.

The Boat

The 38 hour boat ride really wasn't that bad at all. I was surprised. After enduring weeks of jokes and Debora telling me that I am crazy, well she might not have been the only one come to think of it, I expected only the worse. I think the key to it was that by the time I got on the boat I was dead tired and really just wanted to sleep.

The day before was jam packed with saying goodbye to people, and passing on my friends to Alanna (the new me, in other words the new au pair). We spent a long time on the beach, which, as Alanna pointed out, is extremely exhausting. Then went grocery shopping, out for coffee, then out for dinner. Hard life, I know. By the time we got home it was midnight and guess what I still hadn't done.....packed. I went to bed at 3 a.m.

The next morning we both got up on time and got the boys ready for school. I went to my Spanish class for the last time....again....but don't worry Beatriz, this time I actually did leave, and the rest of the day was a blur of saying goodbye and finishing packing.

So what was the first thing I did when I got on the boat - fell asleep. I fell asleep just to be woken up by a call from Alanna and my friend Echedey needing translations because they don't understand each other.....but it wasn't long before my phone lost reception and all I had left to do in the middle of the ocean was sleep. That or play bingo. I declined on the bingo.

I found that I quite liked the rocking of the boat, thats probably why I slept so much! I didn't get seasick at all. The only eventful thing that really happened besides the bingo and guess the song games going on at the bar was when I discovered that there was water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.
Before I got on I bought a lot of food because I did not want to have to spend a fortune on the ferry. My only problem was that my water bottle was a little small. I finished my water with less than 12 hours to go on the boat and figured that maybe I could make it without have to by a 2 euro bottle at the bar. Yes, I'm becoming cheap again. Unfortunately I woke up at 1 am and decided I was miserably thirsty. At this same moment I heard them closing up the bar. NOOO!!  I need water!!! I ran down to the bar and asked for a bottle of water, they weren't done closing the gate. The man looked at me, and said sorry, the bar is closed. But I could see the bottles!! I could almost reach and grab one! I just stood there looking desperate....but is there...? No. the bar is closed.
I really didn't know what I was going to do. It seemed like I was either going to have to wake up a sleeping passenger and beg them for water or drink tap water.....which I haven't done since coming to Spain and maybe don't want the first place I do try to be on a ferry...
I started wandering the boat hoping that by some chance a magic vending machine would appear. Instead I ran into the same guy I saw at the bar. I must have looked really desperate because he kind of just stared at me for a minute and told me to wait there. He came back with two bottles of water and refused my money. haha! Success! And the water was free!
Looking completely helpless always works in the long run. I didn't even have to start crying!

Passport control on the other side is a different story however......but  its dinner time so I'll have to muddle over the question of whether or not my visa is actually valid and get back to you.

Me voy!

Goodbye summer, it´s been a good seven months. Hopefully my my tan lines will last until you return!

Is it possible to be addicted to the sun?

 I really didn't think that I was going to like this place so much. I guess I thought that I would grow tired of the never ending sun and possibly tired of being an au pair as I have now spent a grand total of 13 months of my life carrying this title.

-oh oh side note : I'm sitting outside and a lizard just popped his head up through the deck like right beside me. He is now keeping very still and staring at me. The lizard in my room finally found his way out. Or at least he found his way to the laundry room, lived there for a few days, then escaped to the garage. This one staring at me is different though, he's quite a bit bigger. Still staring at me. These little creatures amuse me, kinda like penguins. ha or not at all.

But the thing is the sun is just so warm. I also think waking up to a cloudless blue sky every morning really effects your mood. It makes you happy :) Just like cheerios make you cheery. And there were times when I was becoming weary of being an au pair but all it really takes to get over that is going away for 2 weeks and then being welcomed back at the door by an enthusiastic little boy exclaiming "Ann! You come back!"

But I am leaving. I was going to leave today but, well, now I'm leaving next week. My host mom asked me to stay one more week so I can be here when the new au pair comes and help her get settled in. I was hesitant to stay as its starting to seem like I 'm just never going to leave but here I am, darkening my tan.

I think that the biggest reason I wasn't expecting to get attached to this place was that, as I realized a few weeks ago, my reason for coming back to Europe was never to learn Spanish. This surprised me when I realized this. I was on the bus going back home after my last Spanish class and I was thinking about how I really liked Spanish and how I wasn't really serious about learning it when I arrived, yes I wanted to learn something but I wasn't thinking that I was going to try and become fluent or anything, but maybe now I would like to keep on studying it. These thoughts were going around in my head when suddenly I was like, wait, the reason I came here wasn't to learn Spanish? That's what I told everyone I was coming here to do. Why are you going to Spain? To learn Spanish. It's the most logical reason. But no, really I just wanted to come here to wander. I wanted to come back to Europe to do whatever I want and not have to have a definite schedule of events and purposes. I only used the excuse of learning Spanish to have a valid reason to leave again.   

However, in the middle of using excuses to get to what I really want I have found that I really love languages and would probably be very happy if for the rest of my life I could just keep on learning new ones. Maybe I'll do just that. But in the meantime, next week I am going to start doing what I really wanted to do, I'm leaving on a boat for Portugal (and winter as people keep reminding me!) and going to wander. Don't worry, I have more definite plans than that but have run out of time and need to go catch a bus! I'll write again soon!