Stephanie's Adventures

Wednesday 9/21 @ 9pm Pescosolidio, Italia Well, somethings have changed and I'm now typing this from a field about 2 miles away from the farm where I have been for the past 10 days.... Things at the farm weren't exactly how they were emailed to me when I first was thinking about coming here. After arriving, I quickly saw that the hours were much more than originally stated and the work was physically and mentally draining. I quickly was getting more frustrated that I was doing so much work and getting little to no freetime to venture out. And the freetime I had was spent taking naps to recover and prepare for another 4 hours for dinner at night. So, me being the person I am, I had been thinking over the past few days all the way I could get out of it. Then, I realized that I just needed to suck it up and head to the camping farm, where I wouldn't have to do dishes anymore and would have the freedom I originally thought I would have at the first place. The Mogli is pretty much where all the "cool kids" are and I've only been here an hour and I'm already loving it. They pretty much do whatever they want here, they shower almost never, and since they are in the middle of nowhere, they frequently have yelling contests.... because they can. So, I talked to Antonello today and told him I was unhappy and it was due to the amount of work and I gave him pretty much an ultimatum... either I head to the Mogli or I will be leaving to another farm. We decided I would head to the Mogli and so I hiked into town, bought some food, toilet paper, and a sleeping bag, and now I'm going to start my first ever intense camping experience. I mean, what kind of blog would this be if y'all did get to hear about my newfound locations to pee or how I didn't shower again. The great thing about this place is that the people all become really close. The second I showed up, they handed me 3 different plates with wonderful food and as soon as I finished, they took me on a tour and showed me everything they have (including a pizza oven) and they have quite a lot. There is a "ruin" on the property which is pretty much a stone building and they store all the food and luggage in there and then they have a few tents around it and a table where they pretty much spend all their time here playing cards. They past few days have been pretty good though outside of work. Linda, Antonello's wife, has become a good friend and I'm still the only volunteer she trusts to take Vera. And Vera is now becoming accustomed to me holding her and we like to go chase the dogs and look at leaves. And yesterday was Vera's first birthday, so Linda's parents came in and we had a giant party with like 10 different cakes and desserts. Maybe next summer, when she has Vera and a baby, she will hire me as her nanny lol. Besides Linda, I really liked the other girls who are volunteering at the farm right now. Emma, who is from Sydney, and Sabrina, who is from Vancouver are both really fun to hangout with and when the three of us are working together, we never stop laughing.... and I think Maria hates when we show any signs of having fun, so it's fun to see her mad at us for laughing way too much. I orginally thought she loved me, but I'm starting to think my "loudness" is getting on her nerves... which I do not mind at all. If only she knew how loud I am back home and she would understand that I have toned it down a lot. Right now, I'm sitting here writing and the boys are chasing what they think might be a porcupine around the woods around the Mogli. When I hiked up with my stuff earlier (I only brought my smaller bag and left the bigger one at the house), the dogs decided to hike with me, so apparently they like to chase animals around the Mogli and when they start yelling, the boys all run because they think it's a porcupine. They will probably soon learn their lesson and get a pin or two stuck in them and then they won't be chasing them anymore.... the dogs and the boys.