Saturday 10/1 930pm Sora, Italia
The past few days have gone as they normally do, but with a few interesting developments. Starting Monday, there will be 6 of us at the Mogli: Simon, Benoit, Michelle, Gavin, Daniel, and Me. I'm excited because we are sort of a family and we all work well together, so it will be nice having everyone in the same place, even if it is only for a few days. Within one week starting the 6th, we will all be leaving, so it's a little sad, but with facebook, it will be easy to keep in touch.
The first of the interesting "developments" was my spraining of the ankle. Over the past few days, my ankle has sort of been hurting, but starting Thursday night, it was abslutely miserable. That night, I couldn't sleep at all because it was hurting so much, but that morning, we all couldn't figure out when I would have hurt it, because I have been doing house work (I'm the only currently knowledgeable enough to clean rooms in a timely manner). But we came to the conclusion that I must have turned it on the trail sometime and then kept walking on it until it was that bad. It is about twice the size of the other and I have been resting it as much as possible. You can tell it's a little bruised, so hopefully that a good thing and that it is just bruised and nothing more is wrong with it. Today Giuseppe kept wanting to massage it and my eyes got really wide and I kept saying "no no no". I think that is the last thing I wanted anyone to do and I probably would have screamed.
The second thing that happened was our volunteer trip to the beach. Antonello decided yesterday morning that he wanted to take us to the beach, so by 1pm, we were all in the van, ready to go (as much as possible with only 3 hours notice.) I have left my beach towel at the Mogli because there was no reason I would have needed it at the farm... but at least that morning I decided to bring my camera with me so I did have that! The water was completely clear and reeeeeally salty. It was also cool enough that I felt like I was holding an icepack on my ankle. Some will find this completely gross, but since then, I haven't showered, so my hair is still really curly from the salt water and I think there is still sand on my scalp... tomorrow tomorrow. We didn't get back until really late and we went to the other guest house and cooked fish which we bought. It would have been a good idea if the whole "cooking fish" had been thought before because it was completely unorganized and we each had to pay 7 euros for just about a third of a fish and two shrimp.... for 7 euros, I could have eaten pasta at the Mogli for a week... but it's the idea that counts. We stopped and bought the fish from a fish market by the sea, but since it was late, the vendors didn't have much left so we ended up with the most expensive fish and we all chipped in money.
The last thing is that Linda seriously has been talking to be about coming back in April when her baby is born and being Vera's nanny and being in charge of the rooms while she is taking care of the new baby. Right now, all she does is take care of Vera and turn over the rooms, and when the new baby is born, Vera will only be 18 months, so that is a lot of chaos. I think I'm one of the first volunteers who has shown interest in hanging out with Vera and walking around with her, and since I'm pretty much a pro at turning over rooms fast (cause I do it by myself all the time), I think she thinks I'm a good candidate. And right after she talked to me, I took Vera while she finished lunch and 30 minutes later when I gave her back to Linda, Vera was holding her arms out to go back to me... I felt bad because Linda has said before, jokingly, that she is afraid to let volunteers around Vera because Vera will like them more than her, but I think Linda was more interested in the fact that after only 3 weeks, Vera just loooooves me. I mean, I like going to pet the donkey and Vera likes to go pet the donkey, so we have common interests.
Also, I'm pretty sure Leia, the donkey, now knows who I am. She used to just kind of be 'whatever' when I came over, but now her ears perk up and she walks over to see me when I visit. She reminds me a little of Bella because she is just a big ole baby who like being pet. Sometimes, Giuseppe just lets her loose in the yard to munch on weeds because she is too lazy to try and escape. And sometimes, we will literally be eating lunch and she will be munching 3 feets away. It is times like that I KNOW I'm on a farm.
Today I also was listening to the first half of the game on 1620AM. I think people thought I was a little nuts because I kept hitting my fist in the air or shaking my head or yelling a little. I'm sure I would be a little embarrassed, but it's the Aggies so I don't care. I leftat halftime, so I honestly have no idea (at this moment in time) if we won or lost. Also, Michelle went into town today and brought me back my new toy: my new headlamp!! I gave her 20 euros to buy it for me since I probably won't be able to walk into town for another 2 or 3 days. It is glorious and I should have gotten it earlier. I realized later when I got to my tent that both my sleeping bag and my headlamp are red. But not I have all this gear (tent, sleeping bag, and headlamp) that I'm going to attempt to bring back with me. The sleepingbag and headlamp are definitely coming, but I guess I just have to see how far the ten gets. Apparently this tent is worth like 250 euros but I got it for 20 so it's hard to let something like that just go. I'll at least keep it until I get to Cortona to make sure I don't need it then (which I've been told I don't but I got here and needed it, so you never know!!). I'm glad I chose to come out and camp here. There are times when I would love to have a bed or a SHOWER but there is so much less work and it is more enjoyable.
I'm Maria's favorite again. After the fiasco with me dancing and singing in the kitchen, I think she has realized how much she enjoyed having me at the house because one whole day at lunch she kept asking where I was because even though I had finished work for the day, she trusted only me to do certain things. Then then next day, she made me coffee and keeps finding things around the kitchen for me to do. I know, I know, I'm pretty fun to be around and she realized after I'm gone how much fun I actually was lol.
