or something like that... today i kind of felt overwhelmed and tired out, but quickly got a second wind. so the deal with helpx is that you work for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, but lucie suggested the ingenious idea of "working forward," meaning we work 5 hours a day for 4 days and then get an extra day off. so, we worked on the drainage ditch for 4 days (which we actually became quite proud of, as its glorious rock lining is something of a mosaic) and then spent our day off in florence with dinner in nearby arrezo. someone told alex that if we wanted to spend our time in italy with americans we should head for florence, and we found this to be regretfully true. we figured tourism would have slacked off a bit by this time of year, but the tour groups (the kind where guides hold up a little flag while they walk around and everyone is wearing matching numbered stickers) were rampant. nonetheless, we managed to see all the big sights we were interested in, including the archeological museum, which housed tons of egyptian, greek, etruscan, and roman artifacts, much to alex's delight. i came to florence with elena, julia, and jarvis the summer after senior year of high school, but have to say i hardly remember the place. that trip seems ages ago, with the focus on our tenuous relationships rather than the sights we saw. so going again was nice, and good to do it with alex. after much wandering we headed for the train station which took us back to arrezo, the nearest city to where we are now, where we enjoyed a leisurely meal at a restaurant recommended to us by lucie.
today we returned to work on the land, though not on the ditch. it was cloudy today, really beginning to feel like fall. still beautiful though, and only cool enough to warrant a sweatshirt, with sleeves pushed up while hauling old stones from a broken down wall to a pile in the garage. the kind of work i wouldn't want to do forever, but am somehow happy to be doing now. so much physical labor also renews my respect for my father, who somehow manages to battle through 12 hour days and 6 day work weeks. true work.
well, now it's time to be rewarded for our minimal work with lucie's delicous cooking...
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6 comments:
i'm glad you got to go back to florence... it's true, i hardly remember being there. so ridiculous. isn't that where we didn't even stay in the city but in that strange tourist camping village in the little trailer-like thingy? wow, that was another lifetime.
Nice tribute to yr Daddy and other workers of the world whom we can thank for ALL the buildings and bridges and structures and museums in our real world--stone by stone, day by day. YiKES the pres debates were terrifying as they spoke of real issues I'd like to forget about most of the time--OBAMANOS!
Ursi, Get to an american embassy to get an absentee ballot--u shudda been told that long ago. mm NM doesn't do send from europe stuff--has to be the especial ballot
lovely. are you eating a lot of gelato?? very important.
marimee-- good to see sleevie again at the debate. i think he's getting bigger.. and how do you make your mac & cheese with the celery? i want some!
Sounds awesome over there! I'm glad the farm stay seems to be working out well. You guys might enjoy Heat by Bill Buford, a really fun book, with a lot about italian cooking from the region you're in (not that I'd know where you could find it). Hope the weather stays nice over there and that we get to see more pictures!
hey all,
thanks for the lovely comments - it's so nice to know that my words are being read by someone. for some reason i can't seem to comment back individually at the moment, so...
elena, yes, alex and i rode past that weird little place where we stayed 4 years ago outside florence - so strange to see.
blair - no italian gelato yet! alex is anti-sweets, so i haven't been having my fair share as of yet. certainly in rome.
niko - thanks for the rec, i'll definitely try to find it. i'm running out of reading material so that would be great. we're going to rome next and i'm sure they have an english section in a bookstore, so that should be good!
okay, lucie needs the computer for work, so i'll post again soon, but not now!
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