guest update from Sardinia

Yet another guest update from me, Alex, here:
Its tuesday nowand we are just off the mai square in he city of Bosa doing all our internet-related chores since our olive picking was rained out today. Which is a shame because I am really enjying it (I think Ursula is also, despite the sore neck from looking up all day). My unique method is actually climbing up inot the tree t rake th olive with out little plastic hand-rakes, since I think the highest concentrations of the biggest and best olives are uop at the top with all the open sky and light. Its tough work (on the ground as well!) but very satisfyiong whn we finish the raking/picking bit of the job and then haul all our ground nets together, piling the olives harvested in the middle....sometimes a good 20kg off one tree! The job has been made even easier by the arrival of Liz, from Ohio, on sunday and then June, from Santa Cruz, CA, on monday. Now there are fopur of us in the big tower-house, bu it is still plenty spacious enough.
Especialy since we've been going out a bit. Ursula and I walked the mile or so to the beach on sunday and swam in the absolutely crystal waters of the sea over lovely, sandy, bottom with little families of tiger-stripped fish darting around our heals. Good fun. Ursula hd siome bad memories of a particular stingra incident in Mexico, but stayed either swimming or else was only mildly suspiciously watching the bottom for undersea evils. It was so nice, however, nobody could stay wary and nervous for long. It was cold but tremendously fun.
We managed to get the whole house involved in a dinner last night that inally broke the semi-monotony of italan food (not that we dont like italian food, bt really, six weeks straight of pasta gets a little trying. We got Carl to drop us off ( in the pale yellow monster cab) at the market after work and we got some key ingridients--chief among them soy sauce--to make our rice, carrot, cabbage and egg stir fry seem a little less European. It was a shadow of the version we enjoyed in San Gineso when Gretchen made it, but it was good enough to fill our work-depleted bellies.
But yeah, rained out today. Real bummer. We got to go to Carey's studio for lunch hoever, and got a real spread there, only slightly less impressive than the one we enjoyed yesterday. Cheese, bread, tomatospread, sweat potatos, tomates, wine, cider, cucumbers, eggplant, green tomato slsa...it was endless and delicious!" hopefully the rain abates tomorrow so we can get some good harvesting done and then take the olives to the press either tomorrow or the next day. We're all excited to see that process. We'll have more to tell of it after we see the whole business go down. Till then, Ciao.
-Alex (and Ursula)

on the farm again

after four days in a "camping village" about 45 minutes north of rome we headed to the island of sardinia to embark on our second help exchange adventure. the little reality pause of the camping place was nice - gave us a few days to get our shit together while simultaneously doing next to nothing. the lovely gretchen visit also seemed to center me a bit, so i was feeling quite good by the time we arrived in civitavecchia to board our second overnight ferry. apparently the italian national line is much fancier than the croatian, as was evidenced immediately by the fact that we were transported to the 4th floor of the ship in an elevator, rather than a rickety outdoor staircase hovering over the harbor. once on board alex and i indulged in a rather average-tasting but high-costing dinner, had a glass of wine, hot shower, and climbed into our slightly rocking but rather cosy little sea-beds for a nice 5 and a half hours of sleep. we were awakened just before 6 to the sound of an on-board announcement in italian, then one in english so heavily accented that it was nearly incomprehensible. we were set to arrive at 6:30 though, so we headed for the exit. it was still dark out, and as the elevator door opened onto the car storage level of the ship, we walked wearily towards what seemed to be the exit, feeling rather like we were leaving the belly of a beast only to head into some sort of heavily fog covered hell. it turned out to just be sardinia though, and after a bit of a wait the sun came up and our bus across the island arrived, allowing us something of a tour across a misty but intensely beautiful landscape looking something like a cross between the scottish highlands and new mexican high desert. once we arrived in the very mediterranean bosa (where you can legally paint your house any color but white!) i called carl, who shortly arrived to pick us up in his former english taxi, a huge pale yellow thing that looks like it's from the 50s. carl himself is quite a sight to behold, with a shock of white blond hair and a shaggy beard, he looks like a viking who stumbled into some sort of neo-hippy colony. he told us we'd actually be staying in their house in town, which is a 5 (maybe 6?) story apartment with one room on each floor, creating a dizzying and amazing house including a lovely rooftop terrace. tomorrow another helpxer is arriving, meaning we'll be sharing the 3 bedroom wonder with a fellow traveller. the actual farm is just outside town on a lovely hillside from which you have a full view of the main section of houses, the river that flows through out to the ocean, and the castle that tops it all off. amazing. after a bit of settling in yesterday carl picked us up this morning and showed us the upper field, which contains the plethora of olive trees. he showed us the little rake things you use to get the olives off the branches, and after a bit of instruction we were off, successfully de-oliving one large tree, in total harvesting a hefty basketfull. we then went back down to their outside kitchen area for lunch (did i mention how nice the weather is here?), at which point we met his partner carey and got to know their two adorable little toe-headed kids evelina and padraig, whom they for some reason refer to as bubble and weasel. while carey and carl are both very friendly, they're old hats at the whole helpx thing and it seems that we will be treated more as the hired help than as friends come to stay. the fact that this sort of hired help gets to stay in a first rate house in a cute little town and only has to work about 4 hours per day makes it all seem okay though... whew. i'll let you know once the week begins and the harvest is truly underway!

Guest Post from Alex

For starters, on my first post, I just want to say that this keyboard is really shoddy so many of my errors will be due to that, not any stylisitic flouting of convention like the ordinary author of this blog favors.
That said, we-re in Lazio, north of Rome in a funny little camping village type place with mobile homes and the like. It is quaint, comfortable and, importantly, cheap. In San Ginesio we had a TV and spemnt a lot of time watching the news about the impending fiscal apocolypse and it has certainly made me feel even more sensitive to the kind of money we have to spend traveling. So this oasis of cheap room and board is a nice respite.
Better still was the free room and food we enjoyed in San G., but that locale had issues all its own which were the toipic of Ursulas last post.
We/ve pretty much hit the half way here in terms of time and it is a very interesting feeling...both a feeling of great accomplishment and recognition of how long we-re actually out here for, but also a fair ammount of feeling like its going by quickly. It is totally inexplicable for me that I can have memories which seem like moments ago//eating sandwiches in the park with Veronika// but have them really be weeks and weeks, as well as countries, ago. And Rome flew by totally too quickly. Luckily we are near enough to it here in Lazio that if I really get overwhelmed with feeling like I am missing it, we/I can take a day trip to go see the inside of Trajans markets, Diocletians bath or the Domus Aurea of Nero. We might have to. Being there was insane...to really know that I was literally stepping on the same paving stones that Augustus did...and not that he might have, but actually DID in some places through doors and the like. That forum in Rome was the beating heart of the entire western world for more than two millenia...i can still barely believe the squallor and ruin it has fallen into and the sheer disrespect it recieves every day from loads of sweaty, stinking, filthy, loud, undignified tourists. Everyone has a right to see the place, of course, but is it too much to ask that they should be expected to have some reverence for a place of such historical, social, cultural gravity...insert question mark here/the keyboard doesnt have one!
Well, my time is running low on this machine so I am going to sign off, but at least I wrote something, huh...
Ill do it again. Blogging is kind of fun. I started reading Dracula and the whole thing is largely journal and diary entrries...the style does have comething to it. Yeah, ill write on here again, if we ever find a reliable computer for more than an hour. damn it all.
Cheers and hugs and kisses to everyone back home i am missing. and boy, am i missing you all!

a week away

this past week has been spent mostly:

playing speed scrabble with gretchen at the kitchen table
reading raymond carver's "where i'm calling from"
driving around the countryside stopping in lots of little towns, getting out, walking around, perhaps drinking a coffee or eating a sandwich
reminiscing about food in portland/the us/talking about portland/the us in general
feeling a little bit awkward and like maybe we shouldn't be here because we're kind of just interrupting their life without a real invite and claudia seems kind of angry all the time and maybe really hates us
but then it's okay because gretchen wants us here and it's quite fun hanging out with her and having someone else to talk to who we know

that's about it. maybe alex will do a quick post too. pictures someday! tomorrow we're off to lazio, just north of rome, for a little pause in everything before heading to sardinia on thursday to pick olives for two weeks! hooray!

where people really live

right now we're in macerato, a town about an hour away from david and claudia's, where gretchen, alex, and i decided to come for the day. david and claudia are a couple about gretchen's age whom she met in portland and quickly befriended, eventually leading to an invite to come live with them in italy for a whopping 9 months. gretchen then ever-so-kindly extended an invite to us, and thus we are here in the provence of le marche spending a leisurely week at their cute little house outside of the town of san ginesio. i told them upon arrival that i felt odd just staying without doing something in exchange (as in digging ditches, hauling bricks, etc.) and in fact that feeling hasn't fully gone away. the area looks very similar to tuscany, though with more farms and less woods, and it seems with more people who're here to work, not to escape and start over. david took us on a crazy little drive around the countryside, stopping in one town to experience a local polenta/fall festival (apparently polenta festivals are really big in italy), another for views, and others just to see. wonderfully i was able to upload pictures onto gretchen's computer then onto my memory stick, so here are some recent ones to give you a gist!

roman hobbit houses

i think my favorite part about rome was actually something 30km outside of the city (or maybe that's not true... there's so much here to like). in any case, ostia was absolutely amazing. i suppose it's the kind of find that archeologists dream about, and for some reason the 4 euro, 20 minute train ride is too much for most tourists. the ruins are huge, and far from ruined. pretty much a small town still stands, sans most roofs and floors, and large parts of walls. but you get the idea, with the added bonus of wild flowers and grasses winding their way across the remaining mosaic floors and stone walls, creating a sort of roman secret garden feel. as with everyone who came before us, the romans were small, so the few intact houses and shops are tiny, forcing alex and me to duck into them and get the full experience. i kept thinking about chaco canyon while we were wandering through - passively checking out the remnants of a multi-thousand year old civilization. since i can't yet upload my own pics, here's one of someone elses to give you an idea of what the place looks like:

this doesn't really do it justice though - it was much more beautiful. in any case, to make a lovely day even better we hopped back on the commuter train for 4 more stops and got out at the beach. second week in october and the weather was perfect for a swim. it was the first really sandy beach we've been to, as croatia is apparently entirely made of rocks, and it was exactly what we needed. all tension of rome was washed away as we swam and dozed while listening to the lilting voices of our fellow swimmers - about 30 german high schoolers. soo, it wasn't exactly perfect beach-side company, but there's really no escaping the germans in italy, so it wasn't too bad.

tomorrow it's off to stay with gretchen in san ginesio - off we go!

first, here are a few croatia pics: http://s530.photobucket.com/albums/dd345/ursulove/
i haven't been able to upload any new pictures onto any computer, but i finally found somewhere to upload the rest that i had already put on my memory stick. so there you go. croatia seems like so long ago though, it's weird to think that it was even part of this trip.
alex and i have had our first full day apart today, which i think i really needed. it's not that we've been fighting, or even feeling unhappy with each other, i think just a bit overwhelmed. rome is where all of alex's studies and fantasies center, and my utter lack of knowledge (and often lack of interest) have been wearing us both down a bit. i figured it would be better for both of us to let him get his fill of museums while i did my own thing for a day. sooo, today i crossed the tiber into a neighborhood called trastevere, which used to be very poor and sad but is now intensely beautiful and more full of students than tourists. i bought a herald tribune (the international newspaper put out by the ny times) and caught up on the shit storm that has been hitting the world over. jesus christ, it made me happy not to be in the u.s. right now. yesterday i went to the u.s. embassy to make sure i get to vote, and after a few hours of italian-style delays and nonchalance i do believe it will all work out. fingers crossed, as i sure would like to get to utilize that one little power i'm afforded. while yesterday was focused on ensuring our rights as americans, the day before was pure roman. we decided to hit all the biggies, starting with the forum and the ruins surrounding, then heading to the colloseum (or the flavian amphitheater, as alex tells me it should properly be called). for these sights it was indeed nice to have alex around, because, as emmeline commented, it was like having a free guided tour. simply walking through this city is like taking a tour through history, however, with little placards on every other corner describing what happened here in the 16th century, there in the 2nd, over there in the 3rd b.c.e. whew, it's a lot to take in. but i'm feeling happy and refreshed after a lazy day, and ready for our trip out of town to the old city of ostia tomorrow morning!

la dolce vita

yesterday marked both one month in europe and our arrival in rome. we were both incredibly sad to be leaving lucie and peter and the comfortable country life we'd gotten used to there, but were also excited to be arriving in rome. we were greeted by intense rain and cool weather, but were immediately cheered upon entering our apartment. it's in a very central area on a hip little shopping street and is pretty much just amazing. two bedroom/two bath, huge living room, 15 foot ceilings, great views over the street.... what was barre thinking letting us stay here? we kind of feel like kids who snuck into their parents' bedroom when they were out of town. ah well, we'll make the most of it! last night we made dinner after walking around a bit and trying to get our bearings, and though it was not a bad meal at an amazing dining table, we felt like we were missing two key components, namely lucie and peter. lucie inspired me to start cooking more though, as she was simply a whiz with a cookbook in front of her, so i definitely need to buy some cookbooks and get going once i get back to p-town. for now we're off to the piazza di spagna, for an afternoon of wandering and taking in the overwhelming beauty and history that is rome.

meetin the neighbors

today we took part in our second expat meal, this time a lunch hosted by lucie and peter. lucie cooked all morning, serving up a proper lunch with dessert and all. or pudding, as brits apparently call all dessert. i thought it was lucie just sort of generalizing at first, but we asked about it and apparently their word 'pudding' does not refer to the tasty jell-o type thing, but instead anything sweet that one eats following a meal. strange, eh? but in any case, today an english couple and an english woman and her daughter came over for lunch, and a few nights ago lucie, peter, alex, and i all went over to an elderly expat couple's house for dinner along with an older american expat woman and a young english couple. it's very interesting to see the type of networking/bonding that goes on among english speakers living here, and it's certainly something i can understand wanting to do. most of them said that they really didn't want to seek out other foreigners, but that it just sort of happened. of course in terms of learning the language it would be good to mix with the locals, but in terms of empathy and simply getting by in a foreign land i think it makes tons of sense to find others like you. if i hadn't had anais in germany i don't know what i would have done. and she's french! it's funny being around so many brits here though, alex and i feel like we sort of fit in, but still have another layer of foreign-ness to fight through. it's entertaining though, and let's us learn things about english life as well. hmm, i'm not sure what else i was going to update about, so i think i'll go take a shower!