This time just two days ago, Paco and I were between a wonderful week spent together and an upcoming airport drop off. We had camped, hiked, jumped off waterfalls, visited with friends, made amazing meals, attended a beer dinner, and played volleyball, and I was a happy girl - on the happy scale, I'm a 10, with stars in my eyes. The cherry on the cake was when Paco's flight got delayed, which allowed us one more spontaneous dinner date in downtown Atlanta (I can confidently recommend Tamarind Seed Thai the next time you're near Piedmont Park!). Still, a sad airport drop off whacked me back into reality, sending me down to a 3 on the happy scale. My man was leaving for an unknown amount of time, but at least I had a new job and adventure to look forward to.
Paco and I all dressed up for his birthday beer dinner at Ariccia!
Back at home, the exhaustion hit me - the nonstop excitement caught up with me, and the last thing I wanted to do was pack. Thankfully, I had Alex for packing support, and honestly I would have gotten a lot less done without her encouragement. A miracle happened, and I was able to fit 2 sets of sheets, 3 blankets, 1 pillow, a coffee maker, mugs, books, 7 pairs of shoes, a hammock, a laptop, work clothes, and living clothes all in 2 bags and a backpack. Granted, I will need to ship my art stuff and my fuzzy winter bathrobe (clearly, a staple when my bathhouse is across the way), but on the other hand, those vacuum space bags did wonders!
After only 3 hours of sleep, it was time to head back to the airport for a little dejavu action. Hadn't I JUST been here?! Almost 12 hours of travel time later, I arrived at my new home, an A-frame cabin in the woods. The girl who picked me up from the airport was able to answer most of my questions on the way, and turns out, her Tico boyfriend is visiting for the week! Also, about 6 staff members have either lived or studied in Costa Rica! Ah, a little taste of "home." At this point, I'm around a 5 on the happy scale - a mix of excited, anxious, curious, and tired.
I had seen pictures of the A-frame, but one that was well lived in. Naturally, when I arrived, mine was empty. Duh, you think....except I panicked. Even after unpacking, there was so much wall space and empty shelves, and there was no trace of any other interns around. It was still and quiet, and I was reminded of exactly how lonley I felt. I missed my family and friends and boyfriend and I didn't know hardly a soul here or anything about the campus culture. And I was past exhausted. Engage Panic Mode (happiness scale 0).After texting home and talking to Paco, I was able to calm down and sleep, pretty well I might add, in my tiny little half-twin size bed (A-frame remember, so it's kinda squished by the slanted wall). I woke up this morning for breakfast and work, unsure of what my schedule even was for the day. Breakfast was eggs, mixed veggies, toast, yogurt, and granola, and thankfully, I was able to meet some of the staff, all of whom were more than welcoming. After breakfast, I found my way to my sweet garden.
Today is the first day of classes, so even though the rest of the staff and interns have been here a while, many things are still new. Maggie (the Farm to Table Teacher that I work with) led us on a garden walk through, where she explained how we will conduct walk-throughs each Monday morning to determine what needs to be done in the garden for the week. We take notes and hang them on the shed door so that when other interns and students come to work in the garden, they know what needs to be done. She showed us all around each section of the one acre garden and 2 green houses. It was so cool to see what a wide variety of things we can grow here! I never realized how narrow (or maybe just different) our agricultural options are in Alabama. Our garden grows the usual veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, spinach, beans, herbs, and corn, but we also have berries of all sorts, several varieties of kale and salad greens, carrots, cabbage, melons, grapes, fennel, garlic, beets, radishes, and some stuff I wasn't familiar with at all! We even have a medicinal and tea sections of the garden where we grow and dry our own types of medicinal herbs and teas! Of course there are flowers too, and of course, I couldn't resist picking some to hopefully help my A-frame look and feel a little more like home.
My "First Day of School" flowers from my garden :)
Other than flowers, we worked all morning in the garden picking 20 or so pounds EACH of sungold cherry tomatoes, regular red slicing tomatoes, radishes, squash, and cucumbers. We also harvested 8 bunches of kale, about 10 bunches of basil, and about 8 bunches of one of our tea plants. There wasn't even time to dig the potatoes or pull up the onions! Many of the interns (there are 8 total not including me), were in and out of the garden this morning, helping with harvest, so it was nice to have some time with each one of them to get to know them a little bit. So far, I have met staff/interns from Michigan, Massachusetts, California, Vermont, Missouri (I think), and Washington. One girl used to live on a homestead, and another studied sociology at Yale. I am happily surprised by this outstanding variety - surely a little ole Alabama girl who taught and tour-guided in Costa Rica can find a place to fit...
By the time lunch came, I was starving. If you didn't know already, our kitchen at Woolman is vegetarian. Not by choice, either - everyone I've talked to so far is an omnivore! However, our school doesn't have certification to serve meat yet, and most of our produce comes from my garden anyway, so it's our best option for now. We do have eggs and cheese though, so that's a relief! Haha! The dining hall is also a wooden A-frame, but it's obviously much bigger than mine. There are little round tables with enough seats for 5-6 at each, and the whole front wall is made of windows to let plenty of natural light in. Handmade decorations hang in loops on the windows, and hundreds of paper origami cranes hang from the center of the ceiling like a chandelier. A colorful medley of coffee mugs line the shelves over by the teas and sink, and stacks of equally as colorful and mismatched dinner plates are stacked on the buffet-styled table by the serving dishes. Before each meal, we all stand around this buffet table in a cirlce and hold hands. We don't pray necessarily, but I think we are supposed to practice mindfulness and thankfulness for the food we are about to eat. I'm also not sure who decides when it's over or how, but when the person next to you squeezes your hand, the silence in the circle is broken, and it's time to eat!
After lunch was a meeting with Maggie to go over my schedule and other orientation-type things. Looks like I'll be in the garden MTF from 8-12:30, with chores, intern classes (I take Cooking & Nutrition, Non-Violent Communications, and Gardening), and shared work (wood chopping, cleaning, and other community stuff) varied in the afternoons. Wednesday morning is for "worship" (aka silent sitting in a group together time...?) and agenda/community meeting type stuff. Thursday mornings Maggie and I teach our Farm to Table class, and my weekends are left for play. Dinner is served each night at 6:30, and I will be responsible for cooking one dinner per week (vegetarian, gasp...).
While my day is not over, I do feel a little bit better about my upcoming time here. I am not longer in panic-mode (for now at least), and I'd say I'm like a 6-7 on my happiness scale. Spending time outside in the garden in such beautiful, sunny, low-humidity weather was relaxing, and I'm happy to have some down time until dinner. I've met a few people now, so I won't need to sit at the lunch table by myself like an outcast middle-schooler, and everyone has been more than welcoming. I also looted the empty cabins for decor to trade out for my hideous circus-clown-inspired rug and curtains. I even found some extra pillows and made my extra bed into a couch area! Ahhhh, much better, but a long way before I can call it "Home Sweet Home" - next I plan to paint my door a pretty color and get some pictures up on these walls! Little by little....
My cute little "couch" area
Bed, couch, stove, window, new rug and curtains
Shelves and the front door/porch!
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