Day 58

Well here I am out in the middle of nowhere, on a goat cheese farm in northern Holland. Why the heck am I here? You may ask. For some odd reason, I decided that "hard physical labor" was one of my goals for this gap year, and I'd say there's no better way to get your fill of hard physical labor than working on a farm. So I signed up with the organization WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms www.wwoof.org) and found Neinke and Auke, a Dutch couple who live with their five children on a farm in a village called Sebaldeburen. WWOOF is really really groovy because while I offer them my labor, they give me hearty Dutch food and shelter in their Ikea dream house (and I get to play with their dogs!). So it's a win-win-win sort of deal. And here I am at De-Mekkerkast Farm (www.de-mekkerkast.nl)! Because they're in the goat cheese business, they have lots of sweet little goats, as well as cows, pigs, and horses just for fun. Their home and barns are surrounded by sprawling green fields speckled with leafless trees, and there are no mountains or hills so the land feels like it goes on forever. That being said, it feels good to be out of the city. I have space to breathe again. As much as I soaked up every moment I had with Alex, Paris revealed to me some inner conflicts that I couldn't seem to reconcile. Yeah the city has a lot going for it, the history, the art, an efficient metro system, but I just couldn't get into it. While the other girls gaggled over the Eiffel Tower, after a minute I thought, okay cool I'm ready to move on. Is something wrong with me? I don't know. But I felt like a piece was missing. My surroundings weren't reaching into my soul or making joy flow through my veins (a feeling I've come to know and love on this gap year). I felt like such a hypocrite, I say all the time that I can find joy anywhere no matter what. "So where the hell is it!?" I thought to my self... AH! MY BEST FRIEND ALEX STILLS! All the joy I could ever want is in this beautiful gal I get to call my soul sister! Wow how lucky am I! So who cares where we are, I get to spend time with my best friend and eat a couple baguettes while we're at it.
So that's how Paris went. And now I'm on the farm doing what I do best, shovel things around and play in the dirt. Here's a list of some of the work I've done thus far (it's only been two days mind you).
Package fresh strips of meat into vacuum sealed bags.
Wheel barrow chopped wood across the farm.
Feed the animals their various types of hay and pellets and grains and food scraps.
Shovel horse poop.
Pull all of the dead plants out of the garden and feed them to the goats.
Cut back tree branches and build an absurdly large pile of dried wood, to be burned later.
Go to Neinke and Auke's daughter's horse back riding competition (she got disqualified because the horse pooped while she was competing).
So all is well and fun! Of course it's freezing outside and the weather is predicted to be in the 30s all week, but hey it's only temporary. May I go forth, lech lecha, and shovel all the horse poop I can.