Tuesday June 27
Aight fam, here’s the lowdown: I love tomatoes. Be sliced, diced, pureed or sautéed, in a box, with a fox – I’ll eat tomatoes any way, whadda ya say. But I have re-planted so many tomato plants in the past 36 hours, if I had to tie a stalk to a post again, it would be too soon.
This will be a shorter post, as now that it has stopped raining, I am itching to get out and walk around. And show you more photos of what the farm here looks like.
Work so far has been gardening. Olov took Naomi to the train station, and before she left she promised to make a Spanish tortilla. Because I told her the last time I made one it turned out so bad, she agreed to teach me. So, now I know the secret sauce. Which is no actual sauce, mind you, but using lower heat and exercising more patience. Oh, and using more oil when cooking the potatoes. (Like, an insane amount of oil.)
Every work stay differs in its criteria. The terms of the contract are posted on each profile by each owner, listing what work is expected of you and what you are given in return. I fully expected to sleep in a team dorm, but have been pleasantly surprised with private quarters. And while I may not have amenities like opaque drapes (which do make a difference with the midnight sun) I go have an actual working doorknob and proximity to a router. So I’ll call that a win.
In exchange for 25 work hours per week, divvying into 5 hours per day for only 5 days, I get room and board for two weeks, and gardening experience. The gardening is not difficult, but I am horrified by the amount of trust put into my awkward little hands concerning delicate tomato plants. While I found a few bent and broken on their own, one or two (or four) were definitely my accidental doing. I may have also mixed up squash and cucumber plants.
Sigh.
But at least I can bake breadsticks. I’ve concluded that bartering with willingness or capability to bake is marketable skill anywhere in the world, even on a desert island. This works on an island too because if one can figure out how to bake bread, those carbohydrates offer immediate energy and happy feels in the body and brain.
Also, most men don’t bake. So if a person does bake, they offer an immediate asset to a team.
The first night I was here, I couldn’t get to sleep right away, so I baked cinnamon rolls. They were used for tea and coffee, and I suggested I could make an American fruit pie or cookies. Olov seemed particularly jazzed about fresh bread, which is now on my mental to do list once he’s back in town. Might do bread stocks tomorrow.
Highlights:
-Asked about electrical engineering since that’s what he teaches at Uppsala.
“Is brain washing possible through wave lengths propagated by music?”
My question was serious.
His expression was priceless.
-Food brings you together.
-I understand now why my mother wanted the kitchen table out of the divorce. Yeah it’s cumbersome and needs a solid deep cleaning, but the meals shared there were probably the best memories during her tenuous marriage. Eating meals together does bond you, and can be the central, warming hearth to a family coming together, even crazy ones like mine. That’s probably the Italian blood in us: we may fight hard, but my gosh, even when angry with each other, we still come together for snacks.
Meals:
-Leftover Bolognese spaghetti and a Spanish tortilla.
-American burgers, made by Victor and Francesco. They are quite the chefs, and I cannot emphasize enough how truly good dudes they are’ always willing to help out with a task our share, even working on their jobs or school stuff in their spare time. All while being so good-natured. Their parents should pat themselves on the back, because they done good raising solid, decent people.
I commented on this to Ellie, who responded that everyone she’s met at work stays are chill and nice, and how the people drawn to things like this are kinda similar if temperament and personality on that regard. When I did research at an MMA fighting gym, I noticed fighters, particularly those skilled in jujitsu, on average have similar personality similarities, too.