Sogni (dreams)

Allora...
I have had many dreams in the last week from desires about my future to nightmares. I'll tell you about some of these in a bit. I've done a good job avoiding thinking about reality up until now. It was easy when I was oblivious to what was going on in the world and didn't even know when I'd return to America. But now, I'm catching up with people and news, and my return date and all the responsibilities I will face after then are slowly creeping into my thoughts...

But, that's my only complaint. Everything else here is just peachy. I do something different every day, while the schedule remains the same. Some new things I've done: pick pears using a wobbly ladder, harvest grapes and began to make a sour liquor, caramelize and jar figs, and more. The puppies are growing and getting more bold and excited. I wish I could take them home. Another WWOOFer arrived from Japan yesterday. She doesn't know any Italian, which I love. Whenever I feel like I'm getting nowhere with this language, someone shows up to remind me how far I've come. And then I can impress them with my knowledge :) I don't have so many new pictures, so just wait for the next update.

Okay, onto my dreams.

About opening up and agrotourismo in the US...
Why not in Italy? Because I'm not Italian, so it wouldn't be an authentic place. Now if I were to find an Italian husband who happens to already have a bunch of land...now, that would be a different story. Anyway, for a few days I had this great idea to have something like this of my own. You can work when you want, cook good food from your own land, and teach other people about it. However, something like this is difficult if you don't have a large family and get the land from your parents, like here. Anna has lived on this land her whole life, and only need to make some additions to the buildings to start this business. She said the Italian government will give groups of young people land to farm for free if they want to start something like this. Lucky. I have a feeling this is not the case in America... One of the best things they do here is give school tours. With the younger kids, she takes them on a tour of the farm to show them where all the ingredients come from in the tart that they later bake in the house. With some older groups, the kids were given seeds to grow and take care of, then were able to plant their seedlings, and then harvest their crop when it was ready. I think all children should get a chance to do these things. So maybe I will work on something like this when I get back.

My sleeping dreams...
These are usually about food and the Italian language. One night I had a nightmare that I wanted to cook some good Italian food in Florida but I couldn't find any quality ingredients, which I already know is likely to come true. In another, I was rolling out pie crust dough and it just wasn't working- it was too thick, too sticky, just all wrong. Apparently, I'm really worried about not being able to recreate these amazing recipes. Last night I dreamt that my brother, Colin, could speak Italian and so could one of his friends. Apparently, one of his childhood friends had an Italian mother and he had learned when he was little, but just remembered now. They were speaking and I was so frustrated because I couldn't understand much. Then his friend was telling me that something I knew was correct in Italian, "Non lo so" which means "I don't know" was wrong! He was saying it should be Non lo sa, which I knew was wrong, and I showed him in my book and told him that everyone in Italy says "so" not "sa", but he wouldn't budge. Then I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep I was so worried about food, and Italian, and going home...

Today I am having one of those days where Italian is clicking for me. I'm thinking in it, dreaming about it, and teaching the other WWOOFers some. I'm leaving tomorrow to go back to the other farm where Silvana only understands Italian, so I'll be forced to speak it. And I'm excited, not stressed! I think I'll have an action packed last 2 weeks, what with my work and play and romance there. Plus, I'll be having my 22nd birthday on the 31st! Mattia has already promised to take me on a vespa and take me camping in the mountains for the occasion. And I'm sure I'll also eat lots of food, and party, too. Good thing I had 2 weeks to rest up here...

After my final farm update, I'll probably do a couple reflective ones. Let me know if there's anything in particular you want to know about. You can certainly expect a full sustainability report!

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