#2 New-New-New-STOP

I didn't expect to write the next post so quickly, but I've been on the farm for almost exactly 48 hours now and I've experienced so much that I'm worried it will get out of hand again.

In every series, the cliffhanger is resolved at the beginning of the next episode. However, since this is not a series but my travel blog, you'll have to be patient - HA!

The day before yesterday, Anja, the wife of farm owner Mike, picked me up. Anja did Wwoofing herself three years ago (which is what I'm doing now) and has been here on the farm with Mike ever since. The drive took about 1 hour and Anja was able to tell me a lot while I admired the mountains. Then we arrived here and I was introduced to everyone. I can tell you, it's not easy and I still only know very few names. Afterwards, Mike was supposed to show me around the premises. Mike doesn't speak German, so we tried to communicate with hands and feet. The people on the farm are definitely very open-minded. There are four Germans, one Frenchman, one Englishwoman, one Welshman, and probably more nationalities that I can't remember. It's also interesting that there are many Canadians here who live in the east and now want to explore the west of the country.

Then I tried to speak English with some people here, especially the Frenchman is very friendly. Probably because he's glad that someone is here who speaks even less English :D And then the moment came, Kane (the Frenchman) asked Mike if they could go shooting today, because Mike promises everyone to do it once. Mike also asked me why not. And so we drove 3 minutes (you could probably walk there) to the shooting range and just started shooting. It was so incredible. First of all, it was the first time in my life that I held a real gun in my hand, and secondly, I had never shot a gun before. It was a very interesting experience. However, I shouldn't become a hunter because I lost the shooting competition. After shooting, we just sat together in the evening and then went to bed. Currently, I'm still sleeping in a tent, but soon I will probably move into a caravan. The next day, I had to get up at 6:30 a.m. because work always starts at 7 a.m. My workplace was the lettuce washing station. I was there with Mats (Welsh) and Rachel (English). And of course, the beginning was difficult, but Rachel and Mats explained everything to me very well and tried to answer every question. That was really nice! The work consisted of washing the lettuce, picking out bad leaves, drying them, and then packing them. By the way, there are two poisonous spiders here, and it's really rare to see one.....what can I say - 5 minutes after starting work, I had such a poisonous spider in my lettuce basin. Since I can still write these lines, I obviously survived. After work, I had free time and I was able to talk to Fabian (German). That was a pleasant change to clear my mind a bit because I slowly noticed that my mind was becoming overwhelmed. You know, when you used to study for a task or an exam, at some point you needed a break to clear your mind and let the knowledge sink in, but here it feels like there's no break. There are so many new impressions and experiences: new country, new landscapes, new people, continuous English.....at some point my mind just shut down and it was really bad. Have you ever felt lonely even though you're not alone? That's how I felt yesterday afternoon + evening. My mind just couldn't take it anymore. I try to speak English, but then I can't think of a word and suddenly the flow of conversation is broken and the blockage in my mind is like a solid wall. It's so annoying and exhausting and I always feel sorry that I can't really talk to people because I still have to learn the language properly. And every time I say the following, few people believe me, but I'm extremely shy and used to be very introverted. Over the years, I've learned to be more extroverted, but it feels like that was left in Germany. Because of this language barrier, I kept withdrawing more and more and then you just feel alone. But it's not like I'm crying in my tent and questioning my whole life - no! I knew that this adventure would bring many challenges and it definitely won't be easy, so I kept telling myself two things: It's my first real day on the farm AND I still have a whole year ahead of me. Every beginning is difficult, but without the necessary challenges, you can't grow, so you have to accept and embrace them, and then you'll rock it.

Last night, we went to a karaoke bar and actually my driver said she wanted to stay only for an hour. I thought to myself: Okay, I'm very tired, my mind is overloaded with all these new impressions, but I can endure one hour and show the people here that I'm willing to integrate. Fun fact: We didn't stay for an hour.....we were there for over three hours. Three hours in which I just sat there because I simply couldn't do it anymore. It's amazing how exhausting all of this is, but as I said, I still have a whole year ahead of me and it was my first day. This morning, three other Wwoofers (people who do the same thing as me) hiked up a mountain with me. It was deathly exhausting and tomorrow my legs probably won't be capable of surviving, but it was worth it. The view is simply wonderful and when we walked back to the car, I looked to the right and BAM! I saw my first bear, well, only for two seconds before it disappeared into the grass, but WOW!

Let's summarize: Within 48 hours, I got to know many new people, fired two guns, had my first day at work, visited a karaoke bar, hiked, and saw a bear, oh and English has been surrounding me the whole time. So you can probably imagine how many impressions I'm getting here and why this post is way too long again :D

Sorry for that! Now I'm sitting here alone in the common room and enjoying the silence.

There's a party here tonight and I hope that I can come out of my shell a bit, but even if not....everything has its time.

See you soon!

Samuel