#4 When beauty is too beautiful

No, now there is no autobiography from me (höhö - sorry, I can't express my bad humor in English yet, so you have to endure it). I've been here for two weeks now. It always feels different. Sometimes I think to myself, 'Wow, I've been here for so long - it feels like 2 months' and other times I think I just arrived yesterday. You really experience a lot here all at once and now it's halfway through my time on the farm, although I'm still considering extending my stay by a week with the owners. But two weeks have passed. The weekdays always look the same, although this week we could even sleep longer (YEAH!), but I still feel like I'm working somewhere else every day. People come and go here, so we have to say goodbye to some people yesterday and tonight. It's strange because people here quickly grow on you, but it's probably because of the forced group you're in :D . Every time someone leaves, we sing karaoke and I do my best. Just yesterday, I received my applause again (höhö) as we said goodbye to the French guy. After two years, it was time for him to return to France. Everyone loved it when we talked to each other because we both had the biggest language deficits. It's like two kindergarten kids communicating in the sandbox with their hands, feet, and objects. But we were roommates and it was a funny time with funny conversations. The most important thing is that we understood each other.

The days here are still extremely hot, so we always take the opportunity to go to a lake. Oh, guys.... it's just so beautiful! A lake surrounded by mountains and when there's also an airport and the planes take off over the lake in front of the mountains. Really beautiful moments to relax and enjoy the time.

On Tuesday, we started another hiking day here and yes, I saw my second bear. He was so incredibly close.... maybe 500 meters between us and unfortunately he drank water exactly where our hiking trail passed. One person had a bell that she rang continuously because bears don't like that sound and then they go away. So I stayed a hand's breadth away, mostly near that person :D . It's a very bizarre feeling between adrenaline and 'I'm about to die'. Especially when big birds fly up from the bushes next to you and you just feel shocked, but we made it up and down. The view was breathtaking. Because of a forest fire, there was a huge smoke cloud that made the light look very special. A beautiful and sad moment, because people here also have problems with forest fires.

Still, the starry sky is still breathtaking. I like to spend evenings at the back of the field with a cold drink and look at the stars. Zero light pollution. Just beautiful.

But these moments here are very important because on the second day or so, I thought to myself... oh look... the mountain. You quickly take nature as 'normal', which I didn't want to accept. The nature here is beautifully different everywhere - in its own way. There's also the problem that I don't speak fluent English yet (It would be nice, I remember the communication with the shovel) and my brain still needs to shut down after a few hours, and then you can't perceive this wonderful beauty anymore. That's why I usually take conscious time when eating and sit outside with my chair and consciously look at the mountains. Even on Tuesday while hiking, I had to stop often. First, to avoid meeting the bear and second, to really consciously perceive the beauty of nature and not just see it as 'normal'. I hope that never happens and I will find every mountain fascinating in its own way.

The Queen is Dead, Long Live the king.

A few hours ago, the Queen died. Canada officially belongs to the Commonwealth, so the Queen has been its official head of state until today. Traditionally, the Queen's image is on the 20 Canadian dollar bill. This means that Canadians will get new money now because the 20 Canadian dollar bill has to be changed due to the death, and soon King Charles III will be on it.

Enjoy the beautiful pictures, then the long text is bearable.

Until then.

Samuel