Honey Farm!

Yay pictures!!!! So, in this post I'll only cover my time on the farm in Ardeche

So, break down: At Api Ferme there is Olivier, who owns the beehives and he lives with his partner Ameline who is the mother of Enora, Maelenn, and Matthieu, and Olivier's father, Michel lives with them as well.

While at the farm I helped make candles, bottle vinigar, make hazelnut spread, and spiced bread, and with my free time I got to hike the gorgious hills surrounding the farm.

Here I am in front of all the honey-based products that Olivier makes on Api Ferme; honey (of course), vinigar, spiced bread, candles, hazelnut spread, and nougat

 

Here is little Maethieu feeding some apples to the donkeys. 

So, Olivier, Ameline, and Michel sing gospel with a group of 16 people and they had a mini concert which I decided to attended. It was really cool to see them sing and little Matthieu and I got to hang out some more. Yet, at the end of the concert when he ran off to get some candy the woman sitting infront of me turned and told me, "Ton fils est trop mignon!" "Your son is so cute!"........I've now reached a new level of old, I can be mistaken as a six-year-old's mother.  Thankfully though, my uturus has been fetus free for 23 years now, and I have no intent of changing that in the near future possibly never. 

So when I got to go hiking I was usually accompanied by either Matthieu or the old dog (I could never remember his name so I just called him old dog), or sometimes by both. Old dog is an epic pup, aged at about 14 years, deaf, old-person skeletal skinny, and is so excited to be petted he trembles. During the day he also likes to hike the trails by himself.

There were cats too ^_^

Here I'm adding the labels to the vinigar bottles

Marie, another wwoofeuse, filling up the vinigar bottles

Because the recolting season is over Olivier doesn't open the bee boxes anymore, but I was lucky enough to be there at a time when he had to treat the hives for parasites. So, Marie and I got to see some bees while we were there.

Happy bees

the bee boxes

Once again I found myself in an extremely ugly place

With the family I also got to go to a dinner and a show. The show was a band consisting of a quebecois, a new yorker, and a frenchman (sounds like the beginning of a joke) playing traditional new orleans music. Combined with that and the gospel singing I felt like I went to france to experience american culture.
The music was amazing and I had a delicious escargo pizza...I figured I should eat something I couldnt get back in 'merica.

Michel also had a wonderful production of kefir which is a delicious, if not a little odd, drink made from the fermentation of bacteria and yeast. You essentially make the drink by cultivating the yeast/bacteria mix in some water feeding them citricy fruits, filter out the little guys, and leave the liquid ferment for a day. I fully intend to try this out when I get settle somewhere...only problem is I need to find someone with some of the bacteria/yeast mix to start out my own colony.....craigslist maybe?

Here everyone is hard at work. Maylene doing her homework, MIchel filtering out the yeast/bacteria, and Olivier making some spiced bread.

My two weeks at Api Farm passed incredibly quickly but at the same time I feel like I was able to become close with the family. I would love to return someday during the spring or summer during the recolting season to learn how to raise bees because as I mentioned in an earlier post I'm planning to have bee boxes of my own...yes, I have a rather eclectic list of interests, but it keeps life interesting!

After I left Api Farm I went to Lyon with a neighbor, Sylvie, who had generously let me stay at her appartment there. I didn't have much time but I figured I should go for a short stint just to check it out. It was a nice enough city, though the weather was rather bipolar

It was a normal city; churches, streets, rivers

My first day walking around I explored the Vieux Lyon (old Lyon) and after a couple of hours of that I decided to cross over one of the rivers. As I neared the bridge I heard someone shout my name, which took be aback because I didn't know anyone in Lyon. I ended up being Alessandro, Olivier's little brother, who had hung out with us a bit on the farm in Ardeche. He was there for the week for an internship in welding. In such a big city we happened to cross paths at just the right time. The world's a crazy small place right? Since both of us had nothing to do we just wondered around the city doing some of his errands, talked, grabbed a beer, and I bought him a haircut for his birthday (it had been on his list of things to do).

Before Sylvie had offered to let me stay at her place I had already made arrangements to couchsurf in Lyon with a guy names Herve. Even though I didn't end up crashing at his place he offered me dinner tuesday night which I happily accepted. We had a great night talking about traveling (he lived in Vancouver for a while), music, and other randomness. It was an exceptionally agreeable night. I must say that Couchsurfing has really allowed me to meet some really awesome people of whom I would never have been able to meet otherwise. Thank you couchsurfing!

After Lyon I skadoodled up to Paris to meet with an old study abroad friend, Robert, and I spent christmas with my friend Yoan and his family. More details later.

I hope you all had a wonderful chrismast/whichever holiday you celebrate. Yoan, Robert, Mikael (Yoan's friend), and I are going to be heading down to Aix-en-Provence for new years. Should be a great time

Hugs!

Dubbed to Death

I currently find myself in the same predicament as before, I'm unable to upload my photos to this comuter so no photos to this post.

Update: I'm on a bee farm a litle south of Lyon, in Dunière, called Api farm and I'm being hosted by an awesomely quirky family. I get to pass my days making candles from bee's wax, bottling honey vinager, making pain d’épices (spiced bread), honey-hazelnut spread, and nougat and when I'm not doing that I get to hike around this picturest area dominated by large hills covered in oaks....ya, life is hard

Api Ferme site web

I'll be leaving though in two days for Lyon and then off to Paris for the holidays

I'll wait to further describe the farm until I can post some photos so in the mean time some observations.

Ever since the beginning of my travels dubbing has viciously been attacking my childhood. First it was Courage the Cowardly Dog in Turkish....

Oh, but it didn't stop there. In the Alpes, I was innocently washing the dishes when the melody of a Lion King song came sweetly to my ears. The warm blanket of my childhood enveloped me in happiness and I opened my mouth to partake in the ritual of accompaning the song, blessing the world my angelic voice and then BAM I was hit with french lyrics. I would also like to underline the fact that in the french song they say the lion is dead. He is sleeping! Sleeping I say!!!

The Simpsons was also repeatedly attacked with the wrong voices.

The lastest traumatic experience was Star Wars in French...I'm sorry but no one can compare to James Earl Jones as Darth Vader

Ok, I'm done complaining

Anyways, hopefully pictures soon

From the Cold Cold to just the Cold

Voila! Pictures as promised

Soooo, I've since left the cold cold alpes and now find myself in a cold Paris where I am now searching for another wwoofing farm to travel to in France. At this point I'm ready for Christmas to be here. I'm tired of traveling, traveling alone to be more specific, and I just want to relax and hang out with good friends. So, instead of traveling about from city to city which requires a lot of planning and stress, I'm opting for the stay in one place, in nature, and help out on a farm plan. 

Now for the pictures:

This is after my first day back on the Brunet Farm in the Alpes, and after a storm that dropped all the snow you see there. The mountains are gorgeous but them being so sizable means that we only got direct sunlight from about 8am to 3-4pm, and once that direct sunlight was gone it got real cold real fast.

Me and my bed buddy. Slept like that every night.

My boyfriend, Filou. Sadly we still haven't received any news of him since his disappearance two weeks ago. Myrtille and Gentiane think that he might have been stolen by a hiker because his breed can go for about 500euros. I hope that it isn't the case and he finds his way back to the farm.

These houses are abandoned for the winter, once the snow starts melting in may the people will return

Tough life on the farm

The cat on the left side, the calico, apparently liked the company of the dogs far more than any of the cats and so she would hang out with them all day. When all the dogs were curled up sleeping in a pile, she was there curled up with them. The puppy on the farm was very fond of using her as a pillow. Sadly I didn't get a picture of it.

One Wednesday morning, I accompanied Myrtille to the market to sell the cheese, la Tomme. People would come up and ask for some cheese, you would cut it, weight it, wrap it, and then receive the money. Sounds simple right? and it was...except for the whole calculating in french thing. You know the feeling of trying to run in water? How you're pulling with all your might but still going irritatingly slow? Well, that was my mind, and after a few mistakes and people waiting for me to finish up with my delayed calculations I just pulled out a calculator. Even with a calculator to aid me though, I was mentally exhausted by the end of the market.

I also ended up having my birthday in the Alpes. I'm not really one to make a big fuss about my birthday, a cake, a good meal, good company and I'm happy. Gentiane was already going to be making pizzas that night so I was just going to bake a cake and call it a good night. Yet, the Brunets and company had more planned. It ended up being the three sisters (Myrtille, Gentiane, and Lise) their three boyfriends, their uncle and his lady friend, and me, a huge amount of pizza, three cakes and tarts, candles, presents, and a room full of french people singing happy birthday in english. I was so immensely touched by the effort they made for me. All I can say is that I've truly struck it rich with the friends I've found.

oh ya, and about ten bottles of wine

looks like a painting right? I snapped this during one of my hikes.

Cows in the snow

Now back to searching for a farm....so ready for it to be Christmas -_-

But I'm not dead yet!

Yes, yes it has been a coon's age since I wrote. I was rather hesitant to post because I'm unable to upload any of my photos onto this comuter.
My solution: steal my photos from two summers ago, and just tell you all to add a bunch of snow in your heads. Which I would do...if we could find the USB that holds all my pictures.
The Fates aren't working with me on this one
I'll try and add photos of the Alpes once I'm working with another computer. But for now, sadly, this post will be photoless....dissapointing I know

Oh, except for these, these photos are the only ones I could find that I took that summer

 ya, ugly right? Now imagine this area piled high with snow.

one of the cows

Soooooo, I'm in the Alpes in a little town village thingy called Cervières, visiting the Brunet family whom I WWOOFed with two summers ago. It's an awesome organic milk farm in the high alpes where, during the summer, the cows and goats get to romp all over the mountains eating as they please as Julie Andrews romps around with them singing The Hills Are Alive. True story.

Anyways, I help feed the goats and cows and clean up after them, and I get to help Myrtille make cheese! Weeeee du bon fromage de Cervières!

*Side note*
While I work on farms I keep a mental list of animals and plants that I'm going to have on my future farm/property
my list:
                   chickens
                   pintades (guineafowl)
                   water buffaloes  
                   fig trees
                   bees
                   bamya (okra)
                   dogs and cats of course 

but I also keep a list of things that will not be on my farm
                   goats (sorry dad, you'll have to convince another of the kids to have them because I refuse.
                             They're a pain in the ass)
                   geese (because they are evil)

*End of side note*


Coming back to the Alpes I was also reunited  with my boyfriend. He and I hit it off back when I first got to the farm and our attachment only grew as the summer progressed. If only you guys could see him work and herd the cows, truly amazing. He has scraggly brown hair, he's on the small side but he's never let that stop him.

And this is where i would put a picture of Filou if I had one. Well why don't you just take a photo of him with the family's camera you might ask well, I would except no one has seen the pup for two days now...oh ya, did I forget to mention Filou is a dog?

About a week ago my love and I, and two other of the five dogs on this farm, went for a hike. I intended to hike up the the chalet but after a good couple of hours trudging through the snow my vigor drained so I never quite made it. Took some nice pictures though...and far too many pictures of the dogs.

I also have a bed buddy (don't tell Filou), one of the cats, petrushka, who was but a tiny kitten when I first met her two summers ago, has taken to sleeping in the bed with me. Now, you might be imaging a cute little cat curled up at my feet, but no, she likes sleeping under the covers under my arm with her little head resting on my shoulder. She's a pretty epic cat.

Sadly, I'm also rather under the weather. Everyone was sick when I arrived on the 9th and I've apparently picked up the bug as well.  

It's a short post and not that well written, and no pictures to boot, but it's all I can do at the moment. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Having a Beer with Jesus

Yes Im sure the title is rather surprising for the majority of you guys due to me being a born atheist, but don't worry it will be explained

Whew, where do I start... Belgium was definitely an experience. Gent especially surpassed my expectations. First note is the weather, rainy and cold. Its hard to believe that just a week ago I was in a bikini on the beach swimming and now Im bundled up in two jackets ducking into churches to escape the rain. I'm not complaining though, I'm fond of the cold and rain (within reason of course).

My first day in Bruxelles I did my normal tourist thing of meandering around streets looking at old stuff. A definite stop for me was the Botanique. I was rather disappointed, the building had graffiti on it and statues were broken. Not the best presentation of a botanical garden. Yet while I was sitting in the garden I came upon the belief that I must produce some kind of pheromone that is akin to catnip. Literally within 10seconds I found a cat on my lap. They're stalking me!

here is some street art I really liked

In Bruxelles, I tried my luck couchsurfing again and once again I was hosted by a truly wonderful person. Manu works for Oxfam, a company working to provide fair trade and organic products to consumers, and thus has a similar mind set as myself. We discussed the problems of industrialized agriculture and watched documentaries such as We Feed the World and The World According to Monsanto (I put links to websites where you can watch these videos for free. If you eat, you should really watch these documentaries). He also brought me into awareness of the new threat of nano tech, possible brain damage and all that fun stuff.

On a lighter note, he also taught me how to make sushi! Home made sushi, a bottle of Corsican wine, and in the background you can make out a bar of organic, fair-trade lavender chocolate. Ya....life is hard.

For some people shopping, architecture, or art is the highlight of their visit to a new city, for me it's natural history museums. The Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique had quite a sizable exhibition on dinosaurs, mammals, prehistoric human, biodiversity, and many other subjects so I spent a good 3 1/2 hours meandering my way through it. I was also one of the very few adults there who didn't have any spawn.
Stegosaurus, greatest dinosaur ever!

After a few days in Bruxelles, I skipped off to Gent which is about a half an hour in between Bruxelles and Bruges. I stayed with another really cool person, Didier, a couchsurfing host veteran. Another american from North Carolina, Bonnie, was also crashing at his place at the same time. So, Bonnie and I teamed up to explore the city. 

I thought this sign was really cute ^_^

Here's the castle in Gent

While Bonnie and I were exploring the city the sky decided it was time to spit down upon us, and so we took shelter in one of the many churches. As we sat in the church, pretending to look pious, the subject of popping open the beer that Bonnie had brought along came up. We both agreed that Jesus totally seems like a chill guy who would be fun to chat with over a beer. Yet, we didn't dare open the bottle lest we be kicked out into the rain. So later, when we found another shelter, we popped it open and drank a beer for Jesus, because he seems like a guy who really needs one.   

That night Didier took Bonnie and I to an Irish restaurant. The food was decent enough and Didier and I had great fun nerding it up talking about old video games. Yet, after we were done eating and our plates were cleared we waited for the bill....and waited...and waited. With us conversing we didn't notice it that much, but after a while we started to wonder what was taking them so long. Shortly after that thought occurred I noticed one of the waiters rush by with a fire extinguisher in his hands, and two minutes after that a waitress informed us that we needed to evacuate the building immediately because it was on fire. And by golly it was, as we stepped out into the cold, the metal doors opening to the basement were open and flames were billowing out. After watching it a while we decided to head back to Didiers and out of the cold.

We three decided to form a rap group, epically named B.L. Didders

From the right: me, Didier, and Bonnie

I took a day trip to Bruges and I'm really glad I didn't allot any more time to the small city. It was a lovely little medieval city and could have been quite enjoyable had it not been for the stupid amount of tourists. The lines to get into the churches rivaled the lines to get onto roller coster rides in a theme park, so I didn't even bother trying to go in.
They did have some nice windmills though

This picture is out of order but here's Manu showing me how to play a Tibetan instrument

Manu and I also took a trip to go see the Atomium, the large monument of Bruxelles.
Im not currently able to upload any pictures because I'm using a different computer so I stole this one from the internet.

I'm now in the Paris region to visit friends and then in a few days I'll hop down to the alps.

The election is going to be announced reasonably soon so I would just like to warn everyone that if Mittens (aka Mitt Romney) wins I will not be returning to the states. Obama's not perfect, but he's a hell of a lot better than the other option.

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Last Days of Turkey

Hi peoples!

Sooooo good news and bad news.
Bad news: my days in Turkey are coming to a close :(
Good news: I'm going to Belgium!

Ya, ya Im skippıng the majorıty of europe, but at thıs poınt ı'm so ready to be ın a country where I speak the language. And yes all the 'i's are goıng to be mıssıng dots ın thıs post because ıts a turkısh keyboard.
So, on monday ı'm goıng to be flyıng to Bruxelles and couchsurfıng there for a few days and then headıng to Bruges for a few days. Im pretty much only goıng to Bruges becaue of the movıe In Bruges ıts a very amusıng movıe, Warning: it is a very dark movie and there is a LOT of cussing. Then from Bruges to Parıs the Parıs to the Alpes.
Thats my tentatıve plan...my plan of whıch has a tendancy to change frequently.

Im not sure how often I'll have tıme to blog or whether I'll be able to put up pıctures. I'll do my best to keep ıt up though.

Left Jade farm on the 27th....for the second tıme :P The past week/days at Jade Farm passed quıte quıckly and they were very calm and relaxıng. One nıght I was happıly able to get some close up shots of a hedgehog

Oh, and Julie, we had a visiter at the farm right before I left

I've spent thıs weekend wıth my frıend Marıe, of fılıpıno decent but grew up ın germany, we met ın san francısco through my french buddy, Robın, and 7 months later ended up ın turkey completely unaware that the other was goıng to be here. Small world huh? and talk about globalızatıon.

Sunday we went out to one of the Prınce's Islands, ıslands sıtuated just an hour boat-rıde away from Istanbul. We went to the second ısland whıch presented a spectacular vıew of Istanbul from afar and was far enough away from the cıty to provıde wonderful tranquıl sılence. We ımmedıatly got dıstracted by a bunch of kıttens and ended up cuddlıng wıth them for quıte a long tıme. The ısland has a healthy populatıon of stray cats and dogs, but don't feel sorry for these pampered anımals, they seem well taken care of by eıther the ınhabıtants or the tourısts tossıng them food. So much so that some of the dogs were obese.

One of the kittens got stuck in a tree and so Marie tried to get him down

We walked around and found a spectacular beach where Alessıa, Marıe's ıtalıan frıend, and I went swımmıng.

It was a wonderful day of lazyıng about, eatıng, drınkıng çaı, and hangıng out wıth wonderful people

Thanks Turkey! Its been a blast, and I'll defınıtely be returnıng someday, hopefully soon.

Well...that was quick

 Leaving Jade Farm was a very sad event. On saturday we had an end of the harvest/going away barbeque, and then monday morning I said my teary goodbyes to everyone. They gave me small gifts. Zubeta gave me some beautiful, traditional socks, as a joke because I was constantly barefoot even during the cold mornings. I love them immensely though and they'll be great to have during the cold winter.

 I wrote them a letter, with the help of Berin, saying that I wanted to come back to see everyone soon. Then Berin and I set off to Adapazari where I took a bus to Istanbul and then another bus to the second farm.


I would look out the window and describe the new farm to you....except the view outside looks suspiciously like Jade Farm....because it is. I was at the dairy farm for less than three days. The owners and the german milkmaid were all very nice people, and were very kind and accommodating to me. It was the atmosphere of the working crew, the complete absence of warmth and happiness, that I found rather unpleasant. Their lack of compassion for the animals they worked with was also rather disturbing. The farm is also industrialized.

When you work with cows it's necessary to be a little rambunctious, raise your voice, clap your hands, give some rump slaps. They're slow creatures and not in the hurry, nor have the real desire, to do anything. They meander, then stop, you give a loud "Allez Filles!", they continue, then stop, a thigh or rump tap "Allez!", they meander forward, then stop. This is how it is working with cows. Yet, the workers take their aggression with the cows too far. Last morning, I reached my breaking point.
I wasn't very happy at the farm to begin with, but i though that maybe I could just tough it out for the 11 days I would be there. Yet, one morning when I went out to feed milk to the calves with one of the other workers, two of the little guys had escaped from their pen. They came up to us though, hungry for milk, and with the excitement one of them knocked over the bucket with the milk bottles in it. A mere two drops of milk were spilled but the worker turned in anger and hit the calf, who was probably barely two months old, on the face and then kicked it. I was furious at the guy and voiced my anger but he didn't understand my english cussing. He pointed to the overturned bucket as if to justify his brutality. The calf didn't know what she did, and beating her wouldn't help her understand, it would just lead to a traumatized animal.
 Yet that was it, I refuse to work in a place where animal abuse is taking place. I told the female owner of the occurrence and she seemed shocked and unaware of such things were going on. She is in charge of finance so she is never on the milking floor, and she loves the cows dearly, so I very much hope that she will see the abuse stopped.
Even so, I could not be persuaded to stay any longer. Within a couple of hours I was on a bus back to Istanbul.
I make no mention of names or places to leave them with their privacy.

I realize that was a rather heavy and photo-free segment. So, here's a picture of Mr. Mallo:

  I was so mad this picture was out of focus.

I'm now blissfully back on Jade Farm. Berin is on vacation by the sea but will be back soon, so I ate at Caramille's (aka caramel's) place with the family.

I would also like to thank the shuttle drivers for coming to my aid in figuring out what shuttle to take. I asked one for help and all seven of them circled around to read the address to Berin's farm to try and help me. Thank you four random strangers who let the odd american person borrow their phone to call Berin for directions. Also a huge thank you to the bus driver who, during his break, hopped into his bus to drive me directly to my bus stop, and then drove back. Never have I met people so willing to step up to try and help someone. Thank you absurdly nice turkish people!

Anyways, that's the thing about traveling, you put yourself out there to have new experiences, and those experiences might not always be good ones. That shouldn't stop you from traveling though, for every one bad experience there is a world of great and amazing experiences.

GDO'ya hayır!

So, I left off with my last post saying that Berin and I would be attending a GMOs meeting in Bursa, and I must say it was quite spectacular to see. The first day I went to the center of Bursa to explore while Berin went to the large meeting. Bursa in general isn't all that notable. It had a large bazaar but it's filled with generic household items, clothing, food, and even pets. Highlight of that excursion was definitely the börek that I ate. I have no idea what was in it but it was amazing.
The second day was much more fun. It was in a smaller house-community center-esk, wooden building and it involved only a core group of about 30 people working to create a list of requests/demands about limiting and restricting GMO's in Turkey. I understood about 5 or 6 words total of the entire meeting, but during the breaks I got to talk to some of the people about their backgrounds. Some of the people had absolutely flawless english and used words that I never do...
not many pics but here's some from the first day:

 when everyone was on on a lunch break

here's Berin introducing one of the speakers

Another note on GMO's, if you guys haven't heard, a recent study was released showing results that GMO's cause tumors/cancer and shorten lifespans in rats.
"In September, French scientists from the University of Caen released a study claiming that rats fed on a diet containing NK603 – a corn seed variety made tolerant to amounts of Monsanto's Roundup weed-killer – or given water mixed with the product at levels permitted in the United States died earlier than those on a standard diet." article

What's even more horrifying is that the The European Food Safety Authority claims that the science wasn't 'sound', that they didn't have enough test subjects....the test was conducted with over 200 rats. Not to mention the minimum adequate sample size (the minimum test subjects you need to get a significant result) would have be calculated before the test was even started. The European Food Safety Authority was paid off by Monsanto.
If there was a company that defined an evil corporation it would be Monsanto.

GDO'ya Hayır!!! No to GMOs!!!


Off the subject off GMOs, I reached a milestone while on the bus to Bursa; I wrote my first sentence! and soon after that a whole conversation ^_^  a small feat but a feat none the less
Bursaya gidiyorum. Translation: I am going to Bursa. Direct translation: Bursato goingI'm
...ya, turkish kind of has different sentence structure.

I've also set the date for when I'm going to the other farm, in three days to be precise, the 15th. I'm really hoping it ends up being as awesome as Jade Farm has been. I'm really sad to leave, but at the same time I'm ready to get back on the road. Pictures!!!

 Here is the tomato harvest. My Papap would be proud ^_^
 the yellow tomatoes are divine

I really liked this picture. Berin giving directions from the kitchen window, Caramille walking by, and the girls working in the back

Here's the shop full of organic goodness

 

Me hard at work, as usual, as Yetkin and Berin look at the quinces

 Yetkin, to the upper left, is doing his doctorate on corn production in Turkey at a university in Pennsylvania, and came to the farm to get interviews of corn producers. We've since adopted him, and only reluctantly allowed him to return to his parents house in Istanbul today. He's been wonderful to have around, extremely jovial and happy, and even Caramille has given his stamp of approval by biting him on the shoulder...don't ask.

 Do you remember me kneading the dough in my last post? well it was rolled into these little patties today and left out to dry. It'll dry and then be crumbled into powder then used for the tarhana soup which is delicious!!! We're having it tonight, yum :)

I'm going to miss so much from this farm: the warm people, the absurdly delicious food, the agreeable work, the peaceful nature, the comradery, the fuzzy animals. It's been great fun. 

I'm also greatly saddened that I won't be able to see my Mr. Cheese again...I really wish I could take him on the road with me, but I'm sure he's quite happy where he is.

 Mr. Cheese

me and my buds, helping me shell beans

my next post will be from the other farm. Working with cows and milk again. Berin says the place is pretty high tech though. The cows have microchips in their legs which tell how much milk they give a day...it'll be interesting to see

I also came upon a sad realization the other day...I'm turning 23 in a little over a month, which is beyond bizarre because I was 20 yesterday. My elders always said that time flew by when you got older, but in my youth I never really believed them. Yet, its happening, life is passing far too quickly, and I'm not sure how to slow time down. Maybe I should stop having so much fun...

Anyhoo, I leave you all with this song which was blasting in the bus on the way to the GMO conference. HUGS!