Getting Comfortable

So, we've been here for 15 days now, and are finally realizing what is expected of us. We go along with Janita to all the yoga classes she teaches (1-2 per week), and accompany both our hosts whenever they go out (a rare occasion). They seem to get by just fine only going shopping once a week to get the basic staples.
Last weekend, the house was filled to the brim. Janita's 3 daughters and their families came here. They stayed for 4 days, and it was great getting to know everyone, and spend time with them, but by the time they left it was quite nice having a quiet house again.
The past 2 Tuesdays Pete has taken us into Vichy and dropped us off for 5 hours of exploration while he runs some errands. Vichy is a small city, known for it's springs that supposedly have been preserved since medieval times, and are thought to have healing properties. We drank from one of the springs, and then filled up our water bottle. The water tasted quite good! It was gaseous with a pH 0f 6.3. The water we stored in the bottle, however, was awful tasing once it was flat. We went around the city quite a bit, admiring the big parks full of different species of trees,sat by the river for a while, we found many groups of people (mostly older men) playing Petaque (bocce ball), and did some food shopping for the house (peanut butter!). Being in Vichy made me realize that I couldnt live in a city. I'd feel so trapped, and I think I'd loose my creativity to the concrete and square angles. ...but who knows?...
We've been working nice and hard! Some of our projects include weeding a huuuge strawberry patch completely taken over by weeds; cutting back an enormous bamboo hedge, and then building a frost-barrier fence out of bamboo for a big fig bush; taking out a multilayered concrete floor in the barn with one of those bad ass jackhammers :D and then hauling the pieces onto a truck; ...etc. They aren't very specific about what they want us to do or when, so sometimes we just guess because we don't want to be a bother, and then when we're done with the last project, we always have to ask.... but we're getting a hang of it, as well as learning to read their body language.
Pete and Janita took us hiking in the mountains the other day. [Before we even lrft the house, Kelsey fell down the stairs and sprained a toe...] It was a crisp and breezy day out, especially at 1000+ meters. We drove about 45min to the village of Saint Nicolas, where we parked and set off for what we thought was going to be an 11-13km hike. A little ways in we reached a big plateau with a big cross. We figured out that that was once the old town of Saint Nicolas. We sat and ate lunch: baguette sandwiches (with cheeses, and home made apple tomato chutney. Yumm!)
We saw many new, interesting sights, and admired how different it was to hike here, as apposed to the AT. At 16h, we realized we were on a path, but not the same one we had started on. We continued on in the direction we thought would lead us to the car, and soon reached a village and asked how far we were. A local told us it was "to the end of this road and then to the right. About 30mins by car." 《  :O  》Oh boy....  By this point we had already gone over 15km, and remember we were with a 65yo and an injured person... So, Pete and I decided we would go ahead, get the car, and come pick them up. We took of at a full speed walk and kept that pace for the next 6+ km, when we saw the car. Needless to say we were all pretty sore and exhausted andd relieved to be sitting in the car!
Kels and I were invited to accompany Pete to his "football training" that day, but Kels couldn't with her blue toe, and Pete was too beat after our exciting day. But this friday we'll go for sure!  :$  I'm a little nervous!
This afternoon they took us to this big second hand shopping place. It's a hugeeee place made of multiple buildings as well as outdoor displays of donated clothes, furniture, bikes, kitchen and dining supplies, and many other odds and ends. It is organized and run by homeless people, who, after all is paid, get the profits. While scoping out the bikes, we were momentarily intrigued by the idea of biking across Europe and how much cheaper it would be (after having bought Eurail passes for 8 trips, forover €300, EACH). But we quickly came to our senses after thinking about it for a minute. There wouldn't be much going for us...
Kelsey and I have been getting along quite well for the most part. It's not always easy though. We've been spending pretty much every waking (and sleeping) minute together for almost 2 months now, and before this, we really only saw eachother occasionally in school. We knew it would be hard at times, and were given a ton of advice by many people. Right now, the most relevant and important advice for us is to plan time to ourselves on a regular basis - before we need to ask for it. I think its safe to say that we have passed the "honeymoon stage", and are now in the nit and grit. We have already been through a lot together, and there's soooo much more to come! We've learned a ton about eachother (good and bad), and it will only continue. And through learning about eachother, and about everyone around us, we are discovering many new things about ourselves. A friend recently emailed me and gave some helpful advice: "You are a team. You are on the same side. You actually need each other to accomplish this year ahead. You might not have the same goals or driving force, but that is ok. It is ok to disagree. It is ok to not want the same thing. You also may realize that you aren't best friends...." So, we've given all this, and much more, thought, discussed techniques and tools, and come up with things we can work on individually and together. ...It'll be an ongoing struggle which we'll both grow from, immensely.
Well, thank you for reading, and sorry for slacking so much recently.  It's hard to write a blog post with a BAD headache.
I'll write again soon!
♡♥Iolani♥♡

A day in Vichy (famous for its spring waters), a hike in the hills of central France, and more house and bamboo!

Farm Girls!

Upon our arrival at the train station in Vichy, there were signs for 4 different exits in opposite directions. We chose one and tthenjust waited. We were soon approached by a small woman who asked, "Are you by any chance Iolani and Kelsey?". Our eyes lit up and we gave a sigh of relief.
Our host, Janita, is a sweet woman from New Zealand, so we didn't have to keep  trying to get by with the few words in French we know. She's a yoga teacher, a mom, a grandma, and a great cook. Her husband, Peter, is from England. He's one of those do-it-all men (like my daddy).
So, Janita drove us through the town of Vichy and then out into the country (about a 30min drive). When we came to the house we saw that we were very far from any other civilization, and surrounded by beautiful farm lands. The house and barn were built in the 1880s and then Peter has fixed up and modified it in order to match their needs. Solar hot water heater, sun room, big gardens, a big well, lots of animals, etc... all these things help th em live a pretty self sufficient life way out here, working very little for others due to the small amount of money they need to live.
Janita showed us our room and then told us to just explore. So, we dropped our bags and ran outside to "explore". We met the dog, the 3 cats, the horses, the cows, the 4 ducks, the chickens, saw the insane amount of apples they were drowning in, the gardens that were suffering from the rain and overgrown by weeds. At 18:30h Janita offered that we go with her to the yoga class she had to teach. It was very different from any yoga either of us have ever done, but none the less, it felt great! We ate dinner at 20:30h, and then just sat and talked for another 2 hours.
The next morning Kelsey and I woke up at 11:30, got dressed quickly, and then nervously went downstairs, worried that our accidental sleep in was going to be a bad first impression.  But to our relief Janita just laughed and said that the jetlag must have finally caught up to us. She showed us the section of garden weshould start on. We weeded for about 3 hours and then were called to lunch. In the afternoon, we helped Peter with a dump run,  and then, not knowing what to do next, collected apples and started peeling, coring, and slicing them for applesauce.
They days have gone on like this: We wake up at 9ish and get our own breakfast, and then get to work. At 14h we all sit down for lunch, and then get back to work afterward. Dinner is usually sometime around 19h, and then we sit and talk or play card games until 22h. Our work so far has consisted of , harvesting apples (and then doing something creative with them), harvesting potatoes, weeding, cleaning up a trash pile, canning applesauce, and simple helparound the house.
It's pretty easygoing, and very reasonable! We haven't had any real problems with our hosts, and I hope it continues like that! And Kels and I have continued to try to figure out the best way to make this work between the two of us.
Today we've had a pretty relaxing morning so far: woke up at 10h, showered (for the first time since Paris), ate a big breakfast (applesauce and muesli, and apple crisp left over from yesterday), and nnow we're getting ready to run 8km into Lapalisse to watch Peter's football (soccer) team play a game!
Enjoy the pics! I'll post again soon! ...or maybe Kelsey will!
♥Iolani

Our First Workaway!

Beautiful farmhouse far out in the country. Living off the land; needing only the basics. ★SIMPLICITY★

París en la Pluie