Is a vacation at home possible?

Let me jump back to before the Montreux post and regale you with stories from the weekend that took place two weeks ago, or the weekend before last, or, known simply as the weekend where I was put in charge of the Fellmann Farm. But wait, there's more! For this weekend only, you'll also get an 8 year old who takes Ritalin everyday and loves the rapper 50 Cent even though he doesn't understand any English!

Before I had my weekend of joy at Montreux, I endured a weekend that was filled with me saying words like "nein," "schneller," and "stehen" repeatedly. Cyrill wanted to have a friend come over. Nein. Cyrill would drop behind me when we were walking to the stall. Schneller. Cyrill would sit when he was supposed to help me. Stehen. Cyrill would want a popsicle. Nein. Cyrill would want to stay up. Nein. Cyrill would work too slowly helping me clean up the kitchen and table after eating. Schneller. Nein, nein, NEIN!

The weekend actually went better than I thought it could've gone but it still had its down moments. When the cows were in the stall here at the house, he'd help once or twice a week doing the stall chores, but he hadn't helped yet in the other one. This made it hard to find him something he 'enjoyed' to do. He'd think he was finished with a job and sit down, where I'd find him sitting and then tell him to get up and work, because he wasn't finished. Perhaps this was one of the few times that I was glad my German isn't perfect. There were times where I wanted to say some choice things to...umm...'motivate' him in ways a coach or two has 'motivated' me in the past.



I was rewarded for my weekend of work with two extra days off. However, as time is dwindling I do not know how I will spend my two remaining days off. I think Dirk was trying to 'help' this situation by having me start work an hour later each day this past week. While I am a fan of later sleeping, my internal clock is tuned to wake up each day at 6:45. So on these days of supposed later sleep, I'd be lying in bed wide awake for an hour and that's not how I want to lose half a day of a day off. In fact, I think Dirk was quite perturbed that I actually started work at the normal time on Friday. Too bad.

The weather here has been quite Oregonish. Highs have been between 60 and 75 with lots of drizzly weather. On Thursday evening, the skies finally cleared just enough for the sun to peak and shine through the still rainy weather. I ran down to the fence at the bottom of the property to snap some rainbow pictures, unobstructed from the electric towers. I'm really going to miss the valley.





On Wednesday night, Dirk, Maya, Tim and I stayed up a bit later and played a game - Scotland Yard. The game involves trying to stumble upon a thief (Tim) in the city of London. The rest of us were detectives and tried to find him. Tim really likes Michael Jackson (or Michi Jackson, as it's said here) and was devastated to hear about his death. (I was more devastated to hear about Billy Mays myself.) In the game, Tim didn't want us to see where he was looking on the board.



I finally get a few moments of some peace and relaxation here on the farm. The family is leaving tomorrow with the camping trailer and going up to a camp ground near the Bodensee. They'll be gone until Wednesday. We'll probably be doing more hay later in the week. I'm looking forward to a visit from Bavarian Trainee Kristen Jones next weekend and Dutch Trainee Stephanie Siemens after Kristen leaves.

I've also begun throwing certain items toward my suitcase. In a few short weeks I'll be returning to the land of the hot and home of Jessica (Kansas). I mustn't get too used to the views outside my bedroom window, but it's hard when they're this fantastic.



Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think.
Jon