It has been a long time since I've written, and though I get many ideas about blog posts, I haven't followed through.
Why? Well, because on a working vacation, changes can take place at any moment. As a prime example, in October of last year and not uncoincidentally the time I quit writing, I got a new job.
But this is not just a job. It is a new, I'm finding better, and challenging-in-different-ways job. I'm still a teacher, but I work outside of a normal school or classroom setting. The schedule is open: the kids and I get to do more fun things if time allows after all the German school homework.
Another difference with this "teaching job" is that in addition to working as a Lehrerin, I am enhancing my previously non-existent skills as a fruit picker. schnapps bottler, and chocolate-maker. With all of these developments taking place, there has been little time to think and therefore wenig Lust to write. Interruptions and distractions aside (though in my older age they present themselves more frequently), it is time to work on my blog once again.
With this, my fourth new job in Europe in six years, I did not change countries, but I did change towns. From a place in the hills overlooking vineyard upon vineyard, I transferred all of my belongings to a garden apartment attached to sturdy old monastery that dominates the Haupstraße in this town. Now the vineyards are across the street and down the road instead of beyond my balcony, but in addition to grapes, there are sugar beets and winter wheats growing in the 'hood.
The town in which I live (photo above), Obrigheim (Pfalz), is also adjacent to the Weinstraße, Germany's Wine Road, but the geography is quite different. Around here, on the "poorer" end of the Weinstraße, which begins in Bockenheim -- only a 15-minute walk from my newest home -- there are more farms and different crops, more open spaces, smaller and more ramshackle houses and more rolling hills. We're in the farmland, folks, and it's not quite like Neustadt with its towering mansions, wine festivals, and wooded slopes adjacent to the Haardt forest.
Grocery stores are not in der Nähe, and there is one restaurant in this town. Buses come through, but there is more tractor traffic than public transit.
We're definitely in the country. It is peaceful and quiet here, and time has become less significant. In fact, one thing I've noticed in the last months is that some days I am not aware of the exact date. When I worked as a full-time teacher, a task every morning was to write the month and day on the white board. Now when looking at a calendar, I observe that time has flowed by without notice, congruent to the Eisbach burbling inconspicuously just beyond my backyard.
Whether that's good or bad, I don't know, but obviously I am in a less stressful mode, similar to semi-retirement. All the better at my age, except there is still an underlying uneasiness telling me to keep going, keep working. I'm not at retirement age yet.
Waking up in Haardt, I would be greeted by a colorful sunrise most mornings as I watched dog-walkers trot down the street in front of my home. Waking up here, I walk outside to let my own large puppy out, leisurely checking on the flowers and fruits that grow on my terrace. My work day in Neustadt used to begin at 8:30 at the latest: if I got there after 7:00 a.m. I felt tardy. My work routine here doesn't begin until 10 a.m. I have mornings free to get a lot done (or not). I'd sleep in if I didn't have a dog who stirs bfore I do -- my canine Wecker.
No castles or fortresses are visible from my apartment these days, nor is any Schloss around the corner, but then again I LIVE in (!) a fortress-type dwelling; with its own very thick walls, arches, gables and stone walls. Here monks prayed and worked as millers and farmers centuries ago, keeping animals in the Hof and on the ground floors of what are now modern-day living spaces. I imagine them saying their prayers together in the dining hall or small chapel that remains.
Today the historic property produces fine fruits, edel schnapps (right) fermented slowly from those fruits, meats from wild game hunted by the owner nearby, honey from happy bees, and most recently, first class riding horses bred and brought up on the grounds by the lady of the house.
Nature is all around us, both wild and domesticated, the latter raised with a passion and independence that comes from living off the land and making the most out of the agrarian bounty Germany can provide its hardworking people.
Though I'm really just a guest in this country and on this property and a beginner in the job I've been fortunate enough to have been offered, every time I brush a horse or pick a piece of fruit, push my shovel into the earth or whip up a batch of organic chocolates, I think of my grandfather on his farm, my dad in his garden, and my mom in her kitchen. I'm pretty sure they'd be proud of where I am and what I'm doing.
Today my back has a satisfying ache from bending down to pull weeds outside the monastery walls and stretching up to pluck cherries from a neighbor's tree. There is dark soil lining my fingernails inside and out and cherry juice staining my thumbs and work shorts. My dog takes a nap as we enjoy a day off from the "rigors" of my newest occupation. I have time to write, and to appreciate, though such days, I know, are numbered. The good thing is that instead of bothering me, these pains, soils and concerns only reinforce that I am exactly where I should be.
Above: I'm picking cherries for the first time ever, with a local expert. She told me, "Kirschen rot, Spargel tot." Asparagus season ends when the cherries are ripe.
Wörterbuch / Dictionary
edel - noble, very fine, precious
(der) Bach - creek
(der) Eisbach - "Ice Creek"
(die) Haupstraße - Main Street (of any town or city); haupt- means primary or main.
in der Nähe - nearby, in the vicinity
"Kirschen rot, Spargel tot" - a German farmer's saying for the summer season, lit. "cherries red, asparagus dead"
(die) Lehrerin - female teacher (most of us are female)
(die) Lust - desire, pleasure, appetite, gusto
(das) Schloss - castle, palace
(der) Wecker - alarm clock
(die) Weinstraße - the German Wine Street or Wine Road that winds from Bockenheim to the French border
wenig - few, little
