Complete Archives | Previous | Next

Stranger in a Strange Land Newsletter: October 12th, 2002

Stranger in a Strange Land Newsletter: October 12th, 2002

Hey Everyone,
It's cold here. Not, 'Oh no! It's Norway!' type cold. But more your average, 'Frickin' freezing fall!' sort of thing. Actually, we've been having some really lovely fall days, but the last week has been under 10 degrees the whole time...ok that's Celsius, don't start freaking-out Fahrenheit friends. And the last few nights the sky has been really clear and the air has had that lovely crisp cold winter taste to it, so it's been perfect for star gazing. Those who have seen the night sky when far away from cities know how beautiful that can be; cities skies are nothing; the Milky Way really looks milky because there are SO many stars!

Before this week we've been doing lots of work with the sheep. But this week I've just picked a little fruit, painted out-doors, used a stationery electric saw on lots of fire wood, and well, babysitted some. Jo's two nieces are staying here for the week. They're 5 and 9 and both really cool, especially the little five year old (she reminds me of playing with Claire and Abigail, Milva, tell them I miss them! and well...tell Justine and Eric I miss them too so they don't feel bad :)

I've gone up in the mountains twice now to go searching for the sheep he keeps up there during the summer. We leave in the afternoon, hike for a couple hours, and then sleep at his cousin’s cabin in the mountains near his sheep.

The mountains are so amazingly beautiful, I wish I had a scanner (that worked), so I could send you some pictures. Also, there are four lakes up there that are beautiful. But what excited me the most was looking over at a mountain, lake and some clouds and then doing a double-take realizing that that wasn't a cloud... but a glacier! This huge glacier that was just peeking out between these two mountains that turned-out to be a couple miles long and probably a mile wide! I could even see cracks in it that probably go down hundreds of meters.

This whole time we were trying to spot some sheep and after a couple hours of hiking and thinking we saw them, or hearing them (bells) I actually spotted the first one that lead to many more. I was so proud of myself! But the whole thing was really cool: searching for them, herding them, grabbing wild blueberries, drinking from mountain streams, and the views! But it was also the hardest work day I've ever done: almost 13 hours or hard physical work!

Anyway, we've almost been feeding them, marking them (including for slaughter my friends...), taking tags off of their collars, and taking them from the barn to the fields nearby (not in the mountains). I also witnessed him shearing two huge rams (male sheep). One of them I call 'the Monster' because well, he looks like a monster. But he's the nicest, chillest, of them all and the only one that actually seems to like to be petted and scratched.

This weekend I hope to go camping a little bit because I really haven't done it all except at the cabin for the sheep and I'm leaving in three weeks! Yes, I'm leaving here in three weeks, on Nov. 2. Then I'll wander aimlessly for two weeks before going to the opening of the 'give-away shop' I helped build in Holland, on Nov. 16, and hopefully see most of the people that I worked with again. Actually, I really don't want to wander aimlessly for two weeks and really need to talk to friends and family about staying over which will be great because I didn't see many relatives and wasn't a very fun guest for my friend Tim ;) Then I'm going home sometime that next week, I actually have to change the day of my flight and decide but either way I'll be home in a little over five weeks!! Which I am happy about, I've loved this trip but it will be good to be home again.


later!
Eli