Host 1: Adventure Begins

Our host Ron welcomed us with a smile and some laughs as we missed our train stop. We loaded up our bags thinking we had just dodged a disaster, but instead the potential for disaster merely changed shape. Our car ride in a renault car that looked kind of like a honda element was only about 7 minutes, but it was absolutely terrifying. The road was a tiny, curvy European countryside kind of road with no shoulder and often not wide enough for two cars to pass each other. Despite that, Ron drove as fast as the car and curves would allow, and drifted on a couple of turns. From the backseat Tawnie saw the speedometer reach 90 km/h. If an animal or car would have been on the other side of any of the curves we would have certainly crashed. Luckily we made it and we got to load our stuff into our little cabin (more on that later).

We were shuffled into the main house where a large table was set for 12 people - our two hosts, our host Maria's brother and father, two guests staying in a camper van, two guest staying in a guest house, and another helpx'r like us, Janie, and the two of us. That adds up to 11. We were jet lagged and tired. There was someone else there, but I don't know who, all I know is we were 12. Maybe Maria's brother's wife? Doesn't matter.

Janie, a 19 year old from Ohio, had prepared a bunch of pizzas that host Ron cooked in a big pizza oven. We also enjoyed a beautiful salad with many (all maybe) ingredients from the property, and tasty red wine. The food was great but we were exhausted and everyone except Janie spoke Dutch. Now I was expecting to be around a lot of people speaking french which was okay because Tawnie is practicing it and I am trying to at least learn some basics. But if we wanted to learn Dutch we probably would have gone to the Netherlands.

We received no real information from our hosts. After traveling so far you would think we would be asked if we needed anything, or at least shown the bathroom, but neither happened. We had to ask what time we were to be awake the next day, and after suffering through a drawn out traditional european dinner, Janie finally let us know it was okay for us to sneak out and go to sleep.

By the light of my phone flashlight we stumbled into our cabin and had more time to check it out. Here's a list of what we found:
-2 lights that didn't put out enough light to really be of use
-It was cold, but there was a space heater. Unfortunately there was also a jumble of cords and suspect electrical work, so we opted for being cold.
-2 beds. One was a twin, one was a little Ikea cot. There were pushed together, but different heights. We tried to spoon for warnth and a slat in the cot immediately broke. Another broke later when Tawnie was just sitting on the bed.
-Dusty duvets and blankets which gave both of us allergy symptoms.
-Many bugs, including large spiders and bees. The first night there was no beehive. The next afternoon there was. A beehive. In our tiny little room.
-A chipboard floor.
-Many holes and cracks in the wall.
-A paper towel jammed against a dead spider in the corner.
-1 small nightstand.
-2 small shelves.

After checking for bugs in our bed, which we found, we got in and found that we were no longer tired. I think Tawnie was a bit horrified and I was a bit delirious and found the whole thing extremely comical. I let Tawnie know how amazing she was for putting up with such a dump and we eventually did have a good night's sleep.

On Saturday we woke up and stumbled outside unsure of what the process was. We by chance ran into Ron and helped him set up the room we had dinner in to a yoga studio - just setting carpets up and moving the table out of the way. At 8:30 we joined Maria in her yoga class she leads. I don't know anything about yoga. I thought it was fine, but Tawnie said it was, "spasmodic and didn't actually follow Hatha yoga like she said it was."

After that we kind of sat around awkwardly until at 10 Maria made green smoothies. Tawnie and I enjoyed them outside. One of the cats brought me a dead mouse. When I left it at my feet, the cat took the mouse back and crunched right through the mouse's skull and ate it head to tail in about 30 seconds. I took another sip of smoothie.

Then we went inside and Maria fed us a big "welcome breakfast". Which was bullshit because we only had it because her family was visiting. After I took a croissant she let us know we couldn't have anymore because the rest were for her family - which was fine, but the breakfast certainly wasn't made specially for us. It was also just a bunch of bread and cheese, which we have found is pretty par for the course. It sounds like usually they just have a smoothie at 10am and that's all they eat until noon.

Finally at 10:30 we got to work. We got a tour from Janie. There were two cute caravan guest houses (unoccupied I might add) or gîtes as they call them, a guest house, and 3 other guest rooms (1 of which also unoccupied). Then Tawnie and I fed the horses which was fun, as the horses were tame and easy to pet and followed you around as if you were their leader. After that Tawnie helped make jam and I helped Ron repair the roof of his barn.

Later in the day I dug some potatoes and Tawnie went to town with Maria to grocery shop. They had a good enough time, but Tawnie was realizing that Maria's french wasn't all that Maria said it was in our initial conversations before we met. This wasn't ideal, as Tawnie needs to be improving her french for class.

Meanwhile, after harvesting potatoes I was helping Ron again and he got snippy with me. We were using a lift that went up and down a ladder on tracks, so Ron could stay on the roof and I could send him materials to and from the roof via the lift. He asked him to send the lift down and I clicked the up button on the remote - an easy mistake. After seeing my mistake I pushed the other button. He then let me know that was the 2nd time I had done that, and if his hand is on the track above the lift, that it would get ran over. Then he let me know I needed to concentrate. I almost let him know that maybe if the lift is operating at all he should keep his hands out of its tracks - but instead I just rolled with it and was a bit shocked.

Once Tawnie got back we decided to take a break. We went back to our room and discovered bees burrowing into the wall. Then on the inside we discovered a nest where there was not one earlier that morning.

After discussing the situation we found ourselves in, we went back to work and Tawnie asked Maria if we could move to one of the gites, as our cabin had a bee nest. Maria said no, we couldn't occupy one of the empty gites, and acknowledged they had bee problems there, and asked Ron to spray the nest.

That was our final straw.