The end of the harvest is so close! More like two days tops! We are at the top of the hill, where the terraces are getting deeper and deeper. Yesterday we were on the second to last terrace, which has three rows of about 20 trees each. The last one is a lot deeper, more rows, but it's the last one! It is very exciting to be able to finish already. We started on the 15th of November, and just might finish the 15th, maybe 16th of December. Our previous record was somewhere around 4700 kg, and as of last night we were at 5800 kg! We are definitely hitting the 6000 mark! And this is especially good since for the past week we only had one day of rain! And we weren't even working that day. Every day has been so nice and sunny. I missed the sun. During pausa, our break time, I always try to be in the sun. Oh, how good it feels to have sun on your face!
Other news. Raymond left, Drew came (back). Raymond left us on the 10th, also Friederike's birthday. He spent two night in Rome alone, and flew home on the 12th. He made it home safely and is happy to be home. We spoke to him via Skype when he was home, so everything is all right with him. A few days before he left, Drew came back. Drew was a volunteer here before I came (actually he left the day after I arrived here). His plans were to go to Germany, but things didn't work out there, so he came back here. He's from the States and wants to be a chef, which is awesome because we can talk food! And he eats meat! So I am looking forward to exploring dishes with him and making Hungarian food that I can share with someone! Yay! He also makes amazing fires which make the heaters super warm. (The heating in the Colonica works by making a fire in the fireplace which heats up water that is sent to our heaters. Unfortunately even the heaters are really hot, our rooms aren't. I mean, it's not freezing in there, but it's not super warm either. The hallway is always much warmer. How cruel.).
I only have one week left before I go home!! You have no idea how excited I am! It's the longest time I have ever spent without my parents, nearly 5 months! I have most of my gifts ready, now the problem is, will my things fit in my bag? Goodness.... The fact that Christmas Eve will be like when we were little, is very, VERY exciting! In addition to the seven of us, there will be two wives and one and a half grandchildren! For the rest of the holidays I have no idea how things will be, but I'm not really worried about it; I'll just go with the flow.
On Sunday we went into Florence. Rike and I went to church, the first in this Advent Season, and saw (well, heard. A column was blocking our view) the baptism of an adorable little baby. After church we met up with Kelly, Drew, and Clara (Rike's friend who is from the same organization as she is) and went to Santa Croce where there is a Christmas Market. There are many stands from around the world, but mostly European, two from Hungary! One of them sells these pillows that have some herbals in them that you can heat up or freeze and put on sore muscles, stomach aches, etc... But the other one is the BEST! It sells kürtöskalács!! Iris told me about them, so I just had to find them! People were crowding around this stand, so I stood in line as well. When it was finally my turn to order, I ordered in Hungarian. The guy was in shock for a moment, then made me my cinnamon and nut ones. When I paid, he said that he wanted to give me one as a gift, so I got one for free! It pays to Hungarian! :) I shared my sweets with the rest of my friends and they all enjoyed them, especially the cinnamon ones, which of course are the best ones. (For those of you who do not know what kürtöskalács is. It is a Hungarian delicacy that is usually sold at markets and bazaars. A yeast dough is rolled into about a finger's width of a roll and wrapped around a thick wooden log. This is then put into an oven which turns these logs and bakes them to a golden brown log. When it is done, the log is rolled in a mixture of either cinnamon sugar, ground walnuts, powdered sugar, cocoa, etc... and than eaten. Simple deliciousness. This might be a better explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCrt%C5%91skal%C3%A1cs)
After exploring the rest of the market and seeing German meat stands, Austrian strudels, a pig roasting, French foods, Dutch cheeses, French soaps, and many other things, we headed back to the center of the city and found Drew's favorite gelateria and had ice cream in the middle of December. How awesome is that? Very! Florence is very nicely decorated for Christmas. By the Duomo there is a huge Christmas tree that has the Florentine lilly in red hanging from the branches and lights. Simply decorated, but still beautiful. On some of the streets the Florentine symbols are also hung in the middle. I definitely do not miss the immense amount of Christmas decorations in the States! Simplicity is the best for me.
We took a risk and followed the schedule Paul made for coming back from Florence. It worked! A first. The trains are usually right, but somehow, the bus schedules never seem to match. But it did this time! We were very happy.
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