Reduce and live simply.: Whirling Dervishes and getting over myself in England

My days WWOOFING in England started long before my hosts woke up and while I worked, Emily stayed inside cheering for 'what you Americans call white-trash' on Judge Judy. At lunchtime I would learn how much I didn't know when they would talk about Whirling Dervishes (who?) and John Paul Getty. They would end stories with things like, "Oh and were they ever hoisted by their own petard!" I would deliver my best I-know-what-that-means-and-why-its-funny laugh, but they always saw right through it and would make me say why it was so funny. When they learned I hadn't read the book 'Rebecca' (as famous as the Bible!) they discussed, half serious, if I had actually grown up under a rock. A fun discussion for all.

This was a far cry from the British dream I imagined from her description in her emails to me before I arrived. The Peter and Emily I would be working for lived a mile or two off of the beautiful English coastline. I'd be working the standard five hours a day in exchange for tasty, organic goodness. The work would be gardening, looking after the chickens, cleaning, oh, and do I know anything about decorating?

The Peter and Emily I actually worked for neglected to mention that the Royal Air Force used their coastline to test aircraft during the week so I couldn't actually get to the sea without getting dive bombed. She also saved up a month of weeding for me, so my first week was spent on my butt, digging weeds out.

By the end of that week, her English accent wasn't quite so adorable and I missed the hippies. I finally brought it up over lunch one day, mentioned my sore back, and asked about the decorating she mentioned in her emails. She looked at me and laughed, "We've already done all the decorating, lovey! We DO have more weeding, mind you. Right then, why don't you paint the hallway?"

And that was that. She kept my long hours, but varied the jobs. I learned that traveling isn't always beautiful or glamorous. And people aren't always what I hoped for. But that's okay, because I'm learning that I can get over myself, count my blessings and still be happy to be having this experience.