when life gives you figs, make fig jam!

so its now almost the end of july and so much has changed, im very behind as usual on updating my blog! as i mentioned in the last one, the pub crawl job wasnt really working for me, it was long hours and exhausting! though it definitely was fun, but it just wasnt for me, or nate. so we began looking for different jobs online, and we happened to come across an offer to work at a villa in the hills just north of rome, managing a yoga retreat. then basically within a week we had completely changed direction and rather than living in rome, we found ourselves in the sabine hills, in a villa/property that might as well be called paradise. its beautiful, green, flowers everywhere, the garden is perfect and happens to be the pride and joy of a romanian who works very hard full time to create this paradise. its on of one of many rolling hills (just imagine tuscany.. even though we are in lazio) so we have an amazing view and even more amazing sunsets. there are about 250 olive trees on the property, from which they harvest their own olive oil each fall, and the olive oil is GOOD! there is a swimming pool with lounge chairs, a pond, an organic vegetable garden, an outdoor yoga platform that overlooks the hills, hammocks everywhere, and 2 beautiful villas with guest bedrooms, the kitchen, etc. oh and 5 yurts for the crowded weeks.
FAQs- 1- what exactly do we do? 2- what about megan and the apartment!? 3- how long are we doing this for? 4- are we glad were doing this?
1- this happens to be a pretty demanding job and we are being compensated for working 8 hours a day 6 days a week, with one full day off. the task list is too detailed to explain, but basically i do a lot of managing work. the villa is a property owned by one woman who provides rooms and 3 meals a day to groups of about 22 people who visit one week at a time with their own yoga teacher and schedule of events, etc. so that said, she does not live on the property. thats where we come in, we are the ones who pretty much run everything. i deal more with the guests, answering questions, making reservations for car transfers and restaurants, making the shopping list, doing the shopping, and what have you. my task list is endless basically. im the right hand person of the owner, and i keep everything organized for her. i also set up breakfast every morning, while nate cleans the pool and outdoor showers. we both are responsible for watering about 900 flowers, ok, a bit of exaggeration there, setting up and cleaning up for every meal (at least we have an amazing local woman who comes and cooks lunch and dinner), and generally making sure everything is perfect and tidy. its a lot of work for such a big property and so many guests! nate works often with the romanian gardner whos name is fani, yep. and he only speaks italian (well and romanian but that doesnt help), which nate doesnt, so often they climb trees together to pick figs and all you hear are monkey sounds going back and forth in the trees, i guess they have figured out ways to communicate! when hes not picking figs nate is mowing the lawn or fixing something or helping me with something. and he has learned some italian, he might not know how to say how are you, but he can say where is the lawnmower:) and other garden-talk.
did i mention we have at our disposal an old fiat panda to drive around and do errands in? we also get it on our days off, but old pandy doesnt like to go too far..
2- dont worry, we didnt leave megan high and dry:) she basically gave us her blessing to take this job if thats what we wanted to do, and literally the day we left some of our friends moved in, so she isnt lonely, and she is still loving rome. shes a bit worn out on pub crawls now too and finding other things to do, but is thoroughly enjoying the roman city life. weve seen her a few times on our days off, and shes coming to visit us one of these days!
3- we only promised that we would work for a short time, not through to the end of the season which happens to be until november, no way! so we plan to stay until the mid-end of august until people start coming to visit and its time to start traveling! which we still plan to do with megan at the end as well, though we have no clue whats going to become of october-december. and if any of you read my posts from my horror story at the brasilian airport, youll appreciate that now amanda and i have finally set another travel date! shes coming august 18th, so we will get to finally start our abroad adventures together, it just took us a year and a half:) and megans family is coming in august, mine in september, and there will be lots to see and do for a month until october, when we plan to go to turkey and meet michelle, yay! and then no plans yet..
4- yes we are very glad we took this job. it may be a lot of work and it may be really hot days, and it may just be my last job in the service industry (yeah right) but it is very rewarding. and thats what we werent finding in roman pub crawls. i guess i always wanted to live in a villa in italy and experience real italian small town life, and i am now. we are learning something new every day about italian cooking from elide our cook, weve learned to make really yummy bread, kneading and everything, we have some of the best olive oil in the region, we drive up the road to the old farmer every few days with our empty jugs to refill them with wine, from his very own warehouse full of huge vats of merlot, san giovese, etc.. the tiny nearby village has festivals almost every weekend that we sometimes get to attend, weve been able to roam the roads in our little panda and see parts of italy that we simply would never have seen, and i personally am learning a lot about management for one, but also traditional work like making bread, cooking for 25 people (did i mention we cook the lunch of fridays?) and working in ways that we just wouldnt do things in the states, sometimes i feel like cinderella but its also fun. and nate actually really enjoys his work with the garden/gardener and is learning some italian, and we are meeting people from all over the world which is always good. we miss camping and hiking and biking and floating the river and bbqs (this retreat is vegetarian- good thing we have a meat fridge just for us!) but in the end yes its worth it and we are glad to be there doing it.
right now we happen to be in turin, where i studied abroad 3 years ago. we took the job under one condition- that she would allow us a week to take a vacation to paris, which we just got back from, stopping in torino for a couple days before heading back to sabina. id never been to france before and i loved it! paris is a lovely city and the eiffel tower at night really is a sight to be seen. no one had told me that at midnight, the tower has a series of lights that flash, and it appears to be sparkling, its amazing, and we were literally underneath when it started. so glad we were there for that! we mona lisa-ed and walked around everywhere, we stayed with a friend i had met in montana last summer, and it was nice to have a guide for at least a day! i think now id really like to try southern france and really learn to speak the language better than a few sentences!..
so that catches us up to where we are now, there are at least 2 photo albums on my facebook page, one of rome, one of sabina, and more to come! i cant believe its already the end of july!