One Week On...

It's been one week since I left the Funk family and their home in southern Germany. As Margit kept telling me on my final day "Schnell! Schnell!" Yes, the time had gone fast!

When I look back on the two weeks I had in Oberndorf I feel a tinge of sadness and nostalgia for it was a time when (and this sounds daft) that I genuinely felt I was doing something worthwhile with my life.

If I wasn't re-evaluating my life before I WWOOFed then I certainly am now. I know how I want to spend the summer and that is most certainly heading back to mainland Europe and setting off on a journey traveling from farm to farm. I have my eyes set on farms in Germany and Denmark and potentially The Netherlands and Sweden.

Travel and being out of your comfort zone, if you set your heart to it, can open your eyes and allow you to learn so much about yourself. It is because of this that I want to travel and WWOOF for a much longer period of time. The journey is of course fun but I believe you can get so much more than just enjoyment out of such a trip. I've had glimpses of it but now I want it for the long run.

In the two weeks I was in Germany I met some fascinating people with some brilliant travel stories. These people further inspire me to pursue WWOOFing long term. Friends and family in England say I am "crazy", "random" and "brave" for heading off to a foreign country to live and work with a family I had never met before. However listening to some of the people I had met in Germany minimizes the significance of my trip to dust. All these people were massively open minded, friendly, generous and self-assured - qualities I respect so much. And all these people had traveled - a lot.

About two years ago I Inter-Railed around Europe for about 18 days and comparing that trip with my WWOOFing experience, I have to say that WWOOFing was the much more rewarding of the two. The advantages to live and experience the life of genuine locals can not be over exaggerated and the chance to do so must not be overlooked.

My next task is to complete my TEFL course. I have the 3 day course to attend to in London next Monday and I have about 150hours to complete online. That is, genuinely, the only thing holding me back from jumping back on the WWOOF website and finding a new host that needs work.