all the photos i havent added

trier and Paris

The last few days working in Obermmel at the Orea vineyards were quite, quite busy. Every day I woke up at 6:15 am so that I could "plunge" the grapes. This consists of taking a large upside-down metal bowl on a stainless steel handle and pressing down on the grapes in large 1000 L tubs, so that the "cap" becomes coated with juice and does not dry out. This is only for red wine grapes, and could quite possibly be done with the feet, depending on the ferment, a la I Love Lucy. However, for practical reasons this is usually not the case. Also, some of the grapes dye your hands red, so I can only imagine what your feet would look like. Then, after plunging, I did tests on each ferment, which included finding the specific gravity, done with a hydrometer, as well as testing the temperature. As the red wine ferments, its specific gravity goes down, while the temperature increases. Don't ask me to explain why this is scientifically, it just is. There were six ferments to do, which usually took about an hour.

Then, after that, Herve and the other WWOOF'ers and I would get together the things that we needed for harvesting. This includes about a bunch of boxes that have pretty much specifically designed for grape picking. Then, at 8am we would all get in the car with boxes in tow and make our way to the vineyard. Many of the vineyards in Germany are steep (the steepest is a 68% gradient), which is actually a good thing when you have to drag a box down each row full of grapes. On the other hand, this is problematic for ones lower legs, as you usually rest the box of grapes on your shin so that it does not go sliding down the mountain and ruin all your work. I think I would take a photo of all my bruises I have collected over the month, but no one really wants to see that.

But don't worry, it wasn't all picking and bruises. There were many breaks which included wine and "breakfast beer" which I had made weeks earlier. Having lunch in the vineyard was always really beautiful because of the great views in the Saar region. The only bad thing about having lunch in the vineyard were the wasps. Its really unclear why, but Germany has so many wasps. I think I saw one bee the whole time I was there, and everyone knows that wasps are the more evil versions of bees. Therefore at lunch, it so happened that several times some one would get stung, as a matter of course. Luckily, I was never one of those people, probably due to my lack of eating meat (not a scientifically based statement).

After lunch, it was back to work, usually packing up boxes or dragging them down hills, as well as some more picking if it was not all done before lunch. This could be an easy or hard process, usually dependent on how much alcohol was consumed during lunch (This probably lead to all the bruises?) After the trailer was packed up with a tarp, etc (in Germany, even if it is a five minute drive you must make your trailer look like it could survive a hurricane without loosing a grape) we would go back to the cellar and process the grapes. If they were white wine grapes, this means that they get put in a presser and then the juice if pumped into a tank to ferment. If they are red wine grapes, the stems are taken off with a machine and then put into 1000L tubs to ferment. Then everything must be cleaned, and at 7pm the red wine must be plunged again.

However, since I took the early plunge duty, I usually went back to the house to work on dinner for all of us. Most people that know me know I love to cook, but Germany and I did not get along on the subject of food. Luckily, Herve was from France and at least knew that German food was terrible so we had probably the best stocked kitchen in Oberemmel. However, I feel that now i am a fairly decent flammenkuchen chef, so when I get back to the states I bet that will be the next big thing in LA (just saying).

The last full day in Germany, the three of us WWOOF'ers decided to go to Trier, which is the closest city to Oberemmel that is big enough to have an H & M, if you understand. Luckily for Mahanya and I, they also sell dirndls in Trier, which are German dresses that people wear to Oktoberfest. And since Oktoberfest was already over, this meant they were all on sale. I picked up a fetching red and white one (that my mom says I should wear to Thanksgiving dinner...?) and Mahanya got a brown and pink one, which is also a common dirndl color scheme. Trier also included a visit to Cafe Asterix, which my Lonely Planet guide book said we must visit while in Trier. Of course, it was nothing impressive, although I was so amazed that they had a tequila sunrise on their menu that I had to order it. We ended up being much happier with the traditional German wine stand in the middle of the main square in Trier, which included a bottle of sparkling wine produced in the region which we ordered (as well as more wasps).

However, in life all good things must end, so therefore the next day I left Oberemmel for Paris. But, as the fates would have it, I left my iPhone and some clothes at the house (also due to mimosas at breakfast?), which could be mailed to somewhere where i will be staying in the future. However, not trusting the Corsican postal service (where I will be headed next), as well as already missing my life in Oberemmel, I decided that I will just have to get my stuff in person.

The train to Paris was uneventful and I was able to amuse some Asian tourists by constantly nodding off every five seconds. I found the Ines' apartment successfully as well, for which I credit my improving skills at navigating subways, as well as her good directions. The next day, I tried to tackle as much as I possibly could of things that one "must see" in France, like the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc De Triomphe. To be honest, the Mona Lisa at the Louvre was overrated. Overrated, as far as you can barely see it. Not being the pushy type, as well as wanting to see other things, I got as close as about 15 feet away before I was overwhelmed by all the tourists and moved on to some other paintings that I really liked seeing, such as the Wreck/Raft of The Medusa, which anyone who was in Art History at Cleveland will remember well. Also its huge and you don't have to fight to see it. There were also a million other great works that I loved seeing, but after 4 hours I saw how pretty it was outside and really wanted to go see le Jardin des Tuileries and enjoy some fresh air. Of course, being the food-centric person that I am, I was just happened to stumble upon two macaron shops that I had really wanted to go to, as well as a fancy food store where I bought a very delicious goat cheese and tomato tart-like pastry as well as a baguette (duh, its paris). After a very long day of walking around, I made my way to the rue des champs elysees, where I was very excited to find a sephora, since I had run out of makeup three weeks ago, and was disappointed to find the Germany does not really sell any (fact based on science). After stocking up, I hit a few more stores, still excited due to the fact that I had not been shopping in so long. However, after a full day of walking around, I decided to  head back to the apartment, but not before stopping to buy some cheese to go with that baguette (once again, when in paris...).

More photos to be added when I recover said iPhone!

First Days

Okay so I was supposed to leave LAX to Dallas/Ft. Worth then Frankfurt, starting at 6 am on Tuesday the 13th. Well, thank you American Airlines, for not telling me you changed my flight that morning to 9:30 at night. The good news was that the flight they changed me to was AA's partner, British airways, who is I think a little bit better than American, and gives you wine with dinner. Who will say no to that? So then it was LAX to Heathrow to Frankfurt. Then from Frankfurt to Wiltingen (Trier) via D Bahn train, which is like the main train around here.

Sleeping only fitfully on the plane from LAX to Heathrow, I arrived in Wiltingen extremely tired. However! It was 5:40 am, which is basically when we were expected to get up anyways for the day. So after Herve, the main vineyard man picked me up at the station, we grabbed the other kids working here, and hit the road. We drove two (sleepy) hours to Rech, which is where a friend of Herve's has several vineyards. After having a quick German breakfast (read: rolls, cheese, some cream-cheese like thing, cold cuts, jam, coffee) we were off to pick grapes. Rech is just about one of the most beautiful places you could pick grapes! It has very pretty sloping countryside and everything is GREEN! Unlike the LA area. Then we had lunch of a slab of meat (ham? I don't pay enough attention, I just avoid it) and some potato mush stuff, with spinach and onions. I ate the mush and  avoided the slab. The read question is, how long can I be here and avoid eating meat? I think it will be a personal challenge, before I turn white and pale from all the bread and potatoes and cheese (non-meat German food).


After lunch, we loaded up the grapes and then "processed" them. This means like sorthing all the grapes from the stems, rinsing, and then mush-ifying them up to juice in another machine. We sampled some of the grape juice while it was mush-ifying (technical wine term) and it was delicious! So I have no doubt it will be good wine.


After the processing, three of us WWOOF'ers went on a hike through Rech, ending in this very interesting castle like place the I think used to be a fort in 1100. It was very high up but had lots of picnic tables. After stopping at "ein biergarten" for some drinks (duh) it was time for dinner back at the vineyard, which was...more cold cuts. I see a patten here. They also gave us a cherry danish, which I ate only out of the nutritional value of the cherries, I swear.

Then we drank some wine while I attempted to understand German TV (even the people who speak german could not comprehend it...). After this soporific pastime, I went to bed at the very late hour of 930 pm because my body told me that I had not been asleep properly in two days. I feared that it would be my ultimate demise to fall asleep and hit my head while showering, which made me take the fastest haven't-showered-in-two-traveling days-shower in the world. How sustainable!