Orienting, Acclimating, and Deutsch

I moved in and there are so many new things happening at every moment that it is impossible to process it all.  I have settled (a little) and am starting to meet all of the people who work here at the Mount.  I live in a wonderful house (called Saint John's!) with a family.  They have two children (ages 9 and 12) who will be attending school during the day but will be home at night.  I have gotten along very nicely with the family so far.  They all drink coffee which was a great relief to me. The other trainee in the house is a boy from Germany who is taking a gap year before he goes to University.  (My use of the word 'college' instead of University has caused great confusion when I try to explain what I spent the last four years doing!) There are thirteen new trainees here including me but I am the only American.  Eight of them are German, two are Chinese, two are Brazilian and one is from the UK a few hours north of here.  Since so many of them are German, I hear a lot of German during the day.  They laugh at me when I try to pronounce German words and I won absolutely no fans when I asked if they all liked Polka music and Immanuel Kant.  Go figure!  The language barrier is very fun at times and we are all having a great laugh about it.

Every time I try my hand at a little "Wie geht's" they all erupt into laughter.  

So far it has been mostly learning and cleaning and a bit of fun.  The grounds are incredible (pictures to come).  The students come on Tuesday!  I cannot wait to meet them.  I have two girls in my charge who will be sharing a room next to me.  There is a lot to learn and it is all coming very fast. I can hardly remember where to go for each of the classrooms and workshops I'll be working in.

Here's my new room, all to myself!  Pictures of the outdoors to come....

Farewell Uncle Sam

It's my last night in the United States for a year!  I've eaten all my favorite foods and packed my suitcases so I guess that's it.  This past week has been really surreal.  I'm as prepared as I can be and yet I feel like I am not ready at all.  It's been an odd mix of suddenly feeling nostalgic about things I didn't ever realize I cared about while also being hit all of the sudden with the fact that I AM LITERALLY MOVING TO ANOTHER COUNTRY.  I feel pretty scared to get on the plane, but I'm not going to lie, I also feel pretty cool.  Part of me never really thought this day would come. I actually had a crisis the other day when I convinced myself that I was trapped in an Achilles and the tortoise type paradox wherein my trip to England was the tortoise and I was Achilles and it would constantly escape me in an infinite race - well, when you start starring in your own daydreams as a Greek hero it is really time to move out of your parents house.

So I'm going to bed tonight feeling fabulous and terrified and strong.  And to quote British Airways -

                     Anna S Goold, you're ready to fly.

Choosing a Path

In May I graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, which means I have to do something else now besides read really hard books with people I love.  I don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life - but everybody's got to do something.  In the fall, I made a decision that I wanted to live in a completely different place than where I've ever lived before (i.e. New Jersey for 18 years and Maryland for 4) while also serving others.  After researching my options, thinking about what was important to me and praying for direction, I stumbled upon the Camphill Movement.  I was sort of familiar with the name because I had done some reading about Waldorf Schools and Camphill is heavily influenced by Rudolf Steiner who is the founder of the Waldorf schools.

Camphill communities aim to provide village-inspired living situations for individuals with special needs.  In the communities, which vary in size, the special needs villagers live and work alongside volunteer co-workers in order develop their own unique personalities, tend to the earth, and make beautiful things.  There is a strong emphasis on handiwork which appealed greatly to me immediately.  The idea of treating every human with respect for their individuality while learning to rely on those around us is a model for living that could benefit anyone!  

There are Camphill communities all over the world and while reading about the movement I realized I could be involved in something I truly saw as important while getting to live somewhere new.  Back in the fall, I started to send out some emails to different communities and by early December, I had settled on the community I would be joining.  

The Mount is a community specially tailored for young adults.  It is a three year college that teaches craft based programs to its students located in Wadhurst, East Sussex over there in the United Kingdom.  I will be living in a residential setting with the students and working alongside them as they work through their education.  Hopefully, we'll get to do a lot of growing up together. Making the decision to move to another country seemed like a lot of fun 8 months ago but it hasn't started to feel so real (read: frightening ) until very recently.  Finally the time of my departure draws near - I leave one week from today to return next July.     

If my description of this new adventure seems vague, it is to me too!  So much of what I'll be doing is as of yet unknown to me.  All I can tell you for now is that I am so, so, so excited to start this new journey in my life and also very scared.  My goal in blogging is to be able to document my process of adjusting to living in a new country while also sharing some of the great things that are going on in the Camphill Community.       

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.  

Psalm 139: 9-10