...what? (aka why does Jensen have a blog?)

This summer, after working on reunions and post-term cleanup as a Housing Assistant at school, and in between working as a test prep tutor in New York, I decided to take a trip to Spain. I'm going to be abroad for about a month, and will spend my time working on a farm near the southern town of Huercal-Overa through the WWOOF organization of Spain(www.wwoof.es).

After falling in love with everything about Harvest (the pre-orientation program I did before coming to Yale, where I worked for a week on a local Connecticut organic farm with 6 other prefrosh and 2 upperclassmen leaders), I began looking into the WWOOF organization, and quickly decided I love that too. WWOOF (for anyone who doesn't know, and sorry for the redundancy if you do) is an international alliance of farmers and volunteers dedicated to promoting more global awareness of, appreciation for, and involvement in, the increasingly critical occupation of working as a sustainable farmer committed to environmental health and justice (for a more complete version of the mission statement, go to www.wwoof.org). As a (hopefully) Environmental Engineering major, and one desperately trying to be more proficient in Spanish, I figured a month of WWOOFing in Spain would be the perfect way to develop my respect and understanding of organic farming while cultivating my Spanish conversational skills.

And so here we are. I departed from New York on June 23rd, and I'll be returning on July 28th. The month in between will be spent on the Aloe Vera farm (www.casaruralaloevera.com) with Lola and her daughter Candela (and possibly some other WWOOFers?), working on anything from garden work to animal maintenance to general housekeeping needs. I'm not really sure what it will be like just yet, but I'll keep a record of any exciting things, both in posts and in pictures, that happen here.

If you know anything about me, you can understand how far out of my comfort zone this trip is going to be. I have spent my entire life living in New York City, freak out at the sight of most insects, and actually believe that the woody parts of Central Park constitute wilderness. My farming experience is limited to the 6 days I spent doing Harvest, and this is my first time in Spain, and also my first time being in a rural area where nobody speaks English. While there are of course plenty of more daring and enlightening things I could be doing this summer, I chose this and am looking forward to the exciting challenge ahead.

I'm also looking forward to recording my trip as a blog (as I'm sure you can tell), so if you have any free time this summer and are looking for something to peruse on the internet, I would really appreciate it if you would check out my blog once in a while to see my updates!