Class day

Thursday is a fairly busy day for the crofters, with three classes spanning 9-4:30 (or however long the trail boss keeps them). They start the day with German, then have a seminar on Ezra Pound with Mary de Rachewiltz (Pound's daughter and our upstairs host at the castle), then a long class with Prof. S called Agrarian Philosophy (more on that later).

Thursday is also busy for me, especially since S and the students are in class so J and I get to play together most of the day (no complaints about that, though don't tell my coauthor or publisher!). We started the day with donkey and rabbit-care, then I sat in on the German class, which is very good. We actually had a bonus class meeting last night, with Michi (Pound's great-grandson, our German instructor, and philosopher), his brother Nik (winemaker), and two friends, who all quizzed us on our (poor, in my case) conversational skills. One of the best parts of class today was that we translated ingredients on a menu for a pizza place. I no longer have to wonder what "sardellen" (anchovies) and "pilze" (mushrooms) are. They don't teach you useful things like that in "German-for-reading-Heidegger" class in graduate school. Maybe Heidegger should have eaten more pizza.

We took a break for lunch at the Sunshine Cafe up in the village. The food and drinks are good enough, but the best part of the Sunshine is the playground. The number of cafes here with toys or playgrounds reminds us of the trend in the UK of playgrounds or even bouncy houses at pubs. How civilized! On the walk back to the castle, we noticed how green the hillsides are becoming. Though it may be a sign of climate change, we have no other complaints about the weather--70s and sunny, even up on this mountain.

Now, we're watching the Agrarian Philosophy class meet outside our kitchen window on one of the terraces. Lucky students! I wonder if it's as hard to focus for them as it is for me with all the mountains and castles everywhere. And I hope the class is lively--I'd worry about a couple of students sitting on the turrets, in the event that they fall asleep...