There are too many people in this f*#$@&%* cave!
I survived my first whole week living in a cave home. Despite the angry title and being cold all of the time, it was pretty awesome! The week ended on a more angsty note since we somehow ended up with 7 people in our cave at once. But let me back up a bit.
The first night I got to the cave I was greeted by two girls warming up dinner. “Whoa!” I thought. “These girls made me a rad dinner and I don’t even know them.” One was from Germany and the other was from Lithuania, both were close to my age. We ate the dinner and after some talking I realized the host, Hannah, actually made the dinner and they had just arrived shortly before me and were instructed to warm it up. K whatever. But my host made me a rad dinner and she doesn’t even know me!
At first I loved having the other girls around. Once I realized that Hannah only cooked the arrival meal and then never made us food again, us girls worked together to make unique combinations of vegetables, pasta, and the 3 spices we had available (salt, pepper, and curry….). Spoiler alert: you can only do so much with pasta, vegetables, and 3 spices. Lucky for you, I’ve been taking pictures of everything I eat so I will make a separate post about that. Anyways, we ate every meal together and helped each other clean up and I always popped out with a smile and some cookies to share after we ate. It was very “Sister Wives” without the douchey husband and weird tension between the old crabby wife and the young, hot one.
We all spent a lot of time together, because there was nothing else to do. The week flew by, most of our work was easy- organizing, plastering, painting. We work 9-noon, then make our unique take on veggies + carbs, then work again 1-3. Hannah usually makes us a healthy smoothie after work and we relax together for a bit while sipping the smoothie. Then we do whatever… some days that meant walk, one day I went for a jog, another day I took a shower. I decided showering here is a big enough deal to count as something I did for an entire night.
We were excited for the weekend because Hannah told us about the hot spring that was only an hour away. The German girl has a car, so we thought it would be a fun to check it out. We drove all the way there to find it closed. See, after we found the hot spring closed, I totally would’ve gone to a bar in the town and had lots of beer, or tequila, or something. It was Saturday! Our only plan did not work out! But this is where my friends and these girls differ. We spent the next 2 or 3 hours searching for a different place to swim or sauna. I respect that these girls have the confidence to ask random Spaniards where things are in broken Spanish but it was a little much to drive around all day looking for a place to swim. I really enjoyed seeing more of Spain though!
We came back and had nothing to do and the wifi was turned off (someone please explain to me the benefit of “turning off” your wifi) so we decided to go to the store and attempt to somehow make a cake. Let’s jump to later in the night where I’m making dinner (more vegetables and pasta) for the 2 new gals. We had a fun, weird night. Enjoyed dinner and the cake, and even some WINE! Then one of the girls played guitar and we sang and I played these tiny bongos like we were fucking hippies.
The next day, ANOTHER person shows up. She was this sweet, older Spanish woman who I guess was planning to stay a week to work on her English and to help Hannah work on her Spanish. We shared an amazing lunch (jk more veggies and pasta) and later, walked about 7 or 8km to the nearby village. It was a really nice walk, and then we took a Latino dance class in the village. It was quite fun, although besides us Workaways, everyone was at least 30 years my senior.
So then we go back and I get in this angsty mood (that carried over into this morning and is inspiring this post) where I just want to be alone. But I have somehow now become the cave master so everyone is asking me “what’s for dinner?” “can I help with dinner?” “should I set the table?” At this point I just want to scream “do whatever the hell you want, I quit this polygamous cult!!” but I try to be polite. I warmed up the big pot of leftovers from lunch and said “everyone help yourself.” Then we dealt with 6 women going through their bedtime routine with 1 tiny bathroom.
At this point, I don’t know how I have become the cave master and I also don’t know how I have become the designated cook. So I come up with this devious, passive-aggressive plan where I will get up 10 min late so someone else has to make breakfast for 6 people. I get out of bed and think “success!” when I see everyone awkwardly shimmying around the closet-sized kitchen. Then, one of the new German girls asks “how do I turn the stove on?” I show her. “How do I make the oats?” I show her. “Will you watch the oats? I’m going to go take a shower.”
You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. So then I made breakfast for 6 people and aggressively pushed the food around on the table when people asked me stupid questions like “can I take some of the oats?” Yes. Eat the damn oats. THEN the teacher comes in and says she is leaving because she is too old to stay in the cave. I wanted to be like “me too lady, take me with you” but instead I asked if she wanted breakfast (SINCE WE MADE SOME FOR HER) and she says no and leaves.
Cue really annoying morning of me trying to paint a white cave ceiling white while I get asked more frustrating, basic questions and me cooking another giant lunch for now 5 people. Then the 2 original girls left. They hung around for various reasons but now it is back to 3. THANK GOD.
I’m actually cave-home alone right now which is a miracle. I want to run around naked and scream but I will resist. I feel 100% better, but the last 12 hours were a trip. I guess I really DO like being alone. I felt the agitation building and I couldn’t wait to word-vomit on my angsty blog for you all.
This was originally going to be a pic post of all of my adventures I’ve had this week, but I will make that separate. Sometimes you just gotta vent.
Ain’t it purty? I can’t be mad here :)