Outside The City

My mother told me she is having blog-withdrawal symptoms...but as soon as I get ready to blog, more exciting things take me away from my computer (not to mention homework!)

Look, Mom, it's me!

So I'm gonna post a few topical entries rather than a long chronological one. Here's a snippet of my Thursday (October 14th):

You may remember my earlier post about The Orchard Project. I decided to volunteer at one of their upcoming events, partly because I was inspired and partly because I was prepping topics for my feature article for journalism. I emailed one of the team members, who said it would be "brilliant" if I came to help Thursday morning for an apple-picking event.

Proof I made it to the meeting place!

So I packed my school bag, slipped on my wellies and was out the door before eight (no small feat for a girl who usually sleeps in on Thursdays!).

I was a little but unsure about legistics of getting to the meeting place because it involved leaving the city and switching from several tube lines onto trains and then buses. The town was outside the radius covered with my travel card, so I had to buy a day pass. Waiting for the train:

And then I was in the countryside!! Grass! Gas Stations! (I know they don't sound like they go together but truly...there are no gas stations in the city). It was raining and I didn't have directions so I went the opposite direction of where I was supposed to be (is anyone surprised?) but I managed to find my way to a bus station and paid the driver to drop me off at Waltham Abbey Market Square:

And I had a really nice conversation with this man on the bus, who walked me to the square so that I wouldn't get lost. He thought it was funny that I was coming all the way from the inner city to pick apples. In the rain. 

But it was the best.

We used these pole thingies (apple pole picker? Idk.) to reach up and twist the apples off the tree. The trees were TALL and pretty much all the lower branches were already picked over. My neck still aches from arching my head to see where I was reaching. 

Picture-taking provides a good excuse for a break ;)

     

And sampling does, too!

These pears taste like apples but have the texture of pears....So good.

I was not expecting the group to be so small. There were six of us (a few I remembered from the Alora Festival). This was their first harvest; usually they either receive apple donations or are planting apple trees. It was neat to be part of a blossoming project (no pun intended!) and to see the kinship the group had. Looking forward to covering the project in a feature article for my Journalism class!

We finished with barely enough time for me to commute back to class, so Abby drove me to the train station, and Ella gave me directions on her phone (her and two others were in the backseat: it was a full car!). This was the first time I had been in a car since August, and I was very excited...

Me: (overwhelmed about the left-oriented car) "This is so weird!"

Abby: "Sorry!"

Me: "Oh no, not this. This is great! The steering wheel."

I need to work on the filter between my brain and my mouth lest I seem ungrateful!

I may or may not have been 10 minutes late to Sociology, but I shared my pears so it's okay :)