I had a ton of fun today with Mika, my friend from Japan, some South Korean girls from my cross-culture communications class, and a bunch of other International Students from American University. We left around 9:30 am and got back to campus around 8:30 pm. The trip to Pennsylvania took about 3 hrs or a little less.
We first stopped at an Amish family's home where the 40 or so of us (one coach-bus full) ate family style of the family's delicious cooking. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the family's name (it was difficult to pronounce and our leader kept mispronouncing it), but they had six children, the youngest of whom was 5 yrs old and whose name was Lavern. He was a sweetey. Anywho, for lunch we had bread and yummy sweet peanut butter, applesauce, cabbage with pepper (coleslaw), mashed potatoes with gravy, chicken, meatloaf, cooked greenbeans, sweet lemon tea, and corn (not on the cob). For dessert, they served us apple pie, cherry brownies, and carrot cake. Everything was DE-liciuos! The chicken was the most tender I had ever had - it literally fell off the bone on to my plate - and the mashed potatoes were the smoothest I have ever tasted. It was a fabulous meal, all around.
After we finished eating, the family members who were there (not all six of their children were present, only three, I think) sang us two songs. One was a version of "Jesus loves the little children" (first sung in German and then English), and then one that I didn't recognize. We then had the opportunity to buy some of their homemade goods. I bought some blueberry jam and three little decorative corn cobs (the purple, yellow, and orange kind).
We then boarded the bus and drove to the Mennonite Education Center to use the restroom and pick up our tour guide (a Mennonite lady) who guided the "coach operator" - NOT "bus driver" - through the Amish neighborhood. We saw many buggies, a some children walking home from school with a little red wagon full of youngsters, many horses, cows, chickens, and laundry lines. Also, I learned that all Amish houses have green shades. They use the same earthy shade of green. We also got to go to an Amish farm where we petted horses and cows, and I bought a red sunbonnet and a postcard! I love the sunbonnet. It's fun. =) They had some beautiful "quillows", which are quilted pillows that unfold into a quilted blanket, but they were a bit beyond my cash range and I have no place to put it currently as everything I have I must store while I am in Chile. I will have to go back and get one another time. I also was tempted to buy an Amish romance novel. They looked fun, but again, the college time constraint and weight of a book, dissuaded me. Next time!
Last, we got to go on a buggy ride which was more of a wagon ride with a nice weather-proof wagon with benches on either side pulled by two horses (ours were Alice and Albert). Mika and I got to sit next to the driver who was a nice Amish guy who said he was 80, I think. He was quite nice and kinda funny (he kept mentioning how he couldn't believe that the semen of a little donkey, and a horse can create such a big animal like a mule). We enjoyed our ride, then got to eat fresh ice cream, pretzels, and potato chips (also freshly made) from the tourist stop that the buggy rides were part of, before heading back to DC. Apparently Amish Country is the #5 tourist destination!
I highly enjoyed our trip and just wish that it could have been longer. I learned too much to include in this blog entry, but here is a good website that tells a bunch about the Amish people and culture. I really hope to go back again and visit the Mennonite Education Center (we only had time to use the public restrooms), and take more time to enjoy the Amish farms that welcome visitors.
The most surprising thing I learned was that the Amish do not send their kids to public school but have one-room school houses where the teacher (an unmarried female - if she marries, they have to find a new one) teaches K-8. School ends for kids after 8th grade, but as our tour guide reminded us, you can have really smart, insightful Amish or you can have really old-fashioned, not so brilliant Amish, as well. But when I really understood the truly secluded nature of the Amish was while telling our buggy driver where we were from and that we were "undergraduates at American University." "So, what does undergraduate mean?" He asked me. It was with that simple question that I finally understood. The Amish know what college is, but they don't know what an undergraduate is because they have secluded themselves from the modern world. I was so surprised, I didn't know what to say. How do you describe what an "undergraduate" is? The answer I ended up giving him was something like "it means we haven't been to college before" or something like that.
My experience with the Amish has made me look at my own lifestyle and compare the Amish life with that of my modern one. I really think we are missing out on the self-accomplishment and connection to the earth that the Amish have (they also tend to be very environmentally friendly, some even have solar panels), but I appreciate that I may experience and travel the world. So I guess the challenge is to find a harmony between the two: celebrate and remember the simplicities of life, but also enjoy the opportunities for learning and the complexities that it has to offer.
I didn't take many pictures as Mika took tons and her camera was faster, so when she shares them with me I will include a link to this blog post. Have a great weekend, Everyone!
Love, Kaia
A good website to learn about the Amish.
A cute, educational video that I found on Youtube (the girl in it is not Amish, as they believe that having their image taken is against one of the 10 Commandments):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=silrxmvg9m0&feature=related
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