AO の足跡。Life

文章開始之前，想要講一下加熱褲。愛咪一直以來覺得在牛仔褲裡面加一件褲子是老人的行為。但是最近實在太寒冷，所以被傑克先生被迫裡面加一件加熱褲。真的很實用阿。。。歡迎大家加入熱褲行列！（被糾正，是內搭褲，熱褲據說是小短褲。。。）

阿米許，Amish，是一群對質樸生活絕對遵守的基督教徒。因為宗教迫害的關係，在十八世紀阿米許人移居到美國。在現在的大本營，賓州，定居下來。其他幾個比較多阿米許住的地方還有Ohio，Indiana，以及Ontario。對這個族群好奇很久，終於在這次有機會去瞧個究竟。

阿米許對生活簡樸的定義比一般人嚴格很多。其中不能用電是愛咪本人覺得最難的一件事。因為不能用電，所以出遠門就得用馬車代步。不穿大部分人穿的衣服，有他們自己的傳統服飾。蓋房子也自己來。現在比較鬆一點，如果是生意需要的話，可以少數用電。所以在其中一間阿米許人經營的店，有看到收銀機出現。

賓州的Lancaster是阿米許人口比較多的一個地區。只是經過而已，沒有時間停留太久的我們，決定直接走觀光客行程。直殺一個叫做*TheAmish Farm and House的地方。

Amish不是很愛外人打擾，所以可以找到好好了解阿米許人的地方並不多。TheAmish Farm and House以前曾經是一個阿米許家族的地產，現在保留下來給觀光客參觀。這個地方在一個大Mall裡面，就在Target超市旁邊。夾雜在現代生活中的傳統AmishHouse，和旁邊似乎格格不入。

打鐵舖裡面陳列各式各樣的打鐵工具。

阿米許傳統廚房，裡面有冰箱。但是不是用電，而是用油。

種植煙草來賣是阿米許人其中一樣很重要的經濟活動。所以這裡特別有個煙草屋給大家參觀瞭解。

農場裡現在都還保持養著動物。其中一隻羊咩咩，為了吃可以跪著過橋，就古錐耶。另外一群羊完全不怕人，很容易親近。

阿米許人也打乒乓球，不過他們叫做迷你乒乓球。球桌是平常球桌的四分之一。在這邊玩了一下，對愛咪本大力婆來說，不是很容易。

另外還有房屋內的真人導覽，參觀介紹阿米許房屋的內部裝潢，服飾，平常的活動。路上還可以盡量發問。

除了這個農場，另外也有真人導覽到阿米許村莊去。這個村就不是設來觀光用的，阿米許人確確實實住在這邊，過每天的生活。

一路上碧草藍天，並且可以看到養在農場上悠閒散步的動物們。

不能使用電，所以出門代步的交通工具是馬車。在Lancaster的路上很容易看到馬車。馬車後面還有左轉與右轉燈。如果前面的馬車太慢，開車的人沒有選擇，只能跟在後面慢慢走。因為他們也算是車子。

這區可以看到小小的學校。阿米許人不接受美國的普通教育，而是走他們自己的教育制度。總共十年級，主要內容是英文還有阿米許歷史。畢業之後，馬上開始幫忙家裡的工作。

阿米許人會做軟Prezel。算是目前吃過第二好吃的Prezel。第一好吃當然還是在無敵AuntieAnn!

阿米許的村莊，一般車子不能進去。要有申請特殊通行證的車輛可以進去。但是沒有看到人在管制，所以也不知道到底怎麼管理的。

阿米許的一整個房子看起來常常是一段一段，每一段有不同的設計。沒錯！阿米許的房子會因為家裡的人口增加而加蓋。每次加蓋的設計都不一樣，所以導致整個房子看起來像是組合起來。和其他事物相同，阿米許人蓋房子都是靠家人和朋友，一切自己來！

短短認識了阿米許生活，很難想像他們在這個現代社會中，如何堅持自我的生活模式。到了十五到二十歲的年紀，阿米許人可以決定要不要受洗，徹底當個阿米許人，或者是離開阿米許世界。不過似乎大部分人都選擇用阿米許的身分走完這一生。

美國現在有個秀，叫做Breaking Amish，就是在講一群阿米許人決定到現實社會來生活。一開始還不錯看，只是到後面感覺越走越偏，開始吵架，出軌。。。變的有點莫名其妙，小可惜。

最近看了幾篇有關阿米許的報導，阿米許的*人口在進幾年不降反升，並且在新的州建立生活圈。有興趣的朋友，最下面有一篇文章給你參考。圖裡面則是是2010年的阿米許地圖。（Amishchurch district numbers based on data compiled by the Young Center forAnabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, July 2010）最近，根據新聞指出2012年多了Wyoming和Idaho兩個州。

聊夠了阿米許，前往Gettysburg，在隔天景點附近先落腳。題外話，Wendy’s不再出烤蕃薯惹。。。其他的東西則難以下嚥。。。正式被愛咪從會吃的速食名單上刪掉。

*The Amish Farm and House

2395 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, PA 17602

717-394-6185

http://www.amishfarmandhouse.com/

*Auntie Ann

之前文章提過

http://mypaper.pchome.com.tw/amyou/post/1322935618

*阿米許人口增長新聞原文

The Amish—known for their horse-and-buggy way of life—mayseem like they would be overwhelmed by the rushing changes in technology andculture.

But according to a new census, the Amish are growing fasterthan ever. There are nearly 251,000 Amish people in America and Canada, accordingto Ohio State University researchers. That's more than double the estimatedpopulation in 1989 of about 100,000. Researchers estimate the population willdouble again to half a million within about 21 years.

Much of the growth has to do with the fact that more Amishchildren are staying with the religion and starting their own high-fertilityfamilies. "Some people would claim 90 percent of daughters and sons getbaptized Amish and start families," says lead researcher JosephDonnermeyer, a professor of rural sociology at OSU. He says this number hasbeen increasing steadily since WWII.

The Amish live in small groups of 20 or 30 families known assettlements, and Donnermeyer's team has shown the number of these settlementsto be growing quickly. In 1990, there were 179 settlements in the U.S. By 2012,Donnermeyer and his colleagues counted 456, including a handful in Canada.

As the number of settlements has grown, so has theirgeographic reach. The Amish have traditionally lived in places like Lancaster County,Pennsylvania (population 26,270), or Holmes County, Ohio (population 17,654).Now,they are spreading to other parts of the country, from New York to Missouriand Wyoming. Montana now has four settlements, and Nebraska has three. A fewhave popped up in Oklahoma and there's even one in South Dakota. Donnermeyersays the move to the West and the plains states is only just starting.

But the strongest growth is on the east coast. "Thereare five settlements in Maine that are all less than 12 years old," Donnermeyersays. "There are 47 in New York, and 18 have been founded since 2009. NewYork is now the hotspot." He says most of that growth is happeningupstate, where property values have fallen dramatically.

But it's not just lower prices causing this geographicscattering. Donnermeyer says that changing agricultural economics are alsodriving a lot of Amish to new territory. As farmers leave their farms or sellthem off, sparsely populated rural areas become prime real estate for theAmish. Buyouts of dairy farmers in Wisconsin and tobacco farmers in Kentucky byindustrial agriculture outfits cleared the way for booms in those states' Amishpopulations. Wisconsin had 17 Amish settlements before 1990. Now it's home to46. Kentucky's seen its Amish settlements more than double to 34 since then.

Because the Amish prefer settlements of only a few dozenfamilies, the total population's sheer growth has also hastened this spread.There are now Amish settlements in 30 states. "As the older communitiesget bigger because of this population boom, there's been a greater and greateremphasis on finding new places to start new settlements," saysDonnermeyer.

And that's pushed the Amish into somewhat unexpectedlocations. Donnermeyer points to one settlement that's established itself inrural Wyoming, about an hour-and-a-half's buggy ride to the nearest town.

"It's 15 miles north of Devils Tower. You know, fromClose Encounters of the Third Kind," Donnermeyer says, referring to therustic setting of the 1977 alien movie. It's an interesting parallel: this isthe first Amish settlement to develop in Wyoming, an alien culture in a strangenew land. But they won't be alien for long. Donnermeyer says another settlementis currently forming in the state

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