Greece for a day!

OHHHHH. Carnival. I never told you what that was. I am turning more and more Greek Orthodox by the day. It is a highly complicated religion that is even more complex than any Catholic stuff I've ever heard. The best way to explain it is to put it in terms of the Roman Catholic religion. In Catholicism, they have Mardi Gras, which indicates that it is the end of the "fun" part of the year. It's the last party day before you have to endure 40 days of suffering (Lent) before Easter.

In the Greek Orthodox religion, Carnival is the Greek version of Mardi Gras. It's kind of neat actually. School is out, and the kids run around in costumes (many dress in drag) and celebrate the time before Lent. It happens for a week or something like that.

This weekend is the last big party part of Carnival before Clean Monday. Clean Monday is the Orthodox version of Ash Wednesday. It's really the last, last day before you are supposed to give up eating (really, I'm told that bread and meat won't be available for a while here).

On Clean Monday, everyone gets to eat special foods (I've sampled the unleavened bread, which was quite incredibly good). All the families take the food out into the countryside and fly kites.

After that, is Lent and there are all sorts of rules about giving up food and what you can eat and when. Apparently shellfish are a valid food, and they'll be available all over the place. I'm also told that we're supposed to eat fish tonight. A bunch of the clan are getting together to celebrate. I'm going to go, but no fish for me. So that's what Carnival is. It's the last chance to have fun before Christ had to suffer so much.

It's crazy here. My friend, Sara, and I had two little boys chase use through the streets throwing colored cherry bombs at us. It was kind of scary, because we had no idea what it was that they were doing, and we ran like hell! They weren't trying to be mean at all, but celebrating, we were so confused.

I haven't written in two days. Its' hard to believe actually. Two nights ago, I actually went with my friend to a bar. Apparently, there was some situation with an Albanian doing not nice things with one of the girls here, and we went to handle it. The situation ironed out very easily. Later, John told us that the Albanians have this twisted idea of romance that often gets them and people around them into trouble. There is no situation now, but I was out late with my friend making sure that everything was ok.

Last night was just incredible too. We decided not to go on our hike on Friday because the weather was so incredibly horrible. It was so cold and the wind was blowing, so we decided to do it on Saturday (today). That meant that we had the day free yesterday to do whatever we wanted to do. I hung out and took some photos, but last night we had a huge pot luck at my friends Mike and Daisy's house. We had all this Greek food and we ate it until late, late at night. We had so much fun. I really like this group that I'm around. I've been talking a lot to Mike, and he is an awesome guy. He married his wife, Daisy when he was 20. We have very parallel lives, and we have a lot of reality. I asked him how he could justify being married so young (as that's what I've been getting recently), and we had a very inspirational conversation about marriage and life. He's been happily married for 5 years. He came with his wife to Greece last year, and then applied as a student for this semester. They've been around for 2 semesters, and they're just awesome people. Daisy is a photographer, and we're learning from each other. I found out that she does weddings for $90 and hour, and I'm going to learn from her how she does it.

A funny side story about the dinner last night was that I brought an orange, and we cut it up and were eating it, and it was just great. I wanted to get another one. I knew that there was a tree just outside the door, so Mike and I got our shoes and coats on and went out to pick oranges. We discovered that the tree was in a totally unlit area (as many places are in Greece), and we were in the middle of someone's yard trying to pick oranges. All I can say is that we laughed quite a bit during that time, and we also discovered that oranges have thorns on their trees. That was a good time!

Going back farther, and to the problems with my apartment! I woke up on Friday. After not having taken a shower for 4 days (due to water problems) I decided that nothing was going to stop me from getting a shower, and that if the water was cold, I was just going to have to deal with it. I got up and the power had gone out in my entire apartment. Believe it or not, it was INCREDIBLY sucky. It wasn't actually that bad, but I had to go another part of a day without showering. I eventually figured out how to get the power back on, and was able to take a 45 second shower yesterday. Short, but it got me clean! Appreciate our seemingly endless supply of warm water! By the way, my apartment has a name. Her name is Rodia. Everyone else has numbers, but because I was given the big apartment, it has a name, so if I ever say Rodia, that just means I'm referring to my apartment!

I wrote some Limmericks because I had to write something for my class, and I couldn't think of anything. I then didn't end up using them in my class, but here they are!
This poem goes out to a boy
Whose heart I played with like a toy
But since being in Greece
I've found so much peace
I know I'll come home to such joy

This lover I have in Sherwood
Is like our man Sir Robin Hood
He'd fight to the death
To enhance my last breath
How did I marry a man with such good?

This marble of snowy white
Has nothing but dotted my sight
Since being here
It's brought me great cheer
My soul's risen to greater heights

I up and got in a cart
To drive to study 'me art
I'm in the middle of nowhere
With this grease in my hair
But Hey! It's at least a start!

How do you like them? In my literature class, I have started to read the Odyssey again. It's actually beautiful, and I'm doing the class because we're going to read the Odyssey really fast and then move on to other stuff. I wouldn't mind being an expert on the Greek literature!

One touching thing was that I was by myself having suvlake (a Greek pita chicken thing) all alone. John Pack came by and saw, me and he walked into the place and sat with me, and he bought me lunch. It was really very nice of him, and we had a good time. He's a very wise man, and I enjoy talking to him very much!

There was one other thing that I had written down to tell you that I had totally omitted in my other emails. I have decided to take up painting, so I got all of the supplies, and then Jane (John's wife and the painting instructor) was trying to decide what space to give me to paint, as all of the other spaces had been given out. She took me into the front entry of the school (that no one ever uses because the door is hard to open). Inside the front door, there is a foyer that has a very, very high ceiling. There is a spiral staircase that goes up from there. She was using it a little for storage, but she gave it to me as a studio. I cannot tell you how beautiful this room is, and if I can figure it out, I will get some photos online for you, but it truly is INCREDIBLE. So I have this incredible painting studio all by myself, and people walk by the front street and look in to see me painting. I love the spot, and I'm so glad I got it. The ceilings really are like 13 feet high. Just incredible.

And it really does get so much better from there! Yesterday, the hike was cancelled, and as we never have classes on Friday, I had the whole day to myself to do what I wanted. As I haven't been out on my own really to take photos, I got my camera ready. I took 1 G of memory and 3 batteries and set up out this huge hill that overlooks the sea. I went out that day and took 200 photos of everything that I could possibly see. It was just amazing.

And the even more incredible part of it was that I was walking along, and there was this little brown sign pointing out this spot in the road. I stopped, and I finally figured out that it was pointing to some houses (foundations) that had been there since 3000 BC. They were just sitting there, and there were mosaics on the floor of the house that has been there equally as long. They weren't protected by anything. They had lasted for so long. Anyway, just understand what kind of an incredible environment I'm in. The second oldest church in Christendom is only about 500 meters from where I am sitting at this second right now!

This walk I went on was just incredible. I took pictures of olive trees and flowers. I ran into a herd of goats that I took photos of. I climbed half up a hill, and then looked out at the ocean, and I could see the other islands out far into the sea. The sea was a deep, deep blue with green interspersed. The whole thing was just so incredible!

And then, the hike that we took today is just too much for words. We went into the center of the island to a town called Lefkos. It is where all the people went when the island was being attacked by pirates. We got off the bus and then walked far out into the country. Along the way, John pointed out different herbs. I have collected some thyme, sage and oregano that I am going dry and bring back with me. The herbs were just growing along the side of the road. They smell just incredible. It was such a humbling and liberating experience to see such incredible things. We then went along this stone wall and saw churches and old mills (from when the windmills actually ground the wheat)! We also had some sourdough bread that probably was made with starter that has been around since Chaucer's time. John knows so much, and we got such a lesson. I ran into a donkey along the road, and I stopped and took some photos of him! After that we ran into this herd of goats that were probably only a couple of months old. They followed us on our hike because they weren't fenced in. We then went and sat in an olive grove that has been there forever. I saw some olive trees today that are more than a thousand years old. That's just incredible. And in addition to that, I found some broken shards of pottery that are probably just as old. John said that it happens all the time. I'll bring them home and show them to you! I also got to see the island of Naxos from afar!

I had the goal to have 1000 digital photos to use as a raw database for my trip to Greece. I wanted them to be excellent photographs. As of this point in time, I have 600 photos. Most of them were taken in the last 2 days. Looks like those memory cards will come in handy (and they have already).

And just to end the hike off well, we sat at this incredible little place and had some Greek food. I can't even pronounce what I ate, but if I could cook that well, I would be one happy girl.

As I sit here, I hear the bells ringing as a sign of celebration for Carnival. It's not hard to get used to church bells and ferry horns. What a great life! So that's what I'm up to.