Sunday, October 08, 2006

Hello From Greece

Hello,

It's been a while since I have talked to many of you, so I just wanted to send an email off to let you know what is going on with me.

I was in Italy for a month traveling all over from top to bottom and many places in between. I had such a fabulous experience, and nothing beats actually seeing the things that you have been studying about for years right in front of your face. It was a really intense experience for me, but I loved it. If you are interested in all of the details of that trip, I kept a daily journal for each of the days I was there, and it has been posted online at www.yellowcowphoto.blogspot.com

I am now again in Paros, Greece on a little island studying photography, writing and art history. I love all of the subjects I have been working with, and the teachers are amazing. Tomorrow I really start cranking down on some projects, and I get to work on necessary items for my portfolio and the student show.

I will be on Paros until December 16th. Jared is going to come visit me in about a month, and we are both very excited to again be together in this wonderful and exotic land. There are so many things that I love about this place. I feel right at home, and it has in fact been my second home for the past two years making a tie with my house in Portland as far as time spent. :)

And yes, I'm doing all this pregnant. Currently, I'm 19 weeks, and it's really exciting. All of this traveling has really been amazing for me and for the baby. I swear that the baby is going to be speaking more Greek and English, and if I don't cook fully Greek meals, it will experience intense culture shock from day 1. I had an ultrasound last week, and everything looked fabulous. I'm even starting to feel better. It looks like there may be an end to this intense morning sickness! There are some photos of me online, but I don't look 19 weeks pregnant (or so everyone keeps telling me). To say the least, I'm still having to peel foreign men off me. It's kind of fun to watch the reaction on their faces when they realize that they just tried to hit on a pregnant woman though.

I am available again by email. I will try to contact you about once a week.

I hope that your autumn is going wonderfully. My blog has some photos and a lot of writing if you have some time or interest about my intense and wonderful trip to Italy.

Until next time.

Christine

Pregnancy Update

For anyone that is reading my blog, I'm sure that you know by now that I'm pregnant. In the middle of all of this crazy traveling stuff I'm doing, I figured that I would give you an update on that end of life.

I am now 19 weeks pregnant. Some photos of my still rather small belly are a little further back on my blog. I will try to post some new ones shortly.

I had a sonogram this last week, and the doctor told me that everything was fine. I got to see the head and the heartbeat, and it was really exciting.

We are thinking of names, and we have some that are definite candidates in the running. However, even if we do decide, its going to be a secret until the baby is born, just for fun. :)

I'm still a little sick, but it seems to go away more and more every day. Hopefully the burning Greek sun I'm in constantly will help with that.

I'm on email again, so if you want to send me one off with any questions, I am totally here.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Ok. I’m really sorry that there has been such a long lapse in my writing. It’s been a while since I got a chance to sit down and write. I’ve spent the last week settling down again on Paros and getting ready for the last semester here at the Aegean Center.

Last weekend, I just got my apartment ready for living in and then I spent some time catching up on my sleep. As soon as Monday hit, I was in photography class almost 12 hours a day either developing my 22 rolls of film and figuring out what to print, or teaching some of the newer students how our darkroom works. I also spent some time cleaning and doing other random things to help the rest of the semester go smoothly.

I can now say that I have developed all of the film that I took in Italy, and I am quite happy with it. Starting at 8:00 tomorrow morning, I will be in the darkroom printing it and getting it ready to put in the photo show at the end of the semester. There are a lot of great shots, and I have put together a project that really communicates how I have blossomed as a person and as an artist while on this island.

There were a couple of things that happened over this past week that really put me back into the spirit of being on this island.

1.) I went swimming. It was amazing. There is nothing more fabulous than floating in the super salty Aegean Sea. It is warm this time of year, and I had a very wonderful time floating around out in the middle of the wine dark sea.

2.) We went on a hike with John. As soon as he started picking the oregano all of the lovely things about this island hit me smack on the head. There was a lovely breeze during the hike, and the ability to pick the spices that I was going to need to use in food that night was amazing.

3.) Speaking Greek is coming naturally to me again, so that is really nice to be around.

4.) Greek food (including Greek yogurt) is really helping me to get over my continuing morning sickness.

5.) Love of the island and the sea overcome me every time I am here, and I forget each time I leave how many of the small details make up the perfect place that is this island.

Tomorrow I get to serious work, and you’ll hear more about that.
We have the snorkeling trip scheduled for next Friday, so you’ll definitely hear about that.

Until Later.