Every Odyseey needs some snow, no?

Feb. 18, 2008

Dear Everybody,

Guess what? I have a snow day today! After all that talk about alleged snow last week it really did show up...and no, I still haven't been snowboarding. Although we are going to try again this weekend (and we'll check ahead at the weather this time).

It doesn't snow often in Athens, but starting Saturday evening a blizzard began to roll through. And I mean BLIZZARD. The Greeks did not know what to do with themselves. Athens has, like, maybe 2 snowplows, so no roads were being cleared, or salted, or shoveled. So in the absence of really being able to go anywhere everyone in the city went outside and had a giant snowball fight. I have never had to dodge so many snowballs being thrown by both strangers and my friends in my life! And EVERYONE has been throwing them--little kids, big kids, teenagers, adults. The snow has been perfect too--powdery and perfect for packing. If only we had our snowboards, they would be perfect for these hills! The flakes have seemed to stop now, and seeing as how the weather report says it will be 60 on Wednesday, I think it will begin to melt soon, but for now it's still pretty treacherous. We're walking very carefully.

In other adventures, I traveled to Sweden last week! Well, not Sweden exactly, but I went to Ikea which is essentially the same thing. It was so much fun. I love Ikea. I just want to furnish everything when I go there. But I was good and limited myself to towels, a pillow and sheets. Oh, and Swedish meatballs, of course! I can't tell you how funny it was to sit in the Ikea Cafe eating Swedish meatballs surrounded by Greeks. It was like my entire heritage had come together in one room. Minus the little Native American, German, and French parts that is...It was a bit a trek (30 minutes outside the city) but well worth the trip.

You could also say I traveled to another foreign land last week when I found a yoga studio downtown. I say it was a foreign land because it was definitely a different world for the rest of downtown Athens. Everyone was all yoga'dout--really nice and talking in quiet voices. And they all spoke English which sort of threw me off. I think my teacher was American, though she had a slight accent. It's possible she was just from California or something. It ended up being a beginners class, so it was pretty slow, but it felt nice to move and stretch, in other ways than walking up hills. I'll probably go back again this week. I was also thinking that being a yoga instructor would be such a handy skill. You could take it pretty much anywhere, and even if there were no studios, you could always teach privately, especially to the ex-pat community. Too bad I still can't do a handstand...I might need to come up with something else.

But, I suppose while I come up with another handy skill I'll stick with this photo track. I'm currently doing research on historical organizations/documentarians/literature, etc. in the area up north where I'll eventually be this summer (essentially between Volos and Katerini). I have some tentative leads, but if anyone happens to have suggestions or connections, please don't hesitate to send them this way. Even just advice on how to go about doing any of this stuff--I'm REALLY open to help!

Hope everyone is well and is having decent weather wherever you are!

Until next time....Much love all around,

-A.