The Odyssey 13: Lucky 13, The ehhhnd.

Believe it or not this is the last installment of my Greek Odyssey! In less than two days I’ll be heading to Athens with my family to fly out in four. I’m really surprised how quickly the time has flown—has this really been the last 7 months of my life? Before I pack up my bags though I thought I’d just send you one last update and fill you in a little bit on my last two weeks here.

About a week and a half ago Lisa headed back Stateside and my entire family rolled on in. That includes parents, siblings and my grandfather (who was born in Karitsa and lived here until age 13 when he made his way to the States). It’s been a funny and very full house. We’ve taken some very cool hikes up the mountain following streams and gorges, eaten A LOT of lamb and gone oregano hunting. Having my grandfather around has been extremely helpful in terms of my project with collecting stories, meeting new people and being shown the best places to pick ripe figs (mmm, mmm, mmm). I was also starting to make some progress finally on cracking into the village-teenagers circle—perhaps the most suspicious and exclusive of any group in town—but unfortunately got myself into big trouble doing that. Apparently girls and boys are STILL not allowed to be friends unless they are properly chaperoned or are relatives (despite being 24 years old and it being freakin’ 2008). Why would this be a problem, you might ask, considering I’m related to pretty much EVERYONE in town? Well, it turns out I’m NOT related to everyone! Just before Lisa left, we were ecstatic to have met a few people around our age! We had been quite sure they just didn’t exist in this town, so this was an exciting and welcome change. As much as I have enjoyed my time this summer with the septuagenarians it’s always nice to have a little peer interaction for some variety. Sadly though, I completely underestimated the viscous power of village gossip and after having befriended the German-Greek boy from the “wrong side of town” (mind you, this town is so small you could run around it in 15 minutes or less—when sitting on the roof you can see the edge of town in all four directions) I was in big trouble. This has put a real damper on things considering my reputation plummeted in approximately 5 five minutes and I had no control over it at all. Now I’m not only “that girl with a camera,” but “that loose American doing drugs with the lesbians on top of the mountain” (don’t even ask how that’s what they came up with—talk about desperate for some gossip and entertainment). My immediate family has been very good about it of course and fortunately understands the ridiculousness of it all. I mean, how silly did I feel having this conversation?: “Why can’t we be friends? “Well, because you’re a boy and I’m a girl.” The worst of it seems to be over now and even though it will probably haunt me for the rest of my life at least I can laugh about it. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get back to New York right now where everyone is a drug addicted slut and NO ONE CARES. Oh, mana.

Despite this hiccup though, it’s been a good adventure this summer. I’ve really appreciated my time here getting to know this country and this village and gaining a MUCH better understanding of where my family is coming from. I’m excited to see how the photos have turned out and begin work on assembling the project. If you know of anyone who might be interested in sponsoring something like this financially or with exhibit space or PR, please, please send them my way! (I’d be happy to send you a better description of what I’ve been working on too if you’d like it).

Now, I’m going to go soak up as much sun as I can and eat lots of zucchini flower pita before I head out…who knows, maybe milk a goat too? We’ll see.

I hope everyone is well! Thanks for reading!

Kalo Kalokairi!
A.