Gratitude Moment

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Every once in a while (probably not as often as I should), I realize how lucky I am to have a life filled with kind and good people. Yesterday, when I came back from my class trip I discovered that I'd lost two notebooks with all my notes from class from the last six months. I was really devasted by this as I thought I'd probably left it in a hotel somewhere and would not be able to get it back. I went to see my Bulgarian friend Bobby to ask if she'd seen it and my friend Zhaina from Kazhakhstan also stopped by. Both these girls were just really great and helpful and soon we found a solution to the problem (I called the driver and it seems I left them on the bus). Before that time and also after I talked to Roderick on the phone a couple of times and as always he was wonderful and reassuring. Also, my roommate Olga was as ever, cheerful and understanding. As those who know me well know, I have a bad tendency to get very stressed over things when I can't fix straight away (hello planning a wedding!) and I think I would have gone slightly mad a long long time ago were it not for all the people who make my life better on a daily basis. You are all the best (especially you Pondu!)

p.s. I am a little behind with posting but I have some good things to write with a ton of pictures so check back soon. :-)

My Baby Loves Me!

What a fabulous surpise!!!!

My favorite flowers in the whole wide world are orange roses. Besides that, any orange flower makes me happy. To my great delight and surprise, when I came back from my fieldtrip today I found a giant bouquet of all orange-colored flowers (including gorgeous roses) waiting for me at the xenonas. Pondu darling, you really know how to make a girl happy. Lucky me that I get to have you as a husband, I love you so much!!!

Ουράνιο Τόξο

Springtime in the mountains (especially mountains in the Epirus) makes for some spectacular weather. I just saw a rather extraordinary rainbow over the lake and rushed outside to take a picture of it. It seemed to be almost horizontal! We've had quite a wet week here and I've seen some stunning clouds and skies.

Did I mention the garbage men are striking again?

Αποκριές

Decorations at the Entrance to the Castro

Tomorrow is the first day of Lent (καθαρή δευτέρα) according to the Orthodox calendar, so this meant that today (and especially tonight) was Carnival (Αποκριές). Our teacher Fani told us in class on Friday that Carnival is traditionally not a Greek custom but was imported from the West, especially from the Venetians. In Greece, the biggest carnivals are in Patra and on Corcyra but from my experience in the town tonight, Ioannina is a rather wonderful place to celebrate the Αποκριές as well. I remember many carnivals from my childhood when I often went to see the parades with my brother and my grandparents in the Catholic south of the Netherlands and a similar festive atmosphere was to be felt around the city tonight. An amazing array of excellent costumes was to be seen; there were jailbirds, a giant four-person caterpillar, nuns, Vikings, Asterix and Obelix, a terrifying ghoul who I captured on film, a fetching Red Riding Hood wearing a garter, but by far the most popular disguise seemed to be that of a clown.

This goodly ghoul was kind enough to strike a pose!

I went around with my delightful Bulgarian friend Bobby who kindly let me borrow her mask and we visited two bonfires, one inside the old castle and one near the stadium. At both there was clarinet music and children dancing all wonderfully decked out. When I saw all these dressed up children dancing around a bonfire to sweeping clarinet music, I felt very clearly the pagan rhythms still pulsing in the Greek festive tradition. A magical experience!

At the Bonfire inside the Castro

The παππούδες got the best seats (I loved the black cauldron too!)

Bonfire inside the Castro




Bonfire near the Γήπεδο

Sparks from the Bonfire

Γλέντι

Pondu, to lessen your nostalgia for Greece I've added more music down at the very bottom of my blog but these songs you can download to your computer! The 15 songs are folk dances from different parts of the country, mostly the Epirus. The 12 step dance is Μήλο μου Κόκκινο, with voice.
Love you so much!

Μήλο Μου Κόκκινο (My Red Apple)

I just put out how to add a neat feature to my blog: an audio streamer. The website it comes from has this one nice Greek CD so I put two songs from it, one very famous traditional song from Macedonia (which has a 12 step dance that goes along with it that I learned here at dance class) and a Syrtos, which is a type of dance found all over Greece, but mainly in the northern parts such as Macedonia and Thrace. At some point, Roderick we must go to Thrace! Here are the lyrics to song called My Red Apple.

Μήλο μου κόκκινο, ρόιδο βαμμένο (x2)

Γιατί με μάρανες το πικραμένο

Παένω κ’ έρχομαι μα δεν βρίσκω (x2)
Βρίσκω την πόρτα σου μανταλομένη

Τα παραθυρούδια σου φεγγοβολούνε (x2)
Ρωτάω την πόρτα σου, που πάει η κυρά σου

Κυρά μ’ δεν είναι ‘δώ, πάησε στην βρύση (x2)
Πάησε να βρει νερό και να γεμίσει

See my poor translation in the comments, Pondu, can you do a better job of this?

Also this is where I'm totally taking dance classes next year.

Happy Sunday

Sundays are usually quite slow days here at the Panepistimioupoli but today the weather was wonderful and the clouds were fantastic. Time for the fish eye lens!


The quality is a bit grainy, I think I may have to use the tiny tripod to get a more steady pictures, but it gives a good impression of the vast expanse of sky and land there is here in the Epirus, just beautiful!

Also, spring has definitely arrived here and so have the giant ants. Here's one I saw on the way to lunch.


I am one artiste it is for sure!