thur nov 1

ok so it's been a really long time since i've written - but first our parents were here and that was really fun.  i'll put some photos up at the bottom that my mom sent me from when they were here.  after they left we were just trying to get things pulled together and then there was a long weekend starting on the 26th - fri - with joji's first birthday and then a trip up to a lake on sunday... however i didn't get to partake in any of those fun experiences (save for making his birthday cake in the morning) because i got knocked out by a wretched virus that lasted for four days - ughh.  i'm recovered from that now, just trying to stay clear of the colds the kids have. cold and flu season in a house with kids and in a different country is deadly - or at least taxing on your immune system - to be a little less dramatic :).  but i'm planning to make it through unscathed from here on out.

on a different note, i didn't take the job that i was contemplating, so i'll be coming back to seattle in less than 2 weeks - crazy - and see from there if i come back, or where else i'll go.  i will definitely be sad to say goodbye to the cool and sunny weather that we are having here... there has been some rain, but today was actually warm, so nice.

i have to say that i am definitely disappointed with bite.  shocking.  anyways, it was an experience, an experience that required more alcohol than i consumed.  oh well.  it was definitely thoroughly amusing, some good music - which was the saving grace, ado and i were rocking out the whole time - but they clipped a lot, so right when you were getting into it, they moved on to another song.  i think we might have also been the only people in the room to know the words to any of the songs.  however, i can say that i have maxed out on my ass quota for the year - maybe for the next five years, along with glow-in-the-dark fangs and really cheesy vampires.  but it was definitely what it said it was - sans being topless, that it wasn't, just lots of bras - rock n' roll music blaring while girls dance around in heels, fishnets, and other various coverings, one male vampire, some live fire, plot - was there a plot?, etc.  unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos so i don't have any to post.  did i mention it was in a casino? :)

so now i get to relax and have fun with lia and joji and everyone, no more job searching, no more learning greek - at least for this trip :) -- i hope everyone had a wonderful halloween, we are finishing up decorating sugar cookies we made tonight, cats and pumpkins, something halloweeny for lia :).  i'll try and get out and take some more photos since i haven't done that in quite awhile.

dinner at ado's after mom and dad had arrived

liolia, george (chris's parents), chris, joji, ado, me, lia, dad (mom taking the photo) - we went on a trip out to Vergina (the mound behind us is covering the tombs of alexander the great's father and a couple of other royals). very cool site, they've maintained the experience of being in an underground burial site.

ado and joji - shopping downtown

lia climbing the doorway

joji chilling with dad

before ado and i went to bite

less than 24 hours to go

oh i can't believe i almost forgot! it's less than 24 hours till bite !!! wow... time flies when you're not thinking a 'gosh-darn' about something :)

very exciting news - since the inception of time there have been little plastic objects that you screw into doors of cabinets etc to keep small inquisitive children from opening the doors and pulling everything and the drawers out from within.  however, these tend to take lots of time to install.  since i've been here each day has had some amount of time spent in keeping little boy out of them.  we have most recently been shoving dishtowels into the doors, which actually works pretty well - till they figure out all they have to do is pull on the towel.  today our dad was amazing and installed 8 out of the 10 latches in the kitchen for the cabinets (hurray for grandpas!!!!) so exciting, i mean i can't even tell you, needless to say it's taking a while to remember that they're there (this is what is has come down to - and it's only been a month - but it's ok - it's the little things in life :) ).

on a completely other note ( if i keep going it'll make a full circle) if you're in the mood for children's books - or in a bookstore and browsing - i seriously suggest -- & i mean highly recommend:

the big orange splot

by daniel manus pinkwater

ish

by peter h. reynolds

please don't let the 'children's' part deter you these are amazing books - regardless of their projected age range.   being around kids and reading their books to them is reminding me how amazing some children's books can be - at any age, all ages, anytime in our life --- esp the older we get and the farther away we get from our childhood and our children's childhood etc. 

market

every saturday morning there's a really amazing farmer's market outside of thessaloniki - it's completely organic!  so needless to say we spend a lot of time there and try to get as much produce for the week as we can - it's also wayyy less expensive than in the stores, and the money goes directly to the farmer - another plus :).  there are some health food stores that carry organic products and produce here, but they are really expensive - which is kind of a bummer, this market is totally the lifesaver for that problem - as long as you have a car.

catching up

ah so... i got really sick last week and i think that i'm now up to about 90% of normal.  it's a bit hard sharing a space with an infant and young child - who goes to school and who i'm sure carries unwillingly home with her a large group of hitchhiking viruses and bacteria... to not get sick.  needless to say it went around this family and ado was the only one who survived unscathed, which is really helpful since i don't know quite what i'd do if she went under.  but it was a wonderful learning session - on a positive note - we found a bunch of home, herbal, and other natural remedies which helped fantastically - esp since i have avoided acquiring a sinus infection, which is a feat not easily achieved.  

it's finally turned cold here... which is really nice, seeing as how when i left seattle it was as cool there as it has just become here.  but, now i'm starting to realize the holes in my packing as well... oh well, guess i just have to go shopping :).  since the weather has been so good, we've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible, and i've been meeting more and more of ado's friends which is great... lots of them speak english which is nice - don't get me wrong i don't mind just standing around smiling and nodding when people are talking to ado in greek and for some reason they just assume i understand what they're saying... it lends to fabulously long sessions of daydreaming or planning- but it's also enjoyable to take part in a conversation here and there :)

last saturday we ran some errands and then went on this wonderful walk around a lake/resevoir --- ahhhh so nice to be outside in some bit of nature and moving! -- not on anything having to do anything with concrete or cement or tiles or stones or marble.  we watched the herons doing their incredibly entertaining 'fake flying' -- where they stand on a log and spread their wings when it's really windy and just stay there.... at least i find it very amusing.  sunday was so nice as well... this is by far and away my most favorite time of year - sunny and crisp... lia had a birthday party in the morning and then we went downtown and walked up to the upper city again and had the most incredible lunch outside at this taverna on the hill.  lia fed the kittens and joji got to walk around and pet them (there's a rampant amount of stray cats, which just exponentially expands - given the situation - so there are tons of cats everywhere).  then we walked up around the old/remodeled houses again and found this great area by the wall (thessaloniki was a walled city - if i haven't said this before) that was like a little bit of the islands thrown down here.  white washed walls, lots of color and plants - gorgeous!

joji's been doing great - the teething seems to have slacked off for the moment - he now has 8 whole teeth :) which i would say is actually quite a feat when you live with someone who is going through that process.  we put little baby tevas on him the other day and after he got over the initial shock of the new strangeness, has now become quite the proficient walker.

lia's doing well, she has tons of homework and spends her time either in school or home doing schoolwork or at ballet... i'd forgotten how much time we spend in our younger years with school & school work.

sooo still looking for a job, but definitely not at any loss for what to do with all my free time - that would definitely be because i have none - which seems to be a good thing right now :)

so the countdown has begun - only... um, well, hmmm.... ok let's see... 4 more days till i GET to go see bite!! ohhhh i can't wait! - and if you can't tell, my words are only dripping sarcasm, not oozing it. :) but no, it should be fun - or something - our parents are arriving on thursday and staying through the weekend, so they are babysitting for bite night, which works out wonderfully :) and we're going with some irish, british, greek, and americans - shall be interesting.

heels

friday

friday night - the end of a long week and a very long day ... teething baby = extreme test of patience and fortituded ... solution - homemade bailey's and chocolate gelato!! yea

ok so ado's irish friend maryann had her birthday today and we were going to go see a show called bite.... that has been advertised here as a rock n' roll show. so in trying to decide if we wanted to go see it or not we went online and checked it out ---- turns out it's not JUST a rock & roll show.... it's a topless dance show from vegas with vampires set to rock and roll music .... needless to say it was sold out for tonight and sat night --- but i'll let ya know if we go next week :) 

so i'm still looking around for jobs -- having a bit of a hard time with the not speaking greek part - no shit hunh :).  but i've had some leads for massage and talked with a woman today who has an alternative healing facility and is keeping me on her 'list' for certain specialties, who knows. anyways, it's one week to the official start of retrograde and i hope everyone can survive this one!  happy start to the weekend

                                                                                       

the end of the gelato 

oct 3

so today was ado's birthday - i think it's the first one of hers that i've ever been around to celebrate with her on the day of - crazy.... but good :) 

today was her first day back teaching in a year - and it went really well and she has some really great students this time - most actually have interests in art.  she teaches architecture & art history in english to students who are looking to go to universities abroad. which can sometimes end up being just a random assortment of persons - with varying levels of english.

so i got to have joji for the afternoon and we went - and when i say we i mean i pushed him sleeping in his stroller for 45 min in 27c sunshine :) - for a long walk to downtown to meet up with ado after class.  it was soothing and good to get out of the house - we went along the waterfront of which i think i am enjoying more than normal since living on bainbridge.  

we met up with ado and then went and had lunch - which is their main meal of the day and usually eaten in the afternoon, around 3 - and i am still not used to it yet, esp since i'm waking up between 7 and 8 with the kids and all.  we went to a sandwich shop of a neighbor of ours and it was really good ---- it was also incredibly random because theo - the owner/neighbor - came over and started talking in almost american accented english - he's greek/canadian and grew up in montreal - who knew :) anyways... it was nice to talk to another greek who speaks english really well.  

so yahdedah -- later we made cheesecake for ado's birthday dessert and it came out wonderfully - which was good because we did it with no recipe whatsoever - she's great at baking and cooking that way.  we had dinner and chris's parents came down (they live on the floor above us - and we see them no less than 2 times a day) and we had candles and cake and champagne with birthday songs in two languages and lots of walking and cackles from joji.  

tsipouro

on saturday we drove a bit out of the city to a tsipouro distilling party that chris's uncle and aunt have every year.  tsipouro is a spirit (40p) that is like a cross between ouzo and sake.  it's very strong and most people add water to it, which makes it turn cloudy - like pastis - because of the anis.  they make it from a variety of different ingredients - you can basically put whatever you want in it - but the base is whatever is leftover from making wine... skins, juice, seeds etc that has been left to ferment.  it was done at the still/vineyards of a friend of theirs and there was a big bar-b-que with tons of food and people and lots of fresh tsipouro.  

a view of the vineyards 

some of the ingredients for the tsipouro - chris's aunt's secret recipe which even her husband doesn't know :)

the two men who were doing the really hard work - adding the remains from the wine making into the still.

lia, joji & ado on our walk through the vineyards looking for grapes that had been left on the vine when they were harvesting -- they were delicious -- merlot, cabernet, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc.

an early olive - most are still green and are picked in november and december

our 'souvenirs' - i get one whole bottle for myself :) 

the upper city

on friday ado joji and i went downtown - which is the major shopping, commerce area, etc - and then walked up to the upper city and wandered around. in the downtown they have some great outdoor market areas with different sections -- meat/fish, produce, restaurants... the flower one smells the best :). the upper city is an area of thessaloniki where most of the houses are still in their traditional state and/or are being restored in that fashion. you can just ramble around on the small cobbled streets and walkways and refresh in the quiet. most of the city has been altered and built up into these massive cement apartment buildings in the past 30 to 40 years... before that it was apparently a beautiful city. now there are only a few places where any of that remains. it's been pretty warm lately - when i first got here it had just cooled down and rained for the first time since before august. but now it's warmed up again into the high 80s which makes the city muggy and a bit difficult to manage - have i mentioned how nice beer tastes here? :) 

joy is

joy is long days refreshed with cold glasses of beer, little hands holding onto your legs while making dinner, the giggles of happiness as siblings entertain each other and baths wash away the residue of the day.

landing

so i've made it! 3 planes and 20+ hours of traveling later, and i'm now on the Mediterranean side of life :) ... i arrived the evening of lia's 8th birthday which added even more elements to the already crazy and experience filled event of a first day in greece - but there were banana splits, so everything was worth it :)

the family is doing well - chris (my brother-in-law) is a bit stressed, but that's nothing new there. ado (my sister) is good - and on a six-month late spring cleaning kick which has managed to keep us busy this week. lia (my niece) is not only 8, in third grade, continuing with ballet, backing off on the tai kwon do to start french lessons, fluent in 2 languages, & the coolest sister, but still  absolutely adorable as ever. joji (george - my nephew) is almost 11 months, very happy and just took his first steps 2 days ago and has been doing a great job ever since! :) chris's family is well and the day after lia's birthday was his sister sophia's birthday, so we went over to her house and had a massive and delicious dinner! i got to meet her children, since i haven't seen her or her husband since they were pregnant with their first - 11 years ago at chris and ado's wedding. 

so that's the abbreved update on everyone here and my first week in greece.  the weather has been nice and cool, with rain and thunder and lightening a couple of nights.  i've been drinking lots of coffee and trying to adjust to the jet-lag and having loads of fun playing with my niece and nephew!!!!