I've mostly seen my balcony and my office and my students for two weeks, and don't have photos to post either. It's been cloudy a lot, and the sea and sky merge in one silvery blue striped vista that is not amenable to cheap camera photography, but very calming to gaze at.
This evening I walked from the office all the way to Voula going north along the long beach looking west out over the Gulf with an occasional boat or small island and mountains (Aegina Island?) in the far bluegray distance. Fortunately I have a good sense of direction and distance, because I left at 5:22 and arrived at 6:00 on the dot, which was when the Greek folk dance general class started ("started" officially that is; people ambled in for a while and we started about 10 after).
Tonight it was the wife who was teaching -- elegant (doesn't at all look like she had two children) and animated. I wished I understood all her cues and comments, as the other 30 some folks seemed to really enjoy it. Her dancing was crystal clear to follow, and because it was the beginning of the year the dances were all quite basic, so I had no trouble. She warmed us up with a walking step and shifted then from step to step (hop, skip, grapevine, stepping in 123s, sidestep) which I thought was a nice way to get people ready to dance and remembering the fundamentals without teaching a dance yet. Then she did a Syrtos and as I went past her she grinned at me and made a quick "OK" sign and the rest of the evening paid attention to those who needed it. Like her husband, she teaches by walking the whole pattern to a count (chunking verbally but keeping the pattern continuous), doing it without music, then putting on the CD. The dances go for a long time, so you get into that hypnotic repetitive groove, and she fades the music out when she thinks people have had enough. They wouldn't let me pay for the month and said I was welcome to come dance any hour on Thursdays that I wanted. Very nice.
List of things I wonder about:
- Why is it so difficult to design a shower head to mix water temperature and hold it? Seems like everywhere I've been outside the US, the showers have run hot then cold and my apartment here is no exception. And the hot water is VERY hot, so you go from pink to blue to pink in short order. It can't be THAT hard to design. The other day it occurred to me that it might be the water pressure, which is extremely high (I often squirt my whole counter when I pull the spigot lever up in the kitchen or bath)
- How come just the men get to play with little strings of worry beads? The women tell me sometimes they do too, but I haven't seen any of them do it in public. A nation of talkers and fidgeters. Suits me.
- Where can I get a Greek laundry rack for my deck back home? They're an aluminum frame that hooks over the railing with lengthwise plastic strings about 6 cm apart. The frame lies flat against the railing until you place two rods into little holes to hold it out at a 90 degree angle. Rainproof, lightweight, holds lots of laundry, folds neatly away; What more could you want?
- I've been surprised at how many Greeks have blond(ish) hair. Now, please, I know every woman over 13 has highlights, and over a certain age helps nature a little bit more than that, but the men and the kids suggest that those Scandinavian hordes that attacked Athens 1500 years ago certainly left their mark, though I don't see many light-colored eyes.
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What it's like to speak and study a language that has only about 10 million speakers locally and I don't know how many more overseas. Is it discouraging to think that you'll have to study a major language like mad or live abroad for a while in order to communicate with most other people on the planet? Or is it kind of fun, like having your own secret code and tribe?
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