submitted by Valerie

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Even if you’re not a seeker, still, follow us, keep searching with us. Even if you don’t know how to play and sing, you’ll become like us; with us you’ll start singing and dancing.” Rumi

Sam had to wake up Dmitris when she arrived, so a very sleepy, sheepish Dmitris rushed to lay out our traditional breakfast of coffee, tea, nutella spread, biscuits, packaged croissant, boiled eggs, and unbelievably delicious and thick yoghurt.

At 7:30 Papa Antonios picks Nicole and I up at the corner. He is the headmaster of Agia Pelagia, the school where we teach. He is also the teacher of the 5/6 grades, and a priest as well with 3 children. While we wait to be picked up, we enjoy the fresh, clear air and quiet of the morning. If the red sands aren’t blowing in from Africa, we can see several low mountains surrounding the area. Driving up one mountain to reach the school, we follow the coast and weave in and out of towns along the way. The view to the sea is a spectacular blue, and sometimes a crop of white houses in the distance punches a hole of pleasure through the eyes. Here I find the cartoon thought bubbles that so often accompany touring, like “how beautiful” and “how picturesque” have burst from overload. Instead, there is a quiet, serene receiving of the beauty of life all around.

Papa Antonios waves to many as we roll along, most his former students since he’s been teaching for 20 years. This morning he stops and pops the trunk. Someone has flagged him down and is offering him a gorgeous cabbage.

After teaching from 8:30 t0 12:30, our day is done and Ersi, a part-time teacher of greek to immigrant children (Albanian, Frence, German), takes us home. Ersi is nervous and excited to be invited to speak to our group tonight about Greek myths, something she is passionate about.

At lunch we learn that everyone’s tired and not interested in traveling. A few of us walk into the neighboring town of Gazi with pastry and books on our minds. At the bookstore, we find Ersi whose friend works there. I begin to think of “Where’s Waldo?” as Ersi seems to pop up everywhere.

By dinnertime we can count many physical casualties: While Nicole is feeling better, she still has a fever; Tony has fallen painfully on his shoulder; Margo is getting a cold, maybe Julie’s cold.

Ersi joins us for dinner at 7:30, and over our meal we learn at least 6 different meanings of the simple word “ella.” Such a modest word meaning “hello;” but with varying intonations, facial and shoulder and hand motions can take on tender and threatening meanings like: “what?” and “what?” (like you can’t believe what you’re hearing); “are you kidding me?;” and when out with a sweetheart and used in a question form, “ella?” means “will you buy this for me?”

As for myths of Crete, we learned that the Island of Dia in clear view just north of Iraklion was created by a crust of bread, paximade. A giant was going around gobbling up islands when God decided this has got to stop. So God enticed the giant with this bread (apparently it’s gigantically good), saying if you catch this crust of bread you can stay a giant. If you miss, you become an island. Poor giant didn’t keep his eye (one?) on the crust.

Since we had seen Knossos on Tuesday, we asked about myths with bulls. Apparently the philandering Zeus came in many forms to seduce women, and came as a white bull to woo Europa. Poseidon was angry at King Minos at Knossos, and sent a bull as a gift while simultaneously casting a spell on his wife, Pacify, to fall in love with said bull. Their joyful relations produced the minotaur. After hearing all of this, soft-spoken Eileen observed “that’s a lot of bull” – the cleverest remark of the evening to which we all joyfully laughed.