Hello Spring

Kalimera! (good morning)

 I just woke up at the flat to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach outside. I wish could enjoy my coffee with the view and sounds of the sea everyday but I'll take what I can get :)

The weather has shifted in the past week and spring is making itself known. Everything is turning green and growing. The landscape seems to change everyday, with new flowers popping up everywhere. Vibrant purple, lush yellow, stark white, pale pink, and little touches of orange pepper the fields and roadsides.

Almost all the trees at the farm are some sort of fruit or nut. From plum to peach, walnut and almond, fig, pomegranate and many more, all starting to come to life right now with buds and flowers. New life is everywhere including lots of little lambs which are so fun to watch frolic around.

 The people here are jumping on board with spring as well, lots more activity in the fields and farms, you often see people on the roadside picking wild greens to eat. Even in the village and along the beach things are being freshened up and coming to life. Shops are opening, tables and chairs are put out on restaurant porches. Both for the festival and in anticipation of summer, the activities and the people it brings.

We have been able to go into the village for a couple more nights of the festival to watch the geros (sp?)dance and do a little dancing of our own.

We spent one night at Rodon, the bar Stathis works at. Its a really neat place, most of the artwork in the place is Stathis' including a big mural on one wall and there are shelves stacked full of records and cds. When I say night, I mean the entire night, our ride brought us back to the farm at 6:30 am as the sky behind the mountains was turning from dark to light blue.

Earlier in the night we would take trips onto the streets to watch the goat dancers and to our favorite place, the bakery. We made two trips here that night, one time for ice cream and then back again because Meredith really needed to try this pastry that was a cream filled cone with a cherry on top. (we nicknamed it the Katy Perry for its strong resemblance to a part of her costume in her teenage dream music video). We all helped her eat it and it did not disappoint. Apparently, our frequent trips to the dessert shop did not go unnoticed as later in the night someone we were introduced to responded with

" Oh yes, the ice cream girls!" Oops :)

The rest of the night and into the early morning was spent enjoying the company of the local people we've met,and dancing, lots of dancing. We even got to try out some of our new moves from our lessons. 

Another night we walked around earlier so that Julietta could come with us. Lots of people dress up like halloween/mardi gras during Apokrias so Julietta partook with a mask she had made at school that day.

The sound that the geros make when they dance down the streets with all those bells on is incredible.

It's fun to watch the younger kids in their costumes running through the streets dousing each other and the spectators with handfuls of confetti.

Because of the warmer weather Meg and Meredith decided to go swimming...

I decided it was nice to watch from the beach :) 

Once Meg realized the sea urchins made walking around in the water like playing the human version of minesweeper she opted for the shore but Meredith was all in.

Meredith, Meg Julietta and I took one of my favorite walks up to a little church. The view is incredible and the pictures do not do it justice.

Julietta and I took the long way home which involved picking flowers, playing the greek version of "he loves me, he loves me not" and lots of piggy back rides. I loved every minute of it.  (Dimo please ignore the fact that she is barefoot :) )

On the ground level below Amanda and Stathis flat is Stathis workshop, where he does his ceramics, painting and lots of other art. Meg and I went down there with him one evening and played 20 questions, asking him all sorts of stuff about everything in there.

The barrel thing was used to make wine, after stomping on the grapes with your feet you would put them in there and it would squeeze out the juice. The piece on the floor was made with stones from the beach. 

Here he was showing and explaining some of pottery techniques he uses. Stathis also makes a lot of the signs for the shops and restaurants on the island, you can see one that was in progress on the side of that picture.

 He is truly talented and does beautiful work.

You can tell that the horses are huge source of inspiration for him 

(this one unfortunately had an accident) 

This is a statue that he carved to be a symbol of the Skyrian horse for the island 

(taken from Amanda's Facebook page) 

Another highlight of this week was a dinner party we attended. It was at a house owned by one of Stathis brothers and was full of beautiful heirlooms and traditional Skyrian furniture and artwork, it was gorgeous.

Vassilis lives in New York and he was the chef for the night he made good old american burgers with blue cheese and fries, or chips as they are called here. My favorite part was that he cooked the burgers the old fashion way on a grate over the embers from the fire. We also had greek salad and a pickle and onion salad, everything was delicious.

We then moved onto an assortment of desserts, baklava, rice pudding and fresh yogurt with muesli made from a friends sheep's milk. 

yummm...

We are in our last week on Skyros and it is very bittersweet. It's been such a joy to be here to watch the island transition into spring, enjoying the outdoors, being invited into peoples homes, and soaking up the atmosphere of the village during this celebratory time. Beautiful landscapes and beautiful people make up this place and it has been such a blessing to spend this time here.

Miss you all as always and sending our love

Dancing Queens.

Yes, the title of this post is a shameless reference to Mama Mia and I would be lying if I told you I hadn't listened to the soundtrack more then ten times over the past several weeks while scooping up poop, just because I'm in Greece. 

It has been another busy week here in Skyros and time is flying by! Meredith, another volunteer from America, is our new roomie in the castle which has been great. Believe it or not Amy and I get a little short with each other when you are literally 10 feet from each other at all times.

 for 2 months straight. 

with no one else to talk to. 

So needless to say Meredith arrived at a perfect time and it has been great having another person to do things with.

Amy and I went to a "concert" on Sunday in the village and we were able to eat a lot of Greek food, listen to great music and see/attempt some dancing.

The set up at the beginning of the day..

Here we have some fried goat liver,  Fava ( The yellow stuff), fish eggs(the orange dish that looks like hummus), fish, a greek salad, meatballs, and of course, bread and feta!

They kept serving food throughout the night.. this is like course number 6, and some dessert ( my favorite course of all)

This is the band, there were four of them in all and they played for about ten hours straight..

There was no shortage of dancing..

Since the festival of Aprokrias is still going on for two more weeks the traditional dancers were out in the streets all night as well, and made an appearance at the event. They danced in the bar, and "sang" back and forth with the crowd.

This is the aftermath of about 14 hours  

(no, that is not a typo) of food, wine, music and good times!

Lets just say that mucking out the next morning was not my most favorite thing about this week.

Every time Amy and I are out at night in the village, we get pulled onto the dance floor and proceed to completely embarrass ourselves and step on everyone because we have NO idea how to do the traditional dances. They don't seem to mind, but after several nights of this, Amanda decided to hook us up with a little dancing lesson.

Dimitrius, our wonderfully patient dance teacher. (he also gives us rides out to the farm from the village on the mornings that we go back to work)

There was quite a bit of stumbling, tripping and complete and utter confusion on my part, but Amy and Meredith picked it up pretty quick.

Lots of fun was had that day..It's pretty hard to be frustrated about having two left feet when you look up and realize you are having greek dance lessons in the middle of beautiful scenery on a gorgeous spring day on an island in Greece, so I quickly got over it. We have had one more lesson since then and I think we have all gotten it down, the true test will be when we go into the village so we will see! 

Amy fulfilled her lifelong (ok maybe thats a stretch)..6-month long dream of becoming a lightweight pony rider this week. I wish I could say she was extremely graceful and really became one with the pony, but hey we are all about honesty here! It took her a bit to find her pony riding groove, but she did  Ok in the end and didn't fall off!

We also welcomed a new little one onto the farm. She is several months old and was by herself at a nearby farm so she was moved into a field with our foals for a little "pony playtime" and socialization. Her name is Amorfoula, or "pretty one" in Greek.

Life at the farm is business as usual....

The ponies have sleepovers in the middle of the day..

 they watch us muck out the fields and try to catch their pony friends who sometimes escape..

and wait patiently for their dinner :)

We are often invited to go over to Jorgos' (Pam's) house for cafe, or lunch.  He is just a short walk from the farm and friends with Amanda and Stathis. Sometimes Julietta comes to try and translate for us, but most of the time it is just a couple words of Greek or English (and lots of Greeklish) here and there. We don't really ever have a good idea of the conversation but it is always good company! 

Julietta continues to be a great greek teacher, and a bit of a daredevil. Amy rescued her from the tip tops of a tree this week (much to the chagrin of her pretty pink tights and the huge hole they now have in the leg) and loves to run on this wall. "Be careful please Julietta!!" is a phrase both Amy and I quickly learned and use frequently when she is around.

The weather has been beautiful this week as spring is coming, so we had a delicious pasta dinner outside.

It was still pretty windy one of the days and we could see the waves from the farm, so we walked out to the beach to check it out. It was a little chilly but totally worth it, the beach looked completely different from the calm sunny days.

Skyros and the people who live here continue to capture our hearts. It is amazing how when you uproot yourself from everything you know and are familiar with, how quickly and strongly new "roots" can form. It may have been a little scary, or uncomfortable at times,but I feel as though the relationships we have built and experiences we have had have added a depth to my life that would be hard to get unless I stepped outside of my comfort zone. It makes my head spin to think that I spent so many years in the same area doing the same things, when there is so much of this world and God's creation to see and be a part of. God has created a world full of culture and diversity and people so that we can enjoy and love on each other just as equally and deeply as he loves us. 

Missing everyone at home; sending our love (and bunny ears) from me, Julietta and our lightweight pony rider.

 * Stathis was our guest photographer this week and took some of the pictures of the ponies and dancing lessons so credit goes to him and his photography skills :)