Full circle

Sometimes life just seems to come full circle. I'm at my friend Usha's house now and she doesn't have a computer. So I'm using her friends' computer, who is German. So guess what...so is his computer. Lucky for me, I've had to read this blog in German before, so I know what I,m doing now. Fun.

So, I have officially been in Europe for 3 months now. And Monday, I will have been in Greece for a month. I am leaving next week for Italy where I might have a job working in Olive trees in Tuscany. We'll see.

My time at Brian and Gillian's ended yesterday and the dogs were VERY sad to see me go. I was sad too. Although, here at Usha's, it's been nice and quite...except for the OBVIOUS construction going on down below Usha's house. But that's a given by now.

Usha has a completely self sufficient house. It's run by solar power and she collects rainwater in a cistern. She has gardens and rents out 2 rooms during tourist season. It's an amazing place and I have my own little apartment here. The only real downfall is that my shower is outside and outside is nice and cold right now. Conserves water though. I'm not running to take a shower anytime soon.

I had a list of things to tell you about, but I'm going to cut this short so I can go help Usha make dinner.

I just have one little ditty for you today...in Greece, they don't flush their toilet paper. YUP, you read right. You throw it in the trash bin. I guess the pipes are too small and get blocked really easily...YUM! Again, conserves paper.

I miss all of you and hope all is well.

One last thing. I wanted to wish Little Mary a GREAT BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Remember to make a big wish when you blow out you're candles...I love you!

Love-ME

Happy Belated Easter!

Easter is Greece's BIGGEST holiday. It was a little wild here. They actually white wash their houses for the occasion. They shot off fireworks midnight Easter morning. The dogs loved that one.

Things are going great here. The sun is out and it gets warmer every day. Today I sat with my feet in the water for awhile. It was freezing, otherwise I would have been swimming.

I've attached a few photos and I can't quite remember in what order they're in. I know one is of Rupert and Kukla on our morning walk. One is of my Easter socks from the back yard on Easter day. The sunrise (when the dogs get me up) from my bedroom, Me filling the water jugs at the spring. That's the ruins of an old Turkish house behind me. And the last one is from today. I'm on top of this island that used to be a Fortress in the Byantine Era. It's ruins of a whole town up there (the original town I'm staying in). I wanted to attach a picture of what the island looks like-but my next one I guess.

Brian and Jillian have changed their plans and are coming back tomorrow. Only two weeks, but I'll take what I can get. They said I can stay on and help with their gardens and then I might go stay with Usha for a week or so. After that, I'm off to Italy. I'm meeting a friend from Dzogchen Beara and we're going to explore a little. I figure, I'm all the way over here, I might as well...right?

I went to town yesterday and went with a woman here, Gloria, to the butcher...WHOOOOWEEEE! LET ME TELL YOU! The meat locker was right there and Gloria asked if they had any lamb. The butcher walked into the cooler and walked out with an ENTIRE HALF OF A LAMB! Cut right down the middle! The head, organs and even tail made it onto this half too...YIKES!!!! The butcher cut the head off to start (the eyelashes were still on) and hung it on this chain with about a dozen other heads. I hadn't noticed that lovely decoration until then. Gloria picked which pieces she wanted and he cut it right there. I started to look around, as to not get sick, and noticed they had pictures of happy cows, sheep, pigs and chickens all over the walls. WHAT KIND OF SICK...? Anyway-I stepped outside and waited for Gloria. Later, we went to get a drink and the Taverna had about 8 Octopus hanging on a line like laundry-double Yikes. They dry them out and then when people order them, they cut pieces off of them right from the line. YUM! Needless to say, I was not hungry yesterday at all.

The GOOD animal news is though that while we were in town, Gloria's cat had 4 kittens. We came back and she was feedin them in a little box. I have pics of them too, but the blog only allows me so many.

So, my alone time is up, but it's been wonderful. A crazy change from the constant buzz of the Retreat Center.

I miss you all and wish everyone well.

Oh yea, one little ditty-Apparently they make soup out of the sheep heads and the butchers' sister said they're really good baked. I'll take her word for it.

April Fool's Day!

HELLO FROM GREECE! I made it safe and sound. I left Dublin at 8am, and got to the Hostel in Athens at 11pm. Wonderful. That includes a 2 hour time change and 6 hours at London Luton Airport. All in all, not too bad.

Athens, however, I would not recommend to anyone. It is huge, congested and extremely dirty. Actually, Greece is a pretty dirty place in general. And when I got to the hostel, I had a lovely surprise in store for me. They had "overbooked" the hostel, but told me not to worry. That they would put me up in the hostel next door. Well, let's just say that the hostel next door was lacking in just about everything. I'm not going to go into too much detail, well, because there's too much detail. Let's just say that if I hadn't slept on the cold, linoleum floor of the Airport the night before, I wouldn't have appreciated the bed I was lying in.

I got up the next day and made my way to the bus station which was, of course, another adventure. The bus ride was 6 hours from Athens (Yahoo!) and I had one minor incident with that too. At one of the stops, I got off the bus to use the bathroom. When I came out, the bus was gone. I started to panic because my bags were on the bus (also because I was supposed to be). An older woman started talking to me but it was all Greek to me...smirk (I had to get it in at least once). After a few minutes of her sentences becoming more pronouced and louder and me still not understanding a word, I walked away almost in tears. I walked up to the ticket woman and asked if she spoke English. She said she did, but that was an overstatement. The only thing I understood was "Come back in an hour". My eyes bulged out of my head. Just as I was about to completely lose it, a military guy walked up to me and said "He's just gone to refuel, he'll be back in a moment". I could have kissed him.

A man on the bus tried talking to me, but again, we didn't speak the same language. I pulled out my little Greek phrasebook (Thank god for that purchase) and we had a conversation that consisted of pointing at different phrases in the book. Boy was I glad to be off that bus.

So anyway-to make this the longest blog entry ever, I made it to Monemvasia. It's a GORGEOUS town in southern Greece. The people I'm working for are wonderful and the house is absolutely beautiful.

First of all, they rented me a car. And I feel like I'm driving my little Echo again, only smaller. I've attached a picture of it, I love it. I miss driving so much, it feels so great to be behind the wheel again. Of course, last night I got it stuck in a ditch at my friend Usha's house. I know Dad was there chuckling when I had to tie the back end of the car to the front end of Usha's van and she had to pull me out. Usha said I seemed like a pro at that. I just laughed and said "you have NO idea".

My day starts with waking up at 7:30 and looking at the Aegean Sea through the glass doors at the foot of my bed. I let the dogs out and feed the cats. (4 dogs and 4 cats). I then take two of the dogs, Rupert and Kukla, for a walk through a grove of Olive trees and wildflowers overlooking the sea. It's a great way to start the day.

Brian and Jillian (whose house I'm watching) have organic gardens that I'm allowed to eat my way through. Unbelievable. They have a few different types of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, onions, beans, carrots, artichokes, beets and many different herbs. For fruit they have banana, date, orange and lemon trees, grapefruit bushes and strawberries. They have Almond trees and of course Olive trees. Not all of the fruits and veggies are ripe yet, but I have had some unbelievable food so far. They also have a spring up the hill that I bring big glass water jugs up to and fill them. Now that's fresh.

But don't you worry, to keep consistent with my life, I was happy to see construction vehicles next door. Luckily for me, there is a Hotel being built about 100 yards away. The work starts at about 7am, 7 days a week, and goes all day. It's nice to see that my construction curse knows no limits.

So that's all for now folks. I could go on forever, but instead I'll try and update this more often. I've attached some photos, but I know they're pretty bad. The one of me is in town at a Taverna, having a coffee. The others are of the car, and then 3 of the dogs. Rupert's the one in the basket, Zoe is the blond and Kukla is the little one laying on the roof of the Horse stable, with my clothes drying in the background. And oh yea, by the way, it's cold as hell here. Thnk god I didn't get rid of all my sweaters.

Love you and Miss you-Me