I slowly used my imagination to fill every spot in the theater with people I know, faces I remember- even if only in passing. Now, with a full audience I proceeded to give a speech. It’s of no use to you what the speech was about, but it lasted for about 15 minutes before I politely excused myself from my imaginary audience as I was starting to get a sunburn.
oday he came to my door with homemade chicken soup and rice, bread and he even brought me a spoon! (yeah, no spoon in my flat) This was completely unexpected so I responded with “soup! Thank you SOO much! ” uh oh. Busted. “Brandy- what did I tell you? Now I am late, I must go”. With that, he was gone.
as I write this I am sitting on my balcony staring into the forested mountains of Flokas. The air is scented with the
~ My Balcony ~
blossoms of all the orange trees in town, the budding jasmine and of course, a slight tinge of cigarette smoke. (duh, its Greece) The sun is coming through the cypress and pines to find its way onto my face and shoulders, kissing me as lightly as a lover. My breath comes easier and I cannot erase the smile that is plastered onto my face. I’m home… for now.
Sitting with a Greek family in their home on their most sacred and revered holiday of the year is a pleasure few foreigners are able to partake in- so Brandy the vegetarian became Brandy the willing carnivore.
So, at exactly 11:11, I climbed down the ladder without incident. Okay, minor incident. My shirt might have gotten caught on the top rung and I went down about 3 rungs before I realized I was losing my shirt- but after that- I was in the clear!
Then he comes back to the room 4 minutes later and says “IT’S THE ONE OF APRIL!!!!” Ahhh. April Fools- you don’t have a balcony… ha… ha… ha…. I’m not sure if I like this guy…
This is a large part of why I love travel so much. You are transported back to the feelings of a child. Everything is new and exciting and unfamiliar- you don’t always understand everything that’s going on, and you can find amazement in something as simple as throwing rocks into the ocean, or counting the petals of a flower.
I reached up for vines growing from the rock and used these to pull myself up as I got a footing in a convenient little hole in the rock. This hole was REALLY useful, until the snake popped his head out of it, right before I put my foot in his face.
I am learning so many new things, not just about Greece and what is around me but about food, living, the earth, and how to be mindful of consumption & waste. This morning I picked a head of broccoli from the garden and prepared it for a soup- the only things I threw away were the leaves on the side. This blows my mind! Granted, I have always looked down on things like bagged salad and premarinated meats- but this is a whole different level of cooking, and living.
Usha lives an Eco lifestyle. We are living with solar panels instead of electricity, the water we drink we collect from a spring, the food we eat comes from the garden- it takes time to live this sort of lifestyle and this is how I will be spending my days.