Hellenic Obsession

It’s getting closer – The Big Move and I can’t wait.  Time is dragging along and it’s starting to get to me.  I want the move to be over, I want to be settled into my new place and taking my kids for a walk in the warm weather to the Commons, to the parks, roll down Citadel Hill, play in the Public Gardens and watch the Buskers on the Waterfront at night.  I want to take Lily to the plays at Dalhousie and the babies to the kids shows.  The symphony!  I can take them to hear music played by classically trained musicians.

Oh the fantasies I have.

At the same time I’m wishing that it was time for the passport picture so I could send that silly paperwork away and check off the first box in the plans for the big Eurotrip.  I’m so overly excited with this vacation that Greece has taken over my life.  Alright, that’s not true but it is something I’ve been thinking a lot about.  Sometimes I think the series of strange Grecian coincidences have sealed my deal for this vacation.  At the same time we started discussing it, I start up a conversation with a lovely Greek man, Lily gets a school project on Greece, we end up watching movies that have characters based in Greece or are Greek themselves, discovered a local Greek festival, found references to the country or it’s language in our crossword puzzles and a whole slew more but I have neither the brain power to remember them all or the patience to write them all down.

The last couple of days I’ve been satisfying my Hellenic lust by starting the Rosetta Stone lessons in Greek.  I am now able to say The boy fell down or The man and woman are dancing.  You know, the kind of sentences that are really going to get me around Greece in October.  I suppose the ability to ask someone to dance isn’t a bad thing or recognizing when someone would be asking. Oh, I think I’m getting an impromptu lesson in European flirting.  I have learned that the inflection of the language is more important than the actual word and that pronunciation variations can change the word completely.  At the same time, I’m told that a big smile and feigned tourist ignorance will save me from insulting someone for an accidental lingual boo-boo.

I have been attempting to read, write and pronounce Greek for a good portion of the afternoon and my tongue is so twisted that I can barely speak.  Although, I have learned to roll my R’s quite well which I’m sure is a talent that will come in handy.  The more I learn, the more I want to be there and the more I know that I’m not letting anyone in my little Greece-obsessed circle get away with not coming.  I can get chloroform and a rag and I will drag you to the airport so that you wake up somewhere on Santorini Island with an olive in your mouth.  Did that sound psycho?  I thought I had the crazy successfully bottled but maybe not, tsk tsk.

On another note, I sat in Opa! on a couple of weeks ago with Maggpie and Miami, drinking a yummy Italian wine and enjoying our spanakopita.  With more wine, lamb kleftico, feta cheesecake, kataifi with vanilla custard, whipped cream and crushed pistachios and almonds we talked and laughed and enjoyed the night.  My belly is now begging me for more and I’ve lost my point dreaming about all things food.  OH … Maggpie and I were able to possibly talk Miami into coming to Greece with us in October.  It would be amazing to have Miami with us.  What could be better than two great friends in Europe??  THREE great friends in Europe!!