argos, day 2

the whole family, except for dina, who went to sleep.


on tuesday, we woke up to a big breakfast again. it was decided that we would go to tolo, which is close by, with heraklea as our guide. i felt a bit bad for her, because perhaps she felt a bit uncomfortable in such a role. on the way there, we saw her school, which is called neo scholio (new school), for reasons that i am sure that i can figure out (being a teacher myself, and understanding the progress of education theories, none of which i care to share now). in any case, we walked a bit from where her grandfather (my uncle), herakles, dropped us off to a hotel called knossos. there we met friends of dina and loula, dimitri and caliope. both spoke english fluently, and dimitri actually lived in america for the first thirty years of his life, before he married caliope. caliope’s family ows the hotel, and a few others there on the beach. it was a little refreshing to talk with dimitri, someone with whom we could communicate effectively. he was a cool guy and told us about his business there. he also told us about santorini, and that perhaps he could get us some sort of connections there, seeing as how it is high season, and it is going to be difficult for us to work something out to get there, despite our desire.

in any case, the beach was very nice, and we worked on our tan. i think that right now i am more tanned than i have ever been in my life. i am plesantly surprised also by the fact that i am not too burned by the sun, as usually happens (although i am a bit burned about my shoulders).

later that night, i got to be reaquainted with my cousins dina and loula. that was very nice. we hung out for a bit at dina’s house (which is the second floor of herales’ home), and got reaquainted with each other. loula came later after work. they both work at the same place, which is loula’s own beautician shop: loula as the certified specialist, and dina as something else (the receptionist, i think). i also learned that i will probably miss out on meeting her other son (whose name i cannot remember but starts with the letter d, diamedes i think) because he is with his father in athens. i also got to meet loula’s first child, who is only six months old (officially, she doesnt have a name yet, because, unlike in america, the babies arent name right out of the womb, but rather, after they are baptised; she is to be baptised on august fifteenth, and her name will be marissa, but for now everyone just calls her bayba). she also commented on how last time i was here, it did not seem as though i was happy, but this time, i have a big smile on my face. this is pretty much true, since last time i was here for two months as a fourteen yearold, not used to the different culture, and without many things that i was accustomed to, as well as without many friends, or many kids my own age. in any case, this time is much better.

later that night, we had a large dinner, small feast at the patio of the home, which is rather large. hresula was there, and i also got to meet loula’s husband of almost two years, nikos. it was fun, and they were telling stories about the last time that i was here. my uncle also told them about how i always say ‘yes, yes:’ ‘do you want to eat? yes. do you not want to eat? yes.’ so everyone got a good laugh at my expense, but all was good. earlier in the day i got to see a lot of pictures that they had of the family (surprisingly, there were more pictures than i expected of me and my dad; more than i expected because i realized that i have never seen as many pictures of them), and so i shared with them the few pictures of my dad that i had on paola’s computer (from when he came to new york). they wanted to see more pictures of my brother and the rest of my family, but i didnt have any, being that i have paola’s computer with me, and not my own.