first day in argos

so monday morning we woke up and my aunt matula (the wife of my uncle heracles) had a big breakfast ready for us at the table. this would be something that we became used to; it has been like this every morning. my aunt hresula, the eldest of my father’s siblings, came up while we were eating to welcome us. it got emotional because she started to cry when she first saw me and hugged me.

my aunt hresula is going through a lot right now because her daughter is dying of cancer. if my father understands correctly, she has barely a month to live. this is my cousin, thanassia, whom i did not meet last time i was in greece. she lives now in zankithos, one of the ionian islands, and probably did last time i was out here too (which is probably why i didnt meet her). of course, it is going to be difficult for anyone to bury her own child, something that nobody wants to do. i did not know how to react to this, so i stayed quiet and somber (i do not have a good enough command of the greek language to express myself in this sort of situation). there was another woman at the table with us, who came earlier, who must have been a friend of my aunt matula’s. everyone has their own way of dealing with such grief, and i suppose that the manner here is to keep living. i havent heard much talk about it since i have gotten here (my cousin dina finally asked if i had heard about it on wednesday). i think that the family is just trying to keep the spirits up by redirecting their focus.

my cousin dina’s daughter, heraklea, was also there. i had remembered her from the last time that i was here, although she was only two years old then, and now she is fifteen. we said good morning, but little else. she might have been too shy to talk with us, and i was too shy and not confident enough about my abilities with the greek language to begin a dialogue with anyone. i couldnt even tell her that i remembered her from when she was two. so we did not say much to each other (this would change as the week progressed, as she has a very good command of the english language; plus, she’s cool).

after breakfast, i wasnt sure what was going to happen, or what we were going to do today. it so happened that my cousin paris, hresula’s son, was here, and he offered to take us to the beach (we have gone to one beach or anotherr everyday since being here). when i saw him sitting in front of his mother’s house with a big smile on his face, a good feeling came over me. i had remembered him being very cool from the last time i was here. indeed, he is still a very good person, and seemed very excited to see me and paola. (this has been the recurring theme so far: everybody, despite not knowing me hardly at all, has been very excited to see me, and has been very nice, hospitable, and good to be with.) so paris has a camper, and, as i found out on the third day here, has rented space at camp sites during the summer for years, and at this time, he had a space in drepano, which is close to nauflion, which is where we went. it was very nice there, without too many people, though there were enough. i met his wife, eleni, and his two children, stella (2) and elpitha (6), all whom which i did not know the last time he was here (that is, he got married and had kids since i was here last). we had a good time swimming, and the beach was beautiful. i supposed that this is the part of our trip where we are going to do a lot of relaxing, and vegging out, just going to the beach and such. (as it has passed so far, this suppostion was exactly correct.) although i had my camera with me, i didnt take any pictures, which might be a shame, but it wasnt the most important thing on my mind. mainly, it was just hanging out with family.

afterwards, we stayed at the beach until night and ate a big dinner. he had some friends and family come out to the camp site. his mother (my aunt), hresula came with one of paris’ sisters (and my cousin), estero, and her husband, christos. it is interesting because last time i was here, i didnt meet either of them, despite the fact that they live just up the hill, and i spent most of my time then with their son, nassos, who now lives in mykonos as a very successful hairdresser (which is why i probably wont see him on this trip). so i met them now. paris asked if we wanted to stay the night there at drepano with him, but we declined, not knowing how much time we would have to spend with everyone else, as our plans here in greece were not finalized, and we didnt want to short change anyone, especially since i had not yet seen my cousins dina and loula, daughters of herales and matula. so we went home with hresula, who lives in an adjacent house to herales, where we are staying. we finally got home and went to sleep at about midnight.