Our first school meeting was yesterday morning, all the students lined up in chairs in a circle. I was late, of course, but Maria was too! We were late together, having gotten coffee and milopita for ourselves and John. It helps to be bringing the director breakfast, if you’re going to walk in late to the first meeting of the term.
It was indescribable, being back in the school room, the sense of purpose being at the beginning of things, knowing how much time there is between now and the summer. The entire day was made up of meetings, running from building to building, a trip to Zorba’s (where Seamus was invited to sit and have a souma with a local man and his lady, and the rest of us huffed off back to the school, alchohol free and grumpy). We got our studios assigned to us for painting, and I met with Liz in the darkroom (which has had some renovation in the last couple of months – beautifully done). I was finally done with meetings at 4pm, and joined Pook and Seamus in cutting canvas to stretch and moving my things to my new studio, not getting very far when I realized I was tipping over from fatigue. So I went home to take a “nap” and ended up missing both a meeting with John and a night at Rengas, waking for good at 2am. My schedule will get back on track eventually -I don’t remember jet lag lingering this long ever before (or ever on this side of the Atlantic) but since last night was the first consecutive multiple hours of sleep I’ve had in a week, I am not too worried.
Today, we hike. Going to Levkes, where there is the promise of blue sky and olive groves, baby lambs and goats bleating on the hillside, and maybe lunch at Flora’s, which means maybe revithia, which I have been craving. I can’t wait to see Levkes at the beginning of spring, when I know how Parikia is already so full of wildflowers – I can’t imagine how beautiful it is going to be.