Back in Business

This morning, I held my breath and—turned on my computer.  Amazingly, it actually started up on and appears to be running properly!  I think perhaps that it is a miracle and we should all join the religion of “Greatest art thou Macs”.  I have been suffering from writer’s apathy the last four days and steering clear from all computers.  Consequently, I am now hopelessly behind my ideas.  Please excuse the outdated posts. 

As many of you know, five days ago, on October first I turned eighteen.  This is an important age in our culture, and perhaps in cultures around the world (though here in Greece your namesake’s Saint’s Day is more important than your birthday).  Now that I am an “adult” I can vote (hopefully usefully), theoretically drive, and should, like my peers, be “furthering my education at University”. 

Recognize Me?

Now that I am eighteen, I feel like I should be more …  something.  Perhaps more independent or adventurous, or have better informed opinions about world politics.  In truth, the gap year is supposed to help me be “more” something, of what I don’t yet know.  Birthdays are a funny construct.  We don’t have magical personality transformations the morning of our birthday.  We don’t wake up and feel more mature than we did the day before.  Instead, birthdays are our way of measuring, or “benchmarking” the change in a person over a year.  They give us an exact time from which to measure change.  Exactly one year ago I was listening to some of my favorite Jazz musicians in Vancouver.  Two years ago I was with my friends.  Three years ago I was in Chaco Canyon on our last trip and nervous about playing violin in public.  Some things do change!

I have had many unique birthdays, but this one was one of the most interesting.  We had arranged our previous week around my one birthday requirement: that we be in one place for the day and not be travelling.  Therefore, the night of the September 30^th we pulled into Kardamili, our base for the next three days.  Kardamili is right on the water at the base of some of the tallest mountains on the Peloponnese.  The town was one of the seven cities Agamemnon offered to Achilles, partly because of its proximity to both the mountains and the ocean.  Mostly however, Kardamili was, and is, known for its sweet beauty. 

Birthday Flowers

The morning of my birthday (actually mid-day, but don’t tell anyone that), we went for a hike in the gorge that backs onto the town.  It was a fairly easy hike, but one that gave us dazzling views of the ocean and mountains.  The ocean receded back to the horizon, where it was met with the region of Kalamata.  From so far away, the landmass looked blue and one dimensional, almost like a bizarre variation of the atmosphere. 

Then, once we were nice and sweaty, we went for a swim.  In Greece, the water temperature is steady at about 23°c, warmer than the warmest water in Vancouver.  Also, there is no layer of warmer water near the surface like in Vancouver; the water is the same temperature at every depth – at least as deep as I can feel.  There aren’t many fish, but there are some multicolored colored ones that resemble the Cleaning Wrasses of French Polynesia. 

We ate dinner at a place that advertised it’s “poor quality” food.  On a lark, my dad and I also brought our violins to dinner.  In the words of the owner, Gregoris, our food was very, very, “bad”.  He likes to joke.  There were delightful new variations on dishes we had been eating for the last two weeks.  The food was fresh, had interesting flavours, and most of it was local ingredients.  After dinner, we played a concert for the rest of the guests.  It was a perfect way to spend my birthday—eating fine food and playing blues.  And then I was toasted with champagne and I tried to sink through the floor.