Birthday

Summer birthdays were a real bummer when I was a kid, so I am determined that they won't be now.  And as I rack them up, it seems even more important to spend them wisely.

Mine really began on the day we went up Mt. Immetos to greet the dawn. Phil has done this the other two years with the students, but I always skipped it in part because Ellie would need to come and be carried if I went, and partly because my old knee injury was always enough of a problem that I didn't want to do "extra" walking.  But over the last two years, with good physical therapy and a lot of working out (I don't like feeling like a gerbil on machines, so I resist working out, but seeing it as a way to overcome the limitations of aging has given me motivation to persevere.), I am in excellent shape, and I decided to go with them.  I made it to the top without a problem.  There is NOTHING like doing something I thought I couldn't do a few years ago.  Older, maybe, but stronger, HAH!

That is the knee brace peeking out, but I didn't need it afterwards.

On my actual birthday, we went up the Acropolis.  The weather here began very hot, but has unexpectedly cooled down, so we took advantage and went to the hottest spot on my birthday.

My picture on the Aeropagus last year was triumphant, but this year the accomplishment felt like normal.

We took the students to Scholarcheio, or Ouzeri Kouklis, or the Flaming Weenie (the name depends on what era and what company you know the place from) after the Acropolis for lunch.  I realized we've been going there since 1990, when I was taken there by Greek friends, and then it was a favorite place of the American School for Classical Studies when we were here in 1994-5, and now it has become our traditional post-Acropolyptic tradition with our students.  But this time I noticed the family photos on the back wall and that it has been open "since 1934." Our servers (who remember us year to year!) are grey-haired, but not old enough to have been at the original place... grandsons?  Greece is many things, but for me today she is about aging well.  Layers added to layers, and webs of relationships as I see my friends from Oxford, 24 years ago, along with friends I've made in the last three, along with a new group of students each year who are often connected in unexpected ways to the previous students.  We post in three Facebook groups updating those who went before and enculturating the new ones into some of the jokes and traditions started the first two years.

One of my favorite new traditions has to be the potluck dinner.  We started it the first year, wanting to help the first group figure out how to shop and cook, and encourage them to teach each other.  We do it every Monday, the day of the laiki agora (neighborhood produce market) every year.  Each room makes a dish and Phil makes something substantial as a center.  The first year we ate in the couches at the front of the common area, but people kept walking through.  The next year we began to picnic outdoors in the back, which was lovely and often evolved into frisbee or little soccer games.  This year we realized that the tables in the back of the common area expand, and we've made one long table where everyone sits and another to hold all the food.  Every year it gets more intimate and family-like while maintaining the same tradition from the first year.  This year's group seems to mostly eat together even on non-potluck nights.  I love also watching the variety of dishes that come out of the experiments with American (or traditional family) recipes and Greek ingredients, the experimentation with the delicious fruits and vegetables, and the input of the various students into one dish.  Even the food has layers and webs.  This week the students added a surprise element and turned it into a birthday celebration complete with balloons (and the inevitable balloon battle), candles (I am officially 22?), a lovely sweet card and singing (twice!).  It was a wonderful surprise. Eurydice and her boys came as well and got to meet the students.  Eurydice worked her usual magic with people and already knows about half of their names and is appearing in their blogs.

Thanks to Victoria for the photos.

I'm the one hiding behind the birthday glasses.