Safe and Sound

We are back home in Corfu, safe and sound.  We had an absolutely amazing time.  I cannot wait to post our pictures and share some stories!  For now, though, it is late and I am a little bit exhausted.  I actually can't believe we packed all that we did into the last 48 hours.  I really feel like I went away for a 2 week vacation (which is a good thing).

In the meantime, I thought I would share a few random pictures.



These are our pansies, which are doing reasonably well.

We have pansies because, when we were in Alabama, Christos became completely enamored of them.  When I was little, I called them "monkey faces."  He calls them the "little man."  In the States, he kept exclaiming with fascination that "they look like a little man with glasses and a mustache."  He said that he had never seen them before, but they were not hard to find back in Corfu.  If you could just hear the adorable way that he says mustache (moo-stash) you would find them and plant them too.  I am growing a garden of tiny mustachioed men.

This is one of the plethora of pansy pictures he took of a particular Alabama "man":

It does look an awful lot like a man with glasses and a moostache doesn't it??


Oh, and I thought I would share that I will never cease to play the role of awkward American girl.  The first Greek wedding I ever went to was in Corfu 7 years ago.  The reception was held around the pool at a large hotel.  I was very much American and very much the only foreigner at this wedding (as per usual...as weddings are not usually a place for randoms).  Anyway, as I went to sit down, my chair leg fell through one of the little drainage grates that you can find around a pool.  I ended up totally sprawled on the pool deck, with even more eyes on the "poor American girl" than there had been to start with.  And the commotion escalated when 20 helpful people jumped up to run over and peel me up off the patio.

Last year, at one of Christo's cousin's wedding I literally fell asleep at the table.  It was a really fun time, but, as I said, these things go all night long.  And I do not.

Last night, once again, I was easily the only non-Greek in attendance.  Well, Christos and I both had drinks and mine was empty and his was half full.  He set his glass down on a table and walked away to do something.  I was sitting alone on a bench several feet from the table where he had placed it.  I saw one of the ever-so-eager-and-efficient men-who-have-trays-for-your-empty-drinks aiming for the unmanned beverage.  Before he could reach the table, I hopped up off the bench, deposited my own finished drink on the tray, and then swooped in and grabbed Christo's drink.  He had not seen us together, and he obviously thought I was sitting alone, downing drinks, and scavenging for stranger's leftovers.  The look he gave me had two parts; it started with total shock and transformed quickly to absolute disgust.  Some things are just too hard to explain with a language barrier.  I just smiled and walked away.  These things wouldn't really be that embarrassing if I did not already feel like I stand out as an American.  Oh, and at the church I waved like a fool to a person that I thought I had met earlier in the day who, in fact, I had never seen before.  Later, he was seated at the same table we were and he seemed a bit wary, if not scared, of me all night. 

And here is one of the many random cats that roam around my house, my island, and adopted country:

Was that random enough for y'all?  Back soon with pictures and stories from the weekend away!  Hope all of you had a good weekend and a Happy Father's Day!!!!!!!!
Haley