Soroni

Hello all! I’ve left Rhodes Town and have been staying in the little village of Soroni for the past two days. It is very different from the touristy Rhodes Town. Soroni seems to exist almost out of time; I feel like I’ve been here forever. The pace of life is very slow but not unpleasant for a week.

We had a pretty slow day on Sunday. We had to check out of the hotel by 1200 and just walked around until Maria came to get us around 530. Nick and I had a card and framed picture for Despina but no one was home and everything was locked up. We left it in her flowered plants by the door, obvious enough to anyone who would water it but not necessarily apparent to anyone walking by. It wasn’t ideal but the gift is also worthless without sentimental value, so hopefully she receives it. It’s weird to think about, but I will probably never know whether she gets it or not.

We got to Soroni and moved into the apartments. They are even worse than the place I lived for 5 days in Thess, but for a week I’ll be fine. Only one room has air conditioning, and it’s not mine. Mine gets the best internet connection though, and I have a big fan I keep pointed at my face at all times. It’s still hot, though—never in my life have I dealt with such a constant, sticky, sweaty heat. There is no escape. I’ve just resigned myself to being a sweaty gross mess for the next couple days. Even my room is disorganized and messy, and I’m always neat!

The curtain in the bathroom is a good foot and a half off the floor, but at least I have one. I also found a massive cockroach in my bathroom the first night, that was a pleasant surprise. Everything is also just kind of stale and dusty, and the burner in my kitchen is the only one that works in the whole building. But even then, it’s livable, and I don’t really mind as it matches my gross sweaty self.

Every night we get a free meal at the restaurant across the street, a relative of Maria. Maria said that half the town’s 2000 inhabitants are her relatives, and the other half are her husband’s Ilias’ relatives, so all the bases are covered. Everywhere we go everyone stares at us because we’re the only new thing in this town, and they all know who we are and why we’re here. There are a lot of closed down, abandoned stores, shops, and restaurants; it looks like anything living here was killed off by the crisis. On the main street, however, there are three cafes always filled with the old men having their Greek coffees and gossip for the day.

It’s really beautiful to walk around, though. Seeing grassy lawns is really rare, but there is lots of greenery. There are so many beautiful flowering plants that smell delicious and provide lots of color, and all kinds of vegetation as well, like limes, lemons, oranges, wheat, grapes, olives, dill and other spices, etc. Everything is very spacious and quaint, and makes for a picturesque walk. The beach is not far, about 10 minutes straight down the street.

We have class two minutes up the road. It’s continuing on much as before, still interesting and fun.

We decided to do as much cooking as we can with a fridge, one burner, and no oven. We already made candied almonds and devoured them. We also tried to make a veggie curry stir fry but it never got hot enough and turned into something more like stew—it was absolutely delicious anyway! Tomorrow for the Fourth of July Maria is bringing some kind of grill over and we’re grilling (albeit souvlaki) like real Americans, and we’ll have corn too! And I’m making tzatziki, although Maria wondered why I didn’t just buy it at the store…I guess even though it’s a Greek food, it’s not a Greek food you take the time to make from scratch!

Today after class and after the lunch we cooked, we went to the Valley of the Butterflies. It was really pretty; actually, it looked a lot like Connecticut, but with more streams and little waterfalls. There weren’t as many butterflies as there will be, when they will coat every single surface, but there were still a lot. One of the first big trees we saw seemed normal, until you noticed that half the leaves were actually butterflies. From then on out it was much easier to spot them. The whole valley made for a pretty hike, I’m glad I got to see it.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. It’s quiet, and slow here. And hot. Oh, so very, very, hot.