Keeping Up with Elise: March 2012

Friday, March 30, 2012

The Great Flood

Went on a field trip earlier tonight for my photo class to apply some recently learned tricks with long exposure and night shots. Thought I'd share a few:

Loved capturing the ferry coming in

Outlining our teacher with a flashlight

View from on top of a monastary

Also, this post wouldn't be complete without sharing some funny photos from Carleigh's flood incident earlier this week. A sink pipe broke, causing about an inch of water to build up in her room (it was flowing out from under her door when she found it!) Luckily nothing was damaged, and we had the help of Jimmy (the man who owns the apartment complex. He used some choice words about the pipe breaking because of the Chinese), his wife, and a father and son duo from Australia also staying in the complex (I contemplated naming this post The Rescuers Down Under).

We were laughing hysterically the whole time, just making the best of the scenario of course.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Reflection

Had a wonderful talk with Carleigh tonight, I cherish our talks greatly, especially since I don’t have my mom or best friends here currently to debrief.

We were discussing this whole idea of “growth”. Of this concept we’ve heard so much about before coming here. About our big expectations of what growth entails when taking a trip, when in actuality it is a culmination of subtle events (both positive or even challenges, like the determination to make a plane flight) that slowly add up to a larger realization of what growth has happened.

I realize I am still the same person despite traveling across the world (of course I am, it’s only been a month). But in so many little things already I am becoming independent, learning little things about myself and my relationships with others, and my relationship with God.

Tonight’s devotional had to do with personal character, and God calling us to constantly push ourselves up another level. Oswald Chambers writes that Satan does the same thing using temptation, but the result of moving up that ladder is a “ spiritual acrobatic performance…you cling to it, trying to maintain your balance, daring not to move. But God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move around with ease.” My life has proven many times the acrobatic mess I result in when I try to cling to things and do everything on my own...often in search of making my life one where I can 'move around with ease'. Fear is so paralyzing, and there’s so many things to be filled with fear in this process of studying abroad. But the amount of freedom that is found in trusting His bigger picture and being content in these subtle steps of growth is liberating.

“We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint.” Definitely relatable after all these hikes and beautiful views of Greece. I’d like to think that each step that I take is leading up to a beautiful view that I can’t quite see yet.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Monday, March 26, 2012

Naxos, They Got Nothin' On You Baby

We got home from Naxos last night, all pretty exhausted (it was my intention to do this post last night...which obviously didn't end up happening) and ready to be home and rest.

But journeying and exploring Naxos was worth all the exhaustion.

When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, our group did some exploring in the capital (Chora, pronounced Hora). We weaved through the streets (just as confusing as Paros) coming to a few dead ends but not letting that hinder our picture taking, until we arrived at a little museum (which looked like a regular house on the street). We spent some time there, looking at all the different marble pieces displayed in the rooms and a mosaic floor on the balcony outside, and then took stairs below to a more formal museum setting made up of rooms with glass cases of figurines and pottery and more marble sculptures.

At that point we were all pretty famished and stopped in town to get sandwiches and gelato (I could hardly contain myself. I ordered the cherry & yogurt flavor!) and walked around to check out some of the shops before meeting back up with Cameron for a walk to the temple (and by temple, I mean front door) of Apollo. I loved looking through the temple and seeing the city buildings peeking through in the background, and seeing the salt water crash on the cliffs reminded me of being back at Loma.

After a short walk back through town we arrived at our little hotel and got settled in our rooms/ did some reading (trying to equally balance all my school reading with Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy).

That night was possibly my favorite meal this whole trip: we found a Mexican restaurant!! I split a Chimichanga burrito with Carleigh, drank my Fanta Lemon, and enjoyed the atmosphere of lit candles and smooth techno music in the background. We were the only people in the restaurant, but it still took an hour or so to get our food (the owner probably had to run and get groceries). I however was not complaining because the food was delicious and the atmosphere and company made the waiting completely worth it.

When we got back to our hotel, a group of us snuggled up with some blankets in mine and Carleigh's hotel room and watched Hercules before falling asleep.

Sunday (Greece's Independence Day) held a full day of bus rides to the town of Apiranthos (even at one time driving through their Independence Day parade. The bus was surrounded by kids in traditional costumes walking and singing through the streets, with spectators waving to our tourist group practically crashing their parade), hiking to an old Byzantine church and eating lunch there while viewing dramatic mountains in front of us and hearing bells from a wandering train of goats, driving past the Marble Quarry and along windy mountain roads that seemed too small for our large bus, stopping to see two Kouros (ancient marble statued men about 5 meters in size, lying on their side in someone's backyard) and heading back to the capitol to eat a hilariously DISASTROUS meal (have to have one of those when traveling!) before boarding the ferry back to Paros.

One of my favorite parts of Sunday actually occurred in the morning at our first stop, a temple dedicated to Demeter, goddess of the harvest. The air was starting to warm up but had a lingering crispness to it. Rosemary, Oak Olive and Cypress trees, and yellow Daisies in lush grass grew next to beautiful golden stone walls, and all I heard was the hum of bees and silence.

It was so beautiful and peaceful, rural imagery that I had imagined from perhaps Tuscany or Ireland but not Greece. The place embodied Psalm 23 and it's a scene I will probably never forget, stored in my memory with my other handful of "happy places" and times I have experienced so far in my 20 years of life.