Greeecece

[anuran]

It's dead good here in Greece, I'm working for ARCUTROS who are well disorganised but in a "heh! It's Greece!" kind of way. I'm living on the edge of a small town (about 2,000 people) called Aetos, with Miguel (Spanish Lad) Ledon (Spanish lass) and Cindy (Froggy lass). Every other day two of us work up at the Bear Sanctuary, which is on the edge of a refurbished traditional village called Nymfeo - there are 15 bears, in 7 hectares of beech woodland. We feed them in the morning, then work in the gift shop and the past two times I've been up I've started giving guided tours for non-greek speakers. It's well ace - usually we are up there all day with either Dmitri (big, brusque man who seems really stern but is actually dead canny) or Giorgias (20 something, forever wanting to talk about politics and linguistics and stuff)

On the other day, two of us get Greek lessons with Maria. She's a really good teacher, I can speak a fair bit of Greek now and I can add Greek to my ace knowledge of Cyrillic and Roman Alphabets.

We live on the top floor of an old farmhouse, underneath us is a vet lab and animal pens, and around the sides and back of the hosue are large fenced areas for the breeding stock of Greek Sheepdogs, but at the minute one of them holds two 6 month old bear cubs that were confiscated from a Greek Shepherd who wanted to keep them as pets. They're incredibly cute, standing about 2 foot high on their back legs. They're called Manolees and Kirkakus.

We've been out drinking a few times in Aetos, including a memorable night at the local night club Club No Name, which was very gay. I get confused as all the music is terrible Europop and the men not only outnumber women 10 to 1, but they all wear tight jeans and white t-shirts. It's so gay!

Last night we went for a few beers with Stefanos, the local shepherd, at an empty cafe. The barman was a wizened old man who DJed traditional Greek music while a blonde lass showed us how to dance - it was wicked! All the feral greek children kept running to the door and stared at us each time we went to dance.

Also yesterday me, Ledon and Cindy took the bus to Amyndeo, a large town about 30km away, to shop in the local market and drink at a street cafe. It was so nice to be in a big town after all this time stuck in Aetos! So us EVS volunteers are all getting on great, although Cindy and Miguel sometimes have great shouty matches in French (Miguel speaks English, French, German, Nederlands and Italian and now Greek) but it's never anything serioues, just that southern europe temperement!

(Oh, and I can outdrink the lot of them)

At the mo the weather is roasting, about 30C, but the past week it's pissed it down with plenty thunderstorms. On cold evenings we get a roaring fire going in the hearth and cook potatos for dinner. Mostly Cindy and Miguel cook, but they say I have to cook a traditional british meal soon. Now, English Breakfast is easy, but how about a nice curry? ahhh..

So it's all really good here, although I do really miss all my friends and wish yous were here with me, sipping the local beer, Vergina, on the balcony.

lots of love, Sarah xxx