I have to explain something about me and birthdays. The first thing I want to say is that I love the idea of birthdays, of having one day a year where it’s your day, where friends and family and retail businesses acknowledge: “Hey, we’re glad you’re alive and with us. Here’s a discount code.” And obviously, it’s … Continue reading My Birthday on Thassos
There was a book that I brought with me on the Global Scavenger Hunt (I brought more than one book, actually) because I foolishly thought that somewhere along the journey I would have had time to read. I did not have time to read. But as soon as I returned to Providence, I retrieved this … Continue reading The Siren Song
For me, and–dare I say–for many others, 2016 was a year of change. I once saw something that appealed to the word nerd in me. It said, “You must go through challenge to find change.” Maybe some of us have already made it through the middle (or the “lle”) of our challenge, or maybe it’s … Continue reading Top 16 of 2016
On Tuesday, my writing workshop left Thasos. They boarded the bus to Limenas, where they would catch the ferry to Keramoti, and then continue north to Thessaloniki. They left amid hugs and tears, smiles and sadness. And I couldn’t stop thinking: wasn’t it only yesterday I wrote about their arrival? Have four weeks really gone … Continue reading Effects of Thasos
Today my writing workshop will arrive to Thassos: seventeen participants and ten teachers/advisors. We will fill Archodissa with bustling activity, old friends reuniting and new friends meeting for the first time. The quiet mornings I have right now, where I sit alone on the patio typing while Dimitri sets up tables and Kyria Eva prepares … Continue reading My German Parea
Nikos the shepherd ushers me over, and I kneel beside him in the crowded sheep den, the roof so low that even I — a solid 5’2” — have to hunch over to keep from hitting my head on the ceiling. He pulls the wandering sheep by its udders, positioning her over the white plastic … Continue reading Milking Sheep*
(Or less melodramatically known as, “The Day I Swam Alone Around the Peninsula”) There were three beaches in Alyki that we frequented, when we weren’t studiously working on our writing (ahem), called Beach 1, 2, and 3. Our workshop leader introduced us to the beaches in this way, but it took me nearly three weeks to … Continue reading The Day I Almost Died Swimming
“For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.” Luke 22:27 It’s alive Sea urchins have just been split open like sacrifices, their insides pulled out and passed around the table. Our … Continue reading A Day in Thassos
I finally understand poetry. Not literally, in the way that if someone were to hand me a poem, I’d be able to explain what it means. I’m probably the worst at that of anyone who’s ever graduated from a writing program. But I finally understand why poetry exists, and it is like this: Narrative cannot … Continue reading So, Greece Happened
Tomorrow will mark one week since I departed the United States for Greece. I am on the island of Thasos attending a travel and food writing workshop in what could only be considered a love affair between Henry David Thoreau and island life. I had envisioned isolation, relaxation, dedication and focus. And maybe a Greek man offering me a … Continue reading Arriving to Greece
They Call Me Fushilou 