Cruising for home

Time seems to be winding down so quickly.  It’s that time when I have started to realize there are only so many days to do things one more time.  I’m finishing off the food in my cupboard.  The second bed is getting piled with stuff to fit into the suitcase.  We only have this week of classes left.  Wow.  Keeping all that in mind, I decided I wanted to spend time on the Aegean.  After all, that is something I can’t do in Asheville.  So with a sunny forecast I bought a round trip ferry ticket to Santorini yesterday.  3 hours of sitting in sun watching the islands go by and then sailing into the Caldera one last time.  How bad can that be?  It was perfect.  Coming home the sun was somewhat obstructed by clouds, but still produced a lovely  sunset viewed from the warmth of the lounge chair.  Great Sunday!

The only downside was arriving back in Paros to see wet pavement.  The laundry was re-rinsed and now is scattered throughout the house drying, again.  Some wonderful person brought in my painting I had left outside to dry.  So even rain couldn’t dampen the glory of my day.  In fact, I went to sleep last night listening to a totally unforecast thunderstorm.

Other exciting things that happened this week included our own Parian Thanksgiving complete with turkey and 21 sides from the 21 students.  We ate to candlelight and pushed back all the tables to finish the evening with Greek dancing.  It was delightful but kind of surreal not having family and close friends surrounding me physically.  Luckily, I still have them in my heart so I guess that’s the best of both worlds.

My drawing class on Wednesday was fun.  We were presented with plates of squid, ink sacs, and brushes.  There was a pretty instant yuck factor.  However, the ink was wonderful to play with and with that in process it wasn’t too far to get to drawing those creatures.  We are down to our final paintings which have to be finished this week or they won’t be dry enough to bring home.  I have to finish the still life of lentil soup ingredients so I can make the soup – it’s getting colder and that sounds good, plus I have to empty the cupboard!

Annaliese just put up an Advent calendar with gifts for all of us – the Norwegian tradition.  We have an artists exchange on for the last Friday night here.  So we are finally getting into the holiday spirit.   Today I will start playing my Christmas music on the Ipod while playing in the studio.  Hopefully, that will get the creative juices running freely and quickly.  Deadlines are always an incentive to accomplishment.