Monday, Monday....

Because Saturday is a working day, Monday is a "day off". This is the day you are supposed to get everything done so that the rest of your week you can focus on what you are really supposed to be doing.

Today did not get off to a very ambitious start. We got in from seeing the new Indiana Jones movie at 11:30 pm the night before, so we slept in a bit (so much for having time to mop all the floors this week). I put clothes in the washer which even if you wash with cold water takes 1-1/2 hours to wash. [If you want hot water it takes 3 hours because the machine heats the water. The good news is that I think european washers get your clothes cleaner than american washing machines.] With 1-1/2 hours to stick close to the house, I washed my hair, ate breakfast, washed dishes (by hand), watered my flower boxes and baked banana bread from the bananas that were probably on their last day of life. I checked my e-mail and about then the washer finished. I hung my laundry on a drying rack on the balcony in the warm 85 degree spring sunshine, blessing God that my laundry would be dry today and not day after tomorrow like it is in the rainy season.

We haven't owned a car for almost a year now, and we haven't borrowed one for a month. It is time to do the "big" shopping that takes up too much space and weight to carry on the bus, so we borrowed our neighbor's car. We walked around the block to Sam and Fran's house bringing our plastic bags from the last month with us to pick up the car. The refugee that lives with them weaves the bags into placemats and doormats. We also have with us our permanent nylon grocery bags which are much easier to pack than the plastic stuff they give you and in Greece you always pack your own groceries and in some stores, you buy your own bags.

We stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a perscription. We arrive at the grocery store and put our 1 euro coin into the gizmo on the basket to release it (sort of a deposit to make people return the baskets). Today our store is Carrfoure. It is a big chain French grocery store, similar to anything you might see in America except for the part where you have to have your produce weighed and labeled with a price sticker by someone in the produce section before you check out and in the fact that you can't ever really buy everything you want in one store if you are american and cook american. While I shop, Kenn hikes up the hill to the electronic store to buy a cord to connect our DVD player to the TV a teammate has loaned us while they are on furlough. TV is another luxury we haven't owned for almost a year. This is kind of our experiment with Greek TV to see if we really want to buy one and be more connected particularly to the local news.

On the way home, we stop at the plant store and look at pots for the rose bush our recent guests bought me, but I didn't find one I liked. Too bad, it will be heavy to carry the pot and potting soil on the bus from another store another day. Kenn drops me down the hill at the bakery to buy bread while he drives the groceries home. Grocery stores don't sell the good bread and what they sell is expensive. By the time I get home at 2 pm with warm bread, he has put the groceries away.

Grocery stores also don't sell lunch meat and it has been a month since I have been to the German specialty store (Lydl) that does. After lunch I take the bus to Lydl (because we returned the car). This is a 30 minute bus ride each way, but we now own lunch meat enough for a month if I freeze some, good cheese (parmesean and gouda) and the good jelly and a new toothbrush that was on special. By now it is 5:30 and Kenn has taken the train into the city to meet teammates who need a photo taken of their family and I have time to "blog".

Everything takes a long time here. Life just moves at a slower pace and eventually you learn to be OK with getting something done even if it isn't everything. All of this shopping and I still didn't buy fruits or vegetables--that is a Tuesday errand. That stuff you buy at the open market in our neighborhood called the "liaiki". I also forgot to buy milk.....somethings never change....