Sundays are the Best Days

I'm not sure if there are words to describe how much I love Sundays. In Greece, the church bells still ring. The morning streets are quiet and slow, and as you near the church, you begin to hear the distant chanting. Jenna, Josh, and I attended St. Gerassimos this morning and the church was full with little standing room left. The church was bright, allowing much sunlight. The iconography was particularly beautiful with bold colors. The hymns and prayers being chanted seemed to bounce off the walls and fill the air. It was one of those liturgies where you can truly feel His presence and the sense of unification within the community. After liturgy we met new friends and went for cappuccinos and frappes, and got to know each other through broken Greek and English conversations. We stopped at a sweet shop on our walk home before we parted ways. It was a day of Christ, coffee, community, and successful studying.  There is no way to describe it other than perfect.

The Church of St. Theodora in Vasta

On little planning and even lesser sleep, Jenna and I began our 14-hour journey at 6 am. We walked to the metro in Syntagma, took the sub-rail to Eleonas, and walked another 10 minutes to the Kifissos bus hub. We bought a round trip ticket to Megalopolis and discussed life and books over the 3.5 hour bus ride each way. Being that tourist season is over, the small town of Megalopolis was slow and quiet. We took a taxi over the mountain to Vasta to see the quiet miraculous church of St. Theodora. 

The story of St. Theodora is of a young, pious girl who grew up in a poor Orthodox family in the ninth century. She so desired a life of virginity that she went to the only monastery in the area. The problem is that it was a men's monastery. She presented herself as a male and introduced herself to the abbot as Theodore. Theodora becomes an exceptional monastic, fully trustworthy, and takes on the labors of the male monastics with obedience. At a point when famine had taken over, the abbot asked her to go door to door of the Christian households and ask for bread. In one household there was a young girl that was secretly pregnant and accused Theodore of raping her in order to hide her shame. Many people from the village became infuriated and rushed to the monastery to take revenge on Theodore. Theodora takes her sentence with meekness, and like a lamb to the slaughter, she utters no word in her own defense. She is dragged to the village of Vasta and there is killed, likely by beheading. Before Theodora's martyrdom, she said this prayer: that her body becomes a temple, her hair trees, and her blood a stream of water. It is only then that the disguise is revealed, that she was a woman and not a man. The villagers mourn for their dreadful mistake and the abbot and monks of the monastery are left speechless. 

Today there stands a chapel, a small stream flowing around it, and trees growing from it's roof with no sign of roots. To this day the church cannot be scientifically explained. You can read more about the science of it here. 

Studies @ Stadium

The past month we have been getting to know our neighborhood in Παγκράτι and very quickly, found our favorite cafe and homework spot, Stadium. We have yet to find another cafe that gives you a cappuccino and a bottle of water for €1.50. We pass it every morning on our walk to school and have gotten to know the owners very well. When they're not teasing us, they help us practice our Greek and give us free treats or alcohol when we stay there to study. Today, we finally got a picture with one of our new friends! Yay!

Pictures from Santorini

Despite the island's reputation, Santorini was never a place I desired to visit. Its blue water, white sand beaches, and quaint white houses look beautiful on postcards, but my idea of traveling is not exactly the vacation type. If I am spending the time and money to fly across the world, the last thing I want to do is run around sightseeing, drink a cold beer, and lay out on the beach. 

Our weekend plans to Santorini happened overnight and I was grateful to travel with Markella. She has a heart of gold, and as you can tell from the photographs, a smile and laugh of pure joy. Together, in the "Disneyland" of Greece, we were able to practice our Greek and were flattered when locals asked if were indeed Greek or maybe Australian. We ate chocolate and nuts for breakfast every morning, paid a whole 3 Euros for Greek coffees, watched the sunset in Oia, had ice cream with the Yiayiades, swam in the hot springs and mud bath before hiking the famous volcano, and danced with our "toast". 

Although the weekend was truly a gift, we agreed that the only thing missing was our families. <3

Glory to God for all things.

(Above two photos, PC: Markella Patitsas)

4:12 PM

I can’t believe it is Sunday again! I haven’t journaled or blogged in exactly a week. I am on the bus back to Athens, but feel like I literally just left for my weekend in Florina. Where is the time going?

Needless to say, it has been the best week spent with my family. Meeting my cousin’s adorable kiddies for the first time was so worth every page of reading and homework that I neglected.

Also, what kind of a photographer leaves her extra battery and camera charger in the States when she is going abroad? What is wrong with me?

P.S. Aren't they muffins?

2:22 PM

Liturgy, kafeneio, pastry shop, and long conversations on the balcony with good parea. Happy Sunday!

2:16 AM

Aegina is a thirty-minute metro ride and a one-hour ferry ride from the Pangrati neighborhood in Athens. Today, yesterday actually, marked my second trip to the Saronic Island. Three lovely friends of mine, Erika, Markella, and Jenna, hopped a taxi with me for another ten-minute ride to the Monastery of St. Nektarios. A brief synopsis of his life can be read here. The weather was anything like my previous three trips to Greece. It was a day of gray skies with steady drizzling rain. Regardless, the monastery was as beautiful as I had remembered it. The property was surrounded by desert, mountainous terrain, with flowers and plants lining the white cement and brick buildings. Although the visit lasted all of two hours, there is something about being there that is so peaceful. I can’t pinpoint if it is the beauty in its simplistic environment, the chapels, tomb, or the quiet of the monastery itself. I can only hope that through photographs, blogging, and written journal entries, I can go back to that place and remember the indescribable way it felt.

PC: Erika Tobin

12:41 AM

I follow one of my favorite printing companies on Instagram, Artifact Uprising. I recently read a caption on one of their photographs that really resonated with me. It said:

“Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. Keep writing…your book has a birthday. You don’t know what it is yet.”

–Cheryl Strayed

And with this, my anxiety was instantly tamed. I live in a world of people telling me how to be successful, but none of it is true, for everyone else's idea of success is centered on pure materialism.

I happen to believe that, “If you’re breathing, you are living; and if you’re living, you are learning; so write and write, and keep on writing. Just make sure your life’s exciting.” (Thank you, Danielle Xanthos for introducing me to Happy Home).

Today was my first official day of the study abroad program in Athens, and boy I cannot wait to finish the finals three days of Orientation! In the meantime, I’ll be soaking up the view from my apartment’s balconies and praising the Lord for this opportunity to live, learn, write, and share!

Allow me to introduce myself:

Hello. My name is Alexis. My brothers call me “Alex” or simply use my middle name, “Winston” just to make me mad. I am a student, receptionist at a hair salon, and photographer, currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. I was raised all over the United States while my Dad was a Marine. My mom is my best friend. I drink hot tea as if it were water. Although I am an artist of all mediums, photography is my life-long love. From pinholes to darkroom printing, inkings and bromoil printing, I find no better way to make life out of my memories.

If I learned anything growing up, it is three main things: integrity, the importance of family, and that anything without Christ is nothing. Being a photographer is truly a blessing, because it is a place where all of my greatest loves meet: art as life’s mirror of time, ideas, and beauty; as well as the opportunity to work personally with people in whom I come to know Christ.

As I am about to enter my senior year of college and leaving for study abroad in two weeks, I find no better time than now to start blogging again. I’ve noticed more in the past two years, that when I am not writing, it is usually because my life does not feel stable. This is actually when I should be writing the most!

I love to write. It allows me to think in ways that I could never through conversation. So here it is, a new blog, simply because I can write better than I can speak…