Elisa has had a busy week. (I haven’t done anything at all). Elisa just had her first Sunday as the primary chorister in the ward–speaking German. She’s doing really good because all the other leaders are glad to have her in there. Her second German class just started. It makes me tired just thinking about all the studying she does.
Our new place feels like home. It doesn’t smell raunchy like it did just before we left on our honeymoon. I guess it was cleaning up the meat-soaked wood under the sink that did the trick. That’s so gross. It’s 80 degrees here and we’re eating on our patio. The fields next to our house are blossoming with some yellow flowers. Anyone that thinks that sounds good is welcome to visit. We just walked downtown and saw a 40-foot tall pyre with a snowman on top. It’s going to be burned tonight for the Sechseläuten festival, to welcome Spring. Everyone is walking around with big beautiful bunches of flowers.
Switzerland is Home Sweet Home. The things I am glad to get back to are: fresh changes of clothing, drinking water from the tap, not having humid dampness creep into all my clothing and paying with a debit card.
Over the weekend we learned about how the shipwreck was more serious than we realized. On Thursday night we arrived safe and sound in our hotel, and we thought everyone else did too. We actually knew we were the luckiest ones out of the bunch. We were one of the only couples that had hotel arrangements on Santorini, and we were probably the only travelers that had our luggage already. We just didn’t realize how lucky we were. The next day we found out that the ship had completely sunk. Even today it is still sitting in over 300 feet of water. Just hearing that was enough to make me sick. I didn’t realize that we were in a sinking ship! I thought it was just a temporary problem that would be fixed. I was also surprised to learn that the Sea Diamond wasn’t fixed and ready to go the next morning! But then the next day the news got even worse: two of the passengers are still unaccounted for. I had already been stressing about all the repercussions and consequences of the ship sinking and people losing all their belongings. I didn’t even take into account that people were losing something much more important than that, and in such an incredibly terrifying way. It’s been really hard not to think about it.
In Greece the midnight mass on the day of Easter is a big deal. Elisa and I weren’t going to be able to understand any of the words, but we wanted to see it anyway. You didn’t need any words. After a little singing, they turned out all the lights. There was a moment of anticipation and I think not understanding what they were saying probably made it more enjoyable for us. 🙂 Personally, it was just enough time to imagine the anticipation that I’m sure we all felt before Christ resurrected. “It is finished.” The priest came out with a lit candle. Everyone was holding candles and they passed the light around the room and then threw on all the lights. Then the real celebrating began outside. The kids outside had the loudest fireworks I have ever heard! My eardrums still hurt and I thought I might be leaving Greece without hearing. We felt like we were in the middle of a war zone, and it was scary. The church bells also started pealing. It really was jubilant.
Dinner started after the midnight mass finished. Our hotel did a traditional Easter meal. We only recognized half the things we were eating. We were tired but we wanted to participate. The room was decorated so pretty. There were candles lit everywhere and all the tables had a plate full of pastries and the famous red-dyed eggs. The custom is for two people to rap their eggs against each other to see which one breaks. We were told it represents something to do with our hearts being broken. Elisa’s egg cracked a bunch of times against my egg, which I think is symbolic of how sensitive her heart is. My egg wouldn’t crack until I hit it into the table a few times. 🙂
