Knives in the Water

Today was a fun day! We started off by going to a nearby small church because it was Tony’s uncle’s Name Day. A Name Day is more important than a birthday here. Everyday is named after a saint and all or most Greek names are represented on one day a year. Some churches even have Name Days! It’s nice because you never need to remember a person’s birthday; you just know, for example, that Antonios will have his Name Day on Jan 17 because that is the Name Day for all Antonios and Antonia (fem). Mine is in November sometime and my Greek name is pronounced something like Mihella.

After going to church we headed to the Honda dealership and officially signed for my brand new bike!! I’m excited!! I don’t get to take it home for a few more days though; they have to hook the wires up and wait for the license plate to come in. I’m going to wait till I get it home to post picks (probably on Sat). I love it and it’s something I never thought I’d buy! You may be wondering why I bought a brand new bike instead of a used scooter like I first planned. Well, I had an opportunity to buy a brand new one for a good deal (it’s also safer) and I got to pick whatever I wanted, so it didn’t take much convincing. Also bikes are way more fun than scooters, they are better on the bumpy roads, and they have more power!

Later today Tones, me, and fam went to a secluded beach called Houhlakas. It’s a great area to get certain sea creatures to eat but it’s usually too wavy and dangerous to go in! Today wasn’t too wavy though but we still had to be careful. Tones and I brought a bunch of gear with us: wetsuits, goggles, mask, flippers, knives, and a mesh bag to carry what we caught. We headed out into the waves near the rocks. Our main goal was patelides or what’s known as “Chinese hats”. We had to dive down and scrape them off with knives! The water was about 6ft – 15ft deep and there were big rolling waves that made it hard to stay still in one spot to scrape the suckers off. I scraped my knuckles up but it was fun, I think I’ll take diving lesson one day. We also got a few snails and sea urchins. We’ll give some to yia yia (Tony’s grandma) and keep the rest to cook up. Mmmmm!



M