Stage Directions

Setting: Athens in autumn. Medium-sized shrubbery, including a cum plant, adorns the yard. Maids flitter about in search of their various tasks. From time to time a cat strolls by.

Cast of Characters:

The unwilling narrator, often referred to as Ieremias: Crowned with wild and wiry hair.

Set(h): Also known as Mavromati (Black-eye), following his participation in Night Bowl I, an American football game played sans lights on an empty(ish) dock in Pylos after a krasi(wine)-filled dinner. We all learned that night that crossing patterns are a bad idea when you can't see and are tipsy. Actually, Set(h) learned it...we'll probably still do it again. Among Set(h)'s other talents are gymnastics, baking, and sarcasm.

Jake and Nick: Sporty chaps that meet with my approval.

Tsoss/Josh: Distinguished by his refusal to wear shoes or shower after a rain-induced mud session, but in particular by his lack of a neck-bone when napping on the bus. Can also be marked by his over-the-top reaction of disgust when asked if he likes chewing tobacco.

Mulder: Offensive to many, due to his seemingly inherent stick-up-his-ass tone of voice and a particularly nasty habit of pretending he knows about 85% more than he actually does. For me, a wonderful source of amusement.

Boutros-Boutros Ghali/Dr. John Pollini: A god. Poses as a Bostonian teaching at USC. Deserves his own blog entry.

Sara and Helene: Good cop/bad cop in couple form. Their public conversations consist of Sara chastising Helene for being mean/sarcastic/honest/etc. It's pretty great. At one point, Sara told Helene to stop being "too honest."

S(h)annan: A smoker. That's all you need to know. Well, she does make baklava and laughs when I make fun of people. But she likes Cincinatti. Did I mention she smokes?

(Orta) Katie: Wise because she is not married despite having a boyfriend (unlike everyone else at the school). Participant in the sacred "Shit-to-do" list that involves a trip to Italy, eating Indian food, an eternity of crossword puzzles, and a sweet optional listing.

Alex: Set(h)'s wife. More sarcastic than him. She just got here yesterday so that's all I can really say at this point.

Sisqo: Named after the world-famous R&B singer due to her tendency to comply with the exhortation of said singer's most popular ballad. Also, is fluent in Greek and never fails to unsubtly show it off at every possible moment.

Memo: So named because, at a loss for how to understand her, I resigned myself to the conclusion that she "simply didn't get the memo." Interesting mannerisms have elicited the curiosity of many.

Prologue:

Henceforth what comes from these fingers shall be

A bit of wit, some truth, and history.
We find ourselves in Athens, cragged and dry,
In foothills of Lykavittos on high.
The task of painting for the readers' mind
What life is like from day to week to month
A task I do not relish, from despair:
For if one be not here the hope is vain
To make conveyed emotive force wherein
To be in Athens, Greece, perchance beyond
Is manifold assault on mine blank slate.
What words suffice to translate pang or chill,
Reaction to the catalystic New?
But in such plights there's Wisdom to instruct,
And in the guise of Poomba she now chides,
"Fret not, the "cannot" merely wants a step
To transfigure to "possibility."
Le longue durée does ease the fulfillment
Of aimed attempts at guiding foreign eyes
To gain appreciation of what's yours."
And so, with this in mind, content at last,
I tell the reader curious of my past
To patiently endure what now unfolds.
All will be understood, and oft retold.