Coming out of the (over-cluttered, environmentally unfriendly) closet

In honor of Chris' birthday (yesterday, April 19th...I'm a bit late I know, but feel free to send him lots of birthday wishes!) I thought I'd post this as a bit of a birthday present for him.

After about 2 years of harping on about the environment, my wasteful ways, etc...I think Chris has finally done it. He's turned me into a(n) ... (budding) Environmentalist! Happy Birthday, Chris!

In honor of that and because Earth Day is coming up soon (Sunday, April 22nd - I'm a bit early for that, but we'll be away on the actual day) I thought I'd post a little Public Service Announcement on how YOU TOO can start on your way to becoming an Environmentalist (and know that I probably sound extremely hypocritical as I'm just beginning to turn over this leaf myself...)

I read this article in Real Simple* the other day (Thank you to Ed and Theresa for helping me get my magazine fix over here!) *and yes, I know...magazines = paper waste = bad for environment. Like I said...a BUDDING environmentalist - i'm not all the way there yet!

I saw the website Greener Penny this morning on Daily Candy (I know, my mentioning Greener Penny is doubly hypocritical, as the site is about both the environment AND cleaning!)

Also in Daily Candy, these ideas for reducing your carbon footprint.

Oh, and one more thing...This month's Vanity Fair (thanks mom and dad for THIS magazine hookup!) is their green issue and is Carbon Neutral, which made me feel better about it!*

*See above asterisk

OK, the PSA is over, but if you have a chance, take a look at these sites. The more Chris tells me about how we're really screwing up the poor planet for ourselves down the road, the scarier it becomes (and yes, I know you've probably been beaten over the head with this in the media in the States now and I'm wayyy behind the times) I just wanted to throw my two cents in. If I can change (or at least start to), anyone can!

Unrelated and Fabulous!
I love and miss my former coworkers at Armstrong Shaw for many reasons, but the latest being that I received a big box from them (more specifically Terry, Lisa, Joanne and Robin) the other day, containing an adorable felt Easter basket, more candy than I'm going to be able to eat for the rest of this year (and still remain on my Bridesmaid Dress Diet) and a Colony Grill (yum!) T-Shirt. I took a picture of all of this beautiful candy - including Tootsie Rolls, Hershey's Hugs and Caramel Kisses, Mike and Ike's, the ever-controversial Peeps and numerous other delightful surprises - but am having some technical difficulties uploading. I'll try again when we get back from Cyprus next week. It was the best package I've gotten in a long time, and my neighbors, students and I are all enjoying and partaking in it! And I'm pretty sure that candy is always good for the environment :) Thanks guys!!!

Kalymnos, Greece: Land of over-enthusiastic hotel owners, free coffee-givers and lots and lots of rocks...

Due to my lame internet connection, over the past 3 days, I have successfully uploaded 43 of my 113 Greece photos online. Hopefully the rest will be up soon, and they'll be located here.

In the meantime, you can see even better pictures, taken by our friend Ed, here ...

We had a great time with all of our visitors over the past two weeks, and a super time in Greece, where the people were above and beyond the nicest I have met anywhere.

Some examples are...
George, the most enthusiastic hotel proprieter I have ever met. He ran up and down the stairs of his hotel, Melina's Apartments to show us each and every available room so we could decide which we wanted.

Panos, the above mentioned free coffee giver. Our first morning on the island, we stopped at his place so my caffeine addicted self could get a fix. He has a restaurant, which we later learned was the 'go to' restaurant for all the climbers on the island, which also had the description "coffee bar" painted on the outside wall. I went in and asked for a coffee to go. After an "Of course, dear, why not?" He ran across the street to the minimart and bought some styrofoam cups to take the coffee on the road. While waiting for the coffee, we decided to take a taxi to our climbing destination (or "Crag" as I learned it is called) of the day so we had coffee at Panos' place while we waited for the taxi he called. 2 minutes into the coffee drinking, a large bottle of water showed up on the table, along with a huge plate of delicious homemade cookies. We, of course, were thrilled, and when our taxi arrived, asked for the bill. "No charge!" Panos replied, "It doesn't cost me anything to make coffee!" We were shocked, and ended up going to his place for breakfast (always free, and the last day had delicious pound cake instead of cookes) and dinner (always included a few free beers and dessert!)

Everyone we met was so much fun and so nice, it was like a magical land of the super friendly!

I'll add more detail in the next day or so, but now I've got to get back into the swing of work and prepare some lessons!!