well, eleftheria and i are back to work after a whirl-wind u.s. tour. it was a great trip and we just want to thank everyone for their love and support, and to those of you we did not get to see, i'm very sorry; hopefully, we will be in touch soon.
after a mini-epic arrival in the states we settled into a busy schedule of family and shopping. the fact that all the family was around to share in the activities, and the added bonus of dad retiring, made for a wonderful visit. we left medina for new york to spend some time with a dear friend of eleftheria, and then it was time to fly back to europe. fortunately, we had a 10 hour layover in venice where we escaped the airport and went into the city for the day. below is a photo chronicle in reverse.
a beautiful canal
the city is really falling apart in some places. the diagonal bars that you see in the walls seem to be support structures; they were everywhere throughout the city.
no cars, motorcycles, or bike, just your feet and lots of boats.
it is the only way to get around quickly
we thought we were really lucky to get into this building without any lines or tickets. turned out it was a hospital.
eleftheria took this picture and it is one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip.
The water came up into some of the buildings and it was not even at its highest levels according to the high water line.
the buses are actually boats
central park ny
this was taken on the high line (a new above ground park in manhattan on an existing abandoned train rail) and is a cool bird house/feeder installation.
the colors of china town.
the view from our hosts window in manhattan.
old hair curlers kind of look like The Robot.
we caught up with a friend in akron. she was a student teacher at pinewood last year and she became good friends with eleftheria and i.
'do you see what i see?'
eleftheria and i (with lots of help from mom and dad) cooked a traditional new year's eve feast; it turned out better than expected. this is the dessert.
seriously, the best picture i have of keith from the whole trip.
it was great to see everyone at dad's retirement dinner.
playing with the new toy on christmas.
it was such a wonderful trip home. we really had a great time. i have a new camera now and i will hopefully not miss two months ever again.
peace, love, and happiness
ian
gervais once said some pretty funny stuff about sleeping in the kitchen; i did not particularly care for it. 
looking amazing in my super ski outfit. efi was a great coach, but i gotta say, one day out with keith was all it took. 
the sledding was sweet too. eleftheria enjoyed it until we got yelled at for accidentally taking someones sled. 
i was in istanbul with 14 pubescent children for 5 days. we got to party on a boat. cool.
the very impressive dome of agias sofias (istanbul).
not even half of all the students present at RCIMUN (there were around 700).
turkish bathrooms come with foot sinks.
this is what our house USED to look like. teaser.
pretty sweet view from outside nea silata.
he is so much more awesome than i am.
evagelia and i played some raqueta. 
patuna helped me mend my motorcycle.
every house should have roof access. zoom in and i am doing my best impersonation of a lion. 
that was a fantastic motorcycle ride. 
this was a sweet mini cooper with taverna chairs for front seats. 
we went to athens at some point. seems so long ago now. 
more stories to come, i promise. 
