You Can Take The Trip In Reverse

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

New Climbing Sector

so, instead of doing the work that i really need to be doing, i am going to put up a new post instead. the school year has been nuts so far, and has not allowed for me to post or relax for a while.

finding a little bit of time this weekend, i went with my some friends to a new climbing area outside a little town called serres, northeast of thessaloniki.

we were originally going to stay for just one day, but after a series of mini epics, we ended up staying in serres for the night and climbing for part of the day today. it was a wonderful escape.

I Just Can't Get Enough

keeping the old traditions alive. ye 'ol first day of school photo (this really was taken on my first day of school i am just late posting it).



i really just enjoy hearing new ideas, check out TED, RSA, and VSauce (not as reliably good as the other two, but still a worth while stop). i am constantly and consistently amazed by the sheer number of intelligent people. it is disheartening to me that we are unable to use this brain mass for anything worth while.

interesting thought; 7,000,000,000 people, split into nuclear families of four, with an acre of land per family consume roughly 3/4 the land mass of the United states. (my calculations, rounded numbers, and assumes a lot of variables). the point being that there is plenty of land for people to live on, it is the over-use, exploitation, and inaccessibility of resources that is our problem. i saw this broken down online as i was doing research for my mun class, and, as a skeptic, i decided to do the very simple calculations myself. i thought it was interesting, however irrelevant it might be.

just feeling a bit helpless today.

Eleftheria's Wonderful Pick-Me-Up

so, as usual i don't have a lot of time to explain, but i will make a brief post. i am teaching 5 classes of english, each a different class, 4 of which i have never taught and 2 of which are outside my general experience. needless to say i am a little overwhelmed. so i come home today to see this. eleftheria created these out of wood, paint, and cork board. each one is for a separate class (and one for a personal event) and it allows me to organize what the heck i am doing, while looking super cool and original. it is really awesome to have someone that supports me as much as she does; she understands that i have to work late, work lots and am often times a complete basket case. hopefully, i make her feel as good as she makes me feel.

Strategic You Tubeing

so when you spell You Tubeing you keep the 'e', interesting. so based on my last few posts you might think that i spend all my time on You Tube, and, while that might be a correct assumption, i have friends that spend more time. really though, because i can't spend a lot of time on You Tube because of school, climbing, and a home life, i have become a strategic You Tuber. there are many people on You Tube who spend their time creating and sharing very interesting playlists, one of my favorite ones is a guy with the user-name 'vsauce'. it sounds funny, but i really do get a lot of great ideas for my classes from You Tube. i am currently creating a whole project outline based on the video posted here.



i am sorry for all the videos but i think that they are really interesting. i hope that someday soon i'll be able to write some more personal news; i have so much, really. maybe i will start an epic post this weekend to be finished sometime during the week.

Animation

I use these with my students sometimes because they are really great stories and the animations are really just wonderful. I will not use this one, and I am not usually so sad and sappy, but it is really wonderful.
love you both.

HOLY CRAP THAT'S AWESOME!!!!!!