The End of Paros

Here I come to the end of a wonderful phase of this trip, really the first major phase of my trip. On Friday and Saturday we had open studio for class so we could work on any unfinished paintings from the past two weeks. It was nice to relax in the studio and work on the paintings. Saturday evening after class we quickly hung all of our paintings along with the oil painting class and the photography class for a little exhibition. All of the work took up most of the wall space in the school! We had people come in and we showed everything off! It was a lot of fun, everyone had beautiful work and we got a lot of compliments. Someone even said this show was nicer than the semester show, they were impressed that we pulled this together after only two weeks!

Sadly I had to leave Paros on Sunday. Some of my friends stayed on for the optional third week but I had to meet my mom in Athens for our tour. I was escorted to the ferry and a little group of people were waving to me as the ferry rode away. I had such an amazing time on this island. I will never forget all that I learned from my awesome instructor, Jun, and how he inspired me to do so much! I have a lot of plans in my future! I also made some amazing friends that I'm so excited to visit all around the world. One day I will definitely make it back to Paros and take more classes at the Aegean Center!

So of course I spent a beautiful two weeks on Paros where the sun was always shining and as soon as I get off the ferry in Pireaus (Athens' port city) it is raining. Just my luck. Why wouldn't it be raining when I have to carry my WATERcolor paintings across town. I eventually made it to my hotel in Athens (by then the sun was shining and the heat was horrible especially since I was carrying my heavy backpack) and I just zoned out the rest of the night. I feel a little bad but not really. I felt bad because I was sitting in my hotel room all night when I was in Greece but I also didn't feel bad because I was exhausted. So what if I watched America's Got Talent while in a great city like Athens. Everyone needs a little break!

Here we are, I have caught you up to today, Monday. My mom got in last night and we explored Athens today. We walked around the downtown area and went to their botanical gardens. I introduced her to souvlaki and we figured out the Athens metro. We just got back from our first meeting with the tour group we will be with all week and I think it is going to be fun!

'Til next time...