True Love

Valentine's day is about to arrive ! In favor of this day I would like to share this poem with you, which is called True Love. It was written by Wislawa Szymborska and has won a Nobel price for literature.

True love. Is it normal
is it serious, is it practical?
What does the world get from two people
who exist in a world of their own?

Placed on the same pedestal for no good reason,
drawn randomly from millions but convinced
it had to happen this way - in reward for what?
For nothing.
The light descends from nowhere.
Why on these two and not on others?
Doesn't this outrage justice? Yes it does.
Doesn't it disrupt our painstakingly erected principles,
and cast the moral from the peak? Yes on both accounts.

Look at the happy couple.
Couldn't they at least try to hide it,
fake a little depression for their friends' sake?
Listen to them laughing - its an insult.
The language they use - deceptively clear.
And their little celebrations, rituals,
the elaborate mutual routines -
it's obviously a plot behind the human race's back!

It's hard even to guess how far things might go
if people start to follow their example.
What could religion and poetry count on?
What would be remembered? What renounced?
Who'd want to stay within bounds? ……

Let the people who never find true love
keep saying that there's no such thing.

Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.

Pictures from "Romeo and Juliet" February 1, 2012

Our class went to see the play Romeo and Juliet on Wednesday, Feb.1.  This is the poster outside the theater.

Some of our class members wait for the doors to the theater to open.

Romeo and Juliet

Juliet on the "balcony" speaks to Romeo.

All photographs were taken by Olga and are used with her permission.

Pomegranates

Pomegranates--with mythological roots--are said to be a symbol of good luck for Greek households during the coming year.

Cafe restaurant in town

Maybe we could all meet here for coffee some day!

Posters for the Globe Theatre

Following our reading and discussion of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, some talented students designed and created posters advertising the play at the Globe Theatre.  Would they arouse your interest in seeing the play?

Eros Ke Psyche

Hi! Sorry about the delay, but I had trouble with making my computer function properly. As Mrs. Marketos mentioned, a couple of weeks ago, we watched a play, called “Eros Ke Psyche”, which in Greek means “Cupid and Soul”. Cupid in ancient Greece was not a little baby with a bow and an arrow. On the contrary, he was a very attractive young man, with curly hair and deep blue eyes. There was no woman who could resist him and his mother was – what a surprise – Afrodity, goddess of love. Psyche was also a very beautiful figure of ancient Greece. In fact she was so pretty that even Afrodity envied her. And this is how the story begins. Afrodity envied psyche, so she asked her son to make her fall for the most unworthy man on earth. Poor Eros fulfilled his mothers wish. Psyche disappeared from her palace and while everyone thought of her as lost or dead, she lived the most wonderful life up in a mountain, married to a wealthy man and she was treated like a queen. The only problem was that she was never to see her husband’s face or never ask to know his identity. He would be away all day and only come to her at night and lay by her side to sleep. Psyche was happy with her life but missed her family, so she managed to talk her husband into bringing her sisters back to the palace just for once. All he asked for in return was that she would not give in in her sisters’ pressure and she would not quest to learn his name. the sisters came once and then left. After seeing how happy their naïve sister was, they thought of a way to make her suffer. The next day they visited again and told their young sister that her husband wouldn’t let her see her face, because he was a monster, half human, half snake. They advised her to go to sleep that night with a knife in her hand ready to kill him and to leave a candle lighting so as to see. And naïve psyche did so. She went to bed and waited till her husband fell asleep. Then she rose from the bed and walk toward him. She light his face with the candle light and paused. She saw no monster. She saw neither scary face nor a snake tail. All she saw was perfect blond curls covering his pretty face. It was Eros, who her mystery husband was. Stunned she stared at him and accidently dropped the candle and burnt his perfect skin. Eros scared, woke up. He flew away from her and toward the window. All he said was “aw Psyche, your curiosity has destroyed us both”. He flew out of the window and far away from her. Psyche travelled all around the world to find him and to hide from his furious mother. But you cannot win gods over. Afrodity found her and locked her up in her castle. Thankfully, Eros was locked up in the cell next door and once he recovered from his mother’s punishment, he talked to her. He saved the love of his life, married her legally and with his mother’s blessings this time and they had a daughter and they named her Idoinie( pleasure). Hope you liked the storry, I did my best to translate it from ancient greek. love nefelie

Our theater lobby with mobiles and flow chart on the topic of choices.

Boxes filled with goodies for those less fortunate than we.

School cafeteria ready for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner for seniors, faculty and staff.

Bulletin board in the cafeteria with student writing on the subject of choices.

Our Pilgrims and Indians in period costumes at the Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving

Every year on the fourth Thursday of November we celebrate Thanksgiving. We express our gratitude for all the blessings we have. Thanksgiving originated
in the 17th century when the first Pilgrims went to America.
Our school organizes a Thanksgiving dinner for students and teachers to be together on this special night. Children from 7th grade every year dress up for this dinner as Pilgrims and Indians.
This really adds to the atmosphere.

Last night a small group of us from school (in the middle of the picture you can see Nefelie and Ms. Marketos) went to hear the story of "Cupid and Psyche" narrated by a story-teller, accompanied by a mezzo-soprano who "added" a second voice.  More comments by Nefelie! 

Love in Verona!

A friend of a friend visited Verona, Italy, last weekend and we asked him to take a picture of Juliet's balcony.  Here it is for all to see.  Does it look the way you imagined it after reading the "balcony scene" in Shakespeare's play?