Greece 2014 so far (November 14)

Thessaloniki 2014 so far

Written on November 14, 2014

I know it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve blogged – I haven’t written anything since the last time I came to Greece in 2012 but here is a summary of my last month and a half here. I got to Thessaloniki on September 30^th. You know things are bad when the Germans are on strike – the strongest nation in the EU. Well, my flight through Germany on Lufthansa was canceled, and my travel agent was very helpful and found a way for me to get on Turkish Airlines and go through Istanbul. I was in the middle of the plane, and in the four seats behind me were four people whom I ended up talking to: three priest-monks from the Monastery of Giromeriou (Μονή Γηρομερίου)(http://www.monigiromeriou.gr/) near Igoumenitsa (Ηγουμενίτσα), on the mainland across from Kerkyra (Corfu). One of them was the abbot, and the other two were monks of the monastery, one who lives there and another who is attached but is the preacher in the Metropolis of Katerini outside Thessaloniki. The fourth person was a layman who is a friend of the monastery and I believe he was from America but has lived in Greece for a long time. I talked with the abbot quite a bit (we sat next to each other on the plane from Istanbul to Thessaloniki), and hung out with the three fathers and their friend in the Istanbul airport during our layover. I have their contact information and hopefully will see them again, either visiting their monastery or when they pass through Thessalonica. See how God works? It was really providential that I got put on that flight. I’m very happy to have met them, and really hope I get to see them again.

With the three fathers and their friend, in the Istanbul airport during our layover.

We landed around 8:00 pm. My cousin met me at the airport and we took a taxi to the place where I am living, a building with very small individual rooms, for international students, about a fifteen minute walk from the center of Thessaloniki. The place provides sheets, that’s about it. So once I met the owners (who had come there because I had been in touch with them and told them my arrival time – they’re usually only there in the morning) and chose which room I wanted, I had to walk downtown to buy some basic things: soap and toilet paper. I probably could have found them close by but I didn’t know the area and I didn’t want to walk around a strange neighborhood by myself at night. So I went downtown. I went to bed late that night and it took a few days to get adjusted from the jetlag.

In the beginning I was going every day to St. Haralambos, the metochi (dependency) of Simonopetra in Thessaloniki. I blogged about it last time. It’s a really nice little church and I had gone there a lot during the month I spent in Thessaloniki in 2012. Right now the married priest who serves there (Fr. Athanasios) is on sabbatical (he’s also a university professor) so guess who’s filling in? Fr. Iakovos, the one and only. There’s a Greek expression, “πάντα μπροστά μου εἶσαι” (lit. "you're always in front of me") or something like that, which basically means that you see someone everywhere. I met Fr. Iakovos in Boston, then I saw him at Simonopetra in 2012 when I went, and then he was in Boston again last year. Now he’s here in Thessaloniki!

Before classes started I really had nothing to do and I was quite bored. Now the pace of things has picked up, I am plenty busy, and I am still going very frequently to St. Haralambos but am also going to the church in my neighborhood, Dormition of the Theotokos, which is closer and easier to get to on some weekdays. I have class 8:30 am until 12:00 noon every day, and I have started my ambitious translation of the Typikon of George Rigas, a 900-page book that is quite awesome, and way more detailed (and more accurate in some places) than the Typikon of Violakes, which is the official typikon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I’m not the only one who likes Rigas, but unfortunately we are in the minority. (St. Nicholas Planas was reported to say, “by obedience the new (calendar), but by conviction the old!” I would like to modify that to say “By obedience Violakes but by conviction Rigas!” In other words, I am obedient to the Patriarchate and use Violakes even if I don’t like it, but I really wish we could use Rigas!) I’m not trying to start a revolution, however. Hopefully if this translation of mine ever gets finished (I’ve done about  30 pages so far), it will be primarily an academic reference tool, although most academics who would be interested in typikon would probably be able to read it in Greek. It’s also a great chance for me to practice my Greek…I have learned quite a few new words, as well as really interesting details about the services, including different Greek names for the various Litanies (συναπτές, ἐκτενή, δέησις), whereas in English we just call them Litanies or ektenias or something like that, but in Greek each has a specific meaning (at least for Rigas. I’m pretty sure it’s more common).

I’m also trying to excel in Byzantine music. I know the 95% of the prosomia, and I can generally chant idiomela if I practice them (unfortunately I mostly sight-read them in church and therefore make more mistakes than I would like). My real difficulty however is the papadic genre, i.e. slower pieces chanted during the Divine Liturgy: the Cherubic Hymn, It is truly right, and the Communion hymn. It’s my short-term goal to learn at least one Cherubic Hymn and It is truly right in each mode, as well as (kind of ambitious) a Communion hymn for each day of the week, in each mode. That’ll take awhile. I bought a nice little book that has short Communion hymns in the eight modes that aren’t too hard. I’ve learned one and a half so far ;) I also bought a big book called Mousike Pandekte, volume 4, which has pretty much anything you could want for the Divine Liturgy (it’s 878 pages, 373 of which are just Cherubic Hymns...that gives you an idea of how detailed it is). It’s kind of cumbersome to carry with you to church, but it’s what is being used in the music class I’m taking at a church here, and my teacher in Boston recommended it as being good for practice. So, σιγά-σιγά. I want to be able to chant the Liturgy in any mode at the drop of a hat – a little ambitious, and baby steps will get me there (such as learning a Cherubic hymn in each mode first). It’s rare that I’m placed first at a Liturgy and am asked to chant the Cherubic hymn and/or It is truly right, but when it happens I want to be prepared – it happened the other day for instance. I was the only person who knew music, surrounded by three older men and a young guy, all of whom knew the order of the service very well, plus some basic things, but nothing complicated about music. I wasn’t prepared but I chanted the Liturgy in first mode (this week is plagal first) and it went ok. I want to be able to do that in every mode, and not to go “ok,” but “great.” Σιγά σιγά. My next goal is to learn a Cherubic hymn in plagal 2^nd for next week, and to keep working on those short Communion hymns in that little book, particularly the ones in plagal 2^nd.

On Monday nights I go to a Byzantine music lesson from 7:00-9:00 at Panagia Laodigitria. I am going to start going from 5:30 because in that class they are finishing the slow heirmologion and starting slow Doxologies, things that I studied in Boston but am nowhere near a master of. It’ll help, I hope. The 7:00 class is Liturgy stuff, so it’s right up my alley also! These lessons are down the street from the Panagia Laodigitria church, in the parish center, a multi-storey building. On the roof they have a little chapel to the New Martyr Alexander (I don’t know anything about him). At 9:00, after the music class finishes, they do Small Compline in there, and in the middle (instead of reading the Akathist) they chant the Paraklesis to the Theotokos, but only the canon (the “heart” of the Paraklesis), so that it takes about fifteen minutes, plus fifteen minutes of Compline, comes to half an hour altogether. At 9:30 one of the priests (Fr. Barnabas) gives a talk in an auditorium in the same building. The auditorium is full of young people every week. It’s impossible to find a seat, and most of the time I stand against the back wall. The talk goes until 10:30. I have met quite a few nice people there at Panagia Laodigitria, people around my age, and I hope to deepen our relationships and become friends with them through continuing to go to music lessons and talks. I also see some of them around at random things in other parts of the city, so it gives another setting as a background for a friendship.

On Thursday nights I go to a much more low-key talk at Panagia Acheiropoietos in the center of town, with Fr. Spyro. There are about 20-30 people every week. A lot of Americans go to that but Fr. Spyro talks in very simple Greek (with the occasional translated word or phrase) so it is helpful for us! I take notes when I go to talks, and my notes are half in Greek and half in English. It’s kind of funny for someone to look at my notebook if they’re not used to it. J

Oh, and…yes, I am learning Greek. Slowly. Equally as important as are the classes, I need to make sure I spend time with Greeks and not with Americans, so that I can learn slang and other informal things, as well as getting comfortable practicing what I learn in class. I also should probably try to read some Greek books. Now, however, on the rare occasion when I make time to read, it’s usually in English (unless it’s music or the Rigas typikon…).

That’s basically my life in a nutshell. I wrote it on the train between Thessaloniki and Athens because that’s the only time that I can get on my computer and not be distracted by internet. Otherwise I don’t find any time to blog, even though I know I should and people want to know how I’m doing. Forgive me.

(I am hopefully going to blog about my trip to Athens another time. I went there for the weekend, and now it is Monday and I am back in Thessaloniki, but this blog was written Friday on the train, as I mentioned.).