The Sea and Me

In case you couldn’t tell from the stunning photos of the view from my front door, the waterfalls or the beaches, Samothrace is a beautiful natural patchwork of green olive trees, rugged pebbly beaches and tawny, sun-soaked fields. Above all, it is the pristine sea that frames every view, the perfect water absolutely clear to depths of at least 20 feet.

I am absolutely enjoying it – but also suffering from massive Catholic guilt. What am I doing to preserve this cleanliness and beauty? How am I doing on my stewardship of this gift for the next generation, or the one after? These thoughts are feeing my addiction to the No Impact Man blog, a website written by a New York Times columnist who has sworn off all impact-causing behavior for a year. In Manhattan. With a two-year-old and a Prada-loving wife. I’m absolutely fascinated by his progress – he intends to try absolutely everything and then see how much of it his family will retain at the end of the year. Check it out here: www.noimpactman.typepad.com

His experiment poses big questions: if I am worried about greenhouse gases, am I worried enough to keep red worms in a box in my kitchen to compost our vegetables and other organic waste? (Good luck convincing Courtney on that!!!) Am I ready to stop freezing things for storage or to spend an extra 25% of my already strained budget on organic local groceries? Must we city-dwellers stop patting ourselves on the back for taking the subway and not bagging our fruit at the grocery store? How sustainable are any changes I make? Yes, I have taken to the good-for-the-earth showers – rinse, turn off water while you soap up, rinse, exit. But can I keep this up in a New York winter in an apartment with a drafty bathroom? Even if I do, without millions of others doing the same, will the few gallons saved each day make any difference at all? Or should I luxuriate in the hot water and plan to go down with the ship?

Whatchya think? Should we all live like we have a personal tie to keeping the water clean, the air breathable, the landfills smaller? Any mini-tips out there on how to be green? Any reactions to No Impact Man?

26 Hour Weekend

It's the end of another 26-hour weekend. We went back to the restaurant with the amazing chicken-in-a-bag and delicious saganiki, a spicy melted feta-and-tomato dish. Yum! I will try to learn to make both of these so I can replicate it at home for anyone brave enough to take the subway to Astoria. On Sunday, Amy and I had a coffee in the port town with Lucas, the hotelier's son. I smiled and nodded as they spoke in Greek. So far, I'm afraid I only know a few words -- please, thank you, this one, just a little, big and helicopter. Helicopter -- a totally useful addition to my vocabulary.

For the rest of the afternoon we lazed by the waterfalls. I edited my thesis and read a book while nude and semi-nude hippies swarmed all over the pools. One group sat in front of me at about five -- they had been swimming ALL DAY and they STILL smelled awful, so I packed up and went home.

Our group is slowly shrinking -- Professor Wescoat's son, Hugh, leaves today. Cindy is safely in NYC. And Amy leaves on Sunday. But I'm still hoping to get in some Samothracian Olympics and a few good game nights before we all head back to the US!