12th International Book Fair

We are in the middle of this week already!
What happened last week?
I had coffee with a friend at Terra Antiqua, the Archaeological Museum cafe, discussing serious matters...And the sparrows accompanied us.

 We went on a school trip at the nearby park.

I visited the 12th International Book Fair.
My Drama Club presnted a book there and we attended their presentation.It was a series of three books by Lito Tsakiri Papathanasiou.

We walked around a bit. This is the Thessaloniki Film Festival stand.

The Romanian stand.

 The Azerbaijan stand.

 The Ukranian stand with this beautiful lady wearing poppies on her head to commemorate the victims of the World Wars.

The Korean stand.

I also had the chance to meet sweet Ioanna of Pygolampides sto klouvi. Visit their site to get great ideas for family events in our city.

I love visiting the Book Fair. I didn't buy any books this time as I had bought lots at bazaars recently!

The Sound of Music.

I didn't feel like blogging all last week. You can read why here in this post.
But as things are happening fast and I want to talk about them I will try to blog a bit today and the next couple of days.
So last week ...

 ...the term ended and we had a school meeting and a meeting about stress that teachers have with the school counselor...

...we continued our power walks and even collected a little bit of sea glass...

...we attended the theatrical performance "I walk in the forest" by Stella Mihailidou with the school. It was very good...

...we had a doctor's appointment and everything is fine...

...I had coffee with a lovely friend Christina Ina whose cat Hourhouri was so really sweet and played with a laser beam I got for it...

...I enjoyed Christina's muffins for a couple of days afterwards...

 ...we rehearsed for a book reading tomorrow on Nikos Kazantzakis that we have done before...

...and we went to a musical "The Sound of Music" which was EXCELLENT!

There are only three more performances of the play in the city so don't miss it !

Elections are over-Schools are over.

Thank you all for reading along and caring for what is happening in my small country.
The elections ended peacefully yesterday and the conservatives won by a narrow difference to the leftists. What does that mean? That the troica and the European strict austerity measures will continue. I am just hopeful that they have received the message (implied by the great advance of the leftists) that we can't accept these measures any more. We need change and a better life. We will see what happens next.
Schools closed for the children on Thursday, one day earlier due to the elections.
The last week was filled with...
...a day trip at Langadas spa park (we didn't do spa just stayed at the park for the kids to play).

...the 6th graders final festivities that included songs and dances of Greece...

...the last day's dances....

...and games...

 ...a visit at my last year's school to attend the 6th graders festivities there too...

...an honourary prize reception at the Prefecture by the administration office for what we,members of the Teachers' Association Drama Club, offered to the public....

I am the one in the brown dress and hubby is the one with the pink and grey striped T-shirt. The administration manager Mr Kartsiotis is in the middle. Vana Vourtsaki,the lady in blue, is our director.
This year was a good school year. I am in a new school very near to my house, I have new pupils, new colleagues, a new headteacher, a new administration manager. Things went cool, very relaxed and happy inspite the general crisis in my country and I loved that. I hope they continue like that.

Weekend to Volos-Pelion Part A

Last weekend in contrast to this one was sunny and warm and we spent it at the town of Volos and on Mount Pelion with my 6th graders, their parents and their teachers. It was a wonderful trip.
We started very early on Saturday 19th in the morning for Volos.

 The view of the Olympus on the way.

 We stopped on the way and this kitty played with us.

Also I saw this building from afar but don't know what it is.
When we reached Volos our first stop was at the Archaeological Museum where a guide gave us a tour.
There are a lot of very very old artifacts there but unfortunately photography was allowed but no flash so very few showed well.

 The outseide of the Museum with this fantastic blue door.

 And inside very old neolithic art.

 Tomb stones.

 With amazing sculpture and detail.

 Wonderful pottery.

 And ancient glass vessels that remained unbroken inside tombs.

 Carved marble stones.

 Pottery.

 This amazing detailed pottery toy.

 Jewelry with glass beads and minerals.

 Copper and iron tools.

 More amphorae.

 An inside window of the museum.

 And statues.

 And coins.

Most of these finds are from Sesklo and Dimini the famous tomb areas near Volos. Sesklo is the first neolithic settlement of Europe.
Inside the museum there was a temporary exhibition about Asterix and Obelix that the children loved.

And not only the children.

Of course I took so many pics and want to share with all of you that I will make this weekend again in installments. I know I still owe you some days from Romania but I will definitely give those soon.
Enjoy your weekend!