Elder Paisios' Monastery in Souroti

On Sunday, after church, I asked my Greek friend, Paris, to have coffee with me and help me improve my conversational Greek. I find the reading and grammar to be much easier than listening, so I'm always searching for someone who is willing to sit through my terrible Greek and help me improve.

Anyway, we went for a coffee and then he suggested we drive over to the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, which Elder Paisios founded in Souroti, about 10 miles from here. Even though it's so close, I hadn't been there yet because we don't have a car and it's off the beaten path. Well, it was beautiful! We venerated the relics of St. Arsenios the Cappadocian (whose feast we recently celebrated), and then the grave of Elder Paisios.

The monastery also has a nice bookstore which prints a few of their own English translations. They also have a series of colorful kids' books in Greek; I picked up one -- maybe it'll help us!

Sorry -- since it was a spur of the moment thing, I didn't bring the camera. Next time!

After I returned from the monastery, our friend Emmanuelle invited us to a psarotaverna (fish restaurant) along the gulf with a group of Greek friends. Eager for another opportunity to potentially practice Greek, we went. As usual, however, they enjoy practicing English (and their English is much better than our Greek), so a lot of the conversation was in English. Oh well -- we'll keep trying!

Tomorrow, I'm having coffee with another friend from church who has been very helpful and patient with me in our Greek conversations. Hopefully, if I don't weary him with my Greek, he'll continue meeting with me!