American in Cyprus: The past week

Last Friday we once again headed to the village for the weekend. Themis and Maria and kids brought grandma up the following day. We did some work around the house, but one of the main goals was to have air conditioning installed! It is a couple of weeks late for my family to enjoy, but still much appreciated by us. Since we needed to move furniture in the room we use to make space for the workers, we took advantage of the time and also cleaned out the room and rearranged the furniture. We now have more space to move around and also made a small sitting area. We went to a beach that is fairly close to the village one day and other than that mostly took it easy. On Tuesday morning we picked up Uncle Yiannis at the airport. He is Electra's youngest brother and lives in Athens. His wife will be arriving next week. Prior to their planned trip to Cyprus, her mother, who is 98 years old, fell and broke her hip. She had it operated on, and is already at home and moving around. Sounds like she is a feisty lady. We then drove Yiannis to the village, and he will stay there with his siblings and we will join them next week. This is the time for birthdays in our families. Yesterday was my moms and today is Curt, Grandma Electra, and Stefanos and Alexis. Happy birthday to all of them. Stefanos and Alexis are currently in the army but were able to come home for several hours today. They entered the army a few weeks ago, as is required of all males in Cyprus. They will need to serve for two years and as Alexis said to me today "I'm already tired of it." It was nice to see them, if only briefly, and we wish them well.