ESCAPE

June 23, 1998  I am less than a month away from actually leaving on my trip of trips.  I am edgy, worrying about how I will pay for the whole thing without taking out a vacation loan from my credit union.  I could have taught summer school at the elementary school where I work- actually a reasonable idea. The pay would have covered the whole trip, but I didn't want to have to be at the south side location at 7:30 in the morning, or work in no air conditioning in what was turning out to be a particularly warm summer.  Thinking back through the school year, I mostly just want to get away.  It had been a school year full of confrontations with a staff member who wanted the job I had, but was not eligible to teach in my field.  It was not so much that he wants to teach my students, as that he wants to coach after school.  He particularly likes coaching girls sports and there were rumors about his real motives, as well as stories circulating among the staff about tasteless remarks he made to younger female teachers.  He was not liked by the other teachers, but the children like him, especially the girls he coaches, and he used that to his advantage with their parents, who seemed blissfully unaware that something might be wrong with the situation.  "The girls just love Mr.J____- he takes them to all kinds of tournaments, even on weekends! Sometimes he even invites them to his mother's house!" My escape had been to throw myself into dance when I could, which is how I wound up at International House for the famous Spring Folk Dance Festival. This Spring Festival featured Yvonne Hunt, researcher and folklorist who had lived in Greece and documented folk dancing there, particularly among the indigenous Romany population in Serres Prefecture.  She brought some of the musicians she knew from Serres with her to Chicago, and it is her folk dance camp, to be held in Sidirokastro, that I plan to attend.