Tzermiado Art Project

Greetings! My name is Carsten. I am 37 years old and grew up in Conyers, Georgia. I am a dual American and German citizen living as a permanent resident on the island of Crete, where I have worked both as a foreign language instructor and as a bilingual book entrepreneur I split my time between a traditional Cretan house and a beach apartment. The traditional Cretan house is located at 800 meters altitude below mount Spathi on the incredibly fertile Lasithi Plateau (where according to Greek mythology Zeus was born in the Cave of Diktaion Andron), about 25 minutes from Malia and 50 minutes to the airport. The beach apartment is just outside the capital city of Heraklion, about 15 minutes away in the town of Gournes-Gouvon, which hosts the Cretaquarium and a small fishing harbor by the old American base beach..

At the traditional Cretan house, I host volunteers in a mezzanine bedroom or tents in the back yard. I am looking to adopt a cat, cultivate some winter greens, help take care of the chickens and goats across the street and my neighbor's German shepherd, and do some DIY projects to build infrastructure to raise chickens, or a compost heap, for example. Also with the house is a second plot of land with about ten apple trees and a 10 m2 shed I am using to recycle materials. The plan in Spring is to grow a wide range of vegetables and herbs. My first volunteer and I started growing spinach, mint, lavender, and some other herbs indoors. Volunteer duties would include assisting me with the plants, and then helping me as a sous-chef cooking meals. I mainly eat vegetarian dishes, soups, and salads but sometimes meat. The house has a fully-equipped kitchen as well as a wood burning stove you can cook in. The back yard is fully-fenced in and offers spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and is perfect to camp and gaze at the stars. The mezzanine bedroom provides space and privacy, has a little screened window for ventilation and a desk and office chair to read, write, or do art

Tzermiado is the capital town of the Lasithi plateau and hosts cafes, restaurants, a post office, a town hall, and several Farm Supply stores, and is trendy on the weekends when big crowds visit the mountains for lunch and dinner.

The house a solar water heater, triple filter water filtration system, and high speed fibre optic internet, a fixed telephone line, and satellite tv channels

In addition to the farm project, my personal interests include art and literature. I am looking to host artists notably for mural painting and am already developing a bilingual book project. I am also into yoga and meditation but only have experience as a student. I went for example for a weekend yoga and Tibetan instrument sound retreat in France a few years ago- that sort of thing as well as sound and art therapy are really interesting to me, and not to forget to mention herbal medicine and natural remedies- I am into esoteric knowledge, ancient history, astrology, greek philosophy, just to name a few of my interests- I am also a chess addic, play alto saxophone, like doing art, and so would be happy to host writers, musicians, chess players, or artists

I love foreign languages, especially Romance languages and Greek. I was an English teacher at three different universities in France. I have a French lit degree from the University with a minor in Spanish. I studied a lot of Argentinian short story writers and am a big fan of the short text format. https://poliglottaeditore.org/ https://www.instagram.com/poliglotta_editore/ If someone else around me connects to creative wavelengths i can write for hours. I am really supportive of people around me and want volunteers to be able to pursue their dreams and grow in a good direction.