May 23 – Tuesday
Today I had my first big adventure. First of all, I woke up just before 7, tossed and turned, and decided at last to get up, move around, eat something, and most of all, drink something. I had a glass of orange juice, which the Arcadia people thoughtfully stocked the apartment with. Then I had a strange cookie, two wafers more or less with vanilla frosting. I had my alarm set for 8:50, and decided to lie back down for an hour or so until it went off. It did. I was in the hardest sleep of the night. At 9:20, I woke to some alarm on a car on the street below and sprang out of bed. Figures, right?
I met our fourth and final roommate, whom the other girls had met the night before when they came in (around 2, I think). So now the gang’s all here: Stacey from Austin, Natalie from Houston, Anna from
Atlanta, and me. They all seem wonderful.
We headed over to the Arcadia center for a 45 minute intro to the course, then came back to the room and, with a huge gaggle of people, went to the supermarket for food stuffs. A successful shopping experience, except that 4 of our 6 eggs didn’t survive the trip back home.
Athens is beautiful. Crowded, compact, and WHITE. The whole city is built of white, pink, or other light pastel colored stones. People are everywhere, and everything seems to move a little slower – except the cars. I saw my first Greek SmartCar today, too. Yay!
There are cats and dogs all over the place too. Just darting here and there, saying hi, hanging around. I love it!
After shopping we came back to the room and huge out around the kitchen table, talking about NOT being able to speak Greek, swaping stories about our homes, and so on. At 2, we all met back at the
Arcadia center to go on a “walk” with Billy, our social program coordinator. We “walked” to the highest peak in Athens – and when I say “walk,” I mean hiked. It was steeper than I think any of the Colorado hikes. I forgot to put on my tennis shoes, and the marble and gravel path was way slippery in flipflops. But doable. I felt in better shape than a lot of the people in the group.
About halfway up, I got my first few of the Acropolis. I squeaked, and my hands flew over my mouth. It was hazy with the smog of the city, but there it was, rising practically straight out of the white city see on a hill of green. I hung back with Rachel, from New Jersey, to exclaim.
At the top of the mountain was the church of St. George, a beautiful white structure with a café. Yes, a church with a café. The view reminded me of the view of Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe, but the city was something all its own: a vast spread of white, interrupted only by cleared areas with ruins that seemed to magnetically repulse modernity in a perfect oval around it and sharp jutting hills of green. We could see the mountains, and beyond them, the vague mass of the
Aegean. It was broiling hot, the sun merciless, and the wind practically nonexistent. If no one got heat stroke, it’s a miracle.
We sat and had iced coffee and ice tea at the café. I saw with my roommates, plus Rachel and her roommates Amanda, Joy, and Taisiya, and we talked about all sorts of things, like high schools, colleges, marriage (Joy is engaged), and so on. It was fantastic.
Around 4:30, Rachel and I took off to the Acropolis. We thought it closed at 6, so we really booked it, navigating the subway the two stops and one bus exchanged needed to get there (we were so proud!) and using the #1 Greek word so far: something like ef-hari-sto (thank you). We made it, and after trying to get into the wrong entrance, showed our student IDs for the Arcadia program and got in for free! Yay!
It was under a lot of reconstruction, so the scaffolding took away from the overall effect, but it was still wonderful. Rachel is an art history major and knew all sorts of great details. I think my favorite part was crouching behind the temple with the Caratid Pouch, touching the base of an ancient column capital, and feeling a stiff breeze blowing through a hole opening to the steep drop down towards the city. It was fabulous.
The view was spectacular once again, and there was one vantage point from which you could see nearly every great ruin and monument in the city. We stayed for about an hour (it didn’t close at 6. We don’t know where Billy got that idea), then made our was in this roundabout circle through a good many souvenir shops to find food. We were both fading fast, and gratefully found a place where the man spoke English and they served sandwiches. We sat for an hour, talking about all sorts of things including boyfriends and exes, saw three of the boys from the group (David, Jack, and Renwan), then tried to take the subway back only to discover AFTER we used out ticket that the subway didn’t get any closer to the apartments. So we walked. In the growing dark, we made out way along a highway, on the skinniest, more overgrown sidewalk ever, where I added a squashed berry to the list of disgusting things on my feet, and then up the darkest and most obscure alleyways, stairways, and finally (after getting hysterical trying to read the map), found the apartments. We got back around 9:30, 9:45 (its 10:20 PM now, 3:30 PM back home). I wanted to get a shower right away, then remembered I had to wait for the hot water to heat up, so I decided to type this out. No one else is here; I bet they all went out together. While I wouldn’t have traded today for anything, I do kind of wish I could have gone out with the roomies. Now I’d imagine I’m in for the night (not that that’s all bad. I hand-washed my khaki shorts, prolly will eat something else, shower, and do the reading for tomorrow), but Rachel is only here for the first program (remember how you jokingly said not to befriend someone here for only the first half, Mom? Whoops.), and all the other girls are here for the whole 6 weeks, but its only the second night. I shouldn’t be worried. It just sucks because I felt sick last night, and I wanted to be with them tonight. Oh well.
We’re talking about taking an overnight ferry toCrete during the gap between sessions. I feel like I could take on the world right now. All I need to go is manage a bit more Greek, and maybe bolster my sense of direction. This apartment is glorious. This city is beautiful (despite its ugly reputation, I for one am in love). Walking back home, a bunch of kids were playing with a ball in the middle of a square. Men, young and old, sit and talk and relax in the hot sun with their worry beads (yep Mom, saw them!). Everyone is relatively friendly, at least. And I have a balcony with a drying rack holding a pair of hand-washed shorts. My feet are as filthy as they’ve ever been (I’m still wearing my flipflops because I don’t want to get the floor dirty, quite a change from last time!). Its just fantastic. And its warm!
10:45 PM – I just took the coldest shower of my life. The hot water didn’t work. And I already have 74 pictures.
