Freezer shirts with vegatables July 2, 2006

It’s impossible for me to accept that we only have 2 more days here. My friend Rachel left today – she’ll be home for 9 hours and then is flying to Israel, the safest place in the world, of course, for 10 days – and that first big goodbye should have been an eye opener…. but its denial for you. Still expecting her to walk in the door of the center and all of us to plan to go to dinner next week and where we’re traveling to next weekend.

It’s still in the 90s here, and we still only have 2 fans in our apartment between the 4 of us. We literally carry them around from plug to plug each time we move. I woke up this morning to a pillow quite literally soaked through with sweat. There are some things that I guess I won’t miss too much… and I swear, I will never take air conditioning for granted again. Yesterday, as I was sitting in the kitchen studying, I knew I had hit a new low: I had a bag of frozen vegatables on my neck, and had just pulled my shirt OUT OF THE FREEZER because I couldn’t bring myself to put it on after it had been warm from drying in the sun. Freezer-shirt turned out to be maybe the best idea of my life, and now periodically thorugh the day we through them in there for 10 minutes or so to cool down.

This IS a new low.

I’m going to start working on my list of things that can only be done in the US that must be done upon returning. Here’s what I have so far:

1. Flushing toilet paper down the toilet

2. Evesdropping on some random person’s conversation

3. Reading street signs

4. Ordering a hamburger and getting a patty of beef with ketsup and lettus and tomatos and so on, not some enormous hunk of maybe-meat stuffed with cheese

5. Walking down a sidewalk -not- as slippery as an ice rink

More to come — love you all!

Turkey June 30, 2006

Back again in Athens — and the heat was waiting for us, full force. It’s unbearably hot, especially with no air conditioning to escape to.

Turkey was everything I had hoped and imagined it would be. We stayed literally -right- on the coast, in the very tourist-y town of Kushadasi. We toured various archeological sites, including the ridiculously huge Temple of Artemis. However, the highlight of the trip was our one free day, which also happened to be our friend Ridhwan’s birthday, in which we (are you ready for this?) rented cars and drove 3 hours inland to a place called Pumakkale – a calcium cliff with a waterfall. I don’t think I can begin to describe this to you without photos: imagine a cliff in the middle of a tan and green countryside, then paint it washboard white, carve a rivit down the side, and pour the most paisley blue water down through it. This is what we hiked up. The water was bathwater warm, the mud felt like wet flour, and the cliff itself felt like climbing over a mound of petrified Crisco. It looked like something a very creative engineer would build for a waterpark – except Mother Nature did it herself.

I got sick on the boatride back from Turkey to Samos, probably because of the strangefood plus lack of sleep plus blistering sun and 105 degree heat for 5 hours the day before. It’s really no wonder. Feeling better now, espcially after a solid 8 hours (well, a vert sweaty, panting 8 hours) of sleep last night.

It’s good to be back in Athens. And in 6 days…. home!

More soon….

Me and my illegal bag June 22, 2006

Macedonia was amazing. I think I really like northern Greece better than southern. It’s much more green and lush. My favorite spot was the sanctuary at Dion, which looked like a combination ofChincotegue island and the forests off of Roaring Run in western PA. It was breathtaking — and in the shadow of Mount Olympus, no less. The ruins there were to Isis, the goddess of femininity, and were partway sunken into a bog. It looked like at any second fairies and nymphs were going to pop out from behind the trees. It was magnificent.

The downside, it was hot. It’s still hot. SO hot. As in, I have never been this hot in my life. While we were in Thessolonike in Macedonia, it is 104 degrees. 104! I’m not kidding! And this was while we were tromping around a wind-less, shade-less archeological site called Pella for 3 hours. And I was out of water. That no one passed out that day is a miracle and a half.

Athens is getting up there too. Today, the roomies and I went shopping in the morning, and by noon it was about 95 here. Let me tell you, as much as blacktop attracts heat, marble just might be worse – plus it send blinding light back up into your eyes. As Chandler once said, “Hey! Remember when I had corneas?”

Today was an adventure. I got a new top and a jean skirt at this nice department store called Zara, then a duffle bag for way cheap at a flea market. People are being obnoxious. Besides from the run-of-the-mill whistling and disconcerting looks from every man we walk by, this one vender actually blew a whistle at us and followed us all the way down the flea market street until we hid inside a jewellry shop. It was awful. On the way back, there are these street vendors selling knock-off Louis Baton bags that are actually really nice. They sell then on cloth tarps on the sidewalks, and at any given point you can see about 10 of these guys. So we’re walking, and we decide to all get a bag. Natalie is the last to pick hers out, and the guy suddenly starts acting really wierd, trying to shove the bag into one of our Zara bags as she’s heckling the price. We all back away, the guy gives her a 30 euro bag for 15, grabs her money, and all of a sudden like roaches when the light comes on, all of these vendors grab the sides of their tarps and sling them over their shoulders like huge vagabond bags and scatter.

“What the hell?” Stacey asks, and two police mopeds zip by. We all exchange looks, as we are all standing their clutching our apparently illegally purchased bags, and in a heartbeat we turn and book it down the nearest alley.

Natalie stops dead, thrusts out her finger down this alley, and gasps the most high-pitch, ecstatic gasp I have ever heard. Her eyes tear up. We follow her gaze.

It’s a Subway restaurant.

I don’t think I can articulate how happy a Subway restaurant will make 4 hungry girls who are at their wits end with Greek culture. We literally ran into the air conditioned building; a sandwich has never tasted so good.

So we start to head back. There’s a trolley stop about 2 blocks away from where we are on one of the main streets of the city – we’re taking 4 lanes each way kind of street. Always full of traffic.

We get there, and there is not a car in site. It was eerie. So we start moving down the way towards the Parliament building where there is another major roadway – and nothing. No cars, no trolleys, no busses, no cabs, not even a moped. Finally we see a taxi sitting on the side of the roadway, and ask the driver if he can take us to Pagrati. He says not until tomorrow.

Tomorrow?!?

Apparently the streets were all closed down for something, and according to Billy, our TA, its something to do with the Greek Communist party. “They’re trying to take over the world,” he said, totally seriously. And apperently, they’re starting with Syntagma square.

It was a looong, hot walk home. Thank God that this computer room is air conditioned. If I had to sit in our 4th floor, not air conditioned apartment all day, I might not make it to the ferry.

We’re leaving for Turkey in about 2 hours. It’s a 13 hour ferry ride to Samos, then we’ll be moving to the mainland for 4 days, back to Samos, and then back to Athens. I’ll be in touch when I’m back ‘home,’ and then I’ll be HOME home in about a week after that! Time has flown. Despite every day seeming so long, time has really flown.

Found out today that I got into the exchange program in Canterbury with the University of Kent!!! SO excited!!! So next spring, England, here I come =) I’m a travelling fiend.

Miss you all so much. Love to all!

Takin’ it easy June 18, 2006

The past days since the return from Santorini have been very low key – basically taking full advantage of the siesta hours, reading, writing, and eating. We even cooked a nice dinner in the apartment the other night – or rather, my roommate Stacey did. We had salad (REAL, American salad, not just tomatoes and cucumbers) with Italian dressing and an amazing cheese and pasta casserole, with loads of ice cream for dessert. It’s amazing what odd things you realize you miss from home – I would -kill- for American Chinese food right now. And a bonafide 4th of July style hamburger. And holy cow, it would be so nice to be able to walk down the street in flipflops and not have odd, unidentifiable white powder coat your feet. I swear, this city has dandruff. My feet have not been clean in a month.

Which is, as of today, exactly how long I’ve been away. It’s flown by at the same time that I feel like I’ve been here forever. I feel so unbelievably close to everyone here, like there is no way in the world that we haven’t known each other our whole lives. People are astounded when they find out my roommates and I only met each other 20-odd days ago. It’s so amazing what travel and these adventures do to bring people together.

We leave tomorrow for Thessoloniki, a city in the north in ancient Macedonia, where we will stay until Wednesday. Then we come back here for the night and day on Thursday, then we get on the nighttime ferry to Samos and Turkey. Its’ going to be a crazy whirlwind coming up – good thing we had these recoup days. I’ll blog again about Thessoloniki on Wednesday, and hopefully get some more pictures up too.

Today we spent the afternoon at the beach, and we’re going to attempt to order Dominios pizza for dinner. Everything turns into such an adventure here…. My roommate Stacey is sick with an unpleasant cold, but the rest of up seem to be hanging onto some semblance of health. I think we’ll make it.

It’s hot again, too. The first week we were here was apparently unnaturally hot, then it cooled back down again, and now its back to a slow broil. Just have to re-adapt to being sweaty 24/7. What I would do for air conditioning…. or even just a fan. Stacey’s dad FedExed her one, which she then proceeded to plug with without an AC adaptor, blew up the fan and the power in half of our apartment, and we are still fan-less. I think a shopping trip is in order after Turkey – although by that point there won’t be much time left here. *tears*

Miss you all – so much love!!!

Santorini Heaven June 15, 2006

Wow.

These past 5 days have been maybe the most amazing of my life.

We caught the ferry at 10 at Pyraus port at the tip of Athens. We knew it was going to be an interested ride when we had to carry our luggage ALLLL the way up the top deck…. by ourselves. No storage here for the poor economy class. I want everyone to picture me and my 14 closest Greece friends lugging HUGE rolling suitcases up hard, thin, clanking metalic steps while all the business class passengers watch from their luxury apartment windows on the second floor. I felt like I was going to topple backwards and die.

But we didn’t – we all made it. At first, the ride was amazing. The view was fantastic, it was cold, but not frigid, so jeans and a tshirt were fine as we watched the lights fade into the night. The moon was full and glistening on the water before us – it felt perfect.

Then the wind came, and the temperature dropped, and soon I had not only put on my hoodie (a last minute grab that I might have frozen to death without), and I have my paper thin 3-euro beach towel wrapped around my shoulders for dear life. Me, Natialie, and Stacey all lay down practically burrowing into eachothers spine on the freezing metal deck, slept for about 40 minutes, then realized we couldn’t feel any of our extremities and sucked it up to sleep on the floor of the lounge. It was covered in cigarette butts and croissant crumbs, I think I slept on a coffee stain with a random Greek girls feet more or less up my nose, and the air visibly hung with cigar smoke. Ferry from hell. I was never more happy to see the sun rise (we did, we watched it. It was amazing), or see land.

As soon as the sky was light, the view that greeted us was staggering. The water was navy with shimmers of turquoise and nearly purple sunlight, the islands rosse up in gapping brown cliffs from the misty water, and from a distance white towns frosted the tops of the islands like snow.

We pulled into Santorini on Saturday morning, hailed cabs to take us to the village we were in (Kamari, on the east side of the island), and I thought I would explode with happiness. It felt like every bit of wonder I had felt on the trip since then had been stiffled by something; this was explosive. My heart and stomach left into my throat and did not leave for days. The beauty of that island is like nothing i have ever seen.

Our hotel, Hotel Vatos, was gorgeous – white walls, marble floors and stairs (what a surprise, right?), and flowers everywhere. I roomed with Joy, who sadly is now on her way back home (tears!! She left from the ferry port after the ride back), and litterally teared up when I saw our room, all done in blue with photos of the island and shells on the wall, and a balcony overlooking a sandy courtyard with palmtrees and purple flowers.

And to top off this hotel? It was all of a two minute stroll down the street to the shore. The beach was black sand, meaning mostly tiny gray and black pebbles with thick sand beneath. The water was cool, not freazing, and there were rows of huge boulder-like rocks not far out, perfect for swimming to and laying on.

The first day (Saturday) we all crashed on the beach, then on Sunday we all slept in till almost 11. Joy and I went down the street to my favorite place, Cafe Dolche, and had lemon and sugar crepes with increadable coffee for brunch. Then we all (about 10 of us maybe?) piled into cabs and headed to another beach, this one red sand. It was reachable only by climbing down a mountainside of rust red boulders, there was a cafe literally built into the hillside at the bottom; the water was brilliant turqoise and so clear you could see straight to the bottom. We stayed all day, and I had the most awful excuse for a cheeseburger from the cave-cafe. It was cheap beef meat on a sub bun, with tasteless cheese and waaaay to much ketsup. The upside was a got all the watermelon from Natalie’s fruit salad, which I would have gottan one of had I thought to bring more money with me.

But it just made dinner all that much sweeter. Me, the roomies, and Joy all went out to a seaside cafe, had the fanciest looking drinks I have ever seen, adorned with Greek flags and sparklers (I’m not kidding). Mine tasted exactly like melted mint chocolate chip ice cream. Heaven…..

That night we all sat on the beach under the moon and laughed at everything and nothing. We had a great idea to climb out of the rocky jetty to see if we could see anything, and I was smart and left my camera on the beach. Well…. I was wearing earings, and lost one somehow in our scrambling. I realised this -after- we were back on the sand and I had picked up my stuff, so me and my friend David went back to look for it — and the camera took a flying leap out of my hoodie pocket and into the salty water. We grabbed it, but its toast. Jimi, thank God for you and your insistance on bringing your camera along. I’ll scream from the next mountain we scale that you were right.

Monday we took a packaged guided tour of the island, started with a trip to a collapsed volcano island that looked like Mordor from Lord of the Rings. Stacey managed to trip and rip up her shins pretty well, and Anna was feeling queasy for reasons unknown…. but still, we managed to appreciate the views.

From there we took the ferry to the hot springs, with unfortunatly are reachable only by diving off the side of hte boat into the frigid water and swimming as fast as you can to the hot sulfer springs. That part I could handle…. swimming back to the boat was hell.

And poor Stacey. She couldn’t go in because of the gaping wounds on her leg, so Natalie stayed with her on the upper deck. Well. The railing around the deck wouldn’t stop a small child from falling to the sea, nor did it stop Stacey’s bag from slidding on it. Natalie dove in after it, saved it (the camera and iPod are ruined), but at least its all there. She pulls out her while leather wallet to make sure nothing fell from it, and like a slippery bar of soap, it plundges back into the sea. She -wails-, and I can hear it from the springs. They had to call in a diver to get her wallet, which of course sunk like a stone, from the 25 feet under the waves.

We arrived at our final destination, Ia, around 4:30. From the port in Ia, it is practically vertical climb up the moutainside to the town at the top – so we rode donkeys. Yup. Did anyone see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? I was on that donkey. Natalie and I laughed so hard I thought we were both going to fall off the side and pludge into the sea a la Stacey’s wallet.

Ia was the most pictureque city that I have ever been to. Houses were stacked on top of eachother it seemed, all built in glistening white into the hillside. We actually sat on a rooftop that was situated as bench level off of a higher road. It was amazing. Every island with a Greek city on it? That is the postcard-perfect town where we all got to sit and watch the sun set beyond the sea. Simple perfection.

Tuesday we decided to rent cars and explore the island on our own. We would up at this long stip of black beach, I borrowed goggles and looked at the ocea beneath me (so many fish! I wish I could hold my breath for longer….), then went to a Mexican restaurant (not kidding) for dinner. It was fabulous, and right on the edge of the cliffs looking to the water.

After dinner, we drove up to the ancient city called Thira, but it was closed for the night. We really wanted to be up high enough to see the sun set, but with the road closed, our only option was to basically rock climb up a mountain. I do not use ‘mountain’ lightly. The kicker? I was in a bathing suit, skirt, beater, flipflops, and my towel wrapped around me like a cape.

20 minutes later, we’re at the top watching the sun go down. We were -so- proud.

Sadly, the next day was time to go. We spent the morning shopping along the beach and laying on the sand/pebbles one last time. Our ferry ride home was only about a million times better than the one out. We got airplane seats in a comfortably temperatured cabin, with good food available. I admit I still held onto that towel that saw me up the mountain and through the ride here – I think I’m emotionally bound to it at this point.

The highlight of the ride and maybe the trip? As I am walking from the upper deck, where a plexiglass wall plus the sun made us a nice little sauna for the first part of the trip, to the lower decks where comfy chairs awaited, I stopped to look out at the water. I see a splash. The sun is just getting low in the sky, coloring the surface and the clouds paisley lavender and pink. And a dolphin jumps out of the water.

I literally gasp. My hands fly to my mouth. There’s no one else around to see as it jumps again. I watched for almost 10 more minutes, but there is no more sign of it. I was extatic.

Almost nearly as happy to get to shore. After disembarking, saying a sad goodbye to Joy and seeing her off to the airport, getting a bus and a tazy home, it was about 230 AM. We had our first class of the second session today – all the new peopel seem really nice. We’re hiking up to St. George again tonight for sunset. Should be fabulous.

Miss you all so much. Hope everything is well back home. I’m going to try and get some pictures from others to put on Yahoo to share.

Love to all!!!

Edit: pictures are up on Yahoo Photos!

Sounion June 8, 2006

Yesterday we went to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. First, we stopped at the site for the Battle of Marathon, where we saw the mound in which the fallen Greek soldiers were buried (excavations have confirmed burial remains here, so it was really amazing). Then we drove down the coast to Sounion, where a temple of Poseidon overlooks the sea. The water was turquoise blue and clear to the very bottom, warm and salty. We rented paddle boats to explore the area. It was glorious – please take a look at the pictures.

We hiked up to the temple and sanctuary to watch the sun set and read some of Byron’s poems – he sat an composed one at this very spot, and carved his name in the temple wall, which we saw. It was chilling.

The sunset was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. With every inch that it crept into the horizon, the more island mountains I could see in the distance. It was hard to tear myself away back to the bus.

Last night, for the first time since i got here, I got a solid 8 hours of sleep. This morning, I woke up feeling more human than I have felt in weeks. It was amazing. I have never appreciated sleep so much.

Tomorrow we leave for the Greek Islands! We will be on a ferry at 10 tomorrow night, heading for Santerini/Thera. I’m not sure if I’ll be posting until I get back from there (probably Wednesday or Thursday of next week). The trip is going to be fabulous – all white sand and warm beaches and climbing mountains for sunsets. *sigh*

Andeeo!

It’s that time June 6, 2006

So while shopping yesterday, we noticed something different: Americans. Yes, Americans, like us, everywhere. Everywhere. Until this point, it’s been just about us and only us with that confused look in our eyes and huge group of other baffled students around us. However, yesterday we were walking around, and hearing all sorts of English. Everywhere. As though we’re walking through the city in the US. Tourist season apperently starts on June 6th exactly. It was nuts. And Americans are unbelievably stand-out — something about us/them just screams “I’M NOT FROM GREECE!!!!” Although a woman in the department store yesterday through I was Greek, so that was kindda flattering.
On a sweeter note (budum ching), the roomies and I are obsessed with honey. You thought I liked fruit and honey before? I think I’m starting to bleed the stuff. We put it on everything. No kidding. Cherries and honey? Wow. Chocolate cookies and honey? Amazing. The hillarity with finding new things to put it on is just about as enjoyable as the ingestion.

Today we took a tour of Piraus, the Athenian port, today — LOTS of walking. 3 hours of a good pace. We ended it with the best gelatos I’ve had to date, including all the ones in Italy. They had carmel gelato that was the die for.

Tomorrow is our last day of class, Thursday is the review session, and Friday morning is the final. Then Friday at 10 PM our ferry sails for the islands. It’s going to be amazing.

About all for this update. Hope everyone there is well. Love!!

Sprint through the ancient world June 5, 2006

Back ‘home’ in Athens! This place really is starting to feel like a home. There’s the wave of relief that comes with walking in the door of the apartment, like ‘Oh, good. I’m back.’ Its strange how quickly one adapts.

This weekend was crazy. We started off with a drive to Corinth, which turned out to be quite the rural town. I enjoyed it, although I don’t think I would have wanted to be there more than a night because of the total lack of things to do. We got a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of one of the modern dig sites because of a connecting through Arcadia with the dig director – maybe the coolest academic part of the trip so far. It made me want to dive down into the dust and start sifting. The best part? Not only were they excavating foundations (which, I admit, you can only look at so many of before they all start to look the same, and the wonder of “such and such used to be here, and people walked thought this doorway thousands of years ago” starts to wear thin), but they were also digging up… a skeleton. A real,bonefide grave. My stomach dropped – it was the coolest thing I’ve even seen. Apparently in the area, there were Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Muslims being buried, and you can tell one from another based on the positions of the bodies in the graves. Amazingly cool. I put a photo of the skeleton dig we got to see up on Yahoo Photos.

After the new dig, we went to the ancient city. It was probably my favorite site so far, although I can’t pinpoint why. Something about it just struck me. I could have stayed and poked around for hours, but instead we all left after the tour and got lunch. This is the only disappointed part of this trip – there’s a feeling of being rushed, even though we have so much time, there’s never enough, and there are never enough people who want to go back and look through things slowly. And you don’t want to go off alone, because without cell phones you’ll never meet back up with everyone. So its a sprint through the ancient world.

After lunch (I have chicken souflaki, which is like kabobs. Amazing. Today’s food was the first Greek meal that I felt I -really- ate, and was -really- full. Maybe I’m adjusting to the new kind of diet? I mean, the food here is good, but its like eating out at and exotic place EVERY day, for EVERY meal. It’s good – but sometimes you just needaQuiznos.

Next we hiked up another mountain (it reminds me of something my roommate Stacey said, after seeing what I think was our 5,000th Temple to Apollo: “Damn Greeks! Couldn’t they have just built one!? But nooo, they didn’t want to walk for a week to a place of worship, so instead we’re driving to every single on of them. And they’re all on the biggest mountains they could find! Next Jen [our instructor] will be like, ‘OK, everyone, next in the Alps, grab a walking stick and your course packet!’”). Anyway, at the top of this one were not ancient foundations, but medieval fortifications from about the 1300s that were so reminiscent of Lord of the Rings it was uncanny. We hiked all up and around for the most fabulous view. Me, Rachel,Ridhwan, and Tacia decided to stay longer than the others, and watched the sun come down over the Corinthian Bay. It was one of the first times when I felt relaxed, and realized I had noting to hurry back to – and it dawned on my exactly where I was. We laughed and rolled the whole way back down the mountain and along the road into town (since the bus had long left) where we saw an old woman herding sheep. It was so Greek, it killed me.

Found Natalie and Joy at the hotel, then ran into Stacey and Anna sitting alone and a little wide-eyed in a cafe with this little 4-year old. I was so baffled. “Is that Stacey and Anna… with a small child?” I sputtered. We ended up all sitting and eating (spaggetti with butter and cheese) for about 3 hours, and laughing so hard that it hurt. Great night. We ended it with honey and yogurt… a new obsession. So fabulous. Must find and eat it constantly when we get home.

Next we went to Epidarous, a sanctuary to the healing god Asclepius (spelling?). it was unbelievably hot and dry there, but they had the best preserved ancient theater, at which preformances are apperently still put on. it was massive.

That night we spent in Nauplion, a mid-sized city not far away and -right- on the coast. We spent the afternoon at the beach – what a beach. It put the one in Athens to shame. The water was cool, but not cold, the waves were huge swells, but didn’t crash huge, and the beach itself was not sand, but pebbles (beautiful, but hard to lay on). There was a place to jump in off of the rocks jutting out in the sea, and we did – so fun. I did scratch up the top of my foot quite a bit, but I’ll survive. It just makeswearingsandles a bit of a challenge. I’m not going to try and describe it much more – but please, check out the pictures.

The next day we did a run of Tirence and Mycenae, two bronze-aged sites with huge cycloptic masonry. We got to climb down into a slimey, pitch-black cistern in Mycenae, lit only by the small red light on the flash on my camera. So cool.

Ended the day with the best preserved temple (to Apollo, who else?) in the ancient world at Bassae. It was preserved under a tent, so that was interesting, but really cool to see in such great condition.

Headed to Olympia, another nice mid-sized town. Did some shopping – LOTS of good jewelry places – and on Sunday went to the actually site. Got to run in the original Olympic stadium, and ended up with the most absurd staged running photos (again, see Yahoo). Had a long bus ride home and a girls night in. We bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate homecoming…. but forgot about it, and it exploded in the fridge this morning. Crap.

Today is our first free day. Slept in until 1030, puttered around and hung up laundry, then came here and typed this out. We’re having a shopping day today, and then Hard Rock Cafe’ tonight.Yay!

Enjoy the pictures, everyone – more soon!

Me in the big city May 30, 2006

Today we visited the National Archeological Museum again to look at classical sculpture. The lecture only lasted an hour, so the roomies and I struck off for breakfast around 10. Now, we’re living in a neighborhood in relatively the southeast corner of Athens. The museum is almost dead center. We wandered for a few blocks, found a cafe, ate quiche and NesCafe (the version of iced coffee they have here – it’s a brand name, but used generically even on menus). The we bought trolley tickets, rode the half hour to the trolley stop, got some groceries, walked home…. I struck off the four blocks or so and navigated the post office alone, and even mostly in Greek (FYI, postcards are on the way), then meandered back here to write something to you all.And then it struck me. We’ve navigated this city from edge to edge, I know the trolley and how to work it, and the metro, and even walking the absurd distances. The neighborhood names have meaning, as do the big streets. I feel confident in my ability to get around, and not just the few blocks around the apartment. I’m doing this city thing – and I think I’ve got the hang of it.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned how wonderful our cleaning lady is. She comes in every few days or so to clean, always makes our beds and straightens our stuff, folds any clothes we may have draped around, puts away dishes in the strainer…. and, she left us frozen pizzas in the freezer. She speaks no English, so when I ran into her in the apartment today, I immediately looked up how to say a huge thank you for everything. She is just the sweetest lady! The older man who runs the center is the same way, except her speaks English. The other day, right when we got back from Delphi, I was in the center just as it was closing. He told me I had 15 minutes, and I said thanks, I was just emailing my mom and dad quickly. 8 o’clock came, and he asked if I needed some more time; I said I was almost done.”You have 15 more minutes to write to your mother, yeah? It’s no problem, miss. Say hello to home for me.”

People are so fantastic.

We’re heading down to the beach again soon and have to buy some fruit for the trip (the fruit here is the best I’ve ever had, I think I’m addicted to oranges and cherries – I didn’t even think I liked cherries! Oh, and mom, tomatoes? Yum. Finally, I say yum to them). We’re making plans to ferry over to one of the Islands for the 5 days in between sessions. It should be amazing.

We leave Thursday for a long weekend in Corinth and Olympia on Thursday morning. I’ll post again when we’re back in Athens either Sunday or Monday.

Love you all!!

Photos are up! May 29, 2006

I have some of the best pictures from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and the hike up Parnasus on Yahoo photos. Today we went to the Acropolis again, then wandered around towntown Athens. We found shop called The Poet, where a man will custom make a pair of leather sandles for you for 20 dollars…. its amazing! I got a perfectly fitting, wonderfully comfortable pair.

I’ve noticed that people honk a good bit here. And not just like New York City traffic honking, but just driving down the street random honking. Its like a warning to people walking on a sidewalk that the car is coming, or something. Its taken a while to try and get used to. People here drive crazy (think Rome, Jenny and Jimi), but at least they let you know they’re coming, I suppose? its hard to get used to, espeically at night. If there ever comes a night when I’m going to bed NOT totally exhausted, I’ll be in trouble.

I feel a bit sunstruck after today, but I think its because I missed my nap. Everyone here is really into the afternoon siesta idea… I think whoever came up with the idea that not just kindergarten students need naps was brilliant. WTF letting that one go, America? Anyway, I missed mine today, and thats sad.

About all the updates for now. We’re heading to Corinth on Thursday, but I will probably write again before then.

Oh, and Sar: I’m being SO good with my journal. Everyday. Are you?

Andeeo!