GWA

This trip gets more interesting every day, not just because of the course content but because of everything that happens outside of classes. Case 1: Tuesday was Molly’s birthday and so Fisher took us out to dinner. Unfortunately most of us were not hungry for dinner because we were still in a gyro coma from lunch but we all ate what we could. When it came time for Molly’s cake most of us couldn’t really stomach it and Caroline was one of them. Apparently Fisher was not satisfied that Caroline did not finish her piece of cake so he then proceeded to scoop some of the cake and then pretend the fork was an airplane and then he fed Caroline like a toddler. Best moment ever. Case 2: I have come to learn that Professor Fisher has an uncanny ability to make a deal with anyone and he always chooses the weirdest people. We got to Crete very early in the morning and walked half an hour from the port to our hotel. Along the way to our hotel, we stopped in this little square for coffee and a little breakfast but everything was closed. So, Fisher walks up to a random man in the square and starts to chat with him and shakes his hand. Then that same guy goes to a little café and starts making coffee. Then halfway through the breakfast no one had ordered food so the man continued to ask “You all want any bread?” while holding up loaves of bread. From what I remember no one said they wanted bread but probably about 10 minutes later all 13 of us had bread and jam in front of us. I still am not sure whether or not this man owned the shop or how we got the bread. As Zak said when we were getting ready for bed the other night: This isn’t reality, this is Inception. In my opinion, that is the most logical explanation of what I have experienced on this trip but I’m still loving every minute of this moment.

Our Bronze Age course professor, Matthew, made a little phrase that is quite applicable to daily life in Greece: GWA. GWA means Greece Wins Again. When has this been used? We waited an hour and a half for fish that hadn’t even been cooked when we were in Pylos, GWA. There was a demonstration on the day we needed to use public transportation, GWA. We stood in the rain at Mycenae and took notes, GWA. The archaeological museum at Heraklion was closed when our hotel swore it would be, GWA. We slipped in the mud in the dark underground cistern at Mycenae, GWA. James cuts his knee cliff jumping into the ocean the other day, GWA. The evil Greek children in our hotel scream night and day and even early morning, GWA. In case you haven’t noticed, Greece always wins and when you beat Greece it’s a really big deal. I’m beginning to agree with Matthew when he says “It’s not a trip to Greece unless you get screwed over at least once.”

The other night walking back from dinner, a group of us ran into a very cute dog sitting on a fruit stand. We of course stopped and gave the dog a little affection like we do all the stray dogs and cats. Apparently the dog loved us so much that he decided to get up off his fruit stand and go back to our hotel with us and he stuck around for a little while but then we lost track of him a little bit later. We got to our hotel and walked to the fifth floor and the dog was sitting there by the stairs waiting for us. Somehow he managed to walk in front of us, find our hotel, walk through the crowded lobby of evil Greek children, and stop directly at the floor the boys lived on. We ended up naming him Odysseus. After we got over the initial shock that he was sitting in our hotel, we decided to give him a little to eat (it’s important to know that strays in Greece are very picky, they won’t just eat plain bread until we butter it for them) but he rejects our bread. Then we realized that we’ll be in big trouble if someone caught us with the dog so we decided to send Odysseus down to the lobby in the elevator. We got him in the elevator and sent him to the lobby, then we stuck around and watched to see if he did get off. Thankfully the next elevator upstairs had only people on it.

All the sun and warm weather here has given me a nice sunburn that is slowly turning into a tan and my hair is getting blonde again. Right now, the tannest part of me is the back of my neck; actually it’s the only tan part of my body, I look absolutely ridiculous…..GWA.

Shark Week

Before I say anything else is in this post, I want to tell everyone about the awesome meal we had for dinner the first night on Crete. Normally, I have to buy cheap meals like gyros, ham and cheese pies, or sandwiches unless I go to the grocery store and I have access to a kitchen. Every once in a while though we have a family style meal where we just order a whole bunch of food for the entire table and the entire bill is split evenly. Tonight we went to this great restaurant that was next to the water and Lulu and Kramer managed to get us good deals on dessert and appetizers. So we all (Kramer, Russell, Caroline, EzG, Eddie, James, Keegan, and Zak) went to eat and we had greek salad, free bread, tzastiziki, sagonaki (fried cheese), grilled octopus, oyster mushrooms, snails (Kramer guilted me into eating one because they were his favorite and he gave me his last one), mussels, and fried dough with ice cream and honey. We got all this for 66 Euro so each of us only had to pay 7 Euro to leave a tip. I know I’m probably making a big deal out of all the food but I really enjoyed it. I’m going to be really sad when I get back in the States and I can’t find any of this Greek food. ..I’m officially spoiled.

The ferry ride was really cool, the boat seemed huge to me but when I thought about how big Titanic was in the movie, it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Everyone got a spot in a two-person cabin on the ship, which was apparently pretty special because I saw all these people sleeping in the hallway and underneath staircases. I roomed with Molly and about two minutes after we got in our cabin she wandered off somewhere for the rest of the night and I headed up to the deck of the ship. I stood up on the deck for about an hour (maybe an hour and a half) mainly because I really wanted to see us take-off especially since Fisher said that it would be awesome. I watched a few boats leave Piraeus before we did and a little firework show that went off somewhere in Athens (it looked like it came from a part of the city that I’ve never been in). The take-off actually was pretty awesome, it was fun looking at the parking lot and watching it far away. The smoke from the smokestack was neat the way that it stood out from the night sky and you could see the big puffs of smoke float up. I had to lean all my weight against the fence that I was standing against because the wind was really intense but the wind felt really refreshing overall. When we actually got out of the harbor at Athens I noticed that there were at least a dozen other ships going toward Piraeus. Watching the ships might have been my favorite part because all of them looked like floating cities as they passed by and I watched one of the liners that seemed to be going three times faster than all the others.

After I realized that I was cold I decided to go down to the cabin and get my jacket and sweater so I could watch some more, possibly the worst idea ever. For some reason I could get to my room from the deck but I couldn’t get to the deck from my room, even though I already managed it once. The boat had about 20 billion different hallways and a hundred different sets of stairs and I think I wandered around one section of the ship for about 25 minutes before I walked back to my cabin and found the right way to the deck.

When I got to the deck I sat down in a chair and just spaced out while I just listened to the motor of the ship and felt the sway of the boat. I didn’t really even notice the late 20’s or early 30’s guy staring at me for a little while, when I did see him I thought I would be nice and smile but then I looked away again. A minute later he started talking to me and I wasn’t quite sure what he was saying. At first I thought he was offering me some of the cigarette he was smoking but he kept shaking his head and repeating himself.  Then I thought maybe he thought I was Greek or something and he’s speaking the parts of Greek that I don’t understand so I said that I was American and spoke English. Still not what he was saying I guess. The guy got closer and I could finally hear the word “café” and I knew that meant coffee. I’m still not sure whether I said no out of pure embarrassment for being a dumb American or because it was 10:30pm and no time for coffee. So the guy left me alone for a while and I just sat back and kept watching the sky. A little bit later I felt like someone else was staring at me and when I looked to the side I noticed that another guy was leaning against the boat and looking right at me so once again, I smiled and then looked away. Then I noticed the coffee guy was sitting across the deck with an open chair next to me and waved me over. I got up to leave because I was really creeped out and the guy leaning against the boat started waving me over too but I pretended to not see the coffee guy and the leaning guy and just left the deck and went to the cabin. Moral of the story: don’t go up to the deck of a ferry alone, the guys are really annoying. 

There is so much more that I can say but I will save it for tomorrow night when we get to a hotel with reliable internet.

Say What?

First test is officially over and now I'm off to Crete (in three hours). We have to ride a 10 hour ferry, I'm not sure  if I'm going to like the ferry and since I've never been on one I'm not sure if a 10 hour ride is the best maiden voyage... Anyway, this trip is our last trip of the class and when we come back on April 3rd the first class will be over. (No more Matthew! :( ! :( ) I'm really going to miss his use of the term "higgledy piggledy" and his word pronunciation of "aluminum" (al-oo-min-ium), I'll miss the fun British accent too.

It's only been two weeks in Athens and everyone has witnessed all of my weird sleeping habits. Molly, Keegan, Zakea, and Nicolette have all heard me sleep talk. James and EzG have seen me sleep with my mouth hanging open and my eyes half-open on the bus back from Pylos. Surprisingly though, no one is creeped out by any of it--they're troopers.

The vendors in this town never fail to crack me up. No matter what you're doing and even if you don't make eye contact they always shout the most ridiculous things and some of them were borderline desperate. Yesterday afternoon I was walking through the Plaka by myself and I was wearing my bright yellow sunglasses and one of the vendors from a store I passed just shouted at me "I LOVE YOUR SUNGLASSES". Normally I would have tried to brush it off as him talking to someone but sadly there was no one around me walking in either direction so it was hard to deny whose sunglasses he was admiring. The other day one of the vendors held up a purple purse to Zakea and said "Buy this, the color matches your personality".

Well, I'm off to my next adventure. Maybe Crete will have more castles we can climb, if not I'll just go to a beach.hahah

Chillaxin' (Mom, that means chilling AND relaxing) in Athens

I can confidently say that I have been a complete bum the last few days. We are back in Athens right now, with a few days off from class before we have our first test and a trip to Crete.

We got back from Pylos yesterday afternoon and I managed to do my first load of laundry before I started studying and catching up with people back at Lake Forest on Facebook. Today was Greek Independence Day and I managed to somehow sleep through the parade, I blame karaoke night from the night before for sleeping so late (we take karaoke pretty seriously here). I spent most of the day doing homework and studying. This afternoon when I took a break from homework and walked to the Plaka with James and Zakea for gyros. As always, the Plaka never fails to give me a creepy experience. This time, I was walking next to Zakea (aka Zak) and one of the many waiters who try to lure you into their restaurant was staring at us. Not only was he staring at us, but he continued staring at us as we walked away (I know this because I got the stranger danger feeling and looked behind me). Normally I wouldn't care about this but what makes this experience genuinely creepy was that as we continued to walk by the waiter kept saying "Very Nice" in an accent that sounded exactly like Borat. He kind of looked like Borat too.

The highlight of the last two days was my conversation with my roommates tonight as we were making dinner. We talked about Sims! (yes, the computer game that I played religiously in middle school) I never really imagined it was possible but we were having a riveting discussion all about the Sims. About how ridiculous it was that none of the characters, even the parents could control their bodily functions. When they would cry if they peed their pants because you didn't prompt them to go to the bathroom quick enough. How building and decorating houses was the best part of the entire game. Secret codes to cheat your way into getting more money. Weird ways that our Sims sometimes died. The Sim language (voulalala and any combination of grunts were actual words to them). The thought bubbles that always told you what they were irritated about or were trying to do. How hard it was to get your Sims a promotion in their jobs after a certain point (after three promotions you need like an additional 30 close personal relationships and 7 more creativity skill points, both of which took at least 4 hours a day). It was definitely a walk down memory lane and it was kind of relieving to hear that other people also had the same problems with finding enough Sim neighbors to have as friends or how all we really wanted to do was choose really cool wallpaper. I also feel really sad knowing that   somewhere in my transition to college my dad either hid, lost, or sold my Sims games--sad day.

Anyway, this concludes a rather uneventful day for me. STUDY TIME.

I have a great news regarding the shower situation! We arrived in Pylos this afternoon to our new hotel that we'll be staying at for the next two days until we go back to Athens. Not only are the showers far better at retaining water but the water stays warm and the shower heads are also fully operational. The only downside to the shower is that it's really hard to move in the shower but I'll take what I can get. Anyway, I'm sure everyone would love to hear about something rather than my eternal struggle with Greek showers.

Our new hotel at Pylos is great, it's right on the bay of Pylos and my room has a great view of the water. It's even been sunny here all day which is a pretty nice change compared to the rain that we had the past two days. The bus ride from Nafplion from to Pylos was pretty brutal, it consisted of driving through mountains so the bus driver kept on having to double back with the winding roads. In all reality the doubling back wasn't so bad, I only got a little car sick, the worse part was the rattling and shaking from the bus each time we hit the smallest thing. Kramer's snoring also kept me entertained, apparently he's a heavy sleeper and he kept snoring to the point that James, Zakea, and Keegan couldn't stop laughing. On our way to Pylos, we stopped at this really cool  Venetian fortress that was closeby. We got to wander around the fortress, we even found the lighthouse there. Even though the fortress wasn't part of the course at all, it was probably one of the cooler things I've seen. After we were forced to go back to the bus, we took a short ride and got to the hotel and as I've said before it is AWESOME. :) :)

All in all the 5 hours that I've been in Pylos have rocked, this place is great. I got a hot shower, the room is awesome, we got to wander around an old fort...WOOHOO. Good day. I've also had one of the best meals on this trip while I've been here. A group of about eight of us went to a sit-down cafe and shared an assortment of appetizers. Tzatziki. Greek Salad. Saganaki. Meatballs filled with Feta cheese. Olives. The whole thing was totally worth the 7 euro.

Good Country, Bad Showers

Hello everyone! :) :)

It's day three in Nafplion, this place is so beautiful! Our course instructor, Matthew told us that Nafplion is like a little weekend getaway for Athenians and I honestly don't think I've ever seen a town this adorable. The town is very small and has a little bay, a lot of the pictures of the bay are on my Facebook album of Greece so far and I'd suggest looking at them since my description can't do them justice. Right now we're staying at a hostel type-thing that is full of cats (yes, cats). It's run by a very nice woman named Mama Vassaliki and her daughter Leah and its a very charming place. The rooms are very tiny but colorful and we have a balcony that overlooks the alleyway and a little courtyard that all the cats lounge in. Sometimes at night I hear cats screeching outside my window and I think it's a baby crying (which makes me think of Eli Bear back home). The worst part about this place is the shower, it's always the shower! The hot water only lasts three minutes for me and so I had a cold shower the first day. Since then a Greek God must have heard me complaining and decided to punish me because I have not gotten a shower since then. It's not that I've stopped bathing, the shower head just won't work for me. Last night I took a cold shower by crouching underneath the faucet, real uncomfortable. But there is a bright side to this story, today I took a warm shower crouched underneath the faucet so I'm keeping the fingers crossed for the shower head to work on my last night here. 

Unfortunately it's raining here, it has been raining off and on for the past few days. This means that I've taken multiple two hour naps in order to pass the time, but I do want everyone to know that I've also done a fair share of exploring. I've also found numerous gelato stands that I've tried (LOVE them, had gelato at least once a day while I've been here). I also adventured to the beach last night with Kramer, LuLu, James, Keegan, Zakea, and Nicolette last night. The chicken gyros here are awesome despite the fact that they have mayonnaise on them because I'd definitely take tsaztziki over mayo anyday. Regardless of all that, I still love this country and everything about it.

We went to the citadel of Mycenae this morning and discussed some of the shaft graves and the remains and artifacts that Heinrich Schliemann found there. I've always found it fascinating about how bones are like stories of a person's life--you can see what they ate, make inferences on what they did as a profession and their status, and even ask questions about their city when they were alive. You'd never imagine that one day, if you're lucky enough to be that important, people could be looking at your bones and wondering the same things about you. We've actually been to quite a few citadels and important cites here. We went to the citadel at Argos, Palimidi, and Tiryns. Tiryns is by far my favorite site here because of the way that our instructor taught it. Since Tiryns is an archaeological site, he told us to imagine we were walking through the palace in its peak--in other words he told us to try and walk through the remains of the door ways rather than around them and try not to walk over walls. It was definitely a new teaching style for me and this approach made me feel like this place was still real and alive rather than sprawling ruins. 

My mom tells me that she reads so I just thought I would let her know that all of the gelato I've eaten is all for her since I know she'd love every flavor just like I do. Make sure and hug Eli Bear for me everyday and don't let him grow up too much before I come back, I do still want to be funny to him when I get back. 

I'd like to finish this up with a funny thing that happened today. After retreating back to Nafplion early because of the rain we went to Professor Fisher's hotel to eat lunch and we found the news and weather. The weather report seemed pretty simple, each city has both the high and low listed over their location on a map. Then Matthew told us that the reports only tell us what has already happened even though we know what's happened and don't need the anchors to tell us. After Matthew told us that they don't project weather just recap the weather, Russel (aka Brusselsprout or Brussel) said my favorite quote of the trip so far: Them Greeks, they do weather as well as they make showers...

That seems about a good place to end, hopefully I'll get a few more updates in before I get back to Athens. 

Where's the Green?

So, it's St. Patty's Day here! Its really strange to say that without seeing any green at all, in the US I feel like St. Patty's is celebrated a month before it always arrives but it seems like no one in Greece acknowledges it (except for the bars of course). A lot of things are really different in Greece, especially the driving skills. I'm beginning to realize that Greek people are in fact the worst drivers in the ENTIRE world; there are no blinkers used, they drive when pedestrians have the right of way,and they honk at one another every 45 seconds. However, I will give them credit for their parallel parking skills, everyone here can parallel park and sometimes there are two rows of parallel parked cars on one side of the road.

Tomorrow we leave for our first adventure away from Athens for a week, Napflion and Pylos. I'm so excited to see what else the rest of Greece looks like. Most of all I'm excited to get to Mykonos and starting singing Mama Mia like a good little attention-attracting tourist. The other day, I passed someone whose cell phone was ringing and I was delighted to hear their ringtone was Dancing Queen--this only proves that the Greeks love Mama Mia too.

I keep on forgetting that I'm not in the US. The other day I finally mustered up the energy to walk down to the grocery store near the hostel to buy shampoo and conditioner. I walked toward the shower aisle, completely expecting to see everything written in English like a lot of things here but I was sadly disappointed when all the labels were in Greek. Needless to say I spent around 20 minutes deciphering labels and trying to find what I wanted but I finally figured it out--I knew APO Pledge Education classes would come in handy somewhere! If I hadn't been forced to learn the Greek alphabet last semester I would have never figured anything out and I still might not have shampoo.

My most recent adventure included going to the top of one of the taller hills in Athens (It's even higher than the Parthenon). We didn't walk all the way up the hill, we rode this thing that resembled a cable car most of the way and then walked maybe less than a quarter of the way up. I could see everything from the top, everything was clearer, the air felt cleaner; it was just a great experience. This entire town is just captivating to me, everything is so beautiful here, if I ever get the chance I'm coming back.

Farewell for a little while, internet access is not promised on Napflion and Pylos. But check Facebook for pictures of everything so far.

The Joys of Athens

I absolutely love the hostels in Greece, well maybe just the one we’re staying at because I’m not sure if all hostels are the same. Here are a variety of reasons why! 1) The invisible glass coffee table. Our six person room that all the girls share has a living room with a glass table and we all have walked into it at least three times. This morning alone I walked into it twice. 2) Bunk Beds. The room has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping room which has three sets of bunk beds. Last night felt like the slumber party I never had. 3) The bathroom. Our bathroom is pretty nice considering that most bathrooms here apparently don’t have normal showers. The funny thing is that our bathroom has no space for feet between the toilet and shower, that’s just awkward alone. In addition to the awkward space distribution, it also floods—we were actually given a squeegee to manage the water for when it does flood. Apparently the boys + Molly’s room does the exact same thing too. 4) The Opera lady. We have a balcony that opens onto the street and the day we moved in here, which was about three days ago, there was a lady that was practicing opera. She sang really beautifully and we all enjoyed it at first until Zakea noted that half an hour had passed and the woman kept singing. Thankfully, the opera lady has not decided to rehearse any more since then. 5) The island next to the door. Since our room has a kitchen and living room, we also have a little island with two chairs and a microwave that sit next to the door. It’s actually my favorite spot to sit in here and it would be absolutely ideal if it weren’t for the door. It is physically impossible to open the door and comfortably sit at the island without getting hit and knocked out of the chair. 6) Kiosk. We have a kiosk down the street that is run by the angriest woman in the daytime and conveniently stays open until around midnight. ****In the time it has taken me to write this last paragraph the Opera Lady has started to sing again****

All the girls so far have gotten the chance to experience my sleep talking. Apparently I talked to one of my roommates the first night here and I was told this morning that I had a little conversation with one of my other roommates who also talks in her sleep. I’ve also had to find interesting ways to protect my money since we’ve heard time and time again that we will be robbed and that we need to keep on the lookout for pickpockets.  But down worry everyone, we’ve already established a group “safe” word for when we feel like we’re about to get robbed or just get a sense of stranger danger.

James wants to get a cat. Even though he realistically can’t get a cat, I still feel the need to ask him not to for the sake of my allergies.

Another funny thing about Athens (maybe all of Greece for that matter) is that no one has any sense of personal space. Over the past three days, we’ve taken the Metra a dozen times which is a very amusing experience in the morning. This morning, on the way to the Canadian Institute where we had class we took the Metra (which is actually a subway here) and the first stop easily had 250 people waiting for the exact same train. Once the train got there, people going into and leaving the train started pushing against each other (kind of like in Finding Nemo). (We didn’t even try to get on the first one because there were so many people) The doors on these Metras don’t wait for anyone so if you want to take a train, YOU HAVE TO GET ON THE TRAIN. I saw all these elderly men who didn’t know each other hugging each other for dear life just so that they could fit on the already packed train.

Enough ranting, now onto my real adventures! We went to the Acropolis Museum which was by far my favorite part of the trip so far aside from visitng the Acropolis itself. Before I go on, I must say to everyone and anyone who ever goes to this museum: PLEASE DON’T WEAR A SKIRT. The entrance to the museum, which I think is ingenious, is a glass walkway where you can look down and see real life archaeologists at work on the site underneath the museum. So as I said before, don’t wear a skirt because that glass walkway is not a one way mirror. Overall the museum was great; I got to see some of the recovered entablatures, columns, and friezes from the Parthenon and a lot of the statues. It was just overall cool to see all of it. But probably the best part to the whole museum was the little movie that I saw on the second floor of the museum where it showed (in English thankfully) how the Parthenon had changed and been torn down over time. Having a visual aide and some context to fully understand what modifications were made to the Parthenon on and how they were made really helped bring everything to life. If anyone has the chance to go there then I definitely, absolutely, 100% recommend going to the Acropolis museum. It’s an experience that would be awful for anyone to miss out on. 

Greetings from Athens

I’m officially in Athens safe and sound, I’ve had so much fun exploring Athens since I got here Saturday morning that I haven’t really had a moment to stop. The flights were very smooth; I met a very nice couple and their daughter on my flight from Kansas City to Newark. They said they were going to Copenhagen that afternoon. The flight from Newark to Greece was the BEST though!! For some reason, I’m not quite sure why yet, I was upgraded from Economy to First Class, I was so happy that I felt like I just won the lottery! I slept most of the flight since I was tired from my 8 hour layover in Newark but the first thing I saw when I woke up was mountains, it was so beautiful. Realistically, I may have been a little over excited about getting to Greece but I still thought that seeing mountains through the clouds was really cool. When we finally started the descent to land in Athens I finally got a better view of the landscape; it was mostly mountains or rocks and just a few trees and houses around the airport.

The real feeling of happiness and excitement that I was in Athens didn’t really kick in until we left the airport and started driving to Athens. Seeing the way the houses were tall, stacked up on top of each other reminded me of really old towns that you read about. Simply realizing that I was in a country that I’ve read about and studied for so many months made everything that I’ve heard so much more real to me. Not only do I get to learn about how people lived, how the country changed, and about their culture, I also get to experience life in Greece myself. That is so awesome!! In addition to being in Greece, I also get to stay in a hotel where I can see the Parthenon from my room—every time I look out the window I see the Parthenon, something I’ve only seen in slide for the last two months, and I think to myself “Wow, I’m in Athens”.

Between the ancient sites, street shops, and Greek food I will never want to leave at the end of May. I spent Saturday with the rest of the group walking around the streets of Athens, just taking in everything. We walked down streets that would easily be considered back alleys back in the United States and ultimately walked around the entire Parthenon (we didn’t go to the Parthenon though, there are so many winding streets that you can walk completely around it). Each street we walked on was lined with one vendor or the other trying to sell you sunglasses, bags, or restaurants trying to get your attention. There were also these really weird vendors who sell these toys; they’re basically squishy balls in that look like tomatoes and the vendors sit on the ground and throw the squishy tomatoes on a board so they flatten and then somehow the tomato forms a ball again and the vendor picks it up and throws it again. I really don’t know what the appeal is behind the squishy tomatoes but I’m secretly afraid that I’m going to end up owning a squishy tomato by the time I fly home. (Thankfully though, all I have spent money on so far is food and a new pair of bright yellow Ray-Bans.) Today we explored the Acropolis and Parthenon. (I want to warn everyone else that for future reference, the rocks that you have to walk on to get to the Parthenon are very slippery, FLIP FLOPS AND SANDALS ARE NOT ADVISED.) It didn’t take very long to get up to the Parthenon but that’s mostly because the majority of the path is inclined (which makes the slippery rocks even more scary). When we reached the top the view was awesome, we could see different parts of the city in every direction and it was actually pretty cool to see how far Athens extended. The mountains in the distance were also pretty awesome, you could see them on all sides and they were in that phase where they are hazy and you can just barely see them. Every part of the experience; the view, the history, the weather, it all made me feel like I was on top of the world.

So far, gyros are my favorite food (not including breakfast, I like the Greek yogurt and honey for breakfast more than anything else). There’s this awesome little courtyard near the end of the Plaka with this stand for gyros. All that I’ve managed to get from them so far are pork gyros but I still think they’re delicious even though I don’t like pork at all. I’m also in love with the fact that  I can get water for 50 euro cents, I’m ignoring the fact that I have to take the currency conversion into account. I’m just so happy that I’ve already found so much wonderful food and it’s only my second day.

Athens=Awesome, I never want to leave! The only bad experience that I’ve had was tonight when I was walking through the Plaka. I have been warned so many times about pickpockets that I am near paranoid now, every time I see someone I don’t know get too close to me or feel someone brush against me I clutch my purse. Tonight when I was walking through the Plaka with James, Zakea, Eddie, Keegan, and Nicolette I saw this older man walk right by me and then he immediately turned around and started walking right behind. The guy eventually got really close and I grabbed onto the nearest person (I think it was James) until I saw the guy walk into a restaurant a few blocks later. And good news, NOTHING WAS STOLEN! I just might survive this country without being pickpocketed.

---James says “Hi” to everyone in ResLife. He finally got here yesterday morning, safe and sound! He wants everyone to know that he is upset that he missed our adventure to the Parthenon yesterday morning.---

SPF 30 + SPF 15 = SPF 45?

The day is almost here (eeekkk)! I leave for Friday to go to Newark where I'll meet up with EzG and Keegan for a flight to Athens. I'm all packed and now all I have to do is WAIT. :) :)

It's really nice being packed after scrambling around all week spending a fortune at Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Best Buy. However, after buying everything I do have to say that the hardest purchase was sunscreen. It took three stores to find SPF 50 sunscreen! But this leads me to ask--did all the other freakishly pale people beat me to the SPF 50 or am I really the only person who burns to a crisp anytime the sun is out? All that I could find were bottles and bottles of SPF 30 or 15 no matter where I went, and despite the advice of my mom I didn't buy both 30 and 15 with the hopes that using both would be "good enough".

Anyway, now that I've overcome my sunscreen dilemma and I'm prepared to practice sun safety I am SO SO EXCITED FOR FRIDAY.
GREECE HERE I COMEEEE!