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.