Jilty?

Olympia!

Well dear followers (or just Mom), a lot has occurred since I last blogged. In fact there is so much to tell, so much excitement, so many new things that I will not tell about them.  I could very well be here for hours if I tried. I don’t want to be here for hour so, I won’t! So sorry.

Anyway, we started our second course in Greece—Classical Greece. I actually prefer this course so far, it’s not that I found the Bronze Age boring at all. Classical Greece is all about mythology and the sites connected to the stories and I love the mythology. Ancient Greeks spent so long trying to find stories to explain every scenario in life, gave every god and goddess a deity, connected every site to a story. Where else could you find a story about sons cast out or even killed by their fathers because someone told them that their sons would one day take power from them? Where else do you have one individual representing drunkenness and belligerence?  In conclusion, I love this class so far, we get to talk about what I know best regarding Greece, and we get to see more cool sites.

As you may have noticed I had an explosion of self-independence the day we left Athens. Due to said independence, I found myself booking hostel reservations for myself for the remainder of the trip. Yes, I said it—I made a long-term decision involving money and I also learned how to make room reservations. I ended up making around three or so weeks of reservations at the Backpackers hostel down the street from where I was staying. For sporadic periods while I am in Greece, I will be living with a variety of people I do not know (because it was cheaper to just ask for a bed) and sometimes I will even be moving everyday (because that was also the cheapest option). The reservation process took an hour and I’m pretty sure the receptionist is my new best-friend, but I am all booked up and I am basically living independently from the group (I won’t even be living in the same building as them for most of the time).

The bus ride to Olympia was nifty. First of all, I want to point out that no one uses nifty anymore and that’s upsetting, it’s a quality word that needs to make its comeback. Anyway, the bus ride was around 6 hours from Athens to Olympia and this was the first time we had to use public transportation for this long of a venture so we were all pretty cramped together. Somehow I ended up sitting next to Kramer, which was a fight over leg room from the start because he’s easily 6-3 the seats were less than gracious on space for legs. Kramer fell asleep right away and since I was in the window seat, I ended up banging my head on the window less than 30 seconds after I fell asleep. So I stayed awake for most of the ride and got to watch Kramer sleep in two main sleeping stances: leaning forward with his head on the seat in front of him or sitting back and leaning to the right so much that he was practically two inches from my face and drooling on my shoulder. Then we got to Olympia. It’s a cute little town, one of my favorites aside from Pylos so far.

I was sitting in the lobby of our hotel after class this afternoon doing homework and attempting to figure out my class schedule. I would love to add my classmate’s name to the following story because it’s fairly funny but since she retold this story in her own blog and named me “classmate” I feel that it is only fair to do the same!  With just one class slot to fill for the second semester, I asked for advice on what I should take. My classmate suggested that I take a Communications class because in her words “They’re all easy, that’s why I’m a Communications Major”. I sadly had to decline her suggestion and then felt compelled to tell the story as to why that would be nearly impossible for me to do. Last year, my Dad came to Lake Forest for a weekend visit. The day he left we decided to eat at a restaurant near campus for lunch and I think we were talking about majors because I hadn’t realized I wanted a History Major yet. Somewhere along the way, I got the urge to joke that I was thinking of becoming a Communications Major as one of my options. If there was any one moment that I ever thought I had killed my Dad, it was that moment right then. After he finally started talking all that he kept on asking (in near tears) was “Why are you doing this?,” “Where did I go wrong?,” and “I raised you right!” I immediately told him that I was joking and Communications was not on my list of options but he refused to accept that. Since that day I have been afraid to sign up for a Communications class because I feel like the day I do will be the day he stops paying for Lake Forest or the day he has a heart attack and dies.

Everyone on this trip has been dubbed a “bro”. Russell feels the need to give every girl on the trip, with the exception of Kristine and Caroline, a male name. He also feels the need to make up songs on the spot about people on the trip. Today he made up a song about Molly’s hair where he referred to it as a “dike braid”, luckily Molly has a good sense of humor and spends 95% of her time laughing so she thought it was great. Anyway, back to the “bro” issue. Zakea has three names even though the whole group has only picked up one of them: Zak, Zakariah, and Zakaka. Keegan is known as Keg Stand and apparently when she is sitting she’s “doing the Keg Sit”. Molly is just called bro (sometimes Kali Molly though), but she kind of does have a manly voice and was mistaken for a man in Heraklion solely because of her voice. Kramer is called Kramhole, I’m pretty sure that’s because of Molly though. I get called Allie G every now and then, not sure why but I think it’s because we call Ezra Ez G. I’m not sure why I added Kramer’s nickname in this because it’s only meant to be about the girls, I guess I just really think the name is funny.

Russell told Keegan that she was being “jilty” tonight at dinner. No one knew what that meant…. Jamie, do you know what “jilty” means and if it isn’t a word then please let me know so I can inform Russell he’s wrong. We don’t understand half the things he says though because he makes up his own meanings.

I found out I’m living in Lois next year….a girls only building. I can already see that I’ll be living with too many hormones next year.