Just experienced my first real Greek event last night... well mostly this morning.I have been saying now for months that Greeks just don’t dance. We go out to bars and clubs where there is music pumping and we can hardly find anyone that is even swaying their bodies. Despite this normalcy in Greece, this weekend has been full of Greek people breakin it down. First off, on Friday it was so warm that we ventured out to bar that has outdoor seating. This is no normal outdoor seating. It is an area carved out in between tall buildings and seats are found on all different levels of rock. Tables are put in alcoves and attached to trees...well, pretty much everywhere. When we arrived there were no open tables. Instead of feeling defeated we spied 3 hammocks set up in a cluster down yonder near the corner of the outside bar. Naturally there were 6 of us but we didn’t see this as an issue. Two people squished on each hammock only to find that it was really uncomfortable on the ass as gravity smashed you into each other. Clearly the only solution was for one person to straddle the other one, which ended up being extremely comfortable and warm. Note: So in Greece, gay people aren’t quite accepted openly. Well the 6 of us girls pretty much looked like 3 lesbian couples as we snuggled with each other on the hammocks and sipped our cranberry vodkas. HA. Well, we might as well embrace it. Compliments of Claire’s friend from America each “couple” was given a back story as to how their relationship was going and the passion that it involved. Needless to say, it made for some good entertainment and also for another chance to look as foreign as possible. Chairs are so overrated.
After the hammock debacle we headed to our typical dancing spot: Spirit. Usually there is an average of 3 other people in the bar besides us on the weekend. Well, we enter the bar and it is beyond packed with people dressed looking mildly goth. Huh? What the hell is going on here? There are people inhabiting the bar... AND they are dancing.... We soon come to find out that it is Michael Jackson night. Damn! Do Greek people love MJ or what!?! So we are slightly uncomfortable with the amount of impostors in our bar but we decide to try it out anyway. Soon a dance off breaks out and 3 guys are getting down on the dance floor. This shit was serious. One guy was wearing something like tap dancing shoes and a full black suit with a white tie. The others were in jeans and T-shirts. Soon we were surrounded by full splits, split jumps, break-dancing, moon walking, jiving, don’t even know the name of the other moves... But in any case, it was hilarious. Eleni forced me to dance with one of them and I was awful. I am not good at the dance on command and follow after me thing. I’d say I’m more of a free spirit when it comes to dancing... (maybe a little bit of sugar coating for I’m really not good). In any case, we danced to some Michael, saw some moon walking and saw some Greek people loosen up and have a good time, I’d say the night was a win.
Saturday night: So by now I have about two solid Greek friends. One of my two Greek friends I met at the grocery store. No, I didn’t just happen to run into this random girl shopping... she was the cashier. It was in the first month of being in Greece and as I attempted to communicate in Greek and shy away from using English... I failed. The girl ended up speaking perfect English and she told me that her aunt is from the US. Not only is her aunt from the US but she lives 15 minutes from AU. Weird. Let me explain something very quickly. When you are in a country where not that many people speak English well enough to chat for a long period of time, you cling to those that can hold it down. We exchanged numbers and decided that we would hang out, maybe she would teach me some Greek and I would teach her some English. A month or so later we finally hung out. My Alpha Vita (grocery store) friend ended up being mad cool and has connections all around town. Last night she brought Eleni and I to a Greek concert. The two artists were Dimitris Mitropanos and Peggy Zhna. Mitropanos is a 75 year old Greek man and is considered to be the best Greek singer in the world right now. Let me tell you, that is no lie. This wrinkly old man knew how to use his lungs. Despite the fact that I really couldn’t understand anything, I loved it! Once in awhile, my translators would fill me in on the lyrics, such as I bleed for you or you will think of me 1,000 times and I won’t be there 1,000 times. The other singer was a 30-something year-old blondie who knew how to groove. She had a lot of energy on the stage and as people threw flower after flower AT her, she chucked them back into their faces once in awhile. I found this quite comical. You go girl. Then, all of a sudden there were a ton of people on the stage breaking it down Greek style. Where did all of those people come from? Wait, anyone can just go on the stage and dance? Sooooo, we were off! We descended from our table on the top floor and made our way to the stage. Flowers everywhere, people everywhere, the instrumentalists everywhere! I could talk to the violinist (who by the way was wearing a Rock & Roll shirt and a bandanna while rockin out on his violin), ogle at the bouzoukia players and watch them while they were in the zone and even yell to the singer if I wanted to. It was truly awesome. This is what I have been waiting to see from the Greek people! I was actually saddened and surprised when I was home for Christmas and someone asked me to show them traditional Greek dancing. I had to tell the that indeed, after being there for 4 months I have not seen one traditional Greek dance. Well, let’s just say I have seen it now. The slow hip movements, the crossing of the feet, the twirling, the slow sensual arm movements, the circle dances, the groups of people squatting and clapping as their star dancer breaks it down in front of them. It was almost like heaven. My AB friend and her friends came down to the stage also and taught me their ways. It took a minute or two to get the hang of it but once you are on the rhythm it just kind of happens. We could stand 3 feet from the singers. This would never be allowed in America because of our paranoia or maybe the violence that people tend to show. If I were at home and this was happening I might worry for the singer’s safety but here people were more focused on their dancing than on talking to the star. Needless to say, after about 2 hours of dancing and 4 hours of sitting at the table it was time to go... it was 6am! Apparently you need to stay out until 6am to see Greek dancing. I usually only make it until 4am. Now I know, I need to man up and pull through until the end.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Return to the G-land
Yep. Definitely Greek.
The view from a mountain top near my house. Favorite place to go!
Back in the Greekland.
Welp, public transportation is still striking at least 3 times a week, so that hasn't changed... oh Greece. Coming off of the plane and leaving the airport seemed so natural to me. I knew exactly where I was heading and exactly how to get there. Let's just say that Athens definitely feels like a home to me now. Despite this fact, it was not very pleasant to lug around my 50lb suitcase full of unimportant shit that I felt the need to bring back with me. Some "essentials" that I brought back: Twizzlers (both red and black), an abundance of hair accessories, string to make bracelets, the heaviest books I own, multiple mosquito nets, and much more. Carrying luggage might be one of the worst things in the world. Between having my rolling bag flip over as I'm rolling it, to getting my hair tangling in the multiple bags attached to my body, I am usually uncontrollably sweaty and exhausted by the time I make it to my destination. Let's just say that this excursion back to my house was no exception. Alas, I made it.
It feels good to be back because Greece is a cool place but its also endlessly frustrating because of some of the "Greek" ways of life. Unreliable, unorganized... let's just say Mediterranean. Despite their faults, there are a lot of good things that we could learn from their style. One: Maybe Americans could learn how to relax every once in awhile... sit back and get coffee for 2 hours, eat dinner with friends and family for a few hours without giving the waiter the evil eye when you expect the bill, go out and party every night... (not sure this one is feasible). A saying I would like to live by: Work to live, don't live to work. This is one thing that I believe the Greeks know how to do very well. Sometimes I sit back and think about what the hell I am doing in life... and then I come up with no clear answer. One thing I do know though is that I don't want my life to be consumed by my work. I want to be able to have a social and personal life outside of work. Here in Greece I am definitely awarded time to live my life. Enough of this shit. Onto the first day of school.
On our first day back to work I enter the teachers lounge (where my desk is) and am surprised to see about 60 people crammed into the room, excitedly chatting in the usual LOUD Greek manner. Huh? I make my way to the English teachers and inquire as to what the occasion is. Apparently it is "the pita' cutting. And by "pita" they mean cake with one coin baked into it. And by cake they mean a 4ft x 2ft sized monstrosity considered to be a cake. You could have lived off of this cake for at least a month... I have never seen such a large baked good in my entire life! How do you even bake something like that? It was one solid cake. That must have been the biggest oven ever! Awesome. So I am sure you are wondering why we have a cake as large as a coffee table. Well, it is a Greek New Year's tradition to do a "pita cutting". The pita is cut into even pieces and one piece is given to each person at the cutting. After each person is given a piece they look at the bottom of their cake to see if they have the coin. The person who ends up with the coin in the bottom of their cake is said to have good luck for the next year. Just so happens that a small, old Greek lady was the lucky winner of the coin this year at our school. Maybe next year... I do love the tradition though. I think its a very fun activity that brings people together. Anyway, thought I'd share this little piece of Greek culture before I forgot to write about it. OH and along with the pita the teachers brought in at least 9 bottles of champagne. Goooo elementary schools! Nothing like getting a little loopy to teach a lesson. Needless to say I didn't drink any because it was about 9am. Still bad at day drinking.
-to post soon
Rob
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Long overdue- (well I never returned movies to Blockbuster on time anyway, why change my ways now?)
PAYDAY
Sooo... read on and you will find out where all of my money has gone....
This blog entry is long over due and so will be the biggest smorgegbourge you will have ever seen.
Synopsis 1:
Were gonna skip a bunch of random Athens chillin and go straight for my trip to Vienna. I hadn’t heard too terribly much about Vienna but the recommendations that I did get led me to believe it is an incredibly bumpin place. We stayed there for 2 1/2 days and probably made visual conformation with about 70 human beings. When we walked around the city looking at the beautiful architecture people sightings were few and far between. When we attempted to find an open bar that had inhabitants on a Saturday night we succeeded in an odd, yet fantastic way. Before I get into this, earlier on Saturday we visited the Nacht Market (which is an open air market that has TONS of the best looking food in the world). We all know I can’t control myself when it comes to good looking food and the 4 other people I was traveling with were thinking along the same lines. We decided that we will take on this market with vengeance and buy every good looking piece of food possible, so as not to miss out on something fantastic. Enter market: sweet croissant topped with custard and fruit, chocolate covered strawberries, every kind of vegetable you could imagine stuffed with creamy cheeses, hummus and bread, pickle (yes! I had been deprived of pickles for far too long), frankfurter, beer, and not to mention taking bites of everyone else’s fantastic food purchases. This goes without saying but I’ll do it anyway, this market was literally like heaven. I would do it again in a heartbeat. The food in general in Vienna was very good. Lots of meat and potatoes which is a big difference from Greece so it was a nice change of pace.
After taking a group nap (getting 5 grown people to lay down in a dorm style hostel room and all take a nap at the same time was an amazing feat) we headed out for the night. Found an awesome restaurant after perusing the streets searching for something that was even open. Had ourselves some goulash, and dumplings. Then went on the hunt for a bar (or I guess even just people). We ended up coming across this cute little sports bar. Despite the fact that it was empty we decided that we were lucky enough to find a functioning bar and forgave the fact that we were literally the only ones in there. After recognizing the fact that shots were only 1.50 we decided that this definitely needed to be taken advantage of. Five hours later (4 am)- there is a giant tree stump in the bar with which people are playing a nail and hammer game with, there are probably now 20 people in the bar, music is bumpin, some weird Italian kid is profusely throwing unwanted advances at me, Greg is wearing Mandee’s scarf, the bar tender is being carried around on her boss’s back until she is accidentally rammed head first into a line of liquor bottles and is now bleeding from the head, etc etc. As you can see, by the time we left it was a bit of a different atmosphere than when we had arrived. As we descend the metro escalator there is music blasting in the station. Some kids had figured out how to hook their ipod up to the train announcement system and play their music for everyone’s enjoyment. Not to mention this electrical box they were using is located ON the tracks of the train. Complete and utter madness/ yet the most baller thing I have ever witnessed. This pretty much sums up the night and hopefully gives you a good picture of what Vienna had to offer us. Yea we did 1 or 2 touristy things but this vaca was more about expanding our stomachs than expanding our knowledge. I have never laughed so much in my life and this has solidified the fact that the more awkward and random an experience is, the more fun it is.
Side note: On Friday night we met these Australian girls that were traveling in Vienna as well and they took us to the smokiest, grungiest, most dungeon like pub I have ever been to in my life. We ended up like 3 stories underground where the cigarette smoke had penetrated everything so deeply that I could not breathe, let alone open my eyes.
Synopsis 2:
Four of the girls and I were looking for more of a nature adventure and decided to hike Mount Parnitha. A good portion of this mountain had been ruined by a forest fire about 4 years ago but we decided to check it out anyway. So instead of taking the bus that comes every like 5 hours we decided to walk to the cable car that takes you up the mountain. Bah. Little did we know that this meant hiking alongside/on the highway where cars came speeding at breakneck speeds around blind curves. Hmm... in hindsight, maybe we should have taken the bus. Despite jumping into the bushes every now and again the hike up was beautiful. Everything was so green and luscious which is something that Athens lacks. The air was fresh, I could walk on grass, and run through the trees.
Arrive at tram and take it to the casino that is located at the top of the mountain. You have to walk through the casino to get to the national forest. Very interesting. Let me drop 400 bones real quick before I go for this hike...
Exit the casino, enter the great abyss. We are legit in the clouds. I can’t see more than 20 feet ahead of me, there is a constant light rain misting my face. We are told that the trails are too dangerous because of all of the fog, so our other option is to hike on the road again. Ok, guess we survived the first time, why not push our luck again. As we venture down the road we agree that we are definitely in a place that looks like the aftermath of the end of the world. The fire has ravaged every last beautiful, luscious piece of green on the top of this mountain and has left behind charred tree trunks, chalky white rocks, and minimal burnt orange foliage. Even though the top of the mountain was straight out of the Sleepy Hollow movie I loved exploring up there. As we off roaded into the thick fog we never knew what was coming next. It was super quiet and peaceful. We saw gigantic red deer and billy goats in the misty distance. For some reason we decided that we could hike down the whole mountain. Boy were we sorely mistaken. That shit was huge. We weren’t even a quarter of the way down the mountain and it was beginning to get freezing, rain harder, and our feet hurt from the multiple hours of hiking. Hmmm.... let’s just say we found the best solution possible to this one. But I’ll let you come up with the rest of the story.
Synopsis 3:
A few weekends ago the ladies traveled to Delphi which is about 3 hours North of Athens. It was breathtaking. Such a cute, quaint town with gorgeous views from wherever you were. Every restaurant or cafe had walls made of glass to show off the spectacular view. We took to the streets and just winded our way around the town. We found one of the coolest lookout places I have ever been to. It was one of those moments where you feel like you are on top of the world as the wind swirls around you and you are surrounded by nothing but open valleys, mountains and the rays of the sun. For our night in Delphi we found a small taverna and set out to get some great traditional Greek cuisine. Food was sooooo good! We ordered the spread of food we usually get including Greek salad, tzatziki, giant beans, zucchini balls, tomato balls, and some other stuff I probably can’t remember. After this scrumptious meal we tried 3 different kinds of desserts, one piece of chocolate cake, one piece of cheese cake, and one piece of traditional Greek cake. All of which were absolutely bangin. During dinner we took the liberty to indulge in the house white wine. Three kilos in and many hours to go in the taverna we decided that maybe we weren’t as stuffed as we could be. After chatting and debating the topic for about 40 minutes a sure sign came to us. Our hostel owner had come in and was sitting at the table next to us. As his party was given their food we decided that whatever they got looked scrumptious enough that we had to have a second dinner. We summoned the waiter and said, “whatever that was... we want that. And more zucchini balls, tzatziki....oh and wine.” His response that came with a surprised look, “uhhh.... and water.” Needless to say, we still somehow convinced ourselves to order baklava. God was that fucking good. Homemade, fresh baklava. Greatness. So.... after our 2nd dinner and dessert I begged the waiter to bring our check so that we couldn’t order any more shit. We clearly didn’t need it. After our dinner we found a great jewelry store and spent like an hour too long in there buying stuff I really didn’t need. Awesome nonetheless.
Delphi is known for its ruins of the oracle and temples that were used to worship Apollo. There was an egg shaped concrete ruin that is supposedly thought to be the center of the Earth. It is the place believed to be where Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the Earth and this is the place where they met. As we came to the ruins there was an abundance of tour buses and groups that were getting guided tours. Uhh... what the hell. Let’s latch on to one of these groups until we get bored. This was the first super touristy thing I have done in Greece and so it was weird to be surrounded by such an abundance of old, English speaking Americans. The group that we latched onto had no one under the age of 60 in it. Normally I would try to slink around in the back of the group and blend in... clearly this was not happening as we were 40 years younger than everyone else. He greeted us after about 20 minutes of us being leeches and was like “well.... its not quite legal but...guess it doesn’t matter.” Let’s be honest, those old heads loved us. We were chatting them up left and right and they started cracking jokes. As the tour guide talks about the scripture carved into the stone an older man, Tim (our bud) points to the stone and says something along the lines of “Holy, moly this one says Denver 43- Florida 37. How did they know?” Frankly, it was adorable. God I miss American humor so much sometimes.
Well this about sums up our day and a half in Delphi. NEXT---
Synopsis 4:
So work... hmm. I have to say its been pretty frustrating lately. My school seems to be a little stuck in the stone ages and not willing to implement new things. As I am being given powerpoints and shit to teach I am questioning if I can create my own material that seems to cater to the lesson and is also not quite as ancient. Many times the response is that they have been using that same material for five years and that it works fine. uhhhh... wait a minute. I believe teaching is about adapting material not only for every particular class but also for the times in general. And on another important note I am then confused as to my role in the school. This program was advertised as a way of fusing American and Greek culture. Thus far my American culture hasn’t been taken into account in the classroom, I am told to teach the material created by teachers that are Greek or British. Despite these frustrations I have begun to make relationships with teachers that are willing and excited about getting new ideas and activities out there. Slowly but surely I will be able to put some touches into the classroom and introduce things that I brought over from the US of A.
On another note the kids are awesome. I am with grades 1-6 throughout the day so I get to have very different interactions with the kids. Many times I am able to joke with the older kids. This being said, usually only the students that are very good at English get the jokes. Well... at least I find them funny most the time.
I had one of the kids breakdancing in the middle of the classroom one day. That was priceless. I had felt that need to ask the kids how their weekends were and what they did. This particular kid told me he went to a dance party. I asked him to show me what kind of dance thinking that he would simply stand up and boogie for a second right at his seat. Noooope. He gave us a solid 3 minute break dancing show right there. As he was doing the worm all over the floor in the classroom I was praying that the teacher didn’t walk back in, seeing as that would’ve been hard to explain on the spot. More kid stories to come in future posts.
Synopsis 5:
General thoughts----
Greece, Greece, Greece. The things I have learned about you. Organization might as well be its Achilles heel. None. Anywhere. At. All. When all you need to do is get home, welllll... the metro is closed because they are on strike, the bus has probably broken down and all taxi cabs are somehow full. It really is true that almost everyplace besides America takes much more patience and flexibility. Our house is super ghetto at times. My room became a pond as the bathrooms on either side of my room flooded and crept across the hallway and all the way across my room. That was a nice surprise! Mopping is the worst. I think I would rather vacuum every day than have to mop something up. God knows where the water even came from. It was a mystery for about 2 weeks. The so-called plumbers that came to look at our bathrooms couldn’t even figure it out. Well, I’ll just make sure to keep my rowboat next to my bed just in case.
I have begun to make friends with some true Greekies. It is very nice to have connections with someone that knows where the good stuff is and how things work. My friend has introduced me to a bunch of new places and will hopefully be able to show me much more over the year.
Apparently Flo Rida is coming to a club in Athens on Wednesday and we’re going...Yep! Gonna be awesome!
Ok, this is getting a little long and I am beginning to ramble. Hopefully they will come more frequently so they aren’t long as shit. I will try my best! Going to London this weekend so I am sure that I will have stories from that!
Yassou (bye)
Sooo... read on and you will find out where all of my money has gone....
This blog entry is long over due and so will be the biggest smorgegbourge you will have ever seen.
Synopsis 1:
Were gonna skip a bunch of random Athens chillin and go straight for my trip to Vienna. I hadn’t heard too terribly much about Vienna but the recommendations that I did get led me to believe it is an incredibly bumpin place. We stayed there for 2 1/2 days and probably made visual conformation with about 70 human beings. When we walked around the city looking at the beautiful architecture people sightings were few and far between. When we attempted to find an open bar that had inhabitants on a Saturday night we succeeded in an odd, yet fantastic way. Before I get into this, earlier on Saturday we visited the Nacht Market (which is an open air market that has TONS of the best looking food in the world). We all know I can’t control myself when it comes to good looking food and the 4 other people I was traveling with were thinking along the same lines. We decided that we will take on this market with vengeance and buy every good looking piece of food possible, so as not to miss out on something fantastic. Enter market: sweet croissant topped with custard and fruit, chocolate covered strawberries, every kind of vegetable you could imagine stuffed with creamy cheeses, hummus and bread, pickle (yes! I had been deprived of pickles for far too long), frankfurter, beer, and not to mention taking bites of everyone else’s fantastic food purchases. This goes without saying but I’ll do it anyway, this market was literally like heaven. I would do it again in a heartbeat. The food in general in Vienna was very good. Lots of meat and potatoes which is a big difference from Greece so it was a nice change of pace.
After taking a group nap (getting 5 grown people to lay down in a dorm style hostel room and all take a nap at the same time was an amazing feat) we headed out for the night. Found an awesome restaurant after perusing the streets searching for something that was even open. Had ourselves some goulash, and dumplings. Then went on the hunt for a bar (or I guess even just people). We ended up coming across this cute little sports bar. Despite the fact that it was empty we decided that we were lucky enough to find a functioning bar and forgave the fact that we were literally the only ones in there. After recognizing the fact that shots were only 1.50 we decided that this definitely needed to be taken advantage of. Five hours later (4 am)- there is a giant tree stump in the bar with which people are playing a nail and hammer game with, there are probably now 20 people in the bar, music is bumpin, some weird Italian kid is profusely throwing unwanted advances at me, Greg is wearing Mandee’s scarf, the bar tender is being carried around on her boss’s back until she is accidentally rammed head first into a line of liquor bottles and is now bleeding from the head, etc etc. As you can see, by the time we left it was a bit of a different atmosphere than when we had arrived. As we descend the metro escalator there is music blasting in the station. Some kids had figured out how to hook their ipod up to the train announcement system and play their music for everyone’s enjoyment. Not to mention this electrical box they were using is located ON the tracks of the train. Complete and utter madness/ yet the most baller thing I have ever witnessed. This pretty much sums up the night and hopefully gives you a good picture of what Vienna had to offer us. Yea we did 1 or 2 touristy things but this vaca was more about expanding our stomachs than expanding our knowledge. I have never laughed so much in my life and this has solidified the fact that the more awkward and random an experience is, the more fun it is.
Side note: On Friday night we met these Australian girls that were traveling in Vienna as well and they took us to the smokiest, grungiest, most dungeon like pub I have ever been to in my life. We ended up like 3 stories underground where the cigarette smoke had penetrated everything so deeply that I could not breathe, let alone open my eyes.
Synopsis 2:
Four of the girls and I were looking for more of a nature adventure and decided to hike Mount Parnitha. A good portion of this mountain had been ruined by a forest fire about 4 years ago but we decided to check it out anyway. So instead of taking the bus that comes every like 5 hours we decided to walk to the cable car that takes you up the mountain. Bah. Little did we know that this meant hiking alongside/on the highway where cars came speeding at breakneck speeds around blind curves. Hmm... in hindsight, maybe we should have taken the bus. Despite jumping into the bushes every now and again the hike up was beautiful. Everything was so green and luscious which is something that Athens lacks. The air was fresh, I could walk on grass, and run through the trees.
Arrive at tram and take it to the casino that is located at the top of the mountain. You have to walk through the casino to get to the national forest. Very interesting. Let me drop 400 bones real quick before I go for this hike...
Exit the casino, enter the great abyss. We are legit in the clouds. I can’t see more than 20 feet ahead of me, there is a constant light rain misting my face. We are told that the trails are too dangerous because of all of the fog, so our other option is to hike on the road again. Ok, guess we survived the first time, why not push our luck again. As we venture down the road we agree that we are definitely in a place that looks like the aftermath of the end of the world. The fire has ravaged every last beautiful, luscious piece of green on the top of this mountain and has left behind charred tree trunks, chalky white rocks, and minimal burnt orange foliage. Even though the top of the mountain was straight out of the Sleepy Hollow movie I loved exploring up there. As we off roaded into the thick fog we never knew what was coming next. It was super quiet and peaceful. We saw gigantic red deer and billy goats in the misty distance. For some reason we decided that we could hike down the whole mountain. Boy were we sorely mistaken. That shit was huge. We weren’t even a quarter of the way down the mountain and it was beginning to get freezing, rain harder, and our feet hurt from the multiple hours of hiking. Hmmm.... let’s just say we found the best solution possible to this one. But I’ll let you come up with the rest of the story.
Synopsis 3:
A few weekends ago the ladies traveled to Delphi which is about 3 hours North of Athens. It was breathtaking. Such a cute, quaint town with gorgeous views from wherever you were. Every restaurant or cafe had walls made of glass to show off the spectacular view. We took to the streets and just winded our way around the town. We found one of the coolest lookout places I have ever been to. It was one of those moments where you feel like you are on top of the world as the wind swirls around you and you are surrounded by nothing but open valleys, mountains and the rays of the sun. For our night in Delphi we found a small taverna and set out to get some great traditional Greek cuisine. Food was sooooo good! We ordered the spread of food we usually get including Greek salad, tzatziki, giant beans, zucchini balls, tomato balls, and some other stuff I probably can’t remember. After this scrumptious meal we tried 3 different kinds of desserts, one piece of chocolate cake, one piece of cheese cake, and one piece of traditional Greek cake. All of which were absolutely bangin. During dinner we took the liberty to indulge in the house white wine. Three kilos in and many hours to go in the taverna we decided that maybe we weren’t as stuffed as we could be. After chatting and debating the topic for about 40 minutes a sure sign came to us. Our hostel owner had come in and was sitting at the table next to us. As his party was given their food we decided that whatever they got looked scrumptious enough that we had to have a second dinner. We summoned the waiter and said, “whatever that was... we want that. And more zucchini balls, tzatziki....oh and wine.” His response that came with a surprised look, “uhhh.... and water.” Needless to say, we still somehow convinced ourselves to order baklava. God was that fucking good. Homemade, fresh baklava. Greatness. So.... after our 2nd dinner and dessert I begged the waiter to bring our check so that we couldn’t order any more shit. We clearly didn’t need it. After our dinner we found a great jewelry store and spent like an hour too long in there buying stuff I really didn’t need. Awesome nonetheless.
Delphi is known for its ruins of the oracle and temples that were used to worship Apollo. There was an egg shaped concrete ruin that is supposedly thought to be the center of the Earth. It is the place believed to be where Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the Earth and this is the place where they met. As we came to the ruins there was an abundance of tour buses and groups that were getting guided tours. Uhh... what the hell. Let’s latch on to one of these groups until we get bored. This was the first super touristy thing I have done in Greece and so it was weird to be surrounded by such an abundance of old, English speaking Americans. The group that we latched onto had no one under the age of 60 in it. Normally I would try to slink around in the back of the group and blend in... clearly this was not happening as we were 40 years younger than everyone else. He greeted us after about 20 minutes of us being leeches and was like “well.... its not quite legal but...guess it doesn’t matter.” Let’s be honest, those old heads loved us. We were chatting them up left and right and they started cracking jokes. As the tour guide talks about the scripture carved into the stone an older man, Tim (our bud) points to the stone and says something along the lines of “Holy, moly this one says Denver 43- Florida 37. How did they know?” Frankly, it was adorable. God I miss American humor so much sometimes.
Well this about sums up our day and a half in Delphi. NEXT---
Synopsis 4:
So work... hmm. I have to say its been pretty frustrating lately. My school seems to be a little stuck in the stone ages and not willing to implement new things. As I am being given powerpoints and shit to teach I am questioning if I can create my own material that seems to cater to the lesson and is also not quite as ancient. Many times the response is that they have been using that same material for five years and that it works fine. uhhhh... wait a minute. I believe teaching is about adapting material not only for every particular class but also for the times in general. And on another important note I am then confused as to my role in the school. This program was advertised as a way of fusing American and Greek culture. Thus far my American culture hasn’t been taken into account in the classroom, I am told to teach the material created by teachers that are Greek or British. Despite these frustrations I have begun to make relationships with teachers that are willing and excited about getting new ideas and activities out there. Slowly but surely I will be able to put some touches into the classroom and introduce things that I brought over from the US of A.
On another note the kids are awesome. I am with grades 1-6 throughout the day so I get to have very different interactions with the kids. Many times I am able to joke with the older kids. This being said, usually only the students that are very good at English get the jokes. Well... at least I find them funny most the time.
I had one of the kids breakdancing in the middle of the classroom one day. That was priceless. I had felt that need to ask the kids how their weekends were and what they did. This particular kid told me he went to a dance party. I asked him to show me what kind of dance thinking that he would simply stand up and boogie for a second right at his seat. Noooope. He gave us a solid 3 minute break dancing show right there. As he was doing the worm all over the floor in the classroom I was praying that the teacher didn’t walk back in, seeing as that would’ve been hard to explain on the spot. More kid stories to come in future posts.
Synopsis 5:
General thoughts----
Greece, Greece, Greece. The things I have learned about you. Organization might as well be its Achilles heel. None. Anywhere. At. All. When all you need to do is get home, welllll... the metro is closed because they are on strike, the bus has probably broken down and all taxi cabs are somehow full. It really is true that almost everyplace besides America takes much more patience and flexibility. Our house is super ghetto at times. My room became a pond as the bathrooms on either side of my room flooded and crept across the hallway and all the way across my room. That was a nice surprise! Mopping is the worst. I think I would rather vacuum every day than have to mop something up. God knows where the water even came from. It was a mystery for about 2 weeks. The so-called plumbers that came to look at our bathrooms couldn’t even figure it out. Well, I’ll just make sure to keep my rowboat next to my bed just in case.
I have begun to make friends with some true Greekies. It is very nice to have connections with someone that knows where the good stuff is and how things work. My friend has introduced me to a bunch of new places and will hopefully be able to show me much more over the year.
Apparently Flo Rida is coming to a club in Athens on Wednesday and we’re going...Yep! Gonna be awesome!
Ok, this is getting a little long and I am beginning to ramble. Hopefully they will come more frequently so they aren’t long as shit. I will try my best! Going to London this weekend so I am sure that I will have stories from that!
Yassou (bye)
Thursday, September 23, 2010
An Array of Activities
Yep. The story behind this is below.
Weekend Activities:
Friday night after creating a Greek salad/sausage feast for ourselves, we got all dressed up with clothes from the “Whitney Store” (how she was able to bring that much clothes blows my mind) and then made our way out on the town. We went to the bars in Psiri. First bar we went to was pretty snazzy. We went to the back where there were velvety couches and chairs and these magnificent artistically painted paper lanterns. I forced Mandee to take a picture because I will make those one day. Super simple, super cheap, super cool! Per usual we began dancing in the bar while no one else did but soon Greg was able to round up some troops to dance as well. He has a way of wooing Greeks and other foreigners into conversations and into dancing as well. This skill I will work on. Second bar we went to was TOTALLY empty, yet we stayed anyway. They had a section of the floor lit up from underneath so I am going to say that it the real reason we stayed. I have to admit, its pretty fun to have a whole bar to yourselves. We could just dance and run all over the floor. Soon enough these other foreigners came into the bar. Man #1: Australian, long shaggy blonde hair, button up shit with only the bottom button done, jeans. This man did the scissor dance move ALL NIGHT. He was lovin that light up floor fo’ sure. If you got in his way you would have definitely been punched in the face by accident. Throughout the night his shirt went from one button, to no buttons. (At that point you should probably just take your shirt off so its not flapping around everywhere.) Man #2: forget pretty much everything about him other than he was either from Jersey or had lived there at one point. Anyway, bar #2 was fun and upon leaving we searched for the closest food stop. Luckily it was literally across the street. We got the biggest sandwiches of all time. Huge roll, some kind of ham spread, some other spread, some spicy spread, tomato, chicken, lettuce, onion, carrot, french fries and god knows what else... it was soooooo goooooood! The next day Jimmy goes on to tell me that he wasn’t hungry and that’s why he didn’t get one. I proceed to remind him that he didn’t get one because he ate half of mine by pulling off piece by piece with his grimy fingers. Let’s be honest, probably... and by probably I mean definitely, would have regretted eating that entire thing.
Saturday we went to the beach in Athens. This beach was only about 3 stops down from the beautiful one we had gone to before, except it was wayyyy shittier. The beach was made up of stones rather than sand, we were swimming in legit trash and poop, and people seemed to be stalking us in the water. Other than that, oh, and the mashed potato woman the beach was good. Ok, so this was not in any way a nude beach. As Whitney and I move in the water we notice that a woman who’s back is turned to us in the water is wearing a thong bathing suit. At this moment we also notice that she is not wearing a top. As she leaves the water her ass becomes exposed and looks nothing like what we were prepared for. This woman is very large and we decided that mashed potatoes kind of describes the sight. Don’t get me wrong, I love here that most people are comfortable showing off their bodies. It is very different than America in that way, but this woman took that liberty too far with what she did next. As she laid in her lounge chair, legs spread butterfly style in her little thong, with her arms behind her head I couldn’t even find the words for such a thing. Luckily I was around the back of her chair at this time, but seriously... she had to be tanning the inside of her vagina in this position. No joke. I didn’t go look because that would have been the end of my life as I know it, but the poor guy who’s lounge chair was directly below hers probably got a fantastic view of it. Gets worse. She doesn’t feel comfortable enough in this position and so she proceeds to put her one leg vertical in the air to rest against an umbrella stand. ahhhmmm. WHATTTT! We decided that this woman had to at one point be a prostitute or something with the amount of show boating that she was trying to achieve. She would get out of her chair now and again, walk a few feet down the beach, stand there for a minute and then return to her posish in the chair. Never seen anything like this spectacle in my life. First time for everything I guess.
Later that night, drinks, then Eleni and I crash a 10 year alumni reunion on campus, get some free drinks, eat as much free food as we can, grab the best piece of cake ever in the world and then get kicked out of the party. So to recap, in the last two weeks I have crashed two different private parties and have gotten free cake at both. Boy can I get used to this life or what...
Next day: Festiki Festival (Pistachio Festival) on Aegina Island. An hour ferry ride and we are there. The main street of the Island is lined with little booths selling scrumptious looking goodies made out of pistachios, venders selling T-shirts, and handcrafted jewelry and art. LOVE IT! I bought a few cute pieces of jewelry that will come with the memory of the festival! The Island was very quaint. Horse drawn carriages were being ridden down the main street along the festival tents, people were eating at cafes along the waterfront, the alley ways were colorful and crowded. In my rushed morning pull-together I neglected to bring anything for an island and came only with my camera and money. So, I had to go on a bathing suit search. Here is where I found the most beautiful swim suit I have ever seen. Seeing as most European bathing suits are quite skimpy I decided that I could go one of two ways. A.) I could get so skimpy bathing suit that barely covered my large ass that I would probably never wear again, or B.) I could get a swim suit that would always be remembered and cherished as fucking weird. I chose the latter. I found a one-piece that was only considered a one-piece because of the 3 metal rings that held together the top and bottom of the suit. On top of this, the suit was created with every animal print imaginable and then some. I will provide the picture for full affect. Absolutely absurd and nothing I would buy for real, but at the time it seemed like a sound investment.
Tuesday: My Bday. Welp, as my main Birthday present I received the flu. That morning I woke up with the chills and hot flashes like non-other. All throughout the day at work my head was on fire. Upon getting home at 4:30pm I had a 102.5 degree fever. Fucking shit. Isn’t 103 like when you’re dying!? Awesome. So instead of raging on my Birthday, I slept. I am sure that I will make up for it at some point. The teachers at school were adorable and got me a cake and sang to me during the staff meeting :) I love my boss. She is the best! It was a chocolate cake with cherry middle, vanilla cream type stuff. The presentation was gorgeous. The cake was topped with heaps of shaved chocolate. mmmm mmmm was it good. My fellow fellows made me TP (‘toilet paper’ for those of you that don’t know) signs on my door for my bday and wrote me a cute note. Chris got me some black TP (cool right) and Greg came up big with some green tea and little cakes that night seeing as I couldn’t quite move. They are the best! Anyway, here I am, in bed. Day three of my body slowly crumbling. Hopefully I will be back in action tomorrow. Going to Vienna the first week in October. Gots to be ready for that!!!!!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
And the stories ensue
Ridiculous series of events:
1.) So the other day we went to get a gyro at 12 in the afternoon. Upon choosing some outdoor eating I looked behind Jimmy to find a child, yes A CHILD, with his choice of drinks being a can of beer. Now this is where you would picture a 9 year old boozing amongst his peers, trying to be all badass and such. Alas, this was not the case. He was meerly haveing lunch and some brews with his father and younger brother. Ohhh what a tragedy. I mean I know that they start drinking at an earlier age in Europe but having a straight up beer for yourself when you're nine is madness. I am in a while new world...
2.) While visiting Hydra we made our way to the bar after eating at a Taverna. Of course the bar was a ghost town because no one goes out in Greece until at least 1am. Seeing as we were there and ready to drink at 11pm wwe made the bar our own personal dance club and this is where the madness began to unfold. First of all, our Savina (our savior) puppy from dinner followed us into the bar and was grooving with us on the dance floor. I was legit dancing with a dog in a bar (first time experience, Otis don't get too jealous I still love you the most). It was fan-fuckin-tastic. Despite the fact that we were dancing with a dog, every person that walked by stopped and stared into the bar probably remarking on the ridiculous Americans that are trying to take over their island. So bar is completely empty at 11pm, and then sometime around 2 or 3pm I look around and the place is fucking packed.... when did this happen??? Where did all of these people come from? And when did they get here? All the more solid proof that I literally must have my eyes closed when I am drunk and dancing. Anyway, amongst the late night (or technically early morning) folks that are now inhabiting the bar is A CHILD. What are with these people and their children. Would you bring your 9 year old to a bar/club at 3am?? I mean, I would hope not. At this point I am just flabbergasted. Gets better. Not only was this little girl there basking in the black light coolness and listening to the bumpin music but this girl was gettin down. She was busting a move on the dance floor. At this point I just felt too awkward to be groovin next to an infant in a bar and so retired to the waters edge. But come on now. Dog in a bar-cool. Child in a bar-not so cool.
3.) Its all Greek to me. So, weird but a classroom list comes in Greek. As I get more and more immersed into the Greek educational system I am realizing how shit out of luck I am that I don't know Greek. No, I'll be fine. But really though, it would be fantastic if I could learn some and learn it FAST~ I can't help but feel useless when a First Grader attempts to ask me a question and I can do nothing but laugh at the fact that I have NO idea what they are asking me. I flat out cannot understand these chillens and their Greek. Two days ago in our dining hall (yes we eat at long tables with the kiddies and kind of serve them) a worker came up to me and just started throwing Greek at me. Uhhhhh......nothing. Not even a clue what she was talking about. As I am trying to tell this women that I have no idea what's going on, while meanwhile getting all red and embarrassed and kind of laughing, a 4th grader at my table translates the message for me. "She is asking you if you want food." ohhhh.... well that makes sense. Not everyday that I get saved by a 4th grader. And yet somehow it feels super backwards that she just had to help me out. I believe I am supposed to be the teacher and I can't understand a simple questions like, do you want food. That's awkward. Oh well. I guess I know what it feels like to be an infant again. Pretty lame...
4.) First day of school. I eat cereal at home. Get to school. Go to cantina and get a bangin apple pastry. An hour later in the Teacher's lounge. Someone had twins and brought in homemade spanakopita, other pastries, cake and a honking jug of wine. FUCK YEA. Of course I eat all of that. Someone else's birthday. Brought in huge chocolates. Can't help myself, eat that as well. Sitting on the couches in teacher's lounge. Want to sleep and maybe throw up. Overall first day of work = a success. Day two: pretty much followed the same guidelines. Let's just say good thing its hilly around here because I might weigh 7,000 lbs when I return if I don't work my ass out.
That's all for now.
Food, Beach, Love
Ok so last night, after making a banging stirfry dinner again at our friends apt. where they provided fantastic vegetarian appetizers! We went out to some bars. People are out here until 7am. The night doesn't start until approximately 2am. Its nutssss. So we venture upstairs to this awesome rooftop with a gorgeous open view of the sky, music bumping, blah blah. As we stand there and attempt to kind of dance (no Greeks dance, they just stand around) a waitress comes around with fucking plates of cake. Naturally we snag 2 pieces and it was the best damn cake in the world. So I am in a rooftop bar with a fantastic breeze blowing through my hair, looking up at the gorgeous night sky, eating a piece of FREE chocolate cake, with cookie crumbles and vanilla icing. Could this scenario get any better??? I literally yelled that we must be in heaven. Needless to say after we devoured the cake we pretty much got kicked off of the roof because apparently it was a private party and we didn't look like we belonged. hahaha. yep. awesomeeeeee. We then proceeded to take over the downstairs with our dancing. Which turned into dancing on couches and chairs, which turned into Clair shattering a glass which was pretttttty embarrassing. That is such a typical case of "ughhh stupid Americans again. Fucking things up." Anyway, the night ended around 5am. Needless to say I am quite tired as I sip freshly squeezed OJ in my bed.
We went to a beach on Friday with Mandee, Whit and Jimmy. It was so lovely and relaxing. Took an awesome beach nap and woke up to the sunsetting over the water. I strolled down the beach by myself looking for pieces of sea glass. Walking down the beach is my favorite time in the whole world. I just feel so alive next to the waves washing in and the sand between my toes. As I strolled back I was about to pass a small wrinkly old man in his black speedo but when I looked up he was holding a beautiful shell out for me. Clearly we didn't speak the same language so I tried to motion if he was just showing me or if he wanted me to take it. Eventually we figured it out and I took the shell from him as he gave me a little smile. It was the most honest, adorable thing I have ever experienced. I will keep that shell forever as I feel like it will remind me of all of the good in the world. It was a universal sign of kindness and care.
The older people that we have come upon have been more than kind. Our hotel owner in Hydra was the sweetest older woman. She kept telling us we were beautiful and that we needed to be careful. She showed us the way to get to and from the hotel because god knows that entire place looking the same. Winding alleys with steep cobblestone stairways, white washed houses with the same gorgeous pink flowers bursting out of their roofs. That night coming back from the bar on the water Eleni, Mandee and I got lost for a solid half hour. I rarely ever can't figure out my surroundings but I have to say if I had been by myself I NEVER would have made it back to the hotel. I couldn't recognize a single familiar thing in the dark. Our "Savina" or savior puppy, followed us home, warding off the hoards of stray cats, as well as, making sure to terrify a few on the way up. Eventually we found our way and made it back to our quaint little hotel which had air conditioning yeaaaaa. That morning, Mandee and I got up and went for an explanation. We hiked up and up and up and eventually made it to the other side of the island. The views were breathtaking. The island was made mostly of the cobble stone and of dirt. Greece has a minimal amount of grass. I have found that to be something that I am missing dearly. Their "parks" and "forests" are barren areas, full of stones and dead weeds. Its just so dry here that nothing can grow besides pines and certain flowering plants.
I am slowly but surely learning some Greek. To be honest though after I am told a word it goes in one ear and out the other. I need to repeat repeat repeat. I have to initiate my own learning in this area because our Greek lessons don't start until October. So I have to start making sure I learn a few words each day. I asked where the bathroom was in Greek the other day, only to have him spew back multiple directions in Greek. Dammit. Well, I am half way there... Pointing got the job done directionally.
Yesterday we were going to go on a trip to hot springs and a lake. We got started so late and the weather looked ominous so we eventually decided to just explore Athens. We walked the streets in the pouring rain, waded through murky street waters with our blistered feet, threw grapes at one another, ate popcorn under a street venders umbrella, watched an old woman demand that a stray dog stay under a covering so that he did not get cold and wet, and almost got robbed. As we walked out of the metro a couple behind me attempted to open my backpack, which I have to be honest is not easy to open... my neighbor (yeetoeneesamou) had my back though and screamed at them. Cursed them out in English, Greek, Spanish, pretty much anything available at the time. The couple pretty much bolted under their scarf. No reaction or apology so we decided that, yes, they were definitely trying to rob me. Wake up call for sure. Sometimes I get lazy about holding my backpack in front of me because I feel like its difficult to get into, but now I know.
Anyway, work starts tomorrow. I am excited and nervous. I hope that they use me well in their classrooms. I do not want to be stuck doing bitch work the entire time or sitting bored at my desk either. I want to have jobs and projects and certain kids to work with. Nothing bothers me more than sitting around when I could be doing something useful. Tomorrow is apparently a lot of ceremonial stuff and not so much in the classroom. I apparently sit and observe for a week or two in the beginning and then am introduced into the classroom after that. I'll let ya know how that goes!
I met up with Dora, our family friends Greek cousin this week! It was a lot of fun and she is a very sweet girl. She said that she can speak German better than English, but I had no German to offer her. So we sat and chatted for about 3 hours at this gorgeous and awesome bar/cafe. This place was in the middle of a park that had trees and grass (yes grass!). It was a gigantic place with table outside in the grass, on wooden decks, spot lighting, music blaring, canopies hanging in the trees. It was just such a different place than I have ever been to. I am definitely going back there. I am hoping to learn some Greek with her. Sitting and speaking in Greek, forcing me to use it or struggle through it will help. I want to assimilate myself more than I was able to in Ghana. I want to be able to speak to some Greek people. Pick their brains. Its not going to come easily or quickly and I am sure that it is going to be frustrating. Annnnnyway, must get up and moving for the day. More to come soon. Miss you guys at home!
xoxo
p.s.- food wise... had the most bangin crepes and gyros EVER this week. Crepe full of Nutella, caramel and cookie crumbs. Gyro from Grill and Pita. Biggest and best. mmmm, mmmmmm. Also went to Taverna with a 10 Euro student deal. All you can eat. The dishes just overflow your table one after another.
We went to a beach on Friday with Mandee, Whit and Jimmy. It was so lovely and relaxing. Took an awesome beach nap and woke up to the sunsetting over the water. I strolled down the beach by myself looking for pieces of sea glass. Walking down the beach is my favorite time in the whole world. I just feel so alive next to the waves washing in and the sand between my toes. As I strolled back I was about to pass a small wrinkly old man in his black speedo but when I looked up he was holding a beautiful shell out for me. Clearly we didn't speak the same language so I tried to motion if he was just showing me or if he wanted me to take it. Eventually we figured it out and I took the shell from him as he gave me a little smile. It was the most honest, adorable thing I have ever experienced. I will keep that shell forever as I feel like it will remind me of all of the good in the world. It was a universal sign of kindness and care.
The older people that we have come upon have been more than kind. Our hotel owner in Hydra was the sweetest older woman. She kept telling us we were beautiful and that we needed to be careful. She showed us the way to get to and from the hotel because god knows that entire place looking the same. Winding alleys with steep cobblestone stairways, white washed houses with the same gorgeous pink flowers bursting out of their roofs. That night coming back from the bar on the water Eleni, Mandee and I got lost for a solid half hour. I rarely ever can't figure out my surroundings but I have to say if I had been by myself I NEVER would have made it back to the hotel. I couldn't recognize a single familiar thing in the dark. Our "Savina" or savior puppy, followed us home, warding off the hoards of stray cats, as well as, making sure to terrify a few on the way up. Eventually we found our way and made it back to our quaint little hotel which had air conditioning yeaaaaa. That morning, Mandee and I got up and went for an explanation. We hiked up and up and up and eventually made it to the other side of the island. The views were breathtaking. The island was made mostly of the cobble stone and of dirt. Greece has a minimal amount of grass. I have found that to be something that I am missing dearly. Their "parks" and "forests" are barren areas, full of stones and dead weeds. Its just so dry here that nothing can grow besides pines and certain flowering plants.
I am slowly but surely learning some Greek. To be honest though after I am told a word it goes in one ear and out the other. I need to repeat repeat repeat. I have to initiate my own learning in this area because our Greek lessons don't start until October. So I have to start making sure I learn a few words each day. I asked where the bathroom was in Greek the other day, only to have him spew back multiple directions in Greek. Dammit. Well, I am half way there... Pointing got the job done directionally.
Yesterday we were going to go on a trip to hot springs and a lake. We got started so late and the weather looked ominous so we eventually decided to just explore Athens. We walked the streets in the pouring rain, waded through murky street waters with our blistered feet, threw grapes at one another, ate popcorn under a street venders umbrella, watched an old woman demand that a stray dog stay under a covering so that he did not get cold and wet, and almost got robbed. As we walked out of the metro a couple behind me attempted to open my backpack, which I have to be honest is not easy to open... my neighbor (yeetoeneesamou) had my back though and screamed at them. Cursed them out in English, Greek, Spanish, pretty much anything available at the time. The couple pretty much bolted under their scarf. No reaction or apology so we decided that, yes, they were definitely trying to rob me. Wake up call for sure. Sometimes I get lazy about holding my backpack in front of me because I feel like its difficult to get into, but now I know.
Anyway, work starts tomorrow. I am excited and nervous. I hope that they use me well in their classrooms. I do not want to be stuck doing bitch work the entire time or sitting bored at my desk either. I want to have jobs and projects and certain kids to work with. Nothing bothers me more than sitting around when I could be doing something useful. Tomorrow is apparently a lot of ceremonial stuff and not so much in the classroom. I apparently sit and observe for a week or two in the beginning and then am introduced into the classroom after that. I'll let ya know how that goes!
I met up with Dora, our family friends Greek cousin this week! It was a lot of fun and she is a very sweet girl. She said that she can speak German better than English, but I had no German to offer her. So we sat and chatted for about 3 hours at this gorgeous and awesome bar/cafe. This place was in the middle of a park that had trees and grass (yes grass!). It was a gigantic place with table outside in the grass, on wooden decks, spot lighting, music blaring, canopies hanging in the trees. It was just such a different place than I have ever been to. I am definitely going back there. I am hoping to learn some Greek with her. Sitting and speaking in Greek, forcing me to use it or struggle through it will help. I want to assimilate myself more than I was able to in Ghana. I want to be able to speak to some Greek people. Pick their brains. Its not going to come easily or quickly and I am sure that it is going to be frustrating. Annnnnyway, must get up and moving for the day. More to come soon. Miss you guys at home!
xoxo
p.s.- food wise... had the most bangin crepes and gyros EVER this week. Crepe full of Nutella, caramel and cookie crumbs. Gyro from Grill and Pita. Biggest and best. mmmm, mmmmmm. Also went to Taverna with a 10 Euro student deal. All you can eat. The dishes just overflow your table one after another.
Monday, August 30, 2010
The Arrival
As I sit in bed right now unable to sleep at 3am I am a little overwhelmed with all of the changes in the last 24-48 hours. My body doesn't know what is day and what is night... can't decide if sleep won't come because of that or because I am terrified of getting eaten alive by buggies. We all know my history with bugs and the windows here are a little on the sketchy side if I do say so myself. Other than my inability to decide when to sleep I think that I am going to love it here. So far it has seemed very easy to get around here, although I do feel slightly arrogant and helpless not knowing really any Greek. Hopefully we'll have some crash course lessons on useful phrases soon, because all I know right now is vocab that I will not be using on the reg. Although.... one of my roommates and I were going through a pile of stuff left by other fellows and found an old quiz. Surprisingly I could translate the whole first sentence! SCORE! Rosetta stone helped with something! The house is full of ancient books, papers, and little surprises. Its truly like a garage sale in here! Good for the digging.
The signs here are very overwhelming. So many letters that I don't know how to pronounce and some of their words seem to stretch on FOREVER! At dinner we ordered fried zucchini balls (which were bangin) and the translation in Greek literally had a name that contained 20 characters. That's where I draw the line... Wine is super cheap here. You can get a giant pitcher (or at least giant for 2 people to polish off) for 7 Euro. I have a feeling dinners will usually be communal which is fantastic. This allows more tastings of random stuff! Feta Feta Feta. yum yum is all I have to say.
Between unpacking and trying to figure out if I was tired and/or hungry I managed to forget things when we were going out...approximately 12 times. Let's be honest, I usually end up running back inside to get something at home, but today was pretttttty bad. I took money out to bring, left it on the bed. I wanted to bring my backpack to the store, after already running back into my room for water and sunglasses, I succeeded in leaving without my bag. Not making a great first impression concerning organization.... anyhow, this is getting very random and doesn't contain too much exciting info, so I am going to wrap it up. Adio.
-p.s.- My chair on the airplane was broken and did not recline. I very much enjoy the more than vertical seats of the airplane for a good 10 hours... U.S. Airways apparently is NOT the way to go, broken seats, no personal TV's, mean flight attendant, the worksssss
The signs here are very overwhelming. So many letters that I don't know how to pronounce and some of their words seem to stretch on FOREVER! At dinner we ordered fried zucchini balls (which were bangin) and the translation in Greek literally had a name that contained 20 characters. That's where I draw the line... Wine is super cheap here. You can get a giant pitcher (or at least giant for 2 people to polish off) for 7 Euro. I have a feeling dinners will usually be communal which is fantastic. This allows more tastings of random stuff! Feta Feta Feta. yum yum is all I have to say.
Between unpacking and trying to figure out if I was tired and/or hungry I managed to forget things when we were going out...approximately 12 times. Let's be honest, I usually end up running back inside to get something at home, but today was pretttttty bad. I took money out to bring, left it on the bed. I wanted to bring my backpack to the store, after already running back into my room for water and sunglasses, I succeeded in leaving without my bag. Not making a great first impression concerning organization.... anyhow, this is getting very random and doesn't contain too much exciting info, so I am going to wrap it up. Adio.
-p.s.- My chair on the airplane was broken and did not recline. I very much enjoy the more than vertical seats of the airplane for a good 10 hours... U.S. Airways apparently is NOT the way to go, broken seats, no personal TV's, mean flight attendant, the worksssss
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