Today, I worked on my paper. When that got boring, I worked on my study guide. In the evening, Katlynn and I went on a run. After, we did abs on the track. There was actually a cloud of small flies around us specifically. My clothing now has several black smears on it and my skin had many more. It was very uncomfortable. At 8, we had a review session for the test. Then, I worked on my paper. It is now finished, although I plan on proofreading it tomorrow when my brain is not fried.
I have yet to start packing and it is currently 1 am on Sunday night and we leave Tuesday morning at 7am and I still have a final. In preparation for leaving, I haven't bought any food in about two weeks. This means I am down to one yogurt, two pumpkin seeds and a teaspoon of walnuts. Literally. I also had three almonds this morning, but I ate them. I feel like my food cabinet is a physical representation of my bank account haha. Fortunately for my stomach, at least, I take several oranges a day from the cafeteria and Tina has a veritable grocery store in her room, so I've still had some snacks.
Boring, I know. Trust me haha
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Working on my paper
Today was pretty sweet. I woke up, skyped with Emily, worked on my paper, went to my LAST Greek/Albanian class, ate lunch, worked on my paper, went on a short jog, ate dinner, and then worked on my paper. I'm writing this as a break from writing my paper before I go back to... working on my paper. Hopefully I will finish up with the 10 pages tonight, and tomorrow I will wake up and write my 12-point study guide for Greek/Albanian history (and then memorize it all). I suppose I should qualify the statement "working on my paper." That can be defined as reading probably 15 30-page articles relating to Albanian immigration and the Greek economy, taking notes, and then writing.
Less than 48 hours until I am done with school!
Less than 48 hours until I am done with school!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Silver and Wine
Welll today we went on probably the oddest field trip. First we drove to a winery about an hour away, where the extremely nice owner gave us a tour of the wine-making process. We saw some cool bottling machines, many gigantic vats of wine, and a cellar where the wine sits in barrels for one to two years, I think, and then bottles for 6 months more. The winery itself was also in a beautiful location, so the upstairs showroom had a fabulous view. We didn't get to sample any wine, most people were disappointing about, but oh well.
Then, we drove back toward town and went to a silver shop. It was literally the basement of a family's house, but they had a variety of silver trimming and shaping machines and many products from which we collectively bought a substantial number of items. We weren't there too long since it was tiny, but it was also interesting.
After, we headed into town for lunch. We ate at a restaurant by the lake, which was very pretty. First we had good bread, Greek salad and feta, and then we had a goofy looking entree: a small scoop of rice, some thick french fries, a lemon slice, and little meat roll, which were chicken wrapped in bacon. It was the BEST FOOD I have had in Greece! Everything was enjoyable, but the meat was absolutely phenomenal. I'm definitely going back again to eat it before we leave on Tuesday. And, since my group is full of weirdly picky eaters, a lot of people had some leftovers so I got more than my share :)
The rest of my day was spent doing research and writing my paper. I went on a run in the evening after I got bored and at the track there was a dad with his two little sons riding bikes around the track while he ran with them. I've seen lots of kids here before, and I though I would comment on how much I enjoy the fact that the University track is definitely a community space. I think most of the people who use it actually aren't students.
This is probably the last semi-interesting blog post for a few days... Bring on the studying!
Love Alex
Then, we drove back toward town and went to a silver shop. It was literally the basement of a family's house, but they had a variety of silver trimming and shaping machines and many products from which we collectively bought a substantial number of items. We weren't there too long since it was tiny, but it was also interesting.
After, we headed into town for lunch. We ate at a restaurant by the lake, which was very pretty. First we had good bread, Greek salad and feta, and then we had a goofy looking entree: a small scoop of rice, some thick french fries, a lemon slice, and little meat roll, which were chicken wrapped in bacon. It was the BEST FOOD I have had in Greece! Everything was enjoyable, but the meat was absolutely phenomenal. I'm definitely going back again to eat it before we leave on Tuesday. And, since my group is full of weirdly picky eaters, a lot of people had some leftovers so I got more than my share :)
The rest of my day was spent doing research and writing my paper. I went on a run in the evening after I got bored and at the track there was a dad with his two little sons riding bikes around the track while he ran with them. I've seen lots of kids here before, and I though I would comment on how much I enjoy the fact that the University track is definitely a community space. I think most of the people who use it actually aren't students.
This is probably the last semi-interesting blog post for a few days... Bring on the studying!
Love Alex
Thursday, May 27, 2010
busy day
Today we had our second to last class in Greek. We went over our final and our teacher was not terribly happy with our performance but I still feel like I did pretty well. Then she totally shifted gears and got very happy and asked us what we like best about Greece and the people and the sites.
After, we had dance class, during which we went over every dance we've learned (I was surprised at how many we've done). Meanwhile, Taso videotaped the whole performance, with many close-up shots of our faces, which was slightly awkward. Everyone was exhausted so I'm pretty sure we all look either angry or zoned out. I enjoyed it though; I feel like we made some progress in the general area of traditional Greek dances.
I spent the afternoon doing research for my paper. The UW library online database/subscriptions are quite amazing.
In Greek/Albanian class, we are now up to the 1980s. He did two lectures in one since yesterday was canceled, and we have one more to make up so we have class at noon on Saturday... Not too excited about that one, but all I'll be doing this weekend is homework anyway, so it's not too big of a problem.
Slight history lesson, so the next story will make sense... There is Greece, and there is Albania, as you probably know. However, the southern part of Albania is also called Northern Epirus. This area is mostly filled with people who are ethnically Greek. It's a highly contested place, and is currently a part of Albania, although in the past and to an extent today, people have believed/do believe that it should be part of Greece.
So, with that in mind, class ended 30 minutes early (we went at 2x light speed today...) and we all went into town to the Institute for Research of Northern Epirus. There were two members there, who were both precious old men who didn't speak any English, so Professor Skoulidas translated. There was a lot lost in translation when we asked questions in English and I don't think the man who presented really grasped our questions, but it was interesting nonetheless. I felt like I was at a secret men's society. This is what the front of the main room looked like. It seemed rather like a shrine to me.
After, most of us went to dinner, which was delicous as always. Then we wandered around town for a bit and then headed back to campus. A few of us decided to go see if another concert was happening, since we'd heard there was, so we walked over to the place we went last night. There was another one, with a ton of people. The band wasn't as good though so we didn't stay too long, but it was neat. I brought my camara also, and I'm really pleased with how well it handled the low light.
Also, luckily the school decided to only fumigate the rooms that had major bug bite problems, so I'm able to stay here in the dorm!
Bed time!
Love Alex
After, we had dance class, during which we went over every dance we've learned (I was surprised at how many we've done). Meanwhile, Taso videotaped the whole performance, with many close-up shots of our faces, which was slightly awkward. Everyone was exhausted so I'm pretty sure we all look either angry or zoned out. I enjoyed it though; I feel like we made some progress in the general area of traditional Greek dances.
I spent the afternoon doing research for my paper. The UW library online database/subscriptions are quite amazing.
In Greek/Albanian class, we are now up to the 1980s. He did two lectures in one since yesterday was canceled, and we have one more to make up so we have class at noon on Saturday... Not too excited about that one, but all I'll be doing this weekend is homework anyway, so it's not too big of a problem.
Slight history lesson, so the next story will make sense... There is Greece, and there is Albania, as you probably know. However, the southern part of Albania is also called Northern Epirus. This area is mostly filled with people who are ethnically Greek. It's a highly contested place, and is currently a part of Albania, although in the past and to an extent today, people have believed/do believe that it should be part of Greece.
So, with that in mind, class ended 30 minutes early (we went at 2x light speed today...) and we all went into town to the Institute for Research of Northern Epirus. There were two members there, who were both precious old men who didn't speak any English, so Professor Skoulidas translated. There was a lot lost in translation when we asked questions in English and I don't think the man who presented really grasped our questions, but it was interesting nonetheless. I felt like I was at a secret men's society. This is what the front of the main room looked like. It seemed rather like a shrine to me.
After, most of us went to dinner, which was delicous as always. Then we wandered around town for a bit and then headed back to campus. A few of us decided to go see if another concert was happening, since we'd heard there was, so we walked over to the place we went last night. There was another one, with a ton of people. The band wasn't as good though so we didn't stay too long, but it was neat. I brought my camara also, and I'm really pleased with how well it handled the low light.
Also, luckily the school decided to only fumigate the rooms that had major bug bite problems, so I'm able to stay here in the dorm!
Bed time!
Love Alex
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
A Final Exam, a Quarantine and a Concert
Finally, the last post to catch up! If you're just reading this and want to know what I've done for the last week, look down the page; there are four or five more posts.
This morning, I had my Greek final. Most of the questions were exactly (word for word)the same as the examples we did from the book so that was nice. I finished early so I came back to my room and immediately took a nap for an hour and a half since I had stayed up late studying. I woke up just before Greek/Albanian class, but I shouldn't have bothered, because just as class was going to start, Ioanna and Evi, two of our administrators, came in. When we went to the Pink Palace, several people had bed bug problems, and last night, two of the girls washed out their backpacks and found said bugs in them. So, long conversation short, the university is going to fumigate some, if not all of our rooms and we'll be staying in hotels in town. We're not even supposed to bring a change of clothes. Until then we're not supposed to hang out in eachothers' rooms so we don't spread the bugs. This whole situation would be fine and dandy except that we're supposed to be writing out ten page papers and studying for our final on Monday. Due to this calamity (in the eyes of the university), those who had been bitten had to go see a dermatologist immediately and so class was canceled. I was lucky and had zero bites of any kind. My roommate at the hostel, though, got eaten alive which makes me very nervous. I've washed all my stuff with incredibly hot water and/or put it through the washer and dryer, but you never know.
I spent my extended afternoon researching for my paper, and then I went on a run around campus and to the track. There were a few legitimate track athletes there practicing, which was incredibly; they were 200 m sprinters and they were SO fast. We went up to dinner after, and unfortunately it was seafood night: octopus (legs complete with suction cups) in pasta or squid on rice. They did have feta, bread and huge oranges, though, so it wasn't too bad. After, we walked down to an outdoor amphitheater that we had seen with some people in it earlier. We discovered that there was a concert happening so decided to stay for a while. We felt incredibly out of place since we were still wearing running clothes and carrying oranges from dinner, but the concert was totally worth it. The amphitheater, like everything on campus, was covered in graffiti, but they brought in a whole sound and lighting system and had 5 performers who were excellent. They played half American music and half Greek music, and we really enjoyed the experience. Supposedly this sort of thing is just getting started since it's getting to be nice outside, so I hope we can see more things like that before we leave (next Tuesday; I can't believe it's so soon!). On that weather note: it's nice that Greeks finally consider it to be spring; other students are starting to wear shorts, t-shirts and bright colors instead of coats and jeans every day. We still stand out, but not quite as much.
Love Alex
This morning, I had my Greek final. Most of the questions were exactly (word for word)the same as the examples we did from the book so that was nice. I finished early so I came back to my room and immediately took a nap for an hour and a half since I had stayed up late studying. I woke up just before Greek/Albanian class, but I shouldn't have bothered, because just as class was going to start, Ioanna and Evi, two of our administrators, came in. When we went to the Pink Palace, several people had bed bug problems, and last night, two of the girls washed out their backpacks and found said bugs in them. So, long conversation short, the university is going to fumigate some, if not all of our rooms and we'll be staying in hotels in town. We're not even supposed to bring a change of clothes. Until then we're not supposed to hang out in eachothers' rooms so we don't spread the bugs. This whole situation would be fine and dandy except that we're supposed to be writing out ten page papers and studying for our final on Monday. Due to this calamity (in the eyes of the university), those who had been bitten had to go see a dermatologist immediately and so class was canceled. I was lucky and had zero bites of any kind. My roommate at the hostel, though, got eaten alive which makes me very nervous. I've washed all my stuff with incredibly hot water and/or put it through the washer and dryer, but you never know.
I spent my extended afternoon researching for my paper, and then I went on a run around campus and to the track. There were a few legitimate track athletes there practicing, which was incredibly; they were 200 m sprinters and they were SO fast. We went up to dinner after, and unfortunately it was seafood night: octopus (legs complete with suction cups) in pasta or squid on rice. They did have feta, bread and huge oranges, though, so it wasn't too bad. After, we walked down to an outdoor amphitheater that we had seen with some people in it earlier. We discovered that there was a concert happening so decided to stay for a while. We felt incredibly out of place since we were still wearing running clothes and carrying oranges from dinner, but the concert was totally worth it. The amphitheater, like everything on campus, was covered in graffiti, but they brought in a whole sound and lighting system and had 5 performers who were excellent. They played half American music and half Greek music, and we really enjoyed the experience. Supposedly this sort of thing is just getting started since it's getting to be nice outside, so I hope we can see more things like that before we leave (next Tuesday; I can't believe it's so soon!). On that weather note: it's nice that Greeks finally consider it to be spring; other students are starting to wear shorts, t-shirts and bright colors instead of coats and jeans every day. We still stand out, but not quite as much.
Love Alex
Rafting!
On Tuesday, we had some class and then we went white water rafting!! I was actually on the fence about going since I was still very tired and felt like I should study for my Greek final which was on Wednesday, but I'm extremely glad I went. It was an extremely legit company; we got wetsuits, jackets and booties in addition to the life jackets and helmets. I was in a boat with 5 other girls and we had a great guide. The river wasn't particularly crazy, but the scenery was GORGEOUS. I was totally blown away. I didn't have my camera, but another girl had hers since it's waterproof so I'll try to add a picture or two. The river was in a valley formed by huge majestic mountains and at one point we went through this incredibly canyon. There was also a cave at one point on the side of the river, which jutted into the bank and the roof was mostly roots and dirt, which filtered water, so it "always rains" there, according to our guide. He told us to try the water, so I did. I hope I don't get giardia, but it was excellent water. In the canyon, there was another spot where we tried the water, but this was a small whole in the wall which seemed like a spigot. Leaning out of the boat and drinking the water was challenging, but satisfying.
The best part of the day, though, was when we pulled up on a shore halfway down the river and walked back up a stream to a waterfall in a small canyon (if you know Steve, I felt like I was living his life haha). Due to the shape of the canyon, the water was like a whirlpool and we all crowded in and were yelling and screaming with delight. The water was freezing, but this was one of the coolest things I've ever done. It reminded me of the waterfall that we hiked to in the Amazon in Ecuador. This one was cooler (in both senses of the word), but everyone enjoyed both waterfalls SO much :)
When we reached a calm part of the river, our guide told us we could go swimming. First, two of us jumped out, and then another, and another, and another. He started to help us back in and then we tried to help each other but none of us are that strong and our many failed attempts were absolutely hilarious. The boat with the camera was luckily nearby, so I believe they got some good pictures.
We finished soon after, and spent 45 minutes drying off in the sun at a small cafe randomly out in the middle of a mountain valley. There were also some historic buildings/bridges nearby, I think, which could account for its placement.
The best part of the day, though, was when we pulled up on a shore halfway down the river and walked back up a stream to a waterfall in a small canyon (if you know Steve, I felt like I was living his life haha). Due to the shape of the canyon, the water was like a whirlpool and we all crowded in and were yelling and screaming with delight. The water was freezing, but this was one of the coolest things I've ever done. It reminded me of the waterfall that we hiked to in the Amazon in Ecuador. This one was cooler (in both senses of the word), but everyone enjoyed both waterfalls SO much :)
When we reached a calm part of the river, our guide told us we could go swimming. First, two of us jumped out, and then another, and another, and another. He started to help us back in and then we tried to help each other but none of us are that strong and our many failed attempts were absolutely hilarious. The boat with the camera was luckily nearby, so I believe they got some good pictures.
We finished soon after, and spent 45 minutes drying off in the sun at a small cafe randomly out in the middle of a mountain valley. There were also some historic buildings/bridges nearby, I think, which could account for its placement.
Corfu
Well after getting back to the dorm closer to 3 am, everyone chatted for a while and then I showered, packed and had 45 minutes until I was going to get up, so I watched a House episode (I'm on season 4 now) and the "got up", go ready, and made it down to the lobby at 6am to head to Corfu. Miraculously, everyone else did too and we walked up to the hospital, which has a taxi station. Of course we had 21 people and there was only one taxi. Then a second one came. Eventually a third came... But no more. We tried calling to ask for two more but that was unsuccessful. We found some Greek speakers who helped us call two more, but the clock was definitely ticking and our bus was going to leave at 7am from the station downtown. Luckily, they came and we made it to the station with about 3 minutes to spare. There were still plenty of tickets and the bus, true to Greek time, didn't leave until about 7:10.
I would make some comment about the beautiful countryside but I passed out for the whole bus ride and woke up when we reached Igoumenitsa, where we caught a ferry right away to head to Corfu. I then took a second lovely nap for the duration of the ferry ride, as did every other person in my group.
We reached Corfu town and were met by the bus driver for our hostel. Corfu is beautiful; it's also sort of close to Italy so there is definitely an Italian influence in the architecture, although it still feels Greek. Unfortunately due to my exhaustion and the bus windows being not conducive to photography, I have no pictures.
We checked into the Pink Palace; at the high season it can supposedly handle 700 people a night, but fortunately there were only 80 or so there with us.
The location of the hostel was really nice but definitely the best part of the weekend was getting to hang out with the other kids on the program. Unfortunately not everyone was there; a few people stayed in Ioannina, a few people went to a different hostel, and two people went and stayed with some extended family on Corfu. But, we still had 16 of us. This is a few of the girls with our togas and, the next night, an attempt to fit all of us on a very small balcony.
During the weekend, we laid out on the beach a lot; you probably won't recognize me when I come home because I will look African. I was planning on going ATV riding with a group of people, but four of us got cold feet after listening to all the instructions, so we had a lovely lunch down the beach (and ON the beach) at a little restaurant with extremely nice staff.
Monday was a holiday here in Greece, which is why we had time for this trip. We had to check at out 9am, which was a challenge, but that gave us a few hours to enjoy the beach before heading home. There was a perfect blue sky which was extremely pleasant.
We successfully navigated getting back to the city, catching a ferry, and finding the bus station in Igoumenitsa. The bus took a different route and the trip was fortunately just over an hour. Even better was the fact that someone else asked the bus driver to stop near the university (which is right in between the interstate and the bus station down town) so we didn't have to deal with busing or taxi-ing back to school.
In addition to being a holiday, Monday was also my roommate's birthday, so 5 of us decided to go to the Italian restaurant just down the road. Unfortunately, it started pouring as soon as we got back to the dorms, so we decided to call a cab. Describing our location was extremely challenging, but eventually he came. But, we had 5 people, so we had to argue a little bit to have him take us. Then, we drove for THREE minutes to the restaurant, and he charged us EIGHT euros (which is almost $12, although with the current exchange rate it's better than when we first got here!). Regardless, we were not pleased. Dinner was delicious though, and we walked next door to the dessert bakery/ice cream parlor for dessert, obviously, which was similarly excellent.
I would make some comment about the beautiful countryside but I passed out for the whole bus ride and woke up when we reached Igoumenitsa, where we caught a ferry right away to head to Corfu. I then took a second lovely nap for the duration of the ferry ride, as did every other person in my group.
We reached Corfu town and were met by the bus driver for our hostel. Corfu is beautiful; it's also sort of close to Italy so there is definitely an Italian influence in the architecture, although it still feels Greek. Unfortunately due to my exhaustion and the bus windows being not conducive to photography, I have no pictures.
We checked into the Pink Palace; at the high season it can supposedly handle 700 people a night, but fortunately there were only 80 or so there with us.
The location of the hostel was really nice but definitely the best part of the weekend was getting to hang out with the other kids on the program. Unfortunately not everyone was there; a few people stayed in Ioannina, a few people went to a different hostel, and two people went and stayed with some extended family on Corfu. But, we still had 16 of us. This is a few of the girls with our togas and, the next night, an attempt to fit all of us on a very small balcony.
During the weekend, we laid out on the beach a lot; you probably won't recognize me when I come home because I will look African. I was planning on going ATV riding with a group of people, but four of us got cold feet after listening to all the instructions, so we had a lovely lunch down the beach (and ON the beach) at a little restaurant with extremely nice staff.
Monday was a holiday here in Greece, which is why we had time for this trip. We had to check at out 9am, which was a challenge, but that gave us a few hours to enjoy the beach before heading home. There was a perfect blue sky which was extremely pleasant.
We successfully navigated getting back to the city, catching a ferry, and finding the bus station in Igoumenitsa. The bus took a different route and the trip was fortunately just over an hour. Even better was the fact that someone else asked the bus driver to stop near the university (which is right in between the interstate and the bus station down town) so we didn't have to deal with busing or taxi-ing back to school.
In addition to being a holiday, Monday was also my roommate's birthday, so 5 of us decided to go to the Italian restaurant just down the road. Unfortunately, it started pouring as soon as we got back to the dorms, so we decided to call a cab. Describing our location was extremely challenging, but eventually he came. But, we had 5 people, so we had to argue a little bit to have him take us. Then, we drove for THREE minutes to the restaurant, and he charged us EIGHT euros (which is almost $12, although with the current exchange rate it's better than when we first got here!). Regardless, we were not pleased. Dinner was delicious though, and we walked next door to the dessert bakery/ice cream parlor for dessert, obviously, which was similarly excellent.
Goodbye Party
This was Friday night, after a field trip to another country. No one was happy about the timing. However, it ended up being on of the best nights so far. We all got dressed up, which was fun. Everyone cleans up well. There is a giant UW grafittied on the side of the cafeteria (well, technically there are three letters, but we just look at the first two). We asked someone to take our group picture, but she didn't quite get the letters in. Here are all the people, though:
Like I mentioned, the event was held above the cafeteria. We were all skeptical, but it turns out that three flights of stairs takes you to a legitimately nice banquet space. We had a gigantic dinner and listened to several speeches in Greek, since this was also the farewell party for all the other international students studying here, who now know Greek, and a few speeches in English about/for us. We also presented our "findings" from all the interviews we've done on defining Greek Identity. We recieved dipolomas (at least I think they are; they're also in Greek) and a gift bag with a book (in...Greek!) and a CD with some of the songs we've heard in lectures and danced to, which I'm very excited for. Then the party started to happen; there were several traditional Greek dance performances, by us and the other students. We sort of messed up on our last song, but Taso came out of NOWHERE and started dancing like a champ in the middle of the circle, which was a complete surprise and very entertaining. After all the presentations, we had a huge dance party and stayed until about 2:30am. All of the teachers left at probably 12, but Ioanna and our two Greek teachers stayed longer and were lots of fun. I wish this had happened as soon as we arrived, because it was a good bonding experience with the international students.
Like I mentioned, the event was held above the cafeteria. We were all skeptical, but it turns out that three flights of stairs takes you to a legitimately nice banquet space. We had a gigantic dinner and listened to several speeches in Greek, since this was also the farewell party for all the other international students studying here, who now know Greek, and a few speeches in English about/for us. We also presented our "findings" from all the interviews we've done on defining Greek Identity. We recieved dipolomas (at least I think they are; they're also in Greek) and a gift bag with a book (in...Greek!) and a CD with some of the songs we've heard in lectures and danced to, which I'm very excited for. Then the party started to happen; there were several traditional Greek dance performances, by us and the other students. We sort of messed up on our last song, but Taso came out of NOWHERE and started dancing like a champ in the middle of the circle, which was a complete surprise and very entertaining. After all the presentations, we had a huge dance party and stayed until about 2:30am. All of the teachers left at probably 12, but Ioanna and our two Greek teachers stayed longer and were lots of fun. I wish this had happened as soon as we arrived, because it was a good bonding experience with the international students.
Albania
I'll start with Albania. Our city is actually very close to the border between Greece and Albania (the drive is only about half an hour) but we weren't sure how crossing would take so we left bright and early at 7:30am. I passed out until we got to our destination, but we made it without any big problems. Once we crossed the border, we were in the "GREEK MINORITY ZONE!" as Professor Skolidas told us many times. The people there are ethnically Greek, but obviously live in the country of Albania.
We then got to Gjirokaster, which reminded me of Esmeraldas, Ecuador on the outskirts (aka pretty ghetto). It got nicer as we approached the downtown, although it still felt more like Ecuador than Greece, which was really enjoyable for me. (I miss Ecuador. I feel like I could go back again; I'm not dying to get home haha). We went to the university there and met with Albanian students, mostly English Literature majors, to talk about Greek-Albanian relations. First we all went in a classroom and some university officials enthusiastically welcomed us. Then we spent 10 or 15 minutes asking some questions about said topic. We've heard a variety of opinions while here in Greece, but while some people don't have a problem with Albanians, many people, especially the older generation, is pretty prejudiced against Albanians.
From what the students said, they had no problems with Greeks but had heard that cousins or extended family members in Greece sometime faced discrimination. Overall, the group said relations are a 7 or an 8 on a scale of one (poor) to ten (excellent). Then, we went to a cafe and talked with students in smaller groups of 4-5. The girls I spoke with were so nice and I really enjoyed talking with them. They say that the Greeks are very hospitable (which is true) but from our (short) experience, the Albanians seem even more hospitable.
While we were waiting for the bus to come pick us up, we saw hundreds of high school seniors cheering and yelling and whistling because they had just graduated that day. They were extremely excited.
After a very long, very windy bus ride through the mountains, which made many people nauseous and one person more than nauseous, we made it to another city which was on the sea and reminded me of Parga, a city we went to a few weeks ago. It was raining but still very picturesque. We had a huge lunch which was pretty good, except for teh chicken. We literally think they took a whole chicken, cut it into slices and served those, so there were all sorts of bone pieces and fat. It was odd. Fortunately, it stopped raining and we convinced our teachers to let us walk around for a short time before heading back to Ioannina. Everything was extremely cheap and I got postcards for a third of the price that I would normally pay.
Then we headed back through the mountains and across the border. I slept for almost all of that, since I had thought to bring a pillow with me, which was infinitely better than napping on the window or attempting to curl up in the fetal position on the seats.
We then got to Gjirokaster, which reminded me of Esmeraldas, Ecuador on the outskirts (aka pretty ghetto). It got nicer as we approached the downtown, although it still felt more like Ecuador than Greece, which was really enjoyable for me. (I miss Ecuador. I feel like I could go back again; I'm not dying to get home haha). We went to the university there and met with Albanian students, mostly English Literature majors, to talk about Greek-Albanian relations. First we all went in a classroom and some university officials enthusiastically welcomed us. Then we spent 10 or 15 minutes asking some questions about said topic. We've heard a variety of opinions while here in Greece, but while some people don't have a problem with Albanians, many people, especially the older generation, is pretty prejudiced against Albanians.
From what the students said, they had no problems with Greeks but had heard that cousins or extended family members in Greece sometime faced discrimination. Overall, the group said relations are a 7 or an 8 on a scale of one (poor) to ten (excellent). Then, we went to a cafe and talked with students in smaller groups of 4-5. The girls I spoke with were so nice and I really enjoyed talking with them. They say that the Greeks are very hospitable (which is true) but from our (short) experience, the Albanians seem even more hospitable.
While we were waiting for the bus to come pick us up, we saw hundreds of high school seniors cheering and yelling and whistling because they had just graduated that day. They were extremely excited.
After a very long, very windy bus ride through the mountains, which made many people nauseous and one person more than nauseous, we made it to another city which was on the sea and reminded me of Parga, a city we went to a few weeks ago. It was raining but still very picturesque. We had a huge lunch which was pretty good, except for teh chicken. We literally think they took a whole chicken, cut it into slices and served those, so there were all sorts of bone pieces and fat. It was odd. Fortunately, it stopped raining and we convinced our teachers to let us walk around for a short time before heading back to Ioannina. Everything was extremely cheap and I got postcards for a third of the price that I would normally pay.
Then we headed back through the mountains and across the border. I slept for almost all of that, since I had thought to bring a pillow with me, which was infinitely better than napping on the window or attempting to curl up in the fetal position on the seats.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Corfu Island
I know my blog posting has been very intermittent of late and unfortunately it's going to stay that way for at least one more day. This weekend I went to the Pink Palace on Corfu, one of the Ionian islands, and had a ton of fun. The highlight was probably the toga party... in hot pink satin togas. We all looked like we were wearing unfortunate bridesmaid dresses. It was extremely entertaining. Our room also overlooked the bay and it was gorgeous. We got lucky with the weather also; most of the online weather reports said it would be rainy but we had sun and blue sky almost the entire time! I am exhausted though and headed to bed. Tomorrow we're going whitewater rafting and on Wednesday we have our Greek final so I think I'll be rather busy but I'll try to write some more soon!
Friday, May 21, 2010
short, but SWEET day
My life has been extremely busy. Today we went to Albania. (I know; a day trip to another country...). It was amazing though. I felt rather like I was back in Ecuador, which was great. Then, we came back and had our farewell party with all the other international students. It was a super nice event with legitimate catered food, presentations, and then a crazy dance party... all in a secret banquet room above the cafeteria! We were there until 2:30 and we're leaving for Corfu, an island off the west coast of Greece, for a three-day weekend, starting at 6am tomorrow morning so we can catch a bus. I will be getting 1 hour of sleep, hence the length of this post.
I'll write out the whole story and add lots of pictures on Monday!
Love Alex
I'll write out the whole story and add lots of pictures on Monday!
Love Alex
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Museum Visit
Yesterday, we went on a field trip to the Archeological Museum in town. The featured exhibit was a coin collection from the time of Alexander the Great. There was an elementary class field trip in that room while we were there, so I didn't get to see much of that exhibit, but I did see some, and I was surprised at how irregular the coins were.
(Most of the pictures I took were through a glass display case so the angles are sort of weird to avoid reflections.)
There was also a good set of permanent exhibits talking about the geography of this region and important archeological sites, that we've actually been to. We learned more about the Necromantion,which was the "gate to the underworld" we went to a few weeks ago, and also more about the history behind the Theatre of Dodoni. I wish we'd been to the museum first so we would have appreciated the historical significance of those places more, but they were still excellent field trips.
Here are a couple more pictures of archeological finds displayed in the museum:
The rest of my day was less exciting; we went back for lunch (eggplant and salad with tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese, which is my favorite lunch!). We also had some more class (we're almost up to modern times in our Greek/Albanian class), and I prepared for an interview, did the interview via webcam (I think it went really well), went on a late-night, moonlit run and studied some Greek.
(Most of the pictures I took were through a glass display case so the angles are sort of weird to avoid reflections.)
There was also a good set of permanent exhibits talking about the geography of this region and important archeological sites, that we've actually been to. We learned more about the Necromantion,which was the "gate to the underworld" we went to a few weeks ago, and also more about the history behind the Theatre of Dodoni. I wish we'd been to the museum first so we would have appreciated the historical significance of those places more, but they were still excellent field trips.
Here are a couple more pictures of archeological finds displayed in the museum:
The rest of my day was less exciting; we went back for lunch (eggplant and salad with tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese, which is my favorite lunch!). We also had some more class (we're almost up to modern times in our Greek/Albanian class), and I prepared for an interview, did the interview via webcam (I think it went really well), went on a late-night, moonlit run and studied some Greek.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
a study in Greek ethnography
Today, we mixed up the typical Tuesday by having culture class first. True to the concept of "Greek Time," I was probably the only student in the classroom at 9am, and the lecture didn't even start until about 9:15. Because the professor only spoke Greek, we had the class in a huge lecture hall with a sound system and had a translator radio. Unfortunately the person translating wasn't too great so following what was going on was a bit of a challenge. Then, we watched a 30 minute movie about Greek holiday celebrations which showed footage of men wearing poofy white skirts and dancing, and other men singing deep, emotional Greek music while standing on the edge of epic cliffs. It was interesting.
In Greek class, my teacher decided that Thursday was too soon for the final and we wouldn't have enough time to study, so fortunately it's now next Wednesday. We also went over the idea of who/whom (but in Greek, where there are 12 words instead of two) and responding to questions using accusative nouns, for the third time. I'm pretty sure I understand it.
I spent the afternoon going over all of my group's ethnographic results from our interviews. We did about 25 total, so there was a lot of information to review. Overall, we think the major themes were, for politics: The political and economic situation is getting worse and Greece needs foreign help, Greeks are disappointed and angry and do not trust the government, and in gender relations:Relations are becoming more equal as compared to the past, but there is still plenty of inequality, and both men and women manipulate the other gender. Then Taso met with the whole class and we talked some about the presentation we'll be doing on said findings. However, we don't just share those findings on politics and gender relations; instead, we have to "define modern Greek identity" based on those and all other observations we've made.
After, we had our Tuesday dinner at La Strada, the (mostly)Italian restaurant just down the street. It was delicious. The pesto penne was absolutely phenomenal. Mmmmm.
Sorry nothing too exciting is going on; I've just been up to lots of school lately, and it will probably stay that way for a while. Tomorrow is a field trip, but we're going to a museum so the photograph status is iffy...
Love Alex
In Greek class, my teacher decided that Thursday was too soon for the final and we wouldn't have enough time to study, so fortunately it's now next Wednesday. We also went over the idea of who/whom (but in Greek, where there are 12 words instead of two) and responding to questions using accusative nouns, for the third time. I'm pretty sure I understand it.
I spent the afternoon going over all of my group's ethnographic results from our interviews. We did about 25 total, so there was a lot of information to review. Overall, we think the major themes were, for politics: The political and economic situation is getting worse and Greece needs foreign help, Greeks are disappointed and angry and do not trust the government, and in gender relations:Relations are becoming more equal as compared to the past, but there is still plenty of inequality, and both men and women manipulate the other gender. Then Taso met with the whole class and we talked some about the presentation we'll be doing on said findings. However, we don't just share those findings on politics and gender relations; instead, we have to "define modern Greek identity" based on those and all other observations we've made.
After, we had our Tuesday dinner at La Strada, the (mostly)Italian restaurant just down the street. It was delicious. The pesto penne was absolutely phenomenal. Mmmmm.
Sorry nothing too exciting is going on; I've just been up to lots of school lately, and it will probably stay that way for a while. Tomorrow is a field trip, but we're going to a museum so the photograph status is iffy...
Love Alex
Monday, May 17, 2010
Rain, Rain, Go Away (by this weekend please!)
Today was a Monday. I woke up after a very vivid dream and I don't remember what it was about but it made my morning weird. I dream every night here and they're always strange; I am not a fan. I used to want to have dreams because I almost never dreamed, but that would be fine with me now haha.
In Greek class, my teacher told us we're having our final exam on Thursday, so we were all pretty excited. (That was sarcasm, in case you missed it). Then we had dance class and practiced the dances we'll be performing at our farewell party this Friday. I think the week off of dance class legitimately helped me learn them better because it was even easier than normal. Lunch was sketchy fish and I had salad and bread. In the afternoon, I buckled down and spent a couple hours studying which felt very productive. It's also reassuring that everything our Albanian professor has talked about is online, but in more detail and more coherently. In Albanian class, we learned about 1940s Albania. It was a pretty typical class, but I'm liking the more modern information because it relates to my knowledge of history, so what we're learning makes more sense. After, I went on a run with Anna and Katlynn. It was challenging. We ended at the cafeteria for dinner and, lucky us, it was either squid and rice or octopus and pasta. We had salad and bread again, but with feta cheese this time. We ate with Taso and had a nice conversation, but then we walked back to the dorm in the rain, which was less nice. I'm much happier now that I took a hot shower and put on dry sweats.
Here's a group picture from last week's field trip so you can see our whole group!
Love Alex
In Greek class, my teacher told us we're having our final exam on Thursday, so we were all pretty excited. (That was sarcasm, in case you missed it). Then we had dance class and practiced the dances we'll be performing at our farewell party this Friday. I think the week off of dance class legitimately helped me learn them better because it was even easier than normal. Lunch was sketchy fish and I had salad and bread. In the afternoon, I buckled down and spent a couple hours studying which felt very productive. It's also reassuring that everything our Albanian professor has talked about is online, but in more detail and more coherently. In Albanian class, we learned about 1940s Albania. It was a pretty typical class, but I'm liking the more modern information because it relates to my knowledge of history, so what we're learning makes more sense. After, I went on a run with Anna and Katlynn. It was challenging. We ended at the cafeteria for dinner and, lucky us, it was either squid and rice or octopus and pasta. We had salad and bread again, but with feta cheese this time. We ate with Taso and had a nice conversation, but then we walked back to the dorm in the rain, which was less nice. I'm much happier now that I took a hot shower and put on dry sweats.
Here's a group picture from last week's field trip so you can see our whole group!
Love Alex
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Meteora Monasteries
I know I've been slacking on the blogging... I do have some good pictures to make it up though!
On Friday, we went to the Meteora Monasteries, which are incredible monasteries built on huge sandstone pillars. There were originally more than 20, but today there are 6, which are still functional and have monks (and one has nuns) living there.
To enter the monastery, girls had to wear skirts. They had sweet sarongs in very attractive patterns for women to use.
As you can see, the view was incredible. The Greeks clearly knew how to convince people to become nuns and monks. The monastery itself was just precious; everyone was built from stone and was perfectly maintained. It was different that other historical sites we've been to because those have all been decently well preserved (or not so well preserved) but this one was rebuilt and repainted so everything looked new. Paintings, for example, were done in the style of 13th century Eastern Christain art but they were brightly colored and not chipped, for example.
Me, Nicolette, Marilena, Michelle, Serina and Anna
My favorite part was possibly the actual church part of the monastery; every inch of the walls was covered in paintings (which, in keeping with the remodeled look, were all recently done, not preserved art). It had a different feel but was incredible. There were also chairs with amazing carved details which had such high relief that relief is almost not strong enough of a word. We weren't really supposed to take pictures though so I just have one...
Afterwards, we headed down (literally) to the nearby town and had a delicous, as always, lunch. We had a new vegetable dish which was baby onions in a sauce. I've never been a big onion person before this trip but I am now! Tina and I then went on a shopping expedition since we had passed a store with lots of leather sandals outside and both got some. Now I have shoes other than my Target flip flops haha. We joined the rest of the group at a cafe and relaxed for a while. That is the Greek thing to do. I can't remember if I've emphasized that before, but "pame ya cafe" was the first phrase our Greek teacher taught us, which means "Let's go get coffee".
On Saturday I had a very relaxing day involving sleeping in, watching House (I finished Season 3), doing yoga, working out, and writing post cards. I was slightly tired of being in my room at the end of the day. We had crazy weather though; it poured and then thundered and then there was wind which was so loud it sounded like an airplane was landing next to the dorm, and then it was sunny with a significant amount of blue sky, and then it all repeated.
Today, I did homework. I read about 100 years of Albanian history, which was more in-depth and more coherent than our lectures so I feel like I learned lots. It continued to rain all morning and through the afternoon, but it cleared up in time to walk to dinner (rice with mystery meat chunks in grey sauce (tastes better than it sounds, fortunately) or two hot dogs on rice). I also organized and uploaded more pictures ( http://picasaweb.google.com/alex.fussell ) so check that out if you want to see more!
Love Alex
On Friday, we went to the Meteora Monasteries, which are incredible monasteries built on huge sandstone pillars. There were originally more than 20, but today there are 6, which are still functional and have monks (and one has nuns) living there.
To enter the monastery, girls had to wear skirts. They had sweet sarongs in very attractive patterns for women to use.
As you can see, the view was incredible. The Greeks clearly knew how to convince people to become nuns and monks. The monastery itself was just precious; everyone was built from stone and was perfectly maintained. It was different that other historical sites we've been to because those have all been decently well preserved (or not so well preserved) but this one was rebuilt and repainted so everything looked new. Paintings, for example, were done in the style of 13th century Eastern Christain art but they were brightly colored and not chipped, for example.
Me, Nicolette, Marilena, Michelle, Serina and Anna
My favorite part was possibly the actual church part of the monastery; every inch of the walls was covered in paintings (which, in keeping with the remodeled look, were all recently done, not preserved art). It had a different feel but was incredible. There were also chairs with amazing carved details which had such high relief that relief is almost not strong enough of a word. We weren't really supposed to take pictures though so I just have one...
Afterwards, we headed down (literally) to the nearby town and had a delicous, as always, lunch. We had a new vegetable dish which was baby onions in a sauce. I've never been a big onion person before this trip but I am now! Tina and I then went on a shopping expedition since we had passed a store with lots of leather sandals outside and both got some. Now I have shoes other than my Target flip flops haha. We joined the rest of the group at a cafe and relaxed for a while. That is the Greek thing to do. I can't remember if I've emphasized that before, but "pame ya cafe" was the first phrase our Greek teacher taught us, which means "Let's go get coffee".
On Saturday I had a very relaxing day involving sleeping in, watching House (I finished Season 3), doing yoga, working out, and writing post cards. I was slightly tired of being in my room at the end of the day. We had crazy weather though; it poured and then thundered and then there was wind which was so loud it sounded like an airplane was landing next to the dorm, and then it was sunny with a significant amount of blue sky, and then it all repeated.
Today, I did homework. I read about 100 years of Albanian history, which was more in-depth and more coherent than our lectures so I feel like I learned lots. It continued to rain all morning and through the afternoon, but it cleared up in time to walk to dinner (rice with mystery meat chunks in grey sauce (tastes better than it sounds, fortunately) or two hot dogs on rice). I also organized and uploaded more pictures ( http://picasaweb.google.com/alex.fussell ) so check that out if you want to see more!
Love Alex
Thursday, May 13, 2010
class class class
Today was filled with class and was therefore rather uneventful. It seems like we've hit the point in the quarter where everyone is pretty tired, so we had 6 out of 11 people show up for class at the beginning, and there were only 4 who came to the beginning of the other class. We got more time to read though, so I wasn't complaining about the class size haha. I had a pastry during our break from the cafe downstairs, and now I'm tempted to do that every day; it was cheese-filled and covered in sesame seeds, and was overall hot and delicious.
Later, we had a class on ancient Greek drama. It turns out that it was pretty much a civil requirement for all citizens (aka men, since women weren't considered citizens) to attend plays at a festival celebrating the god Dionysus, the god of wine and (sometimes unrestrained) revelry. Also, in today's currency, the plays cost about 200 euros. ($270 US). They wanted people to come so much that they had a fund to subsidize the cost for poorer citizens, which is pretty sweet.
Then, we had Greek-Albanian class, which, true to it's name, has been alternating every day between Greek history and Albanian history which is kind of confusing. We've reached World War II though, and our professor talked about how all sorts of new research and information has been published recently (as in the last few years up to within the last few weeks) on this time period, and the Holocaust in particular. His enthusiasm was neat, although today was not anything near a slow-talking day.
I made another Carrefour run and bought a new pair of headphones since my old ones broke. Skullcandies they are not, but since they only cost 3 euros, I'm OK with that; they actually stay in my ears better and I hear the sound of rushing wind if I run into the wind haha.
I also learned that you shouldn't go to dinner right before the cafeteria closes because dinner was not good; I had two bowls of tomatoes and a piece of bread. Those tasted good, though, and since I went to the store I have lots of almonds again so I'm good to go :)
Love Alex
Later, we had a class on ancient Greek drama. It turns out that it was pretty much a civil requirement for all citizens (aka men, since women weren't considered citizens) to attend plays at a festival celebrating the god Dionysus, the god of wine and (sometimes unrestrained) revelry. Also, in today's currency, the plays cost about 200 euros. ($270 US). They wanted people to come so much that they had a fund to subsidize the cost for poorer citizens, which is pretty sweet.
Then, we had Greek-Albanian class, which, true to it's name, has been alternating every day between Greek history and Albanian history which is kind of confusing. We've reached World War II though, and our professor talked about how all sorts of new research and information has been published recently (as in the last few years up to within the last few weeks) on this time period, and the Holocaust in particular. His enthusiasm was neat, although today was not anything near a slow-talking day.
I made another Carrefour run and bought a new pair of headphones since my old ones broke. Skullcandies they are not, but since they only cost 3 euros, I'm OK with that; they actually stay in my ears better and I hear the sound of rushing wind if I run into the wind haha.
I also learned that you shouldn't go to dinner right before the cafeteria closes because dinner was not good; I had two bowls of tomatoes and a piece of bread. Those tasted good, though, and since I went to the store I have lots of almonds again so I'm good to go :)
Love Alex
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
aaaand the allergies are back
with a vengeance. Today was sort of killer. I asked for Zyrtec at a pharmacy, but they only had Greek Zyrtec which is cetirizine dihydrochloride, whereas American Zyrtec is cetirizine hydrochloride. Marilena is emailing her doctor to find out if that's reasonable. If you have thoughts, let me know because Dan, Rochelle and I are suffering. I bet the housekeeping budget is too since we've probably doubled their toilet paper needs haha.
Anyway, luckily Fae was joking when she suggested we conduct class entirely in Greek, so all we had to do was conjugate all the verbs we've learned, which wasn't too bad. Tomorrow we have to "conjugate" nouns, depending on whether they are masculine, feminine or neutral, singular or plural, and subject, possesive, object, or direct. Why, yes, that is 24 options for three verbs, and their are other endings as well, these are only simple ones haha. Greek is sort of challenging.
After class we had the most painful meeting of my life with everyone in our program, Taso, and the housing coordinator. There have been a few noise complaints against us (all but one of which were unwarranted, I think, although I'm not a PhD student studying 24/7). We also discussed problems like the missing towels; it turns out there were (only) 100 missing, and they've since been found. I think their disappearance had to do with the fact that their cleaning staff is too small due to budget cuts. We also learned that building-wide shower curtain theft happens twice a year because now and November are the only two times that the dorm gets money to wash them. So, we are without shower curtains for one week. I literally laid down in the bathtub to wash my hair today. We're lucky to have a bathtub, though; half the people have little showers so even just turning on the shower will be a disaster.
For today's field trip, we took a charter bus into town (again; so unnecessary) and took a ferry to the island near the other side of the lake. The island had a community on it; there are restaurants, houses and lots of tourist shops with cute jewelery. The architecture is mostly stone buildings, which are extremely picturesque. Our main destination was a monastery from the 12th century AD. We sat outside it and listened to a lecture on Byzantine art, which was mainly religious, and then we went in the monastery church. Every wall was painted with biblical scenes, and they were remarkably well-preserved. The ceilings had large portraits of Jesus (and others, maybe?) on them, and some walls showed stories or long panoramas of events, since most people back then were illiterate. The woman who monitored the monastery was actually almost as fascinating as the location itself; she was a TINY old lady, maybe 4.5 feet tall, who spoke rapid and forceful Greek at us the whole time, even though Fae and Taso were the only people who could understand. She was possibly one of the scariest people I have ever seen. When we tried to enter the second room, half the group got in without a problem, but she stopped the rest of us and kept gesturing for us to move away while speaking insistently. We eventually realized that girls wearing shorts couldn't go in, but girls wearing skirts, dresses or pants could. I had jeans on, luckily. She also complained bitterly (says Taso) that foreigners say they shouldn't have places like this since Greeks can't take care of them. She told us this in a third room, which had a lot of chips in the wall and carved graffiti, presumably from incredibly dumb Greek kids. That was a bummer, but the paintings were still impressive. We couldn't take pictures and no one snuck any for fear of the wrath of this woman, but it was an enjoyable visit.
We walked around the island a bit more to Ali Pasha's house. He was a ruler in the Ottoman Empire who was so successful that his power began to rival the sultan's power, so the sultan had him killed. That's the Cliff Notes version of the story, at least. The house architecture, or at least what we saw (the front) was the same as the scene at the wax museum that graphically depicted his decapitation. Pleasant, I know. The house is sort of a tourist trap now, though; I don't know if you can enter it but we just looked at the outside, which had lots of trinkets and postcards for sale.
This is one of the touristy items being sold. This is also pretty much an example class every day. If Fae thinks we'll mess up on something easy, she (jokingly, of course) threatens to kill us. She also says she's going to kill Nikos, the other teacher, for going to fast.
That concluded our field trip, so I went back into town for some dinner with a few of the other girls. I wasn't too hungry so I just got a spanikopita, but I wasn't impressed; it was smaller, colder and more expensive than one I had the other day from a different bakery. I did mooch off my friends' salads, though, so I still had my fill of delicious vegetables :)
The pictures are taking FOREVER to load because midnight here is more or less the official Facebooking hour for everyone in the dorm and the internet. I might add more later, but they're all up on Picassa if you want to see more!
Love Alex
Anyway, luckily Fae was joking when she suggested we conduct class entirely in Greek, so all we had to do was conjugate all the verbs we've learned, which wasn't too bad. Tomorrow we have to "conjugate" nouns, depending on whether they are masculine, feminine or neutral, singular or plural, and subject, possesive, object, or direct. Why, yes, that is 24 options for three verbs, and their are other endings as well, these are only simple ones haha. Greek is sort of challenging.
After class we had the most painful meeting of my life with everyone in our program, Taso, and the housing coordinator. There have been a few noise complaints against us (all but one of which were unwarranted, I think, although I'm not a PhD student studying 24/7). We also discussed problems like the missing towels; it turns out there were (only) 100 missing, and they've since been found. I think their disappearance had to do with the fact that their cleaning staff is too small due to budget cuts. We also learned that building-wide shower curtain theft happens twice a year because now and November are the only two times that the dorm gets money to wash them. So, we are without shower curtains for one week. I literally laid down in the bathtub to wash my hair today. We're lucky to have a bathtub, though; half the people have little showers so even just turning on the shower will be a disaster.
For today's field trip, we took a charter bus into town (again; so unnecessary) and took a ferry to the island near the other side of the lake. The island had a community on it; there are restaurants, houses and lots of tourist shops with cute jewelery. The architecture is mostly stone buildings, which are extremely picturesque. Our main destination was a monastery from the 12th century AD. We sat outside it and listened to a lecture on Byzantine art, which was mainly religious, and then we went in the monastery church. Every wall was painted with biblical scenes, and they were remarkably well-preserved. The ceilings had large portraits of Jesus (and others, maybe?) on them, and some walls showed stories or long panoramas of events, since most people back then were illiterate. The woman who monitored the monastery was actually almost as fascinating as the location itself; she was a TINY old lady, maybe 4.5 feet tall, who spoke rapid and forceful Greek at us the whole time, even though Fae and Taso were the only people who could understand. She was possibly one of the scariest people I have ever seen. When we tried to enter the second room, half the group got in without a problem, but she stopped the rest of us and kept gesturing for us to move away while speaking insistently. We eventually realized that girls wearing shorts couldn't go in, but girls wearing skirts, dresses or pants could. I had jeans on, luckily. She also complained bitterly (says Taso) that foreigners say they shouldn't have places like this since Greeks can't take care of them. She told us this in a third room, which had a lot of chips in the wall and carved graffiti, presumably from incredibly dumb Greek kids. That was a bummer, but the paintings were still impressive. We couldn't take pictures and no one snuck any for fear of the wrath of this woman, but it was an enjoyable visit.
We walked around the island a bit more to Ali Pasha's house. He was a ruler in the Ottoman Empire who was so successful that his power began to rival the sultan's power, so the sultan had him killed. That's the Cliff Notes version of the story, at least. The house architecture, or at least what we saw (the front) was the same as the scene at the wax museum that graphically depicted his decapitation. Pleasant, I know. The house is sort of a tourist trap now, though; I don't know if you can enter it but we just looked at the outside, which had lots of trinkets and postcards for sale.
This is one of the touristy items being sold. This is also pretty much an example class every day. If Fae thinks we'll mess up on something easy, she (jokingly, of course) threatens to kill us. She also says she's going to kill Nikos, the other teacher, for going to fast.
That concluded our field trip, so I went back into town for some dinner with a few of the other girls. I wasn't too hungry so I just got a spanikopita, but I wasn't impressed; it was smaller, colder and more expensive than one I had the other day from a different bakery. I did mooch off my friends' salads, though, so I still had my fill of delicious vegetables :)
The pictures are taking FOREVER to load because midnight here is more or less the official Facebooking hour for everyone in the dorm and the internet. I might add more later, but they're all up on Picassa if you want to see more!
Love Alex
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
ASIAN FOOD!
I feel like Greek language concepts in general are sticking nicely; I understand everything we do in class pretty well, but I haven't spent much time memorizing vocab so I'm still lacking in that area. Tomorrow, my teacher is supposed to speak in all Greek. I don't think we'll get anything done, but maybe we'll all miraculously know lots of vocab and be able to understand. haha.
We had another huge break today, so after class I went to the gym for the first time. I just used a bike since I didn't want to run, but there was a relatively small weights section and a basketball court. There were also a few other Greek girls using the bikes and treadmills. They all wore normal-ish clothes. Working out doesn't seem to be as big of a deal for them here.
This afternoon, I registered for classes, although hopefully I won't actually be taking those since I will be taking civil classes (fingers crossed that I get in!). Registration therefore seemed pointless, but I could definitely get used to having such an early registration date; all of my classes were wide open :)
We only had an hour of Albanian class, which means my laptop battery can make it for sure, which I like since outlets are few and far between in that classroom. I think taking notes on the computer is paying off; I knew the answers to more questions that he asked since I had learned more and could look in my old notes more easily.
We ended class early to go into town and do our last day of interviews (yay!). We had two half-interviews, since the people had to go, but we also had two full interviews. One of them was with Olga, a 37 year old woman working in a fabric shop, who talked lots and lots and had great answers, so we enjoyed talking to her. After, we met the class for dinner. We ate at a phenomenal Asian restaurant that had both sushi and chicken/veggie/shrimp/rice-type dishes. Not everyone though it was incredible, but I've been pretty deprived of Asian food for a long time, so I loved it. It was twice as expensive as anywhere else we've eaten though, so next week might be cafeteria food haha.
Tomorrow is field trip day! We're going to the island in the middle of the lake, so I'll have more pictures :)
Love Alex
We had another huge break today, so after class I went to the gym for the first time. I just used a bike since I didn't want to run, but there was a relatively small weights section and a basketball court. There were also a few other Greek girls using the bikes and treadmills. They all wore normal-ish clothes. Working out doesn't seem to be as big of a deal for them here.
This afternoon, I registered for classes, although hopefully I won't actually be taking those since I will be taking civil classes (fingers crossed that I get in!). Registration therefore seemed pointless, but I could definitely get used to having such an early registration date; all of my classes were wide open :)
We only had an hour of Albanian class, which means my laptop battery can make it for sure, which I like since outlets are few and far between in that classroom. I think taking notes on the computer is paying off; I knew the answers to more questions that he asked since I had learned more and could look in my old notes more easily.
We ended class early to go into town and do our last day of interviews (yay!). We had two half-interviews, since the people had to go, but we also had two full interviews. One of them was with Olga, a 37 year old woman working in a fabric shop, who talked lots and lots and had great answers, so we enjoyed talking to her. After, we met the class for dinner. We ate at a phenomenal Asian restaurant that had both sushi and chicken/veggie/shrimp/rice-type dishes. Not everyone though it was incredible, but I've been pretty deprived of Asian food for a long time, so I loved it. It was twice as expensive as anywhere else we've eaten though, so next week might be cafeteria food haha.
Tomorrow is field trip day! We're going to the island in the middle of the lake, so I'll have more pictures :)
Love Alex
Monday, May 10, 2010
Δευτέρα (Monday)
Today was nice because we had a huge break all afternoon. After Greek class, dance was canceled so we had 6 hours before Albanian class. I went into town with some other girls and we did some shopping. By we, I mean they, since I was unsuccessful at finding any shorts. I did, however, have an absolutely HUGE salad which was one of the better meals of my life; it came on a square plate that was literally a square foot, and there was probably an inch of plate visible on each edge; the rest was covered in lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, chicken and a delicious vinaigrette. I enjoyed it so much :)
I'm enjoying Albanian class a little more now, but he still talks fast and keeps telling us to be working on our papers which is slightly terrifying given the complete lack of information we have on the topic. The prompt is: write a paper up to ten pages on the subject "aspects of the Greek-Albanian relationship today". Everything we've learned about in class, though, is historical so we can't use the information he's taught us, so that's fun.
After dinner I went running with Katlynn and Anna. My mile time is improving, which is very satisfying. We also did torturous 8 minutes abs which are satisfying when you finish. Working out before our first class or after our last is pretty much the only option now since it gets so hot during the day, but it's really pretty outside at that time because the air is generally clear and the mountains are impressive. That's not to say it's cold out, though; I'm still extrememly warm in a T-shirt and shorts. Meanwhile, all the Greeks are wearing shorts and a long-sleeve at the minimum, and often they're wearing long-sleeved and long pant tracksuits. Nikos, the other Greek teacher, apparently told some kids that we stand out since we wear summer clothes (just in case we haven't noticed everyone staring at us) but if we wore jeans/sweats and coats like them, we'd probably end up in the hospital from heatstroke, so we stand out. Oh well.
Hope the week gets off to a good start for you!
Love Alex
I'm enjoying Albanian class a little more now, but he still talks fast and keeps telling us to be working on our papers which is slightly terrifying given the complete lack of information we have on the topic. The prompt is: write a paper up to ten pages on the subject "aspects of the Greek-Albanian relationship today". Everything we've learned about in class, though, is historical so we can't use the information he's taught us, so that's fun.
After dinner I went running with Katlynn and Anna. My mile time is improving, which is very satisfying. We also did torturous 8 minutes abs which are satisfying when you finish. Working out before our first class or after our last is pretty much the only option now since it gets so hot during the day, but it's really pretty outside at that time because the air is generally clear and the mountains are impressive. That's not to say it's cold out, though; I'm still extrememly warm in a T-shirt and shorts. Meanwhile, all the Greeks are wearing shorts and a long-sleeve at the minimum, and often they're wearing long-sleeved and long pant tracksuits. Nikos, the other Greek teacher, apparently told some kids that we stand out since we wear summer clothes (just in case we haven't noticed everyone staring at us) but if we wore jeans/sweats and coats like them, we'd probably end up in the hospital from heatstroke, so we stand out. Oh well.
Hope the week gets off to a good start for you!
Love Alex
Sunday, May 9, 2010
σαββατοκύριακο (weekend)
This weekend was pretty chill. We played lots of cards which was fun; I haven't done that in a while. On Saturday, Tani and I went into town and just explored a different part of town. Well, we always use the word town but it's definitely a city; the place is huge and we've only seen a small part of it. I hadn't realized that there was a large residential area pretty close to the part of town we're familiar with, but it turns out there is. We found a few parks that were filled with trees and swing sets, which was neat. There were also a lot of pretty stone buildings just a few blocks away from the main street and a spectacular mural, so I filled the last of my memory card I've taken 1630 pictures here so far haha.
Katlynn, Tina, Megan and I went to the track in the evening and played some volleyball and frisbee, which was lots of fun. I'm terrible at volleyball, but I like play and of course getting to throw a frisbee was pretty much the highlight of my day. A lot of people were at the track walking or running, and one man had his daughter there. She was probably about 8 and didn't speak English, but Katlynn spoke enough Greek to invite her to come play with us, so she joined us for some frisbee too. I also ran a little bit without IT band pain, which was exciting.
Today I didn't do much. I spent several hours sitting with my feet propped up on the windowsill in the sun reading about the Greek independence movement. We have a variety of photocopies from textbooks about Greek and Albanian history. It turns out that they relate quite nicely to the lectures, so a lot more of what my professor has talked about makes sense now. After I felt like I had sitting for far too long, I went on another run, also pain-free, so I'm pleased that I can work out again.
Katlynn, Tina, Megan and I went to the track in the evening and played some volleyball and frisbee, which was lots of fun. I'm terrible at volleyball, but I like play and of course getting to throw a frisbee was pretty much the highlight of my day. A lot of people were at the track walking or running, and one man had his daughter there. She was probably about 8 and didn't speak English, but Katlynn spoke enough Greek to invite her to come play with us, so she joined us for some frisbee too. I also ran a little bit without IT band pain, which was exciting.
Today I didn't do much. I spent several hours sitting with my feet propped up on the windowsill in the sun reading about the Greek independence movement. We have a variety of photocopies from textbooks about Greek and Albanian history. It turns out that they relate quite nicely to the lectures, so a lot more of what my professor has talked about makes sense now. After I felt like I had sitting for far too long, I went on another run, also pain-free, so I'm pleased that I can work out again.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Lefkada
On Friday, we went to Lefkada, an island just off the west coast of Greece, two hours south of Ioannina. It's barely an island since it's almost connected by an isthmus and bridge, but it definitely felt like a "Greek Island". We went to a beach for the morning and it was one of the most beautiful places I've every been. The water was so incredible. I just took pictures and laid on the beach, but lots of people went swimming and said it was cold but fun.
We had a good lunch a restaurant in Lefkada Town just down the road from the beach. After, we had a few hours to just wander around the town. Since we were there during siesta, most of the shops were closed, but I did get some postcards and more pictures. The town was right next to the water, of course, and there was a sort of canal and then another walkway so that boats could be moored and it felt a bit like a Grecian Venice when we were on the walkway looking over at town.
There were a few buildings which were probably intended as some sort of public space, but they were definitely deserted in covered in graffiti and trash. It was odd. On a side note, Taso also mentioned that often people invest in buildings rather than keeping their money in a bank, since people don't trust the banks much (as you can imagine). That's why Greece seems to have a lot of half-built buildings.
This is part of the weird abandoned public space:
All in all it was an absolutely beautiful place :)
We had a good lunch a restaurant in Lefkada Town just down the road from the beach. After, we had a few hours to just wander around the town. Since we were there during siesta, most of the shops were closed, but I did get some postcards and more pictures. The town was right next to the water, of course, and there was a sort of canal and then another walkway so that boats could be moored and it felt a bit like a Grecian Venice when we were on the walkway looking over at town.
There were a few buildings which were probably intended as some sort of public space, but they were definitely deserted in covered in graffiti and trash. It was odd. On a side note, Taso also mentioned that often people invest in buildings rather than keeping their money in a bank, since people don't trust the banks much (as you can imagine). That's why Greece seems to have a lot of half-built buildings.
This is part of the weird abandoned public space:
All in all it was an absolutely beautiful place :)
Thursday, May 6, 2010
thursday
Nothing too exciting happened today since I had 6 hours of class, so you can stop reading now and I won't be offended, I promise.
I watched several episodes of House, so that was extremely exciting for me, but doesn't really do anything for the blog. I haven't watched any in almost two weeks, so I've missed it.
I also went to Carrefour. I've been devouring my almonds lately. I'll almost be sad to go home and eat Blue Diamond almonds. (Key word almost haha).
As far as class goes, we had a lecture on Greek Literature, which specifically focused on a poet, Cavafy. It was super interesting; he used Greek history in a variety of ways: sometimes he wrote historical stories in the form of a poem, and other times he used general historical concepts to discuss ideals like morality. The lecturing professor did a nice job of analizing the poems for us, although we do have to do one by ourselves for homework. Could be worse though.
Tomorrow is Friday Field Trip Day! We're going to Lefkada, which will be my first Greek island :) stay tuned for photos
Love Alex
I watched several episodes of House, so that was extremely exciting for me, but doesn't really do anything for the blog. I haven't watched any in almost two weeks, so I've missed it.
I also went to Carrefour. I've been devouring my almonds lately. I'll almost be sad to go home and eat Blue Diamond almonds. (Key word almost haha).
As far as class goes, we had a lecture on Greek Literature, which specifically focused on a poet, Cavafy. It was super interesting; he used Greek history in a variety of ways: sometimes he wrote historical stories in the form of a poem, and other times he used general historical concepts to discuss ideals like morality. The lecturing professor did a nice job of analizing the poems for us, although we do have to do one by ourselves for homework. Could be worse though.
Tomorrow is Friday Field Trip Day! We're going to Lefkada, which will be my first Greek island :) stay tuned for photos
Love Alex
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
wax museum field trip
For our field trip today, we went to a wax museum not too far out of town. The museum has been the life work of the creator, who designed and built all of the exhibits. There were probably 40 people representing the last 200 years in Greek history. I went through the museum with Fay, my teacher, and she explained the significance of each scene, since there were no plaques aside from some names. There were many scenes showing Turkish brutality against Greeks and Greek rebellion against the Turks. It was a short field trip, but a good one. We couldn't take pictures though. Oh well.
Dinner was eggplant or a zucchini/potato dish. I had both. It was the second best meal at the cafeteria so far :)
After, I went into town with Michelle, Nicolette and Serina and we went to a cafe/restaurant near the water, which was pleasant. It's amazing how many people go out every night to get food and drinks and just socialize. They also stay out really late; things were definitely still popping when we left at 11.
The IT band is feeling better, but I don't like not running. I might try out the gym tomorrow. I've been avoiding it because from what I've heard, it's a basketball court, a tiny weight section, three treadmills, one bike and one elliptical, so it's almost as good as the IMA but not quite haha.
I also went to a pharmacy and bought some allergy medicine yesterday; I asked for something strong since I'm going on like 4 rolls of toilet paper for tissues a week. She gave me a nasal spray and I'm hoping it starts working because I've been sort of congested. Coming home and living with Kitty will be no problem haha.
Love Alex
Dinner was eggplant or a zucchini/potato dish. I had both. It was the second best meal at the cafeteria so far :)
After, I went into town with Michelle, Nicolette and Serina and we went to a cafe/restaurant near the water, which was pleasant. It's amazing how many people go out every night to get food and drinks and just socialize. They also stay out really late; things were definitely still popping when we left at 11.
The IT band is feeling better, but I don't like not running. I might try out the gym tomorrow. I've been avoiding it because from what I've heard, it's a basketball court, a tiny weight section, three treadmills, one bike and one elliptical, so it's almost as good as the IMA but not quite haha.
I also went to a pharmacy and bought some allergy medicine yesterday; I asked for something strong since I'm going on like 4 rolls of toilet paper for tissues a week. She gave me a nasal spray and I'm hoping it starts working because I've been sort of congested. Coming home and living with Kitty will be no problem haha.
Love Alex
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
you and me together, we can do anything baby
Song of the day. I love Dave :)
Monday morning brought another week of classes. In Greek, we've progressed to reading paragraphs filled with words we don't know. I feel like maybe I'm on first grade reading level instead of kindergarden, although my comprehension is still close to nonexistent except for the few words and verbs we've learned. I could have a short discussion about likes and dislikes and languages we speak, but that's about it. We're learning a little more grammar, which is helpful. Unfortunately, making a singular noun plural is more complicated than adding an "s" so that kind of throws me when I'm reading or writing, but it's still interesting, and I like learning.
In dance, we practiced our old dances, which we've got down for sure, and learned some new ones which were good too. I like the class; everyone looks ridiculous but it's entertaining and I enjoy the music.
In Albanian class, our professor continues to lecture at light speed, but we've moved on to actual "Albanian" history rather than general Greek peninsula/Asia minor history. I think I will start taking notes on my laptop so I can control-F through my notes haha. After that, I went on an evening run with Anna and Katlynn. Anna used to run for UW (aka she ran a half marathon or more 7 days a week during the season) so she runs a little bit faster than Katlynn and I, but it's good to push yourself sometimes. We met up with other girls at the track and did some good stairs and lunges and 8 minute abs. I'm loving having so much time to work out and people to go with. On the major downside, my left IT band has been really painful since Monday night. I've felt twinges there before when doing abductor strengthening but this was something new. I went on an early morning (7am...) run today but it kept hurting so I'm not going to do any running for a while. I'm not sure what I'll do instead since 8 minute abs is only good for, you know, 8 minutes. Anna recommended some stretches and I found some online too. Most of them look sort of awkward but feel good. We'll see how that goes. I doubt there are too many English-speaking sports med/physical therapists here so hopefully it gets better.
In culture class, we learned about 19th and 20th century art. The professor started off right away by asking us to bear with her poor English, which was a total lie; she had absolutely perfect English and spoke very clearly and slowly, which was wonderful. I enjoyed the lecture a lot; she talked about European art movements and how they influenced Greek art, but stressed that while Greece wants to be part of Europe, they want their art to be very Greek and not European.
I took a two hour nap since I was tired from getting up early, which was great except that my room was probably at least 75 degrees, and it's only going to get hotter... The cool weather that we had when we first got here seems to be gone. I'm going to need to do some shorts shopping since my 3 pairs of jeans probably won't be useful too much longer.
We all met as a group before heading downtown for the interviews. Apparently, there are TWO HUNDRED sheets missing and they think someone or someones in our group stole them. I don't know if the housing coordinator misspoke when she said the number because I cannot imagine how on earth so many sheets would be gone, but needless to say, I'm fairly sure no one in their right mind would even keep one, since they're very starchy and not fitted, and we certainly don't have room for them in our suitcases. Apparently she came into most people's rooms and asked 3 or 4 times if anyone had accidentally or on purpose kept more than two sheets. No one had, of course, but she didn't seem to believe us. Since we're living in the "guest house" of the Stavros Niarchos center, the dorms are sort of considered to be a hotel, and they clearly have different beliefs about privacy. Last week, the housing director came into our rooms when we were on our field trip and got really mad because there were a few towels on the floor. They never really made their expectations clear, and we have different expectations coming from the US, so there are some issues, but that's why we have Taso, fortunately.
When we went to town, I was in a group with Tani and Leah for interviews. Leah' super into the interviews and she's also doing a documentary about Greek universities and the education system so she was very enthusiastic which was fun. We continued to get different answers from everyone we talked to, but they all continued to say that no one trusts the government; that's the one common theme. Actually, one man didn't even say that; we just asked him the first question about politics and he used an expletive and said "I HATE POLITICS" so we moved to the next topic.
Dinner was at a new restauarnt which was really nice and had phenomenal food. The dishes were a bit different than the other places we've been to, but that made the experience that much better. We had spanikopita (I know, yesterday I said they never serve it in restaurants but I guess sometimes they do!), meatballs, tzatziki, other spinach things, beans, salad, and more. For dessert, we had very thin orange peel drenched in a sugary sauce, which was very sweet but had the underlying orange zest flavor. Overall, quite the fabulous meal.
Tomorrow's a field trip day! We're going to a museum so I might not have pictures, but we'll see.
Love Alex
Monday morning brought another week of classes. In Greek, we've progressed to reading paragraphs filled with words we don't know. I feel like maybe I'm on first grade reading level instead of kindergarden, although my comprehension is still close to nonexistent except for the few words and verbs we've learned. I could have a short discussion about likes and dislikes and languages we speak, but that's about it. We're learning a little more grammar, which is helpful. Unfortunately, making a singular noun plural is more complicated than adding an "s" so that kind of throws me when I'm reading or writing, but it's still interesting, and I like learning.
In dance, we practiced our old dances, which we've got down for sure, and learned some new ones which were good too. I like the class; everyone looks ridiculous but it's entertaining and I enjoy the music.
In Albanian class, our professor continues to lecture at light speed, but we've moved on to actual "Albanian" history rather than general Greek peninsula/Asia minor history. I think I will start taking notes on my laptop so I can control-F through my notes haha. After that, I went on an evening run with Anna and Katlynn. Anna used to run for UW (aka she ran a half marathon or more 7 days a week during the season) so she runs a little bit faster than Katlynn and I, but it's good to push yourself sometimes. We met up with other girls at the track and did some good stairs and lunges and 8 minute abs. I'm loving having so much time to work out and people to go with. On the major downside, my left IT band has been really painful since Monday night. I've felt twinges there before when doing abductor strengthening but this was something new. I went on an early morning (7am...) run today but it kept hurting so I'm not going to do any running for a while. I'm not sure what I'll do instead since 8 minute abs is only good for, you know, 8 minutes. Anna recommended some stretches and I found some online too. Most of them look sort of awkward but feel good. We'll see how that goes. I doubt there are too many English-speaking sports med/physical therapists here so hopefully it gets better.
In culture class, we learned about 19th and 20th century art. The professor started off right away by asking us to bear with her poor English, which was a total lie; she had absolutely perfect English and spoke very clearly and slowly, which was wonderful. I enjoyed the lecture a lot; she talked about European art movements and how they influenced Greek art, but stressed that while Greece wants to be part of Europe, they want their art to be very Greek and not European.
I took a two hour nap since I was tired from getting up early, which was great except that my room was probably at least 75 degrees, and it's only going to get hotter... The cool weather that we had when we first got here seems to be gone. I'm going to need to do some shorts shopping since my 3 pairs of jeans probably won't be useful too much longer.
We all met as a group before heading downtown for the interviews. Apparently, there are TWO HUNDRED sheets missing and they think someone or someones in our group stole them. I don't know if the housing coordinator misspoke when she said the number because I cannot imagine how on earth so many sheets would be gone, but needless to say, I'm fairly sure no one in their right mind would even keep one, since they're very starchy and not fitted, and we certainly don't have room for them in our suitcases. Apparently she came into most people's rooms and asked 3 or 4 times if anyone had accidentally or on purpose kept more than two sheets. No one had, of course, but she didn't seem to believe us. Since we're living in the "guest house" of the Stavros Niarchos center, the dorms are sort of considered to be a hotel, and they clearly have different beliefs about privacy. Last week, the housing director came into our rooms when we were on our field trip and got really mad because there were a few towels on the floor. They never really made their expectations clear, and we have different expectations coming from the US, so there are some issues, but that's why we have Taso, fortunately.
When we went to town, I was in a group with Tani and Leah for interviews. Leah' super into the interviews and she's also doing a documentary about Greek universities and the education system so she was very enthusiastic which was fun. We continued to get different answers from everyone we talked to, but they all continued to say that no one trusts the government; that's the one common theme. Actually, one man didn't even say that; we just asked him the first question about politics and he used an expletive and said "I HATE POLITICS" so we moved to the next topic.
Dinner was at a new restauarnt which was really nice and had phenomenal food. The dishes were a bit different than the other places we've been to, but that made the experience that much better. We had spanikopita (I know, yesterday I said they never serve it in restaurants but I guess sometimes they do!), meatballs, tzatziki, other spinach things, beans, salad, and more. For dessert, we had very thin orange peel drenched in a sugary sauce, which was very sweet but had the underlying orange zest flavor. Overall, quite the fabulous meal.
Tomorrow's a field trip day! We're going to a museum so I might not have pictures, but we'll see.
Love Alex
Monday, May 3, 2010
thessalonikiiiii.
On Friday, we boarded the bus at the lovely hour of 7 am. Everyone passed out immediately and after a while, we made it to a spectacular museum at the burial site of several Macedonian kings, including Phillip II, the father of Alexander the Great. The burial site itself was (and still is) a huge mound, so the museum is underground. It was dark except for lights on the artifacts and tombs, and some of the pieces were so impressive.
I snuck two pictures at the beginning, thinking they probably weren't allowed, and then I found out I was right, so I don't have any photos of the coolest things, but the facade of one of the tombs was excavated and the museum was built around it, which was incredible. There were also several gold crowns made of tiny leaves and acorns and they were probably the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
The museum was also jam packed with school groups, which was entertaining. Unfortunately none of their guides spoke English, or I would have just followed them around. When we left the museum, there were about 100 middle or high schoolers coming in. I'm glad we weren't there at the same time haha.
We headed back to the bus and drove to Thessaloniki, which is the second-largest city in Greece. It's in the northeast part of the country, and the downtown is right on the sea, which was stunning. We had perfect weather all weekend: all sun and no clouds, and it was nice and warm, but not too hot. Since everyone was planning on staying there for the weekend, we looked ridiculous as our group of 26 walked a few blocks away with all our stuff to a restaurant. Like normal, we had a ton of delicious food. Then, after we were all really full, they brought us out some small pastry and mousse-like desserts, which were yummy. Nicos, one of our teachers, helped us find our hotel, and then we wandered around the city for the rest of the afternoon. One of the major roads in the city is right next to the waterfront, and there is a wide sidewalk which we probably walked up and down at least two times every day because being by the water was so pleasant (although the water did not look very clean right next to the shore).
I was happy that there was also a bike lane and people out biking and running (unlike Ioannnina). There were many people with collections of fake Ray Bans. I bought a pair of white ones and he wanted to charge me 10 euros. He pointed out the brand and Marilena said "Alex, they're real". He said, "Well, no, not real, but good." I don't know if they're good either, but I got them for 8 euros and that's a lot better than quality $100+ to me. We found a Starbucks, which felt and looked exactly like our Starbucks at home. Then, a few of us went on a half an hour boat ride around the bay, which was really nice. Since it was only about 5pm, the boat wasn't full by any means, but we enjoyed the tour a lot. Then we wandered around for a long time looking for somewhere to eat. Eventually we found a gyro place and had excellent gyros (pita, meat, tzatziki, fries, tomatoes) and slovaki (chicken on a skewer). We were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel. Showering was an experience; our bathroom was pretty tiny and the shower was a raised tile square on the floor and a shower head on a hose, but no shower curtain, so it was a challenge to not soak the entire bathroom. (We failed.)
The next morning, we woke up and went on a beach adventure. Although Thessaloniki is on the water, there's no beach for quite a while. The really helpful man at the front desk told us the appropriate bus sequence and end destination, and we caught the first bus right outside of the hotel. The buses all have cool ticket dispensers on them; some have buttons and some have touch screens. We bought all-day passes for 3 euros and rode until the end of the line which was at IKEA. They didn't even refer to that location as "__ Bus Terminal", just "IKEA". We talked with a man on the bus who was headed the same direction as we were, so he showed us where to catch the next bus. Since this was May 1, which is traditionally a labor rights day, there was a massive strike in the city (and possibly the whole country), so basically everything but cafes and restaurants was closed. The buses were running, but no one was sure when they would come. We got lucky and only had to wait about 10 minutes. We rode for a while through some smaller towns and eventually some other helpful folks told us when to get off. We got some snacks and water at a bakery and walked down to the water. The beach was really long, pretty empty, and absolutely beautiful. We parked it a little ways away from the restaurant and just laid out for four hours, which was so pleasant. We swam a bit, but the water was freezing so I preferred being out. The temperature was perfect; I was never cold but I didn't get overheated either. It was nice to be on a beach again, I hadn't realized how much I missed it since Ecuador and Hawaii. I also made good progress on my tan; I was loosing it a little but not anymore! Before we left, we walked out on the pier and asked the old man who was out there to take our picture. He seemed pretty drunk but very friendly. He asked me what my name was, and when I answered, he looked very excited and said "Me too!". I knew that Alexander meant protector of mankind, but he said that the name originates from some Greek words (Insert wikipdia here, since my Greek isn't very good: ἀλέξω (alexō) "protector of men", "to push back", "to hold off" and ἀνδρός (andros), genitive of ἀνήρ (anēr) "man"). That was neat.
We got lucky with the bus and only waited about 5 minutes, and had a fast ride back to IKEA. Unfortunately it was closed due to the strike as well, or I would have got for some Swedish meatballs :) We then had to wait about 45 minutes for the next bus, but we had fun waiting. We were all talking loudly and a kid came up and we found out he's here for a semester with U Conn. We are jealous that they get to live in Thessaloniki; it would be more interesting than Ioannina. The bus came eventually and we headed right back to the hotel and passed out. It's amazing how tired laying down all day can make you. After a nice nap, we went back to the boat and rode around again, but there were lots more people and the city was really pretty at night. We made friends with Igor, a "20 year old" guy from Serbia. We think he is at least 35, but everyone always finds out that we're all about 20, so they are too! Such a coincidence!
On Sunday, we packed up all our stuff and the hotel let us keep it in a storage room for a few hours while we walked around (aka made our default loop down by the water). Since it was Sunday, nothing was open but cafes and resaturants, but we got some Spanakopita and other pastries. Here, spanakopita isn't an entree, it's a 2 euro pastry that every bakery has. It's SO good though! Katlynn, Serina and I also wandered around and took pictures of the arcitecture (we're the people who are always lagging at the back of the group since we've stopped to take so many pictures). The city itself is filled with tall neautral-colored buildings that have stores on the bottom floor and are apartments/condos above, but there are also a ton of old churches and ruins in between modern buildings. I didn't see any signs or historical explanations, but they were all beautiful.
We all met back at the hotel and had the usual difficulties of coordinating more than 20 people, but we all made it to the bus station, where we bought tickets for 22 euros with a student discount. Not like Ecuador, but the bus station and buses are nicer. There was a very pleasant cafe/bakery were we waited for a while, and then we went the GIANT building with the buses. The bus was normal-sized, but there were only maybe 8 people on it besides us, so we had plenty of room to spread out. Ioanna, the program coordinator, made us reservations, so I don't know if they added an extra bus or if they're always that empty.
The ride was beautiful; I'd been asleep the entire time on the way to Thessaloniki but I was awake for the way back, and I enjoyed the view. The area was very mountainous and green: different than what I normally would expect for Greece, but I'm glad I got to see that side of the country as well.
The bus approached Ioannina from the University side, and we literally drove past the University before driving really far around the city to avoid traffic, presumably. Then we had to pay for cabs to go back to the University, but we made it. Overall, sort of a crazy weekend, but super fun.
Love Alex
I snuck two pictures at the beginning, thinking they probably weren't allowed, and then I found out I was right, so I don't have any photos of the coolest things, but the facade of one of the tombs was excavated and the museum was built around it, which was incredible. There were also several gold crowns made of tiny leaves and acorns and they were probably the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
The museum was also jam packed with school groups, which was entertaining. Unfortunately none of their guides spoke English, or I would have just followed them around. When we left the museum, there were about 100 middle or high schoolers coming in. I'm glad we weren't there at the same time haha.
We headed back to the bus and drove to Thessaloniki, which is the second-largest city in Greece. It's in the northeast part of the country, and the downtown is right on the sea, which was stunning. We had perfect weather all weekend: all sun and no clouds, and it was nice and warm, but not too hot. Since everyone was planning on staying there for the weekend, we looked ridiculous as our group of 26 walked a few blocks away with all our stuff to a restaurant. Like normal, we had a ton of delicious food. Then, after we were all really full, they brought us out some small pastry and mousse-like desserts, which were yummy. Nicos, one of our teachers, helped us find our hotel, and then we wandered around the city for the rest of the afternoon. One of the major roads in the city is right next to the waterfront, and there is a wide sidewalk which we probably walked up and down at least two times every day because being by the water was so pleasant (although the water did not look very clean right next to the shore).
I was happy that there was also a bike lane and people out biking and running (unlike Ioannnina). There were many people with collections of fake Ray Bans. I bought a pair of white ones and he wanted to charge me 10 euros. He pointed out the brand and Marilena said "Alex, they're real". He said, "Well, no, not real, but good." I don't know if they're good either, but I got them for 8 euros and that's a lot better than quality $100+ to me. We found a Starbucks, which felt and looked exactly like our Starbucks at home. Then, a few of us went on a half an hour boat ride around the bay, which was really nice. Since it was only about 5pm, the boat wasn't full by any means, but we enjoyed the tour a lot. Then we wandered around for a long time looking for somewhere to eat. Eventually we found a gyro place and had excellent gyros (pita, meat, tzatziki, fries, tomatoes) and slovaki (chicken on a skewer). We were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel. Showering was an experience; our bathroom was pretty tiny and the shower was a raised tile square on the floor and a shower head on a hose, but no shower curtain, so it was a challenge to not soak the entire bathroom. (We failed.)
The next morning, we woke up and went on a beach adventure. Although Thessaloniki is on the water, there's no beach for quite a while. The really helpful man at the front desk told us the appropriate bus sequence and end destination, and we caught the first bus right outside of the hotel. The buses all have cool ticket dispensers on them; some have buttons and some have touch screens. We bought all-day passes for 3 euros and rode until the end of the line which was at IKEA. They didn't even refer to that location as "__ Bus Terminal", just "IKEA". We talked with a man on the bus who was headed the same direction as we were, so he showed us where to catch the next bus. Since this was May 1, which is traditionally a labor rights day, there was a massive strike in the city (and possibly the whole country), so basically everything but cafes and restaurants was closed. The buses were running, but no one was sure when they would come. We got lucky and only had to wait about 10 minutes. We rode for a while through some smaller towns and eventually some other helpful folks told us when to get off. We got some snacks and water at a bakery and walked down to the water. The beach was really long, pretty empty, and absolutely beautiful. We parked it a little ways away from the restaurant and just laid out for four hours, which was so pleasant. We swam a bit, but the water was freezing so I preferred being out. The temperature was perfect; I was never cold but I didn't get overheated either. It was nice to be on a beach again, I hadn't realized how much I missed it since Ecuador and Hawaii. I also made good progress on my tan; I was loosing it a little but not anymore! Before we left, we walked out on the pier and asked the old man who was out there to take our picture. He seemed pretty drunk but very friendly. He asked me what my name was, and when I answered, he looked very excited and said "Me too!". I knew that Alexander meant protector of mankind, but he said that the name originates from some Greek words (Insert wikipdia here, since my Greek isn't very good: ἀλέξω (alexō) "protector of men", "to push back", "to hold off" and ἀνδρός (andros), genitive of ἀνήρ (anēr) "man"). That was neat.
We got lucky with the bus and only waited about 5 minutes, and had a fast ride back to IKEA. Unfortunately it was closed due to the strike as well, or I would have got for some Swedish meatballs :) We then had to wait about 45 minutes for the next bus, but we had fun waiting. We were all talking loudly and a kid came up and we found out he's here for a semester with U Conn. We are jealous that they get to live in Thessaloniki; it would be more interesting than Ioannina. The bus came eventually and we headed right back to the hotel and passed out. It's amazing how tired laying down all day can make you. After a nice nap, we went back to the boat and rode around again, but there were lots more people and the city was really pretty at night. We made friends with Igor, a "20 year old" guy from Serbia. We think he is at least 35, but everyone always finds out that we're all about 20, so they are too! Such a coincidence!
On Sunday, we packed up all our stuff and the hotel let us keep it in a storage room for a few hours while we walked around (aka made our default loop down by the water). Since it was Sunday, nothing was open but cafes and resaturants, but we got some Spanakopita and other pastries. Here, spanakopita isn't an entree, it's a 2 euro pastry that every bakery has. It's SO good though! Katlynn, Serina and I also wandered around and took pictures of the arcitecture (we're the people who are always lagging at the back of the group since we've stopped to take so many pictures). The city itself is filled with tall neautral-colored buildings that have stores on the bottom floor and are apartments/condos above, but there are also a ton of old churches and ruins in between modern buildings. I didn't see any signs or historical explanations, but they were all beautiful.
We all met back at the hotel and had the usual difficulties of coordinating more than 20 people, but we all made it to the bus station, where we bought tickets for 22 euros with a student discount. Not like Ecuador, but the bus station and buses are nicer. There was a very pleasant cafe/bakery were we waited for a while, and then we went the GIANT building with the buses. The bus was normal-sized, but there were only maybe 8 people on it besides us, so we had plenty of room to spread out. Ioanna, the program coordinator, made us reservations, so I don't know if they added an extra bus or if they're always that empty.
The ride was beautiful; I'd been asleep the entire time on the way to Thessaloniki but I was awake for the way back, and I enjoyed the view. The area was very mountainous and green: different than what I normally would expect for Greece, but I'm glad I got to see that side of the country as well.
The bus approached Ioannina from the University side, and we literally drove past the University before driving really far around the city to avoid traffic, presumably. Then we had to pay for cabs to go back to the University, but we made it. Overall, sort of a crazy weekend, but super fun.
Love Alex
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