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