My days here really aren't too exciting so I apologize for the boring blog entries. In Greek class today, my teacher brought us tiropita, which is like spanikopita but with cheese/egg instead of spinach inside. Her grandma had cooked it for us, and it was delicious. During my hour-long break, I worked on an absolutely gigantic post-program survey for Ecuador. It asked questions I could have written essays for, but decided that I had better ways to spend my time. I still didn't finish the survey though, I spent 30 minutes on it later as well. We then had our culture lecture on Ancient Greek Art. The professor talked really slowly; I don't know if it was because he always does or just because he was unsure of his English sometimes (for the record, he had basically perfect English and a large vocabulary(, but I wasn't complaining about the speed since we were actually able to follow the topics. After lunch I went to Carrefour (AGAIN) but I've gotten the shopping trip down by now so I was able to pick out all my foods pretty quickly. After, I went up on the roof again and finished Dear John. I can't decided whether or not I wasted 3.5 hours of my life reading it or not. I had heard it was bad so I didn't have high hopes, but I'm a little disappointed in Nicholas Sparks; his other books were better. However, I've gotten my bad romance novel fix for the next year. Leah said she has Motorcycle Diaries so I think I'll steal that when she's done with it; it's probably better.
In dance class, we did the 12-step dance better than before, which was good. We also learned some cool moves like spinning or bending down and then jumping up to spice up some dances so that was fun.
Tomorrow we're going to Thessaloniki and we're staying there till Sunday, so I doubt there will be any new posts until then.
Enjoy the weekend!
Love Alex
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
lesson on how life is hit or miss, greek-cafeteria-style
Yesterday was a pretty normal Tuesday. In our culture lecture, we learned everything about the Byzantine Empire in a two hour lecture by a blind professor who spoke great English and had everything memorized, which was really impressive. Since he covered a HUGE time span, our notes only touch on the very major aspects, but it was interesting.
We also went into town for Ethnography interviews, part 2. It was nicer today so we tried just approaching people walking in the street. We had a number of people who said they didn't speak Greek or who didn't have time to talk to us, but we had three good interviews with people who all said pretty different things. In response to questions about Albanians and immigration, though, two of the interview-ees made the point that "We're all people!" and nationality shouldn't matter in your opinions of others. We also had another delicious dinner at our typical restaurant, although I think we're going to try somewhere else next time.
On the walk back to the bus, we saw a huge group of riot police and just up the road, a huge group of people just milling about and partially standing in the street. There was going to be a demonstration of some sort, but it hadn't started yet and I didn't really want to get caught up in that so we continued on home.
Today, we had more Greek class and then right after we went to the Ancient Theatre of Dodoni, which is only about 20 minutes away. It's a huge auditorium built into a hillside which can seat 18,000 people. This was also a sanctuary with an oracle and the Temple of Zeus.
It's also a pretty incredible location:
We came back to the BEST lunch we've had so far. There was green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and feta cheese and eggplant with sweet, cooked onions on top, which is delicious. This was a meal I legitimately would have ordered in a restaurant, so I was very satisfied.
I spent part of the afternoon reading on the roof, which was really nice. The emergency exits on either end of the building go all the way up, so I just grabbed my yoga mat and "Dear John" (I'm glad it's an easy read, because I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time reading it...) and soaked up some sun.
Albanian class was really long since I was tired, but he did talk a little bit more slowly, which was definitely an improvement.
After, Michelle and I ran to the track, were we were informed by another exerciser that that Track Coordinator had said they use pesticides on the grass, so we stopped stretching on it. Why they would use pesticides on a University field which has plenty of soccer players on it and runners next to it, I don't know. It also amazes me that the gate is perpetually locked and that lock is perpetually ignored. They really should just keep the gate open since I'm sure at least 50 people a day hope the fence, if not more.
We walked up to dinner after, which was unfortunately the worst meal we've had there yet haha. The entree options were either mystery soup with meatballs (although I don't know what kind of meat they were) or meat-stuffed cucumbers, which we had at dinner last night, and they weren't good then, so I certainly wasn't going to try these. There was also feta cheese, custard, and of course apples and bread.
Jenny and I ate apples, bread and water. Michelle, who can't eat wheat, had apples and water. I was so entertained by how horrible dinner was that I didn't mind too much, as long as that doesn't repeat itself too often.
We also went into town for Ethnography interviews, part 2. It was nicer today so we tried just approaching people walking in the street. We had a number of people who said they didn't speak Greek or who didn't have time to talk to us, but we had three good interviews with people who all said pretty different things. In response to questions about Albanians and immigration, though, two of the interview-ees made the point that "We're all people!" and nationality shouldn't matter in your opinions of others. We also had another delicious dinner at our typical restaurant, although I think we're going to try somewhere else next time.
On the walk back to the bus, we saw a huge group of riot police and just up the road, a huge group of people just milling about and partially standing in the street. There was going to be a demonstration of some sort, but it hadn't started yet and I didn't really want to get caught up in that so we continued on home.
Today, we had more Greek class and then right after we went to the Ancient Theatre of Dodoni, which is only about 20 minutes away. It's a huge auditorium built into a hillside which can seat 18,000 people. This was also a sanctuary with an oracle and the Temple of Zeus.
It's also a pretty incredible location:
We came back to the BEST lunch we've had so far. There was green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and feta cheese and eggplant with sweet, cooked onions on top, which is delicious. This was a meal I legitimately would have ordered in a restaurant, so I was very satisfied.
I spent part of the afternoon reading on the roof, which was really nice. The emergency exits on either end of the building go all the way up, so I just grabbed my yoga mat and "Dear John" (I'm glad it's an easy read, because I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time reading it...) and soaked up some sun.
Albanian class was really long since I was tired, but he did talk a little bit more slowly, which was definitely an improvement.
After, Michelle and I ran to the track, were we were informed by another exerciser that that Track Coordinator had said they use pesticides on the grass, so we stopped stretching on it. Why they would use pesticides on a University field which has plenty of soccer players on it and runners next to it, I don't know. It also amazes me that the gate is perpetually locked and that lock is perpetually ignored. They really should just keep the gate open since I'm sure at least 50 people a day hope the fence, if not more.
We walked up to dinner after, which was unfortunately the worst meal we've had there yet haha. The entree options were either mystery soup with meatballs (although I don't know what kind of meat they were) or meat-stuffed cucumbers, which we had at dinner last night, and they weren't good then, so I certainly wasn't going to try these. There was also feta cheese, custard, and of course apples and bread.
Jenny and I ate apples, bread and water. Michelle, who can't eat wheat, had apples and water. I was so entertained by how horrible dinner was that I didn't mind too much, as long as that doesn't repeat itself too often.
Monday, April 26, 2010
don't eat fish soup. you know, just in case you though that sounded good...
Today was pretty normal; nothing too exciting happened. I had greek class, during which we learn another conjugation pattern. It's getting easier to read although we're still all slow. Listening to us read must be like teaching 5 year olds how to sound out words haha. We also talked about birthdays. Here, you invite your friends out and you pay for everything, not the other way around, even if you're a kid. You also celebrate both your birthday AND your name day. Each saint has a day so if your name is similar to theirs, that's your day. There's also a day for everyone else who doesn't have a saint with the same name.
In dance class, we were more or less successful at the semi-complicated 12 step dance. We also learned two other dances which aren't in a big circle. In one, couples form a line and walk around in a circle for a while and then make a big tunnel which everyone goes under, which is fun. In the other, couples face each other with all the girls standing shoulder to shoulder and the boys in front of them. Then, the girls line walks backwards 8 steps and the boys like walks forward 8 steps. reverse, repeat, reverse repeat, etc haha.
We had Greek/Albanian class. The professor continued to talk really fast with his accent and use poor handwriting. I would find the material really interesting if I could understand it better, but oh well.
At lunch, I ate a salad and a soup with fish in it. That was a mistake, I think, because when I tried to go on a run later, I did not feel very good. I went to dinner with the other girls who had gone to work out, and we stayed for a really long time, leaving a little after 9. It was freezing out so we all ran back since we had workout clothes on (the only downside being that we get SO many stares in the cafeteria), which was fun and way faster than walking.
Love Alex
In dance class, we were more or less successful at the semi-complicated 12 step dance. We also learned two other dances which aren't in a big circle. In one, couples form a line and walk around in a circle for a while and then make a big tunnel which everyone goes under, which is fun. In the other, couples face each other with all the girls standing shoulder to shoulder and the boys in front of them. Then, the girls line walks backwards 8 steps and the boys like walks forward 8 steps. reverse, repeat, reverse repeat, etc haha.
We had Greek/Albanian class. The professor continued to talk really fast with his accent and use poor handwriting. I would find the material really interesting if I could understand it better, but oh well.
At lunch, I ate a salad and a soup with fish in it. That was a mistake, I think, because when I tried to go on a run later, I did not feel very good. I went to dinner with the other girls who had gone to work out, and we stayed for a really long time, leaving a little after 9. It was freezing out so we all ran back since we had workout clothes on (the only downside being that we get SO many stares in the cafeteria), which was fun and way faster than walking.
Love Alex
Sunday, April 25, 2010
old ruins and beautiful beaches
On Friday, we went on our weekly field trip. First, we visited the ancient city Nikopolis, which was built by Octavian to commemorate his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra in 31 BC.
Then we headed to the museum for Nicopolis and saw lots of sculptures and preserved remnants of the buildings. I think the small figure on the right looks like a wolf eating an octopus, but I could be wrong haha
Then we went to Nekromanteio of Aryra, the "gate of Hades", which is more cool ruins, including an underground room.
By this time we were starving, and we had lunch at this sweet restaurant right on a cliff looking out over the sea.
First we had a delicous salad with tomatoes, cucumber, onions, olives and a large slice of feta on the side. That seems to be what a "Greek Salad" really is. I ate a lot of that so I was pretty full, but then they brought out the pasta-lasagna thing we had for lunch at the cafeteria on thursday, except these ones had a layer of ground beef and they were GIGANTIC, probably 4.5" by 4.5" square and 3.5" tall, and everyone got one. I could have shared with someone and still had leftovers. Michelle can't eat wheat or dairy so they brought her calimari, but she wasn't a big fan so everyone else had a bit, and it was fantastic.
We drove just down the road to an adorable town, Parga. Words don't do it justice, but it was a quintessential little Greek town on the coast. First we played on the beach for a while. Taso decided we should have our own Olympics, so we had skipping rock contests, a throwing rocks contest, a reverse-long-jump contest (run, but jump backwards), and a run backwards race. I beat him (that's the goofy-looking-picture below)...
Then we hiked up to the monastery on top of a hill. If I had lived during the time period when it was built, I definitely would have become a monk just so I could live there. Aside from the fact that the property was huge and had all sorts of cool buildings (ruins, now), it jutted out with a 270 degree view of the sea (which is absolutely stunning).
Now normally when I'm visiting some tall, photogenic place I go right to the top to get the sweet view. I did that this time and figured everyone else would follow. A few people did, and then I kept exploring (like I said, the place is big). It was interesting because it hasn't been restored like the other sites we've visited have, so there were rooms full of weeds and broken stones, which of course is realistic for ruins. Anyway, when I finally wandered back down towards the entrance, everyone was gone haha. I felt slightly abandoned but Tina realized and called me to give me directions. The town itself was built strategically to protect the residents from pirate attacks, so the roads are ridiculously narrow and windy and all over the place, which is really neat but you'd have to really know your way around to go anywhere; I have no idea how tourists find hotels, for example.
We had coffee at a cafe on the waterfront, which was very pleasant. Anna actually had hot chocolate, which came with lots of whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles :)
Since Parga was adorable but not sunny, we decided to come back another weekend when it was nice so we could go swimming and be in the sun.
On the bus ride back, everyone was exhausted and passed out, so when we got back, we were still disoriented and we relaxed for a while (aka most people napped; I watched House). Then I went into town with a few people and we got food. I had a gyro for 1.80 euros. It's a pita with meat, french fries, tomatoes onions and tzatziki. Not super healthy, but delicious.
On Saturday, I went into town again on a shopping expedition. There aren't any malls but there are a ton of cute stores. Many are very pricey, but we found two that are more like H&M, and so I got a few new things, which I'm excited about. My goal is to find a cool leather jacket; they seem to be a Grecian wardrobe staple. For lunch, I had my first real spanikopita from a pastry shop, which I enjoyed immensely. I also had a gyro, since I was still hungry. We were pretty exhausted from all the walking and shopping, so four of us headed back to school. Michelle and I stopped at Carrefour and actually had a fast shopping trip for once. I bought more little yogurts. I love them.
The rest of my weekend has not been particularly exciting; it has involved many episodes of House, two runs, lots of sleeping, and actual meals at the cafeteria. I'm very glad they're open on weekends. At dinner today we had green salads AND tomato/cucumber bowls!
This afternoon, we all trooped down to the track and played soccer with some of the other international students. I didn't actually play, but I run and play some frisbee, which was great :) I miss it. The soccer game was fun; a lot of the kids in my group used to play and they were happy to get to play again. Others of us don't play at all, but we enjoyed watching and cheering.
I have class again tomorrow, so I'm off to bed!
Love Alex
Then we headed to the museum for Nicopolis and saw lots of sculptures and preserved remnants of the buildings. I think the small figure on the right looks like a wolf eating an octopus, but I could be wrong haha
Then we went to Nekromanteio of Aryra, the "gate of Hades", which is more cool ruins, including an underground room.
By this time we were starving, and we had lunch at this sweet restaurant right on a cliff looking out over the sea.
First we had a delicous salad with tomatoes, cucumber, onions, olives and a large slice of feta on the side. That seems to be what a "Greek Salad" really is. I ate a lot of that so I was pretty full, but then they brought out the pasta-lasagna thing we had for lunch at the cafeteria on thursday, except these ones had a layer of ground beef and they were GIGANTIC, probably 4.5" by 4.5" square and 3.5" tall, and everyone got one. I could have shared with someone and still had leftovers. Michelle can't eat wheat or dairy so they brought her calimari, but she wasn't a big fan so everyone else had a bit, and it was fantastic.
We drove just down the road to an adorable town, Parga. Words don't do it justice, but it was a quintessential little Greek town on the coast. First we played on the beach for a while. Taso decided we should have our own Olympics, so we had skipping rock contests, a throwing rocks contest, a reverse-long-jump contest (run, but jump backwards), and a run backwards race. I beat him (that's the goofy-looking-picture below)...
Then we hiked up to the monastery on top of a hill. If I had lived during the time period when it was built, I definitely would have become a monk just so I could live there. Aside from the fact that the property was huge and had all sorts of cool buildings (ruins, now), it jutted out with a 270 degree view of the sea (which is absolutely stunning).
Now normally when I'm visiting some tall, photogenic place I go right to the top to get the sweet view. I did that this time and figured everyone else would follow. A few people did, and then I kept exploring (like I said, the place is big). It was interesting because it hasn't been restored like the other sites we've visited have, so there were rooms full of weeds and broken stones, which of course is realistic for ruins. Anyway, when I finally wandered back down towards the entrance, everyone was gone haha. I felt slightly abandoned but Tina realized and called me to give me directions. The town itself was built strategically to protect the residents from pirate attacks, so the roads are ridiculously narrow and windy and all over the place, which is really neat but you'd have to really know your way around to go anywhere; I have no idea how tourists find hotels, for example.
We had coffee at a cafe on the waterfront, which was very pleasant. Anna actually had hot chocolate, which came with lots of whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles :)
Since Parga was adorable but not sunny, we decided to come back another weekend when it was nice so we could go swimming and be in the sun.
On the bus ride back, everyone was exhausted and passed out, so when we got back, we were still disoriented and we relaxed for a while (aka most people napped; I watched House). Then I went into town with a few people and we got food. I had a gyro for 1.80 euros. It's a pita with meat, french fries, tomatoes onions and tzatziki. Not super healthy, but delicious.
On Saturday, I went into town again on a shopping expedition. There aren't any malls but there are a ton of cute stores. Many are very pricey, but we found two that are more like H&M, and so I got a few new things, which I'm excited about. My goal is to find a cool leather jacket; they seem to be a Grecian wardrobe staple. For lunch, I had my first real spanikopita from a pastry shop, which I enjoyed immensely. I also had a gyro, since I was still hungry. We were pretty exhausted from all the walking and shopping, so four of us headed back to school. Michelle and I stopped at Carrefour and actually had a fast shopping trip for once. I bought more little yogurts. I love them.
The rest of my weekend has not been particularly exciting; it has involved many episodes of House, two runs, lots of sleeping, and actual meals at the cafeteria. I'm very glad they're open on weekends. At dinner today we had green salads AND tomato/cucumber bowls!
This afternoon, we all trooped down to the track and played soccer with some of the other international students. I didn't actually play, but I run and play some frisbee, which was great :) I miss it. The soccer game was fun; a lot of the kids in my group used to play and they were happy to get to play again. Others of us don't play at all, but we enjoyed watching and cheering.
I have class again tomorrow, so I'm off to bed!
Love Alex
Thursday, April 22, 2010
YOGURT!
I am pooped and still have some more internship app stuff to do and and I have to get up early tomorrow so this will be short. We're going to Parga (sweet town on the coast) on our Friday field trip tomorrow, and then I'm planning on staying there/Corfu (a sweet island) so I won't be posting till Sunday, but that one will be long with lots of pictures! I've done a bunch of traveling in the last few months where I just got on some buses and figured everything would work out; I think I made two hotel reservations in all of Ecuador. The kids on my program haven't done quite as much winging it so planning this weekend has involved SO much more discussion haha. Sadly, hotels here are not $5 per night. I am not excited to be paying for lodging on weekends when I travel, even in hostels...
Anyways, this morning in Greek class my teacher spent half an hour discussing Greek fashion and some clothing vocab words. It was definitely a subject she enjoys haha. We had an hour break, during which I cleared our weekend trip with the program supervisor and my professor. Then we had a two hour lecture on Greek music from the 1960s until today. I really enjoyed listening to the music. That professor said he would make us a CD of all the songs so I'm excited. Then I went back to the program coordinator and signed a paper saying I wouldn't sue the University of Ioannina if I die on my own trip this weekend. just in case that's something I would do when I'm dead...
Katlynn and I went on a run after, which was great. We had a three hour break so we actually had time for a long run and some lunges and core. After running around campus we got to the track which was locked, but we decided we could pretend to be dumb Americans who didn't understand locks if anyone got mad at us for jumping over. No one did, but there were 5 or 6 other people who showed up while we were there and also climbed the fence haha.
We also had Albanian lecture again. It was similar to the last one. Meh. It's interesting information but the presentation could be better.
Dinner was entertaining. It actually wasn't too bad but it was either a plate of potato slices with little ham squares and feta cheese and sort of brown sauce, or a large and tall square (like a huge lasagna, minus tomatoes) of overcooked pasta and cheese, with a HUGE layer of cheesy/lardy something on top. That was the most entertaining part haha. We did have green salad and tomaotes and cucumbers so I was happy.
In dance class we were all pretty tired from a long day so we decided to laugh a lot despite our teacher's previous reprimands so it was fun. We learned 6 new steps last time and the following 6 steps today and it was a minor disaster, but that was funny too
Since then (as in 9pm when class ended, yay Thursdays) I've been working on internship applications. There are several which look really really cool. I'm pretty tired of writing and editing cover letters though...
Also, possibly the highlight of my day: my all time favorite yogurt at home is Dannon Vanilla that comes in the big yellow containers. It's really sweet and rather like dessert but I love it. Here in Greece, they don't have any of course, so I bought some little containers of a random product in the yogurt aisle. It's plain so there's no sugar, but it has the EXACT same texture as my Dannon yogurt, which is amazingggg. I'm thrilled :)
Anyways, this morning in Greek class my teacher spent half an hour discussing Greek fashion and some clothing vocab words. It was definitely a subject she enjoys haha. We had an hour break, during which I cleared our weekend trip with the program supervisor and my professor. Then we had a two hour lecture on Greek music from the 1960s until today. I really enjoyed listening to the music. That professor said he would make us a CD of all the songs so I'm excited. Then I went back to the program coordinator and signed a paper saying I wouldn't sue the University of Ioannina if I die on my own trip this weekend. just in case that's something I would do when I'm dead...
Katlynn and I went on a run after, which was great. We had a three hour break so we actually had time for a long run and some lunges and core. After running around campus we got to the track which was locked, but we decided we could pretend to be dumb Americans who didn't understand locks if anyone got mad at us for jumping over. No one did, but there were 5 or 6 other people who showed up while we were there and also climbed the fence haha.
We also had Albanian lecture again. It was similar to the last one. Meh. It's interesting information but the presentation could be better.
Dinner was entertaining. It actually wasn't too bad but it was either a plate of potato slices with little ham squares and feta cheese and sort of brown sauce, or a large and tall square (like a huge lasagna, minus tomatoes) of overcooked pasta and cheese, with a HUGE layer of cheesy/lardy something on top. That was the most entertaining part haha. We did have green salad and tomaotes and cucumbers so I was happy.
In dance class we were all pretty tired from a long day so we decided to laugh a lot despite our teacher's previous reprimands so it was fun. We learned 6 new steps last time and the following 6 steps today and it was a minor disaster, but that was funny too
Since then (as in 9pm when class ended, yay Thursdays) I've been working on internship applications. There are several which look really really cool. I'm pretty tired of writing and editing cover letters though...
Also, possibly the highlight of my day: my all time favorite yogurt at home is Dannon Vanilla that comes in the big yellow containers. It's really sweet and rather like dessert but I love it. Here in Greece, they don't have any of course, so I bought some little containers of a random product in the yogurt aisle. It's plain so there's no sugar, but it has the EXACT same texture as my Dannon yogurt, which is amazingggg. I'm thrilled :)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
weekly wednesday field trip!
This morning in Greek class we learned how to tell time. It felt a bit like we were going back to kindergarden, except this time we actually have to learn the numbers also since we don't know them haha. We also did a spelling exercise where she read us a few sentences from yesterday's dialogue and we had to write them down. I'm pretty used to spelling by ear and using accents, so it wasn't much of a problem for me. The only difficultly was that there are 3 different letters for the "i" sound, and I didn't know which one was correct all the time, but she said it's alright if we have those errors since she's trying to stress consonant and verb sounds at the moment.
We had an hour break after class, so Katlynn Tina and I hurried back to the dorm and changed into running clothes and went for a nice sunny run. I felt very productive. It would be better during a two hour break so I could take a shower that was longer than 2 minutes, but it still worked out pretty well.
At noon we had our Albanian class. He talked about the Ottoman Empire and some general Greek and Albanian history and a lot of other things. The material is interesting but the professor is trying to tell us so much so quickly, and very enthusiastically, with a Greek accent, so it's sometimes difficult to follow. But, we got out of class 20 minutes early so we had time to go to lunch without rushing, which was good. I actually enjoyed the meal; the entree was a zucchini/potato dish in lots of olive oil with some seasoning, and there was also a casserole type dish with cheese and French fries on top haha.
At three, we went on our Wednesday excursion to the Byzantine Museum and Castle of Ioannina. This is in town, really close to the lake and the resstaurants where we've been frequently, so going there is really easy by city bus, but for some reason we took a charter bus. Waste of money in my opinion, but oh well. I uploaded a big folder with pictures but I haven't made the "Best of" folder yet. It's coming though, don't worry. Here are a few pictures from the day:
We had an hour break after class, so Katlynn Tina and I hurried back to the dorm and changed into running clothes and went for a nice sunny run. I felt very productive. It would be better during a two hour break so I could take a shower that was longer than 2 minutes, but it still worked out pretty well.
At noon we had our Albanian class. He talked about the Ottoman Empire and some general Greek and Albanian history and a lot of other things. The material is interesting but the professor is trying to tell us so much so quickly, and very enthusiastically, with a Greek accent, so it's sometimes difficult to follow. But, we got out of class 20 minutes early so we had time to go to lunch without rushing, which was good. I actually enjoyed the meal; the entree was a zucchini/potato dish in lots of olive oil with some seasoning, and there was also a casserole type dish with cheese and French fries on top haha.
At three, we went on our Wednesday excursion to the Byzantine Museum and Castle of Ioannina. This is in town, really close to the lake and the resstaurants where we've been frequently, so going there is really easy by city bus, but for some reason we took a charter bus. Waste of money in my opinion, but oh well. I uploaded a big folder with pictures but I haven't made the "Best of" folder yet. It's coming though, don't worry. Here are a few pictures from the day:
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
weird weather.
Today when I got dressed, the sun was shining so I wore short sleeves. When I walked over to class, it was a little bit cloudy. In class, we reconjugated our verbs and Fay was happier. Unfortunately we also conjugated (for lack of a better word) nouns. They have different endings depending on whether they're a subject or object, singular or plural, and other things we didn't discuss. After class, we had an hour break, and Michelle and I finally fixed our internet so now we can both use it at the same time! Then we had our culture class (when I walked over, it was chilly and windy outside), which today was about Greek music history. We listened to some clips from a variety of time periods, which were really interesting. Geographic region and year makes a big difference in the sound. I particularly liked the pieces from the Post-Byzantine Era, which featured more violin-ish instruments. At the end of class, it was POURING outside, with some thunder and lightning. Tina, Katlynn, and I were going to go on a run, but I took a nap for an hour instead. When I woke up, the sky was half blue and half filled with white puffy clouds, so Katlynn and I went on a nice sunny run. We ran in the opposite direction of campus, and went on some new streets which was interesting. We also found a Metro Cash and Carry, which is like a mini-Costco. I may need to start doing some shopping there because I keep running out of food. After our run I went to Carrefour (again!) with Michelle and Nicolette. On our walk there, it started to get a little breezy. I bought more food, a bowl, cup and silverware (I realized after buying cereal and milk last time that I was still missing something haha) and a sweet yoga set for $8. It has a yoga mat, two blocks, and a strap. Now I can actually stretch out and do core without laying on the hard tile floor :)
On our walk back it got legitimately cold and windy; my hands were kind of numb when I unlocked my door. We got ready to go into town and met up with our class for day one of our Ethnographic Study. We split up into groups of 3 and walked up to random Greeks and, after making sure they spoke English, asked them a few questions about (in my group's case) politics and gender relations. This sounded INCREDIBLY awkward and I felt way out of my comfort zone when we were looking for the first people to interview, but it ended up being fine. The first couple we talked to was really nice; they were interested in what we were doing and enthusiastic about answering our questions. It was getting kind of rainy so I was glad we ambushed them at a covered bus stop. We also talked to two college guys under a kiosk awning and two men outside their apartment having cigarettes. They all had different opinions about the questions we asked, except they all said that Greeks don't trust the government. I'll share a coherent version of all the responses when we work on our final presentation at the end of the quarter, since we're going to be doing this every Tuesday evening.
After, we all met up and had dinner at the Greek restaurant where we ate last Friday, which was so delicious. It's so enjoyable to have well-prepared traditional Greek food. This time we had bread, Mediterranean salad, green salad, orzo pasta with beef I think, okra, fish fillet, rice-stuffed peppers, spaghetti with some sort of meat, and I think a few other dishs as well. After, Taso said he wanted to treat us all to ice cream, so we went to the gelato place that I ate at the first weekend and we all got incredible ice cream. I ate a lot, but it was fabulous. Then we all bused back together (by this time, it was freezing out). I'm sure the Greeks thing we're crazy: 25 Americans crowding on the bus must look pretty weird.
On our walk back it got legitimately cold and windy; my hands were kind of numb when I unlocked my door. We got ready to go into town and met up with our class for day one of our Ethnographic Study. We split up into groups of 3 and walked up to random Greeks and, after making sure they spoke English, asked them a few questions about (in my group's case) politics and gender relations. This sounded INCREDIBLY awkward and I felt way out of my comfort zone when we were looking for the first people to interview, but it ended up being fine. The first couple we talked to was really nice; they were interested in what we were doing and enthusiastic about answering our questions. It was getting kind of rainy so I was glad we ambushed them at a covered bus stop. We also talked to two college guys under a kiosk awning and two men outside their apartment having cigarettes. They all had different opinions about the questions we asked, except they all said that Greeks don't trust the government. I'll share a coherent version of all the responses when we work on our final presentation at the end of the quarter, since we're going to be doing this every Tuesday evening.
After, we all met up and had dinner at the Greek restaurant where we ate last Friday, which was so delicious. It's so enjoyable to have well-prepared traditional Greek food. This time we had bread, Mediterranean salad, green salad, orzo pasta with beef I think, okra, fish fillet, rice-stuffed peppers, spaghetti with some sort of meat, and I think a few other dishs as well. After, Taso said he wanted to treat us all to ice cream, so we went to the gelato place that I ate at the first weekend and we all got incredible ice cream. I ate a lot, but it was fabulous. Then we all bused back together (by this time, it was freezing out). I'm sure the Greeks thing we're crazy: 25 Americans crowding on the bus must look pretty weird.
Monday, April 19, 2010
mostly monday.
Yesterday, I enjoyed sleeping in and then went on a run. It was hot but I loved being in the sun. I came back, showered, and as soon as I had gotten dressed I heard that some girls were going on a hike 15 minutes later. So, I changed back into workout clothes and we did almost the same hike as Saturday, but with even more sun and sunblock. The view was still gorgeous and it felt good to be outdoors, even though my allergies have been very unfortunate despite Claritin. Normally I just switch to contacts halfway through the day after my contacts get really dry, but I'm out of contact solution and the grocery store doesn't have it and I haven't made it to a pharmacy yet, so I've been enjoying wearing glasses every day. However, whether it's from sunburn or just pushing up my glasses since they're loose, the bridge of my nose started to hurt yesterday afternoon haha. My only solution was to wear my glasses like a librarian and not move, so I watched some more house. I only have one episode of season two left!
Also, apparently the cafeteria is open on weekends, which I found out today (Monday). I heard the food was actually good; they had lamb skewers I think.
This morning in Greek my teacher was not very pleased with how tired and not knowledgeable about last week's lessons we were. It's taking us all a little while to get to a mindset of memorizing Greek words. I just keep comparing it to Spanish. I remember learning "to be" in Spanish sophomore year but it seems like it was easier then because I wasn't comparing it to a language I've already studied.
We had dance class number two, which was a little more somber due to the whole Monday-morning thing. We did the same steps for half the class and then learned two new sets of steps. We also listened to a variety of traditional Greek music. Most of it isn't something I'd put on my iPod to listen, but I enjoyed hearing all the different instrument combinations.
Lunch was actually quite good. There was sort of eggplant with meat inside (beef I think) or stuffed peppers with rice, which was actually somewhat spicy. I tried to have both but the lady told me "ena" which means one. I was happy I understood but not happy I couldn't have both, especially since you don't show any ID or pay, and you can walk in as many times as you want. However, I think we were a little bit too hard on the cafeteria. The food presentation and room ambiance could be better, but the food could be worse.
We also had our first Albanian lecture. The professor is really enthusiastic and I think the topic will be pretty interesting, but I'm not excited for the class structure, since 50% of our grade is our final and 40% is a paper on today's Grecian-Albanian relations which is "up to 10 pages" in length. 10% is attendance. Today he just talked about some geography and the concept of history in general, so we didn't learn about the relationship yet, but we have two more classes this week, so we will.
On Mondays, we exchange our sheets/towels between 6:30 and 7:30pm with the landlady, for lack of a better word. It rained today (it felt exactly like Seattle) so everyone was mentally very anxious to get new towels. The lady (I cannot for the life of me remember her name: it's long and Greek) is really nice and I like getting to talk with her briefly.
Also, apparently the cafeteria is open on weekends, which I found out today (Monday). I heard the food was actually good; they had lamb skewers I think.
This morning in Greek my teacher was not very pleased with how tired and not knowledgeable about last week's lessons we were. It's taking us all a little while to get to a mindset of memorizing Greek words. I just keep comparing it to Spanish. I remember learning "to be" in Spanish sophomore year but it seems like it was easier then because I wasn't comparing it to a language I've already studied.
We had dance class number two, which was a little more somber due to the whole Monday-morning thing. We did the same steps for half the class and then learned two new sets of steps. We also listened to a variety of traditional Greek music. Most of it isn't something I'd put on my iPod to listen, but I enjoyed hearing all the different instrument combinations.
Lunch was actually quite good. There was sort of eggplant with meat inside (beef I think) or stuffed peppers with rice, which was actually somewhat spicy. I tried to have both but the lady told me "ena" which means one. I was happy I understood but not happy I couldn't have both, especially since you don't show any ID or pay, and you can walk in as many times as you want. However, I think we were a little bit too hard on the cafeteria. The food presentation and room ambiance could be better, but the food could be worse.
We also had our first Albanian lecture. The professor is really enthusiastic and I think the topic will be pretty interesting, but I'm not excited for the class structure, since 50% of our grade is our final and 40% is a paper on today's Grecian-Albanian relations which is "up to 10 pages" in length. 10% is attendance. Today he just talked about some geography and the concept of history in general, so we didn't learn about the relationship yet, but we have two more classes this week, so we will.
On Mondays, we exchange our sheets/towels between 6:30 and 7:30pm with the landlady, for lack of a better word. It rained today (it felt exactly like Seattle) so everyone was mentally very anxious to get new towels. The lady (I cannot for the life of me remember her name: it's long and Greek) is really nice and I like getting to talk with her briefly.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Hiking (on a real path!)
This morning my roommate Michelle and I slept in, and when we woke up we realized we both had 1 orange and nothing else food-wise. We were hoping the little cafeteria in the next building would be open, so we threw on some sweats and walked over. The building and cafeteria were full of people who were dressed considerably more nicely than we were, so we didn’t stay too long, but I got a yummy sandwich. Michelle can’t eat wheat so she had coffee.
Then, we met up with some of the other girls on the program and went on a hike. At the top of the hill behind our school, there’s a road to go up to an old monastery, but the road continues a lot farther up as well. We walked for a long time and encountered 3 or 4 different old stone ruins, which were beautiful. None of them had any signs or information posted, but I’m hoping my teachers know about Ioannina history because I’m curious why they were built. We actually got pretty tired from the hike but it was beautiful and sunny, and we enjoyed it a lot.
We came back to the dorm briefly to get lots of cold water and money, and then we walked over to Carrefour, the local K-mart, to get groceries. It’s just a mile down the road so we walked there, and we were all starving so we ate in the café they have just outside the store. I paid 2 euros for a fabulous pita gyro with chicken, onions, tomatoes, French fries and tzatziki inside. It was SO good. Then we bought lots of groceries, and I’ve now officially braved the cheese aisle, the milk aisle, AND the yogurt aisle, although I haven’t tried the yogurt I bought yet. We’ll see if it’s sweet or really bitter. I also bought a huge tub of tzatziki which I’ve already started to enjoy.
For dinner, we went to a Mexican restaurant in town. On the bus, I sat in an empty seat next to some guy who didn’t really speak English, but he could ask basic questions. The bus ride was probably 10 minutes, but that was apparently enough time to tell me I was pretty, beautiful, ask for my phone number and ask if we were on our way to a party. I told him I didn’t have a phone and we weren’t partiers. Perhaps if he had actually spoken English we could have been friends, but I don’t speak Greek or Albanian so there wasn’t much potential for any communication haha. Taso keeps telling us that we’re doing our ethnographic study we can’t approach single people of the opposite gender if we’re alone because it’s too forward and considered very suggestive, but I think the rest of the country missed that memo.
Anyways, there’s a road that borders the edge of the lake with a ton of pretty nice restaurants. I decided that paying a lot for my meal would not be so fun so I ate before we went down, but I enjoyed being there; the restaurant was really cute and the food (I snagged a couple bites) was delicious. Expensive though. I’m glad I didn’t buy a meal there. The waiters were also really helpful; they spoke English well and had 3 English menus, which was fortunate since I’m sure a Greek menu would have been impossible.
Everyone in my group has had constant cravings for food from home, (hence the Mexican food choice) and we’ve only been here two weeks haha. They’re also really tired of the buses, which I’ll remind you, are very nice. I’d like to stick them all in Ecuador. Maybe the Puyo Jungle weekend with a tiny 12-seater van and probably 18 people and cabanas with no electricity but plenty of cockroaches would help them to appreciate how comfortable Greece is haha. I think I’ll take a break before I do a bunch more traveling, but I think in a lot of ways I liked South American traveling more because everything is just so much cheaper. For example, we want to go to Corfu, which is an island off the coast, and to get there we have to take an hour bus ride (possibly 2 hours; I’m not sure) and then a ferry, which are 9 and 4 euros, respectively, with the student discount (that’s like 4 times the cost of transportation in Ecuador). Of course, you don’t have to worry about someone slashing your bag, so there are certainly tradeoffs.
Then, we met up with some of the other girls on the program and went on a hike. At the top of the hill behind our school, there’s a road to go up to an old monastery, but the road continues a lot farther up as well. We walked for a long time and encountered 3 or 4 different old stone ruins, which were beautiful. None of them had any signs or information posted, but I’m hoping my teachers know about Ioannina history because I’m curious why they were built. We actually got pretty tired from the hike but it was beautiful and sunny, and we enjoyed it a lot.
We came back to the dorm briefly to get lots of cold water and money, and then we walked over to Carrefour, the local K-mart, to get groceries. It’s just a mile down the road so we walked there, and we were all starving so we ate in the café they have just outside the store. I paid 2 euros for a fabulous pita gyro with chicken, onions, tomatoes, French fries and tzatziki inside. It was SO good. Then we bought lots of groceries, and I’ve now officially braved the cheese aisle, the milk aisle, AND the yogurt aisle, although I haven’t tried the yogurt I bought yet. We’ll see if it’s sweet or really bitter. I also bought a huge tub of tzatziki which I’ve already started to enjoy.
For dinner, we went to a Mexican restaurant in town. On the bus, I sat in an empty seat next to some guy who didn’t really speak English, but he could ask basic questions. The bus ride was probably 10 minutes, but that was apparently enough time to tell me I was pretty, beautiful, ask for my phone number and ask if we were on our way to a party. I told him I didn’t have a phone and we weren’t partiers. Perhaps if he had actually spoken English we could have been friends, but I don’t speak Greek or Albanian so there wasn’t much potential for any communication haha. Taso keeps telling us that we’re doing our ethnographic study we can’t approach single people of the opposite gender if we’re alone because it’s too forward and considered very suggestive, but I think the rest of the country missed that memo.
Anyways, there’s a road that borders the edge of the lake with a ton of pretty nice restaurants. I decided that paying a lot for my meal would not be so fun so I ate before we went down, but I enjoyed being there; the restaurant was really cute and the food (I snagged a couple bites) was delicious. Expensive though. I’m glad I didn’t buy a meal there. The waiters were also really helpful; they spoke English well and had 3 English menus, which was fortunate since I’m sure a Greek menu would have been impossible.
Everyone in my group has had constant cravings for food from home, (hence the Mexican food choice) and we’ve only been here two weeks haha. They’re also really tired of the buses, which I’ll remind you, are very nice. I’d like to stick them all in Ecuador. Maybe the Puyo Jungle weekend with a tiny 12-seater van and probably 18 people and cabanas with no electricity but plenty of cockroaches would help them to appreciate how comfortable Greece is haha. I think I’ll take a break before I do a bunch more traveling, but I think in a lot of ways I liked South American traveling more because everything is just so much cheaper. For example, we want to go to Corfu, which is an island off the coast, and to get there we have to take an hour bus ride (possibly 2 hours; I’m not sure) and then a ferry, which are 9 and 4 euros, respectively, with the student discount (that’s like 4 times the cost of transportation in Ecuador). Of course, you don’t have to worry about someone slashing your bag, so there are certainly tradeoffs.
Friday, April 16, 2010
photos
If you want to see more, don't forget I upload them all at http://picasaweb.google.com/alex.fussell . There are huge albums and also "Best of..." albums, which are probably a better use of your time.
epic mountain views :)
Blogging is a bit harder here than in Ecuador since I live in such close proximity to other people who like to be in my room haha. I enjoy hanging out with them, but not being on my laptop at the same time, so sometimes at night the blog doesn’t get written…
Yesterday, I had Greek class in the morning, an hour break, and then Greek culture lecture. Taso was the lecturer of the day, which was lots of fun since he’s a great speaker. He talked about lots of interesting concepts relating to ethnography and Greek culture. Here in Greece, the government, as I’ve mentioned before, is pretty socialist, so to me it’s surprising that they provide so much to the citizens (like free education). However, there is a very adversarial relationship between citizens and the state: citizens expect the state to take care of all of their needs, but they feel no reciprocal responsibility to help solve community problems. There are very few NGOs here, and there’s no culture of volunteering or philanthropy; “volunteering” is generally considered stupid. The media also reinforces this idea; articles generally focus on (lack of) government actions, but don’t report individual acts. On a different note, Taso also said that the Greek way to say “I love you” is to say “Eat!” :)
Our afternoon Albanian class was canceled since the professor was sick (nobody was too sad…) so I had time for a nice run. Nice is a relative term; I hurt from the run with the other girls since we did a hill, and I did more hills yesterday so I was really glad to come back and just be off my feet for a while. That didn’t last too long, though, since we had our first Greek dance class. Our classroom is under the bleachers at the track; it’s actually a legit dance room with a whole wall of mirrors and a sound system. We were impressed. The class was an hour and it flew by. We learned a simple dance; it was just a few grapevine steps and shuffles, but everyone looked really funny and impressive at the same time, so we laughed a lot. Taso really got into and was definitely the best dancer. Our dance teacher got mad though and told us we couldn’t learn if we laughed so much, so we had to be a bit more serious and we did the same steps to increasingly faster songs. It was definitely an excellent way to spend an hour.
This morning, we met at 8:30 to go on an excursion to Zagorohoria, which is an area in the mountains about an hour away. We first stopped at a set of beautiful bridges: an old one which was slightly rougher, and one new one for the road. The sun was shining and the river was surprisingly turquoise, and there were several little staircases and rocks to clamber on. We enjoyed this stop a lot.
We got back on the bus and drove a bit further down the road to another bridge, which had interesting supports that could be climbed, so I did.
Then we drove to a town, which was called Monodendri I think. Everything in the area of Zagorohoria is built with stone, and the town was no exception; all the buildings were gorgeous. We walked down a series of windy road/paths with lots of great photo ops, and at the edge of town we walked down a long road on the edge of a cliff, more or less, which opened up to give a view of the Vikos Gorge, which is the world’s deepest gorge, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Just past that spot was the entrance to the Agia Paraskevi Monastery, which basically seems to be about to fall into the gorge, not from architectural instability but just from being built on the edge of a mountain. It wasn’t huge, but there were probably 9 or 10 little buildings (with even littler doors, which came up to my chest). It’s not in use anymore, but it’s a beautiful place. Then we wandered up a little path to a sign that said “The Great Caves.” We figured that could be pretty neat, so we walked on a path with views of the gorge that kept getting better and better, which was sweet. The path turned around a corner and sort of turned into a tiny ledge sticking out of the face of a cliff, which was entertaining. There was a wall/door built into the mountain as an entrance to the Great Caves, which were very tall and afforded yet more beautiful view.
The path kept continuing to a few more small caves and viewpoints and then Megan and I went even farther, which required a bit more climbing and less walking. We felt totally fine but everyone else freaked out. We got sweet pictures though! Nico, the teacher from the other class, told me “There’s living dangerously, and then there’s not living” haha.
We meandered back along the path to meet the less adventurous and those with poor hiking shoes, and then we headed back to town for lunch, because we were starving. We had a delicious GREEN salad (you’d be surprised how rare that is for us, probably thanks to the cafeteria), yummy bread, excellent soup, great potatoes and the best chicken I’ve had in a longgg time. And fish, which Joe said was the best fish he’s had here in Greece. I love our group adventures because they always result in fabulous foooood.
Then we walked to a museum, which was featuring a photography exhibit by Voula Papaioannou, who photographed Greece during World War Two and the Greek Civil War, which happened immediately after. The pictures were all black and white and very powerful. They showed daily life, Greek architecture both erect and destroyed, normal people, working people, starving people and many other subjects as well. The museum was a remodeled house, I think, and It was really cute; it had several stained glass windows and a stone exterior with blue accents (like much of the town).
We walked back to the bus and headed back to school. I hope they didn’t choose the best excursion for the first one, but it seems like this one will be pretty hard to beat!
Yesterday, I had Greek class in the morning, an hour break, and then Greek culture lecture. Taso was the lecturer of the day, which was lots of fun since he’s a great speaker. He talked about lots of interesting concepts relating to ethnography and Greek culture. Here in Greece, the government, as I’ve mentioned before, is pretty socialist, so to me it’s surprising that they provide so much to the citizens (like free education). However, there is a very adversarial relationship between citizens and the state: citizens expect the state to take care of all of their needs, but they feel no reciprocal responsibility to help solve community problems. There are very few NGOs here, and there’s no culture of volunteering or philanthropy; “volunteering” is generally considered stupid. The media also reinforces this idea; articles generally focus on (lack of) government actions, but don’t report individual acts. On a different note, Taso also said that the Greek way to say “I love you” is to say “Eat!” :)
Our afternoon Albanian class was canceled since the professor was sick (nobody was too sad…) so I had time for a nice run. Nice is a relative term; I hurt from the run with the other girls since we did a hill, and I did more hills yesterday so I was really glad to come back and just be off my feet for a while. That didn’t last too long, though, since we had our first Greek dance class. Our classroom is under the bleachers at the track; it’s actually a legit dance room with a whole wall of mirrors and a sound system. We were impressed. The class was an hour and it flew by. We learned a simple dance; it was just a few grapevine steps and shuffles, but everyone looked really funny and impressive at the same time, so we laughed a lot. Taso really got into and was definitely the best dancer. Our dance teacher got mad though and told us we couldn’t learn if we laughed so much, so we had to be a bit more serious and we did the same steps to increasingly faster songs. It was definitely an excellent way to spend an hour.
This morning, we met at 8:30 to go on an excursion to Zagorohoria, which is an area in the mountains about an hour away. We first stopped at a set of beautiful bridges: an old one which was slightly rougher, and one new one for the road. The sun was shining and the river was surprisingly turquoise, and there were several little staircases and rocks to clamber on. We enjoyed this stop a lot.
We got back on the bus and drove a bit further down the road to another bridge, which had interesting supports that could be climbed, so I did.
Then we drove to a town, which was called Monodendri I think. Everything in the area of Zagorohoria is built with stone, and the town was no exception; all the buildings were gorgeous. We walked down a series of windy road/paths with lots of great photo ops, and at the edge of town we walked down a long road on the edge of a cliff, more or less, which opened up to give a view of the Vikos Gorge, which is the world’s deepest gorge, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Just past that spot was the entrance to the Agia Paraskevi Monastery, which basically seems to be about to fall into the gorge, not from architectural instability but just from being built on the edge of a mountain. It wasn’t huge, but there were probably 9 or 10 little buildings (with even littler doors, which came up to my chest). It’s not in use anymore, but it’s a beautiful place. Then we wandered up a little path to a sign that said “The Great Caves.” We figured that could be pretty neat, so we walked on a path with views of the gorge that kept getting better and better, which was sweet. The path turned around a corner and sort of turned into a tiny ledge sticking out of the face of a cliff, which was entertaining. There was a wall/door built into the mountain as an entrance to the Great Caves, which were very tall and afforded yet more beautiful view.
The path kept continuing to a few more small caves and viewpoints and then Megan and I went even farther, which required a bit more climbing and less walking. We felt totally fine but everyone else freaked out. We got sweet pictures though! Nico, the teacher from the other class, told me “There’s living dangerously, and then there’s not living” haha.
We meandered back along the path to meet the less adventurous and those with poor hiking shoes, and then we headed back to town for lunch, because we were starving. We had a delicious GREEN salad (you’d be surprised how rare that is for us, probably thanks to the cafeteria), yummy bread, excellent soup, great potatoes and the best chicken I’ve had in a longgg time. And fish, which Joe said was the best fish he’s had here in Greece. I love our group adventures because they always result in fabulous foooood.
Then we walked to a museum, which was featuring a photography exhibit by Voula Papaioannou, who photographed Greece during World War Two and the Greek Civil War, which happened immediately after. The pictures were all black and white and very powerful. They showed daily life, Greek architecture both erect and destroyed, normal people, working people, starving people and many other subjects as well. The museum was a remodeled house, I think, and It was really cute; it had several stained glass windows and a stone exterior with blue accents (like much of the town).
We walked back to the bus and headed back to school. I hope they didn’t choose the best excursion for the first one, but it seems like this one will be pretty hard to beat!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
awesome adventure and real food!
Today I opted for no cafeteria breakfast, as did everyone else in my program, including my professor. Since I haven’t been to the store to buy breakfast food yet, I had milk and cheddar cheese and crackers, which was delicious. In Greek class we spent some more time talking about “to be” and we also discussed “I like,” although we don’t really know any vocab yet. Nouns also don’t become pluralized just by adding an “s” at the end, so “I like (something plural) is harder to write. It’s nice to be learning, though. Our teacher also just spent a while chatting with us about where we’re from and where we’ve traveled. It’s sort of odd to be in a language class but not get reprimanded from using English (which is a good thing, since our vocabulary is still limited to a very small number of words).
After class, I went on a run with Tina, Katlynn and Anna. It was fun to run with other people; I haven’t in a long time. We went down a neighborhood road behind the hospital, which is adjacent to the university, and then ran back to the cafeteria for lunch. There was actually a variety of fish options, so it looks like Taso was fortunately wrong about us never having meat again. Of course, only one of the options looked good haha: there was a normal fish fillet, little three inch long fish which were rather black, or an entire fish, including skin and eyes, served over French fries. Guess which one I went for haha. I had my own dessert, which was Kinder chocolate. It’s SO good. The melt-in-your-mouth factor rivals Cadbury milk chocolate :)
At 3pm, we met for our first excursion, a trip to the Parama Caves. Now I’ve seem far too many caves, tunnels, canyons etc in the last few months and I was not particularly excited. We boarded our bus with Taso and my Greek professor Fay and drove to the other side of the city, which was only about 20 minutes. We stopped in the small town of Parama, where we walked up the hill to an unimpressive entrance to the Caves. As soon as we went in the door, though, I realized this was 500 times cooler than anything else I’ve seen recently. We spent 45 minutes walking 1000 meters though amazing stalactites and stalagmites of all sizes. At first we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but once we got to the “Big Cave,” she told us that we were allowed to photograph with the flash in that room only. After, we could use cameras without the flash. My camera’s anti-shake fancy shmancy capabilities were very useful since I didn’t have a tripod.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the caves tour. We went up and down (but mostly up) many stairs, and ended at the top of a hill overlooking a huge flat valley.
We walked down and had some time to wait before the bus returned. A few of us went to the only open restaurant (from 2 or 3 to 5, everything closes for the siesta) and I had a fabulous tomato and cucumber salad. MMMM vegetables! We ran out of time and I had to wolf down half of it, but I’m good at eating fast so it wasn’t a problem.
We caught the bus and drove on a different route to go back to school. The road went right (as in VERY close) to the edge of the lake, and it was neat to have a different view of the area. Taso decided that we should go into town for dinner instead of going right back to school, so we got dropped off in Ioannina. Taso chose a traditional Greek restaurant that he’d been to a couple times and the staff brought some tables outside which we crammed around. 26 people is a lot. We ordered family-style and they kept bringing out more and more food which we had a hard time fitting on the tables, but an easy time fitting in our stomachs. Everything was fabulous, particularly because we were all craving good Greek food. (Well, the deep-fried fish and goat intestines were sort of weird, although not terrible. Everything else I loved).
It made me remember why I was especially excited to come here haha. Side note: I’ve barely seen hummus anywhere, which is a bummer. They have tzatsiki frequently, though, which is great. We ate a TON of food and were all very happy but decided to top off the meal with dessert crepes from across the street. Gracie and I shared a nutella, strawberry and banana crepe. It was on of the best dessert I’ve ever had. SO GOOD. Most other people got their own, which was a mistake since we were all incredibly full. Even I didn’t want to eat anything else haha.
Then I came back home and started working on homework and digesting. For each lecture we have (4-6 a week, 2 hours each…), we have to write a 1 page summary or essay. I’m not sure exactly what they’re looking for, but if the lecturing professor doesn’t give a prompt, we’re just supposed to organize our notes into something coherent, I think. I finished up my “Geographical Placement of Greece” lecture summary and wrote some sentences such as “moo ar-EH-si toh pa-gho-TOH,” which means I like ice cream. I hope. I wrote them in my extremely slow greek handwriting, though.
Tomorrow I have Greek class, 2 lectures and dance class. It should be a long but hopefully interesting day!
Love Alex
After class, I went on a run with Tina, Katlynn and Anna. It was fun to run with other people; I haven’t in a long time. We went down a neighborhood road behind the hospital, which is adjacent to the university, and then ran back to the cafeteria for lunch. There was actually a variety of fish options, so it looks like Taso was fortunately wrong about us never having meat again. Of course, only one of the options looked good haha: there was a normal fish fillet, little three inch long fish which were rather black, or an entire fish, including skin and eyes, served over French fries. Guess which one I went for haha. I had my own dessert, which was Kinder chocolate. It’s SO good. The melt-in-your-mouth factor rivals Cadbury milk chocolate :)
At 3pm, we met for our first excursion, a trip to the Parama Caves. Now I’ve seem far too many caves, tunnels, canyons etc in the last few months and I was not particularly excited. We boarded our bus with Taso and my Greek professor Fay and drove to the other side of the city, which was only about 20 minutes. We stopped in the small town of Parama, where we walked up the hill to an unimpressive entrance to the Caves. As soon as we went in the door, though, I realized this was 500 times cooler than anything else I’ve seen recently. We spent 45 minutes walking 1000 meters though amazing stalactites and stalagmites of all sizes. At first we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but once we got to the “Big Cave,” she told us that we were allowed to photograph with the flash in that room only. After, we could use cameras without the flash. My camera’s anti-shake fancy shmancy capabilities were very useful since I didn’t have a tripod.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the caves tour. We went up and down (but mostly up) many stairs, and ended at the top of a hill overlooking a huge flat valley.
We walked down and had some time to wait before the bus returned. A few of us went to the only open restaurant (from 2 or 3 to 5, everything closes for the siesta) and I had a fabulous tomato and cucumber salad. MMMM vegetables! We ran out of time and I had to wolf down half of it, but I’m good at eating fast so it wasn’t a problem. We caught the bus and drove on a different route to go back to school. The road went right (as in VERY close) to the edge of the lake, and it was neat to have a different view of the area. Taso decided that we should go into town for dinner instead of going right back to school, so we got dropped off in Ioannina. Taso chose a traditional Greek restaurant that he’d been to a couple times and the staff brought some tables outside which we crammed around. 26 people is a lot. We ordered family-style and they kept bringing out more and more food which we had a hard time fitting on the tables, but an easy time fitting in our stomachs. Everything was fabulous, particularly because we were all craving good Greek food. (Well, the deep-fried fish and goat intestines were sort of weird, although not terrible. Everything else I loved).
It made me remember why I was especially excited to come here haha. Side note: I’ve barely seen hummus anywhere, which is a bummer. They have tzatsiki frequently, though, which is great. We ate a TON of food and were all very happy but decided to top off the meal with dessert crepes from across the street. Gracie and I shared a nutella, strawberry and banana crepe. It was on of the best dessert I’ve ever had. SO GOOD. Most other people got their own, which was a mistake since we were all incredibly full. Even I didn’t want to eat anything else haha.
Then I came back home and started working on homework and digesting. For each lecture we have (4-6 a week, 2 hours each…), we have to write a 1 page summary or essay. I’m not sure exactly what they’re looking for, but if the lecturing professor doesn’t give a prompt, we’re just supposed to organize our notes into something coherent, I think. I finished up my “Geographical Placement of Greece” lecture summary and wrote some sentences such as “moo ar-EH-si toh pa-gho-TOH,” which means I like ice cream. I hope. I wrote them in my extremely slow greek handwriting, though.
Tomorrow I have Greek class, 2 lectures and dance class. It should be a long but hopefully interesting day!
Love Alex
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
"Welcome to Socialism"
On Sunday, I went on a hike up one of the hills behind the University. We first wandered up some steep neighborhood roads, and then one turned into a dirt road to access some power lines. We followed that until it ended and then started making our own trail across the hill at the top.
We had some really pretty views of the valley, lake, and mountains. Ioannina is surrounded in the distance by huge mountains covered in snow, which are gorgeous. We also found some cool old rock ruins, which my professor thinks were probably shepherds’ huts. 
The top was windy and rain was threatening in the distance, so we followed an old, mostly overgrown stone road for a bit and then descended, getting somewhat cut up by the dry brush that always seemed to pop up, but it was fun. Near the road again, we encountered an old man with a cane and a plastic bag who was climbing up the steep slope we had just come down. We thought maybe he was picking berries or other plant products, but we were unsuccessful conversing with him due to that whole language issue. I am also spectacularly allergic to something outdoors here; during the hike I got an awful runny nose and occasional violent sneezing outbursts. I took some allergy medicine which helped.On Monday, we ate our last meal in the little cafeteria in the next building over from our dorm. Then we had a welcome orientation which involved some people saying welcome (shocking, I know), some introductions to our teachers, and the housing coordinator sharing rules with us in a very reprimanding manner. A cleaning lady comes twice a week to our rooms and if they’re messy (we don’t know how messy is messy), we lose 20 euros off our safety deposit. I think the point is allowing them to move around the room easily and maybe sweep, but I’m not sure. I’m also scared that I’ll have a pair of shoes out at the wrong time and loose $27. I also signed a contract saying I wouldn’t do antisocial activities such as party in my dorm room, and yes, that is the word they used.
Then we headed to our first Greek class (fortunately we split into two groups, so there are about 12 people in my class). Our teacher is a young woman who sounds exactly like the lady on the language tape when she speaks Greek. It’s uncanny. She’s very insistent in our pronunciations, and she has us repeat the same word many times, but I remember when I took Spanish 3 in high school and people still pronounced the “h” in words, so I think getting the pronunciation correct now is a good idea. Greek is challenging because it’s a different alphabet. Some of the letters look the same, but half of those have a completely different sound than English, so I’m learning. It’s satisfying to read correctly, though; it’s like solving a puzzle.
Then we had registration, which involved handing over registration papers (they always ask for you first and last name and your father’s first name), 2 passport copies, 3 passport photo copies, 150 euros, a copy of my medical insurance cards, and a dorm room form listing all the pre-existing problems.
After, we walked over to the student union building, which has the cafeteria. It’s not very close; according to Google Earth it’s .8 miles away, which is roughly a 20 minute walk one way. Taso’s introduction to the food was “Welcome to Socialism.” It was probably the second-to-least appetizing meal I’ve eaten in a very long time (the worst being guatita, aka cow stomach in peanut sauce) but fortunately this is edible. Food is free for all students (as are books and TUITION), but it means we are not getting high-class Greek cuisine, which is a bummer since I was really excited for Greek food. In light of the cafeteria, my professor said we’ll be doing a group dinner in a restaurant once a week so we can have good food and meat. He also said we’d probably never have meat in the cafeteria since it’s expensive, so goodbye protein.
Now being me and my food being food that isn’t guatita, I can certainly eat and get full, and it’s not too terrible, although the white bread and white cabbage salad at every meal are going to get old quickly.
My allergies returned, which was odd since I was barely outside (save the walk to food, I suppose), but this time I took Claratin which seems to have been more effective and I’ve stopped powering through toilet paper used as tissues.
We went to Carrefour, the K-mart, again since we decided we needed a bit more food. This time we walked there and bused back, which was a better system. I braved the cheese and milk aisles this time, so I’m hoping what I got was a good choice. I had given all my cash for the safety deposit and I forgot to go to the ATM in front of the store, so I decided to just pay with credit card to see if it worked. The check-out lady asked for my passport, but I only had my license, so she looked at that for a minute and seemed to think it was fine. But then, she indicated that she’d return shortly and took my card over farther down the line of check-out stations and was gone for at least 5 minutes. I felt bad for making everyone in line behind me wait, but I didn’t know paying my credit card was so difficult. Then she came back and the card worked and I left. Outside the store, I was waiting with a few of my friends for the remainder of our group and the lady behind me in line came up to me and started speaking Greek while making the shape of a small square with her hands. We told her we couldn’t speak Greek, and she tried again in Greek, but she gave up since we had no idea what she was saying. I had my card and my license and I think everything I bought, so I don’t know what she wanted to say, other than maybe “You’re dumb for using a credit card” haha.
Dinner was spaghetti. It was slightly more appetizing, although the red sauce was just a little bit off, as we predict most things will be. This morning, I figured I’d give breakfast a shot; I always eat it and I’ve been on a pretty early schedule for the last 4 months so I wanted to go to bed early and wake up early. My professor and I were apparently the only ones who decided on that course of action, so I had a nice conversation with him about Greek and Ecuadorian life and government. Unfortunately, Greeks aren’t really breakfast people and so the breakfast was not so nice; there was milk, coffee, small croissants, thin cheese-bread that seems typical here, and bowls with a slice of cheese and bologna. As much as I enjoyed walking 40 minutes to eat almost nothing, I think I might forgo that meal and eat in my room, so I need to go back to K-mart for the third time haha.
We came back just in time for day two of Greek class, which was a little bit easier since people were more familiar. I keep comaring everything to Spanish, and it’s hard because at my Spanish level, I’m just learning little rules and nuances and vocab, whereas in Greek I have no idea how to conjugate verbs, refer to a subject, or structure a sentence. We learned “to be” and definite/indefinite articles. Our professor’s teaching style is very fast-paced, both in material and speed of speaking, which is different than what I’m used to, but interesting. Yanna, the program coordinator popped in halfway through class, interrupting whoever was talking, and started telling my professor (Fay) that a local news station wanted to video our class. The interruption seemed to go with the fast-paced teaching style though. A little while later a guy came in with a huge video camera and recorded us talking and then had Fay say a verb several times, with us repeating each time. We’re going to be famous!
Greek class is from 9-11 Monday through Thursday, and then on various days we have either Greek culture lecture, or Relations with Albania lecture. Or both. Today was culture, so from 12-2 we learned the geography and historical background of Greece. The professor said (among many, many things) that if you add up all the coastline in the country of Greece, including all of the islands, it’s similar in length to the coastline of Africa. Two hours is a long lecture, though. I’m not sure I’m a fan.
At lunch today we had meat, which was surprising since we were all expecting to never see meat again. It was possibly the most un-aesthetically-pleasing meat I’ve ever seen (it was covered in an unappetizing grey sauce) but it tasted fine and was served over rice which actually had a bit of flavor.
All in all, I’m glad class has started, although it seems like I will be listening to a lot of long, in-depth lectures for the next two months. When I come home I will be an expert in Greek history and culture though!
Love Alex
Saturday, April 10, 2010
House isn't Greek, but I LOVE It
Today I did nothing and it was wonderful. I woke up to grab some breakfast food, which I put in my room while I went on a run. I went up above campus and found a herd of sheep. We had a staredown and I won haha. I then enjoyed facebook, Zoolander, House, and hanging out with the other kids on my program. For dinner, we had pickeled cabbage salad with feta cheese (but the feta cheese here is not the same as ours and I don't like it as much...), cooked cabbage wrapped around some sort of meat, and a dessert which looked sort of like spaghetti squash in the shape of a piece of cake, with cinnamon and some cocout and whipped cream on top. I need to go grocery shopping.
Tomorrow we might go hiking, which could make for a more interesting blog entry haha
Love Alex
Tomorrow we might go hiking, which could make for a more interesting blog entry haha
Love Alex
City Tour
Yesterday we had breakfast which consisted of some bread with varying amounts of sugar, depending on the selection, and coffee. And warm milk. All yummy, but not very fruit-,veggie-, or protein-filled. Then we trekked into town on the bus, which costs 1 euro at the moment and will be cheaper when we get our student ID cards. We got our passport photos at this really nice photography studio, and these 4 photos are much better than my midnight Walgreens ones haha.
Then we split up into a few smaller groups (smaller being a relative term; I hung out with 9 other people, and the whole group is 25). The town has lots of little shops; some areas are cute clothes/shoes, and other areas have random electronics stores and garden supplies. It was very interesting, and there are lots of pretty buildings.
There are also a bunch of little tourist shops and we stopped at every single one haha. They have lots of bracelets and beaded items. Ioannina is also known for silver items, so there are a ton of jewelery shops.
We eventually wandered down to the lake, which was very pretty, although supposidly it's also really polluted. There are a ton of cafes and little restaurants in town and on the waterfront, so if I feel like buying my own food (we have a meal plan that gives us three meals a day in the dorms), I have lots of options.
I REALLY miss Spanish, or at least the ability to understand and communicate. With a few exceptions (and English words, of course), I'm basically illiterate. There was a phrase that I saw yesterday which I wanted to translate, so I literally spent about 5 minutes with a dictionary, first changing the text from capital letters to lowercase letters, and then attempting to find those letters in that particular order in the dictionary. I felt like I was decoding something written in symbols more than reading something written with letters, but I imagine it will get easier as I practice the alphabet and memorize the order of the letters. Many people here do speak English; it's not too hard to find someone who we can talk to, but I hate to do it. I feel like such a rude American who can't even speak Greek, and I know that I certainly won't be able to by the time I leave. When we got lunch at small gyro place, the woman didn't speak English. She did know chicken and pork, and we looked up lamb in the dictionary and made the transaction work haha.
We then went to the Greek K-mart. It felt just like an American big box store in terms of being large and having a huge variety of products, but it was SO overwhelming because we had no familiarity with the foods and we couldn't read anything. I looked at the milk aisle, for example, and then decided that there were 30 different options and I had no idea what any of them were, so I just didn't by any of them. If breakfasts remain minimal once we upgrade cafeterias, I might have to figure out some brands of milk and yogurt.
We walked the kilometer and a half or so back to the dorm with our groceries. It was really sunny out, which was nice, but the walk is on the major road, with no sidewalks, just a tiny rocky/dirt shoulder. We made it fine, though, and were so exhausted from walking for 7 hours. I just relaxed until dinner. The main course was suspiciously familiar; I'm pretty sure they took the previous night's pasta and baked it in a pan with some more cheese. I haven't had crunchy pasta in quite a long time haha, but I was starving so I ate mine, most of Shailees and much of Gracies. I've already established myself as a garbage disposal haha
Then we split up into a few smaller groups (smaller being a relative term; I hung out with 9 other people, and the whole group is 25). The town has lots of little shops; some areas are cute clothes/shoes, and other areas have random electronics stores and garden supplies. It was very interesting, and there are lots of pretty buildings.
There are also a bunch of little tourist shops and we stopped at every single one haha. They have lots of bracelets and beaded items. Ioannina is also known for silver items, so there are a ton of jewelery shops.
We eventually wandered down to the lake, which was very pretty, although supposidly it's also really polluted. There are a ton of cafes and little restaurants in town and on the waterfront, so if I feel like buying my own food (we have a meal plan that gives us three meals a day in the dorms), I have lots of options.
I REALLY miss Spanish, or at least the ability to understand and communicate. With a few exceptions (and English words, of course), I'm basically illiterate. There was a phrase that I saw yesterday which I wanted to translate, so I literally spent about 5 minutes with a dictionary, first changing the text from capital letters to lowercase letters, and then attempting to find those letters in that particular order in the dictionary. I felt like I was decoding something written in symbols more than reading something written with letters, but I imagine it will get easier as I practice the alphabet and memorize the order of the letters. Many people here do speak English; it's not too hard to find someone who we can talk to, but I hate to do it. I feel like such a rude American who can't even speak Greek, and I know that I certainly won't be able to by the time I leave. When we got lunch at small gyro place, the woman didn't speak English. She did know chicken and pork, and we looked up lamb in the dictionary and made the transaction work haha.
We then went to the Greek K-mart. It felt just like an American big box store in terms of being large and having a huge variety of products, but it was SO overwhelming because we had no familiarity with the foods and we couldn't read anything. I looked at the milk aisle, for example, and then decided that there were 30 different options and I had no idea what any of them were, so I just didn't by any of them. If breakfasts remain minimal once we upgrade cafeterias, I might have to figure out some brands of milk and yogurt.
We walked the kilometer and a half or so back to the dorm with our groceries. It was really sunny out, which was nice, but the walk is on the major road, with no sidewalks, just a tiny rocky/dirt shoulder. We made it fine, though, and were so exhausted from walking for 7 hours. I just relaxed until dinner. The main course was suspiciously familiar; I'm pretty sure they took the previous night's pasta and baked it in a pan with some more cheese. I haven't had crunchy pasta in quite a long time haha, but I was starving so I ate mine, most of Shailees and much of Gracies. I've already established myself as a garbage disposal haha
Thursday, April 8, 2010
bus rides galore
This morning I woke up at 6:30am so we could meet at 7:30am. The meeting was entertaining; we had 25 Americans with gigantic suitcases looking rather lost. It's so nice to have Taso organizing everything; it is SUCH a difference from Ecuador, where everything was on our own, and particularly the last trip was 100% winging it. Here, I can just follow everyone else and I haven't had to worry about buying the bus ticket or finding the right place to catch the bus: MUCH less stressful haha. Anyway, no one was very pleased about the early hour, but we got some pastries (the cost was 3 times as much as Ecuador)and we took a (very nice) private bus to the bus station, where we where more than an hour early. We weren't very pleased about that either, but we just chilled for a while and then got on the Ioannina bus, and we could safely put our suitcases under the bus :) (which is a good thing, because there is no way anyone would have had room for theirs on the bus with them). I am, by the way, one of the lighter packers on the trip. A couple girls have two suitcases, and several have suitcases that could easily fit a body.
6.5 hours later, we made it to Ioannina. The buses here are also expensive ; that ride cost something like 32 euros, which is more like $40 :(
The bus ride was very pretty; we were next to the water for most of it, and there was blue sky and lots of white buildings with orange/red roofs. (My internet here is fast, so now I can include pictures with my blog entries!)
Everyone else was not such a fan of the bus ride (to put it midley), but I found the ride pretty luxurious; the bus was nice, the windows were super clean, and we had a 25 minute rest-stop at a cafe so we could get food and use a real bathroom. Of course, basically any ride is better than the Cuenca-Quito FREEZING night ride with 500 stops haha.
At the Ioannina station we switched to another bus. I (unlike anyone else haha) found this switch quite pleasant because Taso figured out when the bus was coming (in about 3 minutes), which bus it was, and then when we had to get off the bus. So easy for me :) We drove the 8 km to the University, which had zero people since everyone is on Easter break still. We got dorm rooms, which are considerably nicer than any dorm at UW; they're much bigger and we (me and my roommate) have a minifridge and our own bathroom!
It was really nice to unpack; I've been on the go and either living out of a suitcase or in an extremely messy room for the past monthish, so I enjoyed organizing all my stuff and stowing my suitcase on top of my closet. I used my IP-address-changing skills that I learned in Ecuador to connect to the internet (although there’s no wireless). We have three Ethernet ports in the wall but only one works, so we’ve been switching off. Hopefully there’s an electronics store in town that sells hubs…
We had dinner in the cafeteria close by; once school starts again for everyone (Monday), we’ll be eating in the main cafeteria, but this one is quite cute. It’s structured differently than American ones; the tables are pre-set and the staff brings out the food. You don’t get to choose what you eat though. We had bottled water, cole-slaw-like salad (but no mayo, fortunately), and a bowl of pasta with red sauce and cheese. Jen is the world’s pickiest eater and Michelle can’t eat wheat, so I ate the better part of three bowls because I was so hungry haha.
Breakfast is only served from 8:30 to 9:30, and after that we’re going to town to get MORE passport photos. First Taso said we needed 2, and then the University wanted three, so I got 4, but apparently he needs 2 AND they need 3. I feel like if I lose my passport, it won’t take 5 copies of my picture to get it replaced but oh well. Anyway I’m off to bed.
Love Alex
6.5 hours later, we made it to Ioannina. The buses here are also expensive ; that ride cost something like 32 euros, which is more like $40 :(
The bus ride was very pretty; we were next to the water for most of it, and there was blue sky and lots of white buildings with orange/red roofs. (My internet here is fast, so now I can include pictures with my blog entries!)
Everyone else was not such a fan of the bus ride (to put it midley), but I found the ride pretty luxurious; the bus was nice, the windows were super clean, and we had a 25 minute rest-stop at a cafe so we could get food and use a real bathroom. Of course, basically any ride is better than the Cuenca-Quito FREEZING night ride with 500 stops haha.
At the Ioannina station we switched to another bus. I (unlike anyone else haha) found this switch quite pleasant because Taso figured out when the bus was coming (in about 3 minutes), which bus it was, and then when we had to get off the bus. So easy for me :) We drove the 8 km to the University, which had zero people since everyone is on Easter break still. We got dorm rooms, which are considerably nicer than any dorm at UW; they're much bigger and we (me and my roommate) have a minifridge and our own bathroom!
It was really nice to unpack; I've been on the go and either living out of a suitcase or in an extremely messy room for the past monthish, so I enjoyed organizing all my stuff and stowing my suitcase on top of my closet. I used my IP-address-changing skills that I learned in Ecuador to connect to the internet (although there’s no wireless). We have three Ethernet ports in the wall but only one works, so we’ve been switching off. Hopefully there’s an electronics store in town that sells hubs…
We had dinner in the cafeteria close by; once school starts again for everyone (Monday), we’ll be eating in the main cafeteria, but this one is quite cute. It’s structured differently than American ones; the tables are pre-set and the staff brings out the food. You don’t get to choose what you eat though. We had bottled water, cole-slaw-like salad (but no mayo, fortunately), and a bowl of pasta with red sauce and cheese. Jen is the world’s pickiest eater and Michelle can’t eat wheat, so I ate the better part of three bowls because I was so hungry haha.
Breakfast is only served from 8:30 to 9:30, and after that we’re going to town to get MORE passport photos. First Taso said we needed 2, and then the University wanted three, so I got 4, but apparently he needs 2 AND they need 3. I feel like if I lose my passport, it won’t take 5 copies of my picture to get it replaced but oh well. Anyway I’m off to bed.
Love Alex
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Part 2: Greece!
My return flight landed at the Seattle airport at 9:30am on Monday morning. My Greece departure left at 6:30am on Tuesday morning. I was not home for very much time. Needless to say, I didn't sleep at all; I spent all night packing. I also made a midnight run to Walgreens to get passport photos, which is conveniently 24/7. (I hadn't know that Issaquah has TWO places that are open past 10pm!)
In Ecuador, my clothing collection was incredibly small so I wanted to bring more clothes with me to Greece. At 10 pm I had a HUGE mountain of clothes on my bed and a significantly smaller suitcase, but I left the "maybes" and rolled tightly. My suitcase only weighed 48 lbs when I was done, too.
I printed out my boarding pass online and had the fastest check-in of my life, which involved a 30-second interaction with the Delta lady who checked my bag (for free!). I also had the best security experience ever; the line was sort of long, but once I passed the passport-verification man, there was absolutely nobody and I had lots of table space to spread out my stuff before putting it through the x-ray. It was very pleasant.
I slept the entire flight to New York; I don't even remember the take-off haha. In JFK I had a short layover and then a 10.5 hour flight to Athens. I would like to comment that boarding by zones is DUMB. All it does is ensure that everyone in the front of the plane and those people in the aisles get on first. I fail to see why anyone would choose that as a boarding system.
On the plane, we had personal touch-screen TVs for free with lots of movies, tv shoes, music, games and the nice map showing our location. I slept for a while, watched "It's Complicated" (which was really good, despite the reviews; I laughed quite hard), read my phrase book (I'm up to three words!) and practiced reading, since the alphabet is different, and read my camera manual, which is poorly organized but interesting.
This was possibly the emptiest flight I've ever been on; it was a 2-3-2 seat arrangement in each row and I felt like every three rows had an empty seat somewhere. A lot of the people were Greek and all the announcements were in Greek and English. I miss Spanish. I could actually understand things.
In the Athens airport, I showed my passport to a security man in a booth. He typed in my name, stamped it, and we exchanged a grand total of zero words. That was the extent of my customs experience. Taso, my professor, picked me up and took me to the hotel (thank god). We rode a bus and the subway, called the Metro. Both were pretty spacious and pretty clean, which is a nice change.
At the hotel, I met another girl from my program, so we were able to get a room together, which is cheaper. It's still wayyy more than Ecuador though. The hotel is near the Acropolis, which is where the Parthenon is. We had lunch and bought cell phones (apparently they're now required on UW study abroads) and then we had delicious gelato. Eshaustion hit at that point, so I took a half an hour nap and then the whole group went to the Acropolis Museum, which is a huge building filled with statues and stone carvings (remnants of these things, anyway. Everything was damaged and aged for a variety of reasons, such as Catholics and rich dumb lords tearing down much of the building. We couldn't take pictures inside, which was a bummer. The building is built over a lot of ruins, which are visible through a glass floor, which is so cool and also outdoors, so I do have pictures of those. We didn't go to the actual Acropolis since it closed at 3pm, but I plan to go later.
We had two hours to explore the museum, but as pretty as it is, it does not take two hours. We enjoyed sitting in the cafe and talking and soaking up sun, since it was not particularly warm. We then met our professor again and went to dinner. It was delicious but we had a family-style meal and literally had twice as much food as we could eat. Next time we're going to order instead of Taso haha.
It has been a very long day and I'm finally off to bed... until 6:45 tomorrow morning, since we're meeting at 7:30am to go to Ioannina. But, that journey includes a 6 hour bus ride so hopefully I can get some sleep there.
Love Alex
In Ecuador, my clothing collection was incredibly small so I wanted to bring more clothes with me to Greece. At 10 pm I had a HUGE mountain of clothes on my bed and a significantly smaller suitcase, but I left the "maybes" and rolled tightly. My suitcase only weighed 48 lbs when I was done, too.
I printed out my boarding pass online and had the fastest check-in of my life, which involved a 30-second interaction with the Delta lady who checked my bag (for free!). I also had the best security experience ever; the line was sort of long, but once I passed the passport-verification man, there was absolutely nobody and I had lots of table space to spread out my stuff before putting it through the x-ray. It was very pleasant.
I slept the entire flight to New York; I don't even remember the take-off haha. In JFK I had a short layover and then a 10.5 hour flight to Athens. I would like to comment that boarding by zones is DUMB. All it does is ensure that everyone in the front of the plane and those people in the aisles get on first. I fail to see why anyone would choose that as a boarding system.
On the plane, we had personal touch-screen TVs for free with lots of movies, tv shoes, music, games and the nice map showing our location. I slept for a while, watched "It's Complicated" (which was really good, despite the reviews; I laughed quite hard), read my phrase book (I'm up to three words!) and practiced reading, since the alphabet is different, and read my camera manual, which is poorly organized but interesting.
This was possibly the emptiest flight I've ever been on; it was a 2-3-2 seat arrangement in each row and I felt like every three rows had an empty seat somewhere. A lot of the people were Greek and all the announcements were in Greek and English. I miss Spanish. I could actually understand things.
In the Athens airport, I showed my passport to a security man in a booth. He typed in my name, stamped it, and we exchanged a grand total of zero words. That was the extent of my customs experience. Taso, my professor, picked me up and took me to the hotel (thank god). We rode a bus and the subway, called the Metro. Both were pretty spacious and pretty clean, which is a nice change.
At the hotel, I met another girl from my program, so we were able to get a room together, which is cheaper. It's still wayyy more than Ecuador though. The hotel is near the Acropolis, which is where the Parthenon is. We had lunch and bought cell phones (apparently they're now required on UW study abroads) and then we had delicious gelato. Eshaustion hit at that point, so I took a half an hour nap and then the whole group went to the Acropolis Museum, which is a huge building filled with statues and stone carvings (remnants of these things, anyway. Everything was damaged and aged for a variety of reasons, such as Catholics and rich dumb lords tearing down much of the building. We couldn't take pictures inside, which was a bummer. The building is built over a lot of ruins, which are visible through a glass floor, which is so cool and also outdoors, so I do have pictures of those. We didn't go to the actual Acropolis since it closed at 3pm, but I plan to go later.
We had two hours to explore the museum, but as pretty as it is, it does not take two hours. We enjoyed sitting in the cafe and talking and soaking up sun, since it was not particularly warm. We then met our professor again and went to dinner. It was delicious but we had a family-style meal and literally had twice as much food as we could eat. Next time we're going to order instead of Taso haha.
It has been a very long day and I'm finally off to bed... until 6:45 tomorrow morning, since we're meeting at 7:30am to go to Ioannina. But, that journey includes a 6 hour bus ride so hopefully I can get some sleep there.
Love Alex
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