Final Goodbyes

As I'm attempting to keep myself busy on this dreadfully long plane ride, It's starting to really hit me that I'm leaving :( It was an experience of a lifetime and I will forever cherish the countless memories made over the past 40 days.

 Man, I'm really going to miss Greece! Not to be a debby downer or anything, but as I'm sitting here squished between two new what I like to call forever friends (because we'll always be connected by this awesome experience), all I can think about is all the things I'm going to miss about Greece. So I'm gonna break it down for you, don't worry, it's not going to be all sad and teary eyed, I'm going to talk about some of my favorite parts about staying in Greece!

Couldn't wait to take a bite before a took a pic...  it's just so yummy!

 If you've read any of my previous blogs or have have known me for any period of time, you won't be surprised what my all time favorite part about visiting Greece...omnom! I loved being able to try all kinds of new and delicious food, who doesn't? One of my favorite experiences of eating out is when we ate as a group right after visiting the Acropolis for the first. It was a cute little restaurant, that served us family style. They offered us a plethora of different traditional appetizers and we got to pick out the ones we wanted. It's a tough call, but I would have to say that my favorite dish I had in Greece was the moussaka (the only thing that I can compare it to in American terms is that it's kind of like lasagna, but not really). Another thing I loved about the food in Greece, was that it's fresh (lot of markets selling fruits and veggies!), even the yummy treats at the bakery tasted like they came out of the oven that very morning.

Not the whole group, but this a good chunk of us
a castle in Rhodes!

 One of the other things that I really enjoyed about Greece was the people. Yes in a sense I'm talking about the Greeks (it was quite a challenge learning and adapting the customs of a completely different culture), but I'm really talking about my fellow classmates. We had a blast these past 40 days and I couldn't have asked for a better group! We all got along really well and everyone was always pleasant and fun to hang out with! With our final goodbyes, we all promised that we would keep in touch and continue on with occasional potlucks, and I sincerely hope that we follow through on this! The experience wouldn't have been the same without these guys and I'm proud to call them all friends now (I didn't even know half of them before I boarded the plane to Greece).

 Well, that just about wraps up the past 40 days filled with sleepless nights, lots and lots of walking, experiencing ancient Greece, classes at Deree, many new friends, and of course...lots of omnom! It's been nice knowing you Greece, but I'm ready to sleep in my own comfy bed and spend time with my family. And to you, thanks for reading!! I hope you've enjoyed my blogs as much as I've had experiencing them. So, ya sas (bye) for now! Who knows, maybe I'll venture back into Greece one of these days...

Bittersweet Ending

To start our day out right, we got the sleep in! After we woke up fully rested, we sadly started to get all of our stuff together and not so sadly began finishing up the rest of the leftover food. 

• Just a forewarning that it's currently 3:30 in the MORNING and I'm trying my best to keep myself awake and busy with hopes of being able to sleep some on our 11 hour flight back to the states, so forgive me if I make any mistakes or go off on tangents (not like I don't do that normally...)

We hadn't planned on doing much today since we were having our final group dinner tonight, so once we had the majority of our things packed, we headed downtown to finish up the rest of our souvenir shopping in Plaka (probably our most visited site this trip). For me, I'm not a big spender on all the cheesy trinky dinks like magnets, t-shirts and the like, well, unless they are for someone else who I know would like them (dad *cough cough*), plus I admit I can be really cheap when it comes to spending my own money. So you shouldn't be surprised when I tell you I mainly just go along for the ride when my friends go shopping. But while we were out and about, enjoying our last day to wonder freely in Greece, I spotted a cute and homey looking store with yummy looking items inside (aka omnom). 

As I was looking around, I saw towards the back that they had adorable homemade jars of jam/marmalade...now this is my kind of souvenir! Something that's made and used here in Greece , and is also something you can't exactly get in the States. In attempt to make the present to myself a bit more unique I was a little daring and chose the homemade lemon marmalade to take home (I've never in my life heard of this stuff in lemon form). I'm definitely excited to try it when I get home! The only problem about items like this is that they may not last that long....omnomnom.

While we were waiting for it to be time to meet up for our dinner plans, a friend and I went hunting for the Panathenaic Olympic Stadium. It took us a while and a awkward conversation with a Greek police officer who thought we spoke Greek (this is the downside of trying to speak Greek to others, they talk back to you), until we finally found it. I'm really glad we did though, it was really cool! There was a secret museum underneath the stadium with Olympic torches from all the different years and we even got to embrace our inner tourists and take picture on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place podium (I got 1st of course).

After that we heading down to Sytagma to meet with the group for the last time (sad face). Tonight we got to hike up to the highest point in Athens where we were able to see a 360 degree birds eye view of Athens, and that's not even the half of it, we even got to see the sunset alongside the mountains (definitely not a sight we can see in Florida). We ended the trip with a scrumptious visit to (can you guess?) a restaurant on the side of the hill. There was lots of poli nastimo (delicious) food to be eaten and plenty of good conversation and laughs to be held. It was a good end to a trip and while I am looking forward to going home and being with family, I'm seriously going to miss this place, and the people I've experienced it with!

Tune in for one (maybe even two) more blog(s) to see how (and if) I survived my 11 hour flight back to the States. Can't wait to be home! 

Mail time!

It took two weeks to get here, but I finally got the package that my wonderful momma sent me from the States! She originally sent it to the Study Abroad office here at Deree, but last night I received a slip of paper that just increased my anticipation for the long awaited and unknown arrival of the package.

When I learned that my package was at the Post Office (instead of at Deree), I immediately started my trek down the street. It probably took me a good 15 to 20 minutes to get there by walking (and I walk pretty fast, just sayin). After walking for quite some time, I finally arrived at my destination!


It was a small little post office with only 4 desks, and it kind of reminded me of DMV back home. When I first walked in I wasn't exactly sure where I was supposed do, especially since Greeks don't really use the waiting in line system, so I sort of awkwardly stood there for a minute until I figured out what I needed to do. I think it was kind of obvious that I didn't know what I was doing...For one, I was the youngest person there and secondly, there must have been a big sign around me screaming American on it from some of the looks I got. Plus the fact that I had a slightly confused look on my face might have hinted it out too.


I kinda figured that I would have to take a number of some sort, but I wasn't exactly sure where it was or how I could get one. And instead of embarrassing myself further and asking someone who probably only speaks Greek, I patiently waited for others to arrive so I could see what approach they took. Turns out there is a little machine right when you walk in that gives you a number, all you've got to do is press a button (easy peasy).

Now just because I had a my number doesn't mean that things got less awkward (when I mean awkward, I'm talking like uncomfortable situations where you don't feel like you belong), now what am I supposed to do? To my delight, there was a seat available and calling my name. Speaking of open seats, everywhere I go whether sitting at the post office or riding on the metro, there seems to be an unspoken rule of letting elders take a seat. I think it's really cool and I wish this rule was applied in the US!

No matter where we go or who is currently in a seat, if an elderly comes along, someone gets up and offers him/her a seat. They never even have the "ugh, do I have to" attitude! And even when the elderly accepts they are genuinely thankful. Sometimes the elderly even decline the offer and let the current passenger keep his/her seat, like one time when my friend offered her seat, the nice lady let her stay because she noticed that we were together. Super nice!

Anyways, once my number was called I happily received my package and started my trek back to the dorm. I opened it right when I was able to get a hold of a clean knife to cut the tape and rip my package open. To my delight, there was a bunch of goodies inside! Wondering what kinds of good stuff was worth waiting 2 weeks for? The content of the package included (but is not limited to): A container of Nutella, dark chocolate M&M's, cinnamon glazed almonds, Oreos, some extra toiletries that you can't find here in Greece, and my favorite...the movie "Despicable Me"!!! You can tell my momma loves me very much :)

What made it even better was that very night I invited the group together to watch a movie filled with minions (I might have bribed them with Oreos too...)! So we had a fun filled night with extremely cute yellow characters (minions!) and sugarrrr (Oreos!). I definitely adding this experience to my list of nights that I'll never forget!

Going Somewhere?

By now you must be wondering how I seem to be getting to all of these wonderful places here in Greece (and if you aren't, I'm just going to tell you anyways). We use the handy dandy public transportation system! 

Parliament building where the changing of the
guards takes place. 

It's really quite amazing. If you want to go somewhere, sayy, downtown to Monastaraki where all the tourist shops are, all you have to do is hop on a bus to get to the station, then take the metro to whichever stop you need to get to. Okay, it may be just a little bit more complicated than that, but still, it's super convenient, especially for someone who doesn't have a car (this girl). 

Here's a fun fact about the metro that I bet you didn't know. The reason it took Greece so long to first build up (or down in this case) the metro is mainly because every time they started digging, they would run into some kind of ancient ruins, and everyone knows that you can't just throw this kind of stuff aside, it's got to be examined and handled with care. So nowadays if you take the metro, you will be pleasantly surprised every once in a while with complimentary ancient art on display (no museum entrance fee!). 

The only not so good thing about the metro is that is does take a little bit longer than it would by car, there's not always A/C, and during certain times it can get rrreeealllllyyy crowded to the point where there are lots of people sandwiches being formed. Now that may seem like a lot, but it's much better that having to worry about keeping up with a car (aka, paying for gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, and any fender benders), it's a cleaner alternate, and you could maybe even make some new friends on your way to work...okay probably not that great of an idea but you never know!

Cool overhanging vines down at the Gardens!

Anyways since we don't have a car here (thank goodness, traffic is insane!), I've been taking full advantage of the metro system here, almost on a daily basis! Today, before class, a few friends and I went down to Syntagma where we checked out the National Gardens (perfect weather for it today), did some shopping (can you say discounts?!), and we got to see the changing of the guards in front of one of the parliment buildings (cool stuff!), all before class! 

Unfortunately tomorrow, we will most likely not be able to go anywhere before class because we have our final to study for, but by 4:30 we will be forever done with that class and free for the rest of the weekend, yayyyy! Come to think of it, that means we can go downtown after class! Thank goodness we've got the metro so we can go whenever we want :D Any who, I gotta go study for my exam tomorrow, we've got to know a bunch of history and the significance of all the Greek art that we've visited here in Athens (those field trips are coming back to haunt us), wish me luck!

Shopping anyone?

Guess what guess what?! For the whole next month, there is gonna be discounts in pretty much all the stores here in Greece (well, at least in part of Athens), you know what that means right?? It's time to go SHOOPPPINGGG!(that was a "White Chicks" reference for anyone that was wondering...)

 

Anyways, after having yet another field trip for class down at the theater of Dionysos (right below the Acropolis, picture included!), we headed to where all the good stores were at. This was the same place that we visited the other day when there was barely anyone on the streets, and all of the stores closed early (well, early to me). This time it seemed like a completely different street, the place was jam packed! There were people everywhere, and you always seemed to be in the way of someone, I was even able to make a "dodge the people" game out of it while we were waiting for group members to make a purchase. So. Many. People!

Speaking of the people here in Greece, I'm really going to miss them! My first impression of Greeks was that they could be not so nice people, and at times, impolite (for example my first rest stop experience where everyone was seemed to be pushing and shoving), But as my time spent here with Greeks here as increased, I have a better understanding about them, and I even feel more comfortable around them :)

Okay, so I'm going to try to explain how things work here in Greece when it comes to people. As for relationships here in Greece, each person pretty much has an ingroup, and an outgroup. The ingroup consists mainly of that person's family and anybody else that they've made friends with, and the outgroup is made up with basically everyone else that he/she doesn't really give a care about (which explains why Greeks can be seen as cold at times). Coming into Greece, I was basically cast aside in the outgroup. Thing is, it's not that hard to switch into their ingroup, and once you do, it's almost like you're best friends (how cool is that?!).

One of my favorite examples is my relationship with the lady who works at the super market down the street. The first time I visited her shop, I was tired, confused, and on the verge of being irritable (so my views might have been a little bit biased), but when I went, I didn't feel all that welcomed. In fact, I felt more in the way than anything. When she rang me up at the register, she breezed through all of my items and quickly went onto the next customer as I scrambled to gather my stuff into bags. But then as I kept coming back to her store (I know, why would I go back if that had happened? But it's super close to the dorms!), and she realized that I wasn't just a drop by customer, she started to become more friendly. She helped me with my bags (we take those Publix guys for granted!), asked me if I needed any help while pacing the store, and get this, I even received a greeting with a smile upon arrival ! Now I actually enjoy going to the market because I get to say hello in Greek! Even some of the other workers are starting to become friendly.

There are lots of other instances that I have noticed during my time in Greece, and seeing as I'm a psychology major, I could go on and on about this kinds of stuff (it's soo interesting!), but I won't put you through that, well, not today at least. But if you every want to know more, or even discuss anything with me, just hit me up! I'd be more than happy to talk about it :)

 

Overall today was a good day! I got to see some cool sites in Athens, learn some history, and get some good souvenir stuff, including a necklace of my name written in Greek! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! Hope you had a good day as well :)

  

Akropolis at night take 2

You know how I was supposed to make cookies for my friend's birthday the other day? Well, all was good and dandy as I mixed the ingredients together and taste tested the cookie batter (my favorite part!), but when it came time to take the cookies out of the oven, all I saw was smoke...

I'm not the best of cooks, but I have burned things on a few occasions, only a few though! Thing is here in Greece, the ovens aren't really the same, everything is in Celsius (including the weather!). I'm not exactly sure what went wrong with the oven that morning (either I set it to the wrong temperature, or the wrong setting), but instead of trying to set off the fire alarm for a second time that morning, I surprised the birthday girl with leftover cookie dough!

In order to make up for the burnt cookies that morning, I lead the way to a look out place down in Athens so that you can see the Acropolis at night, and let me say, it just gets better each time I go! I even get a little pang of jealousy when I see locals hanging out around us, I mean they can pretty much come see stuff like this almost anytime they want, it's just not fair!

The view was extremely breath taking and I have to admit, we were being the stereotypical tourist and taking lots and lots of pictures, which means that we were there probably 30 minutes more than really necessary. But when we were getting ready to leave and gathering up our purses and bags and bags of souvenirs that we had bought that day, something seemed to be missing...Brianna's purse!

Unfortunately we weren't able to find her purse that night (after at least an hour of looking), but luckily it didn't contain anything non replaceable. But the thing that amazed me the most, was that there was 6 of us, a decent sized group, and there was always someone standing near our stuff, but somehow, someone was able to sneak past us (all 6 of us!) and take her purse. There were times when we doubted Brianna's placement of her purse and suspected that she had left it elsewhere or it had fallen, but she was 99.99% sure of where she had left it, and that it was gone. On a slightly funny note, when we were attempting to ask around to see if anyone had seen a purse (don't forget we're in a foreign country and people don't exactly speak English here) we got a lot of weird looks. There were these two guys sitting on the rock looking kind of suspicious so we decided to approach them, but when we tried to ask about a purse, they understood it as us asking can we join you, to which they motioned for us to take a seat (and they even attempted to bribe us with alcohol). Don't worry we were sensible enough to accept the offer and join them for only a little bit, wait, that's not how it went! Luckily we've all brought a decent amount of common sense with us that night and we knew we needed to turn around, so we did, and they left us alone (yay!).

To leave on a completely different, but good note, today was the weekly Monday market that's right down the street from us! They've got a bunch of good stuff like yummy fruits and vegetables, and even some fresh fish. Today we went in between classes in order to get some food to last us the week and I got all of this good stuff for under 10 euros!! My purchases included 5 apples, a banana bunch, some kind of delicious melon, a head of lettuce, carrots and zucchini! This is one of the top things that I'm going to miss about Greece, all of the cheap but scrumptious food that's in walking distance of our place!

Epidavros

So in place of sharing my Friday experiences of class and nap time yesterday (aka blogging), I decided to go to a Greek play. Fair trade don't cha think?

After driving on an extremely curvy road up and around the mountains of Greece for 2 and a half hours we finally made it to Epidavros. What's in Epidavros you ask? Well, back in the day (aka ancient times), the town was originally known for it's spa. And eventually there was enough people who came and attended the spa, that someone decided to add more places of entertainment, including a ginormous theater! And I got the pleasure of being able to attend a modern take on a classic Greek comedy in that very theater!

Would you believe me if I told you that the actors/actresses didn't use microphones, but I could still hear them sitting up in the nose bleed section? It's true! Even though we were seated up in the upper section, we could always hear the words being spoken clearly throughout the play thanks to the layout of the theater, well, we could always hear them just as long as everyone in the audience wasn't laughing in unison (and that one obnoxious laugh that always seems to stand out).

Although the play was all spoken in Greek, and I my tush had to withstand the not so comfortable stone seats, I thoroughly enjoyed myself that night, and I'm really glad that I went! The actors did a pretty good job with their use of body language and expressions so that I could get a general understanding of whats was going on, and there were several occasions where I didn't even need to know what they were saying to get a good laugh in. But one of my favorite parts of the night was when they turned the lights down low, because we were quite a whiles away from the city, we could see all the pretty stars!

I'm sure with my talk of stars and 2.5 hour drives you won't be surprised when I tell you that we didn't get back till early this morning. Fortunately, there were no morning plans for today so we got to sleep in (finally!). After getting a good nights (or maybe morning in this case) rest, I awoke with hopes of exploration today!

Me and my friend Rebecca decided to stay close to the dorms this morning and venture down the main street where all the shops and omnom places are at. And for some reason today there were a ton of good sales going on at most of the stores (I'm not complaining), so I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect article of clothing that's not too expensive but also is something that you wouldn't be able to find in the US, or at least have the potential for a "cool shirt" comment so I can respond "thanks, I got it in Greece!" It's not as easy as it sounds... In the meantime, we passed by a good sized bakery that we had been eyeing for quite some time. It all looked so good and we had no idea where to start, so when a lady that worked there pointed to a cake ish looking bakery and gave it a thumbs up, I said why not?

Froyo place called Chill Box, they even put
your bowl into a fancy lookin box thingy!

It ended up being some kind of delicious pastry filled with some sort of white cream in the middle (it could maybe even pass as vanilla pudding). It didn't take us very long to devour this tasty pastry (hey, it rhymes!), and with full tummies, we continued on our shopping quest.

One of the things that has taken the most getting used to here in Greece, is the hours of operations. I've got the daily everything closes for 3 ish hours for nap time thing (which I don't exactly mind because that gives me time for a nap too :P), but what was really strange (or at least to me) was when we headed downtown to do some more shopping, all of the stores started closing and it wasn't even dark yet! The idea of stores closing early on Saturday night is just so foreign to me that I couldn't wrap my mind around it. Fortunately there was a cute little fro yo place that I've been wanting to check out just around the corner that keep me distracted. If you haven't noticed yet I'm taking full advantage of all the good omnom here, but who wouldn't?! And besides we've been doing a ton of walking so that evens it out...right?

Tomorrow we've got a another free day for exploring annnnnd, it my exploring buddy's birthday so that will make it all the more exciting! I've even gathered up some supplies to make her some yummy (hopefully!) chocolate cookies, but shhhh don't tell her it's a surprise!

Exploring Athens

I am happy to say that I am writing this post with a full tummy (I know it's hard to believe that I, Lauren can get full, it surprised me too!), but here I am with a happy tummy, relaxing and getting ready to share with you what I expected to be an ordinary day here in Greece (I don't think they really exist anymore), and what turned out to be a day filled with exploring and LOTS of good omnom!

We started off early yet again (so early that I had to make way for nap time later), but this time we headed to the Agora. Luckily there was a good amount of shade to provide us with some relief from this blazing heat wave that Greece is experiencing right now, but not enough to make the class go by any faster...

This is how they keep the meat warm.
This guy is scraping off the meat just
before wrapping it in pita bread.

After we looked around the site for our 2 hour class, some friends and I set off for a little exploration, but this time we were prepared to get a little lost (notice that I said "a little" there, we don't wanna be completely confused in a foreign country!). For the first half of our adventure we checked out the back streets of the Plaka area (area now familiar to us with lots of tourist attractions) and we found 2 different museums, both of them were free and the workers there were really nice, one even refilled our water bottles for us!

After that we grabbed a bite to eat (yummy chicken pitas that are only 2 euros!), and rested for a little bit before we set out for the second half of our exploration. 

For the second half, we basically picked a direction and walked, it's that easy. Don't worry mom, we always kept track of where we were going and made sure to be aware of our surroundings. The unexpected part was that I didn't feel too much out of my comfort zone, but that was probably because I was just in awe of everything that was going on around us. So whenever we got to a fork in the road, or if we got bored of one street, we simply picked the road that was of most interest to us and continued on. It was quite a nice walk actually (and we were walking at a fast enough speed to get some breeze too!), and I'm seriously considering maybe doing the same thing tomorrow just in a new area. 

Now here comes the good part! After we made it back (aka we didn't get lost...this time) and I took my nap, I got up to get ready to head out with the group who had planned on heading to an Irish pub right before going to see the new Spiderman movie. Unfortunately we got to the pub an hour before the place opened, but a worker there was nice enough to relieve us from the sun and offer us some water (so nice!).

Sombrero shaped nachos, yummm!

The majority of the menu was in Greek aside from a few English titles such as Silly Hot Dog (I opted out of this one) and other things. But there was one dish that seemed to speak to my stomach, it was the Mexican Nachos, wait a second, a Mexican dish offered at an Irish pub in Greece? Yup! Sounded weird enough for me, so a few friends and I decided to split them along with the Irish Cheddar Chicken (this one makes a little bit more sense here). The nachos were some of the best nachos I have ever had in my life (we even ended up finishing off some of the others nachos who weren't man enough to eat them themselves, and the chicken was pretty good too (but this time nachos > chicken).

I don't know if I should tell you, but on the way back to the dorms we might have stopped for a crepe... I walked for 2 plus hours today okay, so I deserve to treat myself! But what was really cool, was on our final walk home, we passed by some guys that we had tossed frisbee with the other day. At first I had to do a double take and I still wasn't sure if it was them, but when they saw us, we exchanged a friendly hello! It just amazes me that even though we played for less than 30 minutes and had barely just met them, they were nice enough to take a second to stop and say hello, is almost makes me feel as if I'm a part of the community (not really, but I'm getting there!). 

Guess what tomorrow is? It's Friday!! We've still got class early early in the morning but afterwards the weekend is ours to take! We even have a birthday to celebrate on Sunday (more cake for me!). Happy early Friday to you :) 

Don't Touch Please!

Man, I'm really starting to gain a good appreciation for all of the history here in Greece! Today we spent over 2 hours standing around various statues and ancient artifacts in the Acropolis museum, phew that was a ton of information! I'm truly blessed to be able to experience all of this in person and not just read it out of book. Unfortunately, we weren't really allowed to take pictures in this museum, but if you're ever in the area I would definitely recommend going! The museum itself is built over an ancient site that's being excavated, but the even cooler part is that some parts of the floor are glass so you can actually see what's down there (be careful not to wear skirts/dresses ladies...).

One of the things that I've been noticing during site and museum visits, are all the not so nice guards. They're everywhere! While we were in Delphi some students from my class were acting out the seen with the oracle from the movie "My Life in Ruins." At first the guard on site didn't mind all that much, but after a while, she decided we had enough play time and abruptly told us to "stop the theater."It wasn't even like we were touching or demolishing anything, just doing a bit of role playing. 


When we were in class we discussed how Greeks can be protective over not just the physical aspect of an object but also it's meaning and significance. This explains why the guard become agitated when we were nonchalantly enjoying our time in Delphi.

As I was thinking about it some more, I realized that in America, we tend to focus solely on the "no touching" aspect, and as long as you aren't creating any damage to the artwork or anything around you then your fine.

I feel as if this reaction from the guard in Delphi can reflect on Greek culture in that they really take , pride in their history and protect the home and places of their ancestors, whereas in America we don't always seem to be as concerned at times (not always though). Another comparison that can be made is that in America the guards are actually guards, uniforms and all. Here in Greece, all of the guards seem to be locals and can be distinguished only by a whistle around the neck (for calling out visitors).

On a less educational note, I had something different for lunch today. Well different for me that is, not so different for those of you back in the United States. Wanna know what it was? It was a big, fat, juicy burger (100% beef, yumm!). This was on of the first times I had experienced another cultural food group while eating out in Greece, and I must say, it was quite tasty! I might even be going back for seconds sometime before I leave. Because even though I love experiencing all the different traditional Greek dishes here, I was craving some familiar comfort food!

Tomorrow we've got an early start at the Agora (the ancient city below the Acropolis) for another 2 hours packed with historical knowledge, but afterwards we might go exploring downtown to areas that we haven't yet visited yet (with cameras in hand!), so hopefully we don't get lost!

Art?

We started off today with an early wake up call to head to the Acropolis for round 2, but this time we looked at it with a more educational lens (we had our own guided tour by Dr. Arafat, our British professor at Deree). My job was to take pictures of all the things that the professor explained while my friend took notes (thank goodness I brought my camera or else I would've gotten stuck with notetaking!). Here is a fun fact that I learned today, the theme of the East pediment (that's the triangular shaped structure on the top) of the Parthenon (pictured) is of the birth of Athena, and the East metopes (that's the square shaped scenes above the columns) contains images depicting a battle between the Gods and giants. Bet you didn't know that!

We learned even more fun facts about the Parthenon and Acropolis throughout the 2 hour tour this morning (yeup, 2 hours in the blazing hot Greek sun...thank goodness there was a nice breeze to cool us off!).

Other than learning an immense amount of information about the Acropolis, I found the walk back to the metro station (I've almost conquered the system finally, and I'm the one giving directions now!) to be quite interesting...

No matter where you go here in Greece, there is always, always, some graffiti to be seen and at times, even admired.

My very first impression of Greece included an explosion of graffiti. When I first stepped out of the bus to head up to our temporary homes here in Greece I was greeted by what I learned to be an abandoned military base that now seems to used as a canvas for local graffiti (left picture).

As Americans, I feel as if we are raised or taught to look at graffiti and think something along the lines of "dirty," or with negative connotations. When I first saw this, I remember thinking to myself "this can't be where we are staying," but indeed it was, I've even got a nice view of it from my balcony (it's growing on me)!

As my time here in Greece has increased, I've become more accustomed to the continuous expressions and images spray painted onto the surfaces around town. I've even come to like them to some extent (it can be quite entertaining during a stroll back from class).

But there is a question I can't seem to figure out. Why is there such a substantial amount of graffiti and what is the purpose of it (if any)?

7 no, 13!

I've heard a couple different approaches to these questions. Our professors first suggested the reason for the massive amounts of graffiti could be due to the high unemployment here in Greece. From what I gathered, I'm guessing that since people are not being productive in the work force they instead spend their time creating and executing plans for defacing public surfaces (see, even that comes with a negative connotation!).

Multiple "13s"

But what is the graffiti trying to tell us? While exploring Greece, there is on thing that I've noticed repeatedly, the numbers 13 and 7. One of the ways we walk back from class include lots of instances of these numbers, but for the most part you see instances of a 13 written purposefully over a 7 and vise versa (as you can see in some of the pictures). The first opinion I heard about these rivalry numbers was that they represented competitive political parties marking their territories. But today, I heard from someone else that represent something else of different importance, conflicting soccer teams. From my non-Greek perspective, either of these could possibly explain the combating graffiti.

"the green says 'Gate 13' maybe this has something to do with
the 13/7's even though it's on a different island?"

Also I've noticed a slight difference between the residential graffiti near where I'm staying (mostly numbers and expressions) and downtown graffiti where there are additional, I would say, more artistic graffiti (some are really intricate and interesting). I've yet to figure out why this may be, so please let me know if you can think of any reasons!

So from an American perspective, I think the majority of us see it as a more of a negative or unwanted sight. But what do they think about graffiti here in Greece? Have they just become accustomed to it (kinda like I have with my stay), do they see it as a nuisance, and do they partake in any of it (if so, when, where, why?)?

 I've included some additional pictures that I've taken over the course of my visit here in Greece. They are taken from all over the place. Some of them I just found pretty and eye catching and others where just interesting to look at and provoked some thought.

Taken downtown

Statue clown?

This one was actually taken on Rhodes Island

Another downtown example

Hydra

According to my Discover Greece guide book by lonely planet, "Hydra is the diva of the Saronic Gulf." I didn't believe it at first, but it's so true! It's the perfect getaway island that you've always dreamed of visiting. The water is crystal clear, there are beautiful mountains, and high up castles to visit that offer even more breath taking views. 


When we first arrived, we took a short one hour tour of the island (it's only 12 miles long). Fortunately, we didn't have to walk the whole length of the city, but we got a good idea of where all the good shopping, beaches, and most importantly, omnom were. A fun fact I learned about hydra yesterday is that all of the roads used to consist of rivers,  and that's were the name hydra comes from (stems from the word hydro). Nowadays the roads are small, narrow, and rocky. This probably explains why there are absolutely no cars allowed on the island. That's right no cars, everyone has too walk everywhere. Except for the garbage truck (singular!), and one other exception that isn't coming to mind at the moment...

Anyways, we spent the first half of the day walking along the island checking out views like this (so pretty!). Even though the pictures look heavenly, what you don't get to see in the pictures is the major heat wave that's passing through Greece right now. The predicted temperature for tomorrow is 100 degrees Fahrenheit (and it's going to get even hotter on                          Wednesday!). 

You know what that means? Time to hit the beach! After about a 15 minute hike up the mountain we found a good spot to relax and take a dip into the blue waters. Even though I forgot my 3 euro my goggles that I bought at a cheap beach store in Sounion, fellow study abroaders were nice enough to lend me theirs whenever they weren't using them! The water was super clear and really nice! There was one thing about the beach that looked cool, but wasn't so cool on my feet-sies, the rocks! 


After swimming for a good couple of hours to the point where my skin was thoroughly wrinkled, we dried off and headed to lunch (yumm yumm). I ended up getting some kind of eggplant dish with red sauce and something that resembled and tasted like cheese which was extremely delicious (as always!).


Then, with full tummies, we headed into town for some shopping! There were plenty of touristy shops available, but there were also a few shops which seemed more local. I found that the majority of the shops that we looked at were focused mainly on jewelry products (good thing I'm not too big on accessories or else I would have been broke by the end of the day!).

We headed back around 7:30, but didn't get home till a little before 11 pm. Needless to say we were all exhausted from the day in the sun and lots of walking. Fortunately, for the first time today we got to sleep in (I was able to get a good 9 hours of sleep, hoorayy!!). When I woke up, I used the morning to study for our midterm that we had (hopefully I did alright!) and also to get some grocery shopping done for the weeks.

Tomorrow I've got to wake up extra early (good thing I got my sleep last night) to head to the Acropolis for a second look with my professor... Wish me luck!

And I couldn't resist, here's a few more pictures of hydra (taken by yours truly)

Butcher Trip Anyone?

Things have finally been winding down here in Greece, as in we've finally been able to take sometime to relax and reflex on all the exciting adventures we've been on.Yesterday was one of those days. Our schedule consisted of our bi-weekly class with Dr. Kaplan (this time we had a cooking workshop and got to attempt to make some traditional Greek dishes like tzatziki sauce!), our other bi-weekly survival Greek class (this is where we get to work on learning the Greek language), and then our daily art history class at the American college of Greece (doesn't seem so relaxing does it?). But after classes ended at 4:30, we were freeeee! 


After recuperating from about 6 hours of classes, I decided to take advantage of my free time and go out shopping for dinner supplies. At first I was planning on making something simple that was cheap, but at the same time would be enough to feed me and my three roommates, like a yummy frittata with vegetables or something. 

But as I was waiting for the stores to reopen for the evening (Greek nap time includes stores too), I gathered up the courage to take a trip to the butcher! Earlier that morning, I was talking with Dr. Kaplan during our workshop and she suggested a store close to the mini super market. The catch was, the owner didn't speak much English.... How was I supposed to tell him what meat I wanted, or even how was I supposed to tell him what cut I wanted, because I surely wasn't prepared to gut a chicken anytime soon.

I was starting to get a bit nervous before we headed down to the shop, so I had made sure exactly how to say chicken breast in Greek (something along the lines of kotopoulo stithos), and if he still didn't understand what I was saying, I was prepared to whip out the chicken dance if I had to.

When we first arrived he was dealing with another customer. As I was patiently waiting for my turn, I realized that the owner and the customer weren't just speaking the minimal words required, but they were having an actual conversation, almost as if they were catching up.

As I've been walking around, exploring, and enjoying my time in different restaurants (aka omnom), I've noticed that the neighborhood has a strong  sense of community. When we were at the crepe place right next to the hangout places for all ages (there's even a playground for the kids), I would occasionally notice a younger fellow casually walk to the back of the store grab glass and fill it up with some water. Then they would down it as fast as they could and try to subtly head out. There were even some that were brave enough to strike up conversation with some of the workers there, but they were friendly. There were even some teenagers that would straggle in sometimes just to use the restroom and leave.

At first I was kinda perplexed by this because for the most part in America, you don't casually stroll into let's say, cold stone just to use the restroom or go in just for a drink of water. But it seems like everyone knows each here, including customer/butcher relationships!

After what seemed like forever, it was my turn at the register. I hesitantly told the worker that I wanted  chicken breast in Greek, and guess what, he understood me! After that, he disappeared into the back refrigerator and then came out with a big chunk on chicken and started chopping it right in front of me! I have to admit it was kinda cool to see that for the first time, even though it was kinda gross too, but after he somewhat cut it, he brought it up to his scale to weigh it. Problem was, there was still bones and skin attached that I didn't exactly want. As I noticed this, I started to get a little nervous and jittery as I wasn't prepared how to ask him for just the meat (the guys behind me got a kick out of it though). Luckily, the worker noticed my reaction, and to my relief, cut off all the unwanted stuff.

After a successful trip to the butcher, I headed home to make us some dinner! I ended up cutting up the meat and sauteing it in olive oil, onions, garlic, and some basil along with some chopped up zucchini. Needless to say, dinner was delicious and we had no leftovers whatsoever!

Tomorrow we've got a day long trip to the island Hydra (one of the most beautiful islands of Greece, so I'm told) and we get to relax at the beach for a little bit. So stay tuned for some island news soon!

Souvlaki

Today was mainly what I like to call more of a "blah" day. As in nothing really substantial happened, instead we got to enjoy more of the mundane daily activities here in Athens! 

The most exciting thing that happened today was instead of having to go to class from 2:30 till 4:30 like we have to do every weekday, we got to take a field trip down to Kerameikos. I must admit the trip was a fun, it beats sitting in class for two hours any day, but it was unusually hot out today. There was one thing that keep a couple of us entertained while we were touring around the site, there were tortoises everywhere! Sometimes you'd hear random munching sounds that seemed to come out of nowhere, but then out popped a cute little turtle! I even got a picture of one, he was a little camera shy though, and hid behind the grass a bit.

Once we recovered from the heat and all of the historical information that we had to take in, we did what stereotypical girls do best... we went SHOPPING! Thing is, I'm the kind of girl that likes to go out, find what I need as quickly as possible, and leave. So it was definitely a new experience going shopping where the owners are quite friendly and if they speak English, like to strike up a conversation that can sometimes run for at least ten minutes (not to mention I have talkative friends too!).

Those of you that know me won't be surprised when I tell you that the only think that I purchased today was lunch, and ice cream (this time baklava flavor!).

Since I somewhat discussed the topic of omnom yesterday, I might as well continue on with it a bit more today! Unless, you don't want me too...? Eh, who wouldn't want to read about food? Especially Greek food! 

Today I ordered pork souvlaki (pork is the Greek equivalent to chicken in America) which as you can see consists of pita bread, pork on a stick, tomatoes, onions, and a side of tzatziki sauce ( I told you this stuff is everywhere!). What you do is take all of these delicious ingredients and wrap it up and the pita and devour it! 

It's quite good actually, but something I've noticed while here in Greece, is that the restaurants here all pretty much offer the same kind of food, well at least all the ones I've been to so far. This even became a topic that come up while enjoying our lunch. We realized that in America there is always a variety of food available, unlike here. We came to the conclusion that this may be because America is more of a melting pot and whereas Greece isn't really. Also it may be because the majority of places that we've been going to are touristy ish places so they will be more likely to provide what the people want, Greek food. Other than that, I've been seriously craving a burger lately, so I'm on the hunt, I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

OMNOM!

Happy Fourth of July! :)

Even though we are currently in Greece, we got to take the day off of school and classes (I'm not complaining) and took a day trip down to Sounion. 

First stop was the Temple of Posiedon, and while it was really cool to be able to see another awesome ancient structure still up and standing, the view from the top of the hill was even more spectacular! 


But before we stopped for the beach, we headed for lunch (excitement!). Since today's lunch was planned and we were eating as a group, we didn't have to pay, hooray! (well, it was kinda included in our original price for the trip but still...). So it shouldn't surprise you that not only did it excite me that we were headed for lunch, but it was FREE lunch! 


So in Greece,  a common way of dinning (especially in big groups) is family style ,that's where there are a bunch of different dishes in the middle and you help yourself to whatever you like (but don't forget to share!). Lucky for you I brought my camera with me today and took a picture of every single dish we were handed, so prepare to get hungry.

On the menu today:

 First up, bread. It was toasted and coated with olive oil and herbs. So, pretty much a taster version of garlic bread!
Right after this came some really good dip that I forgot to take a picture of, but it was basically a pureed cheese dip with a little kick.
I seems as if most Greek meals come with a sauce (especially tzatziki sauce!)



Next up came the traditional Greek salad. While in the US I never really understood how it was a salad if it didn't have any lettuce in it, but now I've come to accept the fact and it's become one of my favorite dishes! It mainly consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, olives, and cheese (that's what that big white chunk is on top!). And the dressing consists mainly of olive oil and spices (kinda like the bread....most likely a trend in Greek cuisine).

Here's a new version of saganaki (fried cheese) that I've run into. Usually it comes in a big rectangular piece of fried cheese, and let me say, I'm not much of a cheese person, but this stuff is good!
(squeeze the lemon over it for added freshness :P)






Next up, more cheese!! That's right, we have here a huge chunk of feta cheese brought on its very own plate. It can be used if you use up all the cheese in your Greek salad (it happens) and also goes well with pretty much anything that they serve you. But seriously, a plate just for cheese?!

Mmmm, these were some sort of zucchini stuffed delciousness. I'm not actually sure what else is in them, but I've had them before and they are quite yummy, especially if you add at least one of the variety of sauces/dips that is provided (more cheeeese please)








This dish took me a little bit longer than usual to get the guts to try it. Wonder why? Well there are these things called tentacles, and here you can actually see them! The saying "you eat with your eyes" comes into play for this dish. I'm not too fond of seafood, so if I can really tell that it's going to taste fishy, well, I probably wont eat it. Oh! I never told you what it was, sorry. If you haven't guessed already, this is fried calamari (with a side of tentacles...). I wasn't feeling too gutsy today so I didn't try any today, but I had previously tried the tentacle-y one at a different restaurant, and it wasn't half bad, just a little chewy...  

Can you guess what this is? It's looks kinda funky, but it's Greek sausage (don't ask what's in it (I don't know)). It's pretty good, but this version was a little bit too spicy for my taste.






Hey look fries! Yup that's right, fries are a common side here in Greece (well, at least from the restaurants I've been too) and they are way better than American fries!! Which surprises me because aren't we supposed to be the Kings of fried food??

Now, best for last!
I would have to say this dish was my favorite out of all the yummy things we consumed for lunch. It was some sort of pork dish with shredded cheese on top. I really wish I knew what and how they made it, but from consumption I was able to gather that it was slow cooked (nice and tender, yummm), and that it was cooked with some kind of wine (source: Erika). In a way it kinda reminded me of the slow cooked pork that my momma makes sometimes, which might explain why I liked it so much....





The AFTERMATH! Everything was very delicious, as you can tell (there's nothing left on the table!).

With full tummies we headed to the beach for 3 hours for swimming and chilling as a group (I was successfully un-burnt today!). After we got back to the dorms and relaxed for a bit (the sun wears you out), we got back together for a short little birthday party for the youngest of the Kaplan klan, Ellie. And also one of our fellow classmates Jimmy (they even had yummy cupcakes and ice cream!). But wait, there's more! We went to the local field and played some intense games of frisbee and I learned some soccer tricks. A couple of local guys even joined us for some tossing of the frisbee! Needless to say, I've had a long day and it's time for bed! Gotta be energized for a fun packed day tomorrow :)

Hope you have a happy forth of July, and don't forget to play with the fireworks! :P

Potluck Mondays

Mondays are pretty great here in Athens, well, at least the evenings are! Every Monday night we planned to gather for a weekly potluck. Last night our room of four made some tasty pasta with red sauce and sausage (it was a little on the spicy side too). All of the other rooms contributed to our weekly feast with things like nutella cookies (SO good), homemade strawberry jam and pear jam with bread, toasted nutella sandwiches (we have a thing for nutella here if you haven't noticed already...), and a variety of pastas. Now that I think about it, I wish I had taken a picture of it so I could share it with you! I'll make sure to bring my camera next Monday.

But get this, the food isn't even the best part of Monday evenings (crazy right?). It's the sense of togetherness and family that comes along with it. I know, it can be hard to imagine how a group of 20 UNF students and the Kaplan klan can all get along at once, but being able to experience the wonderful world of Greece, has brought us together into one big family!

These Monday night potlucks gives us the perfect excuse to enjoy each others company and share dishes and our daily experiences with each other. After dinner comes the fun part! You would think with all the delicious food consumed we would be rolling on the floor cradling our full tummies, but not quite! Now it's time for a fun physical activity (it doesn't make any sense to me either). Last week some of us stayed downstairs and decided to dance to some of the fun classical songs we have had stuck in our head, including Journey songs (dance party!). And since this week we decided to enjoy the lovely Greek weather (it's not humid here) and dine outside on the lawn, we broke out the soccer balls and frisbees for some friendly competition. Some even were brave enough to visit the local futball field a few streets down from the dorms and ended up playing with some of the Greek kids that live in our neighborhood. 

Here is a link of some funny video clips that someone took while we were outside playing soccer (I'm not in any of it but it's funny to watch!) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ8xu662KiA&feature=player_embedded

All this talk of family and social gatherings got me thinking about how people who live here in Greece socialize. 

One of my roommates seems to be crazy about coffee (even though the coffee itself is sometimes what makes here crazy). Even though I'm not that found of coffee, she somehow convinced me to come with her and some other friends. I had previously seen glimpses of coffee places while exploring Athens and I though I knew what I was getting myself into, but it's a whole different story when you're actually going inside to experience it along with lots of other locals who almost seem like regulars there.

Picture in your mind what a common Starbucks looks like in the US. Okay...got it? Now, take that image, and ready, throw that image completely away. Here in Greece coffee places are mainly located outside (don't worry the weather is really nice here, and it never rains in the summer), and consist mainly of couches! The best way to describe it is like a bunch of mini living rooms all crammed together. 

So with the seating consisting mainly of couches and lounging chairs you would think that it sounds more like a hangout place than a coffee place and you would be exactly right! It's so different from the American view of getting coffee where we mainly just go get our order of caffeine and head to work or school. Another thing that I've noticed is that people stay for hours on end at these places! Even when we go and talk for an hour or two, the majority of people that were already there in the cafe still haven't left, and we end up leaving before them! So next time you head for coffee with one of your friends maybe try doing it the Greek way and stay in chat for a while. You may get the stink eye for staying longer than the usual customer but who knows maybe you'll get some good conversation out of it :P

I got to end the day with a trip to downtown Athens where we climbed up the mountain to get a good view of the Akropolis and we were able to watching the full moon rise above the mountains! A once in a lifetime experience :)