pictures

Pictures from my last days in Greece, Amsterdam, and Paris are all up under the 1st picture link. Enjoy.

my last adventures

amsterdam is a very lovely city. i wish i would've had more than 24 hours there. we went to the van gogh museum wednesday morning which was pretty spiffy. then they had this "kids" exhibit downstairs about animals. they had this thing where you could draw your own virtual sea creature then send it to this virtual pool and they would eat each other and grow and have babies and die...it was pretty awesome! then we went to the anne frank house. that was interesting. there was really a lot more room in their secret hiding place than i'd always imagined. at the end of the exhibit they had this room and they presented different controversial topics then specific examples and then you could vote for whether it should be allowed or not and it showed you the % of people in the room and total % of what people thought. there was stuff like the patriot act, should irish protestants be allowed to march through catholic neighborhoods, should the japanese government be allowed to make a directory of all citizens names/age/sex/etc, all kinds of stuff. i wish we'd had more time to see more of the issues. it was really interesting and well done. they had this cartoon character at the beginning of each overall topic that was pretty funny too. unfortunately...or fortunately...not really sure, we didn't have time to check out the red light district. although we walked down this one street toward the outskirts of the city that had a couple store fronts with hookers in the windows. they were just chillin in their underwear, looking pretty bored. no, we didn't even go into a cafe. didn't have time for that either. one of them had a sign that said you had to be 18 to enter then it said "and don't fuck around" i thought that was pretty funny

ok, paris...that was amazing. thursday we spend 7 hours at the louvre. amazing. that's all i can say. friday we did the sacre coeur - beautiful cathedral, arc de triumphe...that was cool. we saw a couple other famous buildings there too - the trocodero, hotel des invalides, some other ones. then the eiffel tower. went to the top, which was pretty scary. it was cool though b/c they had the distances to major cities all over the world. then they had free ice skating on the 1st level. that was pretty awesome. i iceskated on the eiffel tower. then we went to the rodin museum. (rodin is my favorite sculptor) but it closed before we could go through the whole thing. i think that's about it for friday. saturday we went to notre dame. that was amazing. it's such a beautiful cathedral. the gargoyles are awesome. loved those. it's 422 steps to the top of the tower. we saw esmerelda's room from the hunchback of notre dame and the bell quasimodo rang. that was cool. then we spent a few hours at the centre pompidou, one of the modern art museums. they had an exhibit on dada (an art movement) which was interesting. the building itself was pretty spiffy although it's very controversial b/c of it's incredibly modern architecture in the midst of all the older buildings. then we went lingerie shopping. =P
saturday night we went out for a really nice dinner. it was kinda funny. friday i had roast duck for lunch and it was amazing. so they had some duck thing on the menu, of course it was all in french so i wasn't sure exactly what it was but i was like duck was good yesterday, i'll get it again since i never have it at home. so the waiter brings out my plate and it's 2 pink squares of meat. i was like courtney, please just tell me i'm not eating raw meat...please...and she's like no and i was like courtney, are you lying to me and she said she really didn't know. so she asked her mom when she called her parents that night and...i ate duck liver! it was gross. i foreced myself to eat part of it then i just couldn't anymore. EEWWW!!

anyways...i've done the ninja turtule art tour - leonardo, michaelangelo, raphael, and donatello, and seen probably every major artist in the world which is pretty awesome. (yeah, i'm an art museum nerd)


just in case you need a last minute christmas present idea: gift certificate to michael's so i can get scrapbooking supplies, scrapbooking supplies, money to get prints of pictures, etc.

Say Goodbye

My finals are done. I have a presentation in an hour, then I'm done for the semester! Woohoo!
Tonight our whole group is going out for one last dinner together. That'll be nice =)
I'll be home in 10 days, so see you all hopefully that week. (Steele City 2 weeks from today!)
I don't know if I'll get online any more before I get home, so if not, have a wondeful next 10 days and I'll update when I get home.

<3

let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears

friday i bought a much needed winter coat, and wonderful sweater that was really cheap. at the store i bought the coat from, you got a rose for shopping there. that made me very happy. saturday i took at least an hour long bubble bath and listened to norah jones. *delightful* then we had breakfast for dinner and it was yummy.
sunday was a good day. i went to church for the 1st time since i've been here which was nice...although i still really miss my church. then i sat on the couch for about 5 hours and read a book, listened to music and sang. then amanda's bf demetrios came over and told us we were all going out. so he took us out for coffee, then courtney and i walked arm in arm almost the entire way back. it was fun. then we all had dinner together, then sat around and took a zillion pics of him and amanda that are adorable. then we started talking about art cuz courtney's an art major so then she drew my portrait which was cool. it was a very delightful evening. and thanks demetrios for making us leave our apartment. lol.

tonight is going to kinda suck. i have an 8-10 page paper to write, and a ton of greek hw to do since i skipped class. yuck. i have 1 1/2 finals tomorrow, 1 wednesday, and 1/2 a final and a presentation thursday. (our greek final is split between tues and thurs)...it's going to be a fun week

*the italy pics are all posted now*

13 days til i get home

Italy

Rome was great, despite a cold rainy start to the weekend. The highlight of my weekend was definately seeing the Sistine Chapel and the Pieta. I also saw the Colosseum and a ton of other beautiful fountains, statues, buildings, etc. I of course had some pizza and some really good pasta. I started putting some pictures up. I'll get the rest up next week. I deleted all the pictures from the beginning of the trip, so the ones from Italy should be under the first link.

Thanksgiving

Dad and Michelle got here yesterday. We haven't done too much yet b/c it's been pouring the entire time. We walked through the National Gardens, saw the Parliament Building and the tomb of the unknown soldier with the guards, and walked around some of the city.
This morning we had a ton of people over for a big Thanksgiving breakfast. It turned out really well. I got up around 7 and made pancakes for about an hour. We also had french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, pumpkin bread, some kinda pastry type thing, and baklava (yeah, i know, it's a dessert, but who cares)Today we're going to some art museum with my Humanities class then are having Thanksgiving dinner at Aphrodite's. We'll probably go to bed early since we have to get up rediculously early to go to Rome in the morning.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Be back next week.

i love my church

For those of you who don't know, the Bridge is the church service for young adults I go to at Calvary Fellowship Church in Downingtown. Their band is amazing and they're playing at World Cafe Live in Philly. That's so exciting! I know most of you don't really care, but too bad =P
Go check them out
The Bridge Band
Grassroots Magazine

i come home in less than a month

just to let you all know =P

anyways,
this week has been pretty good. i got 3 tests back and did well on all of them. not that it's a big deal since my grades don't transfer back to etown. i just have to pass.
we had a roomie weekend since none of us went anywhere. friday night we went to hard rock athens and saturday night we had a little absinthe that alicia brought back from prague and played truth or dare. that was pretty funny.
saturday afternoon i went shopping. i'm glad to say i am all done my Chrismas shopping and some birthdays as well. of course if i see anything else that i just have to get someone i will. you can never get someone too many presents =)
i also did my scheduling for next semester.
Mon: 5-6:20 Honors Leadership Development
Tues: 9:30-10:20 Water Aerobics
11-12:15 Honors Neuroscience
12:30-1:45 Research in Developmental Psych
Wed: 9:30-10:45 Theories of Personality
2-3:20 Honors Thesis Prep
5-6:20 Honors Leadership Development
Thurs: 9:30-10:20 Water Aerobics
11-12:15 Honors Neuroscience
12:30-1:45 Researh in Developmental Psych
8-9:15 Percussion Ensemble
Fri: 9:30-10:45 Theories of Personality

Unfortunately, band doesn't fit into my schedule =( It's going to be a busy semester, but it should be good.
This semester has flown by. I can't believe I come home in less than a month! It's going to be a busy couple weeks.

Istanbul was Constantinople

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night

gotta love They Might Be Giants

Anyways, Istanbul was beautiful. I wish I'd had more time to spend their and in Turkey. All the leaves were turning colors and falling. It was gorgeous. I miss fall b/c it doesn't look like fall at all in Athens. We stayed in the old part of the city. The streets were all cobblestone (sp?). We visited the Blue Mosque which was beautiful (I'm going to use that word a lot in this entry...sorry). We also went to Haghia Sophia, another gorgeous religious building which was both Muslim and Christian. That was really interesting to see the integration of the 2 religions...and kinda weird seeing Christian symbols in a mosque.
I'm not going to lie...we did a lot of shopping instead of visiting more historical sights. I got a lot of presents for people so that was exciting. And of course, a few things for me =) I got 2 beautiful scarves and a leather jacket. Yes, I got a leather jacket (sorry all you vegetarians/animal rights people). Selena talked me into it. She got one and a fur coat and I was like I really don't do leather or fur. And she was all happy and excited and told me she's buy me one. And I was told her I wasn't letting her buy me a leather jacket so she told me to just try one on. And I was finally like fine, but something simple. So I did and I loved it. And she talked to guy down to $90 which was how much she owed me for our hotel room so I told her she could buy me the jacket and I'd cover the hotel. I'm really glad I got it b/c I don't really have many warm clothes. Now I'll at least have a coat. Let's see...what else...the people were all very friends. I was a little scared it would be like Cairo and I definately couldn't handle that 2 weekends in a row, but it wasn't.
This one guy told us this joke they have about Americans. He goes "What's the difference between Americans and yogurt?" And we're pretty confused and he's like "yogurt has more culture" so we were a little indignant and stuff, then as we're laying in bed watching MTV Europe every night for about 4 hours we just look at each other and go "yogurt" it was kinda funny. It got dark early so we went back to the room and watched MTV to try to catch up a little on what's going on. Of course it was MTV Europe so they had some really weird commercials and stuff. But we got to see the MTV Europe music awards and if we have no culture, why are American bands winning most of the awards? lol.
I definately want to go back to Turkey again. I never realized how much is there. Troy is in Turkey (definately thought it was in Greece) A bunch of the churches Paul visited (Ephasus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, etc) are all in Turkey. They had a 3 day tour of the 7 churches that I would've liked to do, but we didn't have time since we had to get back for class.
It was just a great weekend and pretty relaxing.

flying back we flew over lesbos which was really awesome for me...quick history lesson...lesbos is the home of sappho, the first recorded female poet. it is also where the word lesbian came from b/c sappho was supposedly a lesbian

walk like an egyptian

this weekend was insane.
first of all, it was the end of ramadan so everyone was celebrating, the streets were full of people, etc.
we got to our hotel in cairo around 4am friday morning, slept til around 10, then went to the national museum. we saw all kinds of stuff from the pyramids. we saw the mummy of Ramses the Great, all the King Tut stuff...including his underwear and condom (yes, they had condoms thousands of years ago) anyways, the museum was pretty cool. we stayed there for about 4 hours, then took a nap. on our way back from the museum, we had these girls come up to us and point at our chests...i guess b/c our shirts were too low cut (and we were dressed pretty conservatively) so the rest of the weekend we wore sweatshirts. friday night we went to pizza hut for dinner. foreigners aren't supposed to drink the water, eat fruits and vegetables, etc. there b/c you'll get sick. our hotel turned out to be pretty decent which i'm glad of. i was a little worried b/c it was only $8 a night for a room with a bathroom and that included breakfast.
saturday was our big day. we got up at 4:30 and went to Giza. We wanted to ride camels, but our guide said "you ride camel all day your bum hurt and you walk like an egyptian" so we got 1 camel and 2 horses and rotated. and yes, he was right. i'm still a little sore...my thighs hurt, my bum's a little sore, and my back hurts from all the jolting. running on a camel is pretty scary. i felt like i was going to fall off. especially b/c there's no stirrups on the camel. riding a horse was better. anyways, we went out to this big hill in the desert and watched the sunrise over the city and got some pretty cool pictures of the pyramids, then went to the pyramids and went inside the biggest one. that was about a 4-4 1/2 hour trip. then we drove through memphis and went to the saggara step pyramids and a couple tombs. we took a nap in the afternoon, then went on a nile river dinner cruise. the food was delicious and then there were dancers. it was a lot of fun. sunday we didn't do much, mostly b/c we ran out of money and were exhausted. we slept in, then laid around and read. we went to the hard rock cafe for dinner and ended up staying there for 4 hours. on the door of the bathroom stalls was a sign that said "no drugs or nuclear weapons" it was pretty funny. (i have a picture) on the way back to our hotel we had this one guy say "you want for husband...i give you 200 camels and maybe even a horse" we all burst out laughing as soon as we passed him.
all 3 of us ended up getting diarhea. that was fun. sunday afternoon i got sick, then alicia started getting sick sunday night, and amanda got sick yesterday. i had it the worst b/c we ran out of toilet paper at our hotel, so we stole some from hard rock, then at the airport you had to tip the attendant to get toilet paper so i was trying so hard not to.
anyways, it was a good weekend, and i got some great pics =)

why every girl needs a little black dress...

b/c you just may randomly get free tickets to some expensive benefit concert which a bunch of very important people (like diplomats, ambassadors, presidents of big non-profit groups, etc) are attending.
it was a benefit jazz concert sponsored by the Athends Friends of Habitat for Humanity group and their women's rights group. The 1st half was awful. My high school jazz band was better than the 1st group that played. The lead guy played decent sax, the drummer had no rhythm and the bass player was ok. But then the lead guy sang. Capital OXI! (oxi=ohi=no) he was really bad. Then this chick came out with a pianist to sing. DO NOT SING JAZZ OPERATICALLY (yeah, i dunno if that's really a word) she was horrific. Then she tried to dance and tripped and almost fell into the drumset. It was almost comical.
After intermission, the bass player came out to set up his bass and I was like thank God it's someone not white. Maybe we'll get some good jazz now. And we did. It was amazing, wonderful, etc. After that group, they set up 2 grand pianos and i got really excited. These 2 guys did some improv on Autumn Leaves, Rhapsody in Blue, Summertime and another one i didn't know. I was in heaven. It was absolutely delightful. Great night.

I still can't believe I'm going to Egypt in 12 hours. That's insane! (mom and dad, I'll call Sunday night probably...I think we get back around 3 or 4am so it'll be at night)

more random stuff

toga party pictures are posted so go check those out.

stuff i forgot about my weekend:
i saw my 1st plate breaking at the party we were at thursday night. it was funny. they started out just throwing plastic plates that cracked, then someone threw a real plate. amanda and i were going insane b/c we wanted to clean up the mess.

last night our room had a collective mental breakdown. i threw my greek book & workbook & notebook across the room we all screamed. we played with fire and candles. courtney was trying different therapy methods on me. i was like i need therapy for a freaking greek class. it was pretty amusing.

i'm going on a last minute trip to egypt this weekend. alicia found cheap plane tickets and a cheap hotel/hostel room so we're off to egypt thursday night =)


current travel plans for the rest of the semester:
Nov. 4-6: Egypt
Nov. 11-14: Istanbul
Dec. 13-14: Amsterdam
Dec. 14-18: Paris
Dec. 18: HOME!

thursday night: aphrodite made us dinner. it was delicious. then we went to my rommie's bf(?)'s name day party (a lot of greeks are named after a saint and celebrate their name day). that was fun. his friends danced for us and showed us traditional greek dancing. we ended up staying til about 3am even though courtney and i had wanted to leave by 2 at the latest b/c we were really tired.

friday was oxi (ohi) day. it's kinda like our 4th of july. we thought there was going to be a big parade and stuff but apparently the big celebration is in thessoloniki so i just went to the beach all day. it was gorgeous. i think it was in the 80s. the water was cold, but it felt quite refreshing after laying in the sun. friday night we lost our electricity, but amanda, courtney and i were going to bed anyways so it wasn't a big deal. we all brought blankets and pillows into the living room and had a little sleepover. it was cute. we started telling a scary story each of us doing a line at a time...it was pretty funny.

saturday the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. it's now cold. and by cold i mean 60s. lol. saturday night was our toga party. that was a lot of fun. i'll have pics up soon.

other random stuff:
i don't like that they sell porn on the street, just hanging up or sitting on a shelf at the kiosks. some things, i'd rather not see.
courtney and i found a ninja kiosk down at the port the other day. there was a case of knives and throwing stars.
i got plane tickets for istanbul today!
my dad and sister are coming for thanksgiving!!!!!
i'm going to go buy knitting needles and yarn today. i'm excited =)
*edit* the yarn store is closed so i'll have to get knitting stuff tomorrow =(

Relaxation

This weekend was wonderful. Friday morning, Courtney and I got up around 7, went to the produce market a few blocks from our apartment. It was great. I got 3 potatoes, a lemon, an onion, and garlic for 1 euro! Definately going back there on Fridays to buy my produce. Then we went back to bed for a while, and went shopping all afternoon. We found a yarn store near school that has knitting classes on Saturdays, so we might check that out one weekend. Friday night we went to TGI Fridays. It was amazing. It was so good to have American food! I had steak and cheddar mashed potatoes and a strawberry daiquiri. mmmm...yummy!
Saturday we slept in, studied/did some homework (we had a Greek quiz today) and did pretty much nothing. Sunday, we got up at 7 and went to a flea market, but it was all random junk, so we came back and took a nap. Did some more studying/homework. Got some kahlua and icecream to try to make mudslides. They didn't turn out quite as well as we had hoped. Oh well. We ended up only drinking about half of our drink and dumping the rest. Maybe next time it'll be better. And I think we need to not let our wine sit in the regridgerator so long. It gets pretty bad after a while. (we only have wine maybe once or twice a week, so it lasts forever) Sunday night we got a phone call around 3am from one of our roommates who was away. Thankfully it woke Courtney up b/c I didn't hear it. She said it was an emergency and she needed a phone # and she'd call back in a few minutes b/c her phone card was almost out of minutes. So we're really worried that something terrible happaned. After about 10-15 minutes, Courtney goes downstairs to the front desk to get the phone # b/c they have caller ID i think, but right then she called back. Apparently she had lost her aunt's phone # who she was meeting in Rome today. Definately not an EMERGENCY. We were pretty annoyed that she had woken us up at 3am and told us it was an emergency when all she needed was a phone #. Yesterday we again got up at 7 and went to the port to look for some more markets, but didn't find much so we were disapointed b/c there was supposed to be 4 there, and one of them was supposed to be an artistan's market which would've been cool. Oh well. Took another nap, studies, read, went grocery shopping...nothing exciting. Today we had our quiz. It was really hard, but I think I passed and that's all I need to do.
I'm putting up some more pictures, so go check that out.
I think I have all my travel plans pretty much set. The 1st weekend in November I'm going to Cairo, Egypt. The weekend after that I'm going to Istanbul. The weekend of Thanksgiving, dad and Michelle are coming! Hopefully we can go to Italy that weekend. Then, at the end of the semester, Courtney and I are going to fly to Paris Dec. 13 take the train to Amsterdam, stay there for a night, then stay in Paris until the 18. We're really excited now that we have definate plans!

looking forward to the weekend.

2 of my roommates are going away, so courtney and i have the apartment to ourselves! tomorrow we're going to this open air market to get fresh fruits and veggies, then we're going shopping...she wants boots and a scarf (scarves are the big fashion trend here, but i've always loved them...and by always i mean since last year) and i want to get new heels b/c mine broke, a belt, and another scarf. then we're going to TGI Fridays for a nice American meal. she's probably going to cut my hair (i'm a little nervous about that...lol) and we're going to RELAX! it's going to be fantabulous =) we may or may not go out. apparently the guy who owns our hotel, mario, invited us to go out with him. he's such a sweetheart. he's like our big brother. he's always telling us where good places to go are and warning us about greek men and making sure we're dressed warmly enough when we go out at night. so we might do that.
yesterday i made pancakes and bacon for breakfast and it was so yummy. it made me very happy. lol. a box of pancake mix is like 3or 4 euros, and it's not even a big box of pancake mix, there's 3 little packets of mix that make about 6 pancakes. i was quite disappointed, but it was still delicious. i really miss having lots of dishes and nonstick pans and various other kitchen equipment. we have one frying pan, that's not a nonstick pan and 2 pots. and there's nothing really to flip stuff with. it makes cooking quite an adventure. after that i laid around all afternoon and read a book (yes, an entire book) it was a kind of weird book called the Eyre Affair, so now I want to go read Jane Eyre.
anyways, that's the plan.

my week

let's see...
wednesday night a bunch of us went to see the russian superstars gala ballet. that was beautiful, amazing, greatly enjoyable, etc. it was a medley of a whole bunch of different ballets...don quixote, romeo & juliet, a chopin number, a japanese #, sparicus, and a bunch of others. i loved it.
friday we went to theatre of epidaurus, napfthlion (sp?) the 1st capital of greece after they overcame turkish occupation, and mycenea (not sure what exactly that was) it was fun, but everything just looks the same to me now.
friday was also courtney's birthday so we went out for a late dinner. that was nice.
saturday we just relaxed all day. sunday we went to aphrodite's beach house. it was good to see another side of her. she made us 2 really delicious meals and we laid on the beach for the afternoon.
i think that's about it for me for now. we're planning a trip to cairo and a trip to istanbul for the 1st 2 weekends in nov. so we'll see how that works out.

Santorini

so umm how's the weather in PA? cuz i just spent the weekend on an island in the mediterranean it was amazing. i didn't get any sleep, but it was definately worth it. we left around 5:30. it's about 45 min to the port, then an 8 hour ferry ride to santorini. i sat up on deck the first half and it was freezing and i was trying to sleep on this little bench which didn't really work. after lunch i went in and slept a little. friday afternoon was spent on the beach. then a couple of us went out to this really nice restaurant on the beach. i had veal in this santorini wine sauce...it was delicious! and we had a bottle of local wine which was good too. then our waiter gave us all free shots of ouzo before we left (i'm definately bringing a bottle or 2 home for you guys) saturday morning we spent at the beach again then went shopping in this touristy town, fira, that has the most amazing jewelry ever. if anyone ever wants to propose to me, tell him to go to santorini to get the engagement ring =P. we then went to the western-most point of the island, oia, for sunset b/c it's supposed to be one of the best sunset locations, but the horizon was pretty cloudy so it wasn't as spectacular as hoped for. after that we went back to fira for dinner then went to happy hour at one of the clubs then one of the other girls went to this jazz club, which was no longer playing jazz. but they were playing salsa music which i really like too, so it was still fun. i met this british guy who works for a publishing company and ended up talking to him for the rest of the night about books and music so that was cool. we went back to the hotel around 4. then 3 of us decided to go sleep on the beach and watch the sunrise so we brought a ton of blankets b/c it got kinda cold at night. then i decided to go swimming so 2 of us went for a nice early morning swim around 4:30/5am in the mediterranean. the water was really warm, but we were afraid to go out too far b/c it was really really dark. lol. good times. we got about 45 min of sleep then watched the sunrise and went back to the hotel and slept for a few hours, then went to the beach and back to the port for another 8 hour ferry ride.
so that was my weekend. tomorrow night, some of us are going to see the russian superstars ballet. that should be good.
i have a ton of pictures from this weekend that may or may not all get up today. we'll see.
you all are slacking on the whole sending mail thing! i think i'm the only one who hasn't gotten any =(

classes

I started classes this week.
Learning Greek is ridiculously difficult.
International Studies seems like it will be ok. The guy explains things very well and simply which is good since I know absolutely nothing about anything that goes on in the world/politics/economics/etc. I have my Humanities class in about 1/2 hour so hopefully that will go well too.
Tomorrow morning we're leaving at 5:30 am for Santorini so I'm sure I'll have a bunch of amazing pictures to put up next week.
I'm starting to get information about Ireland. I think it's going to be a little under $4000. They need a deposit in December so I'll have to think about that and see if it's going to be doable.
That's about it for me. Be back next week!

Meteora

Friday and Saturday we went to Meteora, which is these big cliffs jutting out of the land that have monastaries at them top. The 1st monastary we went to was on this one point and there was another one in front of it was a big valley in between and there were these wires between the 2 cliffs and Aphrodite told us we had to walk across the wires and me and Allison were freaking out b/c we're scared of heights and the wires were kinda rusty, but she was just kidding. The monastaries were nice, but I felt kind of bad being there. Those men go there to get away from the world and focus on God, then there's all these tourists all over. It seems kind of disrespectful, but I guess they help support themselves with money from the tourists. I didn't really do anything yesterday. My roommates and I just sat around. We were going to go to an island, but the weather was supposed to be bad so I didn't go. Today I'm staying here in the computer lab all afternoon to catch up on email and upload more pictures.
I got my schedule all messed up, so here's my real schedule:
Tuesday: 10:30-12 - Modern Greek
4-7 - Intro to International Studies
Thursday: 10:30-12 - Modern Greek
1-4 - Intro to Humanities
I think Amanda, Natalie, and I are going to join a gym. It's only E80 for the whole semester and they have a bunch of classes that look good.
I started doing laundry today in the bathtub. (That's why there are clothes all over my bed in the pic of the room) It costs E12 to do a load of laundry at the laundry mat. They do everything for you, but still...that's so expensive! I figure I'll do it in the bathtub every other time and go to the laundry mat every other time.
I don't really have much else to say. This weekend I think almost all of us are going to Santorini so that'll be fun.

nothing too exciting this week

Had some guy lecture us for 2 hours about the American government, then expect us to know all about the EU, which is what the lecture was supposed to be about. That was pretty boring.
Met some Egyptian guy who worked for some important place. He showed us some pharoic masks that apparently no one's really allowed to see.
Met with the director of Arab Greek Commerce (i think that's what he was at least) that was kind of cool.
Today was the last day of our orientation lectures.
I got my schedule for the semester. Classes officially start Monday. Here's my schedule:
Tuesdays 4-7: Modern Greek
Thursdays 10:30-12: Intro to Humanities
1-4: Intro to International Studies
(the Thursday classes might be the other way around, i'm not exactly sure)
I decided to drop photojournalism b/c I think I'll learn a lot more from International Studies, and I also don't want to buy a new manual camera.
The other night we had wine (yay for cheap boxed wine...we're so classy...haha) karaoke night in our room. We figured out that you can plug computer speakers into an IPOD to play it through the speakers. We were so excited.
Tomorrow and Saturday we're going to Meteora to see the monasteries. It's on some big cliff so it'll be a lot of climbing.
Talk to you all later!
<3

Corinthians, castles, operas, Gone With the Wind, & Greece Wins the European Championship

*warning* This is going to be a long one.
And before I begin, for all of you that heard about someone dying in collapsed ruins on Santorini, we were not there.
Ok, Thursday. We went to Corinth and Monemvasia. It was really awesome seeing Corinth. I always think of it in Biblical times, but seeing it made me realize that the culture back then was all about the ancient Greek gods and stuff. The main street that I have a picture of, is the street that the people of Corinth brought Paul through to bring him before the Roman proconsul. The proconsul told them they should have taken him to the court of justice, so pretty much he told them Paul was innocent leaving him free to start the Corinthian chuch. Our tour guide explained that in Corinth, there were a ton of temple prostitutes, b/c it was a port city, and the prostitutes would go through town with arrows on the bottom of their shoes so the sailors could follow the arrows to find them. Apparently, the prostitutes always had their hair done up all nicely so that's why Paul said that decent Christian women should keep their heads covered - so they wouldn't be mistaken for prostitutes. He always explained about their banking system. They've had traveller's cheques since about 500BC! It was really interesting.
After Corinth, we went to Monemvasia, a medieval fortress built by some Byzantine emperor. (yes, if you look at the pictures, we hiked the ENTIRE way up the cliff from sea level) It was beautiful there. We spent the night at a hotel just on the other side of the causeway connecting the mainland to the mountain/cliff. Definately check out those pictures b/c there are some really gorgeous views.
Friday we went to see another medieval temple - Mystras. Another day with a lot of hiking. There was also a beautiful church there, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside b/c none have been published yet. After that we stopped in Sparta for lunch, then went to Olympia where our hotel was. There was a storm that night, and in the picture of Natalie and I on our hotel balcony, there should be a double rainbow behind us, but it didn't come out =( (explanation of the stray dog picture - there are a ton of stray dogs in Greece. don't worry, they're very friendly. one excorted us to class one day)
Saturday morning we went to see ancient Olympia. That was kinda cool. Don't really have much to say about that. We were all kind of tired of driving so much and seeing so many ruins in such a short period of time by that point. We were on the bus for hours each day. We pretty much went around the entire Pelopenus peninsula in less than 3 days.
Aphrodite told us there was some kind of performance at the Odeum of Herodus Atticus (the theatre on the Acropolis) Saturday night, so Courtney and I decided to go check it out even though we had no idea what it was. It turned out to be Paglicci, the opera. (dad, you're off the hook for going to an opera now). It was really awesome.
Sunday we went to the beach for the afternoon, then 5 of us watched Gone With the Wind. It was a lot of fun. In the middle of it, we heard people singing, fireworks, horns beeping, etc. Then the movie cut out to scenes of partying in the streets. Apparently Greece won the European basketball championships. It was crazy. It was still going on when the movie ended at 1:30. I kind of wish we had gone out to share the excitement. Some other people did, and they said it was a lot of fun. Oh well.
I think that's about it from the past few days. If not, I'm sure I'll add it later.

BEACH!!!!!

yesterday we FINALLY went to the beach. it was beautiful. (you know, except for the guys in speedos, topless women, and overweight saggy old women in bikinis...lol) the water was blue-green and warm, and there were mountains in the distance. we laid out for about 4 hours (yes mother, i wore sunscreen). it was glorious. and there was a bar on the beach so you can go get water or soda or a snack or something.
well, we leave tomorrow to go visit corinth, spart, a couple castles, and ancient olympia for the next 3 days so i won't be back online until monday. i'm sure i'll have a ton of new pictures then.
<3

the acropolis & delphi

Hey everyone!
We had a busy weekend. Friday night we went to this Greek restaurant with folk dances. It was a lot of fun. We even got to go up on stage and dance with them which was a little crazy b/c half the restaurant went up. Saturday we visited the Acropolis and saw the Ancient Agora (marketplace), Parthenon, the Erecthium (shared temple of Poseidon and I think Athena), & the oldest theatre in the world - the theatre of Dionysus. We also got to see this one hill/place where the orators used to speak from, and Paul preached from there. It was really awesome knowing I was standing in the same place where Paul used to preach. There was another theatre there, built about 7 centures after the original buildings on the acropolis, where Yanni played, so it was cool seeing that. Sunday we went to Delphi and saw the ruins there. On the way there we stopped at this really cute village and on the way back stopped at this hotel restaurant with an amazing view. Go check out the Picture link because I have a bunch of pictures up now. We did so much walking...I'm going to be in amazing shape by December - at least my legs.
People in Greece eat almost no junk food. Last night I was craving some so I got a little container of this chocolate ice cream with pieces of chocolate, fudge, and brownies in it from the kiosk outside our apartments (there are little kiosks everywhere in Athens...pretty much every block) It was sooo good, but expensive. It was E1.70 for an individual size container. One of my roommates, Amanda, and I were saying we could kill for a Hershey bar. haha.
For all of you worried about how safe it is here, it's incredibly safe. I think the biggest safety hazard here is crossing the street. It's seriously like playing frogger, except you're the frog. We were told to forget about all traffic laws when we got here. The pedestrians definately do NOT have the right of way.
Well, I hope you're all doing well!
Love,
Mary

Greetings from Athens!

Hey everyone,
I made it here just fine, but haven't gotten to a computer until now. Our apartments are pretty nice. We even have a little balcony, which is awesome! The flight wasn't too bad. We left around 7:45pm, and they served us dinner. It was pretty good - chicken & rice, wine (yes, they serve wine on the plane), yogurt, and some kind of cake. Then I think I dozed off a little b/c I woke up around 1:30am and they were serving breakfast. Of course 1:30am is actually 7:30am Paris time. We got to Paris around 8:30am, their time, sat around the airport for about 3 1/2 hours, then boarded the plane for Athens. I fell asleep before we even took off, woke up when they served food, then fell asleep until shortly before we landed around 6pm Athens time. (11am your time) We then went out for dinner at a taverna (inexpensive restaurant) and then went to bed. Yesterday we began our orientation. Afterwards we went grocery shopping. The grocery store is about a 15 minute walk from the apartments. It was interesting trying to figure out what everything was. Some of the labels are in Greek and English, but not all of them. I hope I got butter! Syrup I guess is a luxory here because I was going to buy pancake mix and syrup, but the syrup was 6 or 7 euros and the pancake mix was pretty expensive too. We get 12 euros a day for food which is really good. I got pita, eggs, milk, butter, yogurt, water, sugar, cereal, and pasta for under 15 euros. (Next time I need to remember not to buy all the heavy stuff at the same time!) We went out for dinner at this fast food place which was really delicious and inexpensive. I had spaghetti and a soda for 4.50 euros. You could get gyros or souvlaki for under 3. After that we explored a little bit of the city then went to bed. I think I'm pretty much caught up on sleep now.
Tomorrow night we're going to a Greek restaurant with tradition dancing. That should be a lot of fun. Here's a quick look at the trips they're taking us on:
9/17: the Acrocopolis
9/18: Delphi
9/22-24: Ancient Corinth/Ancient Olympia - Peloponeesus
9/30-10/1: the monastaries at Meteora


*PS Hey Michelle...guess what they have here...Pizza Hut! haha

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Depart: Newark, NJ - 7:45pm (9/12)
Arrive: Paris/DeGaulle - 8:50AM (9/13)
Depart: Paris/DeGaulle - 1:20PM
Arrive: Athens, Greece - 5:35PM


I lose lots of hours in there b/c of the time changes.

currently in athens

6:40pm (the time posted is indeed Athen's time)
82 degrees and sunny

departure in: 32 hours

less than 2 days to go

Dear adoring fan club of my life,
So I don't have to try to remember to email everyone regularly while I'm gone, welcome to my study abroad blog =) I'll try to update as often as possible with what's going on and pictures, so enjoy, leave me comments, and send me mail!