To begin...

Well, I am here in Greece and it is lovely. We are living in studio-like apartments in a middle-class neighborhood only 15 minutes from Syntagma Square, which is the heart of Athens. Despite being slightly thrown off by a few odd things in the first few days, I have settled in completely and now no longer want to come home. haha. Greece is beautiful and the people are wonderful, but the food is even better, so basically, everything is wonderful.

As to what I have actually been doing...here is a play by play:

Thursday March 22nd
Arrived at the airport an hour late after a direct flight from JFK to Athens. I had a car waiting so I hopped in and sped off to my new home at 33 Stilponous in Pangrati, Athens (a neighborhood like Lincoln Park or Hyde Park). Spent the whole day sleeping -- really bad idea -- and then we went out to dinner as a group at a nearby Taverna. I waited for my roommate Lydia to arrive from Zurich, her flight was delayed and then we stayed up late hanging out Unpacked and started figuring out how to operate the things in my room... An uneventful, but still stressful day.

Friday March 23rd
Started the day with a walking tour of our neighborhood, Pangrati. It is a beautiful place with tons of cute shops and GREAT food. We live off of an awesome square with great Souvlaki and an awesome bar. We also live behind the stadium that was built for the precursor of the Olympic Games, the Panathenic Games. It is known as Kalimaro Stadium and it is made entirely of marble. It was used for the archery portions of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

After that I went to the Agora, which is basically a farmer's market, that happens every Friday here in Pangrati. All of the farmers from surrounding Attica come in to sell amazing fruits, vegetables, fresh honey, olives and home made wine. I bought an obscene amount of AMAZING fruit for less than 15 euros. Then we went and had Souvlaki for lunch. I got my vodafone turned on after that and found the Greek version of Costco. Finally, I went home and took a siesta until it was time for our program dinner at another taverna. Dinner was ok, not great, but it was really interesting to talk to our Greek program staff in Greek!

After dinner we went out to a restaurant/bar with a belly dancer. We weren't sitting at our table for 5 minutes before she came over and pulled me out of my chair and made me dance with her. I was totally sober and therefore completely embarrassed but still enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Saturday March 24th
On Saturday we had our tour of Athens. We walked through the National Gardens, then on to Sytangma Square (Constitution Square), which is where the Parliament building is, and on to Monasteraki, the Athenian flea market. The city is an incredible mix of new and old, east and west and really doesn't decide to be any of the above.
We then went to get more food...gyros...mmmm in Monasteraki and I bought a skirt and shirt. We then went home for a siesta (gotta love these Mediterranean cultures) . After that Stavros, Lydia and I went out to dinner at a small taverna on an out of the way street that was quite good.

I'll finish up on Sunday, Monday and Today after class!