Monday, July 28, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Well, I'm no longer in Greece...
but strange shit still keeps happening to me, so I figured it was easier to just write about here than start a whole new blog.
Quick update on my life: I graduated college in June '08, started a real grown up office job and moved into the sweetest apartment ever in Ukrainian Village in July '08 and we still don't have any furniture.
Now on to the more ridiculous minutiae of my life.
I've been seeing a (VERY) Greek boy for about 2 weeks now. In my book, that does not mean we are exclusive or, even that we are dating, we're just enjoying getting to know each other and testing the ground for a possible future relationship. That is perfectly reasonable, right?
Well, last night I agreed to go get dinner with Greek Boy and his friend, as well as my roommate. I explained that I had to be up early for work the next day, and I had a project to finish that night so I had to make it an early evening. He agrees to pick me up at seven for dinner. Naive me, I think that means he actually heard what I said and intends to respect my wishes. Of course not.
First, he shows up at 10 minutes to 8pm, at which point I am already considering canceling because this is going to go later than I intended. Then he informs me that we are going to Gameworks, which is just like Dave and Busters but "WAY BETTER!". Cool.
So, we start driving north, and then 1/2 and hour later we are still driving north. So I ask,
"Where exactly is this place?"
"Oh, It's only like 15 more minutes his friend responds."
15 minutes of driving West later, we are in Evanston. Ok? The suburbs?? So, again I ask, Where is this place? And I finally get a straight answer -- Woodfield Mall. Now, I know Woodfield is somewhere in the suburbs, but I don't really remember at this point I am getting very concerned. As my date is seeming increasingly intoxicated from drinking out of a Big Gulp. How is that possible, I'm thinking? Oh right, I'm an idiot. Apparently he is still a frat boy who needs to "pregame" activities at 27 fucking years old. AND THEN DRIVE ME.
So, at this point I am sure we are going to die in a drunk driving crash, or at the very least be trapped with two drunk guys in a Lexus SUV. By the time we reach Gameworks we've been in the car for over an hour. Its past 9pm, my roommate and I are starving and we both wish we were already back home.
Finally we get inside Gameworks, my roommate and I both eat, but neither of the guys do because they don't want to "ruin their buzz." WHERE DO I FIND THESE PEOPLE??? They proceed to drink 3 hennesy and cokes each, while my roommate and I try and hold a conversation with them. I did say, Look, I have to go back soon. I have work tomorrow and a project to finish tonight. I can't stay here late with you."
And Greek Boy responds "I planned this on purpose. You always set time limits on our dates and I HATE IT. This way I get to hang out with you longer."
Ok, that would be beyond charming and romantic if we were IN CAVEMAN TIMES. I have a job that is very time consuming, high powered (at least in my own head) but important to me and my own complete life -- but thank goodness a big strong man came by to sweep me off my feet and drag me to Gameworks?!?! No thanks.
We finish eating, but they are no where near done drinking and by now it 10:30pm. Finally, I put my foot down and say "We have to leave by 10:45. (My Roommate) and I cannot stay any longer."
Of course he starts pouting and I get pissed because this is beyond ridiculous. Luckily, his friend realizes that Greek Boy is pushing his luck and we better go. On the way out, my roommate the friend head out first, so Greek Boy and I are walking out together, and he grabs me once they've walked away to quiz me about who else I am dating. And proceeds to tell me this story:
"I have 5 other girls calling me, begging me to sleep with them. I don't call them back, I don't text them since I met you. You know why? I REALLY LIKE YOU. They are texting me saying (Greek Boy) just come over for a little while tonight. Please! But I still say no."
So I responded, "So, call them back? I'm not about to start begging you for shit."
And obviously that didn't go over well. We finally get out to the car and he is driving like a, oh , I don't know, drunk driver, weaving between cars, going way too fast and just generally being reckless while TEXTING. (no way was I going to rise to that bait)
When we finally get back to my place at 11:45pm (which is definitely past my work night bedtime -- sorry if I'm lame, but I gotta get up early) he then starts telling me "I wanna go inside wit u." over and over.
So I respond "No." over and over.
He says, "I don't understand whats with this no all the time?"
"Well, you'd better get used to it."
And then I go inside. Haven't heard from him all day today, but he is definitely going to have to seriously change tactics if he intends to ever see me again.
And that is just the beginning of the ridiculous saga that is my life.
Quick update on my life: I graduated college in June '08, started a real grown up office job and moved into the sweetest apartment ever in Ukrainian Village in July '08 and we still don't have any furniture.
Now on to the more ridiculous minutiae of my life.
I've been seeing a (VERY) Greek boy for about 2 weeks now. In my book, that does not mean we are exclusive or, even that we are dating, we're just enjoying getting to know each other and testing the ground for a possible future relationship. That is perfectly reasonable, right?
Well, last night I agreed to go get dinner with Greek Boy and his friend, as well as my roommate. I explained that I had to be up early for work the next day, and I had a project to finish that night so I had to make it an early evening. He agrees to pick me up at seven for dinner. Naive me, I think that means he actually heard what I said and intends to respect my wishes. Of course not.
First, he shows up at 10 minutes to 8pm, at which point I am already considering canceling because this is going to go later than I intended. Then he informs me that we are going to Gameworks, which is just like Dave and Busters but "WAY BETTER!". Cool.
So, we start driving north, and then 1/2 and hour later we are still driving north. So I ask,
"Where exactly is this place?"
"Oh, It's only like 15 more minutes his friend responds."
15 minutes of driving West later, we are in Evanston. Ok? The suburbs?? So, again I ask, Where is this place? And I finally get a straight answer -- Woodfield Mall. Now, I know Woodfield is somewhere in the suburbs, but I don't really remember at this point I am getting very concerned. As my date is seeming increasingly intoxicated from drinking out of a Big Gulp. How is that possible, I'm thinking? Oh right, I'm an idiot. Apparently he is still a frat boy who needs to "pregame" activities at 27 fucking years old. AND THEN DRIVE ME.
So, at this point I am sure we are going to die in a drunk driving crash, or at the very least be trapped with two drunk guys in a Lexus SUV. By the time we reach Gameworks we've been in the car for over an hour. Its past 9pm, my roommate and I are starving and we both wish we were already back home.
Finally we get inside Gameworks, my roommate and I both eat, but neither of the guys do because they don't want to "ruin their buzz." WHERE DO I FIND THESE PEOPLE??? They proceed to drink 3 hennesy and cokes each, while my roommate and I try and hold a conversation with them. I did say, Look, I have to go back soon. I have work tomorrow and a project to finish tonight. I can't stay here late with you."
And Greek Boy responds "I planned this on purpose. You always set time limits on our dates and I HATE IT. This way I get to hang out with you longer."
Ok, that would be beyond charming and romantic if we were IN CAVEMAN TIMES. I have a job that is very time consuming, high powered (at least in my own head) but important to me and my own complete life -- but thank goodness a big strong man came by to sweep me off my feet and drag me to Gameworks?!?! No thanks.
We finish eating, but they are no where near done drinking and by now it 10:30pm. Finally, I put my foot down and say "We have to leave by 10:45. (My Roommate) and I cannot stay any longer."
Of course he starts pouting and I get pissed because this is beyond ridiculous. Luckily, his friend realizes that Greek Boy is pushing his luck and we better go. On the way out, my roommate the friend head out first, so Greek Boy and I are walking out together, and he grabs me once they've walked away to quiz me about who else I am dating. And proceeds to tell me this story:
"I have 5 other girls calling me, begging me to sleep with them. I don't call them back, I don't text them since I met you. You know why? I REALLY LIKE YOU. They are texting me saying (Greek Boy) just come over for a little while tonight. Please! But I still say no."
So I responded, "So, call them back? I'm not about to start begging you for shit."
And obviously that didn't go over well. We finally get out to the car and he is driving like a, oh , I don't know, drunk driver, weaving between cars, going way too fast and just generally being reckless while TEXTING. (no way was I going to rise to that bait)
When we finally get back to my place at 11:45pm (which is definitely past my work night bedtime -- sorry if I'm lame, but I gotta get up early) he then starts telling me "I wanna go inside wit u." over and over.
So I respond "No." over and over.
He says, "I don't understand whats with this no all the time?"
"Well, you'd better get used to it."
And then I go inside. Haven't heard from him all day today, but he is definitely going to have to seriously change tactics if he intends to ever see me again.
And that is just the beginning of the ridiculous saga that is my life.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
I know I haven't posted in forever...
but I have been REALLY busy! But enough people have told me that I need to post to get me off my lazy butt to do it. hehe. So.. I'm going to start with the trip to Istanbul!
We left for Istanbul on Saturday evening, arriving that night. For the first two nights we stayed in a hotel RIGHT by the Blue Mosque and the Agia Sophia. We didn't arrive until late that evening, so we just ended up putting out stuff in our rooms and splitting up. Mieka and I wandered around all over the place, seeing the Blue Mosque from the outside gates and then heading to a hookah cafe for some snacks. We had a really strange "Cinderella" sandwich with macadamia nuts, mayonaise, lettuce and chicken chunks. It was surprisingly good. We also had some AMAZING rice pudding, which happens to be my favorite dessert. :) After that we went back and went to bed, for an early morning the next day!
On Sunday Morning (April 29th) we got up at 9am and went on a whirlwind tour of EVERYTHING important in the city. We started out at the Blue Mosque -- which had to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was architecture poetry. After that we saw the Hagia Sophia. In order to get into it we had to have our bags x-rayed and go through metal detectors -- some serious security! The interior (much like the exterior) of the Hagia Sophia is a a big mish-mash of things, as it has bee added on to and changed so much over the centuries. There were amazing columns from The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World! As well as tons of other cool stuff plundered from around the world. After that we went to the Roman Cisterns which were AWESOME. They are an underground water storage facility from the time of the Roman Empire in Constantinople. There were these incredible heads of Medusa, also taken from a destroyed temple somewhere, in the far back of the Cisterns. After that we had lunch and went to TopKapi Palace. We saw the Harem and the state jewels and basically it was incredible. By then it was 6pm, and I needed a nap badly! After the nap we went out dinner and then to cool hookah cafe where we made friends with the owner.
The next day we hit the Grand Bazaar which was beyond incredible. It is bigger than anything I could have ever imagined. Anything and everything possible can be purchased there. We bought so much random stuff and had so much fun. We also had our best lunch while we were inside the bazaar! That night we went out an saw a belly dancer at a hostel and then went back to the hookah cafe we went to the night before. There is this Turkish tea called Apple Tea that is AMAZING and kind of like hot apple cider, but not quite, and I must have had a gallon of it every night we were there! The owner of the cafe taught us how to dance Turkish style that night too.
Our last day in Istanbul was a walking day, we toured a bunch of mosques and few more tourist sites, we also went back to the Bazaar for while.
I loved Istanbul and can't wait to get back!
We left for Istanbul on Saturday evening, arriving that night. For the first two nights we stayed in a hotel RIGHT by the Blue Mosque and the Agia Sophia. We didn't arrive until late that evening, so we just ended up putting out stuff in our rooms and splitting up. Mieka and I wandered around all over the place, seeing the Blue Mosque from the outside gates and then heading to a hookah cafe for some snacks. We had a really strange "Cinderella" sandwich with macadamia nuts, mayonaise, lettuce and chicken chunks. It was surprisingly good. We also had some AMAZING rice pudding, which happens to be my favorite dessert. :) After that we went back and went to bed, for an early morning the next day!
On Sunday Morning (April 29th) we got up at 9am and went on a whirlwind tour of EVERYTHING important in the city. We started out at the Blue Mosque -- which had to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was architecture poetry. After that we saw the Hagia Sophia. In order to get into it we had to have our bags x-rayed and go through metal detectors -- some serious security! The interior (much like the exterior) of the Hagia Sophia is a a big mish-mash of things, as it has bee added on to and changed so much over the centuries. There were amazing columns from The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World! As well as tons of other cool stuff plundered from around the world. After that we went to the Roman Cisterns which were AWESOME. They are an underground water storage facility from the time of the Roman Empire in Constantinople. There were these incredible heads of Medusa, also taken from a destroyed temple somewhere, in the far back of the Cisterns. After that we had lunch and went to TopKapi Palace. We saw the Harem and the state jewels and basically it was incredible. By then it was 6pm, and I needed a nap badly! After the nap we went out dinner and then to cool hookah cafe where we made friends with the owner.
The next day we hit the Grand Bazaar which was beyond incredible. It is bigger than anything I could have ever imagined. Anything and everything possible can be purchased there. We bought so much random stuff and had so much fun. We also had our best lunch while we were inside the bazaar! That night we went out an saw a belly dancer at a hostel and then went back to the hookah cafe we went to the night before. There is this Turkish tea called Apple Tea that is AMAZING and kind of like hot apple cider, but not quite, and I must have had a gallon of it every night we were there! The owner of the cafe taught us how to dance Turkish style that night too.
Our last day in Istanbul was a walking day, we toured a bunch of mosques and few more tourist sites, we also went back to the Bazaar for while.
I loved Istanbul and can't wait to get back!
Saturday, April 28, 2007
I am in ISTANBUL!!!
I seriously can't get over this... I AM IN ISTANBUL. This is probably the coolest thing I have ever done, ever. The city is amazing, I alreadydrove by the Blue Mosque and I am going on a full tour of the city tomorrow. I cannot belive I am really here.
Friday, April 27, 2007
2 posts in one day, oh my!
Ok, so I feel like my dinner tonight requires a post of all its own, and so it is going to get one...
Tonight, we went to Roula's. At least, we call this restaurant Roula's, its really Tavernaki a Costas. We randomly found it while wandering in search of food one night, and have been going back religiously ever since. The food there is the best in Greece. If I was an English Major or a poet of any kind, I would I would write an ode to this restaurant's arni me potates (lamb with potatoes in a tomato sauce) and I don't even like Lamb. But, not only is the food amazing, the place itself is adorable. It is in a converted two-story home, with a small front garden. It is a significantly older style home than the 60's era buildings that surround it. It has orange shutters on the windows and a big double wooden door. All of the tables are in the front rooms of the house, and they are decorated with tons of random Greek chachkies and paintings. The walls are painted yellow, and it is a very welcoming interior. The food is also amazingly cheap. A dinner for three with an appetizer and wine is around 25 euros.
So tonight we went there for dinner after class one more time before we all go our separate directions for the 4 day weekend. So, we were sitting at our table, having our AMAZING dinner (I had fried zucchini with tzasiki -mmmmmm!) when suddenly the lights went out! There was a brown out in our neighborhood of a good ten minutes. We remained contently in our seats munching away on our amazing meals in the pitch black, until all of a sudden they flashed back on. We ended up with a dessert on the house (which was also AMAZING!) and then off back to my room for bed time!
Tonight, we went to Roula's. At least, we call this restaurant Roula's, its really Tavernaki a Costas. We randomly found it while wandering in search of food one night, and have been going back religiously ever since. The food there is the best in Greece. If I was an English Major or a poet of any kind, I would I would write an ode to this restaurant's arni me potates (lamb with potatoes in a tomato sauce) and I don't even like Lamb. But, not only is the food amazing, the place itself is adorable. It is in a converted two-story home, with a small front garden. It is a significantly older style home than the 60's era buildings that surround it. It has orange shutters on the windows and a big double wooden door. All of the tables are in the front rooms of the house, and they are decorated with tons of random Greek chachkies and paintings. The walls are painted yellow, and it is a very welcoming interior. The food is also amazingly cheap. A dinner for three with an appetizer and wine is around 25 euros.
So tonight we went there for dinner after class one more time before we all go our separate directions for the 4 day weekend. So, we were sitting at our table, having our AMAZING dinner (I had fried zucchini with tzasiki -mmmmmm!) when suddenly the lights went out! There was a brown out in our neighborhood of a good ten minutes. We remained contently in our seats munching away on our amazing meals in the pitch black, until all of a sudden they flashed back on. We ended up with a dessert on the house (which was also AMAZING!) and then off back to my room for bed time!
Yep..this one is long!
Alright, so clearly I have not been keeping up on this blogging business like I should... so here is an in-brief recap of the last two weeks or so.
All of last week was in Athens taking class. We went on one-day trip to Amphiareion on Thursday -- which really couldn't have been more boring. Our teacher had no idea what anything on any of the sites was, so he just read to us out of his guidebook and I was so frustrated. He also has been just extending our classes over the time allotted without giving us any notice or warning when we should expect it. Basically, I just don't like this teacher.
This past weekend was great. We went out a TON. On Friday night I had a girls night out in our neighborhood with Mieka and Liz. We started out at this cool place called Kasbah Ethnic Club. It had a great lounge atmosphere and an awesome DJ. When the place finally starting filling up though (we went out early so that we could chill and chat with fewer crowds) we realized that it was a MUCH older crowd that frequented this bar, and we couldn't have been more out of place. Haha. So we decided to move on to a different bar/restaurant in our neighborhood that has a very Greek name that I can never remember. We hung out there and danced for a few hours before heading home for the night.
On Saturday a large group of us went to Psirri, which is the clubbing district in Athens. We started out at a very nice lounge called Liquid. Not a dancing kind of place, but a great place to sit and talk while listening to good music. After Liquid we decided we wanted to dance, so we all went to a club called nora.nora. It was Lebanese and has a very harem-like interior. It was PACKED with people and had the loudest music I have ever heard. They had a male and a female belly dancer, as well as hookah at the VIP tables. The place was fun, but the strange Greek music was really hard to dance to after a while, we just couldn't figure out the beat! The music finally became WAY too loud for us (I'm pretty sure I permanently damaged my hearing! haha) so we decided to go in search of a new place to hang out. I wasn't in the mood for more dancing, I just wanted to sit and hang out and meet people, so we ended up at this really popular hookah cafe that stays open until 6am on the weekend. It was full of Greek 20somethings all being really friendly and flirtatious; it was fun to watch. We got a table and hung out there for hours, talking to our waitress in broken Greek/English about the good nightlife spots and what its like to be 22 in Athens... It was just generally a great night.
Sunday was a relaxing day. I only did my laundry, my homework and just hung around the apartment. I did go out to lunch for some really great pizza though – we have found an amazing little place that makes your pizza right when you order it in a wood-burning oven! I thought about going out again, since we didn’t have class on Monday, but two nights a week is really more than I can take. I like my sleep!
Monday I went out shopping and exploring around the city on my own again. I wandered all over the place as always. Every time I get a chance to just go out ad walk around I fall in love with Athens even more. Sometimes I wish I could just stay here for good.
Then on Tuesday we left on our group trip to Delphi. The drive there was 4 hours long, and we were stuck in traffic for at least an hour. Luckily, I slept most of the way, so it didn’t really bother me! We first stopped at the Osios Loukas monastery. It is a famous example of some artist something, but once again, because my teacher is an idiot, I’m not exactly sure why it is famous. It did have some really amazing Byzantine mosaics though. It is still an operational monastery. It is not named after St. Luke the Apostle as you expect actually, but it after a Greek Saint Loukas who was an ascetic. The ultimate test that he passed was lying in bed with a woman without being tempted…hmmmm…. But, when he died the wealthy people in Thrace built the monastery in his honor.
After that we drove to Delphi and checked out the Archaeological Museum and the Gymnasium, neither of which are at the actual site of Delphi and both of which are pretty boring. Then we checked into our hotel. It was a totally gross and depressing hotel with the smallest shower in history, so I was VERY grateful we only stayed there one night. That night we had a group dinner at a big touristy restaurant (not that there is anything u-touristy in all of Delphi) that was quite good. After that I was so exhausted I just fell asleep.
The next morning we woke up and visited the actual site of Delphi. It wasn’t nearly as cool as I expected. It is swarmed with tourists, very little is left of it and what is left of it isn’t the cool parts. My high hopes ended up being for nothing. We did get to spend 2 hours exploring the site on our own, which was great. I tried meditating to channel Apollo and be my own oracle, but no such luck.
After that we had lunch in Delphi town (another tourist trap, but this time not a good one) and then drove the 4 hours to Olympia. When we finally got to Olympia we checked into our hotel. This one managed to be even worse than the last. The beds were made out of two sofa cushions pushed together, there were cockroaches and the place was just generally horrific. I was positive we were going to be murdered in our sleep. (If you ever go to Olympia, avoid the Hotel New Olympia like the plague!) We then went to the museum. The museum was REALLY GREAT. Worth every minute we spent there, if only for the pediment sculptures from the Temple of Zeus at Olympus and the Nike sculpture.
After that, around 7pm, we went to have class outside the museum. We sat in a park to discuss Medea, as our teacher has been unable to stay on schedule. While we were sitting there a homeless man, who was clearly mentally ill, came up and started talking to us. He was having a conversation with our teacher about drinking with Jesus when suddenly he pulled out a knife. Luckily he only pointed it towards himself, but after that we had to get up and leave. We continued our class in the hotel lobby until 8:15pm. After that, we all went to dinner at an AMAZING restaurant. Then pretty much the whole group went out to an Internet café/club to go dancing. But, since we had to be up at 8am again, we were all home by midnight safely in our beds.
The next morning I was so happy to get out of that gross hotel, I cannot even tell you. We started out the morning at the site of Olympia. Olympia was by far the best site we have been at in Greece. Its natural beauty combined with the relatively large number of ruins there made it just a great place to visit. I saw Nero’s house, the Temple of Zeus, a Byzantine Church, Roman and Greek Baths as well as the workshop where the GIANT sculpture of Zeus was created. (Justinian destroyed it during his sack of Constantinople because he was a Christian) There is also an amazing stadium there for the Olympic games. I also saw the altar outside of the Heriaon where they light the modern day Olympic Torch to take it around the world. I would go back to Olympia in a heartbeat – it was worth every minute it took to drive there.
After we left the site I had lunch at the Olympia Palace Hotel, which was delicious and cheap! It is also a beautiful hotel. Then some gelato before we had to hop on the bus for the 6 hour ride back to Athens!
When we finally got back I ran off the bus to get back to my apartment to relax and go to bed! I was exhausted.
This morning I woke up at 9am, put in a load of wash, finally took a shower and read my book for a while, after putting in a load of laundry. Then I went out in search of food, I found some cute clothes along the way, and then had a yummy lunch near Monasteraki. After that I came back here and started on this endless blog entry…. Now I am off to an hour of class and then I have to start packing for Istanbul tomorrow!!!!!
All of last week was in Athens taking class. We went on one-day trip to Amphiareion on Thursday -- which really couldn't have been more boring. Our teacher had no idea what anything on any of the sites was, so he just read to us out of his guidebook and I was so frustrated. He also has been just extending our classes over the time allotted without giving us any notice or warning when we should expect it. Basically, I just don't like this teacher.
This past weekend was great. We went out a TON. On Friday night I had a girls night out in our neighborhood with Mieka and Liz. We started out at this cool place called Kasbah Ethnic Club. It had a great lounge atmosphere and an awesome DJ. When the place finally starting filling up though (we went out early so that we could chill and chat with fewer crowds) we realized that it was a MUCH older crowd that frequented this bar, and we couldn't have been more out of place. Haha. So we decided to move on to a different bar/restaurant in our neighborhood that has a very Greek name that I can never remember. We hung out there and danced for a few hours before heading home for the night.
On Saturday a large group of us went to Psirri, which is the clubbing district in Athens. We started out at a very nice lounge called Liquid. Not a dancing kind of place, but a great place to sit and talk while listening to good music. After Liquid we decided we wanted to dance, so we all went to a club called nora.nora. It was Lebanese and has a very harem-like interior. It was PACKED with people and had the loudest music I have ever heard. They had a male and a female belly dancer, as well as hookah at the VIP tables. The place was fun, but the strange Greek music was really hard to dance to after a while, we just couldn't figure out the beat! The music finally became WAY too loud for us (I'm pretty sure I permanently damaged my hearing! haha) so we decided to go in search of a new place to hang out. I wasn't in the mood for more dancing, I just wanted to sit and hang out and meet people, so we ended up at this really popular hookah cafe that stays open until 6am on the weekend. It was full of Greek 20somethings all being really friendly and flirtatious; it was fun to watch. We got a table and hung out there for hours, talking to our waitress in broken Greek/English about the good nightlife spots and what its like to be 22 in Athens... It was just generally a great night.
Sunday was a relaxing day. I only did my laundry, my homework and just hung around the apartment. I did go out to lunch for some really great pizza though – we have found an amazing little place that makes your pizza right when you order it in a wood-burning oven! I thought about going out again, since we didn’t have class on Monday, but two nights a week is really more than I can take. I like my sleep!
Monday I went out shopping and exploring around the city on my own again. I wandered all over the place as always. Every time I get a chance to just go out ad walk around I fall in love with Athens even more. Sometimes I wish I could just stay here for good.
Then on Tuesday we left on our group trip to Delphi. The drive there was 4 hours long, and we were stuck in traffic for at least an hour. Luckily, I slept most of the way, so it didn’t really bother me! We first stopped at the Osios Loukas monastery. It is a famous example of some artist something, but once again, because my teacher is an idiot, I’m not exactly sure why it is famous. It did have some really amazing Byzantine mosaics though. It is still an operational monastery. It is not named after St. Luke the Apostle as you expect actually, but it after a Greek Saint Loukas who was an ascetic. The ultimate test that he passed was lying in bed with a woman without being tempted…hmmmm…. But, when he died the wealthy people in Thrace built the monastery in his honor.
After that we drove to Delphi and checked out the Archaeological Museum and the Gymnasium, neither of which are at the actual site of Delphi and both of which are pretty boring. Then we checked into our hotel. It was a totally gross and depressing hotel with the smallest shower in history, so I was VERY grateful we only stayed there one night. That night we had a group dinner at a big touristy restaurant (not that there is anything u-touristy in all of Delphi) that was quite good. After that I was so exhausted I just fell asleep.
The next morning we woke up and visited the actual site of Delphi. It wasn’t nearly as cool as I expected. It is swarmed with tourists, very little is left of it and what is left of it isn’t the cool parts. My high hopes ended up being for nothing. We did get to spend 2 hours exploring the site on our own, which was great. I tried meditating to channel Apollo and be my own oracle, but no such luck.
After that we had lunch in Delphi town (another tourist trap, but this time not a good one) and then drove the 4 hours to Olympia. When we finally got to Olympia we checked into our hotel. This one managed to be even worse than the last. The beds were made out of two sofa cushions pushed together, there were cockroaches and the place was just generally horrific. I was positive we were going to be murdered in our sleep. (If you ever go to Olympia, avoid the Hotel New Olympia like the plague!) We then went to the museum. The museum was REALLY GREAT. Worth every minute we spent there, if only for the pediment sculptures from the Temple of Zeus at Olympus and the Nike sculpture.
After that, around 7pm, we went to have class outside the museum. We sat in a park to discuss Medea, as our teacher has been unable to stay on schedule. While we were sitting there a homeless man, who was clearly mentally ill, came up and started talking to us. He was having a conversation with our teacher about drinking with Jesus when suddenly he pulled out a knife. Luckily he only pointed it towards himself, but after that we had to get up and leave. We continued our class in the hotel lobby until 8:15pm. After that, we all went to dinner at an AMAZING restaurant. Then pretty much the whole group went out to an Internet café/club to go dancing. But, since we had to be up at 8am again, we were all home by midnight safely in our beds.
The next morning I was so happy to get out of that gross hotel, I cannot even tell you. We started out the morning at the site of Olympia. Olympia was by far the best site we have been at in Greece. Its natural beauty combined with the relatively large number of ruins there made it just a great place to visit. I saw Nero’s house, the Temple of Zeus, a Byzantine Church, Roman and Greek Baths as well as the workshop where the GIANT sculpture of Zeus was created. (Justinian destroyed it during his sack of Constantinople because he was a Christian) There is also an amazing stadium there for the Olympic games. I also saw the altar outside of the Heriaon where they light the modern day Olympic Torch to take it around the world. I would go back to Olympia in a heartbeat – it was worth every minute it took to drive there.
After we left the site I had lunch at the Olympia Palace Hotel, which was delicious and cheap! It is also a beautiful hotel. Then some gelato before we had to hop on the bus for the 6 hour ride back to Athens!
When we finally got back I ran off the bus to get back to my apartment to relax and go to bed! I was exhausted.
This morning I woke up at 9am, put in a load of wash, finally took a shower and read my book for a while, after putting in a load of laundry. Then I went out in search of food, I found some cute clothes along the way, and then had a yummy lunch near Monasteraki. After that I came back here and started on this endless blog entry…. Now I am off to an hour of class and then I have to start packing for Istanbul tomorrow!!!!!
Monday, April 16, 2007
I am going to do a better job this week, I promise
So, since I have no interest in doing my homework like I should, I am going to write in my blog tonight....
This morning we had free, so I slept late, of course, and then washed my sheets. Fabric Softener is the best invention of human kind ever. Well, that may be a slight overstatement since it is relatively useless without a washing machine, but it has improved my HORRIBLE SCRATCHY sheets about 100%. Consequently, I am about 100% happier. Then off to the grocery store for more food, and hangers for my clothes. I also worked some more on my new, very cool website uchicagostudyabroad.wikispaces.com I am very proud of it, but it is no where near finished yet.
Later today we had our first day of our second class in Greece. This section is going to focus on Ancient Greek drama. We read the play The Persians for class today and discussed the model of Ancient Greek tragedy. The class was interesting, but I did not entirely care for the way our teacher asks vague questions while looking for a very specific answer. My roommate described it as an academic game of "guess what is in my pocket." It got very frustrating very quickly for the entire class because we were not able to provide the answer he was looking for. When we finally got to it, we kind of wanted to strangle him, because his questions actually led us away from his answer in a lot of ways. The one amazing thing he did do though was to shut up the obnoxious kid in our class who often says very dumb things that are barely tangentially related to the subject at hand and are only intended to make him look intelligent, but fail miserably. The teacher pretty much shut him down completely which in my book makes him a good teacher.
After that I had another 2 1/2 hours of Greek class, again. I am about to go ito Greek class overload, but luckily next week only have 1 1/2 hours for the ENTIRE WEEK! I love the class and I love our teacher, but enough is enough, ok?
Then tonight for dinner I went to the Souvlaki Shop in the square that is pretty good. After all of those classes I was starving and ended up eating 1 1/2 gyros in about 2.5 seconds flat. They were amazing but now I may never eat again.
And now I should actually do my homework so that I can go to bed at a reasonable hour...
This morning we had free, so I slept late, of course, and then washed my sheets. Fabric Softener is the best invention of human kind ever. Well, that may be a slight overstatement since it is relatively useless without a washing machine, but it has improved my HORRIBLE SCRATCHY sheets about 100%. Consequently, I am about 100% happier. Then off to the grocery store for more food, and hangers for my clothes. I also worked some more on my new, very cool website uchicagostudyabroad.wikispaces.com I am very proud of it, but it is no where near finished yet.
Later today we had our first day of our second class in Greece. This section is going to focus on Ancient Greek drama. We read the play The Persians for class today and discussed the model of Ancient Greek tragedy. The class was interesting, but I did not entirely care for the way our teacher asks vague questions while looking for a very specific answer. My roommate described it as an academic game of "guess what is in my pocket." It got very frustrating very quickly for the entire class because we were not able to provide the answer he was looking for. When we finally got to it, we kind of wanted to strangle him, because his questions actually led us away from his answer in a lot of ways. The one amazing thing he did do though was to shut up the obnoxious kid in our class who often says very dumb things that are barely tangentially related to the subject at hand and are only intended to make him look intelligent, but fail miserably. The teacher pretty much shut him down completely which in my book makes him a good teacher.
After that I had another 2 1/2 hours of Greek class, again. I am about to go ito Greek class overload, but luckily next week only have 1 1/2 hours for the ENTIRE WEEK! I love the class and I love our teacher, but enough is enough, ok?
Then tonight for dinner I went to the Souvlaki Shop in the square that is pretty good. After all of those classes I was starving and ended up eating 1 1/2 gyros in about 2.5 seconds flat. They were amazing but now I may never eat again.
And now I should actually do my homework so that I can go to bed at a reasonable hour...
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