Theme of the Week: Cooking

It's about time again to write a blog!

Since I last blogged, we have been very busy.  Last week was a very enjoyable week filled with a lot of special things.  I find myself being very glad that we are doing so many things that can't be done on a regular basis, things that I can't do back home.  To me, that is how experiences, growing, and learning can really occur.  That being said, here is what I have been up to!

Last week, one of the first enjoyable things we did was having a toga party.  Yes, it did occur to us that togas are primarily Roman, but why not start early?  My apartment decided to host our whole group of 30, so we were a little nervous about space.  Arranging our rooms and having them open for people to sit in ended up working out really nicely, and it was a blast having everyone over.  Also, I loved that everyone in our group participated in dressing up and everyone came over.  We ordered Domino's Pizza (traditional Greek, I know) but it worked out really well...we even ordered a lot of Greek pizza, which had feta cheese, tomatoes, peppers, and olives to get the Greek feel to our party.  We didn't have much class the next day, so it was really fun to sit and talk with different people.  We have a really great group of students here that I find myself enjoying getting to know.  That is the beautiful thing about people - no one person is the same as the next!  You can learn so much by getting to know others, because everyone comes from a different walk of life.  Trust me, get to know people, because each person can teach you something you've never known before.

Toga Party!

Wednesday night, we had the pleasure of attending a cooking school called Lemonde International.  This is a French cooking school if I remember correctly, but they taught us how to cook many different Greek foods.  This was also mostly hands on, so a few of us got to go up at a time and help them cook.  I got to go up and flambe shrimp, which consisted of throwing shrimp in a pan of olive oil, flipping them, pulling the pan off the burner, having the cook pour ouzo on it (a traditional Greek alcoholic drink that tastes like black licorice) and put it back on the burner.  It starts on fire.  Not a big deal.  It was very fun - they got everyone involved which I really liked.  We got to eat the food as it was finished, and for the most part, very delicious.  We made Pseftokeftedes (zucchini patties), Riganokeftedes (potato balls with oregano), tomatokeftedes (tomato patties), Bianko (basically sea bass with potatoes and zucchini), shrimps mikrolimano (in a tomato sauce), sofrito (veal with potatoes), and galatopita (milk pie).  The only thing I didn't like was the shrimp.  No matter how many times I try it, I can't like shrimp.  It looks too fresh, like you just pulled it out of the sea.  I have a hard time with seafood - I picture it swimming along in the ocean and I can't handle it.  My family can attest to the fact that I have a very strong gag reflex - more like they make fun of me for it ;).  But fortunately, all of this was very delicious, and so fun to make!

No big deal.

This chef was hilarious.  Examining the milk pies!

Thursday morning offered us another fun cooking extravaganza.  One of our first days here in Athens, we got a tour of our neighborhood by a girl our age named Alex.  Her dad owns a bakery that is very close to where we live, so early on we had a desire to go in and observe how they bake things.  We also needed to do a presentation for class on anything we wanted from the Greek culture, so a group of us decided to use the life of a Greek baker for this project.  So we woke up at 4:30 AM that morning, and got to the bakery at 5.  That is how early Alex's dad has to get there to start baking.  Alex let us make our own frappes, which is a coffee drink popular here in Greece.  We then got to watch the baker and his assistant put together the breads, pies, and such for the day.  My favorite was the mini apple pies - reminded me of home!  This bakery is family run and the only branch in existence.  Alex's dad started it to make sure his kids could have a job available if they needed one - pretty smart in today's economy.  We also really enjoyed getting to know Alex.  She is our age, so it was interesting hearing what her life is like here.  It really made me appreciate where I come from, because her school isn't even running right now due to protests.  She is in danger of losing a whole semester of school.  Even though we had a very early morning, it was so much fun and we'd do it again in a heartbeat!

With our new friend Alex

Helping them set up for the day

Yummmmm!

We had a very busy weekend as well, spending it in the Peloponnese and Olympia.  On Friday we celebrated Jen's birthday!  A little shout out to Jen - yeah Jen!  I really have her to thank for being on this trip right now.  I wasn't planning on study abroad because I believed that it would not fit in to my academic schedule.  Early sophomore year, we had driven somewhere and had just gotten back to campus, were walking toward Gorecki for lunch, when she turned to me and said, "Laura, you have to find a way to study abroad.  You will regret it if you don't."  Her persistency is what got me here today.  This is a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget, so I appreciate Jen getting me to pursue it! Thanks Jen :)

Anywho, all weekend we saw ancient sanctuaries dating back to 7th-4th century BC.  Pretty amazing how smart these people were back then!  We also stayed in the old capital of Greece called Nafplio.  I was bummed that we only got to stay there one night - it was a beautiful town!  Funny story from Saturday night...our bathroom in our hotel only had a bathtub with a shower head not attached and no shower curtain, so I was like well, I will take a bath!  So I had a really enjoyable bath and then proceeded to drain the tub.  Unknown to me, this hotel designed the bathroom so that the tub drained on to the floor.  I was flooding the bathroom!  My clothes got drenched.  That wasn't great, but I had to admit it was pretty funny.  Naturally, Jen was staying with me and the hotel and had a good laugh instead of being concerned :).  Sunday we visited Olympia, where the first Olympic games took place in 776 BC.  The first Olympic stadium was seriously a long strip of dirt with a marble block that the beginning for starting blocks.  The track is about 697 feet long, and most of us ran it.  It was a pretty long sprint!  Overall, it was pretty awesome seeing so many things that have survived so many years!  Mind boggling.

Enjoying Nafplio.  Happy Birthday Jen!

This week has started off pretty great.  We got to go to a concert in the theater of Herod Atticus, built by the Romans in 161 AD Monday evening.  It was a beautiful theater, and we saw a really awesome production called the Carmina Burana.  They had an orchestra and a choir that performed the piece.  The lyrics were sung in Latin, which I thought was awesome since I have taken Latin in college.  The opening and closing parts are the most well-known and what most people recognize.  Here is a clip of what it sounds like, I'm sure you've heard it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD3VsesSBsw

Pretty awesome :).

The theater

Well, that is all I have for now!  3 weeks from today and we will be leaving Athens, so stay tuned for my final weeks here!  Hoping all is well!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

Picture Day!

Beautiful sunsets 

The view of Oia

Swimming in the hot springs

Parasailing with Jen!

On the black beach with Chris and Kate

Cliff jumping

Riding the donkeys

The Most Epic Weekend of My Life

Hey hey hey!

This past week has been a pretty incredible one.  For two sessions of class last week, we got to walk around the city (including entering the Parliament).  I don't mind sitting in class and being taught - I always learn a lot - but nothing beats learning by experience.  I can tell that I'm really going to enjoy this method of learning for the semester.  Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering if classes get cancelled in Greece.  Well, they do :).  Wednesday, our classes were cancelled because our teacher got sick.  It was not good that our teacher was sick, but we all really loved having the day off.  It was like waking up in the morning, checking your e-mail, and finding out that today is a snow day, except there is no robot lady who calls my phone at 6 AM when school is cancelled like at St. Ben's.  There's nothing like waking up to school being cancelled.  Wednesday was also Chris' birthday, and since he is in the apartment next to ours, we cooked him dinner.  We made a lasagna...it looked kinda funny but tasted surprisingly good!

Then we had an awful weekend because we went to Santorini, which is the ugliest place on earth.  Oops, I meant to say the opposite.  It seriously was one of the best weekends I've ever had and maybe one of the best places I've ever visited.  We of course stayed up late the night before, so after taking a nap, we got up at 4:30 AM to catch a ferry.  It was really nice - the seats were like an airplane (but bigger and more comfy) and you could get up and walk around the whole time.  We saw a great sunrise and enjoyed each other's company for 8 hours.  As we got off the ferry, the first thing we noticed was how beautiful it was.  The water is the most intense blue-turquoise you have ever seen.  It was like we stepped into the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants or Mama Mia.  We took a bus up the mountain to the town of Fira, which is where we stayed.  Our hotel was great...it had a pool in the middle of a courtyard filled with flowers, and we got free breakfast!  Friday evening, a few of the girls and I took the bus to the town of Oia.  When people normally picture Greece, this is the place that pops into their head.  As we went along the winding roads along the cliffs, we could see the sunset as we approached town.  The sun was hot pink, not even joking.  The sunsets there were the most beautiful I've ever seen.  The town was really great, not very busy and filled with the blue roofed, white buildings one thinks of when they think of Greece.  At night, you can see the whole city lit up down the mountain...so cool!  We enjoyed a nice spaghetti dinner with this view...not bad!

Saturday was even more incredible.  After breakfast, we all got on a sailboat and hiked up a volcano.  Yes that's right, a volcano.  There have been some big eruptions there in the past, so it looks like mountains with a bunch of big craters.  There are still some spots that are active, so we could see smoke coming out of some cracks, which is pretty crazy.  After this, we took the boat to some hot springs.  We were very grateful for this because it got hot on the boat, so we loved jumping in.  The water was not as warm as you would think, just luke warm.  We saw some goats walking along the mountains above, and also saw names and handprints that people had put on the rocks from the past.  We then made our way back to the hotel via riding donkeys up the hill, which was so funny.  Then Jen and I decided that we really needed to go parasailing.  The island is small enough to go from one end to the other, so Jen, Kate, Chris and I rented two 4-wheelers and drove them to the black beach.  I'm sure we were quite the sight on those, wearing these big biker helmets that make me have to work extra hard to keep my small head up.  We loved driving those little 4-wheelers around the island!  We then got to the black beach and found the water sport place.  We got onto a little sport boat, put in these harness thingys, and then they connected us to the parachute.  They had us sit on the back of the boat and then all of a sudden, we were floating up into the air!  I can't even describe to you how great it was to be flying through the air, over the ocean, with the mountains and the beach in the background.  Unbelievable.  Having Jen as a companion was great, she was giggling like crazy the whole time which made it even more fun.  They had some fun with us, letting us drop all the way down til our feet were in the water and then shooting us back up into the air again.  It was so much fun, and one of coolest things I've ever done!  I highly recommend it.  We then spent some time on the beach, because we really liked it - it was a lot quieter than the other beaches we've been to, and the sand was black!  We then 4-wheeled it back to Oia to spend some time there again and had some dinner.  Another perfect day.

I'm sure you are thinking it can't get any better, but it does.  Sunday morning, we went back to Oia to cliffs that you can jump off of and swim.  These cliffs were probably around 15 to 20 feet tall, so quite the drop!  I have done it before at the Quarries in Saint Cloud, but this was better because it was in the ocean in Greece.  It is a little scary to be standing on the edge of a rock pretty high up over the ocean, but it's so much fun, something else that I recommend for people.  It was beautiful.  We then got to have another 8 hour ferry ride home, getting back around midnight when the metro closes.  Luckily, there is a bus that runs 24 hours that we caught, and finally arriving home around 1:30 or 2.  It is funny how this little apartment is starting to feel like home.  So to sum up, we saw amazing sunsets, went in a sailboat, hiked up a volcano, swam in hot springs, rode donkeys, drove 4-wheelers, parasailed, hung out at a black beach, and jumped off of cliffs.  Not bad.  Pictures to come!

We have a pretty busy and exciting week coming up, so I will have updates soon!  Hoping all is well!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

More Wisdom From Greece

As promised, I am here to write about the rest of last week.  I'm sure you all are shocked :).

Last week on Tuesday evening, a group of us went and did something that ended up being a little different than we thought, but a wonderful different.  Kate found a free yoga class offered at a place called White Elephant Studio, which just so happened to be near our apartment.  It also was free, which is a definite plus for someone who is coming to realize how expensive it is to buy your own groceries.  Since it was a yoga studio, we were anticipating some intense yoga right?  It was scheduled to go from 8 to 10, so we were like wow, that's a whole lot of yoga!  Well, we ended up not doing any yoga, which was disappointing, BUT, we ended up doing something else that was much needed: meditation.  There were a few others there besides us, so it was very enjoyable talking to the locals.  There was one lady there who grew up in Greece, but went to Luther College in Iowa for college!  That was craaaaazy.  We spent the first hour getting to know the people, which I really liked.  We were instructed to sit across from someone we didn't know very well and discuss 5 things we love and 5 things we hate.  So I sat across from a Greek man who was very timid, but eventually warmed up to me the more we talked.  One thing that we both noticed is that it was much easier for us to come up with 5 things we love, and very difficult for us to come up with 5 things we hate.  We decided that this meant we were very blessed.  He then talked to me about how he was moving from Athens soon to Saudi Arabia because of his job.  Even though he told me he didn't like Athens much, he was still very sad to be leaving his family and girlfriend.  I told him that it was hard for me to be away from home right now too, but then proceeded to tell him about all of the opportunities and learning I was doing here.  I told him to enjoy the experience to the max, because it won't be there forever.  And his family and girlfriend would be there when he got back.  Being apart can never change how much someone means to you or how much they care about you.  It was amazing how much I could relate to a Greek man in his 30s!  He seemed to feel better about things after I talked to him.  After chatting, we then proceeded to learn how to meditate.  This was my first time doing so, and I loved it.  It was very relaxing, cleared the mind right up, and helped you learn how to breathe properly.  After meditating, the leader told us about the organization she is from, which is called the Art of Living.  It is an international organization that does service projects and teaches people about meditation, yoga, and eliminating stress.  One thing that she talked to us about that stuck with me were 5 points for you to live a happy life, which I will share:

1.  Opposite values are complementary
2.  Accept people and situations the way they are
3.  Don't be the football of other peoples' emotions
4.  Don't see intention behind others' mistakes
5.  Live in the present moment

These little bits of advice I will keep for the rest of my life...they are words to live by for sure.

In Luverne, MN they have a drive-in movie theater that I usually go to during the summer with my family.  Well, on Thursday night I got a little piece of home because we went to an outdoor movie theater right in Athens!  Before hand, we went to a restaurant right across the street and I shared some Greece specialties with a couple friends.  We had fried cheese, spinach pie, and grilled lamb chops...very, very good!  The outdoor movie was also wonderful - sitting in a lawnchair, the Acropolis looming on the right, and the city of Athens surrounding.  We saw the movie One Day, which was very well done, but also very sad.  Afterwards, we had a nice escort of dogs walk us home again.  Naturally, we consisted of a big group of girls (since One Day might be considered a chick flick) and the dogs are very protective of girls.  There was a guy riding by us on a bike, and the dogs bolted up to him, barking like crazy, and nipping at his heels.  Luckily he thought it was funny.

On Friday night, we hiked up a place called Lycabettus Hill.  When you are in the city looking up at the hill, it looks like it would take hours to climb, but from our apartment it took 40 minutes!  It is so high up though, way higher than the Acropolis.  We could see the entire city from the top - even though we were out of breath from all of the stairs and the climb, it was so worth it!  We timed it perfectly, leaving around 7 to see the sunset at the top.  Then we waited for awhile at the top, because as it got dark, the entire city lit up...it was so pretty!  If you are ever in Athens, climb this hill, totally worth it and free!

The city

Our attempt to make CSB :)

On Saturday, we took a day trip to Aegina.  We left on a ferry in the morning, and arrived in the city around 10.  We then saw another temple - the Temple of Aphaea.  It gave us another beautiful view of the ocean, and another amazingly old ruin to see.  This temple was built in 570 BC, destroyed in a fire, and then rebuilt in 510 BC.  After the temple, we were free to explore the city.  This place is exactly how one would picture Greece - beautiful blue-green water, boats, streets of shops and restaurants, and churches.  We enjoyed simply walking around and exploring the city, going to the beach for a swim to cool off, and then having gelato while sitting on the dock by the boats.  On the ferry back, we saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.   It was the worst day ever ;).

Some of the group posing on some of the ruins

The port

The ocean

The incredible sunset

Sunday morning, we attended an authentic Greek Orthodox Mass.  We needed to observe for our Theology class, because we have a paper due this week on our experience.  It was interesting to say the least.  The church we went to was being remodeled, so they had mass over in this small chapel like thing.  The priest didn't face the congregation, and almost the entire mass was chanted in Greek.  I had no idea what was going on.  Writing the paper will be interesting :).

Well, now we are officially up to date!  I will try to blog more often as we do more things.  Hoping that all is well at home!  Thanks again to the talents of Jennifer Simonton for the pictures within this blog :).

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

Just Living Like the Greeks

As usual, I must apologize for being a slow poke on blogging.  Life moves by pretty quickly, and I just need to get better at sitting down and posting on a regular basis.  In my defense, it is part of the Greek culture to be very flexible on time.  When they say that something starts at 8, they will show up around 8:15, 8:30...they really aren't strict on time at all.  The whole culture in general is very chill, and that fits me pretty well.  So, I'm just embracing the culture of course when I take my time in blogging :) but really, I hope to start posting more often instead of having one long post every week and a half or so.

I would like to take the time to remember and recall that today is September 11...very weird not being in the USA on this day.  Hard to believe that it has been 10 YEARS since it happened.  I can still remember clear as day sitting in my 5th grade class, having my teacher leave the room, and come back to inform us that our country had been attacked.  Here I am now, 10 years later, a junior in college and still feeling great sadness.  My heart goes out to the families of those who died that day, and those who have died throughout these 10 years for our country.  I pray for peace to come one day, and I pray for all of those defending our country now and in the future.  My gratitude to those people is so great, I can't even explain it.  Take some time to remember and pray today...I may be away from my country right now, but I have truly learned to appreciate already how much I appreciate the land that I love always.

When I left you all last, I had posted last Friday.  I think I may have forgotten to mention the wonderful market that we went to that day.  They have a market very close to our apartments every Friday.  This market is filled with more fruit and vegetables than you can imagine, plus other random articles such as clothing and flowers.  It is such a fun sight, seeing so many stands, so many people, and so many tasty foods!  We quickly decided the moment we got there that this was going to be a weekly thing.

Yummmmmm

One of my first purchases in Greece has been a pair of sandals.  But, they are not just any pair of sandals...yes, these sandals are fit specifically for my feet.  Professor Walker (our faculty director for our program) told us about a sandal place where the guy actually makes the sandals on your feet.  We had to check this out, so a few of us went there Saturday morning to get some sandals.  The place is called The Poet Sandal maker, because the owner's dad used to be a poet.  The place is COVERED in all kinds of sandals.  He has a bunch of styles for you to choose from.  Once you have one selected, you tell him your size, he grabs the sandal, then has you put your foot in it.  He then adjusts the straps, cuts, and hammers the sandal to fit your foot perfectly.  It was really cool!  The leather of the sandal starts of really light in color and then darkens over time, so I'm excited to see how mine change as time goes on.  The first few days of our trip, we had quite a few birthdays of people in our group, so for lunch that day one of the apartments offered to make a taco lunch for us.  It was a great way to start the day, and it ended just as great.  We then took a bus to a beach near Sounion to have a nice relaxing afternoon.  This beach was very close to the temple of Poseidon, which was our next destination.  Poseidon was the god of the sea, which makes sense, because this temple was up on high ground surrounded by the ocean.  It was built around 440 BC, which is unbelievably old.  This temple was built before Jesus walked the earth...it gives me chills every time I think about it!  The ocean surrounding it was so beautiful, and we saw an incredible sunset - one of many we will have here in Greece.

Sundays are becoming quite a lot like the Sundays I have normally at school - very relaxing days.  Church, homework, laundry, talking with each other...I've always liked Sundays.  The Sunday after our day trip to Sounion, we went to a bakery to get some loafs of bread.  As most bakeries do, this bakery also had many delicious looking desserts.  So we got a few to split, and we've enjoyed some very tasty pastries.  We decided that this would be a weekly Sunday special :).

Classes started this past week, and I think I'm going to like them for the most part.  Just Tuesdays and Thursdays are our busiest days of classes where we generally have class from 9 to 6:30 with little breaks between.  Otherwise, we have a great schedule - like I said, no class on Fridays :).  For pretty much all of our classes, we get to go on field trips.  Last week, we went to an Art museum for Art History.  This week, we will be visiting the Parliament and a music instrument museum for our Study Abroad Seminar.  I love the Study Abroad Seminar because it allows us to talk to each other as a class and learn about what people are struggling with and what they love about Greece.  I also think I'm really going to like my Theology class.  It has been so interesting learning about the Greek Orthodox religion, and the differences between it and my own faith.  One aspect of their 'sign of the cross' that I thought was very cool is that they put their thumb, first finger, and middle finger together and sign with that.  What is cool about it is the symbolism.  The three fingers represent Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the other two fingers represent that Jesus is fully human and fully divine.  Also in that class, we need to interview a random person off the street about their faith.  I'm really excited about it, both because it will be hard and very cool.  It will be a challenge to just approach someone and ask them about faith, but I think I'm going to learn a lot from it.

One thing that I have enjoyed very much is spending time with the people in our group.  On Monday night, a bunch of us just sat in our apartment and had a little jam session.  Nick asked the school for a guitar that he gets to keep for the rest of the semester, so he and I played some songs and we had a little sing along.  It was really fun, and a great way to start the week.  This is where I'm going to leave you for now.  Yes, I know you are thinking, "Wait, what did you do for the rest of the week Laura?"  Well, since it has been awhile since I have blogged, I have a lot to tell you about the rest of the week, which would make this post painfully long.  As much as I'm sure you'd like to sit at the computer for an entire day reading about my life, I'm going to break this one up into two.  So tomorrow I will post about the rest of my week.  I fully give you permission to give me a hard time if I do not post tomorrow.  Stay tuned, thanks for reading!

Peace and Blessings,

Laura

Kalimera!

That is Greek for "good morning" :).

I am now settled in Greece until mid-October!  It is a weird feeling to think that I will be here for close to two months.  My initial feelings when I got here were those of overwhelm...this is a big city!  When you are used to living in Sioux Falls, SD and little St. Joe, MN throughout the year, this is quite the adjustment! But as the week as gone along, I'm reaaaally starting to enjoy it.  I'm in an apartment on the 2nd floor with 4 other girls, all of which are wonderful people.  Our apartments and school is right next to the old Olympic Stadium, which is very cool.  After doing a celebration dance for moving my luggage for the last time for awhile, I unpacked all of my stuff and have been experiencing orientation all week.

The college we are attending here is called College Year in Athens (CYA) or Dikemes as the Greeks know it.  All of the students here are study abroad students.  There is one other group here with a lot of students like ours, but otherwise there are students here from all over the country.  For example, on the bus from the airport to our apartments, we met a student from California.  All of these other students will be here all fall, so we don't have to go to everything within the orientation.  Our schedule keeps changing all of the time too, due to hurricane Irene preventing other students from getting here.  A lot of it is just listening to the administrators talk about different bits of information.  They all seem really great, very Greek, but they all speak English well and are very, very helpful.  I have a couple favorite events that have taken place this week as a part of orientation.  First, we went to a taverna for dinner as a group.  They split us into three tables, and all of us had an instructor from one of our classes at our table.  At my table, we had our Literature and Art History Professor.  I'm not taking Literature, but I will have have her for Art History.  She was very quirky and interesting.  She used to study at Berkley, came over to Greece for a year of study, and never went back to the US!  It was nice having her at our table to explain the different dishes they brought out.  They brought out bread and olives, and a bunch of dishes served like appetizers for us to pass around and try.  I can't remember the names of them, but there were things like tomato balls, spiced pork, and eggplants.  It was alright, I enjoyed trying so many different things even though some of them I didn't like.  They also brought us a dessert which was covered in honey and nuts - not too bad!  The style of the dinner is what was my favorite...it was very sociable.  I loved sharing and passing so many dishes with people, and we were there for pretty much three hours talking.  My other favorite event of orientation was a reception we had last night.  They had a Greek couple do some dancing for us, and they had us get in a big circle and dance too.  The dance was just like My Big Fat Greek Wedding style, no joke!  Tonight we have a dinner at the President of our college's house and gardens, which sounds pretty awesome!

We have also done a lot of exploring and learning.  I have had one class so far, which was Language and Culture.  Man oh man...we have a lot to learn this semester!  We started learning the Greek alphabet, and it is very hard!  It's different than any other language I've ever been around.  I'm excited to learn, but our first lesson was very overwhelming, and we had a lot of information thrown at us at once.  I'm so excited to keep learning though, and so next week we will have classes in full swing.  Oh yeah, and we don't ever have class on Friday.  That's pretty nice I guess :).

One night, the girls in my apartment and the guys from down the hall made a pasta dinner.  It was very good, and fun to make our own food like that.  It is good practice for the rest of this school year, living in apartments.  After dinner, we walked up to the Acropolis, which is up on a hill and is all lit up at night.  There are lots and lots of stray animals here - cats and dogs all over the place!  I love dogs, so it is so fun having them around, even though you aren't supposed to pet them.  When we were walking back from the Acropolis, a dog started following us.  He walked with us all the way back to our apartment, which was like a 15 minute walk and went across some busy streets!  We named him Skittles.  It was amazing that he followed us all the way home.  We felt very safe, because if anyone approaches dogs on the streets, they will bark like crazy at you.

Last night, we were going to go to an outdoor movie.  When we got there, a few of us noticed there was going to be a movie showing next week that we'd rather watch, so we decided to wait and walk around the area instead.  It was a beautiful area, lots of restaurants and shops.  The best part was that we had conversations with so many Greeks.  The people here are SO nice and friendly.  They truly care about where you are from and learning more about you.  My friend Megan would ask them how to say things in Greek too, so they were very willing to help us.  They really like it when you try to speak Greek - even if you kind of make a fool of yourself sometimes :).  But really, the Greeks are loud and in your face, but they love to talk to you and after you talk to them they say, "We are friends now."  We talked to some restaurant owners too who told us about great deals they would give us if we came back.  It was so fun learning about these people and really getting immersed in the culture.  We are looking forward to going back to that place and talking with the people more.

Things here are really getting underway, and next week with classes I'm sure we will get a routine established.  This weekend, we are taking a day trip to Sounio to hang out at the beach, have dinner, and watch the sunset.  We have a lot of trips like this planned as a group and through school for the weekends, and with classes during the week, I'm afraid that time is going to fly as usual!  The Greek life: so far, so good!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura