On the News!!

As many of you know, our class was required to keep a blog going while we were on the trip.  It was a way for us to document the things we were doing and analyze some things that we did not understand.  In one of our early morning classes with Dr. Kaplan, she informed us that someone from the university had heard about the blogs we were keeping and talked to one of the news stations in the area about potentially doing a segment on us.  She asked if we could send her an email giving her permission to share our blogs with anyone who was interested.  After sending a formal email, my roommates and I talked about how amazing of an experience it would be to have our faces on a Greek news channel.  The more we talked, the less realistic it seemed that someone would actually sit and read through fifteen or sixteen individuals blogs and pick mine out of the lot.   I slowly forced myself to accept the fact that I would encourage my peers that were picked because I probably would not be in the group that was. 

            That night I was Skyping with my big, Brittany, and Brianna walked out on to the balcony with a scheming grin across her face.  She asked me if I had checked the facebook group where all of us keep in contact with the rest of the people on the trip including our professors.  I had not done so and let her know.  She then looked even more suspicious and said, “I think you should go check it out”.  I figured it had something to do with the plans for the following day, so I checked it.  To my astonishment, I was one of the six students chosen to be on the news!!  The other three girls were my roommates Corey, Maddie and Brianna, and the two boys on the trip Jimmy and Chase.  The post asked us to wear professional looking clothes and be the next morning around 11 to meet with Dr. Kaplan and discuss the day’s agenda.

            Having four girls getting ready to be on the news all in one room is a hard thing to do, especially when we only had one mirror to share.  Many of us used photo booth as a substitute for a real mirror, and waited our turns for the actual one.  We talked with our professor for approximately an hour about potential questions they could ask us and about key things we should mention. Before we knew it, we were off.  We made our way to the university where we met the news crew in the Starbucks on campus.   After we introduced ourselves, the man in charge told the anchor to pick the first two she wanted to interview and she pointed to Chase and me. 

            They sat us down at a table and positioned our chairs towards the camera.  They placed microphones on our clothes and asked us to act like we were observing a couple of guys at a table they had continently placed in front of us, which was a little awkward.  After they got that shot, one of the anchorwomen handed me a pen and paper and told me to act like I was taking notes.  Again, another awkward task.  I wasn’t quite sure what she wanted me to take notes on, so Chase and I decided to compose “An ode to Greece”.  (If you watch the video, that is why we are laughing and writing things haha.)   Next, it was finally time for the interviews, which I thought were going to be a combined interview but ended up being individual.  I went first.   The women asked me three questions about random things and I spit out anything that came to mind.  The whole thing seemed like a blur and I was just hoping that I didn’t sound stupid and put my country to shame. 

            After everyone in our group had there minute of fame, most people went to class and I headed back to the dorms.  They told us that the segment was predicted to run around 8 that night so all we could do was wait.  We also found out that the segment was aired nationally not just locally, which was pretty amazing!  Here we are, six college students representing our country in a foreign nation on national television! 

            Eight rolled around, and I found myself trying to navigate the Greek news page.  I watched three or four random news segments before I came across the one we were featured in!  It was so neat to watch the final product with the people involved.  I could not wait to put it up on Facebook to show my family and friends, so I copied the link and put it up, only to discover that it did not work in America.  In order to share it with everyone, Brianna and I decided that we should make a bootleg version.  To do this, we played the link on her computer while I filmed it using the camera in my computer.  I’m going to attempt to attach the video on here but if I cannot figure it out, I believe you can still find it on my Facebook page!  Enjoy!

Birthday in Greece

Ever since I have been a kid, I have had mixed feelings about having a summer birthday.  On one hand, I do not have to go to school, and I have the whole day to do whatever I feel like doing.  On the other hand, no one remembers my birthday, I don’t get cake at school, and I have a hard time deciding when to have my birthday party since everyone leaves for summer vacation.  I know it seems like I’m asking for a pity party, but really I’m not.  

Me at the Acropolis :)

This year was definitely a year to remember.  Who would not want to have their birthday in Greece?  At midnight, my roommates and the other students bombarded me down stairs and threw balloons at me as they sang “Happy Birthday”.  We all slept well that night and woke up ready for the birthday festivities.  We went to lunch at a local restaurant called Palmie Bistro and then spent almost all day down in the main square of Monstarki.  We walked around the different shops and got chicken pitas.  That night, we walked down to the acropolis and watched it as it lit up!  It was truly a magical thing as we walked the streets and listened to the various sounds of street musicians playing random tunes.  There were vendors selling popcorn and cotton candy, artists selling their pieces, and couples laughing and holding hands as their children ran circles around them and tugged on their pant legs asking for money to buy toys from the men selling light-up sling shots.  Other than one of my roommates getting their purse stolen, it was the best birthday I have had thus far. The best part is, I still get to celebrate with my family and friends when I get back home!!

Tattoo

This tattoo means a lot to me.  After all, it should being as it will be on my body for the rest of my life.  Luckily for me, I don’t plan on my foot skin sagging by the time I am sixty.  People are always criticized for tattoos.  Some I would agree are pretty stupid like getting your boyfriends name on your hip or a butterfly on your shoulder that serves no significance and does not come with a story.  To me, tattoos can be quite beautiful.  For example, my friends Holley and Heather Rose have a beautifully done tattoo on their foot of their deceased fathers signature.  I love being around them whenever someone asks about it because I can see their faces light up as the memories of this beloved man plays in their heads.  It allows them to honor him and share the good times they had with him, allowing these memories to stay fresh in their mind.  They also have a rose symbol above their ankles that reminds them of the importance of family.  These two are just wonderful and I admire them so much, more than they could ever imagine.  They have faced things no one should ever have to deal with at their age and still manage to not only power through the trials and tribulations, but they do so with a smile on their face and make the people around them laugh and have a good time.  To me, it is the story and meaning of the tattoo itself that makes it so wonderful and so unique.  It’s a permanent reminder of something that made such an impact on ones life that the individual felt it deserved to be on their skin forever. 

             I have been drawing my idea on my foot for quite some time now.  So much so that people actually thought it was already tattooed on me.  Starting my freshman year of college did not excite me.  In fact I was tempted to fail my senior year of high school so that I could stay in Gainesville for another year, not seriously it was just a dramatic threat to myself.  Its not that I didn’t feel mature enough to leave my family and friends, or that I was insecure or anything but I was honestly just scared.  My family, for those of you who don’t know, is really tight-knit.  I love my mom, I love my dad, and I adore my siblings.  Everywhere we go and everything we do together makes me so happy.  My parents are and always have been supportive of everything I do.  They came to years and years of lacrosse, soccer, basketball, and softball games.  Dance recitals, band concerts, award ceremonies, and speeches I’ve given.  My siblings always put a smile on my face and we honestly have such a good time when we are together. It breaks my heart when I hear stories about broken homes because I could not imagine not having such a strong support system behind me.  We are a team and I don’t know what I would do with out every single one of them.  In leaving for school, I didn’t want to make new friends because I loved the ones I already had, and I didn’t want to live with someone I didn’t know, but most of all I didn’t want to leave my church family.  The church I grew up in in Gainesville played a huge part in my life.  I was there 3-4 days of the week, my youth director had always been like a big sister to me, I sang in the church choir for six years, and my best friends were those I had made there. The people there had such a huge impact on my life.  Whenever I needed someone to talk to or somewhere to go to get away from the stresses of my busy life, I could go to Julies house and watch glee, or go to the church and be surrounded by people who loved me. I prayed and prayed for God to bless me with at least one other Christian person that together, I could dodge the temptations that college would throw in my face.  I prayed this but did not expect it to happen, unfortunately.  I expected college to be this hellhole of a place filled with alcoholics and deceptive people, all trying to pressure me to do things that my morals would show opposite. 

God is good.  To this day, and for the rest of my life, I will swear that the reason I ended up at UNF was by the grace of God.  I had no idea where to even begin searching for colleges, mainly because I was still bitter that I HAD to go to college, and my mom constantly threw around UNF.  I had lacrosse tournaments in Jacksonville and we would occasionally stop by and look at the campus.  For those of us who know UNF, I went on the weekends and thought that nobody attended the school.  I knew it was smaller than UF, the campus I grew up knowing, but I had convinced myself that a total of five people went to the school.  A good family friend of ours, Larissa Jonson, would always tell me how much she was obsessed with the school and always encouraged me to keep looking into it.  I figured that if someone as amazing as Larissa liked it, it had to be good, so I applied.  A couple months later I found out got into the university and I was so excited, but the application I was concerned about was the one that would put me in the honors college.  To my amazement, I got in!  I started to accept the idea that I was going to a good place and that God had been with me this far, so it must be a good sign.   The very first day, we spit up into our honors groups and the amazing Kathleen Coughlin was my temporary Facilitator, yet another act of God to calm me down and show me peace.  Kathleen was part of my church family back home and was always someone I could look up to as a role model, so seeing her beautiful smile on my first day put my nerves to ease.

            As the semester progressed, I started loving the college more and more.  I made a ton of amazing friends and our dorm was so close that I felt like I was living with fifty or sixty of my closest friends, and some even seemed like family.  The first person I got really close to was my friend and sister Heather Deyarmin.  We hit it off right away, bonding over similar experiences and interests.  She is such a sweetheart and a lot of people could not refer to one of us with out mentioning the other.  We had both pondered the idea of rushing or “going through recruitment” and submitted our applications thirty minutes before the dead line.  Little did we know what our future had in store for us.  Heather and I stayed up for nights too excited to sleep and siking ourselves up for the whole process.  The first room I walked into was that of the amazing Alpha Chi Omega girls, and the first person that took my hand was Courtney Warner.  She put me right at ease.  Courtney had also been a part of my church in Gainesville, and even though she has no idea, I always looked up to her.  She is such a beautiful person inside and out and doesn’t even realize the impact she has on some people’s lives.  She truly is a real strong woman and is always so encouraging and loving just as a sister should be.  In order to bring this full circle, I must bring in some other information and switch the focus for a little while. 

As I said before, I was really concerned about not finding a church family like the one I had back home.  Larissa, having been from the same church in Gainesville, begged me to come to the church she attended in Jacksonville.  Naturally, I did, and I could not be more obsessed with it.  The preacher is amazing, the music is awesome, and the people are welcoming, not to mention it was right across the street from the beach.  I started to realize that both Kathleen and Courtney attended the church too, so it must be good!  After church, some people would go out to eat which I was usually invited to by Larissa, in attempts to introduce me to people being as she is the most social person I have ever met. I didn’t know how important one of those people would be in my life.  One of Larissa’s best friends was in Alpha Chi, which I had just been invited to join.  Her name is Brittany Wiggin, and she is the light of my world.  She is the epitome of a Big sister and is one of the best things that have ever happened to me.  She is a strong Christian woman and inspires me to grow in my faith everyday.  She is a role model, an amazing listener, beautiful, fun, silly, serious, and every single good quality of anyone you have ever met wrapped into a single person.  I am so blessed to have her in my life because honestly, I do not know how I lived before I knew her.  She is what keeps me sane most of the time and always has good advice.  Coincidentally, she was also Courtney’s little which was an added bonus because I got the most amazing big ever, and now I had the best grand big I could have ever asked for.  These two have no idea how obsessed I am with them.  I can honestly say that I have not met two more amazing people, especially to act as Big sisters to me, something I’ve never had.

            As I continued me first year in college, the blessings kept pilling on.  One good thing would happen right after another, I was scared at one point because I told myself that something bad was going to happen because it was only fair.  The people I met were amazing and have forever changed my life.  My sisters Dasha and Ivy are so wonderful and always make me laugh, while challenging me on a daily basis, in a good way.  My friend Kaley and I never have a dull moment together and sometimes I feel like we are sole mates as weird as that may sound, but we just understand each other on a whole new level.  We can be silly and have dance parties together, and be serious and cry and complain together, and we can sit and comfort each other wen we are going through hard times.  

            Like I said, one good thing would happen right after another.  I soon found out that I had been accepted to go on a study abroad trip to Athens, Greece with my honors professor, Dr. Kaplan.  This experience has been more than I could have even fathomed.  I have experienced a whole different culture and met people I will never forget.  I formed friendships that will last a lifetime and memories that will never fade. 

            I have put a lot of thought into this tattoo, as you can see, and I feel really great about it.  I am getting a Christian fish on my left foot right underneath my pinky toe.  For something that is only about an inch in size, it possesses a lot of imposrtance.  It will serve as a constant reminder of how blessed I am and the wonderful things God has given me in my past, my fisrt year in college, and in my life to come.  It will remind me “God has a plan. A plan to prosper and not to harm you plans for hope and a good future.”  It will remind me of the people that have influenced my life both spiritually and physically.  It will, being on my foot, encourage me to walk in the foot steps of Christ and be the person I want to be, not someone other people want me to be.  It will give me opportunities to strike up conversations with people who do not know Christ, and allow me to share my stories and listen to theirs.  It serves as a daily sticky note if you will of everything God has done for me in my life, and the strong and supportive family I was blessed with.  So for those of you who are wondering what possessed me to get this tattoo, I hope this sufficed.  Now you know the power and meaning, the importance and strength this one-inch object holds.

You've got a friend in me

I have mentioned the Platka in a couple of my blogs as the place we go to shop and eat and hang out when we get tired of being in our own neighborhood.  On one of our many adventures down to the square, we stumbled into a store on the flea market side called Byzantium.  We went in looking for worry beads and souvenirs but left with so much more. 

            A family consisting of the mother, father, and son owns the shop, Byzantium.  Walking in the shop, we found icons, worry beads, antique jewelry, beautiful plates and various evil eye things.  We were greeted by the son of the family Stratos who was a wonderful man!  As we browsed the jewelry section he encouraged us to “sit and stay a while”.  I think it makes Greeks nervous when we stand because we are constantly asked to sit when we are talking to people; maybe it makes them feel like we will stay longer… I don’t know. He insisted on buying us a coke, and honestly, in 300 degree whether, who is going to turn down a free cold coke, not this girl! The three of us girls pulled up a seat and were suddenly engaged in conversation.  He told us about how he studied at Michigan State and how much he loved America.  The only reason he came back to Greece was to help his mom and dad (who look to be pushing 70) with the shop.  He explained how the store had been robbed three months prior and how his family was crushed.  They brought their priest in and asked what they should do with the shop. “ And here we are today! Selling icons and religious things like the worry beads and rosaries.  If the priest told us to do it, we do it!”  It seems to be working out for them I must say!  They also have a small collection of jewelry comprised of the items left behind from the robbery.  Many of the souvenirs I have for you guys are from this store :).  

            Stratos told us a story about his trip to the states and how one of his professors took him under her wing, almost like a son.  He loved and appreciated everything she did for him and to reciprocate the hospitality, Stratos has been begging her to come to Greece for the past five years.  He told her that all she has to do is pay for the plane ticket and he has got everything else covered.  It hurts his heart that she keeps refusing because she thinks it is “too dangerous in Greece”.  Word for the wise: IT IS SAFE HERE! If anyone offers you an all expense paid trip to Greece, jump on the opportunity or pass my name along.  I honestly cannot say it enough; I have never felt in harms way on this journey!  More to come on that note in a later blog…

Anytime I think about Stratos and his family, the song “you’ve got a friend in me” from Disney’s Toy Story pops into my head.  I think he fact that he had studied abroad makes him more sensitive to our situation. He is one of the only people who has taken the time to get to know us on a personal level, for who we are not just judge us by the color of our skin and the lightness of our eyes.  He looks out for us like any big brother would do.  We brought a couple more of our friends in to meet him one of the days we were down in Monastaraki.  As the five or six of us walked in, a man who looked to be another tourist followed us in.  Stratos looked him straight in the eye and asked him to leave.  “What was that about?”, we asked.  He told us that the guy was a stereotypical pit-pocketer. “He had no teeth, but was dressed in nice clothes and carrying a bag.  He had been eyeing your purses since the moment he walked in”, Stratos explained.  It is crazy how the Greeks are so good at reading people.  It's like they know a person’s intensions just in the flash of their eyes.  Another time we were in the store and Stratos asked a man to leave.  When we asked what was wrong with this guy he simply said, “Eh, I don’t like the way he looks.  And it’s my store, so I ask him to leave.”  

He has drawn on a map places we should experience while in Athens and stresses the places we should never go.  He helps us figure out our lives and is a much-needed source of inside knowledge we can bounce questions and receive answers from.  We have learned so much from this amazing man; he has told us about the life he lived before and how he went into a coma that would change his life for the better.  He said, “I have done many unchristian things in my past that I am not proud of, but it as made me the person I am today.”  His faith in God is outstanding and you can feel his positive aura through every word he says.   He is one of those people that can light up a room with his presence and I feel safe whenever he is around.

            Stratos told us; anytime, anything we ever need, their doors are always open.  Its nice knowing we’ve got a friend in Greece.  

PS: Sorry I don't have a picture of Stratos.  I am determined to get one before we leave.

"The more time you take to judge someone, the less time you have to love them."

From my blog posts, many of you are probably under the impression that my stay in Greece is all fun and no class.  At times, it seems that the roles can be reversed.  This past week, my Greek class on art history was kicked off with a midterm on Monday and I have had site visits every day since.  In a way I prefer this experiential learning to the traditional lecture-styled class and seeing the sites in person versus staring sleepily at slides projected on a screen, but one must take into consideration many factors that play into the site visits.  For one, most of the trips have had a report time of 9 am, and our professor takes full advantage of our allotted two hour class period. As I have mentioned many times before, I am not a morning person.  In order to get anywhere in Greece, one must take a bus to the metro station, ride the metro to the stop closest to your destination, then walk to the site itself.  We usually allow ourselves an hour and a half travel time (putting our wake up call thirty to forty minutes before that) and typically get to the site with ten minutes to spare.  I am so thankful for the transportation systems here, they are quick and always clean.  Sometimes the bus or subway can get pretty packed but with out it, we would have to walk a solid 15-20 miles daily just to get to class.  Secondly, one must remember that Greece is experiencing a heat wave that shows temperatures in the upper thirties, lower forties.  That translates in to the high 90’s low 100’s for us.  This itself has proved to be a big hurtle to jump and can make class unbearable at times, however, every site I have been to has taught me a lot about the history of ancient Greece.  Just this week we have been to the Acropolis, the Acropolis museum, the Agora, and we are going to the Temple of Olympian Zeus tomorrow. Our teacher does not account for the time we spend getting to and from the site, which is understandable, but he proceeds to hold us for the whole two hour time slot of the class.  Side note: My professor is amazing though.  I feel like this might come off as me compliaining about the class which is not the purpose of this at all.  Im pretty sure I have explained him in earlier blogs, but just to reiterate, it is his british sense of humor that keeps me going on the long strenuous days.  He is an amazing person and I have thoroughly enjoyed his class and learning about art antiquity. 

Anyways, after a long day spent at the Agora today, my friend Lauren and I wanted to do some exploring on our own.  We have found a comfort zone in the part of Athens known as Monastarkai or “Plaka”, which is home to many of the tourist shops.  Walking in the streets has allowed us to feel safe and being as we have lived here for a couple of weeks now, we know the streets bordering the square and how to get around the area, it has almost become second nature to us.  Wanting to learn and experience more of the city, Lauren and I picked a direction that was unfamiliar to us and started walking, being sure to remind ourselves which direction we had come from and talked through the turns we had taken.   It has been said that “life begins at the end of your comfort zone”, so here we were, about to live.  As we wondered around, we took in the beauty of this fantastic country. We soon found ourselves in what is believed to be the “sketchy” part of Athens, Omnia.    We could definitely feel a shift in the atmosphere. We were suddenly surrounded by a street meat market with dead cows and sheep all around us that soon faded into a street of merchants selling fish and spices. The cacophony of shouting men was overwhelming at first but did not take long to get used to.  There were more homeless individuals and a healthy dose of people who seemed to have no motivation to improve their way of life. 

Having said all of this, I only felt vulnerable for maybe ten minutes.   As I looked around and observed the people I was encountering, I started to notice that they were just here hanging out with their friends or trying to make a living, even if it meant they had to sell fly swatters and sun visors to the passing cars.  Everyone makes a big deal about pit-pocketers because “they are everywhere”.  I’m not saying all people are good because that would be nieve of me, but I think sometimes we have this idea that anyone who is different than we are, dressed in rags and sitting on the corner of a street wants to harmus.  Mother Teresa once said, “the more time you take to judge someone, the less time you have to love them”. Just because these individuals have come across some bad luck or weren’t given the same opportunities we were to succeed in life does not make them any less of a person.  I understand and encourage people to be smart with who and where they are traveling and to keep your bags zipped and close, but I also encourage people to remember that not everyone is out to steal your things and a smile never hurt anyone. Athens is one of the safest places I have ever been.  There are policemen on almost every corner and the people here are wonderful, but I will save that for another blog.  The beauty is never-ending and there is so much to do and see in the city that if we waste time dwelling on assumptions and the warnings from other people, we will have missed an opportunity to form our own thoughts.  My professor always tells us historical facts and then follows with the phrase “well don’t trust me go find out for yourself”.  I think the same can apply here because there is no time for missed adventures when you have the Opportunity of a Life Time! 

Hydra

This past weekend our group took a day trip to the breathtaking island, Hydra.  Hydra is an hour and a half ferry ride from the port in Athens.  The island has only two cars, one to deliver water and one to collect the garbage. Therefore, all travel on this island is done by foot.  One of the locals here, in Athens, was so excited to hear that we were going, and promised us that it was the most beautiful Greek island.  He told us that by day it is a perfectly quant fishing village with amazing beaches and by night, it transforms into a hot spot for yachts to dock and their owners to indulge in the restaurants, one of which is the most expensive Italian restaurant in the world. 

            There was not a single negative thing about the trip to this island other than the 6:00am wake up call.  We loaded the bus while Athens was just beginning to feel the warmth of the sun, and were dropped off at a small port.  As we waited for our ferry to arrive, some of us grabbed a breakfast pastry from a near-by kiosk.  I decided that I wanted to try something new, so I bought a bready object from an older gentleman who was selling a cart-full of them.  I naturally proceeded to eat the ring of bread sprinkled with sesame seeds, as any person in their right mind would.  Three bites in, I looked around at the other people who purchased the bread–ring, and noticed that they were all feeding it to the pigeons that flocked over to the area in which we were standing.  I asked some of my friends if they knew what the correct etiquette of this food item was but none seemed to know for sure.  I’m still not completely sure if the object was meant to be fed to the birds or if it was meant for human consumption but needless to say, I finished the bread-ring all by myself with no help from the sketchy pigeons that continued to eye me as the others ran out of food to throw to them. 

            The ferry was a speedy thing, and got us to the island in no time.  After a couple of rounds of “I-spy” and “would you rather”, I could not seem to escape the soothing rock of the boat.  Everyone in our group fell victim to the spell the ferry had cast on us and took a quick nap only to be woken up by the repetition of chime-like rings that signaled to the passengers that we had arrived. 

At the Fort

We were greeted by a young gentleman in aviators anxious to give us a quick history lesson about the island.   We walked up to fortress that over looked to main entrance of the island. We learned that Hydra is not old enough to have ancient ruins and there were no archeological sites on the island, which is a pretty rare thing for Greece.  We meandered back down from the fort and the guide continued to tell us all he knew about the island, which was not very much. He kept reminding us, “Hydra does not have a very extensive history”. 

On the water taxi

Jesus

After about an hour we were free to do as we pleased.  The group I was with decided that since lunch was not going to be until 3 and it was currently 11, we were going to eat, just like we always do.  It seems that we can’t go five minutes without eating something.  We sat down at a little restaurant that served my favorite, chicken pitas, and ate away.  After we paid the bill we decided to take a water taxi to the beach to get the full experience out of the trip and besides, it only cost three euros and it was less walking we had to do.  Side note: We decided the driver of the boat earned the nickname Jesus due to his awesome facial hair.  His partner and a jet ski driver got into a spat as we tried to park because the jet ski was in our parking spot which mind you, was probably eight foot wide for our ten-twelve foot wide boat.  I could not understand exactly what words were exchanged but I did understand the one cuss word we know in Greek was used multiple times by both gentlemen. 

After the beach

            The beach was only about fifth a mile away from where the boat dropped us.  It was very quant and taken over by tourists.  The beaches here are covered in rocks instead of the soft sand we are used to.  The water in the Aegean Sea is unbelievable clear and blue as a result of the salinity, which prevents any algae from growing in the water.  I split my time pretty evenly between swimming and lying out in the warm sun.  All of us agreed that we needed a break from the jam-packed days we had experienced recently, and this was a perfect way to relax and enjoy ourselves. 

Our college, Deree, organized our trip and lunch was included, which is always a good thing!  We met back in the main part of the island and our guide led us through the beautiful streets to the restaurant.  The place was completely empty.  It was tucked back into the town and from the atmosphere, it seemed to be a hidden gem.  We ate a traditional Greek meal, which is done by sharing appetizers; only this time we got our own main course.  I got a spaghetti type dish with noodles, tomato sauce, that came with pieces of really tender beef mixed in. For dessert, we were treated to watermelon, which was just what I needed after getting semi-dehydrated at the beach earlier that day.  After the meal, a couple of us engaged in a conversation with the women who took our orders.  She told us that she and her husband opened to place almost thirty years ago.  Her husband used to work as a chef on boats, and after his age started to get the best of him, they decided to open up a place of their own.  The women and her husband do all the cooking and her children help run the rest.   She told us that the only other places in Greece she had visited were the village her family were from and Athens, and even this excursion was only for medicinal reasons. She stressed to us that the restaurant is all they have and if she is not there to make the food and keep things under control, they will go broke, so there is no time for vacation. This blew me away.  Here we are, 18/19 years old, from another country, and we had seen more of Greece than this Grecian woman.

We thanked her over and over again for the delicious meal then made our way to the shops.  As we weaved our way through the shops, I could not help but notice the beauty of the island.    For example, all the boats that lined the port seemed to have its own personality and stories to tell about days out at sea with the fisherman.  The tethered flags and overused ropes screamed out to me and I sat for a little while and just listened to what they had to say.  I appreciated the history within the beaten up boats and found true beauty hidden in their scratched off light blue paint and beneath the nets on their decks. 

As it is with every trip, it was sad to watch the island disappear, especially knowing that I had the midterm for my art history class and a presentation to do the following day.  Knowing my luck, the ferry decided to stop working mid trip.  Something had gone terribly wrong with the motors and they only pushed to ferry backwards.  After three announcements updating us and thirty or so minutes of our ferry doing doughnuts in the Aegean, we were finally on our way.  We ended up not getting back to the dorms until around 10:30ish.  All my brilliant plans of procrastination were put to shame as I changed and immediately went to sleep.  You know you have had a good day when you are almost 19 (in less than a week!) and can’t seem to function past 10:00.  

Its a cultural thing: A Melted Society

America is referred to as a melting pot, a place where people of all different cultures and backgrounds can come to find a safe haven and not have to worry about whether or not they will fit in.  I think we take the diversity in our country for granted, we think it is completely normal for blacks to marry whites, and for a Hispanic family to adopt an African child and raise it as their own.  In our workplaces, we are taught to treat everyone as an equal, no matter what their skin color is.  Although there are exceptions to every rule, people look at others with the assumption that they are American.  People can come to America and not feel like an outsider, whereas here, I feel like that’s all I am and all people see me as, a foreigner. 

Greece, as a country, is very contained. Geographically, it is a landmass surrounded by water on three sides, socially, it is different than any other culture i have come across.  The people here have roots that date back to ancient times and all they know is the Greek culture and way of life.  They are often hesitant to try something different because why would you fix something that works perfectly fine, right?  Some of the people here have never even been out of the village they were raised in or the island their family has lived on for the past hundred years.  Their culture is unlike any I have ever encountered and is one of they have one of the most unique set of characteristics.  The traditional Greek has olive skin, dark coarse hair, and long faces; I obviously share none of these features.  I stick out like a sore thumb with my blond hair, blue eyes, and Irish heritage (which is often noticeable by my constantly burnt complexion).  Greece’s economy is based on tourism so they are used to having people from different countries here, but that doesn’t stop the constant staring.  Even if I wanted to blend in with the locals, spoke fluent Greek, and lived here full time, I do not think I would ever be completely accepted by the people.  I don’t mean that to sound harsh. The people here can be loving and caring, but they would only see me as an outsider, someone who doesn’t belong in their country.  I have heard stories of Americans that moved here and were faced with enormous obstacles having to do with fitting and blending in.  Like I said in some of my earlier posts, it takes a lot of time to earn the trust and loyalty of a Greek, but once you have passed all the tests, you have earned their friendship for life. In a country based solely on the relationships and connections, the only way to survive here full time would be to befriend anyone and everyone you could.  Everything here is so beautiful and I honestly cant get enough of this country. It is sad to think that we only have a couple more weeks here, but it has been anything but boring that's for sure.

It’s a Cultural thing: Relationships

The American culture is all about efficiency and productivity. We are constantly going.  Our mind is set on quantity over quality, the person with the most things is the best and it seems that genuine people are hard to find.  We all expect to be the first priority on everyone’s list, to be taken care of in the best possible way, however, we are slow to reciprocate the favor.  We stay away from relationships because we are afraid of the time and effort they require and the hurt they can bring.  Time is sacred and a highly prized commodity in the states, yet we spend hours in front of the television every night.  Some things appear to be backwards.  It is not until you from your comfort zone that you can see these things come to light. 

            The Greeks are all about forming relationships with people.  As I said in my earlier post, the neighborhoods are pretty small and are equipped with just about everything you could need on a daily basis. If any of you have seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you can understand how important family is.  There is a scene in the movie where the main character and her new husband are presented with a “gift” from her parents.   The couple opens the envelope to discover that their parents bought them a house! Little did they know the house was right next-door.  Family is everything here.  In saying this, the families that make up these neighborhoods go back for generations.  The same family has always owned the bakery; the grocery store owner’s grandson is the heir to the cash register.  Everyone has his or her place, and the relationships between the locals are products of the generations before them.  When you go to pick up a pastry, you aren’t walking in to a random store, grabbing filo dough stuffed with chocolate and out the door; you are going to visit your friend Christos to find out how his kid did on the math test last week, and if you happen to eat a pastry while you are there, so be it.

  My friend Lauren and I went to the butcher yesterday to accomplish two goals: buy meat for dinner, and put our Greek to the test.  The butcher is only about three quarters of a mile from our dorm.  When we walked through the door, we noticed that a woman in her fifties was in the middle of a conversation with the butcher.  We had no idea how long she had been there or how long she would have stayed had we not interrupted, but in the time she was there, she had made herself comfortable in the chairs provided and smoked a cigarette.  Upon our arrival, the butcher started to cut the meat the women had ordered.  As he cut, the conversation still went on.  Preparing the meat looked to be second nature to him, and was almost artistic looking.  He had probably watched his dad and grandfather do this same thing for his entire life.  The lady apologized twice for how long it was taking, but Lauren and I assured her that it was fine.  We are starting to get used to the culture now and do not expect a grocery trip to take a certain amount of time.  I cannot begin to tell you how relaxing it is to not feel the rush of the American society.  In the states, sitting at the butcher for 45 minutes after walking to two different grocery stores and carrying heavy items to and fro, would have made me a little irritated.  Here, I enjoy sitting and observing the culture and watching the relationships the people here share with each other.  Two chickens, skinned and de-boned, a couple kilos of ground beef and pork, and a kilo of what looked like sausage later, it was our turn.  After a little confusion of asking for ground sausage (which is unheard of here) I got a “mesakilo Kimas Mosxapisios” or a half-kilo of ground beef.

            Friday nights are our proclaimed “family nights”, in which we make dinner for our whole room to share.  Last night, after a very helpful cooking seminar with Dr. Kaplan, we were inspired to make meat and cheese pastry.  Here are the instructions that we made up haha:

11)    Pre heat over to 200 degrees Celsius

22)    Brown hamburger meat with various spices

33)    Sautee onions and garlic with butter, add to meat

44)    Combine feta cheese and other random cheese we got because it was the cheapest king at the store, in a large bowl with one egg (that has two yokes), olive oil, and spices

55)    Add meat to cheese mixture

66)    Add half can of left over corn

77)    Melt butter and have it at the ready

88)    Roll out filo dough

99)    Butter one sheet of filo dough and quickly cover it with a second sheet

110) Cut dough into four long vertical strips

111) Place a dollop of the meat mixture in the top of the strip

112) Fold strip like a paper football starting at the end with the meat

113) Place on cooking sheet

114) Repeat steps 10-13 until you run out of material

For our first Greek dish, we did an amazing job.  Not to flatter ourselves, but it was definitely one of the best things I have ever eaten.