Athens

Well we just finished our first week of class in Athens, but it’s our second week here.  It’s crazy to think it’s been that long.  It’s almost a month ago now that I left MN!

Athens from the plane!

Most of our first week here we spent either exploring or going to orientation sessions.  I’ll give you the highlights from this time.

Taverna dinner: We went to a taverna with our whole group, plus faculty directors, plus two CYA (College Year in Athens- our school here) profs.  We took up the entire place (and why wouldn’t we with 30+ people?).  Basically we had a 15 course meal of family style appetizer-like traditional Greek food.  There were salads with fetta cheese (which is everywhere here) and tomatoes (also everywhere).  There were several different spreads to have with bread.  There were cheese pies- sort of like a fried ravioli.  Spiced pork and Greek meatballs.  Tomato balls, which are like fried slices of tomatoes and breading?  Dessert was some sort of pita-like bread doused in honey and nuts.  Luckily, we had the profs with us to explain what everything was, otherwise we would’ve had no idea.  :)  The food was very different.  Not something I disliked, but not something I loved either.

The taverna!

Garden Party: We had a party at the CYA president’s house!  It was gorgeous and they served us some more traditional Greek food.  It was a pita with some sort of kebob-ed meat and potatoes!  Pretty good stuff.  It was really nice to just hang out in his beautiful garden.

The garden at the president's house.

Custom sandals: There’s an infamous sandal maker here in Athens.  He’s made sandals for really famous people.  The cool thing is that they’re custom made for you!  They have several different style for you to try on, but once you pick one they inspect your feet and then tighten and thin straps for the best fit.  It’s pretty cool!  Also, I paid 28 euro for my pair.  Great price.

These are some of the sandals.  So cool.

Sounio: Our group took a day trip to Sounio.  Actually I don’t think it was really Sounio, but somewhere near there.  We stopped at a beach!  Spent the afternoon becoming prune-y in the cool water.  After the relaxing afternoon we bussed to the Temple of Poseidon.  Cool ancient ruin.  Also a great picture taking point. 

This was the beach we spent the afternoon at. :)

Temple of Poseidon in sunset!

Bananamoon: All 30 of us decided to visit a local bar.  We were pretty much pegged as Americans the moment we walked in, but a couple of people from the group had been there before and so knew the bartender and also the DJ.  It was a pretty great night.  All 30 of us were dancing and screaming songs at the top of our lungs!  While we had a great time, I wonder how much of a disturbance we were.  We were definitely getting stares and being pointed at.

Market: There’s an outdoor market here once a week that is amazing.  Like our basic farmer’s market: fresh fruit and veggies with the occasional plant or random other thing thrown in.  Best about it?  It’s cheap.  Last week we bought apples, grapes, carrots and nectarines for 3 people for 4 euro!  Crazy good price and it was delicious.  The people are also super friendly.  We were talking to one gentleman about CYA and the US and then he gave us 2 oranges to eat for free!  They do that a lot at the market.  They want you to pick up the food and make sure it’s quality.  Some even want you to sample it!

This week we’ve pretty much been accomplishing classes.  I’ll post more about those later.  Our apartment is pretty cool.  We have 2 doubles and a single room, a living room, bathroom and tiny kitchen.  But everything is functional for the most part!  Cooking food has been ok too.  Probably the hardest thing is trying to grocery shop and figure out what packages actually contain when everything is written in Greek.  Luckily most have English translations somewhere on the package, you just have to look.  The few that don’t you just guess and hope for the best. :)

Other than that things really aren’t that different, which surprised me.  I don’t know what I was really expecting, but I assumed it would be a lot different than what I was used to at home.  It’s not really.  There are stray cats and dogs running around everywhere, which takes a little getting used to.  The whole living schedule is shifted a little later.  Nothing really opens until 10am, lunch is at 2pm and then people don’t eat dinner until 9 or 10pm and after that go out.  The weather is really nice all of the time.  Upper 80s or low 90s, sunny, with almost no humidity.  The streets are pretty narrow and people drive pretty crazily.  Especially motorcyclists.  You have to watch out for them when walking around, because they pretty much won’t stop for you.  But other than these really pretty minor things, it’s pretty similar to the States (and yes, I will be referring to it as the States because I think calling it America is incredibly arrogant).  People are generally friendly, the food is not that different (there’s a Dominos on the corner), pretty much all the basic living behaviors are the same from what I’ve seen.  It’s kind of like I’m experiencing an anti-culture shock! 

Ok, I’m all written out for now.  More to come later!  Thanks for reading and I miss you all!