I was just a part of an earthquake. Pretty hilarious when this entire floor of this small hotel are kids from our program who aren’t used to this and we all ran to the hallways, then our balcony all in excitement. I believe the first thing said was “Guys! It’s an earthquake! Come outside!” which is the most obvious thing to do, right? Once again, the logic of my generation is basically flawless and I love getting to live with it. I am dumb enough to admit and especially share with others when I do something hysterically stupid. This is one of those times. When the earthquake started, I first thought it was my roommate just bouncing on her bed. Then it clicked that it was an earthquake, I first ran out to the balcony in excitement followed by me thinking to myself “Wait, we practiced this in school.” My instinct was to put shoes on, grab my purse, and leave the building as if it was a fire like I learned in school. Brilliant.
I don’t remember if I said this last blog, but even if I did it’s worth repeating. On my birthday at Knossos was the most outrageous ginger I have ever seen. He was Greek, which is already a problem. He had a mohawk sorta. The worst part was how he was wearing a completely tacky low low low low cut v-neck. If he were a girl, it would not be acceptable. Not that it is acceptable as a boy, but with him a bra wasn’t showing. He had the most disgusting red chest hair just curling out of this v-neck. Everyone in our program saw it when we were just wandering the site alone and when we reunited we all said it first thing. Amazing. A girl got a picture that shall be on my facebook wall soon. Figure out a way to see it. Totally worth it. Especially because he was drinking orange juice in the picture which makes the orange unbearable.
I just got back from the beach. It was so hot and sunny all day, the back of my neck is probably really burnt, but of course the minute I get to the beach it gets horribly cloudy. It was still beautiful.
Today was our last class for the first section. I miss Matthew already. We went to a museum where I gave a presentation on peak sanctuaries, which are the sacred areas, cut off from the rest of society on the top of mountains. I miss giving speeches on things that get to have my personality and obnoxiousness involved. My fast-talking doesn’t pair well with intellectual information. Much better when I’m arguing for the side of dodgeball or talking about my ridiculous family or really anything that doesn’t have intelligence involved. That says a lot about me. And my major. Good.
After the museum we went to one of the coolest sites. It was Gornia, which was excavated by a woman in the early 20th century. She was one of the first excavators who put an emphasis on the town instead of ignoring the houses and focusing on the palace. This was an awesome experience because we were just sitting in people’s houses and it all seemed so real and it hits you how old this is and how people were living and doing day-to-day things. It’s hard to grasp the idea of kings but much easier to talk about games and jobs of the people. It also was only a few meters away from the water. I totally just used the measuring reference of meters to sneak some European in here. Not that I know the concept of distance especially in meters. Whatever, it was really close to the water. Since this bus system is weird, we had about an hour and a half to kill to Matthew just took us by the water where they are just starting to excavate ship houses and then we just messed around. I took off my shoes and sang The Little Mermaid while my classmates laughed at me while either taking pictures or splashing me. Both acceptable responses.
My mother emailed me yesterday saying how I probably add such a different dynamic to the group that has probably never been a part of the Greece Program before. This may be true since I am very one of a kind and unique (that’s a nice way to put it.) This is weird to think about because I bet a majority of them would still have the time of their lives without me being ridiculously annoying.
The next email I received from her started with her saying, “I’m sure this will end up in your blog…” so I’ll do just that. She’s so freaked out about this earthquake, which is hilarious because I just think it was pretty nifty. I understand that they are serious things, but I’m fine and it was quite an experience. I signed up to come to Greece and that included everything. She panicked a little. A lot.
I started this blog in my room but am now finishing it from my seat on this unbelievably comfortable chair on the Minoan Line to head back to Athens. Couple things. First off, I am beyond excited to get back to Athens. I think I have made it basically my home. I love it so much and miss it dearly. Good thing I have six free days off in Athens now…awesome. Next thing, I found the MTV channel on the little tv connected to my chair and the best part if that the next hour is “Absolutely 90s.” So far the highlights have been Shaggy, Green Day, Biggie and now Ricky Martin. Yes, I am Livin’ La Vida Loca at this moment. Couldn’t be happier. So cheesy. Everything about the 90s is flawless. I’m in heaven.
All our busses are Mercedes Benz. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that yet but I find that hilarious. Also, they are terrible drivers. Saw a hit and run today where a car hit a delivery boy on his moped and then the car drove away and the moped tried to chase it. Quite common. The busses and taxis are also stick shift so we bounce up and down and start rolling back most hills. There are lots of hills. Although they are terrible drivers, they can parallel park into any spot. So impressive.
I have a very long (at least 10 hour) boat ride ahead of me. We leave at 10 and I’m still sitting here. Then we get in early, have to walk a lot, and can’t move into our living situation until later in the afternoon. This means me and a couple guys will be finding a sports bar that opens especially open for March Madness. Isn’t that hilarious? The games are at like 5:30am but they’re all for it so I guess I have no reason not to be. This also means that I have a lot of time to kill. Which means I will ramble on this for some time. Sorry I’m not sorry.
I blame Kelly for my obsession with Bueno Bars. Also, Kelly, look up the songs Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan and Written in the Stars by Tinie Tempah. Highly recommend both. We plan on getting all this ridiculous Greek music we found through the video channel and have a party with it but I’d hate to have you left out! Fam would love these songs too…
My mom told me that my uncle stopped by the house and asked what class I was even taking and that not a single person in my house could figure it out. This is hilarious to me. No one knows what I’m doing here. Myself included. I am taking courses on history of Greek antiquity. I am taking one course at a time, which means I took a class on Greek civilization in general starting in the Bronze Age through Hellenic periods. That ended at the beginning of March and now I just finished the second course, which was specific to the Bronze Age. I will be starting the third course on the Classical Period in six days. Then about three weeks later I will start the last course, which is about the Byzantine. I learn about these time periods through going to archaeological sites of places or palaces from that time period. Super interesting stuff.
The next professor is Matthews girlfriend of 10 years. When we found this out it was very exciting because anyone dating Matthew must be hilarious as well. We went out to dinner as a farewell. We got him 4 packs of cigarettes and a cigar and he told us it was the best gift he has ever received from a class. Simple man. We also tried to convince him to come to class and do ridiculous things like undermine his girlfriend’s intelligence by making comments or laughing after things she says or bringing his own handouts. Okay, this was mainly my idea because I like Seinfeld too much to not try and destroy relationships through hilarious ways. I don’t want to destroy this one though. Maybe damage for some time for my entertainment. If he does not visit I plan on saying something like, “Guys, she’s great. Matthew was full of crap,” just to mess with it a little bit.
We got this really nice seats and I just went up to the deck for take-off or whatever you call it on a boat. It’s my mom’s worst nightmare/so much fun. So windy and rocky and sopping wet on all the decks. To get to the deck we went through the other seating area. It’s cramped and smells like sweaty gypsy children feet. Our professor wasn’t supposed to help get us these tickets but somehow he decided to make one phone call and he got us the nice seats for half the price. Unreal. Richard Fisher is an amazing man. He is so calm and relaxed all the time and it takes him about 25 minutes to get through one sentence because he likes to stop and touch his face and your shoulder a lot but he gets so much done. So impressive. We all have the imitation of him down too. Probably just as popular and commonly used as the ones of my dad from Hauser.
We had some time to kill so my friends Russell and Eddie decided the storm would be fun to go watch up close so I of course joined. Earmuffs mom: It has been made very clear that anything dumb I will do without question. Good for the group to figure out when we have more cliffs to jump off and everyone’s nervous. I’ll be going first most likely. Okay, mom. Well the water was insane. We were standing on rocks and got sopping wet. These walls were built so long ago and clearly go through so much. Fascinating and such a good time.
The song playing on this channel is Greek and the way you say “Yes” in Greek is “Nay” and it’s hilarious because they say it the way someone in an American rap song would say “Yeah” or “What.” Probably my new favorite thing. Naaaaaaaaaay.
I usually type my blogs right into the blog website box thing but since I’m in the middle of a sea I don’t have internet so I opened a Word document and it has been made decently obvious that I really like to use fragment sentences. Not a problem. I also like the word “So” a lot when trying to describe things. It is what it is.
When we go out to eat we usually just order a bunch of appetizers and share them and then split the bill. We usually will get a few tzatsikis, some sort of meat or fish, fried potatoes, olives, Greek salad, just typical stuff. Then we sit there and eat and be loud and keep ordering more and more while we run out. This makes the restaurant people love us for some reason. We are quite hilarious. Speaking our terrible Greek in Southern accents really gets us laughing. This leads to the restaurant people bringing us free dessert and shots by the end of the meal. Some of them will take shots with us too. They definitely bring enough too. Usually this stuff called “Rocky” which is clearly misspelled but what can you do about it. This is basically ouzo times 40 minus the licorice taste. A lot like vodka. Hope you could follow that math equation I just made for alcohol. Either way, these Greek people know how to do it. They are crazy jerks and rude and I hate most of them, but restaurant people are awesome. Just say thank you in Greek once and they’ll laugh at you and adore you and bring you free stuff. Americans are so selfish and fat and picky about their stuff. Also, tips are like 10 percent at most so it’s a little weird. A group of 5 of us will go get a full meal, be completely full and the bill will be 30 euros. Now, I could do the math and figure out what that means in American money, or I could just treat it as I already do (either equal to American money or Monopoly money or sometimes flex dollars) and be so excited about the fact that I spend about 6 euros for the most filling and delicious wide variety of food and move on with my life.
I’ll take a break from this to work on the paper that was due to Conor on January 12 that I still have yet to complete. I’ll be back soon with another stupid random stream of consciousness. This is good though because I usually rush through my blogs and remember so much stuff I want to say later. Deal with it. Or stop reading, it’s all up to you. If you choose to continue reading, stop complaining. I want both feet in.
So now I am in Athens and still haven’t posted in a few days so it’s just another extension of this ridiculous blog. Last night I went to a soccer game at the Olympic Stadium. Not that I like soccer or anything. I was obsessed with the Olympics in 2004 so this was an amazing experience for me. I saw the pool that Michael Phelps swam in. I think I peed my pants a little bit. I sat next to a kid who loves soccer hoping that his appreciate would rub off on me. It didn’t. But the team we were cheering for, AEK, had lost to the number one team last week 6-0 so the fans all hated them and came to riot. We were sitting in a section that was being rioted so we had to move. Luckily this Greek man helped us because these violent Greeks were just yelling at us. We moved to better seats and ended up leaving early just minutes before smoke bombs and tear gas started. Four of the rioters were arrested because they injured five policemen. This was all because they lost one game. And to think Cubs fans have been dealing with losing for over one hundred years.
I got my debit card in the mail from my mom today. When I picked it up from the institute, the lady was like “You could grab the rest of the kid’s mail if you wanted.” I did and realized that all these people get mail. Like, letters from their parents. It was weird. Mine was an envelope with an envelope inside that had my card in it and nothing else. Thanks, mom. You only love me two envelopes worth. Well, I bet it was really expensive so that’s a nice sentiment.
Now I will post this blog without editing or looking back at anything. This is very long and probably rambling and says nothing of importance but I don't feel like reading it. I apologize for the typos, repetition, and anything else that is wrong with this post that I don't feel like changing. Overall, I'm sorry.
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