Hey! This coming Monday is "Clean Monday" in Greece so we get a 4 day break starting tomorrow. So, I have decided to go to Istanbul for the long weekend!!! So exciting...I've wanted to go there for a long time and I can't believe I finally get to go. I leave tomorrow morning with a pretty big group - we are staying in the center of the city so we should be able to walk to all the main sites. And tomorrow night we are going to see whirling dervishes perform!!! anyways, I just wanted to check in before leaving...as usual I won't have my computer with me sooo I'll make sure to give you all a full update when I get back. 

Happy Thursday!!!

yay sas,

Jen 

Hello again! Apologies for my recent lack of posting...I have been gone a lot during the past two weeks and I have had some papers and presentations to deal with in between. A week and a half ago, our whole school took a field trip to the Argolid. The Argolid is a beautiful region in the Peloponnese famous for its extensive Mycenaean ruins. 

We stayed in the town of Nauplion, which used to be the capital of Greece before it was moved to Athens. On our way there, we stopped at Eleusis, an ancient cult center for the Goddess Demester, the Isthmus of Corinth, and Epidaurus, another ancient cult center that contains an "acoustically perfect" theater. After spending the majority of the day at these sites, we made our way to our hotel in Nauplion. Our hotel - hotel Discouri - could not have been more than 5 euros per night haha (let's just say it was far from luxurious), but Nauplion was awesome. The town's narrow streets, cute shops, and quiet atmosphere served as a welcome break from the craziness of Athens. Nauplion is also known for its komboloi (Greek worry beads) and gelato...which truly is amazing! The second day, we visited the Argive of Heraion - a cult center dedicated to Hera, Pallamidi, and Tiryns - an ancient Mycenaean fortification. That night we all ate at a traditional Greek taverna and listened to Greek music. The third day we headed over to Mycenae for the majority of the morning. This was, by far, the coolest part of the trip. The remaining fortification is massive and the view from the hill is absolutely stunning. We even got to go down into the original water cistern...it was pitch black and a group of 20 of us had to rely on one flashlight to find our way down the narrow, winding staircase. After visiting Mycenae, we boarded the bus to head back to Athens. Overall, greattt weekend.

Last week was spent in the classroom with a few class field trips to the Acropolis and National Archaeological Museum (to study geometric pottery). This past weekend, I headed up to Meteora with a few friends. Meteora, located in Thessaly, is a magnificent site that is famous for its strange rocks and monasteries. The rocks are bordered by two small villages - Kalambaka and Kastraki. On Friday morning at 8 am, we took a five hour train from Athens to Kalambaka. Once there, we went to check in at the hostel/family pension known as Koka Roka. This place is run by a mother-son team and sits at the base of the Meteora footpath. After going to a taverna and spending the evening in Kalambaka, we went to bed early to get some rest for Saturday's hike. In the morning - after eating delicious homemade omelets from the pension's taverna - we headed up the path leading to the monasteries. The first monastery we went to was known as Agios Triados. It was the smallest and most remote and it currently serves as the home of three monks. This particular monastery was featured in the James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only. After spending some time at Agios Triados, we headed over to St. Stefanos, a monastery run by 30 nuns. After this, we walked for about an hour and a half to the biggest monastery known as Great Meteora. Although this monastery was the most visited/touristy of the bunch, it had interesting museums that gave visitors a glimpse into the lives of the monks who live there. Overall, we visited three monasteries; however, we were able to walk by and see the remaining three throughout the day. 

We spent Saturday night relaxing at the pension and headed back to Athens early on Sunday. 

That's all for now. I'll post again soon...promise.

ya sas,

Jen

Today was a pretty standard Monday. I dragged myself out of bed around 7:45 and headed to the academic center to attend class. After my archaeology class I left the CYA building and grabbed a bus to the wonderful Agia Eleni hospital (the same one I spent 3 hours in on Friday) to attend my follow-up TB test visit. They checked my arm and my chest x-ray and declared me all clear. As I have mentioned previously, everyone in Greece smokes. Agia Eleni has no smoking signs (and it is a hospital so that should be a given), but based on the smell of the air throughout the building, it is obvious that no one actually follows that rule. In fact, the lady stamping my "no TB" certificate today had a difficult time doing so - she refused to put down the cigarette she was smoking in my face, complained, and struggled to hold onto my paperwork with her one, non-smoking hand.

After leaving the hospital, I went to the local Extra market and produce stand to buy oatmeal and vegetables. I also picked up some laundry detergent to do my first wash in Greece.

I have never been one of those "laundry-haters" - washing my clothes has never been a burden or a dreaded part of my week. That being said...I will be the first to admit that doing laundry here straight up sucks. There are a few washers and driers in the academic building but they don't work very well and from what I've heard, the driers don't work at all - so, most people just hand wash their clothes in the bathtub. Because our bathtub fails to plug and because we don't have any large buckets, I decided to try to wash all of my clothes in one of our kitchen pots. I placed the pot in the bathtub, filled it with detergent and slowly made my way through all items of clothing. This process took way longer than I expected, I ended up creating a new ocean on top of our bathroom floor, and I completely soaked myself with soapy water. In the end, however, I did successfully wash my clothes and I guess that's all that matters :) Small victories...right? haha

aight. well I have to go do some homework but I only have two more days of class this week! Thursday our whole school is taking a field trip to the Argolid...awesomeness.

byee!

Hello again and happy Sunday :) I haven't posted in a while but I'll do my best to remember most of the things I did this past week. Last Sunday night I headed over to Mike's Irish Bar to watch the Superbowl. It was one of the only places in Athens playing the game, so a good portion of the CYA students here (especially the boys) made the venue their game-watching place of choice. The game didn't start until 1 am and I left sometime during the first quarter.

On Monday - besides turning 21 (which is crazy...and saying the number still makes me feel old) - I met my archaeology class at the Acropolis. We worked our way around its base, examining a number of Mycenaean remains in the area. We are going to be studying the Acropolis in chronological layers, so we will make a number of trips to the site throughout the semester. Monday afternoon/night I did a little studying and hung out with friends. My roomies bought me a traditional Greek birthday cake and sang me Happy Birthday in Greek. So sweet of them.

Tuesday morning, I met my Modern Athens class outside of the city's parliament building. We visited King Otto's original Athenian home, the academy, the national library, and the university. Recently, we have been examining the ways in which Athenian architecture reflects the "making" of Greece's national identity - so this trip served as a supplement to our various readings.

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday in class, doing homework, and once again dealing with the ridiculousness that is my apartment. After having a non-functional stove/oven for two and a half weeks, my flat-mates and I went to speak to the housing director for a third time. All of us were extremely frustrated and we requested a new oven within two days. That evening, we returned to our apartment to find a new oven. So...new oven = good. However, after walking into the kitchen we realized that the electrician had simply dumped the oven in the middle of our kitchen floor. He had left the old stove next to the new stove and he had failed to attach the exposed wires of the new oven/stove to the wall. So that was pretty much fantastic. We had two giant non-functional stoves sitting in a kitchen big enough for maybe...3 people. Super. We ate another fantastic meal of cereal and fruit...yayy.

Thursday we mentioned the stove situation to our housing director for the fourth time and the electrician successfully installed the oven that day. So yes...we now, after 3 weeks have a functioning stove :) I decided to put my past frustrations behind me and to embrace my apartment as though none of the previous problems had happened. My apartment, on the other hand, had a different plan. That evening, before going to bed, I went to take a hot shower only to discover that there was no hot water. After trying a number of things, we discovered that our hot water heater was broken. I once again, started laughing and then really felt like throwing something out of the window. The next day - I made a trip over to the academic center to notify them of our newest problem...luckily it was fixed that same day.

Friday I spent 3 hours sitting in what could quite possibly be considered the MOST sketchtastic hospital in all of Athens. In order to obtain our extended student visas we are required to get a TB test and a chest x-ray. The hospital was dirty, the dude giving us our shots did not wear gloves, and we had to wait forever to get an x-ray from a women who could have easily passed for a man - other than that...super experience. After escaping from the hospital around noon, I stopped by the Pangrati farmer's market and bought a ton of fruit. A few hours later I caught the metro to Piraeus with some friends. We spent about 4 1/2 hours walking around the entire peninsula. We stopped to see two beautiful Orthodox churches and we lounged on some rocks by the water.

Saturday I decided I wanted to explore Athens. I left around 10 and wandered over to Filoppapo Hill, the hill of Pynx, and Plaka. Both hills have gorgeous views of the city and the paths leading to the top are green and beautiful. Around 1, I met up with my friends Melissa and Jess to climb Lykabettos Hill. It is one of the tallest hills/mini-mountains in Athens and has a beautiful little chapel and nice cafe at the top. The view from the top was amazing. After Lykabettos, we wandered through the Monastiraki flea market and eventually ended up back at our apartments in Pangrati. That evening we decided to try to find a Rembetika club. I had chosen Rembetika music as a possible paper topic for my Gender and Sexuality in Greek Culture anthro class and I wanted to see if the topic would work. Rembetika is a form of Greek blues - it grew out of the underground music scene and embodies masculinity. Listening to Rembetika was much harder than I expected. It took us forever to find a place, and once we got there we could not listen to the music without buying dinner or expensive drinks. The owners of the bars were surprisingly unfriendly. That being said - our search for Rembetika took us through the area of Psyrri. If you ever wonder where all the Greek people are at 1 am on the weekends - it is in Psyrri. The streets were jam-packed with people and the blocks were lined with hookah bars and clubs. Not going to lie - this place definitely took me out of my comfort zone a little...interesting though. After failing to find a Rembetika taverna that would let us listen to its music (for most you apparently have to make a reservation), we walked back to Syntagma to grab some tea at a cafe. After that, we headed back to Pangrati and went to bed.

Today I wandered back over to Monastiraki to buy some dried fruit...the dried fruit here is amazing. After that I went back to my apartment to do some homework for this coming week.

I have recently discovered two things: 1. Greek desserts are amazing (especially Baklava) 2. I love metros.

Thats all! I'll post again soon.

Jen

Weekend Update

Ok. so...weekend update. Friday was amazing. My flat-mates and I got up early and headed over to Monastiraki to catch the metro to Piraeus. On our way there we were "adopted" by 4 stray dogs from Syntagma Square. They surrounded the five of us on all sides and barked at any adult man that came close to us haha. This is actually typical of Athenian strays. Each dog has its own territory - they remain within their own area for the most part and often follow pedestrians until they enter into the territory of another dog. The 4 dogs we encountered followed us all the way to the metro station, into the metro station, and down onto the level where you actually get into the metro itself. The guards at the station had to escort the strays out of the building. 

Anyways, so after the dog situation we caught the metro to Piraeus - a nice coastal municipality on the outskirts of Athens. We bought tickets and boarded the ferry to Aegina. The ferry that took us from the mainland to the island of Aegina was the nicest ferry I have ever been on. There are tons of couches and televisions inside the main cabin and a full cafe/bar with coffee, pastries, and sandwiches. We pulled into Aegina Town a little over an hour after leaving the port of Piraeus. The island was absolutely beautiful. It is less touristy that other islands and often acts as a summer or weekend getaway for Athenians. We wandered around the main streets next to the port for a while and then decided to head over to the Temple of Apollo, an archaeological site originally built in the 5th century BC. The temple is located on a small hill looking over the Saronic Gulf and the view from the site is breathtakingly gorgeous. After wandering around the site and the site's museum, we decided to grab a bite to eat at one of the local restaurants. The restaurant we chose was great. It had a great view of the gulf from its upstairs window/balcony. All of us decided to order crepes - for whatever reason, Greeks really seem to love crepes. I have seen signs for them everywhere here. I ordered a "savoury" crepe (as opposed to a "sweet" crepe) that had spinach, feta, tomatoes, and another kind of cheese. It was sooo good :)

After eating we decided to head over to the other side of the island in order to see the famous Temple of Aphaia. This temple, which was built in 480 BC after the Battle of Salamis, is one of the major archaeological sites of the Saronic Gulf Islands. It looks out over the island and gulf and on clear days visitors can see as far as Cape Sounion. In order to get to the temple, we had to take a bus 17 km across the island. We soon discovered that the 2:15 bus was the last bus running that day - meaning if we took it, we would have no bus to take us back to Aegina Town. All of us decided that we weren't leaving the island without seeing the site - so we took the bus and decided that we would figure out how to get back later. 

When we arrived at the temple, we were the only people there. It was beautiful and peaceful - if I had had more time, I could have sat there looking out over the island for hours. Because we had no way of getting back, we decided to leave early and walk the 17 km back to Aegina Town. About half way back across the island we were lucky enough to grab a taxi who drove us the rest of the way for 10 euros total (for all five of us). I was glad we were able to find a taxi - but walking was an adventure in itself. 

Once back in Aegina Town, we looked at some stores, bought some fresh fruit, and a whole bag of Pistachio nuts. Aegina serves as Greece's main producer of pistachios - so the one's we bought were grown on trees from the island - they were delicious! Around 5 we caught the ferry back to Piraeus and then the metro from Piraeus back to Athens. After grabbing dinner at a local taverna we rented My Big Fat Greek Wedding and had a good laugh at how much more meaning the movie has now that we are living in Greece.

It rained all day Saturday - so we all just hung out in the apartment and did work. Later that evening - the saga of our ridiculous apartment continued. We still only have two functioning burners and our oven doesn't work. We decided to try turning the oven on again - however, when we moved the dial we lost all power and electricity in our apartment. At that point, Sara and I were in the middle of boiling a pot of vegetables. All we could do was laugh. An electrician was sent out and our lights went back on about 25 minutes later. We will be speaking to the program once again tomorrow to figure out how to resolve all of our apartment's issues. 

Today was great. After doing a little homework, my flat-mates and I visited the Acropolis. All I can say is - it was AMAZING. I couldn't believe I was actually there - standing next to the Parthenon looking out over all of Athens. It was definitely an unforgettable moment. So that's what I've been up to the past couple days. 

Heading back to my apartment now - fill you in more later!

Jen