Crisis and Democracy

Yesterday we were having a very interesting conversation with Maria about different aspects of Greek culture and politics, and I thought I’d recap some of those for you.

First off, Greek people never talk about the weather. She was saying how weather words were the most important thing she had to learn when she moved to America because that’s all we Americans talk about. Every day, her neighbor says hello and then makes some comment on the weather. If you start talking about the weather in Greece, people will look at you strangely and think you’re stupid. “Wow, it’s really sunny today!” or “It’s a hot one, huh?” Of course it is! It always is! One those rare days with rain you can comment, but why would your small talk consist of pointing out something consistent and unchanging about your environment? It’d be like pointing to an old oak tree in your front yard and noting, “Yep, still there.”

Greek small talk, then, is all about politics. If we want to chat up some Greeks, we need to know a lot of political words and be prepared to spend a while talking about it. Maria talked about how she was glad New Democracy won and had never heard of Syrizia until a year ago. Greeks want to stay in the Eurozone but need more time to pay Germany back. When pressed for more details about how that was to happen or what they would do with more time, she was pretty vague and unclear. A lot of her reasoning seemed to be that, as ancient Greece was the foundation of western civilization, the rest of Europe should love Greeks and want to help them. Tensions are really high—she was talking about how after the Greece v. Germany EuroCup game newspapers in Germany printed all kinds of nasty things about Greeks and Greeks about Germany as well, including one photoshopped photo of Merkel as a soccer goalie. From my discussion with her, I pretty much got the same ideas about the crisis I had before; there are huge, fundamental problems with the way the Greek government works, and Greeks feel entitled to help from their neighbors but are not prepared to take the cuts and make the changes necessary to fix the problem. They ask for more time, but more time to do what? Continue in the same vein and kick the can further down the road?

One thing Maria did talk about was volunteerism and the need for a changed mindset in Greece. I’d actually heard similar reports before about volunteering. It’s similar to paying your taxes; in Greece, if you don’t pay your taxes, you aren’t corrupt but if you can manage it you’re clever, having managed to keep what’s yours from the government. In the same self-serving attitude, volunteering seems nonsensical. While in the US people boost resumes by volunteering and showing community involvement, Greeks wonder why you would do something for free when the government should pay someone to do such menial jobs? Why would you as parents get together to clean up a park when the government should pay someone to do it, even if your kids play there everyday? Tanya told me that she has a Greek friend who volunteers with Roma children, and she doesn’t even tell her family what she does because a) they would want to bathe her and b) they wouldn’t understand why she would let herself be taken advantage of by teaching one night a week for free. Maria said that this attitude has been evolving since the 2004 Olympics in Athens when there were tons of volunteers, especially among younger people. In Rhodes, there is a group of about 50 volunteers that work their way around the beaches cleaning them up. But in general, volunteering is not a part of society. This attitude would certainly contribute to the crisis, if people feel the government should pay for everything and take care of everything and take no responsibility on themselves as citizens.

Spiros is actually writing a book that sounds fascinating called The Myth of Democracy in which he talks about how democracy today is actually really misunderstood and therefore leads to a lack of civil responsibility. People think that ancient Athens was a perfect democracy with perfect freedom but this was not the case. Democracy, he says, was less about freedom and more about obligation. Citizens (white, Athenian-born males, usually aristocrats) were called on to serve and contribute to the successful running of the state. You were called to this council or that council, or to serve on this jury or go to that meeting; on average, each citizen was called to serve 280 days of the year (which is why they were mostly wealthy, a peasant farmer couldn’t spare the time). There was an obligation on behalf of the citizen to make democracy work and you actually gave up some freedoms—my freedom ends where your freedom begins. People today think that democracy means freedom of speech to say whatever you want or do whatever you please, when in reality, the freedom of the Westboro Baptist Church to say whatever garbage they please infringes on someone else’s freedom to bury their child in peace. People think they can just sit back and let the government take care of everything, but  it should be your responsibility to serve your own community and contribute to running society. It’s interesting to hear his perspective as a Greek where things are seriously bad, but to an extent we have the same types of problems in the US.

Also, side-note, we found out Despina had some problem with her gallbladder. Maybe stones? We’re not sure exactly, but if it was stones and sudden pain that would explain why it was so unexpected. But hopefully this means she’ll be ok!

Week in Review

Hey! I know it’s been a while since my last post, but things have been pretty calm here. If you don’t mind, I’m just going to share a mish-mash of vignette-type stories from the past week. They’re not really in order or even that exciting, but it just will give you an idea about what I’ve been up to.

For the past week, I’ve been taking the second session of classes. I’m continuing with Greek but not getting credit for it (just for my own knowledge), so Maria is my teacher. I really miss having classes with Daniel! For a little bit I think he thought I had some kind of problem with him, even though he was wonderful and took us to his family house and was just an amazing teacher, but I made sure that he knew it was not my doing and that I really miss having class with him. Class with Maria is very different; again, because I’m not getting credit for it, it’s more like tutoring combined with self-teaching. Class is only a half hour/forty minutes, but she assigns me lessons and workbook pages and an essay a day to do on my own, then I come in the next day with any questions and she assigns me more work. It’s a LOT of work, though—it takes me hours each day! She tried to get me to read a newspaper and write about it but that was too difficult; there were just too many words I didn’t have in my vocabulary. Instead, I bought a children’s book of fairytales and have been writing reports on Cinderella and the Bad Wolf and the Seven Sheep. I actually really enjoy it, sad to say, but everyone has to start somewhere!

The bookstore where I bought the fairytales was actually really cool, I want to go back. All the books were in Greek and it was very disorganized but it felt really homey, with books stacked haphazardly on all surfaces and on shelves stretching to the high ceilings, and they were all beautiful. Stylistically you wouldn’t find something like that very often in the states, but it was actually bustling with people the whole time I was there.

I’m also taking my Greek mythology class with Spiros, Daniel’s son. It is so much fun; it’s like listening to stories every day for two hours. He’s so passionate about it and knows so much, and can communicate that knowledge in a really interesting way. I know a lot of the myths already, or have heard of them, but he puts a really interesting and at times poetic perspective to it. We also have been looking at how myths relate to the political climate of Athens around the 5th century BC and the political purposes to which it was put, etc. It’s all just really fascinating and I could listen to him for hours!

The new kids have been here a week. There are only eight of us total this time, and two of them we never see. I’m just having a harder time connecting to these kids and miss the last group, but I’m really grateful Nick is still here. We do EVERYTHING together and think in exactly the same way—without him I would probably spend a lot of time alone, but luckily I have him here! We go all over the city together, and everyone we talk to either thinks we’re brother and sister or dating. We can just chill together working on different things or be completely chatty for hours. He’s just really easy to be around and so much fun on top of it, we have a great time!

For the past week we have been going to Despina’s but she hasn’t been there; the place was closed. The first day we just thought maybe we were there at a weird time, the second thought something was fishy, and for the rest of the week we were actually pretty worried. This may sound weird, but if she had gone on vacation or something we felt she would have told us about it, because we go there all the time and she knew we still had a few weeks left. At this point we just wanted to make sure she was OK. When we went there today her door was open, but all the chairs were up on the table. We poked our heads in and saw her and said hello, and as turns out she has been in the hospital for the past week! She looked really pale and seemed tired, and won’t be opening the restaurant for another week, but she’s going to be OK. She told me what happened in Greek but didn’t know the name in English, but I wrote it down and will ask Maria about it tomorrow. She told us she was sorry she couldn’t cook for us and we very quickly made sure she knew we just wanted to make sure she was OK. She got a little teary and hugged us and I have to say I got a little teary too. She is such a sweet woman and has been so good to us, I’m just glad she’s going to be OK. I really want to bring her a get-well card and maybe a little gift just so she knows we’re thinking about her.

We really have been doing a great job in general of connecting with Greek people here. I think if there was a theme to this trip, that would be it; I’m just making friends with lots of Greeks that I encounter because I try so hard to talk to them in Greek. Sunday Nick and I were shopping in Old Town for gifts for people back home and we stopped in one jewelry store. Nick was talking to the owner for a little while and she had really good prices anyway compared to others (and we have been all over for weeks so we know), but she said she couldn’t possibly lower the price for two bracelets and a pair of earrings anymore. Then I asked her a question in Greek and she was surprised and exited, and began asking me about my family, what I was doing in Rhodes, etc. After that, she gave Nick the earrings for free. I was looking at a particular pendant and when I asked the price she said that the one I was looking at was cheap metal, I didn’t want that, and pointed me towards an almost identical one for which she gave me the same price, and sold me a couple of cheap bracelets at a price much lower than the one she sold to a tourist couple before me. I bought a silver bracelet that was tagged 49 euro for 20. Which just goes to show you how much these places mark up items for tourists, but just speaking a little Greek meant she took care of us. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, she saw some tea that Nick had bought and told us that it wasn’t real Greek stuff as marketed but was imported from other countries to sell to tourists. If we came back the next day, she said, she would bring us the same stuff from her garden that she ties and dries in the sun and then has for tea at breakfast every morning. She said all this in Greek, and I understood! So, we came back today, and not only did she have a bag of the tea herbs, but bags of rosemary, bay leaves, and mint for us, more than we know what to do with. All because we spoke a little Greek. It really is amazing. Greeks are many things, but Greeks look out for other Greeks—when they find out you have Greek blood and speak the language, or at least try, they treat you amazingly.

Another woman was great to us because we spoke Greek. Our friends had left us a jar of small change that totaled 6.34 (and an American penny) and we took it with us to the liqueur store. We talked to the owner in Greek for a while and felt like jerks when it came time to pay and we whipped out the change in a bottle. We asked her if it was OK to pay in the change. “I want this. Of course! I need this!” she said with a laugh. “How much is it?” We told her the amount, and without even counting just dumped it in the cash drawer, and even though the total was closer to twenty just took ten from us for the rest, laughing and joking with us the whole time. Greeks are good to other Greeks; we wouldn’t lie about the money because we wouldn’t do that to our fellow Hellenes.

Not everyone is so great as the people we take the time to talk to. We went to one restaurant as a group of six that gave us a basket with six rolls and when it came time to pay the check said 9.60 for bread. One of us asked about it (in English); most places in Europe charge a few euros for bread if you eat it, but that was ridiculous. He pointed to a point on the menu that said “Bread: 1.60” and said “Per person. It’s fair, lady.” I was so upset! That was just scumbag trickery trying to nab tourists, you could have bought loaves and loaves for that much! But, we had already eaten it and didn’t want to make a scene so we had to pay it. It’s important to remember that not everyone has your best interests at heart.

One day, heading back from the beach, Nick and I were looking to cross a busy street. A pair of tourists on an ATV (it’s always tourists on the ATVs, because they want to rent something but are too nervous to rent a scooter, and they piss real drivers off because they go so slow but use the roads) stopped at a crosswalk to let us pass. Which was strange enough, that they not only know what a crosswalk was but stopped to let us go. Spiros said that he thought crosswalks were just street decorations until he lived in London for five years…Then, when we were waiting in the middle to cross the rest of the way, someone else stopped for us! Twice in one day? This time it was a Greek girl on a scooter. She stopped with plenty of space and time for the car behind her to stop too, but instead he kept the same speed and drove on by her, honking. “Eh, malaka!” she called after him with a lazy wave of her hand and turned around to motion for the next car to stop, and then waved us forward. So, two people stopping within ten seconds to let us cross at a crosswalk was strange enough in Greece. Then, upon reaching the other side, we saw the guy who had passed the girl on the scooter had stopped his car ahead of the intersection, gotten out, and ran at the girl waving his hands and shouting as she drove by! She had enough space to get around him and was fine, but what the hell was he thinking?! She could have crashed trying to avoid him and seriously hurt herself, or even crashed into him and hurt both of them—yes, it’s a Vespa, but that would still hurt, you crazy man! All because someone was actually being a courteous driver towards pedestrians. I swear, road rules in Greece equate pedestrians with squirrels; you hope you don’t hit them as they scamper across the road but don’t really change your driving at all, and just kind of do a “yep, the made it” check in the rearview as they drive away.

What else has happened? Not too much of interest. I’ve just been doing a lot of homework this past week, working for Maria, spending some time outside at the beach or walking around town. I went out a night or two and had a lot of fun bar-hopping with two of the new kids in Old Town; I’d never really explored the nightlife there much but it had much more personality than Bar Street in New Town. Even so, Greeks don’t dance! Which doesn’t mean I didn’t, it just means I got some funny looks from people just standing around holding drinks. Still, I prefer having a few drinks with Nick and a group before dinner over going out late-night to clubs and bar—especially on weekdays, I have class early and it’s just not worth it for me, plus it’s much cheaper to split a cheap bottle of Rhodean wine than to pay for drinks out.

Anywho, that’s all I can really think of to write about this week. It’s been slow, but I’m definitely enjoying myself. I’ll try to be better about keeping you informed this upcoming week! This is our last week in Rhodes Town, and then (I think because it’s season and the hotel needs our rooms for people who can pay full price) we actually spend our last week on the island not in Rhodes Town but Soroni, a little village about half an hour from here. The pace of life will be much different, but I’m actually excited to escape the tourists and give village life a try. After that week is the ten-day study tour of the mainland and then I’m heading back home. It seems like a lot but I know it will fly by so fast—before you know it I’ll be home!

Rule of the Masses

These past few days have been so amazing! I’ve had a lot of fun but I’ve also been able to connect with Greek people in a way that I never really got to in Thess—I loved my friends in Thess but most of them were Americans, or kids my own age. I don’t really have any pictures, though, so this post is going to be kind of longer with no photos to break it up, I apologize for that in advance!

Thursday my Greek professor, Daniel, proposed a sort of impromptu trip to his summer house in Faliraki; a nearby church was having some kind of liturgy and festival for St. Amos and he thought it would be interesting for us to see it. Rachel and James wanted to study for their exam the next day, so I went and was able to bring Nick as well. Family members came and went, but at one point it was the two of us, Daniel and his wife, all three grandchildren, one son and his wife, the wife’s parents, and his wife’s sister’s kid. Some spoke a little English, some a little more, but we spent most of the time trying to talk to each other in Greek. It was so great! I got so much practice with real conversation and they all loved that I was trying. At the beginning everyone spoke very slowly and simply, but as time wore on and they saw how much I knew, they began to speak normally—I couldn’t always understand and would ask for clarification, but it was so fun to just be swallowed up and accepted by the family.

First we stopped by Anthony Quinn Bay because I expressed interest in seeing it and it was close-by—it was absolutely gorgeous! The water was smooth and intensely blue and the shoreline had a little beach, but the rest of it was massive rocks and hills coming right to the water’s edge. I was nerdily excited to see it. We just looked at it, and then had a swim at the beach near their house. Faliraki has a massive, 5 km sandy beach, and the water is much smoother because it’s on the windless side of the island, but that also means Faliraki is a good 2-3 degrees Celsius warmer than Rhodes; even when it got dark it was really hot!

Their home was small but really gorgeous; my favorite part was their garden. They grew all kinds of things: figs, oranges, lemons, grapes, olives, kumquats, lavender, mint, oregano, a couple different kinds of flowers and roses. The figs were actually ripe for the picking so we helped to collect them and ate some right off the tree—you can’t get more Greek than that! We had kumquats and oranges too. It smelled so delicious in the garden, and it was so fun to help!

We went to the church after for the festival. Daniel is a canter so he was actually part of the service, but we didn’t all stay for the whole thing. It was a tiny little church, very Greek-looking with the white walls and blue trimming, but it was interesting because below the church (it was up on a hill) a fair was set up that looked just like the Greek festivals we have at home, with loukomades and fair food and crappy little fair games. People were coming and going as the service progressed, walking up to kiss the icons or talk to friends as the service went on.

We went back to the house afterwards for a lengthy Greek dinner. I helped the women in the kitchen while Nick helped the guys grill, and we had quite a feast: grilled fish, pork, homemade tzatziki and homemade bread, fried potatoes, Mythos, ouzo, ice cream for dessert. We also had some homemade lemoncello that was absolutely delicious, and Stamatia told me how to make it. We all just sat around a big table, children and adults, and everyone yelled and joked and ate—it was a big, chaotic mess and I loved it! The children were adorable; the youngest had gotten a bubble gun at the fair and was shooting everything, and the two oldest (ages 11 and 10) had been learning English in school and practiced on us. They had been learning for only 2 or 3 years, but they were so good! They spoke to us in English or very slow Greek and we would respond in Greek, and Katerina especially was so proud of us! Daniel’s son made fun of Nick for being too skinny, saying that in Greece it is the rule of the masses—and by masses, he meant body mass, so you could make women do what you want, he said as he squished his wife in a huge hug. Daniel told us stories about Greek weddings and how a friend was once so excited to eat one of his figs he leapt over the wall but the ladder collapsed under him and he sprawled on the ground, figs in hand, telling them it was worth it. It was such a fun night, and we really were just one of the family, everyone loved that we were there and trying to speak Greek, it was amazing! Mentally exhausting as well, I just had to expend so much more energy to keep us with what everyone was saying and respond appropriately, I was so tired by the end! We’ve been invited back, though, and I’m so excited to go!

The next morning I had my Greek final, which I aced, and then our professors took James, Rachel and I out for coffee to celebrate. There were people learning to windsurf right outside the coffeehouse, and it looked like so much fun! Standing up looked to be easy, but actually getting somewhere was more challenging.

A bunch of us then walked to a beach about 20 minutes away on the other side of Rhodes Town where they have a huge diving board thing set up out in the water—they had a normal sized one, but you could climb further up for a medium-sized one, and finally one about 15 meters off the ocean. We jumped off that one a few times, it was terrifying but exhilarating. Then, since it was a few people’s last night in Rhodes, we went out to one of Nick and my favorite restaurants. The owner is named Kostas and is always so happy, and he let me take everyone’s order and called me and Nick his children.

That night, Friday night, we decided we were going to stay up and watch the sun rise. We played games in someone’s room for a little while, like Kings and a game without a name that was a cross between telephone and pictionary that was hilarious; everyone writes down a sentence and passes it to their left, where they read it and draw a picture to describe it, and then pass it again, and the next person looks at the picture and writes a sentence describing it, until you get your original back; “Justin was punched in the eye by a gypsy” becomes “Sarah hates cats” with a series of entertaining sketches in between.

Then we went to hookah, the Euro shot bar in Old Town, another bar in New Town that was having a smurf-themed party and coated us in blue paint. Around four we went back to the hotel, changed into bathing suits while trying not to touch anything, and then went down to the beach for a nighttime swim. The water was a little chilly but it was really fun. Then we just lay on the beach talking until we noticed the sky was starting to lighten. At that point, we walked along the boardwalk to the diving board beach since it faced east. We passed a couple literally having sex on the beach, I’m not really sure what to do with that bit of information. At any rate, by the time we got to the beach it was fairly light out but the sun was not quite up. We sat on the beach for a few minutes until the sun came up over the mountains of Turkey; once it decided to come up, it rose so fast! After that the attitude was “yay we did it, now I’m tired let’s go”. We got back to the hotel around 630, I tried to wash the remaining blue crap off me, and finally got in bed around 7.

I couldn’t really sleep that well, however, and was up by 11 anyway. We just had a pretty chill day yesterday, everyone was tired. We went back to the diving board and just lay on the beach, and I tried to nap throughout the day. More people are leaving today, so we had another group “last dinner in Rhodes” and then some of us watched the Greek-Russia game for EuroCup. Greece won! It was really exciting; I’m not really sure how the points translate, but I think, based on the level of excitement with the win and what I could understand from the announcers, this means Greece gets to advance to the next round of the EuroCup! Which will just be so fun to watch while I’m here, plus it means I have another chance to wear my Greek team jersey. I went right to sleep as soon as the game was over, I was so tired!

And that was my weekend. Sorry this post is so long! Today looks like its going to be another slow day, and then Monday I continue taking Greek lessons with Daniel and start my Mythology classes with Spiros. Everyone who isn’t staying for the next session is leaving either today or early tomorrow morning, and most of the new kids are coming in at some point today. Even though it’s only been three weeks, some of the kids this session have been really great, I wish they were staying the whole time I was!

Three Weeks Already?

Hey all! I can’t believe that my first three weeks in Rhodes are almost over—I have my final tomorrow for Greek, and Monday will be starting my Greek Mythology class (and hopefully, continuing on to the next level of Greek!)

Since I’ve returned from Thess, nothing too exciting has gone on. The biggest drama was over my bank card—I just can’t catch a break money-wise this trip! I went to an ATM to withdraw some money, and the machine swallowed up my card and wouldn’t give it back! It wouldn’t respond to any button-pushing or angry jiggling, my card was just taken. I was there for twenty minutes before I finally gave up. The banks were all closed by this point, but the next day I got up early and went to the bank the ATM was affiliated with to see if they could open up the machine and give it back, but they were so unhelpful; they pretty much just shrugged, adopted a ‘yeah that happens sometimes’ attitude, and told me to call my bank. It took half of my remaining money to place an international call back to my bank, have the first card canceled, and work on getting another one sent out to me. A new debit card is on the way, however, and my parents wired me some money in the meantime, so it’s all been taken care of. It’s all fine now, but it was extremely stressful at the time! All my friends here were really great about making sure I was covered until I got the money in, for which I’m really grateful.

In my continued quest to really get into the EuroCup, I got a team Greece jersey. Our chances are not looking very good, though; we lost to the Czech Republic (arguably through some bad calls, a goal was called offsides and discounted even though it wasn’t), which means we have to beat Russia, and even then whether we continue or not hangs in the balance of factors outside our control. I’m really having fun trying to be a soccer fan, but it’s also hard for someone with my attention span; I’ll be talking with my friends for 20 minutes and not really paying attention to the game, and when I look back it’s the same as it was before; it’s not imperative to constantly be watching to understand, but then you miss it the few minutes really exciting things happen.

Yesterday I went with James, Rachel, their professor (my professor’s son), my professor, and his four year old granddaughter to see some of the ancient sites in Rhodes. Our two classes went instead of lessons, and it was so much fun! Spiros is incredibly knowledgeable about Ancient Rhodes, the Colossus of Rhodes, and a plethora of other topics, but he knows how to communicate that information, through stories and anecdotes, in a way that is really interesting and fun. We went to the Acropolis of Rhodes and it was so interesting, and really beautiful. According to mythology Rhodes rose out of the sea to be the home of Helios, the sun god,  and the temple at the top of the Acropolis was dedicated to him, the patron god of the island. The way Spiros described the design, at the base of the stairs you would see nothing of the temple because of their angle, but as you climb the top slowly rises into view. On the top, there would have been four huge, bronze horses pulling a chariot with Helios inside, so as you climbed the stairs, it would slowly come into view. When you went to the temple of the sun god on Rhodes, the island of the sun, you would see a miracle; the sun would rise for you.

The remains of the temple at the top of the Acropolis.

He also told us some things about the Colossus which were really interesting. On all the postcards that show the Colossus in Old Town, he’s doing an awkward straddling move over the harbor. That, apparently, is completely inaccurate. First, all we know from writings about how it looked was that he had “a loose stance”, but we do know how it was made and how tall it was. When they made it, they would do it in sections and then pile dirt around those sections as scaffolding, burying it to complete the next section, etc; that would have been impossible over the sea. Even if they had the technology, to stand across the harbor it would have had to be three or four times larger than we know it was. Additionally, it took 12 years to complete, and you would not shut down the busiest harbor of an island famous for its importance as a diplomatic center and trading center in the region to build a statue. Apparently, the whole myth of its location there was started in the 1300s, long after the Arabs had taken it away, when an Italian historian came across some writing saying how the Colossus ruled “over land and sea” and thought that meant he stood over land and sea: the harbor. In reality, it was up on a hill above the Grand Master’s Palace; you definitely would have seen it entering the harbor, but it wasn’t on the harbor, and probably not in that wildly creepy stance on all the postcards. Thank goodness.

The granddaughter was adorable as well. Her name is Paraskevi (Friday) and she was so cute! She kept picking flowers to give to me and Rachel, and I, of course, always love it when little kids speak Greek! It was interesting because Spiros said that he grew up really close to the acropolis so it was always their playground, and talked about how he dared himself to ride his bike along a really high, narrow wall. It was just really fun to hear about how the local community still gets enjoyment out of the ruins; these ancient wonders are just part of their daily lives. Seeing Paraskevi jumping from ancient ruble to ancient rock was just another reminder of that fact.

We also went to the acropolis at Ialyssos, called Fileremos, which had a gorgeous view of the island, a massive cross you could climb up inside, and a monastery that had origins stretching to pre-Byzantium times. Spiros pointed to a house at the base of the hill the acropolis was on, and said that from that point on, the hill underneath was hollow and filled with all kinds of military arsenal and equipment. According to some treaty, islands are not supposed to have any kind of military presence outside of the national guard, but because of relations with Turkey they have all kinds of weapons stockpiled under there. And, Spiros said, the Turks know exactly how much Greeks have on their islands and Greeks know exactly how much the Turks have on their islands, and where it is, etc. So they both know, and they both know the other knows, but it’s there nonetheless.

The view from the cross at one end of the acropolis, and the view from the monastery on the other. In the second photo, the sandy-looking tip of land is Rhodes Town.

                   

The monastery. There were a ton of peacocks around; males, females, babies, and the air was filled with their mewling call. This tunnel of olive trees connected the monastery to a balcony-like patio overlooking the island.

At any rate, that was a really fun outing. I also found our that Spiros is teaching the Mythology class, which got me all excited because you can just tell, based on how he handled this trip, that it will be a really fun class.

Today, I’m going with my professor Daniel, his wife, and Paraskevi to Faliraki, near to Rhodes Town, where they have a summer home. There is a festival for St. Amos going on there today, and we’re going to swim, go to the festival, and then go to their home for a homecooked meal. I’m so excited, and I just love how they’ve all taken me in as one of them and are so excited not only to teach me the language but to teach me about the culture of Greece, and I’m so grateful they are so glad to share it with me. In class today, he said that tonight we are going to speak only Greek; ask questions if I need to, but to try to do as much as possible without using English. I’m so excited to try!

EARTHQUAKE!!

So, quick update, there was an earthquake her on Rhodes this afternoon!! No worries, it wasn’t bad at all but it took me by surprise. I had just gotten back from the airport and was exhausted, on the verge of sleep, when the bed started shaking. In my half-asleep state I thought someone was in the room shaking the bed and freaked out. Hit with a sudden rush of adrenaline, I leapt up, all tiredness gone. It took me a second to figure it out but the building stared making a really weird noise and all the furniture was shaking. It wasn’t too bad, but it felt like I was on a ship. I wasn’t really sure what one is supposed to do during an earthquake, but it didn’t seem that bad so I did nothing at all…but really, it was so slight and lasted such a short time that I wasn’t even sure it was an earthquake until I confirmed it with Nick later. We caught up on what the other had done over the weekend over tzatziki and gyros at Despina’s—delicious!

Weekend in Thessaloniki!

Hello all! I’ve just returned from a short weekend in Thessaloniki with Tanya! It was so much fun, I really had a great time! I left Rhodes on Friday around 3:30pm and got in to Thess an hour later. It was so great to see Tanya again! She’s now living in the room that I lived in at Papkyriazi, and it makes me so happy to see her there instead of some new kid each semester, not that it really matters. She’s not alone though—now she lives with a beta fish named Bucephalus (bonus points if you can tell me who he’s named after!) That room only had one bed though, so I slept next door in the twins room when it was time for bed. It was the perfect time for me to come visit, because the spring kids had left the previous weekend and the summer kids are coming next weekend, so it was only me and T at Papa K!

 I’ve missed you, Papa K!

I really loved being back in Thessaloniki. Instantaneously, I felt at home and recognized all the building and shops and streets—it was like I’d never left, everything was so fresh in my mind. I walked by a dog sleeping on a stoop that had been sleeping there last spring. The most blatant differences I saw were a lot closed buildings and shops that had been open in my time, and an increased amount of graffiti for the KKE, the communist party in Greece. (Side note: Tanya was telling me about how, the day before, live on Greek news, a political discussion involving a fascist and a communist escalated as they began screaming and swearing at each other and culminated in the communist yelling “you f***ing fascist!” and punching the woman in the face. And these are the people Greeks are going to elect to run their country in a week…) Anyways, being back in Thess made me realize how much I had gotten out of my spring here and I was so grateful to have had such a good time, because coming back, I realized exactly how much I had loved it! Tanya and I were talking about how Thess is not touristy at all, but one giant, well-kept secret. There is so much history in the city and so many fabulous, amazing things, but you really have to search for them, or stumble across them, and hence it’s not really conducive to tourism; but for that reason, you really come to love living there because the city belongs to you. It’s something you discover and something you come to know in a very personal way and that’s why its so special. Being back helped me see how much I really do love the city in its own right; at the same time, I also realized how lucky I was to have such an amazing group to share it with—I loved seeing Tanya again and hanging out with her this weekend but it was my parea and my friends in Thess that helped make the city come alive, and while I love the city, I loved it even more because of the people that are no longer there.

Anyway, I dropped my stuff off and then we headed to ACT to watch the Euro Cup opener, Greece vs. Poland, in the cafeteria. There was some kind of alumni event going on that evening but we watched the game before it started with all the student volunteers. (The café was redecorated and much nicer than when we were there!) The game was fun and really exciting, we should have won! A tie is a fine beginning though—apparently we’re already doing better than last time. I’ve decided I’m going to get really into the Euro Cup; I’m sure I can find a knockoff jersey or a team scarf here, and I’ve got an app to tell me when the games are and past statistics, etc.…πάμε Ελλάδαρα!

Afterwards T and I went to a restaurant that she had discovered since I had left, close to our building, called ελιά λεμόνι, olive and lemon. It was around 10:00 by this time, late even for Greek dinner, but the place was still packed, and while we were seated immediately, there were people waiting for seats even by the time we left. The food was absolutely delicious and so cheap! We had feta, a delicious salad with bruschetta, a sautéed mushroom appetizer that was my absolute favorite, some kind of eggplant appetizer, and a chicken entrée, plus drinks and bread, for under 20 euro. It tasted fantastic as well, I could see why it was crowded.

We ordered (and ate) enough for five people…delicious!

Afterwards T and I walked down the boardwalk and sat by the water talking for a really long time. It was so great, because we were able to pick up right where we left off—there was no struggle to come up with conversation topics, no awkward pauses. We’ve kept in contact since I left Thess but the amount of contact has varied with how busy we each have been; it didn’t matter at all. She’s just a fantastic human being and I love her to pieces! It was so much fun, and so effortless, to hang out with her again.

The next morning we made eggs and toast and ate it out on the balcony before heading off to a nearby beach. Thessaloniki in the summer is temperature-wise the same as Rhodes, but whereas Rhodes is windy and gets cooler at night and is therefore more comfortable, Thessaloniki has a still, oppressive kind of stifling heat, and Thessalonians flee to the nearby beaches in the summer to escape the heat. We went with Alex, L.A., Gogos, and some Greek girls. L.A. and Gogos were students this past semester who are staying on for the summer in Thess, and Alex is a Greek student who was at ACT during my spring there, but I never really hung out with him that much. He’s actually really cool and we all had a lot of fun together—I wish I had known that when I lived in Thess!

Breakfast on the balcony with T!

The beach was super crowded and was playing dance music, but the beach was sandy and the water cool, and it got deep very slowly so you could wade out pretty far and still touch the bottom. We all talked, laid in the sun, swam, played volleyball in the water. It was such a fun, relaxing day, and everyone joked around and teased each other in Greek. I got to use (and learned a lot more) slang and sayings in Greek; because the main people that have taught me slang in Greek have been boys, when I start using Greek I have the swagger of a young Greek male, so it’s kind of hilarious but a lot of fun to trade barbs back and forth with the guys as if I was one.

Tanya, Alex and I on the beach near Iraklion, about a half hour out of Thessaloniki.

After our day at the beach we went back to Papa K and tried to take a nap before heading out again at night—the sun really does drain so much energy from you! Tanya taught me how to make frappes and we each had one to replenish our energy—and now I can do it at home! It was actually pretty good; I’ve definitely paid for worse.

We met up with the guys and grabbed pitas at a place near the White Tower that I’d actually been to a  few times before I left that uses really delicious, fresh ingredients, and then we all had a beer on the paralia by the White Tower. After that we went to one of the Irish bars, where were were the only patrons, had another beer and all talked together, and then went to one of the clubs on the water called Ice. It was new since I’d been gone but Alex knew people there so we were able to get a table. It was really fun; they placed a mixture of American and Greek hits and we all just sort of danced and had fun, and I knew a lot of the Greek songs from last spring! Apparently on Thursdays at this place they play exclusively Greek music and you can smash plates for a truly Greek experience.

Today I woke up, made frappes with Tanya, and then we headed up to the Old City to one of Tanya’s new favorite places, a café with a beautiful rooftop view of the whole city. We talked, had more coffee, went and sat on the ancient 2000 year old wall, talked some more, and before you know it, it was time for me to head back to the airport. It was a really short trip, but it was so worth it, I am so glad I got to see Tanya again! It just confirmed the fact that yes, we are going to be friends forever, which was really great. The study tour lands in Thess for less than a day in July, but hopefully I’ll be able to see her again then.

The view from the café and the wall in Ana Poli, the Old City.

So, I got back to Rhodes this afternoon, and immediately took a nap; I was exhausted, I had very little sleep this weekend! So worth it though, I had an amazing weekend!

Pictures!

I know I haven’t taken many pictures yet, so today I decided to have a touristy day and shop and take pictures in Old Town. While I didn’t actually buy anything (you’re welcome, Dad!) I walked around the main streets of Old Town. I went right after class so everything, like the Grand Master’s Palace, was still open. Museums, monuments, and the like close around 2:30/3:00 here in Greece so this was actually the first time I made it to Old Town in time to see them open. While I didn’t go all the way in since the program will take us one day for free, I got to go a little further in than usual and got some different pictures.

Until now I’ve taken note of how little English is being spoken around me—for the most part the tourists have been German, Italian, Russian, and Scandinavian, but not many American or British tourists. Today, however, there was an explosion of English-speaking tourists; I think an American cruise ship or two must have reached Rhodes today and unloaded a boatload of tourists, since it was more crowded than I’ve seen it so far, a large portion of the crowd was speaking English, and many of those English-speakers were in beach attire. Plus, the waiter at the restaurant asked me (in Greek) if I had just come from the boat when he saw my huge camera.

I’ve been able to use a lot of Greek, which I’m really enjoying. I talk to Despina, various shop owners, the man I bought postcards from, etc. Whenever I try to use Greek in shops people usually ask me about it and then I get to practice Greek while having conversations with them. I also am beginning to recognize people and sort of make friends. Most restaurants have owners or employees standing outside trying to get people to come in, and since I’ve been here a while I’ve spoken with a lot of them and they recognize me too. Today while walking around I saw Greek Alec Baldwin at one restaurant and Yiannis and Nik at another and talked with each of them for a few minutes in Greek. It’s a great way to practice, I say hello to them each time I pass, and they have all offered me great deals if I ever decide to eat there!

Ok, so here are some pictures I’ve taken today:

The first shows the outer wall of Old Town which still encircles this entire part of Rhodes Town. The grass would have been a moat back in the day. The second picture shows Ambrose’s Gate—there are apparently nine total gates into Old Town, but this is the one that is closest and most accessible from where I am.

Once inside, Ambrose’s Gate is really close to the Grand Master’s Palace, a castle that is one of the highlights of Old Town. I don’t actually know too much of the history—I’m waiting to take a tour until I can do it for free! The second picture shows the main entrance to the Palace.

Across from the Palace you can see the Mosque of Sulyman the Great. It was a church originally but was turned into a mosque during the Ottoman occupation. Again, more history to follow! The next picture shows the main square in Old Town. It’s full of some of the pricier and stereotypically Greek food that caters to tourists, and the callers here are really aggressive about trying to get you into their restaurants because there is very little difference between them and their neighbors. They have people out front offering you 10% discounts or a free bottle of wine, and they put their most attractive waiters on the balcony to wink and wave at you and call you up. Underneath the stairs there is our favorite wine shop; the man who owns it is really nice and knowledgeable about wine and you can get wine from Rhodes for 3-5 euro. Most nights, someone in a really bad Shrek costume stands by the fountain—I couldn’t tell you why.

Street leading to a little square in Old Town. Everything is cobbled and usually pretty narrow but there is plenty of greenery throughout. Also cats. Whereas Thessaloniki was filled with stray dogs, Rhodes has its share of dogs but is overrun with cats. I had lunch at the little taverna with the waiters in orange shirts. They were all really nice and pleased I was trying to speak Greek. When I told one I was studying in Rhodes for six weeks, he said “και χρώμα σοκολάτα, ωραία!”, or “and chocolate-colored, nice!” I was really confused for a second but I think he was trying to say it must be really great and it’s not all studying since I’m so tan, but I thought that was a really funny way to say tan and I’d never hear that expression before. I had some yemista there that was pretty good—the ones Tanya, Abby and I made for Papa K were better, though!

And, just for reference, on my side of Rhodes I’m close to the beach. Semiramis, my hotel, is in the foreground there, and all you do is walk 50 meters down that hill and you reach the beach! You can see the gorgeous blue water behind.

Weekend in Rhodes

I had such a fun weekend!

Friday night Nick, Bill, James and I went to this little place called Despina’s Nick and I had walked by and decided to try. It was so delicious! It was a tiny tiny little place, literally a kitchen in Despina’s house, but it was amazing. She cooked everything up fresh right there—the tzatziki, made from scratch, was the best I’ve ever had, and her gyros and souvlaki were amazing too. She was so nice too—I got to practice my Greek as she asked us about what we were doing in Rhodes and told us about her grandchildren. It was literally like being in grandma's kitchen, homey and confortable and delicious!

That night we went out in Old Town to the euro shot bar. There was a Latin-themed place across the street and since both places were tiny, patrons of both were dancing salsa in the cobbled streets. We ended up sitting on the beach listening to the waves and talking at the end of the night.

Saturday the whole group took a trip around the island to see some of interesting sites Rhodes has to offer outside of Rhodes Town. Most of the group went in the van while Bill, Sarah, Nick, and I rode in the car with Maria.

I love Maria! She is the Greek teacher for the first two levels and is in charge of running everything here in Rhodes. She’s absolutely adorable; the most kindhearted, sweet, and stereotypically Greek woman I’ve ever met. Her laugh is high-pitched, often, and earnest, and absolutely infectious. She brought water and sandwiches she made for everyone and even made the vegetarian take one just in case. I loved riding in the car with her because she would tell us stories about past students, her children, the landmarks we passed, Greek culture, and miracles. She’s an incredibly devout Greek Orthodox Christian and I loved listening to her talk about her faith and the stories Greeks have; they’re so interesting and Maria believes them completely. She told us about pirates in the 15th century who tried to rob a church we passed and stabbed the icon in disrespect, only to be turned to stone. She told us about Paul and Silas stopping in Rhodes on their way to Rome and getting off the boat to spread Christianity, converting Greeks and curing lepers in her hometown of Soroni—a church stands there still today over the spring the lepers washed in and every July there are two weeks of festivals there that all of Rhodes comes to participate in. She told us how in that very church during World War II her husband’s grandfather watched Nazis disrespectfully dive into the spring only to have their skin fall off when they got out. The were cured only when the people convinced them to make a tamas, a promise to the saints, and from then on those particular two treated the natives and their saints with more respect. “This is reality, paidia” she told us solemnly, “these miracles happened here at this very church”. It was so fun to listen to her talk and learn about what’s important to the islanders, and to just enjoy the company of someone so happy!

We first went to Kamiros, and ancient city on the coast that dates back to 5/6th century BC. The history of the place was fascinating; Rhodes’ Old Town dates back to the fifteenth century, the time of the knights, but this settlement was so much older! And yet, it still had bathhouses and running water and 191 massive columns crowning the hill before the temple at the top. It was finally destroyed by an earthquake. In the first picture, taken from the bottom looking out, the land mass you see across is Turkey—you can see it from Rhodes Town too. The second picture gives you a better sense of the layout of the city. This is all that is uncovered, although if archaeologists were to continue to dig to the right of the picture, they would find much more of the city—only a third has been excavated. The Italians did most of the excavation, here and at other sites around the island, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the beginning of World War II when they occupied the Dodecanese. Mussolini was actually having a summer house restored for himself on a mountain you could see from Kamiros, but he didn’t have a chance to use it before World War II broke out.

 

Next we stopped briefly at Monolitho’s Castle on the way to Lindos. It dated back as far as Kamiros but was then used in the time of the knights as a watchtower and garrison, keeping an eye out for pirates and enemy ships. The first is the castle from a distance, you can see how it’s high up on a kind of cliff. The next is some of the ruins, and the final is me with the view from the castle—it’s really breathtaking, with a great view of the coastline.

Our final destination of the day was Lindos, another famous town on Rhodes Island, famous for its acropolis, sandy beaches, and picturesque town. Once again, the acropolis dates back to archaic times and was topped with a temple dedicated to Athena, but was made over into a fortress in the fifteenth century of the knights. There were a lot of caves around Lindos—the one directly underneath the acropolis was actually where they filmed Guns of Navarrone—shout-out for mom’s favorite movie! (We also drove by Anthony Quinn Bay on the way back to Rhodes). After we climbed to the acropolis we had free time for two hours. I went with a couple of people to the beaches. This one, on the calm side of the island, was mostly sandy and smooth and clear as glass. We swam around between sailboats and floated easily in the salty water.

The first picture shows the beach we went to as seen from the base of the acropolis. The second is a mama cat and her kittens chilling on the rocks—they were so cute! The kittens were adorable and fearless, tramping around the ruins. The third shows the coast on the other side of the acropolis from the beach—cliffs that look like you could throw yourself off them and a small, enclosed bay. The fourth picture is the cave where Guns of Navarrone was filmed—the picture is not very good, I had to lean out pretty far to get even this though! Next, Nick and I at the acropolis, and then the whole group. Maria is the one in white in the center.

          

Today (Sunday) we took a boat to the nearby island of Symi. Because today was Pentecost in the Greek Orthodox church tomorrow is a bank holiday, and the boat was full of people heading to the island. We stopped on one side for about an hour to see the church of the Archangel Michael before heading on to Symi town. The church was very crowded. There were lots of people who brought huge candles or brooms with them—Maria said that Orthodox Greeks made tamas, or promises, sometimes when they pray. For instance, a woman having trouble conceiving can pray to a certain saint and promise to name her child after him/her if the saint helps her, or a sick person can promise to clean the church named for said saint if they will clean them of their sickness. The people who brought the brooms were doing just that—they would give just one or two quick sweeps, but they fulfilled their promise to the Archangel. “You can put it off, paidia, the saints understand”, Maria told us, “one, two, five, ten times you put it off, but sometime you must keep your promise”. The church was small but beautiful and covered in imagery and icons of the saints. There was a museum next to the church that had bottles and little wooden boats that had come, supposedly, from all over the world; people from around the globe would throw them into the water with offerings or prayers for the Archangel Michael inside and they would somehow find their way to the bay where the church was.

We got back on the boat and went round to the other side of the island, to Symi town, and had a few hours of free time. The town was cute but the beach there wasn’t much to speak of; it was maybe only thirty meters long, the rest of the coast was gigantic rocks of varying roughness. It was still so much fun, though. Nick, Hailey, and I swam along and explored the coast;  the water was clear and warm and there were all kinds of fish, snails, and sea urchins along the way. After a while we found some smooth slabs on the shore and laid out on them; I felt like a mermaid, but beached seal was probably a more accurate description. We half swam half clambered over the rocks back to the beach before heading back to the ship.

The first picture shows the crowd trying to get into the Archangel’s church. Maria was so happy to show us the church, and got us all laminated icons of the Archangel Michael, holy oil for our foreheads, and candles to light in prayer. The next is a picture of Symi island as the boat rounded the corner, the last the strip beyond the beach where we got in the water to swim.

So that was my weekend, exploring a little more of Greek lands and culture. Tomorrow my class is moved to the afternoon because of the holy day, but other than that it’s just business as usual here on my island!

A Ship on the Sea

Hello from Rhodes!

The pub crawl last night was Ok. We got really cool T-shirts to keep as souvenirs, at least. We also met a pair of really cool Canadian girls who are in Rhodes as part of their two-month tour of Europe. The crawl started at nine, though, and no one in Europe goes out until 12/1230 at the earliest so each place was empty except for our group. We also stayed at each bar too long; they were all really similar to each other so the novelty of being somewhere new wore off quickly. The free drinks you got from each bar were really weak also, and I didn’t want to pay any more. By 1200, we’d only been to four bars and I was tired of it, so went back early. They had little events at each bar that a few people could compete in; Hailey, a girl on our program, won a tequila-drinking contest—first one to finish four shots of tequila wins. Her prize was a free tattoo. I thought the tattoo was a joke because they also gave her a thong for winning, but apparently after I left she actually got one, something on her ankle. I feel like getting a tattoo after four shots of tequila is not going to be the best decision anyone’s ever made. And what a story to tell your grandchildren and make them proud…

Greek class is going really well. I love my professor. He was saying something to me and the Rachel in the class before me about how we have to be careful when we’re out and look out for μπόμπας, bombas, or drinks that are much stronger than you think. “One of these, you will not mean to, but you will be, how you say….like a ship on a sea”.

We also somehow got on the topics of Greek weddings during class and he told me that there comes a part in the Orthodox wedding ceremony where they’re reading Christ’s words about marriages and they say something about how the woman should fear (respect) the man. At that point, there is always a little scuffle between the bride and the groom as the bride tries to stomp on the groom’s foot to show him she’s not afraid of him.

Weather is beautiful and perfect and sunny, like always. I went for a run today around 130, which was not the best time to do so. At first I thought it was easy because it was flat, but the sun is so strong! I struggled, but I got to jump in the water after!

Tomorrow Maria is taking the whole group on a trip around to see other parts of the island. It would take three hours to make a circuit of the entire island, someone was saying, but we are only going about halfway to the town of Lindos, and some other small places as well; it should be fun, and interesting to see the rest of the island!