Weekend Recap

Ok, quick recap of the past few days. My mythology class was taken to this little, tiny church up in the mountains about a half hour outside of Rhodes town for a service that Spiros' family had there every year. It took us a little while to find it because the directions were kind of hilarious. We were told to turn right after the barrel and got a little lost. Then, when we stopped to ask a farmer for directions, he said to turn around and turn left at the donkeys. So, barrel and donkey found, we made it to the church. It was a tiny little church next to the 5th century AD ruins of an older church built on top of the ruins of a 5th century BC temple, so a lot of history going on there. There service was really interesting and there were about 60 people crammed inside and spilling out the doors, members of Spiros' family and the local village. Afterwards, everyone had brought some kind of pastry or food and we got to try. Daniel and Stamatina were there, and she had spent 4 hours that morning making a huge tray of some of the most delicious dolmades I've ever had, maybe as many as 200 of them! There was a little spring of cold mountain water nearby that supposedly had healing powers, so we visited that as well and drank a little. Daniel invited us to his house in Faliraki on Sunday and I got all excited, but it turns out they have a wedding to go to that day so it's not going to work out. Thursday was also the day I was a little beat up. My flip flops had broken and I bought new ones that gave me massive blisters within ten minutes of wearing them. Then, Nick and I did an abs/arms workout that definitely beat me up. Then we went to the beach, and the waves were bigger than we'd ever seen before. They were actually cresting and coming ashore. It was so fun, because Nick taught me how to body surf! I sort of got it, I could only really catch the wave half the time but when I did it was awesome! The only problem was that they were cresting really close to shore, so we quickly discovered if you didn't push back and stand up before it got too shallow, the waves would literally drag you onto shore. There was one massive one that took Nick and I both and tossed us head over heels and then dragged us along the bottom. I got a little scraped and a little bruised on my side, one knee, and a little my palm, but it was definitely worth it. Battling those waves for so long on top of the workout earlier definitely left me tired, but it was a good tired, and with the exception of the shoes, a good kind of beat up. I fought nature a little, she fought back, but I prevailed and it was great! It's strange how these things go, because while Thursday was the windiest day we've seen Friday may have been the calmest. There was very little wind and the waves reminded me of lake waves, not really anything. We hung out at the beach for a little bit. I had my mythology midterm earlier in the day; it went very well. The class itself doesn't feel like work because it's just so interesting, and so much fun! Since we're moving to the apartments in Soroni for the next week on Sunday,weren't to Kosta's for the last time Friday night. It was actually pretty sad; if I come back to Greece it's unlikely I'd come back to Rhodes, so it was the last time to see someone so good to us. Even worse was saying goodbye to Despina. We stopped by afterwards to check in on her, and he restaurant wasn't open but she was there. She wouldn't open before we left, the recovery was coming along slowly, so we'll never have her delicious food again. We told her we were leaving and she told us how much she loved us, how she would always remember us and was so proud to have been our Greek mom and would alway wait for us if we ever came back. I'll admit it, I cried a little. She really was so great to us, and I think she was really touched that we kept coming back to make sure she was ok. Today we went to a photo store and printed out a photo of her, me and Nick and got a little frame for it, and a get well card, and are going to give it to her tomorrow as a thank you. I don't know if it's a little presumptuous to gift her a photo of us, but I hope she will like it. Today was a pretty slow day. I went to bed early last night because I felt sickness coming on, and sure enough woke up today with a sore throat and half my voice gone. I feel alright but sound like crap. I took some kind of writing composition exam for Rice this morning that pretty much checks to make sure I can spell and form a correct sentence, but I had to take it sometime this weekend in order to register for classes. So tonight is our last night in Rhodes town. Well probably go hang out in old town for the last time. I'm sad to leave the people I've come to know, but honestly I'm ready to go. Rhodes is beautiful but very touristy. A week trying village life in Soroni will be fun, and a refreshing change, and from there on to the study tour!