Goodbye Rhodes, Hello Athens!

Greetings from the capital! That’s right, I’ve arrived in Athens; my time in Rhodes is done.

Friday we had our final presentation in my Mythology class. We had already turned in the paper but we had to do a group project as well on Jason and the Argonauts. One girl has been staying in Rhodes Town and it was obvious from her section that she hadn’t even spent five minutes on it—not only did she have no idea what she was talking about, she struggled to read her own slides and one story she told was blatantly false. Besides that, it went well and the rest of us did a decent job. It was so sad to say good-bye to Spiros!

We went down to the seaside to a fish taverna for lunch, but they didn’t actually have that much fish. Afterwards, everyone but Nick and I went into Rhodes for the day to shop, walk around, and have dinner. They only had two weeks in Rhodes before the week in Soroni, but having been there for 5 weeks we were pretty much done; there was nothing else I could really get out of going back into the town. We washed laundry in the sink instead and just hung out, had dinner ourselves.

Once they got back around 10, Maria’s son Kostas took us to some kind of first annual festival that was going on right outside Soroni. Both Maria and Ilias met us there; Maria will be staying in Rhodes and Ilias, her husband, just arrived and will be leading the study tour. The first place we went was a stage set up in the woods that had various bands playing rock, Greece music, etc. We stayed there for a little bit and then drove out to the power plant, where traditional Greek dancing was happening. It was actually so amazing, I really loved it. It was the most authentic Greek dancing I’ve ever seen because these were just people from Soroni gathering. They had souvlaki and drinks, a stage with musicians playing traditional music on traditional instruments, and a large dance floor surrounded by fold-up tables, all outside. I danced several of the dances, the circle dances with the complicated foot patterns. I don’t know how they know which song signifies which dance, or how they all know the steps. Kostas was saying that Greeks learn the dances in schools but only really do them at weddings or festivals like the one we saw. One that I did was really complicated, with 12 steps, and I never fully got the hang of it, though I was close by the end. The other was 3 steps, which I mastered instantly and then had a lot of fun with. It was really fun and just different from what we usually do so I loved it; I liked it much better than Bar Street on Rhodes!

Saturday was a slow, internet-binge day before our flight to Athens. I packed carefully in the morning; I tried to put everything I would need into my backpack and everything else in the suitcase so that on the study tour, I hopefully don’t have to lug the suitcase everywhere and can just live easily out of the backpack. We made a breakfast of poached eggs and fried feta on bread, then we literally spent six hours wasting time on the internet. I feel really bad because I meant to walk around taking pictures of Soroni before I left but it totally slipped my mind, and now I have none. It was so beautiful, too; I went for a run one day in the early evening and it was absolutely gorgeous, there was so much vegetation, cultivated but with an element of wildness to it. After our internet marathon, the place we went for dinner was closed and we had to scramble for food and then suddenly we were our of time; we were rushing to grab our bags, get everything in order, run out to the car. Even though we had all the time in the world all day, we left in such a hurry I didn’t really get to say goodbye to anything concretely; I just ran out. And, because Kostas drove us to the airport, I never got to say a real goodbye to Maria. I didn’t realize when we left the Greek dancing that would be the last time I saw her, since I’m not coming back to Rhodes after the study tour. That was a little saddening for me; she is such a sweet woman and was so good to us I feel bad I didn’t give her a proper goodbye. The group got her a gift, though, and icon of Archangel Michael (of the church she took us to), and I think she really appreciated it.

So, even though we were kind of late getting in the car, the time it took from the moment we got in the car to the moment we sat down at our gate was probably 20 minutes, and we still had to wait 20 minutes until we could board the plane. Security was a joke; Nick somehow made it through with a lighter, but they confiscated our jar of Nutella—not a liquid! Then, less than an hour later, Athens!

We landed around 9 and hopped on the subway to Monastiraki. For a while there was a group of old men who worked at the airport next to us and I tried to listen and understand as much of their conversation as possible. For the first time ever, I saw the ‘Na’ used in real life, it was so great, and also surprising, I almost burst out laughing.

When we got out at Monastiraki station, our hostel was right down the street. You can see the Acropolis from our window—it’s amazing, you can literally see it from all over this area. As we’re walking around, we use it as a beacon to make sure we’re heading in the right direction, or to see where we are in relation to the hotel, etc. There are so many times, as we walk around, I’m just amazed at the juxtaposition between crappy, dirty, modern city and the Acropolis rising in the background. It’s surreal.

We dropped our bags and walked around Monastiraki and Plaka a little, and walked by the entrance to the Acropolis. It’s really beautiful at night because it’s lit up and even more of a beacon than during the day. We grabbed some souvlaki, of course, and just explored a little of the main stuff.

We went back to our room, got changed, and went to the Gazi area the receptionist recommended around 1230 where most of the popular clubs and bars are. I actually recognized it from when we were in Athens last April. It was very crowded and we just picked ones that looked fun. The first was very Greek in that you bought a drink and then didn’t dance but stood around a table. The second place was similar but had a dance floor as well, and we stalked/made friends with a group of five Brits from London with the thickest accents I’ve ever heard.

This morning we got up and went exploring again. We meet up with the study tour on Monday and we’ll go to the Acropolis, Temple of Zeus, New Acropolis Museum, etc, so today we went to some of the other places we won’t see with the group. We went to the  Keramikos Museum first, which we thought meant Ceramics but actually referred to a massive burial site they uncovered, and so they had a few relief sculptures, some grave markers, and a lot of burial pottery, etc. It was really interesting because it moved throughout the ages chronologically so you could see the progression of the works. One panel was about a mass grave that was found—the disregard for the normally important burial rituals supports ancient writings about a terrible plague that struck the city. It was interesting to see how archaeology correlated exactly with ancient sources.

Next we walked around the far side of the Acropolis, getting a new view, passing Hadrian’s Gate and the Temple of Olympian Zeus on the way to the National Gardens. Which were not that impressive. It was pretty small and wasn’t really overflowing with a bunch of different varieties and colors of plant life. The zoo inside consisted of two goats, a bunch of peacocks (one dead), ducks, and pigeons, and some kind of weird mountain rabbit thing. We left by a different exit, and almost ran into the traditionally dressed guards on the way to the Parliament building to relieve the previous guard. We then grabbed a pita and headed back to take a quick nap during the heat of the day. We woke up and walked around a little more in the touristy section. Because it’s Sunday, most things were closed, and the things that were open were the touristy places selling the olive oil soaps, shoes, sunglasses, and kitschy stuff you find everywhere in Greece, but it was nice to look at. Very hot, though, all day. We got froyo to combat the heat…

I forgot about all the graffiti in Athens; there is a lot in Thessaloniki, but there is a lot in Athens. It’s everywhere. Some are cool but most are just dirty and defacing buildings. The climate in Athens is different than it was even a year ago. The graffiti is much more political, and the city feels dirtier and grimier (though this may be partly because it’s July and much more hot and sticky). There are a lot more homeless people even in the touristy areas, and a lot more permanently closed stores and restaurants. Everything has a political tint to it; we saw signs for some kind of cultural festival that’s going on around the city this month, and I went to the website to see if there was anything interesting for today or tomorrow. There are a lot of art exhibitions, all of which carry some kind of political message about their dissatisfaction with Greek politicians, the economic situation, the broken promises of the European Union, etc. There was a showing of a film about the situation, and a play of a similar nature. Athens is definitely suffering, and you can see the wear and tiredness on the city.

So that’s Athens so far. Nick and I are probably going to go shopping tomorrow, visit another site we won’t see with the group, and then meet up with the study tour around 5PM. It looks like we’ll be in Athens for a couple days as a jumping of point to visit Nemea, Mycenae, and maybe even Delphi. It’s going to be a busy whirlwind of a week and a half, so we may just stay in tonight, or find something chill to do and come back early. I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on here!

Here are some pictures I hope you’ll enjoy:

                             

The view from our window—oh hey Acropolis, whatcha doing outside my window, just hanging out?

                   

A picture of me outside the Keramikos Museum. A picture of one of the cooler pieces of graffiti that was not just scribbles and trash but…BATMAN!!!

                      

Hadrian’s Gate.

           

Me and Nick being fruitcakes in the National Gardens. I was twirling like an idiot and he was climbing trees.

                                

And then there was this weird thing in the zoo, it’s some kind of rabbit but he looks like a grizzly old mountain man

             

Some of the political graffiti we saw that was written in English. People in Greece are not happy with the current situation.

                                         

Finally, I just think the various places you see the Acropolis are so beautiful and interesting. Like, walking down a kind of gross-looking street with graffiti and trash and then oh, what’s that in the background? Only the Acropolis, no big deal…

Happy Birthday America! Love, Greece

Hello everybody and Happy Fourth of July! Here in the quiet village of Soroni, we still tried to have as American a celebration as possible; I think we managed pretty well, since we grilled out and drank beers…what’s more American than that? We grilled souvlaki instead of burgers and drank Mythos instead of Bud, but who has to know the difference?

Maria brought over a little charcoal grill for us and we went to the butcher and got some souvlaki already on kebabs with some veggies. I bought all the ingredients to make tzatziki and it turned out really well—seven of us devoured a kilo of it. We couldn’t find any corn so had to do without, but it still turned out really well. It took forever to grill the souvlaki because we didn’t actually have enough coals (although, trust the boys to keep playing with it and lighting stuff on fire to try and “help”), but everything worked out. We carried two tables up to the roof and pushed them together, and had souvlaki pitas, Mythos, and watermelon, and played  Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. Maria came for a little bit and tried my tzatziki, which got her stamp of approval, so it must be pretty good!

Grilling and eating actually took up a large part of our afternoon, especially as we took an unintentionally long nap afterwards. Last night we didn’t really do anything fun because those of us in the Mythology class had to write a paper and make a group presentation for Friday. My paper is on the Orphic cult, which is actually pretty cool, and then the group project is on Jason and the Argonauts. I had flashbacks to watching an old 60’s movie about it and we found some clips to include that hopefully he will find funny instead of blatantly inaccurate…..

Slow day again today, class and then just chilling. It was still hot today, of course, but not so painfully, unbearably, sluggishly hot as yesterday. We had lots of souvlaki left so heated it on our one burner. We also took a bunch of peaches and made an impromptu peace sauce that turned more into a peach soup…don’t ask me what we are going to do with that. Then the core five of us—Me, Nick, Margo, Eric, and Mary—did ab and butt work out on the balcony. I have to say, when these new kids came three weeks ago, I was pretty skeptical about whether we would get along but it turned out really great. They are much goofier than I initially gave them credit for and we are all pretty comfortable with each other now and joke around and have a great time. And they’re all coming on the study tour, so the fun will continue!

Soroni

Hello all! I’ve left Rhodes Town and have been staying in the little village of Soroni for the past two days. It is very different from the touristy Rhodes Town. Soroni seems to exist almost out of time; I feel like I’ve been here forever. The pace of life is very slow but not unpleasant for a week.

We had a pretty slow day on Sunday. We had to check out of the hotel by 1200 and just walked around until Maria came to get us around 530. Nick and I had a card and framed picture for Despina but no one was home and everything was locked up. We left it in her flowered plants by the door, obvious enough to anyone who would water it but not necessarily apparent to anyone walking by. It wasn’t ideal but the gift is also worthless without sentimental value, so hopefully she receives it. It’s weird to think about, but I will probably never know whether she gets it or not.

We got to Soroni and moved into the apartments. They are even worse than the place I lived for 5 days in Thess, but for a week I’ll be fine. Only one room has air conditioning, and it’s not mine. Mine gets the best internet connection though, and I have a big fan I keep pointed at my face at all times. It’s still hot, though—never in my life have I dealt with such a constant, sticky, sweaty heat. There is no escape. I’ve just resigned myself to being a sweaty gross mess for the next couple days. Even my room is disorganized and messy, and I’m always neat!

The curtain in the bathroom is a good foot and a half off the floor, but at least I have one. I also found a massive cockroach in my bathroom the first night, that was a pleasant surprise. Everything is also just kind of stale and dusty, and the burner in my kitchen is the only one that works in the whole building. But even then, it’s livable, and I don’t really mind as it matches my gross sweaty self.

Every night we get a free meal at the restaurant across the street, a relative of Maria. Maria said that half the town’s 2000 inhabitants are her relatives, and the other half are her husband’s Ilias’ relatives, so all the bases are covered. Everywhere we go everyone stares at us because we’re the only new thing in this town, and they all know who we are and why we’re here. There are a lot of closed down, abandoned stores, shops, and restaurants; it looks like anything living here was killed off by the crisis. On the main street, however, there are three cafes always filled with the old men having their Greek coffees and gossip for the day.

It’s really beautiful to walk around, though. Seeing grassy lawns is really rare, but there is lots of greenery. There are so many beautiful flowering plants that smell delicious and provide lots of color, and all kinds of vegetation as well, like limes, lemons, oranges, wheat, grapes, olives, dill and other spices, etc. Everything is very spacious and quaint, and makes for a picturesque walk. The beach is not far, about 10 minutes straight down the street.

We have class two minutes up the road. It’s continuing on much as before, still interesting and fun.

We decided to do as much cooking as we can with a fridge, one burner, and no oven. We already made candied almonds and devoured them. We also tried to make a veggie curry stir fry but it never got hot enough and turned into something more like stew—it was absolutely delicious anyway! Tomorrow for the Fourth of July Maria is bringing some kind of grill over and we’re grilling (albeit souvlaki) like real Americans, and we’ll have corn too! And I’m making tzatziki, although Maria wondered why I didn’t just buy it at the store…I guess even though it’s a Greek food, it’s not a Greek food you take the time to make from scratch!

Today after class and after the lunch we cooked, we went to the Valley of the Butterflies. It was really pretty; actually, it looked a lot like Connecticut, but with more streams and little waterfalls. There weren’t as many butterflies as there will be, when they will coat every single surface, but there were still a lot. One of the first big trees we saw seemed normal, until you noticed that half the leaves were actually butterflies. From then on out it was much easier to spot them. The whole valley made for a pretty hike, I’m glad I got to see it.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. It’s quiet, and slow here. And hot. Oh, so very, very, hot.

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!

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!