A) I have reached the point where I miss unbroken, well spoken English. Even though I'm around it with my apartment still, I miss it in class. A lot. The English major that I am misses it badly.
B) I want my bed back. Or at least a better one than this.
C) I miss my friends. I miss people who aren't a million different kinds of different than I am, in thinking and in action. Not that I don't want to see other viewpoints and whatnot, as that's part of the reason that one studies abroad, but I miss relating to people. It's been a long time to feel lonely as often as I have. Not that I haven't made friends here, they just aren't the people at home.
D) I have gained a bunch of weight over here. I miss the gym. That's a convenience I really do miss and will probably take advantage of more now. I didn't recognize how much weight I would gain here; hell, I thought my lack of culinary skill would mean the opposite but turns out, not so much. And Europe is not the place to get heavier.
E) On a related note: I want an American beef cheeseburger and a diet mountain dew so badly. Or Taco Bell.
F) I really just want my parents to get here now. Even if I don't know what we're gonna spend all of our time doing.
Okay, I'm done. I think everyone's countdowns to home are getting to me is all.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Crete
Last night I went to a Cretan festival with my friends Elyse and Katherine. There was a party going on here in Panepistimiou but I decided that it'd be a better cultural experience to go to an all-Greek festival instead of a party thrown for Americans in an attempt to learn about the culture without actually going out into it. It just seemed like sort of a dumb idea to me to throw a super loud party in this residential area where I'm pretty sure our neighbors hate us already. But that's not the point.
So this Cretan festival. First, it was something we had to dress up for, which was strange, but it didn't matter I guess except I had to change from the going out clothes I had put on. As we're headed over there Elyse, who is a Greek-American, was like "Oh I need to warn you. Cretans, you know people from Crete (and I was like well duh I know what Cretan means, Elyse) love guns. Like there will be guns here, and they'll probably have knives on them as well. Don't be surprised." I of course am just like "uh, okay." I mean, I went to Auburn, my first reaction to gun fire is to want to hit the ground, so I'm glad she warned me.
So we get there and the thing was supposed to start at 9. It is 9:15 and everyone is standing outside grouped around the door and we start to push our way in because we found Elyse's cousin and this crowd is insanely tight in this entryway to this university student union building. Like we got stuck in the crowd of people for about 45 minutes and I am freaking out in it because I get a little claustrophobic in crowds and of course no one is speaking English. I'm pretty sure I rounded a few bases with about 6 different people just because of the lack of personal space this crowd was creating. At one point I was like "screw this, I'm peacing out," and looked behind me and realized that I couldn't even get out of this crowd if I wanted to so I just started pushing my way in because we all got separated.
So finally I got in and paid my 12 euro for a ticket and found Elyse and Katherine and the boy we'd met there (Elyse's cousin and her friend had gone upstairs to try to get us a table) and Elyse can see it in my eyes that I was like dying out there and of course starts trying to calm me down but it sort of laughing at me at the same time. But it's whatever, I was fine when I felt like I could breathe without inhaling smoke and people's perfume/cologne or lack of it. We headed upstairs and my no smoke filled lungs immediately filled with smoke again because they don't really believe in the law that says you can't smoke indoors that Thessaloniki just passed a few months ago. Elyse's cousin, Nasia (if I remember her name correctly) and her friend Yota (yes, Yota) found us a table all the way in the back corner which in reality was like the most inconvenient spot ever but it was fine. So for the first like half an hour, Katherine and I are sitting there wondering what the hell did we come here for because we don't speak Greek at all and Katherine doesn't even drink and I don't like the wine we got with our ticket but we obviously are going to try to make the best of it.
Eventually the band starts singing. Now, I don't really know that I'm that big of a fan of Greek music, just because I'm a terrible person and don't really dig ethnic music that much and it all sort of sounds a little polka-ish to me. I mean, I don't hate it, and sometimes I actually do like it. Last night was one of those times, simply because I was supposed to be taking it in as a cultural experience. So the band sings a few songs and then it is time for the dancers. There was a troupe of costumed dancers that had been sort of just milling around until it was their time to perform so we saw the costumes beforehand but it was still cool to see them all lined up and everything. We left our table and headed toward the dance floor so we could see better.
The dancing is sort of like tap dancing and Irish dancing mixed together and made smaller. Like there is a lot of footwork but it is pretty confined and really intricate actually (not going to lie though, a few minutes in I was thinking "Give me a week and I could do this"). That is, until the men start jumping around doing turns and slapping their feet in some cotton-eye-joe like manner. It was actually really cool to see, especially in the traditional costumes. The men had these blue, slightly military looking jackets on with gold and maroon-red details and gaucho like pants and boots. They had this ivory decorative sort of thing that looked like a giant hairclip (it obviously wasn't) in the front where a hoodie pocket would be. The women had on skirts, mostly the same maroon-red color the men had as details (or they were white with that color on as an apron, the details escape me already unfortunately), but one woman's was this silk light blue and green one that was beautiful. They had on white blouses with some detailing and gold necklaces that looked like they were full of coins and they wore maroon headscarves. I was amazed they weren't all just absolutely pouring sweat dancing in those costumes.
While the dancing was going on the guns started going off. And I don't mean one shot here and there, I mean like it sounded like we were in the middle of 'Nam or some shit. I'm pretty sure one guy had an AK-47. There were shots constantly going off. And everyone was clapping and whistling and getting into it so much. It was pretty awesome. And deafening.
But after the dancing we headed back to our table where one of Nasia's friends and her boyfriend were still and her boyfriend was getting steadily more drunk and decided to talk to us because Katherine and I are American and don't speak Greek so he was talking to us in English a little bit. He passed by me when he was on his way to get another bottle of wine and asks "Do you have a gun?" I just started laughing like "No, I do not have a damn gun. Why would I have a gun." And he goes "You should get one" like it's the most obvious thing in the world. I was just cracking up. But so for the rest of the time he's like "I will learn you Greek tonight. Right now. Bet me" and Katherine and I are cracking up and both telling him "Mathaino sto ACT, sto Anatolia" (I learn at ACT, at Anatolia) and he's just like "No, Anatolia is not real Ellenika. I learn you real Greek." And he eventually tells us that we're crazy. And that was pretty much our interaction with him before we left.
I've come to the conclusion that Greeks are actually generally really helpful to foreigners who seem to be trying to learn their culture. The guys at the table next to us were informed that Katherine and I don't speak Greek early in the night and the one guy leaned over and told Katherine in broken English that one of them men at the table behind us was going to fire his gun soon so we should be prepared. He also picked up some of the blanks that the man had shot off and gave them to Katherine and me. He also poured little shots of Raki (a 180 proof drink common in the Balkans that tastes like ouzo and tequila mixed and it's effing disgusting! Like it's terrible; the one time I tasted it I almost choked because the bar we were at put an ice cube in the cup of it and I didn't notice and swallowed the ice cube and here's a secret: that hurts!!!) for most of our table and cheers'ed with us. Greeks love love love toasting to things. I'm like 90% sure that the man who was going to "learn" Katherine and me Greek had us do a toast to "Chihuahua" at one point. The guy at the other table later then asked Katherine if she could dance like they had (because the dance floor opened up so everyone could go dance) and when she said no proceeded to offer to teach her at a later point because he was too drunk at the moment. When she said she'd be really bad at it he told her that his friend was terrible so she couldn't be worse than him but we never got to find out because we decided to leave pretty soon after that because we were getting tired.
But all in all it was a pretty fun experience, despite the crushing crowd at the beginning and the not good wine. I got bullets and saw a bunch of good looking men and got told I was crazy in Greek. It coulda been a way worse Saturday.
So this Cretan festival. First, it was something we had to dress up for, which was strange, but it didn't matter I guess except I had to change from the going out clothes I had put on. As we're headed over there Elyse, who is a Greek-American, was like "Oh I need to warn you. Cretans, you know people from Crete (and I was like well duh I know what Cretan means, Elyse) love guns. Like there will be guns here, and they'll probably have knives on them as well. Don't be surprised." I of course am just like "uh, okay." I mean, I went to Auburn, my first reaction to gun fire is to want to hit the ground, so I'm glad she warned me.
So we get there and the thing was supposed to start at 9. It is 9:15 and everyone is standing outside grouped around the door and we start to push our way in because we found Elyse's cousin and this crowd is insanely tight in this entryway to this university student union building. Like we got stuck in the crowd of people for about 45 minutes and I am freaking out in it because I get a little claustrophobic in crowds and of course no one is speaking English. I'm pretty sure I rounded a few bases with about 6 different people just because of the lack of personal space this crowd was creating. At one point I was like "screw this, I'm peacing out," and looked behind me and realized that I couldn't even get out of this crowd if I wanted to so I just started pushing my way in because we all got separated.
So finally I got in and paid my 12 euro for a ticket and found Elyse and Katherine and the boy we'd met there (Elyse's cousin and her friend had gone upstairs to try to get us a table) and Elyse can see it in my eyes that I was like dying out there and of course starts trying to calm me down but it sort of laughing at me at the same time. But it's whatever, I was fine when I felt like I could breathe without inhaling smoke and people's perfume/cologne or lack of it. We headed upstairs and my no smoke filled lungs immediately filled with smoke again because they don't really believe in the law that says you can't smoke indoors that Thessaloniki just passed a few months ago. Elyse's cousin, Nasia (if I remember her name correctly) and her friend Yota (yes, Yota) found us a table all the way in the back corner which in reality was like the most inconvenient spot ever but it was fine. So for the first like half an hour, Katherine and I are sitting there wondering what the hell did we come here for because we don't speak Greek at all and Katherine doesn't even drink and I don't like the wine we got with our ticket but we obviously are going to try to make the best of it.
Eventually the band starts singing. Now, I don't really know that I'm that big of a fan of Greek music, just because I'm a terrible person and don't really dig ethnic music that much and it all sort of sounds a little polka-ish to me. I mean, I don't hate it, and sometimes I actually do like it. Last night was one of those times, simply because I was supposed to be taking it in as a cultural experience. So the band sings a few songs and then it is time for the dancers. There was a troupe of costumed dancers that had been sort of just milling around until it was their time to perform so we saw the costumes beforehand but it was still cool to see them all lined up and everything. We left our table and headed toward the dance floor so we could see better.
The dancing is sort of like tap dancing and Irish dancing mixed together and made smaller. Like there is a lot of footwork but it is pretty confined and really intricate actually (not going to lie though, a few minutes in I was thinking "Give me a week and I could do this"). That is, until the men start jumping around doing turns and slapping their feet in some cotton-eye-joe like manner. It was actually really cool to see, especially in the traditional costumes. The men had these blue, slightly military looking jackets on with gold and maroon-red details and gaucho like pants and boots. They had this ivory decorative sort of thing that looked like a giant hairclip (it obviously wasn't) in the front where a hoodie pocket would be. The women had on skirts, mostly the same maroon-red color the men had as details (or they were white with that color on as an apron, the details escape me already unfortunately), but one woman's was this silk light blue and green one that was beautiful. They had on white blouses with some detailing and gold necklaces that looked like they were full of coins and they wore maroon headscarves. I was amazed they weren't all just absolutely pouring sweat dancing in those costumes.
While the dancing was going on the guns started going off. And I don't mean one shot here and there, I mean like it sounded like we were in the middle of 'Nam or some shit. I'm pretty sure one guy had an AK-47. There were shots constantly going off. And everyone was clapping and whistling and getting into it so much. It was pretty awesome. And deafening.
But after the dancing we headed back to our table where one of Nasia's friends and her boyfriend were still and her boyfriend was getting steadily more drunk and decided to talk to us because Katherine and I are American and don't speak Greek so he was talking to us in English a little bit. He passed by me when he was on his way to get another bottle of wine and asks "Do you have a gun?" I just started laughing like "No, I do not have a damn gun. Why would I have a gun." And he goes "You should get one" like it's the most obvious thing in the world. I was just cracking up. But so for the rest of the time he's like "I will learn you Greek tonight. Right now. Bet me" and Katherine and I are cracking up and both telling him "Mathaino sto ACT, sto Anatolia" (I learn at ACT, at Anatolia) and he's just like "No, Anatolia is not real Ellenika. I learn you real Greek." And he eventually tells us that we're crazy. And that was pretty much our interaction with him before we left.
I've come to the conclusion that Greeks are actually generally really helpful to foreigners who seem to be trying to learn their culture. The guys at the table next to us were informed that Katherine and I don't speak Greek early in the night and the one guy leaned over and told Katherine in broken English that one of them men at the table behind us was going to fire his gun soon so we should be prepared. He also picked up some of the blanks that the man had shot off and gave them to Katherine and me. He also poured little shots of Raki (a 180 proof drink common in the Balkans that tastes like ouzo and tequila mixed and it's effing disgusting! Like it's terrible; the one time I tasted it I almost choked because the bar we were at put an ice cube in the cup of it and I didn't notice and swallowed the ice cube and here's a secret: that hurts!!!) for most of our table and cheers'ed with us. Greeks love love love toasting to things. I'm like 90% sure that the man who was going to "learn" Katherine and me Greek had us do a toast to "Chihuahua" at one point. The guy at the other table later then asked Katherine if she could dance like they had (because the dance floor opened up so everyone could go dance) and when she said no proceeded to offer to teach her at a later point because he was too drunk at the moment. When she said she'd be really bad at it he told her that his friend was terrible so she couldn't be worse than him but we never got to find out because we decided to leave pretty soon after that because we were getting tired.
But all in all it was a pretty fun experience, despite the crushing crowd at the beginning and the not good wine. I got bullets and saw a bunch of good looking men and got told I was crazy in Greek. It coulda been a way worse Saturday.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
General Life update
Sorry I haven't been updating much this month, I suppose there just isn't that much exciting Greek stuff going on.
We did go to Athens a few weekends ago and yes, I did geek a little about seeing the Acropolis and the Parthenon and all, but the weekend wasn't really that cool. I didn't enjoy the way things were scheduled for us and I just in general wasn't feeling it. I didn't like people enough that weekend. The trip down there was gorgeous though. It made me want to rent a convertible and drive the coastline of Greece and stop in all the little beach villages and towns to watch sunrise and sunset and eat tsasiki and drink kokkino krasi (red wine). At one point we drove through a gorge/canyon type thing and the leaves of the trees were changing and it was spectacular looking. But it was a lot of time on a bus with a number of people being obnoxious. The drive back was pretty terrible because it took like twice as long because we had to drive so slow because the bus had had an accident and we had to get another bus and it was just a big ass hassle. I am really excited to go back with my parents though.
Other than that... I experienced the Greek holiday of Polytechnic day, which is to commemorate a student protest at the Polytechnic institute in Athens (I think...) that protested the junta that was in power a the time. A few students were killed apparently that day in the 70s and apparently since then, Polytechnic day has become vaguely anti-American. There is a parade that starts near the university areas of Greek cities (if they have them) and it ends at the American consulate and there are apparently a few flags burnt and whatnot, so we were sort of told to stay away from downtown unless we needed to be out there. I spent the entire day watching ancient war movies: Troy, 300, and Alexander. I have yet to come to a conclusion on the movie Alexander; I mostly think Collin Farrell is hot but he movie itself is kinda not s great.
Today is Thanksgiving at home and ACT is throwing us a dinner tonight which will be nice I'm sure. Or, I hope. I also tried to give blood today for the first time (because I can't give blood for a year after I get home because I've been here I guess) and almost passed out. It was a great way to start my day! Obviously I'm fine and my blood pressure came back up, but it was an interesting (read: rather terrifying) experience, feeling as though you're slowly going deaf and being incredibly dizzy and then hearing Greek. I also came to the conclusion that I don't enjoy it when a doctor smells like cigarettes.
Everyone else is starting to count down the days until they go home, because it seems to be rushing up all of a sudden and it's making me feel like I still have a lot of time before I'm back in the US. It's not a bad thing since my parents are coming over here, but still. I really am excited for them to get here, especially because then I can show them around and explore more of Greece and not have to pretend that these classes really matter. Because, they don't. Not that I'm slacking off (because I'm not) but it all seems so unnecessary.
But that's my life update for now.
We did go to Athens a few weekends ago and yes, I did geek a little about seeing the Acropolis and the Parthenon and all, but the weekend wasn't really that cool. I didn't enjoy the way things were scheduled for us and I just in general wasn't feeling it. I didn't like people enough that weekend. The trip down there was gorgeous though. It made me want to rent a convertible and drive the coastline of Greece and stop in all the little beach villages and towns to watch sunrise and sunset and eat tsasiki and drink kokkino krasi (red wine). At one point we drove through a gorge/canyon type thing and the leaves of the trees were changing and it was spectacular looking. But it was a lot of time on a bus with a number of people being obnoxious. The drive back was pretty terrible because it took like twice as long because we had to drive so slow because the bus had had an accident and we had to get another bus and it was just a big ass hassle. I am really excited to go back with my parents though.
Other than that... I experienced the Greek holiday of Polytechnic day, which is to commemorate a student protest at the Polytechnic institute in Athens (I think...) that protested the junta that was in power a the time. A few students were killed apparently that day in the 70s and apparently since then, Polytechnic day has become vaguely anti-American. There is a parade that starts near the university areas of Greek cities (if they have them) and it ends at the American consulate and there are apparently a few flags burnt and whatnot, so we were sort of told to stay away from downtown unless we needed to be out there. I spent the entire day watching ancient war movies: Troy, 300, and Alexander. I have yet to come to a conclusion on the movie Alexander; I mostly think Collin Farrell is hot but he movie itself is kinda not s great.
Today is Thanksgiving at home and ACT is throwing us a dinner tonight which will be nice I'm sure. Or, I hope. I also tried to give blood today for the first time (because I can't give blood for a year after I get home because I've been here I guess) and almost passed out. It was a great way to start my day! Obviously I'm fine and my blood pressure came back up, but it was an interesting (read: rather terrifying) experience, feeling as though you're slowly going deaf and being incredibly dizzy and then hearing Greek. I also came to the conclusion that I don't enjoy it when a doctor smells like cigarettes.
Everyone else is starting to count down the days until they go home, because it seems to be rushing up all of a sudden and it's making me feel like I still have a lot of time before I'm back in the US. It's not a bad thing since my parents are coming over here, but still. I really am excited for them to get here, especially because then I can show them around and explore more of Greece and not have to pretend that these classes really matter. Because, they don't. Not that I'm slacking off (because I'm not) but it all seems so unnecessary.
But that's my life update for now.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Fall break
So I know that fall break should be the thing I talk about for a long time and write a really long entry about, but I just don't really feel like it. So sorry if you're disappointed; if you really want to hear about it, you can email me or facebook me or skype me or whatever. So here's a relatively short/undetailed entry about fall break.
I loved Rome. I was excited about being there as soon as we touched down. On the cab ride from the airport we drove through an aqueduct and I got excited about it, because I apparently do get that geeked out about history. But that is nothing to my reaction to driving by the Colosseum. I'm pretty sure I bruised Candy Dream because I hit him out of excitement and trying to not be incredibly loud about it, as there were other people in this van/cab.
Things I saw, in order or just about:
Amsterdam was amazing as well. That city is gorgeous, but it doesn't boast the same sort of big name tourist sites that Rome does. But here's what we saw in Amsterdam:
Fall break was absolutely spectacular. I'm pretty sure I won't get to experience a week quite as cool for a long time, if ever again. Life is pretty fantastic.
I loved Rome. I was excited about being there as soon as we touched down. On the cab ride from the airport we drove through an aqueduct and I got excited about it, because I apparently do get that geeked out about history. But that is nothing to my reaction to driving by the Colosseum. I'm pretty sure I bruised Candy Dream because I hit him out of excitement and trying to not be incredibly loud about it, as there were other people in this van/cab.
Things I saw, in order or just about:
- Spanish Steps
- Keats-Shelley House (they had hand written letters from both of them and a hand written memorial poem Oscar Wilde wrote about Keats!!)
- Trevi Fountain (which is absolutely beautiful, no matter how touristy it may be)
- The Vatican Museum- including the Sistine Chapel. (The Vatican Museum is absolutely huge and spectacular and I got really distracted by a statue of Lacoon. I also saw School of Athens by Rafael, which I really liked seeing in person. The Sistine Chapel is really different than I expected, but it is still one of the most magnificent things ever created by man.)
- St. Peter's Basilica. (THE PIETA IS UNBELIEVABLE! Seriously, it's so beautiful; I'm not sure how so many beautiful things could come from the mind of one man, so thanks Michelangelo. As much as I don't dig Catholicism, it has been the inspiration for some absolutely beautiful things. St. Peter's Basilica as a church is beautiful in itself as well. We got in there as a mass was happening, which was sort of cool)
- The Colosseum (I pretty much freaked out the entire time. I mean, it's the Colosseum for crying out loud- one of the most recognized symbols of Rome. The place where gladiators fought!)
- The Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill (I walked along the Via Sacra. I actually got to touch history. I stood in the places of Caesars. It was on the Palatine Hill, looking at the remains of the Roman Forum that I almost cried. I was so happy. I was on the foundation of the foundation of so much of Western Civilization looking at echoes that still were stunning. I was in love with Rome at this point.)
- The Pantheon
Amsterdam was amazing as well. That city is gorgeous, but it doesn't boast the same sort of big name tourist sites that Rome does. But here's what we saw in Amsterdam:
- Coffee shops (no, seriously, they're everywhere. It isn't a myth that marijuana is legal in Amsterdam. And half the coffee shops just looked so very stereotypical, with the neon lights and the trance music blaring from it and the couches filling it.)
- The Van Gogh Museum (but no Starry Night. Some of that artwork is intense. The sheer amount of knowledge Van Gogh must have had about color is insane to think about. There is also a Monet piece in there, so I've seen one of those now too).
- The Red Light District (no hookers in red-lit windows though. We just saw the doors to brothels, which we knew because of the body guards and the blacked out doors and the names of the places)
- The House of Bols Bartending Museum (WE GOT A STUDENT DISCOUNT! But not one at the Van Gogh Museum... Yeah, I didn't get it either. Bols is apparently one of the oldest distilleries in the world. They have like 36 different flavors of liqueur and we got to try 2 each.)
- The Vodka Museum (which was LAME! I did learn some stuff about vodka though- it takes 6 month to distill not-shitty vodka and vodka is generally 40% alcohol, or at least that was how it was meant to be made.)
- A bunch of street performers- break dancers mostly.
- a shit ton of Bicycles! (The Dutch do not play games about their bikes, man, they ride those things everywhere!)
- Lots of canals
- Lots of really pretty blond Dutch men. I approved of them.
- A carnival. (We wandered into a Dutch carnival!)
Fall break was absolutely spectacular. I'm pretty sure I won't get to experience a week quite as cool for a long time, if ever again. Life is pretty fantastic.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Fun facts:
I dislike shopping in Europe maybe more than I dislike shopping in the US. The Greek version of Lane Bryant is pretty terrible from what I've seen.
I went salsa dancing last night and it was a lot of fun. I'm terrible at structured dancing though, because I always want to lead. I'm a terrible follower when it comes to doing repetitive steps. Greeks dancing salsa is awesome to watch. American men just don't dance like that- although it did make me miss my football playing American boys that don't make me look like a giant, because Greeks men are pretty much tall and lithe thin and well, I just feel sort of ridiculous when I'm dancing with a guy I'm pretty sure I could bench press. Also, one of the Greeks who took us out isn't actually tall so when he was dancing with us all of us girls (me, Taylor, and Katherine) all dwarfed him, especially in heels.
I'm kind of home sick. It was pretty bad yesterday for some reason, so I'm glad I did actually go out dancing with people because it took my mind off it and it was a legitimately good time.
That's all I got for you. Hope this was a non-boring break from my long blog posts. My life here isn't that much more exciting than my life at home; sorry to disappoint.
I dislike shopping in Europe maybe more than I dislike shopping in the US. The Greek version of Lane Bryant is pretty terrible from what I've seen.
I went salsa dancing last night and it was a lot of fun. I'm terrible at structured dancing though, because I always want to lead. I'm a terrible follower when it comes to doing repetitive steps. Greeks dancing salsa is awesome to watch. American men just don't dance like that- although it did make me miss my football playing American boys that don't make me look like a giant, because Greeks men are pretty much tall and lithe thin and well, I just feel sort of ridiculous when I'm dancing with a guy I'm pretty sure I could bench press. Also, one of the Greeks who took us out isn't actually tall so when he was dancing with us all of us girls (me, Taylor, and Katherine) all dwarfed him, especially in heels.
I'm kind of home sick. It was pretty bad yesterday for some reason, so I'm glad I did actually go out dancing with people because it took my mind off it and it was a legitimately good time.
That's all I got for you. Hope this was a non-boring break from my long blog posts. My life here isn't that much more exciting than my life at home; sorry to disappoint.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
As promised, Part 2 of the weekend
Be prepared for another insanely long entry. It’s worse than the last one. Also, there will be one more shorter part about the weekend, then be prepared for sweet blogs about Rome and Amsterdam.
I had to get to Nikos' apartment to go play poker with him and Larissa and Taylor and Andrew, so after dinner I got in a cab and told the driver the address, attempting to make 111 understood by "ena ena ena" (the English spelling of the Greek 1) but I'm pretty sure that confused the driver, so Elyse told him in the Greek, and therefore I figured I wouldn't get too lost. One thing that I do notice when I'm here, around people who do not speak English is how peaceful it is to not feel obligated to make small talk. Not to sound like a huge bitch, but I'm not really a big fan of having to talk to people in customer service sorts of jobs- cashiers, taxi drivers, receptionists- about things like the weather or how their night has been. I liked being able to sit in the back of a taxi on a rainy Greek night and observe the life that was passing by at 1 o clock on a Friday. I enjoy having time to focus on those thoughts and not have to put half of my brain on the semi-auto pilot that "Oh, I'm good, how are you?" takes. We reached the place I remembered and with a quiet "edtho" (here) he stopped and I handed him a ten euro and got out back into the rain with an 'efharisto, kalinicta" (thank you, good night. Also, trying to get the Greek words into English letters is a hoot for things like kalinicta with the eta and the chi in there and edtho with the fun pronunciation of a delta) and got on the phone with Larissa. I saw her pop out to the balcony as I heard Taylor's voice answer Larissa's phone and I headed up.
Nikos' apartment is right above a bar. A karaoke bar to be more specific, so you have to go up onto the deck of the bar and walk to the entrance of the apartment building to get to the winding stairs that lead to Nikos’ place. I got up there and see Taylor and Larissa, but no Nikos or Andrew; I also see a bottle of Jameson and a couple five euro bills on the coffee table and I recognize that this poker game is going to be serious business to Larissa, if not to other people as well. They tell me that Nikos and Andrew are down at the bar for a while and as soon as Larissa rolls a cigarette, we head down there to join them. This bar isn’t a crowded place at all, but there were a few other people in there at that point in the night. Also by that point in the night, I cannot feel what time it is at all. All day I had been in a state of being so confused about what day or time it was, because I hadn’t been to class and this feeling was made worse by the fact that I was going out to do things at 1 o clock. So we get down there and Nikos sees that I have arrived, and he and I have gotten into this little habit of half shouting at each other in greeting so I hear a “JACKIE!” in an Albanian accent and respond with “NICKO!” because in the vocative (when I’m talking to him) the s drops off his name and when my answer to the question of “are you drunk?” is a definite no, a quick conversation happened with the bartender and five shot glasses were produced. Moral of that story is that I approve of cinnamon flavored liqueur, but I obviously still wasn’t drunk. I wasn’t plied with more alcohol however, and Nickos was pretty drunk already and Larissa was getting there. Nickos decided that he would try to get us to dance to the Greek music playing at the bar, or at least to get us clap and dance as much as you could while still sitting at the bar and before we left, he kicked it up a notch. He started to dance when we got up to leave, showing us traditional Greek moves which involve lots of stepping. It was very cool to see actually, these traditional Greek dance steps being done in a bar, and there was a woman in a slinky black dress and sky-high heels doing the same moves on the other side of the bar and people leaning down to clap for them (Larissa doing the clapping for Nickos).
We moved back up to Nickos apartment and moved out to the balcony to play. We were playing Texas Hold ‘Em and somehow Nickos wound up with a straight flush, almost a royal, in the first hand beating out Andrew’s straight and taking quite a bit of Andrew’s chips for the first round. Larissa was steadily getting drunker and that isn’t a big deal for her, because she’s pretty much a pro, but she lost all her chips at some point and bought back in. At some point she knocked her chips over and it was beyond obvious that she was not really okay to keep playing so we decided to take a food break, because Larissa had brought food for us. Spicy chicken burgers and some Greek style salad and both were absolutely delicious. But during our food break we started playing American music, because we had been listening to Albanian hip-hop, an artist that is according to Nickos “The Timbaland of Albania” and of course that lead to me singing. Most things lead to me singing, so this was nothing special, except for Larissa was convinced that I had to keep singing because my voice is amazing in her opinion. She sat on the couch next to me, half leaning on me on occasion, looking up at me from my shoulder as I karaoke’d “Me and Bobby McGee” into my cell phone on Nickos’ camera because of course that seemed like a good idea at 3:30 in the morning. And I was unworried about making too much noise, because Nickos made it a point to let us know how unimportant us being quiet was because no one was in his building at the time. He went so far as to make a joke about our RAs dog being in his hallway and it was truthfully very amusing. But after our sweet jam session, at one point Nickos went into the bathroom and suddenly we were hearing a beeping sound. It was the intercom and we figured that out but we still couldn’t actually answer it. When Nicko got on the intercom, the conversation was all done in Greek of course and we all sort of could tell that it wasn’t a pleasant conversation. Somehow we were in trouble.
Nikos turned and looked at us and told us we had to be more quiet. The police apparently had been called on us because we were being too loud, but Nickos’ landlord is a phenomenal human being and told them that Nickos is a good tenant and the group of us was leaving very soon. For a minute we debated just being quieter, and not playing Guns’n’Roses at top volume and staying in the apartment, but it was obvious that Nickos did not love that idea. So we brainstormed and came to the conclusion that we should try to go to a club. Larissa was not into that idea but the rest of us were and there can only be four people in a taxi so Nickos agreed that she could just stay at his apartment. The club we decided to go to was Club Vogue, which apparently is a new club and people have really liked it. We were headed over there in a taxi and we were discussing the money situation; we sort of assumed that at 4 am the club would not be trying to take 15 euro cover from us all, since they were going to close in about three hours, so it was okay that we all got in a cab with very little money. Nickos got in the cab with straight up no money because he got distracted by the whole “get out of here now” mentality that he had going on. The taxi drops us off and we make our way to the club entrance and I see a common theme emerging.
Leg. Lots of leg. Dresses. Skyscraper heels. Skintight clothing. Suits. Men are wearing suits to this dance club. And everyone exiting is beautiful. I noticed this, but thought nothing of it really, because how crowded can the club be at 4 am? Plus, these beautiful, dressed up women are leaving, so we get to the door and Nickos starts talking to the bouncers. I can feel how out of place we look. Taylor and I are both wearing jeans, and although both of us look cute, it isn’t the cute for this club. Taylor’s got a scarf on over a higher necked top and I’m wearing a three quarters sleeve hooded sweater over a top I did actually buy as a going out top, but it isn’t anything that I actually feel okay in at this place. As I’m contemplating this with Taylor, Nickos is still talking to the bouncer, and it’s looking grim, so Andrew starts acting like he’s going to look for the back door. Eventually he gets on the phone with our friend Alexandra, who was supposed to be at Vogue that night. Finally she picks up and they somehow communicate to each other that we’re outside despite the fact that she cannot hear him at all. But in a few moments, she appears, glittering short black dress and heels, and talks to the bouncer, telling him that we are with her party, with Kostjan’s party. The bouncer doesn’t really seem to be buying it, and sort of gives us the once over, and tells Alex that he’ll let us in a few and when she asks how long he replies “I decide how long. Not you.” Like, listen buddy, you’re a bouncer at a club. You do not have an important authoritative job- you just feel important because you have a suit. Just let us in, we’re giving you money, our clothes be damned. But he did let us in after a few minutes and we then got held up at the table where we had to buy tickets to get in. Our idea of no cover at 4 am was nowhere near correct. I handed over my last paper money for the 15 euro cover charge that included a free drink- so really it’s a 5 euro cover and a drink because drinks are insanely expensive here and Alex had to end up paying for Taylor and half for Andrew or so with promises of us to pay her back. But finally we got into the club.
It was pretty much exactly how I pictured a club to be: dark, with strobe lights and spot lights in green and white and blue and a fully stocked bar and techno and good looking people dancing everywhere. The dance floor level was crowded and we knew we’d have to go down there eventually. By this time I had taken my sweater off to try to look more like I belonged at the place, but as long as my jeans were on that wasn’t going to happen. Taylor and I got drinks after a quick search through the labyrinthine placement of doors and stairs and curtains and an escalator that in all reality just seems a little superfluous to the club for a bathroom. After a few minutes of just sort of taking the atmosphere in and seeing that this really was a club, almost stereotypically so, and waiting for Alexandra and losing the boys to somewhere, Taylor and I figure we might as well dance and find room on the stairs. While dancing on the stairs, the extreme awesomeness of the musical choices made by these DJs was highlighted. American hip-hop from when I was a major rap fan was spliced together. They played that terrible Khia song “My Neck, My Back” and I wondered why any 14 year old knew any of the lyrics to that song, edited or not. Terror Squad’s “Lean Back” was played after 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P” and a few other songs that at this point I don’t really remember; the only thing missing was DMX’s “Party Up.” Alex returned to us and we headed down the stairs, passing a hundred beautiful people and having to snake through them and finally found a spot to claim as our own to dance. It had the added bonus of there being a table close to it that Alex could dance on. The next about 2 ½ hours seemed to pass by rather quickly, in a haze of dancing and shouting lyrics to rap songs that no one else in the building knew and wondering how in the world so many good looking people existed in one place.
We had found the boys and we were all wondering what time we were going to leave, as it was about 6:30 or so, perhaps a little later. Taylor and I were losing ground on the staying awake front, but Andrew and Nikos wanted to try to stay until the place closed and Alexandra decided to stay with them. So after bumming 5 euro off of Alex with a promise to pay her back later in the day (which I did of course) Taylor and I headed out back into the night, which was rapidly becoming day. It was still pouring rain and Taylor thought the food trailers outside smelled delicious and she wanted a gyro because of that delicious smell. We were in luck because there was an ATM right across the street from this club so we got over there and both pulled some money out. When we got back to the other side of the street, we checked these trailers for gyros; alas, neither of the places had gyros- they had pizza I think. I think that’s strange because I’m rather positive that gyros are made for drunk/hungover people because of the extreme greasy excellence that they are. I mean, they put fries on the sandwich for you! They add grease with those potatoes when they had greasy pork on a pita anyway! But since we couldn’t get our gyros, we got in a cab and decided that we’d have the driver drop us off at the Arch and hope that we could find an open place to get food. As we’re riding in the back of this cab, the sky outside is getting a little lighter and I also learned that even when it’s 7 am and I haven’t slept, I know how to say “sorry, I don’t understand Greek. Do you speak English?” We get to the Arch and I see that Everest, a fast-food restaurant of sorts, is open and I can get a crepe there so I figured I’d get a crepe and we’d find Taylor a gyro. As we’re waiting in Everest, Taylor is falling asleep. When my crepe was done I had to physically shake her to get her awake. We asked the man where there would be an open gyro place and he pointed us in the direction we would have went anyway probably. We head out and go to cross the street toward the arch. As we are discussing the bus schedule, the light changes. This time it wasn’t the sky, but the street lights. Taylor and I were standing across from the Galerian Arch on a rainy Saturday, soaking wet and tired and carrying a crepe that I really just wanted to tear into right there, and we saw the street lights turn off because it was now morning.
We walked the blocks that would lead us home and we didn’t find any open gyro places. We even walked a little further, hoping to find a place, because I figured that if we were going to do it, we might as well do it all the way and find Taylor a damn gyro. It turned out that neither one of us could take it and Taylor decided it wasn’t even worth it. She did not end the night with a gyro unfortunately. She did get something to eat though, and we sat and ate our breakfast or whatever that meal could have been considered. We somehow dragged ourselves back to our apartment and made it in there. It took me a good number of tries with the keys to get in the room because I was just so exhausted. By the time I laid down in my bed and got ready to sleep for the night, my clock read 7:54. I was so tired I barely had time to be amazed at myself, although I almost tried to stay awake to get online and see if anyone was on skype, but I couldn’t. I’m quite certain I was asleep before the clock changed to 8:00.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The weekend thanks to the most interesting woman in the world pt. 1
So my weekend somehow ended up starting Friday afternoon. A lot of students at ACT just don't have classes on Fridays, but I do, so my weekends start around 6 o clock Friday night. This week however, I was going to get up and go with two other study abroad students to the hospital to get the tests I need for this bullshit residency permit I have to apply for. I was told that I would be able to make my 1 o'clock class if we went to the hospital at 11. The two other students and I get on the bus and make it to the hospital at about 5 til 11, waiting for the girl who works for the school to get there and help us. Turns out no one at the one hospital in Thessaloniki that can do these tests speaks English, so we needed a translator. She got there half an hour late, which gave me, Larissa, and Lee half an hour to sit on the benches in front of this hospital and fret about how sketchy this hospital looks. Hospitals at home generally look clean and sort of spartan on the outside. The big white buildings that are all sort of uniformly nice and put you at ease about the sanitation standards, they don't exist here in Greece. This hospital was mustard yellow colored mansion. It looks like an old mansion that has been converted. It probably looks haunted if seen at night. The stone steps are cracked and there is a faucet outside as though at any moment a nurse will come out rushing to get water, blood stained apron and all. And I don't mean to be insulting, I'm really not. These were just some of the scenarios that we discussed while waiting.
Our translator showed up and we got to wait some more. This time we had numbers though. It could have been worse though; there are much less interesting people than Lee and Larissa to be stuck waiting around with, and it was a beautiful day. We eventually (see 1 o'clock as eventually) got to go into the hospital and it turns out they weren't able to do the tests friday anyway. So we all scheduled new appointments for Tuesday because Monday was all full. So we got out of the hospital at around 1:30, halfway through the hour my Literature class happens in. I was obviously not going to make it to Lit. So instead, we decided to walk back downtown (because taking the bus to the hospital was unnecessary, it was that close) and get some gyros. Larissa hadn't really had a gyro yet, so I figured it was necessary. So we ate and then Larissa asked me if I wanted to go to the open market at Aristotle Square with her, because Lee was going to go back to the apartments. I of course decided that tagging along was a better idea that paying for a cab to take me to school for one hour of class, when I can just get the powerpoint online anyway.
Larissa and I headed down toward Aristotle and on the way stopped in this music store, which was a-okay by me because I've realized that I do not mind staring at electric guitars. Larissa started talking to the employees about whether or not they had flutes and it turned out that they had one. A very decent one, that was made even more decent by how cheap it apparently was by instrument standards. Larissa got rather excited about this and was sort of giddy the entire rest of the way to the market, vowing to go back into the music shop and see if they could order a more specific flute with open holes and a B and some other technical stuff that I know nothing about.
Some quick information that might be helpful as to understanding why this blog entry is going to end up an incredible length. Larissa might be the most interesting woman in the world. If there were a female equivalent to those Dos Equis commercials, Larissa would be that woman selling you beer. or probably vodka. or gin. She's from New Jersey, by way of Canada, by way of Israel, by way of Ukraine. She is 23 years old and has a few tattoos, one she designed herself, another that reads Crazy Bitch in Thai. She's bathed elephants in rivers. She has been arrested for harassing police officers with friends dressed like Borat. She has a piece of glass still stuck in her eyebrow from a car accident she was in when she was 18. She has a strange propriety about her table manners, eating a gyro with a knife and fork and clearing her tray at a place where you don't have to. She loves alcohol but loves poker more. She also loves children and works as a pre-school teacher. She occasionally raps in Russian and will invite you to go watch the sunset with her on top of a mountain because it is just that beautiful and she wants to share it with you. She will befriend random people while out on the town and save the glass bottles for the shop down the street, because she is friends with the owner because she's Russian. I am never really sure what will happen whenever she's around. I wish I could follow her around with a camera and show everyone what I mean when I say she's an amazing character. I want to chronicle her life.
Larissa also happens to be a great cook. This is why she wanted to go to the open market, to pick up some stuff for dinner that night. So we of course were in the meat aisle, that's also basically a fish aisle. She got some ground up chicken and almost bought some sting ray. But instead of just calling that good enough, we continued out to more grocers that I hadn't ever seen (I've been to the open market and looked around before). She knows a good place for anything you might want- if you like trail mix and nuts and the like, she knows a place; if you like asian food, she knows a place. We stopped a few more places and I was mostly along for the ride because I can't just see foods and go "oh, I have a recipe I could use these for" because be serious, I don't have recipes for shit. I'm learning the basics of pasta at this point in my life, nevermind making anything with artichokes and chili peppers and two kilos of ground chicken. She had bags of things by the end of the day trip, and I had a small bag with a roll of scotch tape in it and a bottle of green tea.
Once we got back to the apartment, I'm pretty sure I just took a nap or watched some Castle or something, but that's unimportant. I didn't have plans for Friday night (because Thursday night had been wine and Glee night and we turned it into a reason to invent drinks- a TMI: Diet Coke, Vodka and Pineapple Juice- surprisingly delicious!) but it turned out that a few people were going out to eat around 9 and we decided we'd tag along. After a solid bout of being wicked confused and trying to find people, because Candy Dream was not having an easy time trying to explain where the group of people he was with were, we eventually got to this restaurant. We had a traditional Greek style dinner with lots of wine and lots of courses and lots of people making toasts, even though it was mostly Americans at this dinner. When I say lots of wine, I mean a few people drinking rather copious amounts of wine and the rest of us drinking a few glasses maybe. Someone, who will remain nameless, but it rhymes with Sandy Stream, may have been a bit more drunk than he expected and it was kind of hilarious. But I eventually got to talking with another ACT student, who is from Kosovo, and the other Kappa here, Elyse, about the Bissell Library, the ACT library. It is apparently the best library in the Balkans and that was an exciting statement for me to hear, until I was trying to do research the other day. If that's the best library in the Balkans, then I'm donating every academic book I ever purchase to a Balkan country when I die, because I feel terrible for these students. The Monmouth Library is nicer. Not to talk blatant shit, but I don't mean it meanly, I mean it as in, someone do something about that. I feel terrible about it. But the fact that it is electronically sound is enough to make it one of the best in the Balkans.
But anyway, after dinner was over, a few people were going out to the bars, but none of my friends really were and I had been invited to go play poker with Larissa and I figured I'd take her up on that..
And since this is freakishly long, I'm going to leave it at that for now. Expect part 2 later.
Our translator showed up and we got to wait some more. This time we had numbers though. It could have been worse though; there are much less interesting people than Lee and Larissa to be stuck waiting around with, and it was a beautiful day. We eventually (see 1 o'clock as eventually) got to go into the hospital and it turns out they weren't able to do the tests friday anyway. So we all scheduled new appointments for Tuesday because Monday was all full. So we got out of the hospital at around 1:30, halfway through the hour my Literature class happens in. I was obviously not going to make it to Lit. So instead, we decided to walk back downtown (because taking the bus to the hospital was unnecessary, it was that close) and get some gyros. Larissa hadn't really had a gyro yet, so I figured it was necessary. So we ate and then Larissa asked me if I wanted to go to the open market at Aristotle Square with her, because Lee was going to go back to the apartments. I of course decided that tagging along was a better idea that paying for a cab to take me to school for one hour of class, when I can just get the powerpoint online anyway.
Larissa and I headed down toward Aristotle and on the way stopped in this music store, which was a-okay by me because I've realized that I do not mind staring at electric guitars. Larissa started talking to the employees about whether or not they had flutes and it turned out that they had one. A very decent one, that was made even more decent by how cheap it apparently was by instrument standards. Larissa got rather excited about this and was sort of giddy the entire rest of the way to the market, vowing to go back into the music shop and see if they could order a more specific flute with open holes and a B and some other technical stuff that I know nothing about.
Some quick information that might be helpful as to understanding why this blog entry is going to end up an incredible length. Larissa might be the most interesting woman in the world. If there were a female equivalent to those Dos Equis commercials, Larissa would be that woman selling you beer. or probably vodka. or gin. She's from New Jersey, by way of Canada, by way of Israel, by way of Ukraine. She is 23 years old and has a few tattoos, one she designed herself, another that reads Crazy Bitch in Thai. She's bathed elephants in rivers. She has been arrested for harassing police officers with friends dressed like Borat. She has a piece of glass still stuck in her eyebrow from a car accident she was in when she was 18. She has a strange propriety about her table manners, eating a gyro with a knife and fork and clearing her tray at a place where you don't have to. She loves alcohol but loves poker more. She also loves children and works as a pre-school teacher. She occasionally raps in Russian and will invite you to go watch the sunset with her on top of a mountain because it is just that beautiful and she wants to share it with you. She will befriend random people while out on the town and save the glass bottles for the shop down the street, because she is friends with the owner because she's Russian. I am never really sure what will happen whenever she's around. I wish I could follow her around with a camera and show everyone what I mean when I say she's an amazing character. I want to chronicle her life.
Larissa also happens to be a great cook. This is why she wanted to go to the open market, to pick up some stuff for dinner that night. So we of course were in the meat aisle, that's also basically a fish aisle. She got some ground up chicken and almost bought some sting ray. But instead of just calling that good enough, we continued out to more grocers that I hadn't ever seen (I've been to the open market and looked around before). She knows a good place for anything you might want- if you like trail mix and nuts and the like, she knows a place; if you like asian food, she knows a place. We stopped a few more places and I was mostly along for the ride because I can't just see foods and go "oh, I have a recipe I could use these for" because be serious, I don't have recipes for shit. I'm learning the basics of pasta at this point in my life, nevermind making anything with artichokes and chili peppers and two kilos of ground chicken. She had bags of things by the end of the day trip, and I had a small bag with a roll of scotch tape in it and a bottle of green tea.
Once we got back to the apartment, I'm pretty sure I just took a nap or watched some Castle or something, but that's unimportant. I didn't have plans for Friday night (because Thursday night had been wine and Glee night and we turned it into a reason to invent drinks- a TMI: Diet Coke, Vodka and Pineapple Juice- surprisingly delicious!) but it turned out that a few people were going out to eat around 9 and we decided we'd tag along. After a solid bout of being wicked confused and trying to find people, because Candy Dream was not having an easy time trying to explain where the group of people he was with were, we eventually got to this restaurant. We had a traditional Greek style dinner with lots of wine and lots of courses and lots of people making toasts, even though it was mostly Americans at this dinner. When I say lots of wine, I mean a few people drinking rather copious amounts of wine and the rest of us drinking a few glasses maybe. Someone, who will remain nameless, but it rhymes with Sandy Stream, may have been a bit more drunk than he expected and it was kind of hilarious. But I eventually got to talking with another ACT student, who is from Kosovo, and the other Kappa here, Elyse, about the Bissell Library, the ACT library. It is apparently the best library in the Balkans and that was an exciting statement for me to hear, until I was trying to do research the other day. If that's the best library in the Balkans, then I'm donating every academic book I ever purchase to a Balkan country when I die, because I feel terrible for these students. The Monmouth Library is nicer. Not to talk blatant shit, but I don't mean it meanly, I mean it as in, someone do something about that. I feel terrible about it. But the fact that it is electronically sound is enough to make it one of the best in the Balkans.
But anyway, after dinner was over, a few people were going out to the bars, but none of my friends really were and I had been invited to go play poker with Larissa and I figured I'd take her up on that..
And since this is freakishly long, I'm going to leave it at that for now. Expect part 2 later.
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