Tuesday night we were supposed to go to the club, but it turns out the club our RA and the Greeks that have been showing us around were going to take us to doesn't open until Thursday. So there was an apartment complex full of dressed up girls and a few guys wondering where we were going instead. We were all hanging out in this girl, Taylor's, room talking and laughing but there can't be too many people in one room so a few of us went outside. Eventually everyone is outside waiting for Kostjan (the Greek equivalent of Christian, and I'm guessing on the spelling) to get hold of one of his friends who works at the bar and this girl, Larissa, who is INSANE and completely awesome says "I can't stay here. I'm walking. Wanna come with me?" and I said sure, because we had been talking earlier and I wanted to go too. I was sick of standing around. I told people I'd just meet up with them later, not really expecting to because I didn't have a phone. I still don't for that matter. I think I'll go get one Monday or Tuesday. It just doesn't seem that important because I can skype people at home and wouldn't be using a phone for that anyway. Not having a phone is really kind of an interesting experience since I've pretty much been living with phone attached to my hand for so long now.

Because really, as much as I do love it here and yes, things are pretty different, in my imagination it's always been like a land of complete magic, Greece has. But it really is just a big city, a big beautiful city. I love the energy in it. I don't love not being able to understand the signs and menus and such but when I'm with another American student, it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. We're figuring it out and I think we're doing alright so far. The things we have to learn, like the bus system and navigating and the like are things we'd have to learn when we moved anywhere, it's just now in a completely different alphabet. We are learning some basic Greek words and the like and I really enjoy trying to figure out some modern Greek stuff using the Ancient Greek I do know, even though learning to pronounce things differently will probably mess me up for a little bit. I want a chi to be hard and it sounds like an h in modern.

But, back to Tuesday night. Larissa and I walked down to the White Tower, which is a historical landmark here in Thessaloniki and it is right by the Aegean Sea (the Thermatic gulf where we are really, but that's part of the Aegean) and it was beautiful. We were having an intense conversation about stuff like her crazy life, because she's traveled all over the place and has done some insane and very cool things, and why I don't like Monmouth sometimes among other things. It was really fun just sitting there talking to her, watching her roll cigarettes. There are stairs leading down to the water every hundred feet or so, so we of course went down them and touched the water. My Classics major brain and my English major brain really went a little silly at this for some reason like "This is the AEGEAN SEA! Achilles had to cross this!" Fictionally, but still; it'd be a bit like being at King's Cross for a Harry Potter reader. But we eventually ran into everyone because we stopped in front of this loud, half outdoor bar and out walks Andy. I was kind of shocked to actually have met up with anyone so we went over there after a few minutes and ordered a drink for entirely too much money. Spending money is so easy here and I feel terrible about it.

But so we weren't really doing much at the bar, because it was entirely too loud to talk and no one was dancing so Larissa and I left. We were just talking again, and Larissa decided she was going to pee in the Aegean and so she went down the stairs to do so, pee'd then FELL IN! She has been joking about us stripping down and jumping in and I told her I couldn't do it, but then she fell in and she decided that she was going to swim around. It was absolutely hysterical. By the time we walked back it was like 3:45 am. I just straight up passed out to go to sleep, I couldn't stay awake to go up to the mountain to see the city like Larissa suggested. It was an all around awesome night and there really isn't a specific reason for it.

I was going to tell the story of last night too, but I'll cut this short. I'm headed to a scavenger hunt now.