Karaoke

After going to sleep at 7a, I had a slow morning.  It consisted of some cleaning, movie watching, shopping, chocolate, and a beautiful rainbow.

After relaxing all day with some naps we decided that we were going to have a fun night.  It started with hanging out in the other apartments but then led to an awesome dance party in our apartment.  The boys were a bit immature and decided to skip the girls fun.  We decided that we needed to go out locally and see what was going on.  We were going to go to a local place that we go to often but decided that the place next door looked like way too much to skip out on.  Turns out it was Karaoke night.  It was so funny.  We tried to keep up with the Greek but then eventually they started American music.  This is where I quickly went up to the DJ and asked if we could sing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (I thought my normal karaoke choice – ‘Bitch’ by Meredith Brooks – was just inappropriate for the occasion.  But Cindi was a HUGE crowd pleaser.  We had a lot of fun and came home happy and ready for the flea market in the morning.  Here are some photos from the evening.

Brauron, Marathon, and Nea Makri

Our day began bright and early for our day trip.  It was an 8a meeting time.  The weather was not in our favor, but I dressed for the ocassion – boots and raincoat.  The bus ride wasn’t too long and went through some amazing countryside landscape.  The rain did hold us back from going to all of the sites but the museums were a good alternative.  In Marathon, the cutest puppies ever greeted us.

It was a museum that accompanied the Temple of Artemis at Brauron.  Here are some cool pictures!

We were able to see the ruins on the bus.  Not the best photos but it was a sight. We then had stop at the burial mound at Marathon for some lecturing by Marky Mark.  After that it was to the Archeological Museum of Marathon.  It was a nice museum with lots of fun artifacts.  Here are some pictures!

Then for the event of the day.  For our Greek City States class we were divided up into teams to make the class a bit more interesting.  The Munns dressed up and gave us all of our assignments.  I am just going to go with the flow on this.  I am Sparta – so I’m thinking that I can skip class to work out a couple times.  

It was then off to Nea Makri.  This is a beautiful place – even in the rain.

The point of the stop was for some food.  It was delicious.  Our table opted to just get a bunch of appetizers to pass around and share.  I got to try some new foods – octopus and fried cheese.  It was all so delicious.

After lunch it was just a quick drive home to then have a chocolate run and watch 500 Days of Summer.  I literally took a 4 hour nap and then was ready to go out and have an amazing night.  It was a wonderful night of dancing – finally – and returning very late.  Tomorrow is relaxation, shopping, reading, homework, and just enjoying every second I get to spend in this amazing country.

Gold and Potluck

I had such a good day.  It began like many others here – get up, get ready and go.  We had our first field trip with Archeology.  We were told to meet at the National Archeological Museum downtown.  So we set out after our first class and met up with everyone there.  

Not to be a nerd – but it was really cool.  It was just so awesome to see all of the things in text books in real life.  Here are some pictures!

We then came home for lunch – which was a good time in itself (dancing, cooking, singing).  The sea had turned gold in honor of all of the gold we had seen earlier.

We watched a documentary in our last class and got out an hour early – now this is what I felt like study abroad was supposed to be like.  Then it was our first potluck dinner!  There are 20ish people on the program and everyone had been instructed on what to bring and our apartment was hosting.  So we spent some time cleaning up the apartment and cooking our contribution to the potluck (chicken and potatoes).  We had the room ready to go for everything.

Everyone brought so much amazing food.

It was such a good time and the food was sooooo good.  We ate and talked and such for a while then had to be done because we have our day trip tomorrow to Marathon!!!  Good night!

Pretty Relaxing Day

It consisted of way too many classes.  I found some time to enjoy the day though.  I headed up to the roof of the Centre before our Modern Greek class and laid in the sun studying for our quiz.  It made my day pretty much.  After class we all sat and watched “300” in the classroom – very entertaining.  The rest of the night was spent just hanging out in the apartments.  We got a knock at the door by our cleaning lady Maria – she brought all of us cookies.  

Over the weekend we were told to leave all of our sheets and towels in a pillowcase and she would come around and wash them and return them before we got back.  She was probably no informed, or she forgot because it didn’t get done.  She felt so bad that she came the next day to do it and then brought us cookies.  She is such an amazing lady.  We want to have dinner with her but we need to wait to learn a bit more Greek or it will be a quiet dinner.  We have our Archeology class tomorrow at the museum so that should be fun and split up classroom time.  However, we have to get there on our own – that should be entertaining.  Our day trip to Marathon starts at 8a on Friday and we have a potluck dinner tomorrow night that our apartment is hosting.  It looks as though it will be a good day.

First Long Weekend Booked

We call this whole experience the “Inception Trip” because we go on tons of trips within our trips.  Then at times within those trips we go on trips.  It’s a funny way to look at everything.  Today we booked our first long weekend inception trip.  Before that I woke up, ran, cleaned like a maniac, made breakfast, and relaxed before an entirely too long day of class.  I stayed at the Athens Centre from 11a until 6p.  It was not too much fun.  There was actually a lecture at night by this fancy guy but we just couldn’t stand the idea of going back to the Centre after being there all day.  Classes were alright – we start our class trips with Archeology Thursday so that will get a lot better.  Also while at the Centre, I spoke with someone about arranging Spring Break (!!! – doing that next week) and we decided on our first long weekend – Rome.  So February 11 – February 14 I will be departing the wonderful country of Greece to check out Rome!  It should be a wonderful time.  I am very excited.  Then once getting home we all just finished our reading for our City States class.  It was a slow relaxing night filled with way too much homework.  I got a chance to get out and take a walk with a roomie – it was soooo cold.  Haha, I know that means nothing compared to home but I was chilly.  Tomorrow is shopping, class, quiz, and then who knows!  We have a program dinner on Thursday that we are hosting so we will probably cook and clean tonight.  Another day trip is on Friday to Marathon and surrounding areas – this just keeps getting better!!

Lazy Monday

It definitely felt like a Monday.  I woke up – ran, showered, cleaned, ate breakfast (another amazing omelet), and got ready for class.  Since we can only use the internet at the school, I went a bit early before class so that I could check on some things.  We are in the process of deciding where to go for our first long weekend.  There is talk of Italy – but it seems like a lot of money to go somewhere I have been.  During the trip I’d really like to get to Prague or Vienna.  Who knows!  That is part of the fun.  We are going to decide soon though and I will make the grand reveal of where I will be spending our first long weekend.  We had class 1:45-3 (really ended at 3:20 – it is getting quite annoying) and then 4:30-6:00.  I had planned to get dinner between but it was raining pretty hard so I just stayed at the school and used the computer.  After classes, I came back and made yet another amazing dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.  It was a very lazy Monday with not too much going on and no pictures taken… sorry.  We have class all day tomorrow at the Centre but there is some speaker tomorrow night so maybe it will be exciting – I will update!

Sunday Night Football

  After getting a full night’s sleep, I was up early to begin my day.  I had a nice shower, did a lot of laundry (by hand – I know, who would have ever guessed I’d be a hand washing maniac), and had a wonderful breakfast.  I bought an orange juicer on Friday so that I could make orange juice (I’m not sure if they sell orange juice here because the oranges are so juicy and cheap that I’m pretty sure everyone makes it themselves – I got a dozen oranges for 1.30 euro).  So I made a nice glass with one orange and one blood orange.

After that it was just a day of studying.  We have a quiz tomorrow in our City-States class and they gave us a study guide of 60 people/places/things.  It is a bit ridiculous, but we divided and conquered the work and see how it goes.  While doing homework at the Athens Centre there were free lemons to take so I decided to incorporate this into my dinner for the evening (I know – some of you may be shocked by this statement if you know me pretty well… but when it comes to food here – I do it all… even lemons).  I just found out that there is a chef next door in our program so I decided to get his assistance so I could make a good dinner.  While cooking was also the first time since we have been here I had the apartment to myself – it was surreal and only lasted about 3 minutes, nonetheless, it happened.  I made lemon chicken and potatoes with onions, garlic, and bacon.  It was delicious.  Then later in the evening we went to an Irish Pub, James Joyce, to watch the American football game.  I just enjoyed a Guinness and pretended to care about the game.  Truth is – roomie is a huge Packer fan so I didn’t really have much of a choice.  It was a good night though!!