"I'm in love with anything that lives!"

it always seems the longer you stay in one place, the less attractions you have to write about. the more time classes seem to take up, the less time you have to write about less stuff. but its not really true. i have just as much time, and just as much to write about. but im living instead of writing!

classes take up a good amount of time, but not too much. im not letting homework or reading get me down. im enjoying my lectures a lot, and the cool things we do in class. museum & ancient site during the day, greek verbs at night, cooking and exploring at night. im experiencing that small classroom feel for the first time. i mean i guess i had goldish's class last fall (only 7 people in a history class at osu! incredible) but this is so amazing. im getting to know my professors. they are so interesting. guiding some time of the year, teaching, phds but prefer to be called by their first names. its a very cool experience. and the people at the center (doesnt that sound cultish? everytime i say it THE CENTER! i feel like a Scientologist or something, but its called the Arcadia Center for Hellenic, Balkan and Mediterranean studies so we call it the center) are so awesome.

Im so lucky I ended up with Melissa and Jayna. It is unique to find people who dont judge my oddities, who enhance my desire to explore, to open a bottle of wine in the early evening JUST because we CAN. wanting to go to paris and milan, but also knowing a crazy weekend in corfu is completely necessary to fulfill our abroad experience. we have a lot of fun and its awesome. sometimes i dont even need to say what im thinking cause they are thinking it too. i look at other people in my program. and i think id be so unhappy without them. im extremely thankful and lucky.

yesterday was yom kippour and I didnt fast cause im in a country of millions of greek orthodox people and i didnt have any motivation too. and then for dinner melissa made pork and it was an awesome great dinner! and i kept joking saying im such a bad jew! not fasting and eating pork for dinner! too bad at 3am i woke up feeling awful and spent an hour on the bathroom floor (ill spare you the details but it wasnt pretty) divine intervention? yes 100% sure. thats the last yom kippour i decide to ignore. god smiting me? not cool. had to miss 2 classes! im still not feeling great but i was able to eat!

ive been reading the new dan brown book. not having a tv really helps knock things off my book list. anyway its amazing as expected. i cant stop reading it!!! so good!!

tonight we went to the center (im not in a cult i swear!!!!) and watched in america for jayna and melissas greece literature class. i went along because i was bored, needed to get my face outta the dan brown, and had wanted to see that movie ever since it came out and won an oscar a few years back. it was honestly amazing. i love it. i love movies.

i have to go to sleep now. i am going to a museum tomorrow and have to be up lightweight early.

updates from the aegean front

i use that title a lot ive realized. it makes me feel cool. like im in the military, or in the middle of something bigger then myself. really im just sitting in my hallway outside of melissa's room trying for the life of me to get internet. Thomson, the trusty unsecured wireless we steal 24/7 had decided to get us back for last weeks "shrieking at 3am cause we were locked out" thing (just a theory that sounds better then we are getting sucky service from the network we steal internet from) and has made the internet pretty much impossible to get anywhere other then melissas room. she is sleeping hence why i am on the cold floor instead of her on her ultracomfy bed. anyway that is part of my update. a lot of emails and ims ect are not getting answered due to my stupid internet connection. keep sending them though. maybe Thomson will love us one day again and i will get internet back (fingers cross it will be SOON!)

this week has been going very well. lots of sleeping and lounging after our long weekend. i forgot to mention that the girls and i accomplished one of our goals. to "be greek" we couldnt flake and go to sleep early (must admit thats usually me who wants to call it a night first, I take after my mother and after a few drinks the men of my dreams seem to be the only men i care to see. but instead we held fast and while on hydra attempted to do it the Mediterranean way. we stayed at the beach until about 530 and spent an hour walking back, followed by an hour of coffee and snacking (snacking meaning toast which is actually grilled cheese with some kind of coldcuts inside, i dont know if they actually know our concept of toast?) we realize this "snack and coffee time" around 630-730 was key to the greek diet, because it allowed them to not die of starvation before they went out to eat at 1030. YES 1030 PM. We then spent 2 1/2 hours eating, which wasnt hard because we talk for 2 of them, eat slowly and in all honesty even speed eating wouldnt get you outta there in under an hour because the service is so bad. okay sorry. SLOW AND GREEK. okay not slow. just different. anyway we ended up bar hopping around town for 3 hours (easy) and ended up visiting our waiter friends for some wine, loukamades, and wedding cake (all for free!). when strolling home around 415, we still were hungry (amazing i know, we did walk about 3 miles that day though) and we pretty annoyed when the bar that stayed open "all night & all day" was closed (false advertising). but in amazement i saw a door open along a small alley and noticed it was leading to a bakery we had wandered into during the day. it cant be? open? 415 am? I ran to it so fast melissa and jayna didnt really understand what i was seeing. the baker had just opened his door to start making fresh things for the coming day (hes starting his day as we are ending it, irony) so we got fresh apple pie and ham and cheese pie. oh so good. we walked home slowly climbing the steps to our humble villa (okay guest house but villa sounds so much nicer, and in reality it was really nice! look at the pictures!) and we're asleep by 5 am. mission accomplished.

that was a long story. i know i write a lot. loyal readers you are commended. skimmers, oh i know who you are.

classes this week have been great. genuinely interesting. and my clicklit book is really keeping me entertained. i dont have a tv you know? i think i said that before. anyway so chicklit is my new survival guide. i took out plato from the library (when in rome right?) but its somewhere under my bed. as im halfway through my 500 book about 4 british women who all love the same dashing charming bloke. its too easy.

no homework tonight. im a lucky girl. we meant to go out, but melissa passed out before we could make plans (long weekend as i explained above) and now ive just had a great evening relaxing, reading, and lounging in my awesome euro sweatpants (better then legging i swear). love and miss to all

Malaka! Pentenostimo! Starcadia mu! (Hydra)

Let me try to explain this weekend. It was incredible. That’s not really good enough.
We went out Thursday night and therefore only got 2 hours asleep before we had to be up at 5 to leave for Pireaus, the port. I call it PER-A-US because that’s how they pronounce the Greek name in the movie Troy with Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt. And I really like the name, I think its pretty. The Greeks though, of course they pronounce it completely differently. Who knew all of our lives all the names we thought we learned in Greek were really the Latinized names that aren’t the same. I guess that is pretty general with other languages, but it makes me feel a lot less knowledgeable of Greek then I thought I was. Even Athens is really Athena!
Jan, our program director, told us we would be having moments where we didn’t understand the Greeks and got pissed at “them Greeks” and didn’t understand why everything wasn’t done like its done in the States. Its true. You have tons of those moments. The waiters at our restaurant literally stood around for 45 minutes ignoring us after we had finished our meal even though we wanted coffee and had even waved at them. No they just kept checking their phones, talking to each other, smoking of course. And we were getting so antsy and annoyed. Not that we cant handle chilling for a while after dinner. We had chilled. We know the Greeks by now, we understand it takes them 2 ½ hours to drink a coffee that I “chug” in about 2 minutes. But for the love of Zeus! 45 minutes of being ignored at a tiny restaurant! We laughed about it after we got our ‘tude outta the way. It’s the Greeks and its Island time! (island time doesn’t exist. No watches, no cell phones, no clocks, its island time).
Anyway, we only got like 2 hours of sleep. We had a tiny ittybitty massacre on the metro, then hopped on our ferry for Hydra (pronounced HE-Dra) When we got there, we thought we were in a Disney movie (backwards G backwards G) Honestly, the port looked like something outta Epcot or Beauty and the Beast (I really couldn’t be sure from which film actually and I haven’t seen Beauty and the Beast in years but it seems the most likely to look kinda like Hydra) Meliss called Kostas, the man from whom we were renting the guest house, and he said he would come pick us up in his Hummer with his dog. (There are no cars on the island, Kostas is such a kidder). We found Kostas and Nenu his adorable puppy and we made our way up to the house. It was an amazing quant guest house built next to his house that overlooked Hydra. His family had been renting it out for years. (God I can tell already im giving too much info, I always do that, when people want stories they want the jist, but I am awful at the jist. Instead I give tons and tons of details. I don’t know, I remember everything, I tend to tell everything, you can skim I give permission)
Our whole weekend was amazingly relaxing and so much fun. We laughed so much I cannot explain. I feel like I might not have laughed like that in a very long time. It felt good, from the belly, had to keel over actually, couldn’t hold myself up I was laughing so hard. We explored beaches, and walked long paths, took hundreds of pictures, drank lots of wine (jet fuel as its known to some people) and fun drinks like tequila sunrises and jayna had a jack daniels on the rocks (shes so badass that blonde). We made friends! We got free cake, loukamathas, fruit, coffee, saved money! Jayna bought art, I bought a new brit chicklit book to keep myself occupied, Melissa some souvenirs of the amazing Hydra. We really fell in love id say. It is a jewel in the Med. Go on your honeymoon, I swear. Anyway, we are back in Pagrati now, and I was awoken this morning by Ulga, the Greekwoman (duh) who comes to make sure we aren’t living in a dumpster and properly clean our sink and toilets ect.
Im not really looking forward to classes this week. I hope im less tired. Last week fatigue kept plaguing me and I think I fell asleep standing up while on the Agora. Its annoying. Im so interested in this stuff, but cannot seem to wake up!! Even after shotgunning (only a joke expression not really) my diplo espresso, I seem to just want to lean my head against some ancient pillar and call it a day. Anyway, goal for this week: no wanting to sleep in class. I came here to learn! Do it em.

weekend

good week but sooooo excited for the weekend. going to hydra with melissa and jayna. email me at emmie111@msn.com!

coolfungreatsweetthingsofthisweek!

Melissa Jayna and I are officially on a first name basis with Kostas the coffee shop owner near the school. He makes jokes with us and is very friendly and helpful with our Greek. I honestly feel like I know more Greek in these few weeks then I learned in French all of high school. poli kala!

I had a very productive day of doing lots of homework, and reading! Doing work for 5 classes at once is challenging for sure. But I feel good and accomplished!

I made a real dinner last night! (Not my usual gourmet sandwiches or eggs, which I must admit are pretty damn good. Ive been making omelets and toasting my bread in a pan cause we dont have a toaster. Even my sandwiches of fresh turkey, tomatos, mayo, cheese ect are coming out really really well!) Anyway yeah I made a real dinner! I marinated chicken breasts in balsamic and then cooked them on the stove! It was kinda scary and required two phonecalls to the parents for help, but it worked! and I added some green pepper to the mix. It fed all four of us and we delicious! I can cook, who knew?

Out of stress and our ability to sleepin this morning (wednesday is literally the only day to sleep in including the weekends) we went out last night! It was a great night. Melissa and I freely made some great mixed drinks to go with dinner, and then around 11 we made our way to Psiri which is a cool hip neighborhood of Athens with lots of bars. We found a cozy spot with cold beers and lots of hookah. A little while later some other Arcadians stumbled upon us and joined our little party. We had a great night of Mythnos (Greek Beer) and Apple hookah. But we finished it off right with Mcdonalds. It was perfect.

Our arrival home wasnt that graceful (we did get a 3 euro cab ride though which is equal to our bus fair so yeah it was beastly) Our other roommate Melissa (the other Melissa) had gone to bed long before we got home at 3am and had deadbolted the door not realizing we'd be unable to get into our apartment. SO we found ourselves locked out our apartment. um its 3 am wtf are we suppose to do, the entire building was silent and believe me Greeks take their quiet hours very seriously. she had a cell phone but lost it and sleeps with headphones in so of course didnt hear our yelling, banging, buzzing and doorbell ringing. it took 25 minutes to wake her up and get her to unlock the door. Once inside my Mcdonalds was cold and my milkshake warm, but I am very happy we didnt have to sleep in the hallway.

I didnt have class today until 630. and I got to Skype with Lior and Trace Yay!! Now I am about to go to sleep because I have to be up megaearly for class so far across Athens. And my parents are visiting me in November!!!! (So excited!!!!!! I miss my parents far to much to be turning 21 soon)

Goodnight!

Tuesdays are always lame

ive been feeling this pull towards the US lately. At nights when we all retreat to our bedrooms to skype with friends and family. i sit in bed, without a fucking light because my ceiling is like 20 feet tall and i dont understand how i am suppose to change the lightbulb that went out the second day I was here. Anyway, I email, and im and post and attempt to skype and text and am pretty much getting shit in response. its really pissing me off to be quite honest. I should be writing longer emails in responses to those who do email me. Its just lonely here sometimes and its extremely annoying.

We started classes yesterday. I had a mixup in my schedule but sorted it out and am now in 3 really cool (sounding) classes. in reality they all seem kinda the same and confusing? All involved archaeology and history which clearly i am pumped about, but i just havent been interested or in the mood lately. i need to get amped up! I am taking 5 classes for the first time (I usually take 3 at osu). It is proving to be a little overwhelming to be honest. Especially because they are all kinda intense. Im not very worried though, we heard from past students its kinda a breeze. Fingers are tensely crossed. I am taking Prehistory of the Aegean, which is a history class, but archaeology too, Byzantine history (which is history and archaeology) and Athens on site which is mostly archaeology through the history of athens. Then im taking a Greek culture class, and Greek language. Each class is 2 hours, in these hot stuffy rooms.

Melissa Jayna and I already planned a trip for this weekend. We are going to the amazing island of Hydra! its suppose to be absolutely incredible. Look it up. We called about 40 places and found no openings but finally found a guest house being rented for the weekend. 100 euro for a night between three people! not bad! its suppose to be peaceful, great restaurants, great bars. maybe we will meet some greeks. Im getting antsy of just knowing people in my program. Its clearly hard to meet people here, you know with the fact that we speak different languages.

kythnos! kythnos!

you know that feeling you get after a long day in the sun? when your skin is all salty and your hair somehow dries perfectly and your whole body just aches with heat and redness. i love it. we had a perfect weekend on the small quiet island of kythnos. I think we arrived on a small quiet island at least, and left it a huge mess of greatness.

We had to leave so early friday morning that i can barely remember it. we got little sleep, but made up for it during the bus ride to the port (1 1/2 hours) and from the port to kythnos (3 hours). we immediately made our way to the beach, and thus the bar next to it. we sat and relaxed and swam and it was much needed because the hike to the beach was very long and through extreme terrain. melissa and i were walking at the tail of the group cursing whoevers bloody idea it was to walk through pricker bushes and rocks on the side of the hill instead of on the stupid road. we vowed that in order for the trip to be worth it the beach must be the best freaking beach wed ever seen. Poseidon himself better vacation on this beach. and ambrosia better drift in the waves. Then when those jokes got old she and I started trying to turn our knowledge of Greek Mythology into dirty pickup lines. It made the hike go by faster.

Coming back from the beach was a great adventure. Jayna Melis and I trekked up the extremely steep road to get to the main road to get back to the town and lets just say it was not fun (especially after a few drinks in me). But when we got to the top, inspired by my accomplishment i started singing we are the champions. it was pretty damn epic. After walking a little we were greeting by a car honking filled with our friends who we had left at the beach. they were being driven back to down by the bartenders wife, about 9 of them that is jampacked into the tiniest car ever. laughing our butts off we didnt quite realize what she was doing as she stopped the car and opened the trunk. but in a split second i understood and just shoved myself into the trunk, legs hanging out. jayna melissa and i sat holding on to dear life as our feet and shoes hung out of the back of the car with the trunk wide open. greeks, they are so hospitable.

we spent the rest of the weekend, resting, drinking (there really wasnt much to do on the island), hiking up a mountain and to the beach, laughing hysterically, trying to speak greek and most of the time doing it fairly well!, swimming, and of course, as greeks, eating and drinking coffee. I wish i could explain how important sitting for hours at a time eating and drinking coffee is. its basically the most important thing to do everyday and all throughout life.

we made it back safely today. and are all very exhausted. ive been trying to upload pictures for hours. i hate facebook. please email me! i love you

me: yeah i think id be good at being in the CIA
melis: yeah i think it might have to do with the fact that you did theatre as a child

like a rolling stone

yesterday started slow but sped up throughout the day. jayna melissa and i were all extremely tired from our early wake up, that later through the day we tended to get a bit delirious. i napped for 3 hours and we all know how i get after a nap. we had greek class from 430-730 with our hilarious teacher Apolstolos (not actually hilarious, just hilarious to us). The deliera had just laughing and exchanging weird faces. Also, the entire class was dedicated to learning the names of food and i hadnt eaten since 1030am so lets just say i was so hungryyyy.

we ended up staying in last night. too tired to do just about anything but sit in our kitchen and laugh about class and everything else. our living room is cute. we put a comforter on the floor to make it cosy and we turned our spare bed into a couch. its about the only room we cant get wireless in though. also i learned about cracked.com last night. its insanely hilarious.

my dreams have been insane. of highschool, and athro, and prom? and papers i have to write, dresses and Amsterdam. of friends and boys and greeks all combined. and my car!! my beautiful car. i keep dreaming about driving it, and having it die. I think when i get really tired my rem cycle lasts a lot longer then it is suppose to.

a little off topic

ive had a few fun days so far. its a little weird, settling in, finding free time, not really knowing what to do with yourself, with who, where to go in this big city you havent explored fully. its a lot like those first weeks at college, where you just sit around on your computer a lot. not that i sit around on my computer a lot, just that, free time seems so...free.

i had a really enjoyable night yesterday though. a lot of the restaurants near the school know that we are in the neighborhood and have specials for us. last night melissa, jayna and I each got a salad, starter, main dish and dessert for 10 euros per person. incredible. it seems sometimes that everything is either very overpriced, or ridiculously cheap, there is no middle ground it seems. we also got a craft and a half of wine (dad is it craft? but the t is silent?) for 7 euros. great deal!

we had to get up really early this morning for our final trip to the hospital to get our tb tests checked. it was a long adventure way too early. im now sitting in my bed enjoying the afternoon breeze. its been quite chilly here lately. i find it very strange. im glad i brought my white sweater, and bought a cool pair of ultrasoft greek looking sweatpants. they are pretty sweet man. and its okay that i cant pull them off, because i wear them in bed ha.

I am still pretty into the office. im getting reobsessed. its funny how you watch something so much, and get so into it. and then you just forget about it. but then you watch a few and its like oh omg i forgot how emotionally attached i am to this. television is so interesting. i just cried during a pam/jim scene. i think i can honestly say, hands down, it is the most amazing and honest relationship on television. the courtship at least. i hate movies and shows where its so unclear really why they love each other. you just know they do. through dialog ect. but the acting and the writing doesnt really show it. the emotions arent conveyed. like on greys, when derek was all pissed off, didnt wanna see meredith ect, i dont care honestly. yeah she is a cool character and i like her, but i cant see sometimes how in love they are. its kinda like real life, when you know two people in a relationship, and you just know they love each other because thats the way it is, but you dont see that, the intimate side i guess. or maybe they just keep it so private and hidden, how they adore each other. but in the first 3 seasons, its so on the surface, and you see it so well. and you kinda get that some people notice and some people dont, but the camera, the writing and the show, can so subtlety saw a glimpse of the key reactions and emotions that are the completely essential essence of courtship. it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

its all happening

ive had two great days so far. heres whats been up
i moved in!! i got to my apartment after dragging all my bags two blocks from the place i thought was my apartment. good thing though because the real apartment is sweet! its on this great street, very centrally located between school, athens and the street in pagrati with all of the shops and bars and restaurants. i guess you could call pagrati a neighborhood of athens, its about 15 minute walk from the city center, but its really its own paradise. weve got normal things i discovered while lost yesterday!! like a sephora, mcdonalds on our corner!! fridays (the restaurant! hahaa) united colors of Benetton. its great! our walk to the school is only about 4 minutes, up a little hill and through a square. they have these adorable sqaures all over, roundabouts with cafes inside and all around it. we've been doing a lot of boring orientation stuff, safety info, school info, reapplying for our extended stay visa (ours only lasts 90 days) and learning the neighborhood. we've gone to the grocery, the open air market which is sweet and very very inexpensive! we tried a sushi restaurant last night and even made it to a few bars!
i keep saying we ive noticed! most of the time its been my roommates and me. jayne and melissa and melissa are my roommates and they are awesome! (damn i also just noticed the excessive use of exclamation marks)

anyway we had a great day yesterday and a better night, we shared wine, sushi, more wine, a game of kings with my greek mythology cards, and then with help from the gods found the bar a few blocks away that everyone was at. thank goodness for my impeccable sense of direction, it could have taken us hours instead of 4 minutes.

our apartment is great minus the rat. we all have our own bedrooms, an adorable marble kitchen with everything but a microwave, an extra bedroom that was actually the living room before, that we reverted back into the living room after our 5th roommate failed to come. we have an amazing balcony, and lots of windows, and a view of the acropolis. its just perfect and cosy.

face to face with the enemy

so tonight i was doing my makeup in my APARTMENT!!! bathroom, and its one of them thats really small and the doors fold into the room so its hard to get out. and i am doing my makeup and i keep hearing something so i look down and there is a HUGE FUCKING RAT THE SIZE OF MONTANA on the floor!!!!!!!! so i scream like i just got a limb chopped off and realize i cant fucking get out of the bathroom without stepping near or on it. but i just fucking like push the door open and run as fast as i could across the apartment. my roommates thought i died or something. anyway. we named him plato. i want to kill him.

i needed the bearjew with me

i had a terrifying experience last night. i decided i wanted to see a movie since i still felt like shit. so i asked at my hotel where the nearest movie theatre was, and they gave me directions by bus. once out and about i realized i had no idea where i was going so i got in a cab. the driver was confused when i told him the name of the theatre but when i showed him the name written he seemed to understand. (cab drivers speak basically no english at all. in fact yesterday i was kicked out of a cab very rudely when the driver realized i didnt speak greek. i was very upset) anyway so the hotel told me the theatre was only like 3 bus stops away...35 minutes later the driver and i are still driving. im completely having the worlds biggest panic attack. nobody speaks english. i cant communicate, i may be getting kidnapped, and losing euro after euro every second. i try to tell the driver to just turn around, take me back to my hotel but he doesnt listen, no close, no close he says. at this point im crying as we drive through the really bad neighborhood of athens filled with drug dealers and prositutes. im actually crying, shaking, thinking im bout to get murdered. after 45 minutes he stops and points through the trees across a park at what looks kinda like a movie theatre. i RUN inside and call my dad crying. i realized then that inglourious bastards was starting in 5 minuntes! ooo!! tell my dad my horror story quickly, wipe my tears, buy a ticket and enjoy! it was very good but i didnt realize that its basically not in english and clearly in greece subtitles are in GREEK. so i basically tried (with some success!) to listen closely to the french and just make up in my head what they were saying in german. all in all i loved it! and im alive. thankgod

contiki cruise insanity

i just got home this morning from 7 days of amazingness. im really looking back on them with so much excitement and happiness its great. we started our journey on the cristal sailing to Istanbul, Turkey!! Honestly I wasnt expecting much. I guess I imagined an overcrowded dirty city but I was so mistaken. It was shockingly beautiful. And so inviting. I learned so much about Islam while in Turkey, through the mosques and the fact that is is Ramadan right now. I guess being a Jew I dont make an attempt to learn about Muslims but it was really crazy and eye-opening.
Then we went to Mykonos!!! Honestly. Our day in Mykonos was my favorite. Such incredible tiny streets and darling shops, with the ocean all around. Crepes, Coronas, and plenty of Tequila shots. It was just the paradise I've always imagined. So free!
Patmos and Kusadisi the next day...(Well Kusadisi at least..sorry not everyone can make it out of the boat at 7am!!) Kusadisi was incredible. It is a small port on the coast of Turkey. The Turks are so nice and friendly! (WHOAA a little too friendly sometimes) Chloe, some others and myself toured Ephesus, an amazing ancient city only 18% excavated. We werent sure we made the right choice because it was very hot and old shit looks very similar after a while, especially if you're hungover, but we were pleasantly proven wrong. it was spectacular. I really love old shit. hahah
Next day on to Rhodes. I did this day by myself, woke up kinda sorta early (11am?) and ventured with my DK eyewitness book into Rhodes. I had the most relaxing, fun day, wondering the streets of the Old city by myself, stopping in shops and getting snacks. I sat at the sea for a long time. Writing and thinking. It was perfect.
Crete and Santorini finished out our trip. I talked to Sally about how amazing I think Oia is. It is a place with just about no historic value, nothing really to offer, except its beauty. And people flock there in the thousands, to just witness something so beautiful.
There is so much. so much more. I rode a donkey. After being the one all gunghoe about the experience and Nick being scared, I ended up being kicked off (verbally not literally) halfway down the mountain while he acted like a cowboy. The sunset was perfect. Our drunken dinners, with hundreds of different plates with weird (veggie jello?) and amazing (flaming baked alaska), and Miss Mojito. Yes I would say we had an incredible time. Back in Athens, and feeling quite sick. Might be have been the alcohol, or the food, or the rocking of the boat, but Im just not quite together this afternoon. Internet, you have been truly missed.