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.
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