It's Been Too Long

Alright, sorry I haven't posted in the last couple of days. Here's a short synopsis of what's been going on.

Classes. Why are there so many classes? We've got Dr. Kaplan's class two days a week at nine in the morning. Luckily, it isn't a whole lot of work but...nine in the morning...and I am not a morning person at all. It is nice on Mondays, though, because it gives me a reason to get up and then I can go to the local market afterwards, which has some of the freshest (and cheapest!) fruit I've seen. It doesn't last too long in our dorm. Then there's our Greek survival class, which we are not getting any credit for what so ever, but it is honestly helping a lot with day to day life. Today I used what I learned in that class to have a (very very basic) conversation with the cashier at the grocery store today. I got a little confused, and I'm pretty sure she was laughing at me, but I managed to get my point across without accidentally insulting her, and I consider that a success! I'm still working on the reading part, though. I feel like I'm five again. Plus, even when I can successfully read a word, I usually have no idea what it means. Baby steps. Then we have our art class, which has become slightly more demanding and a lot more fun. We spend a lot of time now at museums and archaeological sites instead of sitting in the classroom, and although that requires getting up early sometimes and having to get a little lost, it's a lot of fun. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. Plus, our British professor is really funny, and that just makes the class that much more enjoyable.

Adventures: Going to downtown Athens is becoming a regular thing, now. I was up there on Tuesday doing research for my site report on the First Cemetery. I will be uploading pictures later, but as for now I'll just tell you about a few of the cool things I've noticed. For starters, it was absolutely beautiful. Unlike in America, where headstones tend to me nice a simple, clean, with a little bit of writing, in Greece they are works of art. They vary in size and detail, some are beautifully sculpted statues of people, some have religions markings or artwork, and they are all (for the most part) extremely unique to the individual family (there are a lot of family tombs). The Greeks view death as more of a beautiful thing to be remembered than a sad thing to be forgotten. It's a tradition to dig up a loved ones bones after three years and wash them by hand. Could you imagine having to do that? I don't know if I would be able to, so props to the Greeks. Like I said, I'll be uploading pictures soon...like as soon as I find my card reader. I swear this dorm room eats things.

Wasting Time: Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time, so in that aspect I'm doing an awesome job. The Greeks have a designated nap time, and who I am to question this? So, needless to say, I've been participating in that. A lot of evenings are spent doing random and awesome things as a group. We have pot lucks, play soccer, watch movies, play sardines, get ice cream, etc. It's been great to spend time with everyone at the expense of studying and sleeping (relax, family, I really am getting plenty of both in).

Although I am having a great time in Greece, I continue to find reasons of why I can't live here long term. The constant power outages ruin a perfectly good day, and everything in your fridge. They're random, can be long lasting, and interrupt my life. Apparently, the Greeks have learned to live around this inconvenience, but my lazy and selfish American self would never want to have to do that. Then there's the fact that you can't hardly walk on the sidewalk because someone thought it would be a brilliant idea to plant trees everywhere. They actually do serve a purpose, something about keeping people from parking on the sidewalk and blah blah blah, but it makes it hard to walk next to people...it makes it hard to walk at all! Then there's the fact that whenever you walk by a restaurant, there's someone standing outside of it, yelling at you to come in. I have to restrain myself from punching someone on a daily basis. To top it all off I miss everyone. I know, I know, you miss me, too. Don't fret, I'll be home soon.