So, the adventures in the last week:
Going to Sami
Greek Easter
Bazoukia dancing
An Easter potluck
Writing a 10 page final
That’s it, have a nice week!
Haha, just kidding. I’ll fill you in a little.
Last week we found out that our break has been extended by two days—right after I bought my ferry ticket. I wanted to try and capitalize on the extra time, so I went back to the office to see if I could change it. No luck. Go to Sami, you can change it there, they said. Sami is the port town/village on the other side of the island—about forty-five minutes by bus. So Thursday afternoon, I hopped on the bus and went to Sami! Now it was the afternoon, but since we were arriving at 1:45 I hoped to make it before the dreaded siesta time. No such luck! Although the posted sign said that lunch break was from 2:30 (45 minutes later than I arrived!), they were already gone. *eye roll*. Naturally. So I went to my favorite gyro shop, where they told me the ferry people would be back after six (the posted sign says five). My bus left at 3:45, leaving me with an unchanged ticket but delicious gyro.
Making the most of my time, I wandered around and took a picture of the bench I fell asleep on last time. I strolled through the residential area, stealing a lemon as I went :). It was outside of the fence! Well, halfway. And I could see that the owners had let some fall, so they obviously didn’t need them all. As my departure drew nigh, I stopped by a little bakery and picked out a pastry I’d never seen before. As I sniffed it my entire face was filled with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Delightful!
It was a lovely adventure. I should leave Argostoli more often.
Saturday night was the Greek Easter celebration. As promised, the town smelled of lamb and firecrackers abounded, but I have the feeling I missed something. We saw the end of the procession with the priest and everyone holding their Easter candles, but we were told there would be midnight church services, and didn’t find them. Too bad.
But midnight was not the end of our night. Oh no, not in Greece! Apparently Greeks are the most hard-core of all the night owls, even in the famously late-living Mediterranean. So as a group, we went to Maria’s brother’s Bazoukia. Maria is our dance teacher, and a bazoukia is where they play live, traditional music and have traditional dancing. When we arrived at 2:00 a.m. we were told we were too early, and by three we couldn’t stand it anymore, and the Americans hit the dance floor. We actually danced the most of anyone there, even in the traditional dances. We saw guys do the traditional zebekikos, the solo, interpretive dance of pain so traditional to Greece, and some of our guys tried it as well. When someone does one everyone else kneels on the floor and claps, throwing carnations when they’re impressed.
I don’t know if I should tell you this, but when we left the sun was rising! Sometimes life amazes me. And if you’re wondering, we weren’t the last to leave ;).
After a bit of sleep, we had an Easter potluck at our professor Nikos’s home. Nikos is a prof at Western Washington, but this year he and Cynthia are on sabbatical, living in the home they built in his ancestral village of Troianata. They have the most perfect, lovely location. It overlooks a surreally beautiful valley of olive trees and pastureland, and just over the hills is the sea, which we discovered on our hike after dinner. Also seen: the cycloptic walls! Apparently these walls, snaking across the hills like the Great Wall, date from Minoan times or before, and are made of such large stones that no one but a race of giant Cyclops could have moved them. I hope to visit them soon.
For the potluck Katie and I made Baklava—Ashley’s recipe—from scratch, without a basting brush and with only a toaster oven! ‘Twas fantastic, and turned out to be quite a hit :D. (for those of you who don’t know, baklava is richly sweet Greek dessert made with layer upon layer of philo dough, cinnamon sugar, and walnuts, and our recipe puts a lemon syrup on top. MmmMmm!)
This entry is getting long, but I would just briefly like to record for posterity the strange sight I saw yesterday. As I was walking to the classroom I glanced up and thought I saw a string of flags across the street that had never been there before. On further inspection, I saw that it was a row of perfectly spaced pigeons (those nasty flying rats) on a telephone wire, sitting in what I can only assuming was mourning for a fallen friend, who lay squished on the road below. LOL.
Yassas!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The Weekly Update
Blogging, ah blogging. So much to write about, so many other tantalizing things to do!
What should I discuss here? Our fishing trip? Our Grexican potluck? Possibly our wacky professor, possibly Orthodox Palm Sunday, or the beach, or the food…
Because I’m actually in class right now, how about the wacky professor. This is supposed to be a class about sustainable community planning, but right now he’s explaining the von Neuman-Morgenstein Utilities, which form the foundation of traditional game theory, and lead into our discussion of formal modeling. Brain pain. To help you understand, this situation is most reminiscent of Charlie Brown’s education. Wah Wah, Wah Wah. The two business majors in the room are eating it up.
In more fun times, as in Friday and Saturday morning, we got to go out on a commercial fishing boat! At about dusk we piled onto this ~7m long vessel, cruised out onto the gorgeous Bay, and dropped about 1.5 km of nets. Despite our rapturous enjoyment of the trip, only about half of us returned at 6:30 a.m. to draw up the nets. We’ve gotten too used to Greek time, which includes starting later, taking a siesta, and socializing to allll hours of the night.
The Greek/Mediterranean way of life is a bit foreign to us (no pun intended). Every afternoon the shops close from about 2:30-5:00. I can’t understand it! Why doesn’t some entrepreneur realize that they could make more money if they stayed open then? It works now, because they all scheme to be closed at the same time, but that seems like someone could come in and mess it all up. Competition.
I am starting to feel a bit more local, though, and it’s fun. I even recognize some of the stray dogs! Yesterday there was a mass infestation of tourists, as a monstrous cruise ship dumped a bunch of middle aged, sunburnt Brits on our shores. ‘Twas quite entertaining, I say. Several hours later, and *poof*! They were gone! I hear there will be more after Easter, this Sunday.
Orthodox Easter is Greece’s biggest holiday. There are services all week, firecrackers, a midnight-2 Easter service, and then a day of feasting. I’ll enumerate more after the event :). This past Sunday I went to an Orthodox service to observe Palm Sunday. I arrived at nine, thinking that’s when the service started, but it was already in progress. Luckily, no one arrives on time, and people were arriving all the way until the end, which was about 10:30. Partway through, a young woman and her mother entered and sat near me. During one of the many chants (sung only by service leaders), she struck up a conversation, and by the end she invited me to go out for coffee with her. What a break through! I now have a Greek friend! I have her phone number, so we can spend some time together.
There’s more, there’s always more, but your patience is probably overrun.
Have a beautiful day, Yassas!
What should I discuss here? Our fishing trip? Our Grexican potluck? Possibly our wacky professor, possibly Orthodox Palm Sunday, or the beach, or the food…
Because I’m actually in class right now, how about the wacky professor. This is supposed to be a class about sustainable community planning, but right now he’s explaining the von Neuman-Morgenstein Utilities, which form the foundation of traditional game theory, and lead into our discussion of formal modeling. Brain pain. To help you understand, this situation is most reminiscent of Charlie Brown’s education. Wah Wah, Wah Wah. The two business majors in the room are eating it up.
In more fun times, as in Friday and Saturday morning, we got to go out on a commercial fishing boat! At about dusk we piled onto this ~7m long vessel, cruised out onto the gorgeous Bay, and dropped about 1.5 km of nets. Despite our rapturous enjoyment of the trip, only about half of us returned at 6:30 a.m. to draw up the nets. We’ve gotten too used to Greek time, which includes starting later, taking a siesta, and socializing to allll hours of the night.
The Greek/Mediterranean way of life is a bit foreign to us (no pun intended). Every afternoon the shops close from about 2:30-5:00. I can’t understand it! Why doesn’t some entrepreneur realize that they could make more money if they stayed open then? It works now, because they all scheme to be closed at the same time, but that seems like someone could come in and mess it all up. Competition.
I am starting to feel a bit more local, though, and it’s fun. I even recognize some of the stray dogs! Yesterday there was a mass infestation of tourists, as a monstrous cruise ship dumped a bunch of middle aged, sunburnt Brits on our shores. ‘Twas quite entertaining, I say. Several hours later, and *poof*! They were gone! I hear there will be more after Easter, this Sunday.
Orthodox Easter is Greece’s biggest holiday. There are services all week, firecrackers, a midnight-2 Easter service, and then a day of feasting. I’ll enumerate more after the event :). This past Sunday I went to an Orthodox service to observe Palm Sunday. I arrived at nine, thinking that’s when the service started, but it was already in progress. Luckily, no one arrives on time, and people were arriving all the way until the end, which was about 10:30. Partway through, a young woman and her mother entered and sat near me. During one of the many chants (sung only by service leaders), she struck up a conversation, and by the end she invited me to go out for coffee with her. What a break through! I now have a Greek friend! I have her phone number, so we can spend some time together.
There’s more, there’s always more, but your patience is probably overrun.
Have a beautiful day, Yassas!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
A magnificent birthday
Thanks to many, many friends and family, yesterday (my 21st birthday), was fabulous! Thank you all! I am truly blessed :).
In case you're wondering what a Greek birthday might be like, you'll have to look elsewhere. We're still Americans. Buuut, if you want to know specifically what made my birthday in Greece so wonderful, here's a rundown:
It all started Friday night, three days before my actual birthday, when we had a bonfire on the beach. I thought that was great, and was even presented with a box of local pastries *delicious!*, but we were not done celebrating. Saturday we went dancing, and then yesterday (Monday), was just great all around. I got a wake-up call from Justin :), then we had a group workout led by the wonderfully energetic wife of the program director, then I went home and opened a card and chocolate from my family... all perfect. After lunch, chocolate, and drawing a bit, we went shoe shopping. Unfortunately or Fortunately, I didn't buy any shoes, but it was fun anyways. We went on to buy tickets for spring break (Rome here I come!), and then went back to the apartments and play an impromptu game of spoons that grew to ten people. Dinner time was fast approaching, so we hit the butcher's and grilled. MMMM.
Much to my surprise, as we were just finishing up, a group of the guys came in, arranged themselves, and broke into song: the classic, I Get a Kick Out of You! The term singing is applied loosely here, but the guys even had a bit of choreography, so they get major kudos :). I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, because they sang to Emily a week ago, but still, it was awesome. After the fantastic musical interlude, Katie popped out with a cake! Wow! They had been so, super sneaky about the whole thing! That bakery is about my favorite food place in the whole world, right now.
To finish up the evening, we did the one thing I thought we would do for my birthday: went out for ice cream. The Premier Restaurant, hoity toity cafe extraordinare, makes exquisite creations. Korrin and I shared a piece (yes piece, like art) that came in half of a pineapple, had four flavors of icecream, whipped cream, strawberries, and a razzle dazzle decoration.
Beautiful.
And now, off for more adventures! Or a nap. Teehee.
Love to all!
In case you're wondering what a Greek birthday might be like, you'll have to look elsewhere. We're still Americans. Buuut, if you want to know specifically what made my birthday in Greece so wonderful, here's a rundown:
It all started Friday night, three days before my actual birthday, when we had a bonfire on the beach. I thought that was great, and was even presented with a box of local pastries *delicious!*, but we were not done celebrating. Saturday we went dancing, and then yesterday (Monday), was just great all around. I got a wake-up call from Justin :), then we had a group workout led by the wonderfully energetic wife of the program director, then I went home and opened a card and chocolate from my family... all perfect. After lunch, chocolate, and drawing a bit, we went shoe shopping. Unfortunately or Fortunately, I didn't buy any shoes, but it was fun anyways. We went on to buy tickets for spring break (Rome here I come!), and then went back to the apartments and play an impromptu game of spoons that grew to ten people. Dinner time was fast approaching, so we hit the butcher's and grilled. MMMM.
Much to my surprise, as we were just finishing up, a group of the guys came in, arranged themselves, and broke into song: the classic, I Get a Kick Out of You! The term singing is applied loosely here, but the guys even had a bit of choreography, so they get major kudos :). I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, because they sang to Emily a week ago, but still, it was awesome. After the fantastic musical interlude, Katie popped out with a cake! Wow! They had been so, super sneaky about the whole thing! That bakery is about my favorite food place in the whole world, right now.
To finish up the evening, we did the one thing I thought we would do for my birthday: went out for ice cream. The Premier Restaurant, hoity toity cafe extraordinare, makes exquisite creations. Korrin and I shared a piece (yes piece, like art) that came in half of a pineapple, had four flavors of icecream, whipped cream, strawberries, and a razzle dazzle decoration.
Beautiful.
And now, off for more adventures! Or a nap. Teehee.
Love to all!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
In the land of Homer
Once upon a Fourth of July, way back in the day, Catherine Renken and I lay in Plum Creek Park. As we watched the fireworks display, we made a list of adjectives describing the view: breathtaking, magnificent, spectacular….
All of those words should be used to paint a picture of Kefalonia. We took an island tour yesterday (Monday), and I tell you what—of all the days to leave your camera at home, this one takes the cake. In twelve hours or less, we saw some of the most beautiful places on the entire earth.
We started off with the rural village of Troinaka, where we saw goats, an olive press (it’s a big deal!), and generally soaked in the sights. That place is a photographer’s dream. Troinaka is a little village filled with flowers and lemon trees overlooking a sweeping valley, not to mention the bizarre but beautiful combination of earthquake-ruined building with working homes and shops. Then we headed off to the monastery of St. Somebody the Hermit, and got to see his sepulcher and crawl down into his little caves. Cool enough. For lunch we hit up Sami, the main port town, and ate gyros on an empty dock in the sun. And there is where we first really saw the color of the water. Blue, Green, Turquoise, and as clear as glass. That color is the reason I came to Kefalonia. I want to hold it, to grab it, to package it up in a thousand bottles and take them with me everywhere! Really! Okay, so maybe I’m getting a little melodramatic, but it’s totally amazing and brilliant. I’m really having a hard time coping with the fact that I can’t bring home an entire bay or two. Gosh, you don’t even know! And pictures don’t do it justice! Not that I had my camera, but other people did, and we’re definitely photo sharing.
Ha, also in Sami, I fell asleep on a bench and was lost to the group; apparently they were looking for a while! Ooops. We’ll blame it on the winetasting? Oh, backtrack! Before the lunch, before the caves of what’s-his-name, we went to the Robola wine factory! Robola is a type of grape only grown on Kefalonia, and local growers have formed a co-operative to produce excellent wines under the name of Robola. It does get exported some, but this product has a lot of potential for marketing. We got a tour of the facilities, saw testing, bottling, packaging etc., and then did a wine tasting—very yummy wine, and all before noon! Oish. But it was fun.
So fast forward to after they found me, we drove around some, saw where parts of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was filmed, and eventually got to Assos, this sweet peninsula that’s practically an island, and climbed up a mountain to the ruins of an old fort! It was awesome! The view… wow. See list of fireworks adjectives.
After adventuring at the fort, although it was getting late and the road had “unusually abrupt turns” (according to the driver), we went down to Myrtos beach. You may have seen pictures of this beach, it’s kind of a big deal. Basically, the most photographed beach in all of Greece. Google images, I don’t currently have one to post (sorry!). The beach is a pebble beach, covered in thousands and thousands of smooth white rocks (of which I stole several), and is surrounded by cliffs and mountains. The water, the main attraction, is that blue-green I mentioned earlier, but possibly better! It is constantly changing and unbelievably intense. More intense than Memorial Stadium on game day, I’d say! Teehee.
And after that we were beat, and so pretty much went back home to Argostoli. We concluded our fabulous, thrilling, and inspirational day by grilling pizza pitas. Mmmm. What a life.
Until next time, Kalinichta.
All of those words should be used to paint a picture of Kefalonia. We took an island tour yesterday (Monday), and I tell you what—of all the days to leave your camera at home, this one takes the cake. In twelve hours or less, we saw some of the most beautiful places on the entire earth.
We started off with the rural village of Troinaka, where we saw goats, an olive press (it’s a big deal!), and generally soaked in the sights. That place is a photographer’s dream. Troinaka is a little village filled with flowers and lemon trees overlooking a sweeping valley, not to mention the bizarre but beautiful combination of earthquake-ruined building with working homes and shops. Then we headed off to the monastery of St. Somebody the Hermit, and got to see his sepulcher and crawl down into his little caves. Cool enough. For lunch we hit up Sami, the main port town, and ate gyros on an empty dock in the sun. And there is where we first really saw the color of the water. Blue, Green, Turquoise, and as clear as glass. That color is the reason I came to Kefalonia. I want to hold it, to grab it, to package it up in a thousand bottles and take them with me everywhere! Really! Okay, so maybe I’m getting a little melodramatic, but it’s totally amazing and brilliant. I’m really having a hard time coping with the fact that I can’t bring home an entire bay or two. Gosh, you don’t even know! And pictures don’t do it justice! Not that I had my camera, but other people did, and we’re definitely photo sharing.
Ha, also in Sami, I fell asleep on a bench and was lost to the group; apparently they were looking for a while! Ooops. We’ll blame it on the winetasting? Oh, backtrack! Before the lunch, before the caves of what’s-his-name, we went to the Robola wine factory! Robola is a type of grape only grown on Kefalonia, and local growers have formed a co-operative to produce excellent wines under the name of Robola. It does get exported some, but this product has a lot of potential for marketing. We got a tour of the facilities, saw testing, bottling, packaging etc., and then did a wine tasting—very yummy wine, and all before noon! Oish. But it was fun.
So fast forward to after they found me, we drove around some, saw where parts of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was filmed, and eventually got to Assos, this sweet peninsula that’s practically an island, and climbed up a mountain to the ruins of an old fort! It was awesome! The view… wow. See list of fireworks adjectives.
After adventuring at the fort, although it was getting late and the road had “unusually abrupt turns” (according to the driver), we went down to Myrtos beach. You may have seen pictures of this beach, it’s kind of a big deal. Basically, the most photographed beach in all of Greece. Google images, I don’t currently have one to post (sorry!). The beach is a pebble beach, covered in thousands and thousands of smooth white rocks (of which I stole several), and is surrounded by cliffs and mountains. The water, the main attraction, is that blue-green I mentioned earlier, but possibly better! It is constantly changing and unbelievably intense. More intense than Memorial Stadium on game day, I’d say! Teehee.
And after that we were beat, and so pretty much went back home to Argostoli. We concluded our fabulous, thrilling, and inspirational day by grilling pizza pitas. Mmmm. What a life.
Until next time, Kalinichta.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
In Pursuit of a Grill
Greetings, dear readers! We are now in the beautiful gem of Ionia—Kefalonia!
Athens was great, just fabulous (especially the glowing nighttime streets, the thrilling breezes on the Acropolis, and the delicious fried cheese), but the time came to move on.
We took a five hour bus ride (throughout which I slept), and two hour ferry ride (during which I slept), and a forty-five minute bus ride to Argostoli, during which I did not sleep, but was actually ecstatic with joy. Kefalonia is beautiful. Gorgeous. Dreamlike. It’s been hard to believe we’re actually living here, but when I see familiar faces and landmarks it’s definitely a good feeling.
I have a lot to write about, but little patience *sorry!*, so here’s a brief rundown:
*******
We live in sweet apartments. It’s like dorm life but better (except when the electricity goes out, which has happened twice already).
My roommate’s name is Katie, she is an architecture major from Rochester, MN. (Cool!)
We have classes practically every day, even Saturdays. Boo. And by the way, 650 pages do not count as a handout, or “food for thought”!!! Buah! Tooo much reading. Because they’re giving us info via CD, they think they can just put whatever they feel like on it, including 500 million articles and a 650 page report on the California Disaster Plan.
By the way, I basically have no idea what’s going on with all of this food security, agrotourism, and urban disaster mitigation stuff. If it makes you feel better, I’m not the only one—although the program is highly geared towards planning and sustainability students, there are business and architecture majors here, too. We’ll figure something out.
Some people are at the beach right now *gorgeous!*, but the weather is changeable. (It’s a good thing I brought a raincoat!)
The food is good but pricey. These are the things that are cheaper: Cheese, bread, wine, milk products. These are the things that are more expensive: everything else. Buuut, the cheese is delicious! Oh, too yummy.
Katie and I found a grill for 18 Euros, and have already grilled out twice. Yesterday was a huge potluck bash that was absolutely fantastic! Some people really know how to cook, despite only having two little burners and (for the lucky ones) a convection oven!
*******
Yeah, so that’s life! Write, ask questions, let me know how things are with you! I promise to one day write real entry.
Athens was great, just fabulous (especially the glowing nighttime streets, the thrilling breezes on the Acropolis, and the delicious fried cheese), but the time came to move on.
We took a five hour bus ride (throughout which I slept), and two hour ferry ride (during which I slept), and a forty-five minute bus ride to Argostoli, during which I did not sleep, but was actually ecstatic with joy. Kefalonia is beautiful. Gorgeous. Dreamlike. It’s been hard to believe we’re actually living here, but when I see familiar faces and landmarks it’s definitely a good feeling.
I have a lot to write about, but little patience *sorry!*, so here’s a brief rundown:
*******
We live in sweet apartments. It’s like dorm life but better (except when the electricity goes out, which has happened twice already).
My roommate’s name is Katie, she is an architecture major from Rochester, MN. (Cool!)
We have classes practically every day, even Saturdays. Boo. And by the way, 650 pages do not count as a handout, or “food for thought”!!! Buah! Tooo much reading. Because they’re giving us info via CD, they think they can just put whatever they feel like on it, including 500 million articles and a 650 page report on the California Disaster Plan.
By the way, I basically have no idea what’s going on with all of this food security, agrotourism, and urban disaster mitigation stuff. If it makes you feel better, I’m not the only one—although the program is highly geared towards planning and sustainability students, there are business and architecture majors here, too. We’ll figure something out.
Some people are at the beach right now *gorgeous!*, but the weather is changeable. (It’s a good thing I brought a raincoat!)
The food is good but pricey. These are the things that are cheaper: Cheese, bread, wine, milk products. These are the things that are more expensive: everything else. Buuut, the cheese is delicious! Oh, too yummy.
Katie and I found a grill for 18 Euros, and have already grilled out twice. Yesterday was a huge potluck bash that was absolutely fantastic! Some people really know how to cook, despite only having two little burners and (for the lucky ones) a convection oven!
*******
Yeah, so that’s life! Write, ask questions, let me know how things are with you! I promise to one day write real entry.
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