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!
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2 comments:
The funny thing is, KJ, I can hear your voice in my head as I'm reading this. It's like I can imagine how you would say it, how your face would light up and you would start talking faster and faster at the really exciting parts! Wow! A real Greek friend! It sounds very...multicultural? special? Yes, very special!
this is one business major who most heartily would not eat up the game theory discussion. But I highly enjoy your discussions of life in Greece! i hope you're having fun!
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