Let's play catch up

To recap on my two weeks past events I'll summarize
1. Greg and Janine took our whole group to a cooking class- we learned how to make authentic Greek dishes. It was so much fun! We made milk pie (dessert first) tomato and zucchini patties, shrimp (we flamed cooked them) veel, and had some ouzo.

I'm helping the Chef by peeling Zucchini

Danielle flaming the shrimp! Her reaction was priceless!

2. Our group decided to have a toga party. We all dressed up in our bed sheets and looked up on youtube how to make the perfect toga (technology is amazing these days). Walking to the apartment was hilarious, all the locals were giving us strange looks as a parade of Greek Goddess' walked down the streets of Pangrati. It was so much fun to goof off, and dress up!

3. we went to Nafplio the original capital of Greece. It was such a cute town- right on the sea. It was Jen's birthday so we all went out for amazing gellato and went to a bar for some drinks. We stayed in Nafplio for one night and than went to Olympia to see the ancient ruins of Zeus's Temple. Upon arriving in Olympia I felt great- a bit "buslegged" from the long drive but ready to unpack and experience the night life this town had to offer. However, the euro I ate earlier that day changed my plans for the evening. I was sick, calling Europe if you know what I mean... While I recovered some girls in my program went to a Greek wedding! I was so jealous to hear they snuck in and were taught how to do authentic Greek dances. The next morning our professor Anne had us go, go, go and off to another museum we went. We looked at the Olympia Museum and the ruins of Zeus's temple. Next, I ran on the original ~100 meter track. On the starting line, I was all pumped to go, when Chris nailed me in the shoulder with his bony elbow. This was a hindrance to my start. Thus causing me to lose the race... still a great run- might have made me miss High School track (ha who are we kidding?) I noticed that I was really winded when we were all done. So I will have to condition for my upcoming climb on Mount Olympus. After our race it was back on the bus for our long bus ride home. More to come soon! about Greek daily life:)

Gellato! Caramel and cookie dough

Jen found this amazing blue door in Nafplio

Santorini

Santorini- or should I say heaven on earth.
seriously our group trip to the Greek Island of Santorini last weekend is a place I'll never forget. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning (this is after the Vogue fashion night out) So we're all going on little sleep. The ferry ride takes 8 hours before we arrive in Santorini. Once we figure out our transportation we head up the steep hillside of the island. This busride takes 30 minutes of curving roads, close to tipping over the edge it felt like. Once we unload from the bus. It's time to figure out where our hotel is..... proved to be a bit of a challenge and 45 minutes later we finished "exploring" the town of Fera and found our lovely hotel. Immediately We all jump into the refreshing pool. Than head out to dinner at a local restaurant. However the real adventure is day 2 of our trip. We wake up early, have free breakfast at our hotel, and go onto a boat cruise. This last for 3 hours and included hiking up an active volcano, jumping off our sail boat, and swimming in hot springs. We ended our trip with a few members of our group getting sea sick.... Anyways to get back up to our hotel we decide to ride donkeys... These cute smelly creatures are so interesting to ride on! Megs and I shared a donkey. Yup 2 people, 1 saddle. It was quite cozy to say the least. The donkeys zig-zagged up the stairs in such a weird fashion. Most of the time my leg was being squashed into the retaining wall or into a donkey's butt! Megs and I continued exploring the Greek island by renting ATV's and cruising the beautiful/dangerous coastline of Santorini. We went to the picturesque town of Oia, there was white building all over the cliffs edges. I am still curious to this day how they were able to build these teetering buildings way back when. The sunset was so amazing- i'm running out of words to describe this beautiful island. It was so pretty everywhere you looked. I can honestly say it is the prettiest place I have ever been to. We drove our ATV back that night in the dark on the perilous roads-ahh. But made it back safe and sound. The whole group went out into town, and loved socializing with the locals. Day 3. My favorite day ever! We woke up extremely early so that we could get going to Oia. Megs and I drove our ATV with some other girls, we however ran into a slight problem. The other girls ran out of gas, and the closest gas station is closed on Sundays! So fro the next 30 minutes we were frantically looking for a place to buy some gas.  Finally a rental car shop sold us some gas, and saved the day! WE then hurried to Oia to go cliff diving:) Winding down the coastline we arrive to an old fishing marina. There was a path up and around a cliff that we had to hike to reach our destination. Once we rounded the peak, we saw the bluest water you can ever see! AHHHMAZZING! Jumped off some cliffs (don't worry mom, I'm alive and well) ATVed over to a beach called, "Black sand Beach" it was soo hot. Because the heat of the sun is absorbed in these tiny black rocks. Making it extremely difficult to walk to the beach without burning your toes. Megs and I swam there for a bit before heading back to our hotel to leave Santorini. All in all this was the best weekend of my life. And I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to experience this. Miss you all back home! Much love, Cait

Arriving in Santorini

D and I overlooking the city

Judy and Gretch on our boat tour

Bennies on top of the volcano

Oia

Megs and I at Oia

Why Sea urchins are evil

Before I explain why sea urchins are evil, I will talk about my life in Athens. All is going pretty well studying abroad. I go to class, have Fridays off. The weekends are my favorite, we take excursions to Greek Islands or breath-taking beaches. Last weekend we took a ferry to the Greek Island of Aegena. It was gorgeous, a little marina town with impressive mountains all around. After we explored the Temple of Aphaia and had our fill at a local Taverna. It was time to head to the beach.

The water was perfect! There was a rock formation in the middle of the sea that I had to swim to and conquer. Upon approaching I saw that there was a lot of sharp rocks and.... BLACK SEA URCHINS. This did not deter my mission to stand on top of this rock formation (sadly I don't have a picture of the beach). I carefully climbed through the rocks, and bypassed many sea urchins. I was almost to the top when. CRASH, overstepped and down I went. There was a sharp, bee like sting in my left big toe. I ignored the pain and finished my mission to the top of the formation. I was the only one out of my whole group to stand up there! Anyways swam back, my toe was throbbing. Got to the beach. Looked down, and noticed that there was multiple (12 to be exact) black barbs sticking out of my foot. The site made the pain worse (ha I'm such a baby). It wasn't til later that I noticed on my right foot I have a huge gash from the rocks too.. Bad day. The day ended well, got some beer and chips. Watched the sunset. An perfect ending to an eventful day:)

And this should answer your question about why sea urchins are evil. 

First day of school!

There is a Zoo in the National Garden by our apartment! 

The ferry over to Aegena

 Temple of Aphaia

Megs looking good

The barb I took out of my foot. This is 1 out of 12!

an average day in Greece thus far

Sounion Beach

Temple of Poseidon 

The Acropolis

View from the top of the Acropolis

Judy, Ali, Hannah, and I at Banana Moon 

There are many new customs in Greece that I am slowly accustoming to. Such as

1. Siesta hours between 2-5:30. It's required by law to be quiet during this time. In addition, stores and other shops will close down to eat lunch and nap during siesta time.

2. Lunch is the big meal of the day. I have a school lunch every week day and I have noticed that I PIG OUT big time. You may think that I mean eating a lot, which I do, but I also stay in the lunch room filling up on bread, coffee, desert, and other food for 1.45 every day. (It's great!)

3. Every Friday there is a farmers market where we bargain with the vendors for a lower price on the vegetables, fruit, ect... Just last week I got 4 potatoes for a euro. Not bad for my first time. 

4. The atmosphere is really relaxed. For example, my friend went up to see one of the Counselor about a question on her school schedule. It was 8:15 and the lady goes, "oh Linda* will be coming in sometime soon." This experience just shows how time is just a fluid way of life. If you are on-time great. But being a tad late is not horrible at all. 

5. I had a realization also, I am very cheap! I have a few sayings that capture how frugal I have become.

- you know you're a college student when you dig in couches for loose change (My friend actually did this and found 7 euro, jealous!)

- you know you're a college student when you are willing to wash your clothes in a tub instead of paying 3 euro to use the tiny washer machine.

-you know you're a college student when you consider it a splurge to buy a 3 euro wine.

-you know you're a college student when you use shampoo as your body wash because you're too cheap to buy more products.

-you know you're a college student when art around your apartment is torn out pictures from a magazine.

Well that's all I for now! I'll try to keep you all updated about my time in Athens:)

Sounion

Yesterday, our director Greg took our whole group on a field trip to Sounion. Here is a picture from our 50 minute bus ride to this beach. The scenery reminds me of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! We swam at the beach til 5 and then I got a crab salad at a seafront restaurant. It was tasty! Next, we took another bus trip further up the coast to Poseidon's Temple. Our group watched the sunset on this majestic temple. (the sunset was cloudy) This picture beneath is from the bus ride up to the temple. My camera died just as we got out of the bus:( My day was fantastic though, couldn't ask for a better way to spend a Saturday!

Barcelona to Athens!

Sagrada Familia

Our group at the Magic Fountain

We stumbled upon an outdoor Opera concert

We had a blast in Barcelona, nothing too exciting happened. We went to Sangrada Familia, and other Antonio Gaudi's works. They were all so interesting and related to nature. I would advise everyone of you to look up his buildings. Next, we were at the nude beach for most of our trip. The water was amazing, and same with the weather. I can't say the same about the people (I.E. nude people= Europe is so different!) We had a pia! A pia is a traditional Spaniard dish, it is delicious. My favorite memory from Spain is the atmosphere, very relaxing. However, on our last night in our hostel we experienced a horrible room mate. In the Equity Point Hostel we were given a bed in a 10 person room, this was a mixed room of guys and girls. The first two nights went well, we all slept amazing. On the very last night there was a huge problem. At 4 am a man in our room started to freak out in his sleep. This included cussing very loudly over and over again til 6am. I did not know if he was crazy, drunk, or sleep talking. The next morning I was so happy we were leaving, and I hope I will never run into a situation like that again! We made it to our connecting bus to the airport the next morning without any mishap. However, megs misplaced her returned ticket and wasn't on the same bus to the airport! I waited for her bus to arrive at the airport for 20 minutes. The whole time I was waiting I thought we were going to miss our flight, or worse, lose megs! Finally she showed up and we went on to Athens to start our study abroad program:)