Much delayed post!

I humbly apologize for the number of times I say "umm" and "which is cool". My speaking skills are somewhat wanting....

Here's the movie I made for the talent show:




Once again, I love and miss you all!



"Athens" by Marissa Linzi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

Miscellany

Just an update on some miscellany:

Pictures from the Peloponnese are up on my Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/Marigumi/Peloponnese
I tried at least three times to put them on Facebook, but Facebook is horrible and it didn't work. I'll probably just put them on Picasa from now on. Pictures from the two Hold Thy Peace shows that I costumed also happen to be up there, if you feel like browsing.

I've gotten some much-needed rest and relaxation this week. It was nice to spend a day or two lounging around in bed with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Classes start again on Monday, however. Alas! It will be nice to have everybody back again, though.

I just got back from Maria Erini's house. My visit this time consisted of a trip to the farmer's market, where I got her to say "apples" and "grapes". When we were at the grape stand, she did something I've never heard her do before--mixing Greek and English. She kept saying "I want" in Greek and "grapes" in English. Except her R's come out as L's so it sounded like, "Thelo glapes." For some reason, I can't get her to say verbs in English. However, back at the apartment, when it was time for me to leave, I said, "I'm going home now, will you say 'goodbye'?" and she responded, "Bye! Ciao!" I consider that a marked success.

My hair is getting to that unbearable length, where I can feel it on my neck. My friend Tiffany said she'd cut it for me. I'll be sure to post pictures and/or video of the result.

I guess that's all for now. Happy Halloween!

Back in Athens

Whoo. Greetings, all.

I'm back from the Peloponnese and ready for a week of chilling in Athens. This week is fall break for CYA, so a lot of people are traveling. Once again, I find myself with an empty apartment. No complaints here, though. A couple of my friends are also staying in Athens for break, so I won't be alone. In any case, I'm looking forward to sleeping in and getting some time to myself.

As for the Peloponnese trip, it was so much fun! Way more fun than the Crete trip. We were less rushed and really got to appreciate the sites. Also, we went to my favorite archaeological site in Greece, Epidauros. It's the location of the most acoustically perfect ancient theatre in Greece. If someone crinkles a piece of paper in the center of the theatre, someone sitting in the back row can hear it. Some of the students sang songs; my friend Ella and I performed what we could remember of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.
There was one other site that was super cool, because it had a lot of stuff that was really well preserved or well restored. I think it was called Messene? That was my second favorite place, no doubt.

I promise I'll put up some pictures in my next post, and I'll put up lots of pictures on Facebook.

I do have one regret from the trip, though. My friend Gary won a stuffed bunny for me from a crane machine, and I left it at the last hotel we stayed at. It was the most amazing bunny ever. We named him Hector Hephaestos. He will live on in memory.

I hope you all are well! Congratulations to HTP for its successful run of Romeo and Juliet (I thought of you all at Epidauros).

As always, I love and miss you all.

Things Maria Erini finds fascinating

I saw Maria Erini (the two-year-old I'm helping learn English) twice over the weekend, and I have discovered a number of things that she, in classic two-year-old style, finds amazing or hilarious or otherwise worth her attention.

1. My hair.
One of the first things Maria Erini ever said in my presence (in Greek, translated by her mother) was that I had "painted" my hair. And now, every once in a while, she seems to rediscover this fact with renewed wonder. We'll be playing or looking at a book or drawing a picture and suddenly she'll pause and stare at my bangs with a cheeky little smile on her face. Then she'll slowly reach out her finger and gently poke this strange and fantastic color: "Pink," I tell her. "My hair is pink! Can you say 'pink?'" And if I'm very, very lucky, she'll respond, "Pink!"

2. My Winnie-the-Pooh ladybug keychain.
She discovered my keys quite some time ago. I left them out on a table, and unsurprisingly, Maria Erini was drawn to the big, shiny, jangly, metal object. Her main interest in the keys themselves is just to swing them around and make noise, but the little plastic ladybug with Winnie-the-Pooh inside provides her with limitless occupation. Especially after I showed her how to take Pooh out of the ladybug. She can never accomplish this on her own, of course, so I ended up taking him out and putting him back in probably at least a dozen times. But it wasn't in vain, for when she showed this amazing object to her father, she clearly enunciated, "Ladybahhg."

3. The sound I make when I blow my nose.
Admittedly, I sound like an elephant when I blow my nose. This did not escape the notice of Maria Erini. She stood entranced by this incredible noise and giggled gleefully when it ended. This process was repeated three or four times, and every time she was just as entertained.

4. When I hide behind things and suddenly appear.
I don't think this requires much explanation. Just picture me popping out from behind a wall several times and a curly-haired little girl laughing hysterically every time.

More to come, I'm sure....

P.S. We're going on a class trip to the Peloponnese this week, so I'll be incommunicado until Saturday or so. Will return with pictures!

My weekend in Santorini

was pretty great.

The above picture is to prove to Papa that I am not, in fact, gaining weight, thank you very much.

But anyway, Santorini is beautiful, unsurprisingly. When we first got there, the place was crawling with tourists, but we went to a museum and chilled on the beach by the hostel (the nicest hostel ever, by the way). That night we went out to a restaurant with some Greek music and dancing, and we met some kids from Australia and the U.S.

Sidebar: I found the greatest bargain ever. I had forgotten to pack my bathing suit, which is a problem on Santorini, because the beaches there are absurdly lovely. So Gary convinced me to just buy one there. I stumbled upon a clothing store that sold bikinis and asked for the cheapest one. The saleslady pulled out this awesome yellow bikini with flowers sewn to it and said that I could have it and anything else on a specific rack for 20 Euros. So I thought, well I might as well get something outrageous. That's when I came across this fantastic brightly colored (predominantly pink) art deco-patterned sundress, which fit like it was made for me. So I bought both things and walked about of the store with my pretty new clothes, thoroughly pleased with myself. I later looked at the tag on the dress: It was originally SEVENTY SEVEN EUROS. And I got it for less than 20. Aww yeahhh.

Sunday was relaxing. A few hours on the beach, a few hours looking around shops, a couple horrifically unhealthy crepes and one delicious piece of cake. Good day, in my opinion.

Represent!
The nicest hostel ever: http://www.annystudios.com/
We paid eight Euros for one night in that beautiful place. The service was fantastic, it was clean, and it was literally about 50 feet from a black-sand beach.

TORA EINAI ORA (The time is now?)

Greetings! Here is a video which consists of a couple of minutes of me being awkward and about a minute of Socialists rallying.
Special thanks to my tall friend, Brian, for getting George Papandreou on film for me. Also, the reason he's pouting is that he bought a flag and then realized it was upside-down.

Edit: Audio in the second part was messed up but is now fixed. It was actually just me being dumb and not the program after all.

Short update: Babysitting!

I had my first babysitting gig on Sunday! The girl is two and a half and her name is Maria Erini (probably not spelled like that). She is utterly adorable. I love her.
Plus, now I have an income. Woot!

Back from Crete

The trip to Crete was exhausting and, at times, full of ridiculous, but Crete itself is lovely. We did a lot of bopping around to different archaeological sites, all of which began to blur together by the end of it. I'll post some pictures, but don't expect me to tell you where or what anything is.

Some highlights:

This is a monastery we visited. I don't remember where. It was quite beautiful, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the church. Lovely murals. I donated fifty cents and lit a yellow candle.
This place was also called "Greece's Alamo," having been besieged for some period of time at some point in history. You can see marks in the walls left from shell casings.
At the moment, monks live here.
I'm a terrible virtual tour guide.




This is a mosque, but I don't think it's used as a mosque anymore. From what I understand, there are few Muslims in Crete. I don't remember exactly the story, but there was this massive trade of Greek Muslims and Turkish Orthodox Christians back in the day, essentially leaving no Muslims in Crete. Any who live there now are recent immigrants, I think. But anyway....
This building looks like it's used for concerts now. It's a great space for it. The acoustics were nice.







A pirate ship! Sort of. Note the lack of sails.
This is in, according to Nigel--the 60-something British archaeologist who became the object of our annoyance, if not outright wrath--the marina, not the port. See, we were meant to meet up with the other students and the bus at the port, which is a place where ships dock, but some of us mistakenly went to the marina, which is where yachts and pleasure boats dock.
How we ever managed to confuse the two is utterly beyond me.
In any case, this pirate ship was in the marina, so it, too, was mistaken.


A beautiful, beautiful synagogue we visited at the end of the trip. One of the top three loveliest places of worship I've even been to.
The story behind this place is nice--and I actually remember it. It was built... um, many centuries ago, and there was, I think, a sizable Jewish community that worshiped here. However, during World War II, the Jewish community in this town was wiped out when nearly all who lived there were taken prisoner on a submarine and perished when the submarine was torpedoed.

In the absence of anyone to maintain the building, it fell into disrepair. I think some earthquakes did a number on it as well. Then, in the 1990's, I think, a man whose name I forget came to this Cretan town to retire, and decided to try to have the synagogue restored. He did a presentation on it in New York, where an heir to the Lauder family (of Estee Lauder), as well as a member of an international preservation society just happened to be present and wanted to help. Between them and a wealthy friend of his, they raised the funds to restore the synagogue to what it likely resembled originally. It is once again in use as a place of worship, and as I said, it is wonderfully lovely. Paper cranes hang from a simple chandelier in the center. Behind the woman in the picture is a tapestry of a tree. And on the walls hang writings in Hebrew. I really loved this place, and I'm so glad we got to see it.

There was also a lot of breathtaking scenery, of course, and whenever Facebook decides to let me upload pictures, I'll put them all up. I maintain that Greek mountains are prettiest mountains in the world. They're part of what made me fall in love with Greece in the first place.

Alright, enough rambling. I didn't actually get any video, so apologies for that. I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and as always, I hope you all are well.

Love,
Marissa

P.S. I almost forgot! I have to rep the greatest restaurant in Crete. It's called Ciao, and it's on Chaldon in Chania. Amazing gyros for not too much money. If you ever go to Chania, do not go to any of the restaurants on the water. They charge too much and the food is all the same. Also their maitre d's are annoying and try to muscle you into eating there. Don't even make eye-contact with them. Walk down Chaldon and find Ciao and eat there. That is my advice.

Κρήτη

Going to Crete this week! Will try to take many pictures and video.

In other news, I managed to stumble across the Athens International Film Festival. What luck, eh? Unfortunately, the two movies I most wanted to see were sold out. But I got to see Harold and Maude and a number of very good short films.

Packing now.... Be back on Friday!

Lawl Internet

Just a quick update to say:

I have wireless internet in my apartment now.

My roommates and I got back from a garden party at the CYA president's house (classy, right?) to find a mysterious box with blinking lights attached to our wall with a note: "Ho ho ho, enjoy!"

We all sort of went "squee" and jumped up and down for a while. Anyway, this probably means that if you have AIM, I'll actually be able to talk to you. I'm going to try not to be online all that much, though. I was actually quite enjoying the freedom of no internet.

My first Mass in Athens

As I think I mentioned before, I found a church near my apartment that holds Mass in English on Sunday evenings, and so I decided to check it out.
It's in a very nice part of town, where I saw a bunch of neat stores that I want to check out, including a video/DVD rental store, where I plan to get some Greek movies. The church itself is beautiful. I'll have to go back when no one is there and take pictures. There were columns made of what looked like green marble.
Anyway, I got there about 15 minutes early, and the place was already so full that I thought I had actually walked into the end of the previous Mass. I shuffled over to a pew in the back corner and sat.
As it got closer to seven o'clock, more and more and more people kept coming in, eventually having to stand in the back. And everyone was Asian. I think I was the least Asian person there. Actually, specifically, most people looked like they were from Southeast Asia, with some others from East Asia. Somehow, I hadn't expected that.

The Mass itself was pretty nice. The priest rambled a bit, but he had respectable things to say. The music was hit-or-miss. I liked the "Glory to God," but the "Jesus Lamb of God" actually made me laugh a little. The beginning sounded like "Ring of Fire"!
Also, they sang the Our Father, which is something I don't remember ever having experienced. It tripped me up, because setting it to music made me forget the words for some reason.
Communion was also very confusing. At least where I was sitting, they didn't do the row-by-row thing, it was more a "Do I feel like taking Communion today? Yes, I think I do," and randomly joining the line. So I kind of sat awkwardly for a while, waiting to see if the people in front of me were going to get up. Luckily, the lady next to me decided to go, so I followed her.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience. I plan to go back.

A Tiny Adventure, or Keys! Keys! Keys!

I've been having a very Amelie day today, and it has been so exciting that I would like to tell you about it right now.

In my room, as you have seen, there are a number of cabinets. The bottom ones all have keyholes, but when I moved in, only one of these had a key in it. It happened to be the one that made the least sense to be locked, unfortunately, as there is no divider between it and its neighbor, so I never bothered with it. There is also a mysterious cabinet above the door to my room, but more on that later.



Today, I was loafing around the kitchen after brunch, peeking in cabinets, looking around to see what I needed from the grocery store. On a whim, I opened the little screen door in front of our heater, which is under the counter near the sink.





I've done this before, and all I saw was this old heater that I'll have to figure out when winter comes. But this time, I noticed a little glass bowl tucked away in the back. It was covered in a thin layer of dust, and I wondered if the previous CYA kids knew it was there. I also wondered why someone had chosen that particular place to store it.

It was full of gadgetry, spare parts for the apartment like plates for outlets and little plastic things I know not the use of, but there was something else....

Underneath the boring hardware was a bunch of old keys!

Those who know me well may be able to guess at how this excited me. I immediately began running around the apartment fitting keys to locks. Sadly, most of the doors in the house have had the bolt part painted over, so you can't actually turn the key. However, I did manage to find one that fit one of the cabinets in my room! So now I have a secure place to put things. I put the other keys back in the hiding place.

Now after this, I was in an adventuring mood, so I decided to check out that mysterious cabinet above my door.
It's pretty high off the ground, and even standing on a kitchen chair I could just barely reach it to pry the doors open. There was no way I could see inside.
So being the innovator that I am, I turned on my video camera and used the pull-out screen on the side to see into the cabinet.


At first, all I saw was a broken wire coming out of the wall. To be honest, I hadn't expected anything more exciting than that. But as I tilted the camera upward, I realized that the inside of the cabinet was the length of a hallway.




And there was stuff at the end of it!
It looked like a little sink and a box of some kind. I can't even describe how surprised I was to find that. My jaw actually dropped and I said, out loud, A sink?!
Why is this stuff here?! I don't know!





But anyway, I zoomed in:

Is that a passageway off to the left? Maybe!

I'm terribly interested in that box, if it is indeed a box. Part of me wants to climb in there and check it out, but the other part of me is afraid of ghosts. And all of me is too short to get up there anyway. Maybe I'll enlist a tall person to lift me up and offer moral support. I really want to know what's in it!

So that was my adventure for the day. I hope you got as much joy out of it as I did. If life in Athens is full of old keys and secret cabinets, I'll be content.

Another video for you!

Hello all,

I finally made a second video. This one has not only my face but also some Athens in it. Apologies for the less-than-stellar editing.

Trivia:
I'm whispering because my roommates are in the apartment and the walls are thin, and I felt weird about just talking into a camera in my room...
The song in the second part has nothing to do with anything; it's just been stuck in my head for days and days. So now you can experience Athens the way I've been experiencing it. With Colin Meloy in the background.
It's so dark because it's very late at night, and the lightbulb in my room doesn't do much in the way of illumination.
One of the shots is flipped horizontally.
This is pared down from about 30 minutes of footage. Most of it was terrible.
This is the second time I've posted this, because the first time the video was inexplicably messed up.

In other news, I've been having a great couple of days. Some friends and I went out on the town last night and had lots of fun, and today I got a somewhat incredible amount of food at the farmer's market, considering what I paid for it. One lady gave me free carrots!
Free carrots were one of the highlights of my week. I find joy in the simple things, I guess.

OH! And I now have an x-ray of my lungs! SO COOL.

P.S. I just found out about a Catholic church really close to where I live that has Mass in English on Sunday nights at 7 p.m.! I think I'm going to go this Sunday.

I promise to be better at visually documenting my experiences soon.

Until then, more words!

We went on a field trip of sorts to some archaeological sites today. It was kind of rushed and reminded me of the last time I was in Greece (actually, it was even more rushed than that). Also I was tired, but I think I've finally developed the ability to sleep at the drop of a hat and on vehicles. After the sites we went to a beach, which was pretty amazing. Nicest beach I've ever been to. The water was very salty, though, and as a result, I am now very salty.

Anyway, that's not what was interesting. The last site we went to is what I wanted to mention.

It's called the Temple of Artemis Vrauonia (when I figure out how to do the Greek letters on this keyboard, I'll spell it out the real way). The site itself was neat, because there's a good bit of it still intact. Apparently the sea used to come right up to it, and it was this beautiful oasis and sanctuary. There's also a sacred spring and pool where women would dedicate things to Artemis on the day before their weddings.
The story of this place is that Orestes built it in honor of Artemis and his sister Iphigenia (who was sacrificed/nearly sacrificed by his father, Agamemnon), while he was searching for Iphigenia. And so young Athenian girls around nine to eleven years old would be brought there to make the transition from "wild" little girls to "domesticated" women. They would serve there as sort of attendants I guess (I forget the exact word she used) for some amount of time, and they would be prepared for marriage.
According to the archaeologist showing us around (who is also one of the professors in the program), part of the ceremony, I guess, of the transition between childhood and adulthood was something called a "bear dance," in which a girl would be dressed like a bear--symbolizing her wildness-- and would take off the bear clothes and put on adult women's clothing. I thought that was weird and fantastic. I guess the girls there were called "little bears" (arktoi).
I just love this idea of little girls being wild bears. I also love the image of this sanctuary by the sea where ten-year-old girls would run races and eat on couches and give Artemis their childhood toys and locks of hair. And at certain times of year, it's covered in butterflies.
I wonder if Nabokov knew about this place.

No video this time, just some words

Hello everyone,

I'm early for my first class, so I'm sitting in the academic center using one of their computers. Videos might be a bit slow in coming, because the trackpad on my laptop has decided to go bonkers for some reason, which makes it difficult to do anything, let alone edit video. However, I just discovered that these computers have Windows Movie Maker, so I might be utilizing that. Anyway, enough boring stuff.

I mailed my first letters today. It was kind of expensive, but I was expecting that. Also, the post office here is a little silly. First of all, it's open from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., which makes it a little difficult for me to find time to get there. And then the actual process was weird too. You go in and push a button on a machine ("A" for anything except packages and "B" for packages") and you get a number. Then you sit in a chair with other people and wait for your number to come up on the screen thingy. When I went, there were five counters and two tellers--one for letters and one for packages. Then the letter lady went away. But no one had packages, so the package lady was just sitting there doing whatever. Finally, this old Greek lady starts talking to her. She says something back, and the old lady says, "Okay, sorry." Then another guy chimes in and the package lady gets kind of miffed and pushes a button. The next "non-package" number came up on the screen and she started making transactions. I think I witnessed a mini riot for reform. Anyway, the letter lady eventually came back and I got my stamps and sent my letters.

My roommates and I went to this great farmer's market today. I plan to get all my food there from now on.

Okay, it's 10:33, and my class is at 10:40, so I have to go.

Love,
Marissa

Slightly delayed first post

Hey everybody,

Here's my first post from Athens. You'll get to see my apartment and the view from my window. I apologize if the video quality is poor; I've never put videos on Blogger before, so I don't know how well it handles it....
Over the next couple of weeks I'll bring my camera around the city and show you some cool things that I've seen. The view from the Acropolis at night is something special. For now, I'm doing fine; I'm having fun. My mailing address is on Facebook if you'd like to send me mail. I would surely love to receive it.

Of note:
I saw a device called the "Fischer Panda Generator." I'm not sure exactly what it does, but it probably isn't what I'd like it to.
My apartment is at least 30-minute walk to the Academic Center, where my classes are. There are lots of stairs. I will be so fit, man.
I've met two people who know people I know at Brandeis, and I met a girl who went to Pinkerton. Crazy world.
The post office near my apartment closes at 2 p.m. This is the reason why no one has gotten any letters yet. Don't expect any for like a week, at least. I'm not sure how long it takes a letter to get from Athens to New England.

Mucho mucho loveo.