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.