Protest!

So, over the past several weeks, many strikes and demonstrations have occurred. They're generally pretty tame, but this one in particular was rumored to be a more exciting one. So Natalia and I went down to check it out. Mild anarchy ensued.

Turkey!

Sorry it's taken so long to post this. Right after Turkey was midterms, and then I went to Casablanca. Craziness! Anyway, pictures are up here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Marigumi/Turkey

And here's a very short video shot on the only day that it was sunny and I didn't feel sick.

Video and pictures from one of the demonstrations and Casablanca are coming!

Love love love.

P.S.

Did I ever say how the trip to Ireland was? It was great!

I got to see the lovely Emily Maskas, and we had great adventures: we kissed the Blarney Stone, which is actually kind of terrifying. Nobody told me the Blarney Stone was part of a wall of a castle. I had kind of assumed it was just a stone. But no, it's in a wall high up in a castle. And the way you kiss it is you sit on the ground and lean backward into an abyss and kiss the stone while upside-down. Terrifying! But it was worth it. Whether it actually bestowed us with the gift of gab remains to be seen.

We also went to Dublin, where we saw an amazing Cathedral--I'm blanking on which Saint's it was, oops--and attended an Anglican (I think) service, which I didn't realize was Anglican until Emily told me afterward. I thought it was weird that there was no Communion. Dur.

Other than that, I had my first Guinness, which was like drinking bread. Thick, liquid, smokey bread. I also met some neat people and heard many lovely Irish accents. Cork and Dublin are both adorable places.

Thanks to the lovely Emily for hosting me and showing me around! I had a great time, even though it was terribly cold after having been in the Mediterranean for four months. The New Englander in me was shamed.

Anyway, love again!

Fail

I fail at updating. But I've had a request to update more, so I'm going to try harder.

The problem is, not much has been going on. I went to the island of Naxos a couple weekends ago. It was very cute and islandy. Oh! And I learned to ride a bike and ate an orange! For those who know me, both of those things are a big deal.

Ilana, Natalia, and I are going to Turkey (if all goes well) on Wednesday for a school trip. Free trip to Turkey? Yes, please. I promise, promise, prooomise to take pictures and video and put them here. Cross my heart.

I will update with exciting things upon my return!

Love.

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!

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!

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.

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