Sorry I haven't written much lately. I've been working on getting an architecture internship for the summer. It's a little tricky trying to do so from Greece, especially when America isn't building anything because of the economy. So...I've been here for about three weeks and I feel like I have settled in a bit therefore I'll take this time to let you know about my normal life. So Athens has it's gems such as the Acropolis and the Olympic Stadium, but the city is not at all the white washed houses with blue shutters that people associate with Greece. Though I did include the one example of that type of house that I have found here in an earlier post. The nice part is that there is still tons to do to keep me occupied during the week and once it warms up the islands are so easy to go to on the weekends or even for day trips. Athens is a city made up of small neighborhoods that each have their own character so I've been exploring them one by one. It is cool in concept but Athens grew so big so quickly that much of the city is very poorly designed which lends itself to ugly buildings and congestion. But the fun part is finding the little cool buildings and shops that are scattered around the city. I think it is all of these little nuances that make Athens good for living but bad for visitors of over a few days because once you've seen the main sights there isn't a ton to do if you don't know the city. Basically I've spend the past few weeks exploring Athens before I start traveling everywhere else. So my pictures are being tricky to upload and I'm just going to do them as a separate post so you can hear about my life now and see it really soon. Sorry, I know pictures are always my favorite part.
Here is the breakdown of life...
My apartment:
Upon entering the building I press a red button and hear a loud bang that turns on the electricity for five minutes so I can see to make it up to my apartment without falling. If you forget, as we did at first when it happened to be on from someone before us, you have to feel your way up the spiral staircase. It's great. It is sixty steep marble steps up to the top floor on which we are so lucky to live. Upon entering you need to put on a heavy coat and sweats because our landlord feels heating oil is an expensive luxury we just don't need. And Athens has been cold. Like in the 30s and 40s. It is sunny, but it's sort of like camping inside.
So besides our bedrooms we have a kitchen, bathroom, and wash room. Oddly enough they all seem to connect to each other.
The Washroom aka a washer (no dryer). The washer is not our friend. Catie washed new jeans that turned all her clothes blue and the next eight loads after that. Luckily I wasn't the one to find that out the hard way. Catie did for two loads and she forgot to tell us so Ashley also learned the hard way. As did Jessica. After we finally stopped washing clothes the program director said to just run the washer with nothing in it until it stopped turning things blue. How, you might ask yourself, would we know the washer wasn't turning things blue anymore and how did we know it took nine washes exactly? Well...that is where the washroom connects to...
The bathroom. The dirty water hose dumps into our tub/shower. We found that out when my roommate was attempting to get clean in the shower and instead had muddy water spill onto her legs. So once the water in the tub went from blue to clear we knew we were good to go. So no showering when washing clothes. In the hall outside the bathroom there is our magical box. It has two key switches. The first is the hot water heater. That must be turned on 40 minutes before showering to heat up the water (any less and you really will be camping with the freezing water). Imagine our thrill in learning this as we are all trying to shower to get ready to go out the first night. 30 minutes between showering (we didn't know 30 minutes only lasts for a military shower) for the water to heat up makes five girls showering a 3+ hour process...not cool. And I thought sharing a bathroom with Katie and Kelly was tricky in the mornings. And how, you might hesitate to ask, does the bathroom connect to...
The kitchen? The magical box of course. The second key switch on box in the hallway also turns on our kitchen appliances. We found this out after pressing every button in the kitchen trying to turn on the stove. Microwaves are also a luxury we don't have so I feel like I'm back at Uncle Pat and Aunt Meredith's. We cook a lot but with interesting materials such as a leopard print pan.
The Dust. The entire apartment is continually covered in a layer of dust that never goes away. We sweep our beds before we sleep every night.
Greeks throw toilet paper in the trash but also have these??? The one amazing aspect that makes everything better is that all windows in bedrooms have black out shades. Even the poorest apartments do because Greeks are basically nocturnal.
Classes:
I am taking five classes. They are all easy, except maybe drawing because I don't think drawing will ever be easy for me.
1. Greek Language: I take it with the most amazing man named Taki. I am in the slowest paced beginning class and it is great because once again I have been reminded that languages are not my thing. One good thing is Greek has made me realized just how much spanish I actually know. The bad thing is I hear Greek and respond in Spanish. Spanish isn't big in Greece but myself and a few others still use what I guess could be called Greekish or Spank? Haha sorry, that last one is cleaver. My Spank in action: Taki asked me a question and I said yes in Spanish. I didn't even notice and he just stared at me. He asked if I was Spanish and I realized it and proceeded to reply yes in French. I don't even know French. And then I forgot how to say it in Greek. Not my finest moment. Yes is nay and no is ohi. So yes sounds like no and no sounds like okay. It sucks. Also, reading greek is tough. A "p" actually sounds like an "r", an "r" sounds like an "n", an "n" sounds like an "i" as do five other letters. A "w" makes an "o" sound and b,d, and j only exist as combinations of two other consonants. So John could technically be Tzwv. It's actually Tzov but still, for someone who didn't learn how to really read until the second grade it's tough. I've practiced a lot and can mostly read now but I don't know what I'm saying when I do. Luckily Taki is so patient. And tonight we learned how to Greek dance with him. We are going greek dancing this weekend. It is sooo fun and I'm randomly good at it.
2. Greek Key: Basically we walk around neighborhoods every two weeks for two hours in small groups and have "cultural awakening" assignments. Example: we have to record our "like a virgin" experiences where we do something for the first time.
3: Planning the Myth/Creating the City aka an urban planning/architecutral history class that is so much worse than the Williams art history department it is painful. Mondays are in class and Wednesdays from 8:30-10:30 we speed walk around Athens learning about buildings. It sounds interesting but my teacher says "emmmmm" every third word and has the strongest accent and it is way too distracting. She also tries to fit three hours of material into two so we book it around the city. And she speaks like everyone knows a million architecture and art history terms. That should help my grade because I'm the only one that does... So when she says that the building is neoclassical due to the pediments porticos, and corinthian columns but has a slight renaissance feel due to the geometry of the plan focused around the apse everyone just stares at her but she just keeps going.
4. Modern Greek Society: It is an anthropology class where we learn about greek society by actively engaging in the culture. The first assignment I rode the subways for two hours observing how Greeks interact on them. The second one I had to observe people in a cafe for two hours and in a cafeneo for two hours. That sounds fine but a cafeneo is culturally a place where only men go and play poker, smoke, and have man time. So to walk in and sit for two hours pretending to be oblivious to the fact that you are a young American girl in an old men's cafe is pretty weird/awkward. I went with my friend Ali and luckily a soccer game was on so we had something to watch. Then we write five page papers about our experiences.
5. Drawing II: I am taking an independent study class with an artist. Her name is Eirene and she is in her late 20s and very artsy and I am not. She is a little awkward so the first few meetings were filled with so many awkward silences it was painful. But now it is fine. I go to her studio that is right next to the acropolis on Monday nights and draw for two hours. And I draw lots outside of class. I was drawing this old Ottoman Mosque in a square in Athens and this old man sat next to me for two hours and looked over my shoulder the entire time watching intently. Neither of us said anything the whole time and then when I was done he asked me if I was an artist and I said no, I'm just studying drawing and he was so cute and explained I was a great artist.
Taxis
In Greece Taxis are more like carpools. You may get in one and the driver also picks up other people going in the same general direction and eventually you get dropped off after possibly taking others to different locations. Luckily being on time isn't really something people do in Greece...
This is a street that is also a track. I don't now why but I thought it was really cool and I like to think maybe it used to be a track and the city chose to preserve it when they started building. 
These are my clothes drying. It takes FOREVER!
Me at the top of Mt. Likavitos. It is the highest point in Athens so a group of us decided to climb it one Saturday. We pretty much just looked at the hill and followed streets until it got us there. Eventually it did, and on the way we met a nice man named Thore who was from the Netherlands. He was trying to find his way up as well and ended up tagging along with us around the city for the day. It was a little weird but I think it's more common in Europe? I don't know. He wasn't a creeper or anything, more like a lonely middle age business man. Anyways, this is after we finally found our way to the top. 
It started to rain on us when we got to the top, but when it stopped and the sun came out there was a rainbow that went over the city. It made it completely worth the rain. 
This gives you an idea of how high Mt. Likavitos actually is in comparison to the rest of Athens. In the background you can see the Acropolis and the Mediterranean. 
We went to a bookstore and I found Twilight in Greek! 
Really cool clouds. 
This is one of the guards that is in front of the President's house. Their skirts are quite short and they do lots of high leg kicks. I mean, I'd be embarressed to be one of them. 
These are my friends Jess, Wells, and Amanda. We all live in the same building. Wells is from North Carolina and I'm mildly embaressed to say that he has gotten me addicted to a country song called "Chicken Fried." His roommate, Brian, introduced me to this band called Sigur Ros and if you like Snow Patrol/Coldplay and such I'd highly recommend checking them out. They are from Iceland so I can't understand them but that makes it great for studying music. 
This is a far away shot of the Temple of Poseidon. He is the god of the sea so his temple overlooks the Mediterranean. It is about an hour outside of Athens so a bunch of us went there last weekend. 
This is some of us after we climbed down the side of the cliff. Don't worry mom, it is just the angle that makes us look like we could fall down a cliff at any moment. It was steep, but not dangerous. 
This is me in front of the Temple of Poseidon. I think I'm going to go back before I leave because it is supposed to be the best place to watch the sunset in all of Greece. 
This is my roommate Ashley teaching me how to Greek dance one night in the street. I actually learned some steps last night and cannot wait to dance! 
This is the side of a building in a neighborhood next to mine. You can't tell that well, but all of the holes are from bullets from the 1940s. This is the main neighborhood where immigrants came in the 1940s. It grew from a population of 11 to 40,000 in about three decades. Crazy, I know. 
This is in the same neighborhood. This and the next two pictures are the remains of the base where the Nazis controlled Greece. It was originally a shooting range and is still technically one, though it isn't used anymore. The Nazis decided to use it as their own shooting range for all of their executions. The cyprus trees are typically seen next to graves in Greece. 
This is the memorial. Greek teens are known to be some of the most disrespectful youth today (it would make you appreciate American teens so much more if you saw how horrible teens in Athens are to everything and everyone) and that can be seen on the graffiti on the memorial. It is therefore only open on May Day each year but kids still manage to sneak in. 
Here are a few more pictures from the walk. 
This is the Greek Flag.
The Mediterranean. 
Nafplio from above. The island fort is in the right of the picture.
