So today I finally figured out how to get in my school buildings. Check this out: there are two buildings, the academic center and the "classroom building." Both have classrooms, both are academic centers (right?). To enter the main door of the academic center, you have to open it with a key. To enter the classroom building, you have to wave a white piece of plastic over a sensor. To get into one of the classrooms in the Academic center and to get into the cafeteria, you have to enter a five digit code. Yeah. Glad that's sorted.

I have decided to commit myself to writing a post at least once a week. I've waited until now to write this one, because frankly I haven't found the time to sit a write. Who ever said that study abroad would be a vacation in Greece was simple wrong, just like they were wrong that I would not find food other than Greek here or that I should stay away from scary Greek men. All the classes at CYA are heavy reading and writing courses, all of them. It is strange to take 5 of these similar classes instead of 2 reading/writing classes and another class that is a bit different, like science or art. One thing that is nice is that I dont have school on Fridays, allowing for travel, but I have to wrap my head around school (real school) and island hopping...



Last Weekend I went to the mountain, it was AWSOME.
I got on a bus last Sunday morning full of middle aged Greek men going to a mysterious mountain. The drive was about two hours long, and ended in the middle of a road in the middle of no where. Of the thirty there were 7 or 8 other people from CYA. The hike was supposed to be four or five hours long, and the entire way the guide kept stopping to tell us how to short cut to the beach if we thought we couldn’t make it, which some of the girls did.


We got to what I was told was our final destination, labeled “ancient tower”--- fairly unimpressive. Then we were told that we were going to this tower’s twin, which was equally ambiguous and unimpressive, but the mountain was very pretty.

The guide said that if some of us wanted, he would take us all the way to the top, and---LandSeaers be proud of your Lizz--- I said I wanted to go, even though we had been out already for four hours and the rest of the hike took two more. Yup and it was awesome. Most of the group left us to go down to the beach; about 10 went to the top. There was a lot of goat poo, but no goats the entire trip, which made me sad. I got to become friends with a few Greeks and it was a great experience. I hope to go with them next weekend.

At the bottom was a small fishing town on
a lake. It was sunset time and breathtakingly beautiful and sooooo Greek! A few of us ate at a Taverna on the water, and there were guitarists and cats and ducks and sailboats. I don’t think that I told the story every well, so hopefully the pictures will redeem it.

This is a picture of my friend Dimitris. He hikingkeing boots, short shorts, and a long ponytail. I thought I should include a picture of D on the top, stroking his ponytail. (cool guy, really)

Friday Market is amazing. Liz and I made friends with Roberto, the grape guy, and he gives us free grapes. Oh yeah, I suddenly LOVE grapes… they definitely taste so different here, and better. Figs are awesome, too. My new favorite. Here are some pictures of it.

View from my balcony

yes, olives

Octopus is really good, by the way.

This woman does not like me...

Sunday I went to the flea market in Monastraki. It was really cool, made me think of Julia, she would really like it. Lots of antiques and lots of junk and pretty much anything you could imagine. I then meet up with a friend in Psiri, which is I think my new favorite part of Athens. It is full of outdoor cafes, and I even found a hookah bar there, go figure. So I am really liking Athens. A lot. “Natives” are starting to recognize me, and I am feeling almost at home here. Yup, this first part of the W is really great. The only bad thing, off the top of my head, is that everyone is freaking out about how much work they have. It’s not as bad as Kzoo. There is a lot of work, but I wish that people would relax a little more. We are in Greece, you know?

Among other things, I have started my Greek cooking class, and it is so much fun. last weeklentilde lentel soup, chicken Greek style, village salad (Greek salad) roasted potatoes (best I have ever had) and we had wine with our meal. yummy. tomarrow I will post about my Saturday trip to Agina and Moni. My computer has died, so I have to wait to put up pictures for that. all for now. If you want to see any more pictures of any thing, email me because I have a million.