Day before Easter=homework

So, on what was a lovely day in minneapolis outside (getting into the 40's regularly now!) all i have done thus far is homework, of which i have done a large amount of tedious Major Project stuff- but im still not satisfied w/my day's accomplishments. maybe ill go for a moonlit walk w/nate or something; i mean, it WAS a full moon last night! At least the werewolves and other horrendous creatures stirred by the peak lunar movements have safely gone back to their dwellings. tonight would be a nice, safe night to go. hmm..

i havent completely decided whether im going this summer to france or not. i think the biggest factor is my hand; ive got to ask the director about what she thinks and how rigorous the activities and student assignments are. perhaps i can help in other activities which dont involve wheelbarrows, like last summer. also, more interesting info i have found out is that there are about 4-5 international students and approx. 20-25 university of Poitiers, France students w/some english also on the dig. good thing i took so much french, have kept it up moderately, and have latin in my reperatoire as well. all the language skill is certainly going to be of use, and make things much more fun because ill be able to interact socially so much more. plus, my roomie Emily speaks nearly fluent French because her mother is native Belgian and brought Em up on French and Dutch. SO- i can have as much help til then as i like. plus she mumbles french to herself all the time, which is quite amusing..., and i get reminded of forgotten words. sometimes ill be in the shower thinking about how a conversation would go in french, and mumbling to myself trying to talk it out, playing (of course) both sides of the dialogue. yes, it may seem strange, but it's more practice than no attempts at all. haha...

i thought it would be awesome to go to a different chruch service this year for Easter, but it depends. nate and i are still not sure if we're doin the annual Mankato migration tomorrow (depends on a project nate has due on Monday morning), so we'll see. i thought maybe the St Paul Cathedral would be awesome, despite the close quarters on EAster morning when the flooding of Catholics (and some others) who have forgotten the rest of the year's services, save xmas, come pouring in, much like everywhere else. so it wont really matter which chruch we go to- we'll be rubbing shoulders with the likes of em no matter what. i have never been to a service at St paul's, so we'll see. my dad suggested St. Agnes' church in Frogtown, where [Great-]Gramma Kathryn used to go when she was in town. They had Latin services, and if they still do- that would be AWESOME. i'll bet i'd understand half of it, despite the corruption of pronunciation by the Church. it's awesome that a modern church would preserve that tradition, esp for ppl like me, even though the idea that what was being said wasnt always understood by the average Joe/Jane. eh well- that's what progressive religion should do, right? adapt teaching methodology.
oh yeah, i'm not technically Catholic, (brought up Lutheran as many of you know), but i was told once by a Catholic family member that it was ok because i was at least baptized Catholic. pick pick pick. make of it as you will.

i suppose that's enough controversial and touchy topics for today.
the point is that Easter is tomorrow and i should celebrate too. having grown up on Catholic Easter mass, you could say that ive grown fond of it and miss it. i love all the formality, traditional'ness, loud and lovely music from above/behind, etc etc. i think i was actually sad the year i was stuck in a hotel bathroom w/my auntie Pat sick and puking, and missing the service. eeew, i know- sorry.

well, a week from Wednesday i'll find out whether the doc suggests surgery for my hand. i had a cortizone shot about a month ago, to start, and then have to follow up about that. it worked brilliantly for about 1.5 weeks, then back to square one. because it's a steroid, i cant take it forever or very frequently, thus im expecting an affirmative on the surgery- which im not very happy about. BUT, it could be worse, right? it's just going to be stressful in my decision about the dig in mid-june and fitting the surgery in b4 then and amid my last couple months of finishing school. so, hmm- guess we'll just take this one step at a time.

my foot that i sprained is healing nicely, and i have started walking normally on it, finally. it's still tender and gets tired more easily, but that's better than not walking on it at all!! so cheers to that.

well, it's been a wonderful study break, and i should probably get back to work. that's all the real news i have for now. i always love hearing from ppl via email, even if it's just one line (e.g. Scott!!! :)
take care

cheers

Chillin on this final spring break

It didn't occur to me until just now that this week may very well be the last 'spring break' of my life.
Oh glorious spring breaks! Whence have you come, and to where have you gone?!

So i'm working on capitalization and punctuation. i really hate it in informal typing; it just takes up those extra miliseconds between thought and the buzz of my fingers on the keyboard which can inhibit my creative flow. so, i apologize for my past illegibility, and simply explain the inconsistency of any ensuing entries.
:)

Thus far on spring break (started last friday) i have done a total of.....
0 hours of homework
abundant hours of sleep
ridiculous amounts of sitting on my ass
watched at least 4 movies
gone to rochester to visit nate's family
took an evening at my own folks' place
not called my friends enough
spent mucho mucho time w/nate
much blank 'space for thought' time due to my ass-sitting
etc
etc

i would like to say that i basically began my spring break last tuesday evening. the reason is as follows:
i sprained my foot; yes, my foot, not my ankle. how does one do this you ask? well, apparently i did it on the treadmill last monday afternoon.
i run frequently or use the elipticals (running machine), so i didnt think anything of my normal workout that day, until tuesday about 12-1pm when my left foot started hurting so much i couldnt walk on it. i thought i just had a cramp or stepped wrong for a minute, but as it turns out my brushing it off was worthless.
nate drove me home from work that afternoon after i called him whimpering and almost crying in pain. oh, i felt fine when i sat down- which i just couldnt understand! and it was the whole outside of my foot and into the heel- how weird!
anyway, adam, nate's older bro, and laura were both coming over that night to make/eat indian food @my place w/nate, emily (roomate) and i- so i couldnt cancel on them and go to the doc!! miss indian food?? are you kidding me?!! so i toughed it out for the night and decided to see how the darn foot was the next day.
not so good; actually kinda worse.
so i stayed home, missing some work and a class, hoping upon hope that it would just go away. i didnt need another injury! especially w/my left hand being hurt and in pain too!! sheeeeesh!
so, around 7pm, i finally relented to going to the doc and nate took me. the doc said i have a sprained foot, which is technically a torn or stretched ligament. i told him i didnt understand how i got it and why i wounldnt feel it for 24 hours after doing it (i didnt recall running funny, or turning it, or anything!). he said that it was endorphines. ah, i see. damn. says it's common in runners.
i was offered no crutches or anything and simply told to keep it elevated and apply heat for 7-10 days. hence- i started my spring break early. i spose it's better than a broken foot!!!

so, i have a gimpy left side: sprained foot and torn cartilage in wrist. how awful! i keep thinking how thankful i am to have nate to take care of me so much and be around- plus emily is great too. also, work is very flexible. thank god i didnt have any big spring break plans! all i can really do i take a short walk once in a while...so im gonna try and use emily's exercise bike to pump my blood. i started to get so stir-crazy on wed-fri last week when all i was doing was hanging around!!!

other than these frustrations testing my resiliency, i toughed it out for a Flogging Molly show last thursday night, which was awesome- as they always are. it made me soo happy to get out of the apt!! nate helped me hobble to and from the bus downtown, or gave me piggy back rides- so i cant complain too much. ;)

i saw the old classic movie "Patton" this weekend w/nate's fam, and it was pretty awesome for a war movie. it wasnt so much enwrapped in the war for the blood of it aspect, but for the character of the people, esp. General George Patton. He thinks he's some type of reincarnated military general from over milennia, which made him quite a nerdy subject for me to examine. for example he thought he was a Greek and a Roman general, one during Napoleon's time, etc etc. basically he was a historically literate poet nut who was a REAL person during WWII and had a descent film made about him. i'd highly recommend it.

then i caught a cold. well, then i knew i had hit the number 3- that is, if you're superstitious, you'd know that bad things come in 3's. so at least it wasn't worse. so yeah, im pretty banged up these days. shoulda knocked on wood harder somewhere, or maybe then i woulda just broken whatever limb with which i hit it??? who knows.

THEN, i got my application response to this dig in SW France that i applied to for 3.5 weeks this summer. I was ACCEPTED!!!!! i didn't think i'd have a problem getting on the crew because of my past dig experience, my study abroad, and of course- all my relevant college coursework. but, there's always that doubt in your mind. anyhow, im pretty excited to have that opportunity this summer and i will probably take it, depending on how my hand is doing and how willing the supervisors are in adjusting to my abilities to haul dirt w/one hand...
so yeah, go me!!!

The job search is on. as soon as i can strap on my nice, black heeled boots (need a strong, healed foot...) to go with some nice clothes, i'm out the door to go bug companies to hire me for a year at least starting this summer sometime. i don't really want to go back to serving (waitressing, for those not caught up w/the PC term) partially cuz of my hand, and partially cuz the work just plain sucks. it's rough on your body; the money can really suck you in; and you really don't get as much respect as you might think. so, i think serving's out. i'm thinking about finding a job in a jewelry store. i've always thought that would be interesting and i'm willing to learn the trade. nate complained when i told him and said that forever after i would 'analyze anything he ever bought me.' hahahha.... well, it's either that or have a poor girlfriend. i'd think he'd much prefer a sugarmomma than a gf w/empty, holey pockets. so, if you know anyone who's hiring, let me know!! or any descent-paying job, in which i can also get healthcare benefits if necessary!!

*sigh......

does anyone actually read this? if so, please let me know by leaving me a message! it'll help me know how often to update my blog!! AND it's reallyyyyyyyy nice to hear feedback and just to hear 'hello'!! like from you, chad!!

well, that's 'all' for now
take care, happy st. pat's on thursday- drink an extra Guinness for me.

lazy saturday

so today i have hardly done anything...
i got up today around 2pm and then fell back asleep around 3 cuz i wasnt feeling very well...until about 530pm. i dont know what's wrong w/me or how the hell i slept this much- BUT.. i did. i guess everybody needs a day off sometimes. i havent been sick once (knock on wood) since last spring, in such a way as to put me out of commission for a whole day of school or work. well, i take that back- a couple of bad sick days in athens, but that's different. i got hauled around everywhere last semester!!!
so anyway, im finally feeling better and at nate's place. i spose i should work on my homework sometime tonight too. nate's makin us some 'damn quesadillas' [cf. napolean dynomite] so that we can fill our empty, howling bellies.

yesterday, i would have to say, was the best work day of my young life thus far. i split a bottle (and then a little) bottle of wine with my lovely colleague after the dept. lecture which we had to set up, serve food/drink, and then clean up. my boss told me before the lecture, just before she went home for the day:
"now, this is your first time working at a department lecture and i will just say a couple things. whatever goes on between us in the office, stays with us in this office. you'll understand soon enough..." of course, i am breaking code by telling all you wonderful ppl about my experience, but i think it's worth the risk.
after 'manning' the food and wine stations for all the nerdy, yuppy social hour after the lecture on none other than 'barbarism'... (HA), my colleague john and i began the clean up rush.
we had to swindle the remains of the wine bottles in the lecture room away from the 'glowing' professors and students into the office to be 'stored' and 'disposed of.' well, i bring the rest of the cheese to the office and john's there w/the remains of the wine, and another bottle still there, untouched. i ask him what we're going to do w/the rest of the wine, and he says that we have to 'get rid of it.' like how?...im wondering. ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, i get it...
so i grab a cup and start 'helping.'
well, that bottle of wine went fast between the 2 of us scurrying to finish up cleaning and get outta there.
we rock, paper, scissor'ed for the extra bottle (he won...little rascal), he stuffed it in his coat (sooo ghetto!!!) and we made a break for it, he to his fiancee and show (in a band) and me to nate, waiting for me outside...
needless to say, i was very happy upon seeing nate and had quite alot with which to chatter away his ear.
never got to do THAT at perkins.
i guess working in an adult enviroment has really taught me alot already.

so next week is week 8 of 15 of my last semester of college. god. where has the time gone??
also, this is the last week before spring break (which i just realized) which is also awesome. i plan to take that break as is and not do a whole lot except, well, take a break. of course, there will be a bit of hw, visits home, laundry, movies, sleep (not always a common thing), job hunting, etc.
i am going to need a job this summer and fall after i graduate because i cant keep my student job [this is what you asked me auntie jen] in the Classical and Near Eastern Studies office (wont have student status anymore after graduation). so i am going to try jewelry stores, or whatever good paying one i can find. perhaps i can get one more easily if i tell them im not just gonna leave again in september, like most summer workers.
so we'll see.
for this fall, i am applying to get an internship at the MIA, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (museum), hopefully in the ancient art section. ive inquired about the details and if i got it, i would be doing research and writing projects for the museum for up to 6 months, depending of the need of the project. so yeah, wish me luck on that one.
so, in case you were wondering what im doing w/my life, that's it. im taking at least a year off of school after this may and going to work and try for internships to figure out what i want to do, or not do as the case may be.

for those of you whom i will see at easter (if we're still doing that) i am working on putting together my photo albums from last summer and this past fall. the summer one is done, and fall is in progress- hopefully to be finished over spring break (which is a fun project for that week). then FINALLY i can show everyone where ive been and what ive been up to. sorry i am so photo-digitally-impaired!!! nate's gonna help and add his photos too, so it should come out great.

well, i'd better go for now. gotta eat this 'damn quesadilla' in my lap!!

mooo!!

I'm Baaaaaaaack!!! go gophers!

hey everyone!
i hope this entry finds you all well and taking care. Currently, i am back in good 'ol minnesota, living in my minneapolis apartment with my roommate emily. i am taking my last semester at the U of M, TC and will be graduating in may with a degree in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology and a Latin minor. what will i do after that, and with that.. you ask? well, ill leave that to succeeding entries......HA! leaving you hanging for now!
im doing pretty well and well in school so far for my last semester (AHHHHHHH! by the way....)
health: i found out about a week and a half ago from this really cool test called an arthrogram that i have torn catilage in my left wrist and wil need treatment of some sort. i have been seeing a hand specialist and will go back for a follow-up from the test about what i can do to fix it, i.e. surgery, therapy, etc. needless to say, i have a lot of pain, frequently, in my left hand and lower arm, which is driving me to wits end. so hopefully these doctors are as smart as they should be and can fix it. here's hoping. a diagnosis after 4 years is GOOOOD news!!! wheeew!
i am indeed still with nate, my boyfriend of more than 2 years. he is doing well, and still enjoys his endless rock-climbing and computer nerdiness. he will be graduating with a degree in computer sciences this fall from the U's IT program.
this is all just an update, despite that many of you may already know much of it.
well, im at work, so i'd better go.
i will continue to update this periodically this spring and let it morph as time goes by!

note the net address change from: www.chrisingreece.blogspot.com to www.chrisinmn.blogspot.com

alright, take care and ttfn!
-c

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

yup, this means i made it safely home- and nate too.
i got home yesterday, MN time, about 230pm in the afternoon. just in time to finish decorating the tree, eat some snacks, and then eat dinner and open presents w/family. it was my parents, my 2 brothers, my grampa (mom's dad), and nate and adam (nate's older brother who lives in st paul). it was really nice to see everyone and make it home in time for all the xmas eve festivities. we do it the scandanavian way, so we have all the activity on the eve of xmas, instead of xmas day. so getting home just in time made me really happy, to say the very least.

so, now im relaxing and enjoying the sNOW (!!) and delights of christmas day: food, fireplace fire, lounging in pj's, quiet, family, etc etc...... verrrrrrrrry nice.

it's good to be home and good to be back. merry christmas everyone.

"i'll be home for christmas....you can count on me......"

i lied...one more....THEN many goodbyes and much traveling.....

Well, i just finished my very-last-final.... ugh!! i DID it! it's all done and turned in and everything. i made it. end of story.
thanks for the support everybody! i have loved hearing lil emails or posts here and there :)

This morning at the center, it has been pretty dead up til about a few minutes ago, but i think because many ppl are done, theyre sleeping in and gonna come at the last minute (noon) for the last provided lunch in the cafeteria. it looks good from what i can see. theyre treating us pretty well this morning: esp w/REAL oj and lil cookie things too!

well, i just found out i got an 'A+' on my final and as a final grade for one class, so that's good. too bad the + doesnt transfer....HAHA!!
pretty sure i did fine on everything else, just need to contest one of my 4 final exam grades whenever the prof gets here. so not too bad for being away every weekend and dealing with and being absorbed into so MANY other things while studying and living abroad. there's so much more than just academics and it's been a struggle to do all that i wanted in both.

it's almost time for my last CYA lunch....

i think the rest of the day after lunch is going to be spent w/tessa shopping and wandering around town in our last few days here. and then maybe some big communal CYA dinner somewhere. it sounds like many lil groups of kids are planning things here and there and it should be a good relaxing and social time b4 everyone goes home.... and many of us never see each other again..... :(

i have gotten many email addresses and made plans to keep in touch w/many ppl, but it will never be the same....

i think THIS is finally it ppl. sorry for the tease yesterday. i may keep up a less often entered journal when i get back to keep in touch, but we'll see. it's not gonna be for a while. i think im gonna relax for a LONG time b4 i get going on any major projects again. i think making photo albums and reading non-text books is going to be the extent of personal projects over break.

so, take care, see ya soon, and best of luck to those of you whom im leaving for good....

-chris :)

'....no more 3 X 5's...............'

one more LEFT!!!...then many goodbyes...

well, i have finished all three of my exams, plus 2 other final papers. i have ONE PAPER LEFT TO FINISH!!! yaaaaaaay! im almost done, so that's good. as im sure youre all dying to hear about the academic ends to my experience here, ill save you from any more info, except that ill be done tomorrow.... [yay!!!]

well, ppl are starting to leave, esp. starting tomorrow after all the finals must be done and turned in. it's starting to get SAD!!!!..... many ppl, including my roomies leave this weekend, and a few next week.... and then i leave w/nate next thursday. ill prolly wake up singing the beatles again on my last day.

i think im struggling now to decide whether i should make a more reflective entry or what. so you get what you get ppl.
i am honestly ready to be done here and move on to a period of processing all this at home and spending time w/family and close friends from home. i am really gonna miss the ppl here and feel like (as always in experiences like this) that i have just gotten to know them and have become ever more close just in the last few weeks. i think i have been dwelling on these thoughts alot and have expressed some of them on here already, so i dont really feel like saying more right now.

dont know if i'll be making more entries before i come back, cuz my internet access is cut off at the end of the day tomorrow....so:
ill just say merry christmas, ho ho ho, and see ya soon!
if you wanna see pictures, gotta find me!
signing off for a while,
ciao, au revoir, yassu.


..yesterday...all our troubles seemed so far away....why'd she have to go? i dont know, she wouldnt say......oh, i believe in yesterday......

one down...

well, just took my first final for my Ancient Greek Athletics course. ive had a stomach ache since last night from stress, and now im starving since some of that stress has been released- hehe...that's gooooood. i think it went well, even if it was one of the hardest tests as far as studying goes, ever. we had to study alot of things, but only know a fraction on the test- sounds typical i know, but still. i prolly just stress too much, and it went really well i think, so should be no worries- but im not jinxin myself just yet. well, 5 finals to go.... (for 3 classes, mulitiple parts).... i can do it... must...keep...going.....
i think a bunch of us are gonna have pizza for lunch to celebrate our victory over the first hurdle...heh... mmmmmm....pizzzzza......

just an update on those law violators: they confessed and the innocent are legally acquitted, and the guilty must pay stiff fines + lawyers' fees, etc. no fun, but we're pretty much all back to normal now. life goes on. justice is served.

sometimes after looking at nate's blog i get all sad and jealous that i cant put pics up due to lack of digital camera...again- i apologize for the last few months, but oh well. you have nate's to look at and keep u occupied for the time being. when i get back im planning on making an album or 2 or 3...... come find me and ill share them w/you!

victoria- i found u something yesterday at the supermarket....something u cant get in the states!!!..... :)

well, the rest of the weekend, plus most of the rest of the week is going to be devoted to studying for finals, taking finals, writing finals (take-home exam parts), and finishing off term papers. everthing will be done by noon on friday the 17th---- hooooray! but til then, it's cram and crunch time! sounds like some name of a cheesy cereal......'cram and crunch' ...hmmm....

other than that, i havent lost my health yet, but i am sneezin a bit more- prolly from not gettin outside and gettin sunshine from all my indoor studyin. hopefully ill retain my health during this last week so i can finish up strong. that would most certainly be nice :)

well, this'll remain more of a short entry for today. who knows when ill write next, but just know that most likely ill prolly b reading or studying or taking tests, or trying to sleep here and there......

time 4 pizza

not so boring news.....!

well, today my horoscope from the onion is:
'Cancer: (June 22—July 22)Legends have it that the statue of Lincoln on the National Mall will stand up for an honest man, but they give no clue as to why it would show up in your driveway and take a nine-iron to your car.'
oh , the onion, you crack me up, make me swoon, and sometimes... just make me shake my head.

as of yesterday evening as i was gleefully walking AWAY from the premises of school with Tessa, she asked me if i "heard about saturday night". i said, no, and then she proceeded to tell an unjust tale of 5 CYA kids getting arrested by the Athens police, for none other than public drunkenness and FLIPPING A CAR. seriously, how do 5 scrawny kids, (she told me the names), EVEN DO that??? not to mention lack of coordination & judgement when drunk. plus, these kids are the studious kids that ppl LIKE. not the ones you'd expect to get in trouble- AT ALL. they spent BOTH saturday night AND sunday night in JAIL (!!!), and were released yesterday late afternoon. tessa and i actually ran into them coming towards school and asked them if they were alright. they were going to meet the CYA admin. ppl. this is only PART 1.

Part 2
so these totally unexpected dilinquent and publicly destructive kids told us, as other kids were saying, that they were framed, wrongfully accused, and seriously pissed off. as they should justifiably be provided this is true!!! so word got around later that night and this morning that a few other kids, who did NOT get arrested and jailed, were ACTUALLY responsible and not fessing up and letting the other kids take the rap.---which has generally agreed upon, except for those who partied w/the guilty all the time this semester, that this is completely cruel, low, and just downright wrong and mean. who wouldnt agree to that??
so, all the kids involved, presumed innocent and guilty, had to meet w/the CYA staff to sort it out and get the guilty to confess. if you knew the kids who are said to actually be responsible, you would still of course be disappointed, but honestly, NOT surprised. theyre the loud, arrogant partiers that many of us wonder about their reasons for being here in Athens and on study abroad. so yeah. in the end, apparently they finally fessed up after being severely pressured and all the backlash and post-confess dealings must be sorted out. there is no end of the story yet, just that those boys are in severe trouble and gonna have to pay serious fines and damage reparations. i mean, they trashed some random Athenian's car!!! and they made 5 innocent kids go to a foreign jail, (2 were girls, which i think is even more horrible- sorry feminists), deal w/not really ever knowing what's going on or what ppl are saying in Greek, same clothes, lost study time before finals, missed classes all day yesterday, TRAUMA and anger, etc etc etc. wow. so we'll see what develops, but i hope that those kids pay their just dues.
all i really know to say is that it made for interesting conversation between us students over the last 24 hours. just thought i'd share the story.... SHEESH!!!!!!!

on a lighter note, i saw the movie ALEXANDER last night. HAHAHAAHHAHA!!!! good god, it was horrible, despite the modest entertainment value. i wont even say anything about historicity cuz it's not worth my time or brain power. it's a fiction story, so i just dont care- im not toooo caught up in that type of thing ya know. it was hard not to laugh so much when collin farrel sucked through the whole thing & you just couldnt take him seriously cuz he didnt fit his character very well, and angelina jolie kept making evil faces and flaunting her massive mouth and playing w/snakes. anthony hopkins as Ptolomey was interesting as story-teller and his make up was cool, but he had no major part except the narration, i.e. his voice mostly. val kilmer: stick to batman and your batmobile. at least he had both eyes.
so there's my movie review. my suggestion: wait til the cheap theatres- it'll cost less than renting. HA!

so that's the update for now, except that the CYA farewell party for student, profs, and admin. is tonight. *sigh............

other than that, my 2nd to last philosophy class period. i must libate to the gods for this one.

ta ta

i was such a bore this weekend :(

This past weekend all i did was study. study. and more...yup, you guessed it,... studying. However, i must say that ACTUALLY having a weekend to catch up for a change, was nice- even if it's not the same as a wonderful field trip to some new greek place. seriously, all i did was study, and read, and work on a term paper- oh yeah & munch on 'Digestive' crackers which Kellie and i have grown to love. and NO theyre not really for digesting, just a stupid name. HA! i think the active highlight of my weekend was going for a walk around Kolonaki, my neighborhood, on saturday just to get some air and exercise... oh yeah, and get groceries. why do liesurely activities always end up turning into some practical and productive activity? oh well. i even went into Starbucks up the street for the first time since i got to Athens. once, i even referred to it absentmindedly as 'that american coffee shop' to my other roomie Simone. i just didnt care to remember the name! eh well, guess that's acculturation for ya.

as i told Katie, my other roomie, on sat. night, 'i think im turning into a vegetarian, but involuntarily!!! what the heck???!!' i think the fact that meat isnt offered everyday at the center for lunch and that meat is expensive to buy in the markets (or you have to go to a far away one for it to be packaged like at home in the states), i simply dont eat as much meat. AHHHH!!! it gets really annoying sometimes, but i have learned to work w/what i have and be a bit more creative. i cook veggie stir-frys ALOT w/the veggies from the friday street market. i put them on rice, or mix them into lentil soup. it does get really boring after a while and more than many things i miss from home, it's the variety of food. i think i really miss muffins. HAhaha...

i was, in fact, realllllly productive, school-wise, this weekend which was really good. i had so much reading to catch up on (and im sure youre all on the edge of your seats reading this). but seriously- i feel so much better about finals andwhatnot now. so thats GOOD.

well, i only have this week left of classes, 2 more sessions of each of my 4 classes (minus one cuz i had class already today). this is insane. i feel like it was just yesterday that i started and there were so many weeks ahead in the semester. i think semester has gone by faster than any other single semester of college yet. at times it may have felt the opposite and going slow, but mostly i feel like i just got here.

sarah- i started getting Beatles in my head again..... hey, jude....dont pass me by......

our freaking 'farewell dinner' is TOMORROW night!!!! things are starting to get sad... :( but i must say happy in ways too about coming home.

i might be going to see the movie 'Alexander' w/one of my profs tonight at 7; it just came out in greece last friday, as compared to november sometime for the US. of course, there are many of us ancient studies nerds that wanna go mock it...... hehhehehe..... i hear it's worse than Troy.... and Collin Farell plays a flaming gay-portrayed Alex. should be interesting from reviews ive had. anyone else seen it? post me comments!!!!!

ok, that's enuf 4 now. gtg do work--- it's finals time ya know!!!

hooray for internet & week almost over

so all day i have been surfing the internet and re-looking at the U of M housing website and found a lil link that brought me into a whoooooole new world! i got registered for this site and now am able to look at more postings for roommate possibilities and i may have even found one. it's preliminary, but another senior girl named emily who is currently studying in france for the semester has a place/apt for the spring/summer and needs a roomie. i'd have my own room & rent's not bad, and other features are not bad as well. this will have to be thought out and figured out, but so far one of the things i was stressed out the most about in regards to moving back home may soon be solved- or at least close to. there are many posts and that's only my first response (and even the one i liked the most!), so here's hopin.....
that's the good news.
more good news is that i had philosophy class today and generally i leave feeling utterly exhausted and have a huge headache. today, for some reason, the class including Elly our prof was just giggly and silly and off-topic alot talking about fat pigeons, Ned (smart mouth but funny kid), PEEPS (yes, the easter candy!!), and other such things. hahaha... we tried desperately to incorporate them into our talks regarding the philosopy of Aristotle and Parmenides, so class was entertaining to say the least. you folks who are helping me get this 'education', have no fear- this is not normal. but good god, it was a fun fluke!!!
also, at the end of class, Elly and i had planned to discuss my 1st midterm cuz i had questions. i even got my grade raised and she told me that is was a better grade to begin with than i had thought. i guess she grades not normally based on %s, or at least, not to normal US grading. so that was good.
3 good things so far--- wheeew! wow! :)
1 sad one is that nate is no longer in Athens and left yesterday evening to go back to Istanbul. he msg'd me via cell and now i know he's safe and sound back in his dorm. hopefully sleeping after that long bus ride!! it's good he's back to his daily routine and working again, but im still sad he's gone. only a few weeks tho, so i guess it's ok. the visit was so nice tho and we had alot of fun.
1 sad, but good at the same time thing is that i only have one week and one class left of school, not counting finals. of course there is still MUCH to be done, it only seems like a lil bit after sooo many weeks here already. for me, it's already been over 3 months since ive been home, having left end of august to travel b4 school. so in alot of ways im missing home pretty bad, but at the same time im thinking about having to leave ppl here- which is sad. ppl have already started talking about their fly-out dates and times and what theyre doing after the semester is over. so indeed departing is in the air. i think, as any departure from a place/experience like this, will be bitter-sweet.
classes are generaly going well so far, so that's good; but i guess we'll how it all ends up.
well, i guess it's time to leave the center and go home and study for all those papers, finals, etc......goody.
ciao

wow

wow- seriously. it's monday of my second to last week of classes, then finals week. that's the update on time...
nate got here last week and since then it's been really crazy and fun :) we've hung out w/some of my friends here and there, baked some monkey balls, watched kill bill vol. 2, walked around town, ate indian food (mmmmmmmmmmmmm) for thanksgiving w/8 other kids (waay fun), and generally gotten some good time to hang out. i have, of course had to still attend classes in between, do homework, and whatnot too. but nate knew that- so i set him to reading nerdy (but interesting!!!) books, or fixing my laptop, or watching movies while i work. sometimes he even makes me dinner and does the dishes when im working too.... what a nice boy........
i think that im really starting to miss aspects of home more and more as it gets closer to the end of the semester. for example,, last night when i was wondering around w/nate and we stopped at a kiosk and i looked at a TIME magazine for a few mins, i spaced out into american culture'ness, and when i snapped out of it and looked around- i think i almost had a mild heartattack from looking out at Athens again. it was weeeeird. it was like i changed countries really fast!! i cant believe how absorbed i got into that mag for just a few minutes; it's so american that i just got sucked in like into a vaccuum. i guess you get surprised at what lil things you miss....like english in print on the street. hehe...
i think that this weekend i wanna go find a monastery to visit because i havent been to one yet since being in Greece and this weekend is my last free weekend before finals, which start the following saturday. it'll be like my last horaah for an excursion out of athens. we'll see what interesting place i find. :)
well, i think it's time for dinner

post me a message if you love me!!!! i love posts!! :) :) :)

back in athens

so i made it through the weekend. wheeew.
we had a marathon day of 9 hours (!!!) on saturday at the site of Olympia, and w/o eating!!! it was very very crazy, and our prof's a field trip nazi. but hey, im here now. im very tired and have many things to do this week, esp since it's only a half week due to thanksgiving. maybe ill get it all done, maybe not. either way- indian food in substitute for turkey on thursday is going to be wonderful.
has everyone gotten their lovely postcards??? i hope so. mom & dad- u have another one coming, but i think i mentioned it. eh..
mary- i am so jealous of you going down to Schmidt's. BUT my bro and dad got 2 deer up north a weekend ago and hopefully therell still b some left when i get back!
i dont have much time today, but wanted everyone to know that im alive and NO more weekend field trips! this is good and bad of course, but mostly im glad to have my last few weekends free for whatever i want. thank god!
also, i wore an t-shirt, fleece hoodie, and a fleece jacket to class today- but it's sunny nevertheless. so yeah- it's cold now. the heat in our apt.s is minimal compared w/heating systems at home, so generally our apt is about 64-65 degrees F, or less if someone leaves a window open or theres a draft. boooooooooooo.
but yeah, gtg work now.
more later this week :)

maybe less of a book than usual today...hehe...

frikin hand that i have problems which is not being nice today, so this is gona b a shorter one. plus i figured that i better since i will b on a field trip all this weekend (FRI SAT and SUN) to Nemea, Isthmia, and Olympia for my Ancient Greek Athletics class. only this class of all of CYA is going, so no free weekend for us. i am really excited to go, but at the same time i am going to be fighting major fatigue and the need to write 3 papers in the next 2 weeks. so yeah, it's gonna be a long haul for the next few weeks. BUT it seems to be the last push before finals...and then leaving.... *tear & smile*.
Probably by the timeyou hear from me next, (prolly next mon-wed), Nate will be here! he's coming next Tuesday and staying for a week over my 4-day weekend for Thanksgiving!! yay!! good times, i say. i have to write 1.5papers while he's here tho, which is NOT going to be fun. oh well, he'll have to just have to go out into the city for a while w/o me or just read something while i work. either way, it's a nice vacation for him, i'd assume.

well, Athens has finally been officially biten by what i would call 'Duck Opener' weather. seriously, today i was FINALLY able to put on a sweater and not be too warm by 10am in the sun. it's finally what we Minnesotans call 'chilly,' and the Athenians call 'cooooold.' HA! it's pretty funny seeing some of the other kids from aroudn the US dressing differently too. one girl was wearing a long skirt, prolly too chilly for those southern girls, so i gave her my props. plus, those flip-flops man!; theyre good any time of year. and no, not all the time... NATE!!!

in other news (um, this is getting long isnt it?) Catherine (best friend girly) has perhaps found her niche in the psychological world of deaf culture and is applying to a school in D.C. for next year. go Cat!!!!!!!!! oh yeah, and she's still alive, contrary to popular assumption in my brain in which i feel like i have no idea sometimes..... hehe... love you!

ok, need to study and get goin on those papers. perhaps go get a philosophy headache too, and this aint no ice cream headache!! it's much, MUCH worse!!!
ok ciao

hum dee dum

just another day in Athens it seems... yes i know, that may seem wierd to some of you, but this place has become 'that place where i live, sleep, breathe' etc etc. you learn to adapt.
the weekend's saturday field trip to Brauron and Sounion, as mentioned in the previous entry, was truly wonderful. Sounion was more than amazing and honestly- i just didnt wanna leave. shudda just stayed there and chilled for the rest of the day. eh- they dont need me on the bus!! i cudda got my own! oh well, i followed protocol; cattle mentality i say! mooooooooo!
anyone know who Lord Byron was? well, in short, he mocked Lord Elgin when he took/stole/(whatever you wanna call it) the parthenon marbles and MANY other things that did not legally belong to him back to England (and now in the British Museum) out of Greece. Byron was a fan of Sounion and i saw his name/grafiti on an inner pillar of the temple of Poisidon there! neat huh?

when i got back that evening, which was about 4-5ish (actually pretty early for a field trip!!) i just crashed...and burned... completely and utterly out-of-gas. i think 2 months of non-stop go-go-go and not much of the weekends free finally caught up w/me...funny thing. ha. not. i slept from 5p-9p. got up did hw til 1ish. then back to bed and slept til 1030am the next morning. i felt sooo groggy the next day! almost toooo much sleep! bet nate is thinking- "how could that be??" haha..... so i stayed in and caught up on more hw, esp since it poured down rain all afternoon and into the evening. man, i dont think i have ever taken so much down time since i got here. truly, truly- it was amazing; perhaps even a gift of the gods.

so- later that evening was the celebration of 'great-granny's', er... i mean, Tessa's 22nd bday. we went out to eat, then cake (batter mostly-- THEO! haha..... damn greek ovens), then to the Red Lion pub. downed the carbomb, got tessa smashed, then went home and slept some more. man- this was quite the restful last weekend! now that im wrting about it, i cant believe how much i just slept! man- my dad would prolly say somehting like, "youre sleeping your life away!!! get out and DO something!!" well, sometimes i guess we all need a break, even if just once. dont suppose ill get another one til christmas, so then was my chance if ever.

so far, yesterday and today have been really a rollercoaster ride. i think sometimes issues that you think have become latent in your mind, or seem irrelevent to your life at the moment can unexpectedly blind-side you, really hard. it's not like life stops moving, or you think you cant get past it, but you DO indeed have to deal w/it nevertheless. i think living in such an enviroment that you didnt live in for 20years of your life and had become accustomed to, you learn that things can catch up to you- there is no getting away. geographical space has no relation to yourself, and that's a very important lesson to learn. i know this is vague, but more than anything, the jist of it is most important. lesson of the week: deal with issues as they arise; do not put them off. you will learn more, move on faster, be happier, and perhaps grow closer to those around you.
cheers to that.
im out.

bad jokes and silly ancient dialogues at the theatre

so, ya know how i said "tut tut looks like rain"?? well, it's been raining alot on and off all week! mostly downpours at night, but nice amounts occassionally during the days. it usually lets up pretty quick though- thank goodness. reminds me alot of MN though with all the humidity; i cant say that im too thankful for that however.... :/~

SO- this morning was soooooooooooooooo much fun!!! i had a presentation on the Asklepieion on the south slope of the acropolis here in Athens for my Sites and Monuments of Athens/Attica class. i was actually pretty excited about it cuz ive learned to really like doing on-site presentations. i feel like theyre just so much easier and i like being in that outdoor and more REAL setting. i think perhaps i glow a bit more too when ppl listen- in all modesty. when youre more interested in something, i think it shows in how much work you put into it and when you have more enthusiasm in what youre doing. so yeah, needless to say much more- i was really excited actually.
ok- my class moved up to the site where my monument was and i got going on the presentation. i think i did really well too! yay! :) here's the best part: so, since i started work on my pres' n i had known this joke that i told James at Epidauros (a field trip site w/another sanctuary to Asklepios, like my monument). when we were there, we got to go to a room w/unpublished finds. these finds were clay or stone figures of legs, arms, eyes, torsos, genitalia, heads, hands, etc. the reason is because Asklepios was the god of healing and in his sanctuaries he did just that: heal. often ppl, before they left, made and dedicated these figures to the sanctuary and god in thanks for that part healed, or something like that. this was a very common find also at my monument in Athens, so i got the idea to tell the joke that i told james at Epidauros in my presentation..... and i found the balls to do it too.......... it goes as follows, and bear with me on this one: 'it seems to me that the Asklepios cult was one of many members.....'
HA!
yup, it's bad, but i grabbed ppl's attention back mid-presentation; and honestly, i love crappy jokes. so forgive me. hahahaha........
i think the joke went over well cuz i got alot of sheepish grins, laughs, and head shakes of shame.... go me... ;)

another funny thing that happened on the Athens farm today:
so my bestest roomie Kellie, the crazy stanford girl and my only bedroommate..., was the other person up for her presentation in that class today. hers was on the Theatre of Dionysos, which is right next to the Asklepieion. She presented following my pres'n on the slope above the theatre seating area (much of the lower tier and the orchestra are still in tact!! and very pretty view out over the city!!). it really was the nerdiest class ever... honestly.
this morning before class kellie slyly asked me, "chriiiiis.... do you have your Nalgene around....? and can i borrow it....?" i said of course, cuz i thought id heard about her plan for class this morning... hehe... we brought her Nalgene and mine [1 liter/32oz sturdy water bottles] into the kitchen and...out comes a 2 liter bottle of red wine!!! yeaaaaaaah!! for those of you who dont know who the god Dionysos was, he was strongly associated with the performing arts, esp. theatre, and also tremendously with wine (Roman equivolent = god Bacchus). so kellie felt it highly appropriate that we entertain our classmates at 930am with a lil somethin. might as well get started early right? it iiisss friday... ha...
anyway, so she gave her presentation and pulled out the wine at the end which was fun to split up 23 ways and just have a nice sip. it felt so classics nerdy, but it was spectacular.
BUT WAIT! just before she whipped out the wine, she asked for a couple volunteers to do a short performance from some ancient Greek playwrights' plays she'd brought along. Tessa and I happily volunteered, despite having no idea what we were doing. we chose a section from Aristophones a part about women being the saving graces of 'Hellas', i.e. Greece. yaaaaay! we leapt from our seats in kellie's crowd and enthusiastically put on a short performance there in the stone bleachers. i think we thoroughly amused ourselves and the class, as well as perhaps slight embarrassment, but who cares??? it's for Dionysos and the sake of archaeology and classics!! plus, i think i already thoroughly amused myself with my joke in my own pres'n......hahaha..... also- Aristophanes was meant to be PERFORMED and READ ALOUD!!!! not just read silently in a book!!! so, it was quite fitting.
*wheew. * it was quite a morning, i must say. god, i love this place!!!

other thrills from today was prolly the outdoor friday market 2 streets up from me where i bought some mysterious fruit to try and other good veggies and pink flowers. plus, i registered for my last (hopefully and should be) semester of college!!!! aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!! i did this online since ive been at the center (school). god, i dont wanna move into the real world and graduate!! how do ppl do this?? this is all ive known for how many years of my life?? well, for those of you wondering, i am certainly taking a year off of school after i graduate from the UofMN. then for the next year will be applying for graduate schools, most likely. i can never say definitely cuz you never know what life will throw your way, but that's the plan.

alright, i think that's enough fun for today! wish me fun tomorrow on my field trip to Brauron and Sounion! going to see temples or Artemis and Poseidon, respectively!!!!! yaaaaay!!

alright, im outta here..........!!!!!!!!........ it's Napolean Dynomite and Monty Python night at my place!!

tut tut looks like rain

well folks- looks like my superstar computer science boyfriend has taught me to do some elementary programming. see that nice lil link over there on the right side -----> that i just added called 'some photos by nate', yup, I DID THAT!!!! go me. check it out! now you dont have to change windows to nate's blog to see them. it should open into a new window and my blog page should remain separate. hooray!!!
anywho, yesterday i turned in my first REAL philosophy assignment ever, and certainly my first midtem for anything of the sort. i think i put alot of effort into that sucker! damn philosophy is hard! but at least it seems to be the study of common sense, only talked about in really big complicated terms like: ontologically, transcendentally, epistemologically, instantationally, etc etc. not to mention tryin to get a grasp on the differences between subjectivism and relativism, based on that dude Socrates. thank god im not a phil. major. all those ppl are crazy and unsatisfied creatures looking for some greater light, ... or something.
so i think we have officially hit Athenian 'winter'. it's more cloudy these days and rains a bit more, but mostly it's been overnight. i dont know about today though...looks like a cab ride home from school due to no umbrella might be in the near future. hopefully not. i know many of you back home might be thinking, "WHATTTTT????" when i say that i miss snow and i hope xmas brings some for the day i get home. maybe after my folks get me at the airport.... ha...
bring it on!
i have a presentation on friday morning on the south slope of the acropolis on the Asklepeion. perhaps you know what that is, perhaps not; either way, im doing another on site presentation guys! crazy! im pretty excited. if i can stay awake through friday that is. we have another field trip this weekend to Brauron and Marathon. looks like Sounion, on the southern cape of Attica is canceled due to lack of time. maybe over thanksgiving. then the following weekend we go all fri-sun. to Olympia, Nemea, and Isthmia for my Ancient Greek Athletics course. THAT is gonna be awesome! for those who arent familiar, these are 3 sites of the ancient panhellenic games, for example the ancient Olympics. way cool.
today we had this thing for lunch called 'spinacopita', or at least that's how it sounds when you write it out. it's this flaky bake w/spinach inside. it's not that great, so yeah, im still kinda hungry after lunch. in all honesty, id much prefer just plain, fresh spinach. some of this Greek food is great, but just as any american food- ya win some, ya lose some. jenn brought me dark chocolate milko last night though........ what a sweetheart.... <3 :)
so, some of us have already been talking about Thanksgiving plans. Nate is coming to visit too, so this time he will get to meet my friends, as i met his in Istanbul. im mostly excited for that part of his visit. it's so much fun to share your friends and see who the other person interacts with on a daily basis. sounds like Indian food is on the menu for Thanksgiving dinner!! not turkey pizza like i told auntie Jen.... haha. if anyone has ever had Indian food, you know exactly why we're going!! if not- you NEED to get out to an Indian restaurant and TRY IT!!! it's the most flavorful and wonderful food ever! very suitable for vegetarians also. :) catherine...alison... i miss mango lassies!!! Nate and i went to an Indian restarant, (as he shares my love for this food), i think in almost all of the cities we visited in Europe....HAHA! those Indians really know how to spread the love! Next stop- Bankok....or whatever cites are over there.... plus- Kellie my roomie has gotten me hooked on Bollywood. it's like the Indian productions of way awesome musical films, like Hollywood is to the States. check it out if you ever are board and want to browse Blockbuster for it!
i think my books are beckoning me to read about the heavy events of greek athletics and the Mycenaean citadels........
that's all for now folks! :)

wow...it's been a while...oops..!!

ok everyone, i would first like to apologize for not writing in about a week! i have been terribly busy and also for some reason more excusable- my blog site has not wanted to let me sign in and enter a new entry!! stupid blog... regardless- sorry for no update recently!! :(
well, ill start out by saying that Nate's entry about my trip to Istanbul is a much better narrative than mine and also he has PICTURES which are extremely funa nd hilarious in some instances, so i would suggest checking it out. his link is over there on the right.... --->
also, i dont think i have recooperated from istanbul; i think as the semester moves further and further forward, i get less an less sleep. this past week has been extremely busy and tough in different ways, but always a good surprise here and there :)

this past monday and tuesday i got back all my midterms and it turned out that i did well on everything, which made me sooooo happy. we all pretty much had no idea how we would do w/all the random profs from everywhere, so that was a big relief- esp. since all my grades are being transferred in on the A-F scale and not Pass-Fail. wheeew! so one good thing from last week.

between all the studying and business of school last week i managed to spend alot of time w/tessa, jenn, james, anthony, and mike. i feel like i am getting so close to some ppl and i am realizing that i have really made some good friends here that i am really going to miss later. i am really thankful for them is all i can really say. of course it isnt just those guys i mentioned, but so many other ppl as well.

also, i got a package from home! it had a couple essentials i needed and also some nice goodies!! thanks mom and dad!!

this weekend was really awesome too, but i must be completely honest- i really had to gather the last amounts of energy i had to get through it. last week was incredibly fun and full, but also very sleepless. yesterday was a class field trip to the site at Delphi, famous for the Pythian games, its oracles, and countless important remains and monuments from throughout antiquity. it really was the most amazing place.
all of the scenery reminded me of the hills in Crete, which made it pretty nostalgic of the summer, and also very Rockies-like in some ways. the site is essentially on the side of a hill which makes the view out from the site very beautiful. it looks out to the SW towards the Corinthian Gulf and to the SE towards more hills and valleys shrowded w/tales from Greek mythology. here there is a stadium, theatre, a few treasuries, evidence of thousands of dedications and statuary, a gymnasium, temple of apollo, tem. of athena, a mysterious tholos, and countless other awesome things to see. i think for a mainland site this was probably my favorite so far, and we still have Olympia, Marathon, Brauron, Sounion, etc to go! i think the wonderful weather we had helped as well; nice clear views and perfect hiking conditions.

one really funny story from the site is this MASSIVE BOULDER that appeared just a couple years ago....
so down near the Tholos and Temple of Athena on one of the lower slopes there is this humungus rock, prolly a few tons in weight and maybe if it were more circular would be 8-10feet in diameter. so this thing is huge- massive- a 'monumental' rock, so to speak. because of the extremely high cliffs and earthquakes in greece,, the surrounding roads along the ridges have 'attention falling rocks' signs here and there. well, this is one of them. this thing fell after an earthquake or tremor in the last decade after 'bouncing' off some lower cliff and gettin projected at least 20-30 yards out from the face. yup, it missed the base of the face, and the road, and the land on the other side of the road ( and then some) and plumeted down right into the middle of a temple or stoa, (now in ruins), and damaging nearly nothing, but still scaring the hell out of the greek workers at the time!! it just amazes me how out of place this rock looks. and it also makes me laugh to think how much mroe comical the situation could ahve been,, from an archaeological point of view. the boulder could have landed on the last standing remains of the tholos, or if the temple it landed on was still standing, one could not have helped to think, "this blasted thing lasted throughout the AGES, and now some random ROCK lands....NOW to destroy it????" ah yes, the historical mind at work. either way, it was funny to me. sorry if that story was not as fun to you....haha....

after leaving athens at 730am that day, we finally got back home at 730pmish. of course we got up about 6am, ate about 650am, ate lunch waaaaaaaaay after schedule to to site time restrictions at 245pm, then got back so late. needless to say we were a tired, hungry bunch most of the day. but i think most of us enjoyed it nevertheless. it's always a stuggle to enjoy these places while we have a chance to be there and also fighting our daily needs. i think it's reallya mental game every time.
so after this, a couple of us got a gyro (greek buritto type thing, super cheap) to fill us up and then parted to go crash gracefully in the confort of our beds. god i was tired. i was in bed and hit the lights by 930. i also didnt get up til 10am. (even if i was woken up twice by my noisy roommate kellie...but at least she's note like last year's....ha)

i dont think i would have even gotten out of bed til after noon this morning if it werent for something to do...as usual. today was the annual Athens Marathon!!! as i have come to start running more and more myself, and also tomorrow i have a presentation in my Ancient Greek Athletics class on 'the origin and history of the marathon race', i felt it more than appropriate that i go and watch the runners. they finish in the ancient stadium, which is conveniently located 30feet from the front door of our school. HA! yay for that, just to start.
so i got there about noon, just as the runners were coming into town and coming towards the finish line. the whole street they were running on, from the east into the city, was blocked off to the stadium. there are buildings all along the sides up until the street my school is on, which is the last corner that blocks the view of the stadium. i clapped and cheered and watched from the median of the road right at this corner. i think i picked the best place cuz it was right where all the runners got their first sight of the stadium: the sign of near completion of their 26.2 mile journey. once they got to this point, there was prolly less or about a 1/4 mile left. i at first was by myself, amonst other cheerers of course, by no other CYA'ers until about an hour later. i got to watch ppl's faces smile and beam as they hit this point of the course; i saw in their faces that look of, "oh my god i made it. im almost there. i can do this. thank god. i am so proud of myself. i simply cannot believe this." i also saw ppl get out their national flags and wave them, or point to their screen-printed t-shirt w/a picture of perhaps a lost friend or family member, or take pictures of fellow runners in their group. it really was the most moving thing ive seen in a while, primarily because of the first thing- the look on the runners' faces. i totally hadnt expected that feeling to come over me, but it did and did strong for about the first hour while i was there watching and cheerin them on. there's just something really moving and touching about ppl finishing a marathon and also seeing all the fans cheering on EVERYONE as they came in to the last leg....i cheered for italians, japanese, romanians, swedes, americans, germans, greeks, aussies, mexicans, etc etc etc even though i didnt know them. it's such a great experience and eviroment to be around. it is undeniably incredibly inspiring. if you ever get a chance to watch a marathon finishing, i would suggest going. maybe next year ill go watch the twin cities or gramma's. perhaps one day it could be me- only time will tell.

so later in the day i went over the acropolis to do some work for school, and also to take some pictures of the area, cuz the last couple times i was there i didnt bring my camera. pretty sure i used more than a whole roll just in that area... crazy.
then i headed home after buying some pistachios off an old greek guy w/a lil stand.

now, here i am typing to you guys out there somewhere and getting ready to so some hw.

so that's all for now. hope everyone else out there is having some awesome adventures like me.

hey mary- how are the gophers and badgers doing? any butting of heads yet??

l8r kids

a lil lovin from istanbul and the kal'zoo kiddies...

'hey jenn!!!
ya cant park yer van by the pool!!!
oh wait!!
that's just yer ass!!!
hey fatty, fatty fatty
wannanother dunkin donut?
fatty fatty?
dunkin donuts???'
-james

did i mention that i saw the movies Dodgeball and The Terminal this last week in Turkey??? well, i did, and they had TURKISH subtitles!!! ahhh!! it was crazy, but i learned some more turkish!! i mean how do the turks translate a pirate's 'yaaaaaaaaaaar maties!!!' anyway???

sometimes i feel like i just cant type enough in these things. so i think today ill stick w/this and wait till inspiration strikes tomorrow.
ta ta

nct: h 1 10 a! ilysm

i was in ISTANBUL!!! yeah!!!!

geeeeeeez it's been a while since i last wrote! i am soooo sorry!!
well here i am now. so arent you glad?????? of course you are!!!

MERHABA!!! (hello in Turkish)
it all started last saturday...........

i got on the bus w/jenn and james at 6pm in athens, turkey- bound. yeah!! the bus ride, we were told was 20-22 hours long. at first you think, 'man that is one long-ass ride!!!'. but then you remember how much time you have been spending on buses to and from sites and hotels on field trips w/school and decide that it's not going to be that bad. plus, we have each other to keep us company.
the company we took was a turkish co., so the moment we met the driver and assistants we KNEW we were going to turkey; they spoke NO english and were speaking to us about our tickets in turkish. i knew i was in for a ride now. so we were off on our adventure.
we stopped every few hours to pee and stretch and get food, or pick up/drop off more passengers, so that was nice. one of the bus driver guys was really funny and kept showing us his britney spears album and telling us 'disco! disco!' and pointing at us like we were supposed to just start dancing right there. he was really funny. he even came and sat right next to us, in the open seat next to james and started looking at my British Cosmo mag w/him. he asked our names and when he heard Jenn's he kept saying, ' Jennifer Lopez????' and then he would point at the models in the mag and then point to us w/a funny look in his eye. i know he was just trying to have funa nd communicate, but still, it's funny what foreigners will associated w/americans. please god, make britney go away!!!!
so, we didnt really sleep much that night on the bus and got to Istanbul about noon-1ish, and finally got off the bus around 130 or 145p last sunday. it was the most wonderful feeling in the world to get off that bus...... streeeeeeeetch!!!
that morning was pretty aweseom though, as we were rolling into the city. jenn and james had claimed a couple other seats (our bus wasnt very full) and had been sleeping for a few hours and out cold, or at least trying to be. i was laid back in my seat trying to sleep too, when i must have broken my dozing for some reason and my eyes cracked open a bit to what seemed like daylight. i woke up just in time to see the sun coming up all nice and bright orange/pink over the city. i dont really remember where we were or what time it was, but it was sooo beautiful. i could see sea, town, and a skyline dotted w/the many, many minarettes of the mosques that seemed to start popping up everywhere once we got into turkey. minarettes are like tall, thin, steeples/poles- looking things, which is part of the architecture of the mosques; most seem to have 4 of them. back to the view though, it was like i was still in a dream, or a movie or something; you never expect to see views this beautiful when you travel, they just kinda happen. all i could do was just sit back and appreciate it. there are so many times when i want to take a picture, but i know no silver film, or digital pixels could ever replace what the human eye can perceive; there's something overwhelming about just being there at the right time.
"no more 3x5's......."
after waking up to that, i was pretty psyched to get to Istanbul, but in some calm sort of way. i never felt like jumping up and down, even though i was even going to see Nate; just excited inside and ready to take in what would be thrown at me.
we got to the bus station and only waited about 30 minutes for Nate to get there, which is pretty good considering we got there a lil early and getting through town is pretty crazy. nate led us through town via the metro and tram system to the lil budget hotel we were staying at. its entrance was covered in scaffolding and was in an 'alley' right off one of the main huge roads of our area. it was across from a club and bar, which got kinda loud at night, but that was not too bad, really. the main street was called 'Istiklal' and we musta wandered up and down this street soooooo many times, just shopping, eating, and ppl-watching, which was in fact pretty fun. the men there did not stare at us, me and jenn, NEARLY as much as the greek men in athens do. this certainly was a nice change. i know they did it still, but maybe i just didnt notice as much, or something. i dunno.
one of the first things us american-athenians did was withdraw the local currency: the Turkish lire..... it comes in millions!!! or rather, 'milyons'. i took out 200 milyon!!!!!!!!!!!! which is about 136 american dollars... hahahahha...... plus, turkish stuff is pretty cheap, so that, plus 20milyon more is all i spent pretty much the whole time, including paying for the hotel. and then my 96 euro (aobut 130- some USD) bus ticket- so yeah, i did pretty good! it's strange to see gasoline prices listed in milyons/liter, let me tell ya!!!
much of the week was spent shopping, wandering around, eating at different greek places, wallowing in the graces that a foreign Dunkin Donuts can offer to a weary American tired of weird foods/coffee, hanging out w/Nate's dormmates from all over the world, etc etc. one day, i think tuesday, i (jen and james stayed and slept and did their own thing) went w/Nate to his work! that was really cool. it took us 2 buses to get there, but only about 30 min.s in traffic. it was definitely an experience in riding in the craziness of Istanbul streets, crazier than say Rome and even Athens. im never really scared of riding in the manic streets anymore; it's just kinda normal. i think sometimes im going to be more scared of american roads again cuz ppl in the states just dont pay attention. here, they just push and shove, but at least everyone is alert. seriously, who knows which is the 'worser' evil. ha....
Nate works at a very nice university building w/a nice cafeteria and office. he doesnt have any windows which is sad and dreary, but at least 2 other ppl have their desks there, if they ever show up. it seems nice to me, but too cubicle-like for my tastes, but i guess computer nerds kinda have to get used to that stuff. it's not like big comp. projects can really be done tiny portable laptops. i went to work w/Nate!!! :)
one night we all cooked 'american' food for a bunch of Nate's roomies and co. apparently it's tradition for visitors of the AEISEC kids (that's nate and friends) to make a dinner for the AEISEC'ers with food from their home country. being that we were 3 american kids, but coming from Athens, we decided to make burgers and coke and make a Greek sauce to put on the burgers called 'tziki'. it's very common in greece, and realllllllly good, so we just combined the 2. i think everyone liked it and we fed about 15 ppl or so for 44milyon!!!! that's about 1.5-2 USD/person. pretty good ay???!!!! that was fun cuz nate's dorm has this huge kitchen made of steel and big pots and pans...and a few cockroaches here and there. did you know that cockroaches are an animal (if not the only one) that can suvive nuclear blasts??? you can chop their heads off and theyll survive for over 2 weeks until they die of starvation. and it takes an exorbatant amount of force to crack their shells. yup, this is what i learned over making dinner in turkey.
god i love boys and their knowledgable selves. woohoo.... not.
another day later in the week we all went down across the bridge to another part of town to see the big mosques: the hagia sophia and the blue mosuqe. we took our pictures and then went on to the HUGE bazaar. it was like a labrynth of tunnels and archways lined to the ceilings w/magic carpets, bags, bejewled clothing, shoes, dancing symbols, jewelry, and most of all turks trying to sell you absolutely everything. 'hey america! come over here!' 'hey lady! come spend your money on my rug!' 'pretty shirt for a pretty lady!' yup, this is what they said. and seriously, i wish i could get away from looking so american sometimes. i try and it just doesnt work. damn these blue eyes sometimes. well, actually i like them. so nevermind. ill just wear my sunglasses in dark places. that's all i really can do. oh yeah, skip the shorts and tank-tops kids- you are sure to be red-flagged for those, no doubt. guys, grow a beard and other facial hair, esp if it's dark....unless of course you are genetically deficient like James..... ;) hehe.....
anyway, the bazaar was incredible, but after a while you can only take so much hassling and run out of money, so we had to leave... hehe.
we watched a few rip off dvds on nate's laptop during the evenings that jenn got from a street vender for 2 mil a piece, which is about 1.36/dvd. they werent all highest quality, but mostly all of them worked fine. but hey! that's about a 15th of the US price!!! at least!!
by the way, do not EVER buy guinness (which i didnt) in Turkey. it has an extremely high import cost attached to it. one can ( and the small ones! not the pint size!!) cost 20 mil!!! which is about 12 USD!!!! no way man!!!!! but the irish stew i had was spectacular. mmmmm.... they kept playing U2 in the bar the whole time.....haha.....
i got some nice souvenirs and had some fun, and then it was time to go home on friday morning, 10am. got home the next day at 530am. slept 6a-1p. first time i really slept since i left. mmmmm....my own bed........flannel sheets............
nate went off w/some family friends (sorta) to the Black Sea right after i left! lucky boy! it's his dad's friend's sister and family who basically adopted him for the weekend. i wish i'd been able to stay for that! oh well.
well, i think ive written quite alot, so ill leave some more for later.
oh yeah, i had the best baby powder fight ever this past week too. pictures to be posted by nate soon........ check out nate's blog this week and his link to his pics for more picture fun.. ;)
take care, l8r