Bang, bang, bang was the piercing sound I woke up to this
morning as the wind whipped the open window back and forth against its window
frame. The wild winds are nothing new to me being from New England but nothing
I expected to experience here. Every day we have woken up to light shining
through our bedroom windows, opening our doors to go out on the balcony to find
the sun shining bright. Today was completely opposite of this. Dark skies, a
breeze that blew my hair wildly and sent goosebumps up and down my body. This
didn't stop Lauren and I from our morning workout. Standing on the sidewalk we
watched as cars zipped by and motorcycles weaved on and off sidewalks to pass
other vehicles while waiting for a chance to cross the road to start our run up
what feels like a mountain. As we waited we heard someone speaking Greek right
behind us and a few seconds later heard " can I ask, aren't you ladies
cold?" we laughed and said no to us this is warm and began engaging in a
conversation with a local Greek man who popped his head out of the butcher shop
when he saw two girls dressed for what he believed to be spring or summer
weather. He was fascinated to hear that we are hearing studying Greek history
at the Hellenic American University for the next three months. After chatting
with this man for a few minutes we began our workout up and down this hill that
when running you feel like you’re trying to reach the top of Mount Everest and
each step you take of the one hundred and twenty stairs you just can't wait to
reach the top. Cars fly by as we jump over doorsteps connected to the
cobblestone sidewalks filled with dog poop. Motorcyclists seem to have no
regard for the sidewalk being for walking and have no problem getting so close
to you on the side walk that you feel the heat from their motors. Between the
exhaust from cars, running up hill and the smell of dog poop my lungs get a
burning sensation while running. Growing up on cape cod this air is taking some
getting used to for me.
Katie and I were responsible for preparing dinner for
everyone tonight. Following our workout, I woke Katie and headed to the grocery
store. These two story buildings seem to overwhelm my senses. There is the
small of the olives that is so strong I feel like I can taste the vinegar some
of them sit in. Everything is in Greek so we quickly discovered that cooking
was going to be very complicated when it came time to finding little
ingredients so we decided to make meatball subs. We found a bag that read
meatballs in the frozen food section and a can of barilla marinara sauce. This
seemed easy now because we were no longer having to what felt like pull
people's teeth to try and ask how we find certain items like turkey gravy for a
Sheppard’s pie. We had our sauce and meatballs now we just needed rolls and the
ingredients for a salad which we could identify just by looking at them so
there was no need to try and get the store employees to understand what we were
asking for.
On our way home from the grocery, we passed a bakery that
made my mouth water but I knew I better keep walking and get home to get ready
for class so that is what I did. On our way to class I could smell the
mouthwatering smell of a bakery again. About a block from where I could smell
all the fresh pastries and breads we came up on a bakery. It was driving me
crazy that I didn't have time to stop in either bakery this morning.
Like yesterday, we did not meet in a classroom for Athens
through the ages. Instead we met Yoanna at the Museum of Cycladic Art. This
museum depicted the daily life of early Athenians from what a women’s role in
society was to how men worked out. I could never imagine having grown up a
woman in early Athens because women were expected to always be in the home
caring for their husband and children and were rarely seen outside. Many of us
giggled when we saw pictures of men naked working out but we learned this is
how the men trained for battle. Athenian women were married around the age of
14 and had no idea who they were going to marry until the day they became a
part of the mans family. I am almost twenty one years old and sit here thinking
about how if I grew up during classical period of Greece I would be married and
taking care of my husband for almost seven years now. I sit here thinking about
how much growing up I still have to do and cannot image being responsible for
another person, my husband and possibly children, at age fourteen.
On our way to the museum this morning we passed a T.G.I
Friday’s restaurant and all of us immediately jumped all over the idea of going
there for lunch. It is a place we are all familiar with because it is a chain
restaurant from back home. After wrapping up class at the museum Yoanna was
able to remind us that we are here for such a short period of time and to
experience the unfamiliar because that is why we are here. To learn about the
Greek culture not eat the food we can eat any day at home. This started us
thinking and we found ourselves walking down the street finding multiple
restaurants with foods we have never had. Most places had English menu's we
were able to look at. I found myself seated outside of a restaurant called
meatmeatmeat eating chicken suflaki with Lauren and Katie. We sat there in
silence as we ate trying to listen to all the conversations taking place around
us not knowing anything they were saying. Just watching the people interact was
an experience in itself. We stepped outside our comfort zone and found
ourselves mesmerized by the unfamiliar surrounding us.
Heading to class Lauren made a comment about this delicious
smell coming from down the road. Since we had some time to kill we decided to
find the bakery the smell was coming from and get ourselves a treat. We walked
into a giant chocolate bakery where I felt like I was five years old again being
let loose in a giant penny candy store. There was case after case of freshly
made chocolate treats. We kept control of ourselves and only left with two
pieces of chocolate each.
In Greek language the room was dark the sky was gray and
everyone was lethargic until we heard a loud rumble sounding like a roof
caving in followed by a bright flash
across the sky. It began to down pour. As we sat in class learning how to say
what is your name and my name is all I could think about was our walk home. I
did leave knowing how to ask someone what their name is and how to respond if
someone is to ask me what my name is in Greek. Once we stepped out the door
after class our feet became soaked. It was down pouring. Water rushed down the
steep roads an poured off rooftops. As we ran across streets at times the water
was up to my ankles. We made it home in about 7 minutes which is about half the
time it usually takes us to get to and from school. Lauren and I's workouts
came in handy during this storm. I found it ironic that we are experiencing
such bad weather and back at Franklin Pierce they are expecting two feet of
snow. I guess we brought the bad weather with us because our first day here
during our orientation at Hellenic American University one lady told us it will
be rare to see rain and sure enough four days later we have a down pour that
floods the streets.
We had a really quiet
night tonight because we have our Greek language course at 9 am and everyone
has been very tired because we haven’t adjusted well to the time change. Not to
mention the homework and reading assignments we have received. We took a walk
to the store after dinner bought some ice-cream and sat in doing homework for
the rest of the night
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