Lazy Sunday

 Lazy Sunday

Sleeping in until noon was just what we all needed this morning. When we got back from spring break everyone was exhausted but had no time to catch up on sleep. It is crunch time for course work. It’s hard to believe we have one month left here! We have chosen to travel outside of Athens a lot. Due to this we cram in a lot of course work when we are actually here in Athens so we can have more time to enjoy ourselves and explore new places when we travel.

This week course work hasn’t been the only factor in why we are so exhausted. The weather has been phenomenal here. Sixty-six degrees and sunny. We have loved the warm sunshine. Lying out on our rooftop deck in our bathing suits is where we can be found every day after class. Some of us have learned the hard way that the UV rays here in Athens are much stronger than at home. Sunday afternoon I was the shade of a Crayola red crayon. Sixty-six degrees and sunny is not what we consider tanning weather back home; especially in March! We all thought we were so funny sending pictures of ourselves tanning in our bathing suits to our friends and family back home while they are receiving another snow storm. Between our bodies not being used to the sun exposure and the sunburns we have received it has caused us to be extra lethargic all week. One morning we were all so exhausted that we overslept for class leaving Rich and Lily standing outside our apartment ringing the buzzer and calling everyone’s phone.

When people started to finally wake up this afternoon everyone once again put their bathing suits on and headed for the deck. There was a cool breeze today but we still sat out there soaking up the rays. Around 3:00 people started to come back inside because it got really chilly and we were all hungry. We had absolutely no food in our house and all the markets and Kiosks were closed. We didn’t realize that it was Greek Independence day on Monday and the celebrations start today. We learned the hard way that it is rare for places to be open the day before Independence Day here because they make a two day celebration of it.

After lying in our beds and reading all afternoon we finally decided to go to Athens Hard Rock Café. We figured between it being an American restaurant and a tourist attraction it had to be open. This was my first time since being in Athens eating at an American restaurant. Sitting looking at the menu I was overwhelmed with all my options. I love trying all the different Greek foods but I have truly missed American food. I don’t have a love for the Greek food like I do American food.I was torn between nachos, buffalo chicken fingers, or a cheeseburger. I decided I would go with the cheeseburger because it came with french fries and I could dip my french fries in buffalo sauce to fulfill my buffalo sauce craving. One thing I have noticed about Greek food is that they don’t have spicy foods like we do in American. I think everyone at the table had something with buffalo sauce on it besides Chryssie. As we sat and ate I kept thinking about the portion size that had just been set down in front of me. When I am home I have no problem finishing a cheeseburger in one sitting. Being here I think I have started to adapt to the smaller European portion sizes because I was struggling to finish my burger and fries. Everyone polished off their plates and we even made room for desert. We could not pass up an American ice-cream sundae. The sundae consisted of three giant scoops of vanilla ice-cream, a warm chocolate brownie, hot fudge, whip cream, nuts and a cherry. Words cannot describe how delicious it tasted. We were joking at the table asking Katie if she was even breathing while eating it. We split one sundae between two people. The table next to us consisted of three older couples. The six of them split one sundae and received it before we got ours and we finished ours well before them. We sat and laughed at ourselves for a while about how much we just ate and how quickly we ate it before heading back home. In my opinion it was the perfect lazy Sunday!