Well, just call me 'Yellow Head.'

I just returned from my final exam from the first three week session; despite quite literally studying for a solid 24 hours and using every study technique in the book, I don’t feel very good about it. Note to self, intensive courses are just that…. I was the second-to-last to leave, and I used every spare second I had. A few of the questions caused my head to throb with erupting brain farts, and all I could do was draw fancy question marks in the answer space. Oh well, I’m only getting pass/fail credit for this anyhow. Ugh.

The only thing getting me through is the fact that by this time tomorrow, I’ll be lounging on the beaches of the island of Mykonos. My roommates and I are getting up at 5am tomorrow to catch the 7:30am ferry to the island, and we’ll be there until later Monday afternoon. As most of you know, I’m happiest by the ocean, and the chance to be on the beaches of one of the most famous islands of Greece has me completely beside myself. It’s costing me a small fortune to go, but luckily I did my “saving-up” long before I even considered coming to Greece. And I know I’ll be slaving away the second I get back home, so I’d better appreciate what I can while I can. This whole “seizing the moment” thing has been a very welcome change to my life; impulsiveness is truly something to be embraced every once in a while. [Side note about Mykonos: all of its beaches are nude. Not sure if I’m going to take full advantage of seizing that moment, but “when in Rome…” (Err, Greece?) If so, that’s not exactly going to be documented in the photo albums. Sorry, fellas.]

Speaking of the water, Sounion beach has been, by far, my favorite spot on of the trip. Home to the Temple of Poseidon (as discovered by Lord Byron), its waters are crystal clear all the way to the bottom – which is great until you notice all the weird seaweed and crazy sea urchins. It’s pretty freakin’ cold, too, but still amazing. We had our last day of class at the coast, first visiting the site of the Battle at Marathon, then stumbling on the silver mines (a newer excavation site) at Lauvrio. We had a few hours to kill before meeting up at the Temple of Poseidon later in the evening, so naturally we all took to the beach like mad. After sufficiently embarrassing myself by napping on the beach with my mouth gaping open and breathing awkwardly through my stuffy nose (the allergies here are deadly), a group of us decided to swim out along the cliffs to find the supposed ancient Athenian ship sheds our professor went wild about on the bus ride to Sounion. Consulting our map and gauging the approximate distance, we dove into the water and swam away from the beach. Funny how objects on maps aren’t as close as they appear; 20 minutes and gosh knows how many nautical feet later, we realize we’re way out there, way past where even any of the boats are. But we get around the cliff and find the ancient home to the Athenian triremes. It looked like a big nose tilted backwards with the actual sheds like two big nostrils – I wanted to get in them to see what it felt like to be a booger, but no one seemed interested in doing it with me. Either way, it was really exciting until we forgot that there was another 20 minute swim back, this time against the current. But we sucked it up like real ladies we are and braved the “treacherous” Aegean waters back to the beach (I got there first, HA!) just in time to head back up the huge hill back to the Temple.

Before doing so, we all made a stop at this café at the top of the hill to get food; well, the cheap place was closed already, and all that was left was this fancy-pants taverna across the way. We were insanely famished, having just swum half the ocean and all, so we drug ourselves over, sloppy and wet from frolicking in the water, and asked to be seated. We were not received very well by the staff or the dining guests (mostly well-to-do tourists from France or China), nor were we prepared to pay the outrageous prices listed on the menu. Four freakin’ Euro for a Coke? Jeez. We somehow managed to have a pleasant meal with a great view of the sun starting to set over the Temple.

After finishing our “fine dining” experience at the taverna (only to walk out and see that the café across the street had magically reopened), we finished our last day of class at the Temple of Poseidon with our last lecture. The sun was lazily setting over the big cliffs and ocean of Sounion, and it’s probably one of the most amazing sites I’ve seen to this day. I got some fabulous pictures (most of which are my new wallpaper and/or screensaver for my computer – eat your heart out, Google Images), and the whole event was a surprisingly fitting close to the session. Not counting that horrible exam, anyways. A few of the girls I was just getting to know are leaving tomorrow (they’re only staying the first 3-week session), and it’s just now hitting me that my time here is already half-way over.

That being said, I think I’ve become one big joke to the neighborhood of Pangrati, if not Athens as a whole. I stick out like a sore thumb, I trip and slide on everything everywhere, my loud voice and laugh bellow through the narrow alleyways… even little kids point and laugh at me. I can’t seem to fit in or be taken seriously anywhere, and my attempts to be friendly are usually scoffed at. My naturally blonde hair is a dead give-a-way to the fact that I’m foreign, and today a group of guys started making fun of me, calling me “Yellow Head.” Har Har.

Furthermore, this afternoon my roommates and I decided to treat ourselves to a mini-shopping spree at H&M, one of my all time favorite stores (and closest one to me back home is in Washington, D.C., 8 hours away). The women in there are absolutely horrid; this one girl followed me around, apparently realizing I was her size, and she would wait until I thumbed through a rack of items and found “our” size. Then she would grab it. Later, a middle-aged old tart judo-chopped me in the back to get by me (because apparently she’s a trained ninja who shouldn’t have to say ‘excuse me’.) And when I finally gave up and decided to check out, I stood directly inline with two of the girls I came with; this woman came up, pretended she needed to ‘get past’ me, and then wedged herself between me and my friends halfway up the line. Luckily she was short enough that her head came just under mine, so when I felt a sneeze coming on I decided not to cover my mouth. If her getting farther up in line was worth a chunk of my snot in her hair, then good for her.

Oddly enough, I’m not looking forward to leaving at this point, despite my misadventures and working paradoxes. I’m not sure if it’s because of the friends I’ve made here, the experiences I’ve already had that have made me change so much already, the things that make this place great – art, lifestyle, FOOD!, or just that I’m enjoying the fact that I can avoid all the issues I left at home. It seems that no matter how far away I get, however, those issues somehow found me regardless of being thousands of miles away; and I’m doing my best to sort things out before I jump back into the real world three weeks from now.

Right. Now that I’ve sufficiently bored you all to tears, here’s the next batch of pictures. Most actually coordinate with the last post, but I’m sure you’re a batch of smart cookies and can figure it out. Enjoy!:

Riding in on a Gyro-copter
Good times at the Venetian Fortress
Peace in Central Greece
Olive You, Greece

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have stuffed peppers to make. And we’re low on wine.

Adio, my lovelies.

-C

PS. I found a sushi bar only a few blocks from our apartment; it’s pretty amazing.

PSS. I’ve officially exhausted the new (and old) music on my iPod, and we have a 10 day excursion coming up next week. I’m pretty out of the loop as far as music goes, but I love everything and could really could use some new tunes. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way so I can get those downloaded before I leave! [Stan, this means you, because you always have the best stuff.]