7/1
It was the day Vodafone was founded so to celebrate their ‘birthday’ they had free ben and jerry’s- unlimited scoops. They had cookie dough, chocolate fudge brownie, fairly nuts (nuts and caramel), and strawberry. I had fairly nuts and chocolate chip cookie dough. Then I went to the Accenture main office. I was driven over in a Vodafone car (very nice) but it was 25 euros! Fortunately I got reimbursed. I expected 700 euros for my first month’s salary but got 1,000- not sure if this means I’ll get paid an extra 600 euros for my two months here but that would be awesome! Met with mr. doukas- he was very warm. Gave me a book in greek of greek philosophy, offered me the keys to his second house in Mykonos, wanted me to have dinner/go to an art show with him that night etc.That night we all went out for drinks with Dionysus in Gazi. We went to the Why Sleep bar with the giant Smirnoff North bottle model (marj/liz/i had discovered this a previous weekend and were excited to finally learn what nordic berries looked like- they look like a cross between blue berries and black olives). It was fun. Had a delightful drink called passion mint- strawberries, lime, and mint. Then we went to another club which was a salsa club- Marj, Zheela, and I had fun dancing.
Super productive day at work (followed by today, super unproductive). Drafted several flows that don’t really have processes outlined, so I get to create them which is cool! After I got home Marj and I went grocery shopping/wandered- we found this awesome place that sold giant gyros for 1.80 euros (Grill and Pita). Marj and I wanted to go out with everyone else but it was almost 2 when the metro closes and we wanted to actually do something. This ruined our plan to go to the salsa club bc it was too late. So we went to Gazi. Before going out we had fun watching various youtube vids (midd kid, boys will be girls, california gays, potter puppet pals, and a lot of eurovision 2010). We wandered Gazi- danced in various places. Met some guys from Cyprus at Socialista- chatted with them for a bit. We decided it was getting late then so we left. As we were leaving though we heard YMCA playing in a club- so we just had to go in and dance to it. Then we left. Went to sleep around 5.
This night inspired Marj/I to create a code. Since we watched the potter puppet pals we decided to come up with signals (granted...these aren't subtle but they're hilarious). harry potter for a cute guy, ron weasley for the wingman, hermione for an annoying girl, dumbledore for a creepy older man, severus for a generally creepy person/fail. we're torn between making voldemort an awesome person v a super creepy person. Add characters as necessary. This code has already come in handy.
Woke up at 8 to go to Nafplion. On the bus ride there we saw a giant group of mountain goats
on the side of the road and the rocks which was awesome. In Nafplion we wandered. We had an amazing lunch of a whole sea bass with grilled veggies- I had to debone/remove the fish’s head which was quite the adventure. The restaurant was right on the water with a gorgeous view. Also a young boy was playing his violin and played the chicken dance which was hilarious. We got some gelato and wandered- I had lemon, it came with a cute teddy bear cookie. Then we climbed up to a castle (palamidi)- great view…intense hike because it was stairs so all vertical (pictures to come). 
Came down missed the 5:30 bus so we went on a baklava hunt. Stopped by a café to watch the germany argentina world cup game (4-0) which was embarrassing for argentina. There was a giant thunderstorm (what's up with the weather greece)- thought we would have to get drenched to get to the bus but just got a wee wet. That night we went to the Athens sports bar for the spain Paraguay game. It’s near the 
acropolis and attached to the youth hostel so we thought we might meet some youngsters. People spoke English but most were non-americans and older. The guy next to us was a Canadian med student traveling Europe. He was really nice/chill. We were exhausted from the day- so after the game/chatting we went home. HILARIOUS- there was a table of Spaniards with a Spanish flag behind them. Apparently they were relatives of Franco/Spanish celebrities (not sure if the two facts are related). So they were being filmed and kept singing etc. So I think I'll be in the background of probs a Spanish TV reality show!Sunday July 4th
Went to the national archaeological museum with liz. It was really cool- it’s crazy how much
ancient stuff that was so cool/imposing we’ve lost. I really enjoyed looking at the signet rings and seals- it's crazy to think that they used them to seal their correspondences thousands of years ago. I also (of course) loved the jewelry selection. It's gorgeous- crazy amounts of gold- weird how everyone somehow agreed that gold was valuable a really long time ago...those things are always trippy to think about. Also crazy is the importance of jewelry. People have always been wearing it (yea human vanity...i like to think of it as humans always having good fashion sense). So even though they were in a completely foreign time there's still so much in common. Many of the pieces would look totally normal worn today (you might get some weird looks for wearing gold olive branch circlets). Pictures of all of this to follow!
Then we went to the beach for the fourth of july celebrations the democrats abroad hosted. It was pretty small- all older people with young kids or no kids. Chatted with the older people. Met a yale alumn who is a news correspondent based here for the past four years. Had burgers and bud…American beer is so much sweeter. We had Guinness at the sports bar which was disgusting. We walked down the beach which was gorgeous and sandy. We also built a sand castle with some of the younger kids- mostly we just wanted to build a sand castle. It was awesome- two walls, a central square piece, three towers, and a walkway. The outer wall, walkway, and top of the central square building were all lined with pebbles (picked with the help of this cute little girl, we tried picking mostly red ones bc that's her favorite color). The fireworks were really good considering the democrats had to raise all the money to fund it with not a big ex-pat community. It was gorgeous seeing them reflected over the water. Another late night though so today at work I’m exhausted!
July 5th
Work was tiring. Mr. Doukas invited me to his house Wednesday to meet his daughters. Tonight Marj/I (angela had a work dinner) went to a Chinese/Thai/Indian restaurant called Chopsticks in Syntagma. We were looking for a different restaurant but stumbled across a china town type area. OMG IT'S 11:11 AS I'M TYPING THIS- just made a wish. I won't say what I wished for...but my theory is that if I consistently wish for something fairly broad this magical 11:11 wish force will eventually hear it and has enough leeway to make the wish come true and surprise me. Since my wishes are pretty broad they usually come true. In the past I've wished for specific things before major events (getting into yale, toc, nats, exams)- pretty decent success rate with the 11:11 wishes haha. Back to the actual post- sorry. We went to this restaurant and split samosas. They were wrapped in phyllo and served with a mint yogurt sauce. Complimentary shrimp chips too with a sweet sauce- yummy. We both had the sizzling thai chicken for dinner which was delicious. We want to take Angela there (I think i'll order the red curry next time and just demand veggies).
After we walked around Syntagma. Lots of cute shops- I'm impressed I haven't really done much shopping here (i really want a jumpsuit/romper...everyone here wears them/we decided they'd be super comfy for travel. i tried one on at rhodes...i looked like a golden snitch...don't think it's my best look). After we stopped in Starbucks. Starbucks is oddly comforting because it's the same everyone- even the decor- yay for US cultural imperialism haha. And there's so much english! the menu, then napkins, bags, etc. Also coffee here is very different- lots of frappes, espressos, greek coffee, and cappuccinos- not so much on the lattes.I got a chai latte and some tazo chai tea bags for home. Also smuggled some sweet and low and straws for home. Overall very nice- Marj and I just wandered/ate from 7 to 10.
I think the first weeks we had such an adjustment shock. The language, fending for ourselves (surprisingly difficult), for the first time absolutely no safety net or supervision. Really we just have each other and within our group mostly our suite (liz is basically adopted into it). So we didn't really explore as much. We would sleep, go to work, cook, chill, and sleep during the week. Now we're exploring/have events a lot more during the week. It means much less sleep but going big.
No comments:
Post a Comment