Most of our group came, chatted, after Dionysus insisted we come for drinks. He always does this (today he wants us to come for drinks again but I'm meeting one of dad's friends). So we chilled and then went home (early night bc we had work the next morning). The art show was nice, got to meet some people, chat with each other etc. It was nice we got to see the archaeology people post their trip. Marj also noticed the toothpick holders were in fact shot glasses- we came up with elaborate ploys to snag the three glasses for our suite which has been excellent for everything from actually using them to storing grated parmesan and bread crumbs in them.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
6/9 Dionysus' art show
Dionysus was involved in setting up an art show. So we went to the art show- it was cool. It was the british art gallery maybe? The show included a lot of things with books. They also had nice wine/parmesan cheese- lots and lots of cheese. We obvs smuggled some back for cooking purposes. Though you can get ridiculous amounts of feta it's been much harder finding parmesan. Most of our group came, chatted, after Dionysus insisted we come for drinks. He always does this (today he wants us to come for drinks again but I'm meeting one of dad's friends). So we chilled and then went home (early night bc we had work the next morning). The art show was nice, got to meet some people, chat with each other etc. It was nice we got to see the archaeology people post their trip. Marj also noticed the toothpick holders were in fact shot glasses- we came up with elaborate ploys to snag the three glasses for our suite which has been excellent for everything from actually using them to storing grated parmesan and bread crumbs in them.
Most of our group came, chatted, after Dionysus insisted we come for drinks. He always does this (today he wants us to come for drinks again but I'm meeting one of dad's friends). So we chilled and then went home (early night bc we had work the next morning). The art show was nice, got to meet some people, chat with each other etc. It was nice we got to see the archaeology people post their trip. Marj also noticed the toothpick holders were in fact shot glasses- we came up with elaborate ploys to snag the three glasses for our suite which has been excellent for everything from actually using them to storing grated parmesan and bread crumbs in them.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
6/5-6/7- first weekend Athens and the beach
FIRST WEEKEND:
So the archaeology people left for Crete/Santorini midweek. Wednesday Nick/Ray came over for pasta (they didn’t have food). That Friday we had a potluck- we brought salad, liz/lili brought pasta, the guys (impressively) made chicken. We then chilled for a while and then went to Gazi. We wandered around Gazi- there are so many bars and so many people speak greek it’s a little intimidating/confusing. We went to a roof bar for a bit. It was around 2 and the clubs hadn’t started yet. We wanted to wake up early to go to the beach so we took the metro back (the metro annoying closes around 2).
friday's tanya has work off for maternity leave. So I finished what she assigned me and got off early. Went to Ionia and shopped (bought some sneaks because I really really needed them). Had fun wandering. This was also the day of the previously mentioned DJ/soccer shoot out/soccer players/air hockey. I was and am worried that I'm eating so many carbs/deserts and not really walking as much now that I know about the trolley that requires about 5 minutes of walking total.
Then Saturday it rained. It only rains 65 days per year in Greece…so it was shocking. We grabbed lunch in Kolonaki. Then we spent a lazy day at our various apartments. That night we were going to try and go out again. We knew there was a group of kids from BC in the
neighboring apartment (where the boys live). So we met up at the boys apartment. We decided to say hi to the BC kids (ironically they have 9 guys 4 girls, we have 4 guys 9 girls). They were really cool and we just ended up hanging out with them till about 2:30 (some people left earlier).
Next morning we took a bus to a beach. We missed our actual stop but we found a nice beach anyway (forgot the name…it’s in greek anyway). We chilled at the beach- it was a bit cloudy but still nice. Tanned, swam, played Frisbee. Marj and I got delicious savory crepes for lunch. Then we came back to the guys’ apartment. We got pizza from Dominos (a few blocks away), converted someone’s room into a little theater, and watched Pineapple Express. It was a really chill fun weekend.
A consistent awkwardness/sadness has been that the archaeology people are traveling most weekends and have an entirely different work schedule during the week (7 am to 2 pm). Since 6 now 5 people are in archaeology it makes our group much smaller and we don’t get to hang out with them as much.
So the archaeology people left for Crete/Santorini midweek. Wednesday Nick/Ray came over for pasta (they didn’t have food). That Friday we had a potluck- we brought salad, liz/lili brought pasta, the guys (impressively) made chicken. We then chilled for a while and then went to Gazi. We wandered around Gazi- there are so many bars and so many people speak greek it’s a little intimidating/confusing. We went to a roof bar for a bit. It was around 2 and the clubs hadn’t started yet. We wanted to wake up early to go to the beach so we took the metro back (the metro annoying closes around 2).
friday's tanya has work off for maternity leave. So I finished what she assigned me and got off early. Went to Ionia and shopped (bought some sneaks because I really really needed them). Had fun wandering. This was also the day of the previously mentioned DJ/soccer shoot out/soccer players/air hockey. I was and am worried that I'm eating so many carbs/deserts and not really walking as much now that I know about the trolley that requires about 5 minutes of walking total.
Then Saturday it rained. It only rains 65 days per year in Greece…so it was shocking. We grabbed lunch in Kolonaki. Then we spent a lazy day at our various apartments. That night we were going to try and go out again. We knew there was a group of kids from BC in the
neighboring apartment (where the boys live). So we met up at the boys apartment. We decided to say hi to the BC kids (ironically they have 9 guys 4 girls, we have 4 guys 9 girls). They were really cool and we just ended up hanging out with them till about 2:30 (some people left earlier).Next morning we took a bus to a beach. We missed our actual stop but we found a nice beach anyway (forgot the name…it’s in greek anyway). We chilled at the beach- it was a bit cloudy but still nice. Tanned, swam, played Frisbee. Marj and I got delicious savory crepes for lunch. Then we came back to the guys’ apartment. We got pizza from Dominos (a few blocks away), converted someone’s room into a little theater, and watched Pineapple Express. It was a really chill fun weekend.
A consistent awkwardness/sadness has been that the archaeology people are traveling most weekends and have an entirely different work schedule during the week (7 am to 2 pm). Since 6 now 5 people are in archaeology it makes our group much smaller and we don’t get to hang out with them as much.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
6/2- Angela's birthday!
from my trusty moleskin/brain
It was exciting having Angela's birthday! I got home late but Angela/Marj made a delicious ginger fish with garlic/soy green beans and basil rice. We then met up with Nick and Ray (the archaeology people had left for Crete and Santorini). The guys live right next door which is nice.
We had grand plans to befriend the old greek grandmother (who lives next door and helped marj/angela unlock the door the first day while muttering about their incompetency in Greek) to teach us how to make baklava. These plans sadly have never panned out. And I have yet to meet 'Nona' as we affectionately call her.
Instead we went to a bakery- the only one open/nearby. We got a caramel cake with a very nice glaze. It looked really pretty (I'll upload pictures later), but was extremely sweet.
We also bought a giant bottle of wine (1.5 L for 4 euros) and candles. After deciding that cutting it would be too hard we all just dug in...we mutilated the cake but it was fun (again pictures to come).
It was exciting having Angela's birthday! I got home late but Angela/Marj made a delicious ginger fish with garlic/soy green beans and basil rice. We then met up with Nick and Ray (the archaeology people had left for Crete and Santorini). The guys live right next door which is nice.
We had grand plans to befriend the old greek grandmother (who lives next door and helped marj/angela unlock the door the first day while muttering about their incompetency in Greek) to teach us how to make baklava. These plans sadly have never panned out. And I have yet to meet 'Nona' as we affectionately call her.
Instead we went to a bakery- the only one open/nearby. We got a caramel cake with a very nice glaze. It looked really pretty (I'll upload pictures later), but was extremely sweet.
We also bought a giant bottle of wine (1.5 L for 4 euros) and candles. After deciding that cutting it would be too hard we all just dug in...we mutilated the cake but it was fun (again pictures to come).
Monday, May 31, 2010
5/31 First Day of Work
Woke up crazy early. Took the metro with Nick (also working with Accenture). Then got to Kiffisia (area Accenture is in). NONE of the taxi drivers knew how to get there. So a five minute distance took 20 minutes and we had to keep calling our HR contact for help. Got there, signed papers, were given laptops/cases. Then we met the CEO (Yale alum, nephew is a current student). Talked to him for about fifteen minutes. Then we were given our assignments- I was sent to work at Vodafone. Nick went to Eurobank.
The Vodafone building is crazy- it’s actually a complex of like five or six buildings. There’s really intense security- you need a badge (I have to swipe to get through the entry, into my building, onto my floor). You have to put your bags through a scanner too. Came up. I got assigned to work with a woman Tanya- she’s a manager early 30s, just had a kid a few months ago. She’s really nice- very surprised that I wasn’t a computer science major though. That day I was starving and we ate really late (lunch at 3ish- she bought me a sandwich which was nice- there’s a café downstairs where I eat everyday- usually a sandwich sometimes food from home). She assigned me about 800 pages of ‘familiarize yourself reading.’ It was extremely stressful because I didn’t know how to get to and from the Vodafone building where I now work. I was also absolutely exhausted- dad assured me it would be a short introductory day but instead I had a legit work day. Had to take a taxi home and got home a little after 8. Super tiring day for having gone to bed so late- wasn’t expecting to dive straight in. We cooked I think pesto pasta with tuna and green beans that night- it was surprisingly delicious. Our key ingredients in almost every dish are chili flakes and garlic.
from the trusty moleskin: apparently it took 2 hours to get to work. (*i like that my memory for food is the best- we did in fact have the pesto pasta the first day).
Transportation saga: figuring out how to get there was HELL. I was pretty comfortable with the metro- there’s a station a little over 10 minutes away from our apartment. The closest station is about 40 minutes from where I work though. I tried walking that once- was a pain- definitely can't do that in the greek summer in my suit with my laptop. Online the bus/trolley routes are not finished. Also they aren’t translated into English or even by location- it tell you what bus stops are on a line but not where those stops are- they’re just random names. I was too awkward (of course) to get in touch with mom’s friend Sarita, but finally did. She was able to find out which buses/trolley s take me there. Now I pick up the number 10 right at the stadium and it stops directly in front of Vodafone which is really nice- only about 20-30 minutes ride. It usually comes to the stadium around 8:50 am. I usually have to wait 10-20 minutes to go back. In the mornings the trolley is SUPER CROWDED- really gross bc people are chubby, sweaty, and generally don’t use deodorant- or at least not as much as they should. Also standing and being pushed while carrying my tote and lap top case is annoying- I like my personal space. Also tragic are the strikes. There are so many strikes- average of one a week (some don’t have any some weeks multiple). If it’s just for metro then the buses become ridiculously crowded. General strikes are a pain too- a lot of people like even doctors, lawyers, and air traffic take off but not me! A general strike means I have to take a taxi which also sucks. It’s really hard to get a taxi those days (takes me 10-20 minutes of running after them).
Taxis are very confusing. First of all they can take multiple passengers with different destinations- but you don’t’ share the cost with the other passengers. This leads to many stops. This also means a taxi just slows down rather than stops to ask you where you are going because they may not be able to pick you up (if they have another passenger). Also- ohi means no. but it a) sounds like ok b) the gesture isn’t shaking your head but it’s a nod kind of like a ‘sup nod. Ne means yes- which sounds like no. So running beside a taxi for 20 minutes I get really confused with the ohi’s versus the ne’s.
The Vodafone building is crazy- it’s actually a complex of like five or six buildings. There’s really intense security- you need a badge (I have to swipe to get through the entry, into my building, onto my floor). You have to put your bags through a scanner too. Came up. I got assigned to work with a woman Tanya- she’s a manager early 30s, just had a kid a few months ago. She’s really nice- very surprised that I wasn’t a computer science major though. That day I was starving and we ate really late (lunch at 3ish- she bought me a sandwich which was nice- there’s a café downstairs where I eat everyday- usually a sandwich sometimes food from home). She assigned me about 800 pages of ‘familiarize yourself reading.’ It was extremely stressful because I didn’t know how to get to and from the Vodafone building where I now work. I was also absolutely exhausted- dad assured me it would be a short introductory day but instead I had a legit work day. Had to take a taxi home and got home a little after 8. Super tiring day for having gone to bed so late- wasn’t expecting to dive straight in. We cooked I think pesto pasta with tuna and green beans that night- it was surprisingly delicious. Our key ingredients in almost every dish are chili flakes and garlic.
from the trusty moleskin: apparently it took 2 hours to get to work. (*i like that my memory for food is the best- we did in fact have the pesto pasta the first day).
Transportation saga: figuring out how to get there was HELL. I was pretty comfortable with the metro- there’s a station a little over 10 minutes away from our apartment. The closest station is about 40 minutes from where I work though. I tried walking that once- was a pain- definitely can't do that in the greek summer in my suit with my laptop. Online the bus/trolley routes are not finished. Also they aren’t translated into English or even by location- it tell you what bus stops are on a line but not where those stops are- they’re just random names. I was too awkward (of course) to get in touch with mom’s friend Sarita, but finally did. She was able to find out which buses/trolley s take me there. Now I pick up the number 10 right at the stadium and it stops directly in front of Vodafone which is really nice- only about 20-30 minutes ride. It usually comes to the stadium around 8:50 am. I usually have to wait 10-20 minutes to go back. In the mornings the trolley is SUPER CROWDED- really gross bc people are chubby, sweaty, and generally don’t use deodorant- or at least not as much as they should. Also standing and being pushed while carrying my tote and lap top case is annoying- I like my personal space. Also tragic are the strikes. There are so many strikes- average of one a week (some don’t have any some weeks multiple). If it’s just for metro then the buses become ridiculously crowded. General strikes are a pain too- a lot of people like even doctors, lawyers, and air traffic take off but not me! A general strike means I have to take a taxi which also sucks. It’s really hard to get a taxi those days (takes me 10-20 minutes of running after them).
Taxis are very confusing. First of all they can take multiple passengers with different destinations- but you don’t’ share the cost with the other passengers. This leads to many stops. This also means a taxi just slows down rather than stops to ask you where you are going because they may not be able to pick you up (if they have another passenger). Also- ohi means no. but it a) sounds like ok b) the gesture isn’t shaking your head but it’s a nod kind of like a ‘sup nod. Ne means yes- which sounds like no. So running beside a taxi for 20 minutes I get really confused with the ohi’s versus the ne’s.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Work (general)
General post about work because day to day really isn’t exciting. First week and a half I was just reading information. So Accenture is helping Vodafone switch their billing and customer related software. This means basically all of their processes are changing- the way they bill, provision, sell, deal with disputes, orders, etc all is slightly different now. So I had a lot of reading to catch up on- both on the old system and the new system. The team I’m working on is creating the new business processes- meaning what the users have to do now with the new system to execute commands/accomplish the necessary tasks.
After all my reading I started designing IT Maps. She gave me a design document (a word document in which the fields/general steps of a process are written) and downloaded Microsoft Visio from the Accenture website for me. Then she showed me some examples and told me to create a visio for a process. I had no idea how to use visio or how to extract the information (what level of detail, what to fill the gaps with etc). So I spent a little while figuring out visio and playing with the IT Maps. At first I got a sizable amount wrong. By now I can create a map in sometimes 30 minutes (usually it take an hour or two unless I have previous drafts to work on). Now I make the initial draft, it gets reviewed a few times and edited, they ask me to edit it/see if I catch anything, then I format it. I’ve gotten pretty good at visio- especially with all the formatting. Now people ask me how to do stuff on visio or to explain the processes sometimes- which is cool.
Also- a lot of the processes now are still in the barely designed phase meaning that sometimes I actually get to BS (well logically try to figure out) what the steps should be. If they think my logic/steps are solid then those get to be the processes all Vodafone users have to follow- which is really cool. It's interesting because it seems that in consulting most people have a general idea of the field they're in (for accenture it's IT) and then don't really know anything. So they teach themselves about the project. It makes it cool being an intern because, even though I obviously don't have the same experience, in terms of specific knowledge I have access to the same material/learning base as the actual consultants.
Tanya sometimes has to work on another project so now I work with Tanya, Maria, and Harris- all of them are really nice. Maria is very young- probs 24. Maria joined the project about three weeks after me (per my early observation this means there isn't as much of a disparity between our knowledge/familiarity with the system, Tanya's been working on this project for over a year through many phases so knows a lot more). Earlier, work slow so I also helped Chrysanthi (I entered about 400 tests onto a website- serious pain). I’ve also gotten addicted to reading the NYT/browsing project guttenberg (yea sherlock holmes!) during downtime because they are one of the few sites that’s not blocked (the mysterious vodafone big brother noticed i was on blogger for a long time and it got blocked as a blog the day i created Go Big (or Go Home) but now it's unblocked...wonder how long my luck will hold). I haven’t had much free time in July because they’re having client meetings now and things are really rushed (a person across from me stayed here till 4 am one day). So I have to keep designing the flows, editing the ones before meetings, and editing the ones post the feedback. Usually the most downtime comes when they're meeting with the users (like today) or reviewing the documents (then I have to wait for the feedback). So it’s been pretty busy.
Also I was assigned to draft the training approach document. Part of the Change Enablement is training the new users. I was given 3 pages of information and told to create a 20-25 page document with very minimal direction. After not being able to bullshit past 4 pages I asked where I could find more information. So I had to go onto the Accenture website and look at past training approach designs. I’ve now compiled them/created a 28 page document. It’s really cool because I know this is just a draft and they’re going to change it a ton but this is the main deliverable for the first stage of training and what the rest of training is based on- and I got to do it. Work also has cool events. I don't know why but one day they had a dj, soccer goal house, air hockey, and some members of the greek soccer team signing vodafone hats. I guess it was an employee morale event/world cup excitement event? I got a hat for dad. this was before the world cup.
Then a few weeks ago was the date vodafone had been founded so they celebrated vodafone's '17th birthday' with free ben and jerry's. they had strawberry, fairly nuts, fudge brownie, and chocolate chip cookie dough- unlimited scoops. I had fairly nuts and chocoalte chip cookie dough (I had just gotten fudge brownie on a walk that week).
we've also gotten free ice tea, energy drinks (I joked with Marj I get energy drinks and free coffee, she gets free pastries and fruit at work), hats, lanyards, and cow bells (part of some new marketing push? unclear).vodafone is similar to southwest in that it has a very young set of employees and a distinct corporate culture- they try to make it a good/fun place for young people to work which is nice.
After all my reading I started designing IT Maps. She gave me a design document (a word document in which the fields/general steps of a process are written) and downloaded Microsoft Visio from the Accenture website for me. Then she showed me some examples and told me to create a visio for a process. I had no idea how to use visio or how to extract the information (what level of detail, what to fill the gaps with etc). So I spent a little while figuring out visio and playing with the IT Maps. At first I got a sizable amount wrong. By now I can create a map in sometimes 30 minutes (usually it take an hour or two unless I have previous drafts to work on). Now I make the initial draft, it gets reviewed a few times and edited, they ask me to edit it/see if I catch anything, then I format it. I’ve gotten pretty good at visio- especially with all the formatting. Now people ask me how to do stuff on visio or to explain the processes sometimes- which is cool.
Also- a lot of the processes now are still in the barely designed phase meaning that sometimes I actually get to BS (well logically try to figure out) what the steps should be. If they think my logic/steps are solid then those get to be the processes all Vodafone users have to follow- which is really cool. It's interesting because it seems that in consulting most people have a general idea of the field they're in (for accenture it's IT) and then don't really know anything. So they teach themselves about the project. It makes it cool being an intern because, even though I obviously don't have the same experience, in terms of specific knowledge I have access to the same material/learning base as the actual consultants.
Tanya sometimes has to work on another project so now I work with Tanya, Maria, and Harris- all of them are really nice. Maria is very young- probs 24. Maria joined the project about three weeks after me (per my early observation this means there isn't as much of a disparity between our knowledge/familiarity with the system, Tanya's been working on this project for over a year through many phases so knows a lot more). Earlier, work slow so I also helped Chrysanthi (I entered about 400 tests onto a website- serious pain). I’ve also gotten addicted to reading the NYT/browsing project guttenberg (yea sherlock holmes!) during downtime because they are one of the few sites that’s not blocked (the mysterious vodafone big brother noticed i was on blogger for a long time and it got blocked as a blog the day i created Go Big (or Go Home) but now it's unblocked...wonder how long my luck will hold). I haven’t had much free time in July because they’re having client meetings now and things are really rushed (a person across from me stayed here till 4 am one day). So I have to keep designing the flows, editing the ones before meetings, and editing the ones post the feedback. Usually the most downtime comes when they're meeting with the users (like today) or reviewing the documents (then I have to wait for the feedback). So it’s been pretty busy.
Also I was assigned to draft the training approach document. Part of the Change Enablement is training the new users. I was given 3 pages of information and told to create a 20-25 page document with very minimal direction. After not being able to bullshit past 4 pages I asked where I could find more information. So I had to go onto the Accenture website and look at past training approach designs. I’ve now compiled them/created a 28 page document. It’s really cool because I know this is just a draft and they’re going to change it a ton but this is the main deliverable for the first stage of training and what the rest of training is based on- and I got to do it. Work also has cool events. I don't know why but one day they had a dj, soccer goal house, air hockey, and some members of the greek soccer team signing vodafone hats. I guess it was an employee morale event/world cup excitement event? I got a hat for dad. this was before the world cup.
Then a few weeks ago was the date vodafone had been founded so they celebrated vodafone's '17th birthday' with free ben and jerry's. they had strawberry, fairly nuts, fudge brownie, and chocolate chip cookie dough- unlimited scoops. I had fairly nuts and chocoalte chip cookie dough (I had just gotten fudge brownie on a walk that week).
we've also gotten free ice tea, energy drinks (I joked with Marj I get energy drinks and free coffee, she gets free pastries and fruit at work), hats, lanyards, and cow bells (part of some new marketing push? unclear).vodafone is similar to southwest in that it has a very young set of employees and a distinct corporate culture- they try to make it a good/fun place for young people to work which is nice.
5/30- Sunday in Plaka
First full day in Athens. Can’t remember breakfast though…We walked to Plaka. On the way we passed Zappeion, a palace, a book fair, 
national gardens, a park, and the old Olympic stadium. Now I know the Olympic stadium is ridiculously close but then it was so cool to leave our apartment, wander a few blocks, and stumble across panathinaikos- the stadium for the first modern Olympic games hosted in Athens. According to Wikipedia it was built around 566 BC, rebuilt in 329 with marble, renovated in 1869 for the 1870 and 1875 Olympic games. Its capacity was 50,000 in 140 and 80,000 in 1896. It’s really cool- an all white marble stadium two blocks away. (*it’s now where I take the trolley to work everyday). Plaka was nice. We walked around a bit. I bought a royal blue hat with white stripes floppy (kind of like the greek flag)- so useful! We found the children’s museum in plaka which was fun- did cute kiddy activities. Marj made a ribbon flower and put it on a cork. We also stumbled on a baptism with maracas, an accordion, balloons, etc. It was really nice! The church was cute- it was just a small one but across it was a small ancient arch- nothing big, not even labeled. It’s funny that there are ruins everyone and no one really cares- it’s totally normal, nbd.
We had a really long lunch (2.5 hours). It was unexpected but earlier we had passed this restaurant. The heckler wasn’t heckling us like other places. I think here he was actually the owner and stopped to talk to us- he knew several language including mandarin.
He was genuinely curious and really cool. We had a fixed menu (wine, salad, kalamari, and desert for me for 11 euros). An American lady (40+) sat behind us and we talked to her. She was in marketing for years, went to culinary school in france when she was 40, and now is a chef on yachts. She was really interesting to talk to- she recommended some places for us to go to get fresh groceries. It’s cool all three of us (angela, marj, and i) really enjoy cooking.
After lunch we kept wandering- we saw Hadrian’s library and arch and some other ruins (we’re not sure what they are…haha). It’s cool everywhere down in plaka/syntagma you can see the acropolis- which is incredible (*for the first weeks…now I’m used to it haha). In plaka they had some very nice longchamp knock offs- I was and am extremely tempted. They also had three giant shops in a row of just beads…which was really weird.
One of the shops had a huge automated dinosaur that moved/made noise- it was hilarious. We also heard Lady Gaga three times that day- they’re really into her here (I probably hear her playing at least once a day...even at work...)
We went to the metro to check it out. Tried to get the student pass but you need an international student id. Dionysus didn’t know what to do. It’s been a pain- I’ve had to get the pass twice now bc it’s only for a month and usually I have to try 3 stations before one person doesn’t know/doesn’t care about the rules and gives me the pass. The second time I went to get it renewed the guy wouldn’t do it and I was like screw it I’m not buying a ticket for the metro but then there were police and I freaked out and flashed my old pass- fortunately they didn’t check the date. Other checks they have made sure the pass wasn’t expired. We took the metro back- I was impressed that we figured it out/how easy it was. We ran into Liz/Emma (two of the other girls) on our way back and stopped by their apartment. They had toilet paper (we'd been using napkins) and Angela knew how to fix the wireless so we traded (marj and i got the best deal, we just got to chill in their apartment and got toilet paper. It sucks- our apartments are in a no flush zone meaning we can't flush toilet paper down the toilet...eww...Didn’t if we should drink tap water so we’ve been boiling/refrigerating it which is a pain (turns out we can thank god).
Dinner was nice- we went to a tavern and after went to a bar with a gorgeous view of the Acropolis. For dinner we had greek salad, fries, and kebabs. There are thirteen of us on the trip- we finally got to meet everyone which was nice. Dionysus is a character. He advised us how to go to clubs and pick people up (apparently sleeping with married people is common). He also told us not to go onto any yachts because we might end up in turkey or someplace…also to protect against aids and not get arrested with marijuana. He didn’t have any advise on subjects like how to get a student metro pass or get the wifi to work though….haha.
Also I asked him many times if we had work the next day- he said we didn’t (never was clear on the reason though). So we all went out. I had DELICIOUS ferrero rocher gelato. Some people bought cigars and then we sat in another bar/taverna. We got back at 3:30. I had emailed the person at Accenture asking what time to come in and she hadn’t responded by the time we went out to dinner. She responded while we were out, however, saying we had to go to work at 9 am. The Accenture building is an hour and forty five minutes away. I was so tired/frustrated.
national gardens, a park, and the old Olympic stadium. Now I know the Olympic stadium is ridiculously close but then it was so cool to leave our apartment, wander a few blocks, and stumble across panathinaikos- the stadium for the first modern Olympic games hosted in Athens. According to Wikipedia it was built around 566 BC, rebuilt in 329 with marble, renovated in 1869 for the 1870 and 1875 Olympic games. Its capacity was 50,000 in 140 and 80,000 in 1896. It’s really cool- an all white marble stadium two blocks away. (*it’s now where I take the trolley to work everyday). Plaka was nice. We walked around a bit. I bought a royal blue hat with white stripes floppy (kind of like the greek flag)- so useful! We found the children’s museum in plaka which was fun- did cute kiddy activities. Marj made a ribbon flower and put it on a cork. We also stumbled on a baptism with maracas, an accordion, balloons, etc. It was really nice! The church was cute- it was just a small one but across it was a small ancient arch- nothing big, not even labeled. It’s funny that there are ruins everyone and no one really cares- it’s totally normal, nbd. We had a really long lunch (2.5 hours). It was unexpected but earlier we had passed this restaurant. The heckler wasn’t heckling us like other places. I think here he was actually the owner and stopped to talk to us- he knew several language including mandarin.
He was genuinely curious and really cool. We had a fixed menu (wine, salad, kalamari, and desert for me for 11 euros). An American lady (40+) sat behind us and we talked to her. She was in marketing for years, went to culinary school in france when she was 40, and now is a chef on yachts. She was really interesting to talk to- she recommended some places for us to go to get fresh groceries. It’s cool all three of us (angela, marj, and i) really enjoy cooking.After lunch we kept wandering- we saw Hadrian’s library and arch and some other ruins (we’re not sure what they are…haha). It’s cool everywhere down in plaka/syntagma you can see the acropolis- which is incredible (*for the first weeks…now I’m used to it haha). In plaka they had some very nice longchamp knock offs- I was and am extremely tempted. They also had three giant shops in a row of just beads…which was really weird.
One of the shops had a huge automated dinosaur that moved/made noise- it was hilarious. We also heard Lady Gaga three times that day- they’re really into her here (I probably hear her playing at least once a day...even at work...)We went to the metro to check it out. Tried to get the student pass but you need an international student id. Dionysus didn’t know what to do. It’s been a pain- I’ve had to get the pass twice now bc it’s only for a month and usually I have to try 3 stations before one person doesn’t know/doesn’t care about the rules and gives me the pass. The second time I went to get it renewed the guy wouldn’t do it and I was like screw it I’m not buying a ticket for the metro but then there were police and I freaked out and flashed my old pass- fortunately they didn’t check the date. Other checks they have made sure the pass wasn’t expired. We took the metro back- I was impressed that we figured it out/how easy it was. We ran into Liz/Emma (two of the other girls) on our way back and stopped by their apartment. They had toilet paper (we'd been using napkins) and Angela knew how to fix the wireless so we traded (marj and i got the best deal, we just got to chill in their apartment and got toilet paper. It sucks- our apartments are in a no flush zone meaning we can't flush toilet paper down the toilet...eww...Didn’t if we should drink tap water so we’ve been boiling/refrigerating it which is a pain (turns out we can thank god).
Dinner was nice- we went to a tavern and after went to a bar with a gorgeous view of the Acropolis. For dinner we had greek salad, fries, and kebabs. There are thirteen of us on the trip- we finally got to meet everyone which was nice. Dionysus is a character. He advised us how to go to clubs and pick people up (apparently sleeping with married people is common). He also told us not to go onto any yachts because we might end up in turkey or someplace…also to protect against aids and not get arrested with marijuana. He didn’t have any advise on subjects like how to get a student metro pass or get the wifi to work though….haha.
Also I asked him many times if we had work the next day- he said we didn’t (never was clear on the reason though). So we all went out. I had DELICIOUS ferrero rocher gelato. Some people bought cigars and then we sat in another bar/taverna. We got back at 3:30. I had emailed the person at Accenture asking what time to come in and she hadn’t responded by the time we went out to dinner. She responded while we were out, however, saying we had to go to work at 9 am. The Accenture building is an hour and forty five minutes away. I was so tired/frustrated.
Food/Routine (General)
General post about food. Our entire apartment enjoys cooking. First few weeks I’d come home late so I’d miss most of the cooking. Now I usually come home around 7/7:30 so I get to cook- yummy. All of us are really into cooking/food. I feel like I’m actually the least experienced because at home we cook deliciousness but don’t use the proper technique/precise recipes. Marj LOVES Top Chef. We tend to do very well for ourselves in terms of cooking. It’s hard to find a lot of fresh ingredients (and have them stay fresh) so we do lots of grocery runs.
Mornings: I usually have cereal (sometimes greek yogurt with granola or fruit/honey). I set my alarm for 7:30, a second alarm at 7:45, make a cup of tea or coffee (depending on my need for caffeine), get cereal, and then eat my cereal/drink tea/coffee while facebooking/emailing/skyping/general internet time wasting. Then I change- they said dress code was business formal but here women are super casual. But all I have are the formal business clothes- so oh well, at least it’s easy to get dressed. It's extremely upsetting- our fridge was too cold so we tried to change the temperature but our knob is broken and it got stuck on not being cold at all. So our milk went bad before maintenance came to fix it meaning I haven't had cereal for breakfast the past few days...I smuggled out creamer from work though for my tea because not having tea would just be unacceptable.
Back to food- so I go to work, get home, change, start cooking. Notable meals: we had a great unknown fish with veggies and rice. A large variety of pasta (chicken, pesto, primavera, scampi). Also had a lot of yummy fried rices (including a delightful shrimp, spinach, Portobello, lime, garlic, ginger, sweet chili). Also one day when we were tired/had random left overs we made mac and cheese (courtesy of mama berman) with hot dogs chopped in and broccoli- flavored mine with black pepper and chili flakes of course. We also do really well with ground turkey in burgers, meatballs, and stuffed peppers (pictures to be uploaded).
We did stuffed peppers with rice/spinach/tomatoes/turkey. We flavor the turkey amazingly (our home grilling paid off). We put in lots of garlic, bell peppers, tomato, onion, curry powder, cumin powder, salt, pepper, chili, and banana peppers. Delicious. I’m the designated turkey cooker esp for hamburgers (we do this at home a lot where I’m the sous chef). Marj is fantastic with cooking chicken. We also tend to use frozen veggies just because they’re easier. I want to do a mussel pasta soon- I think it would be delicious. It's very sad we haven't cooked recently- things are getting very eventful around here. We only cooked once last week and will probably only cook once or twice this week. Most weeks we cook everyday.
For grocery stores there’s a huge Carrefour by marj that she sometimes goes to. There’s an AB which is pretty big but closes at 9. OK (I’ve gotten everyone on our trip to call it OK GO) isn’t as big/doesn’t have much fresh stuff but is open till 10. There’s also a nice Chinese lady who has a store just a few blocks down and she sells onions, garlic, ginger, and the sweet chili sauce.
We all cook together and talk, play music, joke around- it’s nice. Then we eat in the living
room (which is in my ridiculously messy room- pictures to come). Again more chatting- often a conversation will start with did you read that article in the nyt which is hilarious. We also have pretty long email chains at work about random things/what we’re going to cook that night.Then clean up (ewww), make another cup of tea, and people go their respective rooms for facebook/skype/email/tv show catching up/showering. I’ve recently gotten into royal pains which is really good. Also make it or break it came back and it’s been ok.
So we all love glee. The night after the glee finale (when it’s on hulu- we’ve been using yale vpn to get hulu) we made spaghetti and meatballs (with our delish ground turkey). Grated up some parmesan. And we watched glee/had some nice wine/spaghetti. It was quite fun.
Sometimes after dinner we walk around (just to walk, groceries, or desert). Marj LOVES baklava and is on a bit of a hunt for the best baklava- so we sometimes make trips out for that. After dinner walks are nice. We live in Pagrati- which is a residential neighborhood that’s really not touristy. It’s nice though because it’s very near the center of town. The big central area is Syntagma (about a 15 minute walk away). That’s where parliament/the big riots are. Acropolis is 2 or 3 metro stops down. Gazi- the student /younger partying area with lots of bars is also 3 or 4 metro stops down. Glyfada is another big party area it’s on the coast 1-1.5 hours away by tram. You can easily get to some nice beaches in Athens within the hour.
Mornings: I usually have cereal (sometimes greek yogurt with granola or fruit/honey). I set my alarm for 7:30, a second alarm at 7:45, make a cup of tea or coffee (depending on my need for caffeine), get cereal, and then eat my cereal/drink tea/coffee while facebooking/emailing/skyping/general internet time wasting. Then I change- they said dress code was business formal but here women are super casual. But all I have are the formal business clothes- so oh well, at least it’s easy to get dressed. It's extremely upsetting- our fridge was too cold so we tried to change the temperature but our knob is broken and it got stuck on not being cold at all. So our milk went bad before maintenance came to fix it meaning I haven't had cereal for breakfast the past few days...I smuggled out creamer from work though for my tea because not having tea would just be unacceptable.
Back to food- so I go to work, get home, change, start cooking. Notable meals: we had a great unknown fish with veggies and rice. A large variety of pasta (chicken, pesto, primavera, scampi). Also had a lot of yummy fried rices (including a delightful shrimp, spinach, Portobello, lime, garlic, ginger, sweet chili). Also one day when we were tired/had random left overs we made mac and cheese (courtesy of mama berman) with hot dogs chopped in and broccoli- flavored mine with black pepper and chili flakes of course. We also do really well with ground turkey in burgers, meatballs, and stuffed peppers (pictures to be uploaded).
We did stuffed peppers with rice/spinach/tomatoes/turkey. We flavor the turkey amazingly (our home grilling paid off). We put in lots of garlic, bell peppers, tomato, onion, curry powder, cumin powder, salt, pepper, chili, and banana peppers. Delicious. I’m the designated turkey cooker esp for hamburgers (we do this at home a lot where I’m the sous chef). Marj is fantastic with cooking chicken. We also tend to use frozen veggies just because they’re easier. I want to do a mussel pasta soon- I think it would be delicious. It's very sad we haven't cooked recently- things are getting very eventful around here. We only cooked once last week and will probably only cook once or twice this week. Most weeks we cook everyday.For grocery stores there’s a huge Carrefour by marj that she sometimes goes to. There’s an AB which is pretty big but closes at 9. OK (I’ve gotten everyone on our trip to call it OK GO) isn’t as big/doesn’t have much fresh stuff but is open till 10. There’s also a nice Chinese lady who has a store just a few blocks down and she sells onions, garlic, ginger, and the sweet chili sauce.
We all cook together and talk, play music, joke around- it’s nice. Then we eat in the living
room (which is in my ridiculously messy room- pictures to come). Again more chatting- often a conversation will start with did you read that article in the nyt which is hilarious. We also have pretty long email chains at work about random things/what we’re going to cook that night.Then clean up (ewww), make another cup of tea, and people go their respective rooms for facebook/skype/email/tv show catching up/showering. I’ve recently gotten into royal pains which is really good. Also make it or break it came back and it’s been ok.So we all love glee. The night after the glee finale (when it’s on hulu- we’ve been using yale vpn to get hulu) we made spaghetti and meatballs (with our delish ground turkey). Grated up some parmesan. And we watched glee/had some nice wine/spaghetti. It was quite fun.
Sometimes after dinner we walk around (just to walk, groceries, or desert). Marj LOVES baklava and is on a bit of a hunt for the best baklava- so we sometimes make trips out for that. After dinner walks are nice. We live in Pagrati- which is a residential neighborhood that’s really not touristy. It’s nice though because it’s very near the center of town. The big central area is Syntagma (about a 15 minute walk away). That’s where parliament/the big riots are. Acropolis is 2 or 3 metro stops down. Gazi- the student /younger partying area with lots of bars is also 3 or 4 metro stops down. Glyfada is another big party area it’s on the coast 1-1.5 hours away by tram. You can easily get to some nice beaches in Athens within the hour.
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