Hey guy,

I'm sure you've seen the news that the protest in athens have escalated and violence has started in response to the votes today and tomorrow. They are in a serious state of economic crisis and the people are simply just pissed off. The union protests have been peaceful but there is a group of anarchists that intentionally stir up trouble by throwing rocks, bricks, and cobblestones at the police. They mix themselves within the crowd and essentilly make the place look like a riot. But i'm posting this because I want you all to know that we are all safe and completely removed from the violence. I have made a personal decision to completely avoid syntagma square where the violence is happening. Some of my classmates went into the protests yesterday and were tear gassed. But I want to assure you guys (especially you mom and dad) that I will not be anywhere near the violence and safety is my biggest concern. Although it kills me to stand on the sidelines while history is happening, I will not go near syntagma. We are in good hands and will stay out of trouble. I am safe, so please do not worry.

Gab, Ellie, Me, and Reem at Lykavittos :)

Me and my new friend Reem!

Athens and the Acropolis are AMAZING!!

Gab and I at the top of Lykavittos Hill overlooking Athens

Happy tuesday everyone!

Last night we had the most wonderful experience... we walked up to lykavittos hill to see the view of all of athens. Seriously, I felt like dropping to my knees and thanking the universe. It was such a spiritual place with such good energy. Plus, we've become good friends with two girls named Ellie and Reem. In short, I absolutely love them!! And actually, fun factoid for you, Ellie roomed in the same exact suite, room, and bed that I had last year! Super weird coincidence. Not sure what that means, but I'm betting we're soul sisters. So anyway, last night after we all trekked up to lykavittos we watched the sunset, took pictures, and waited for the city lights to go on before going back down. After that, we walked to the old city center to a place called plaka. We were all really hungry but we were totally digging the atmosphere of the city streets and our buddy nathan had told us about really cool restaurants in the heart of plaka. Plaka is sorta like a more snazzy version of Camden town.... as you can guess we all LOVED it!! Anyway, so we got to this cool restaurant, sat at a table on the street and got the most amazing lamb souflaki! I had never had lamb before, but i tell ya, this lamb souflaki is going to be hard to beat! For some reason that night was just the most magical experience. I'm not sure if it was the wine, the acropolis looming over us, the good food, the company, or a combination of everything. It was one of those experiences that you dream about... eating a fantastic meal in a great foreign city, smiling uncontrollably with your friends and just seriously digging life. In short, I fell in love with Athens that night.

Today we had our first day of class and I was a little too tired to concentrate. So I just did what the greeks do: grabbed a coffee at the break, walked up the street and chatted with my friends, and took a siesta when we got back to the apartment. I felt royally lazy sleeping in the day, but i think it was worth it. The class today was pretty good. Professor gallant is always an excellent lecturer, and I knew a lot of stuff already from taking his archeology class. We've been getting to know him and his wife, Mary, more and we're all really enjoying their company. They are both really bright, street savvy, and funny as ever.

To be honest, I just keep pinching myself that I'm in greece with amazing people learning about awesome stuff and having great experiences. If i hadn't before, I have definitely caught the travel bug :)

Tonight we had our first (of two) paid-for group dinners. I sat with different people tonight and got to know some of the guys pretty well. Who knew the most outspoken guys could be so sensitive? The food was delicious; greek salad (with tomatoes to die for), fresh feta, incredibly tender chicken, grape leaves (called horta according to gab), a couple other dishes, and juuuuuuicy watermelon for dessert. I was sitting next to some of the quieter girls in the group and I really tired to get them to open up a bit. Sure enough, they were really interesting. After we ate, an old guy with a guitar came around and sang to everyone and then asked for money. Should have expected that haha! Afterwards we went to Reem and Ellie's place and hung out for a bit, then joined the others downstairs and chatted. Then Karlo walked me, gab, and our roommate leah home. We finished off the night with some greek yogurt with honey & bananas.

Tomorrow we're pretty sure we're having class on-site tomorrow, but we may not becasue the general strike is still going on and some museums may be closed. If we don't go on-site, we'll just have class at the research center like we did today. Whatever the case, I can't wait for our new adventures :)

Love to you all, les mando besos y abrazos!!

Ale

Yassas!

It's siesta time right now over here, and it would be a perfect time to call y'all but it's 6 in the morning CA time! So instead gab and I are going to go for a jog around the city before we all meet up again at 7.30 to go for a hike.

So far today we went as a group to the National Research Institute where we are going to be taking classes. Professor gallant talked to us about the econ crisis right now in greece, and apparently there is going to be a major historical vote tomorrow night. The classroom is pretty nice, except there aren't any windows, meaning we're in a beautifully sunny mediterranean city and we can't see the sun. But now that I think about it, maybe it's better that way so we don't feel like going to the beach!

After we walked to the grocery store and bought some breakfast foods, meet &chesse, fruits, and paper for the house. It was a pretty interesting experience since we couldn't read any of the labels. Even though we felt like lost little children, we still got some food and had fun.

We then walked back to the apartments and had some food on the patio and prof. gallant and his wife joined us. They are such nice people! He started teaching us some greek and it was pretty hard. But I really want to learn so I can actually talk to people instead of just smiling and giggling when someone says something in greek to me. Hooray for greek!

Anyway, just a quick update before we go on a run.

Love to you all! xo

The apartment above ours. So beautiful!

Our patio where I'm writing this right now, listening to gypsy kings and Brazilian lounge. Livin the life!
Gab on the left, I'm on the right :)

Olive trees!
Athens from the road

Hey everyone!

We landed in Greece!!! It's absolutely beautiful here, especially at our apartment. We landed around 12.10, met up with the group, and got on the bus! About 45 minutes later the bus driver dropped us off pretty much in the middle of the road and we all walked for like 15 minutes to our apartments. We are in an apartment right off a terrace that is BEAUTIFUL!! There are lemon trees and a little circle of black patio furniture. We each have our own bed but the apartment has an open plan and I'm living with Gabby, Leah, and Eden. They're all really nice! The kitchen is beautiful and there are really few shelves. It's super gorgeous!! We are all going to meet up in a few minutes and go over some basics with gallant. We met gallant's wife Mary and she is super sweet too. Can't wait to go see Athens!!!!!!

xoxo

Whew, what a day!

We just got back to Cindy's place after a really long but really awesome day. First off, we were planning to wake up at 8.30 am, but after staying at eric and sally's until 2am, we figured we had better sleep. So we woke up at 10.30ish when alba called me (thank goodness she did, we would have still been sleeping!). I got ready to go, and while Gab was showering, I met Anneka (sp?) and chatted with her for a bit with her. What a lovely girl! After, petra called and said we had better not go to wimbledon because people were already camping out for tomorrow's tickets, and today's were long sold out. So instead we decided to go into london and go to all the places we had missed. We ended up at Westminster Abbey at around 2pm. Even though I've been a few times, I still really enjoy it! Gab was so cute... she almost started crying when we walked in. I walked over to the cloister thingie and pretended I was princess Kate walking down the aisle. Corny, but true :)

After westminster, we hauled booty over to the British museum. We only had like an hour there, and we each ran around the museum separately. I saw cleopatra, the rosetta stone, and lots of greek pottery like the ones I studied in archeology las year. It was super cool, but after 5 hours of museum-ing and walking around we were pretty pooped. So we took the tube over to covent garden, got some paella and watched the crowds.

Then we remembered we hadn't gone to Buckingham palace where the queen lives! So we decided to walk there, but it was A LOT farther than we had anticipated. By the time we got there our feet and legs were so tired, we practically collapsed at the gates like people on a pilgrimage falling who had finally reached their destination. I got a picture of us at the palace before my camera died. We caught a taxi back to waterloo station, and took the train to Guildford to meet alba, her boyfriend, and her friend Marieta for dinner at a portuguese restaurant in town. It was really really good and we had a great time. At one point, an aventura song came on, and marieta and I started dancing bachata in the middle of the restaurant! hahaha it was so much fun :) Then we all walked back to the train station and waited for the train. When it was time for us to go, gab and I had to run to make the train. We said our quick double-kiss goodbyes and hopped on the train... and marieta and alba came running after us, waving and laughing! It was so much fun!! I had a really great time with them, they are all such great company.

Tonight we have to pack up and get everything ready to catch a taxi at 5am for our flight tomorrow at 6:50am. Super early, but I'm just hoping we can get some sleep. It's been such a great trip in england, I can't wait to see what greece has to offer!!

xoxox

Hey yall!

I must be sounding like a broken record, but we're just back from Eric and Sally's and we've had a wonderful day in London! Today we got up a bit earlier (around 10.30) and went into london to meet Petra. Petra was such a wonderful tourguide... she took us to all the non touristy places I had never been to! It was great to see her too, after all these years. So we went on a double decker bus to Camden town, this really cool, funky place where everyone is not afraid to demonstrate their own style. We got amaaazing indian food from this little stand and sat along the river with our feet dangling over the side. Honestly, i think I found heaven in Camden town with my two lovely friends! We later went and spent our inheritance on clothes and what-not in the markets. It was a blast! Afterwards, we walked (or rather, hiked) to Primrose hill. At the tippety top we could see an amazing view of london and the whole skyline. And on top of that hill we sat like locals, looked out, and really "soaked up london" as cindy had advised me to do. Absolutely lovely :)

After that we took a black cab to kings cross station where they have the famous platform 9 and 3/4 in harry potter. It was totally bunk... not even close to the real thing! So instead we walked up to around where petra lives in london and went to a really nice pub on the camden river thingy that runs through town. Steve met us there, and it was really nice to meet him. What a nice guy! Afterwards, we took a bus back to waterloo station, hopped on a train, got back to woking, jumped in a cab, got back to cindy's, practically threw our stuff inside the house and ran to eric and sally's for dinner (we were already late). We had a fantastinc dinner with eric and sally (they always treat us like royalty those two). Now it's 2 in the morning and we've supped on wine and good food with even better company.

Off to bed and then early rise for another full day in london!

xoxoxox sending my love

Thanks Alba and Gurrio for being such great tourguides! London wouldn't have been as fun without you :)

Gurrio, Alba, Gabby, and I in front of the British Museum in London. We all had a great day together!

We just got back from a wonderful day in london, Alba and her boyfriend gurrio were really nice and took us around the city. It was really nice to see Alba today!! She's such a good old friend of mine, and we hadn't seen each other for ages. But once we got together it was like no time had passed!

We walked almost the whole day around london. We went to the british museum for like ten mins (becasue it closed). we'll go back tomorrow though! And we saw big ben (alba kept calling it big bang), parliament, and a lot of really cool markets, shops, buildings, rivers, people... you name it! It definitely wasn't the london I remembered when I came here as a kid, but nevertheless it was still awesome. Just the smell and the people are so different than they are at home!

We got a coffee from mcdonalds (alba and her bf work there so we got it for free ha) and walked along the river thames. It was so beautiful, but really cold! I borrowed a leather jacket that was on a coat hanger downstairs (i still don't know whose it is!) but it kept me warm. hopefully i can borrow it again tomorrow!

At night we walked around lots of the famous squares and ended up in china town and soho, and somehow landed in a bar to drink. After we got in, went to the bathroom, and walked up to the bar, we noticed there was a picture of a naked man on the wall, and the whole room was filled with very well-manicured looking men. It was a gay bar! We got a beer anyway, and stayed till they closed... about a half an hour. Then we walked to the underground/metro and took it to the major train station and caught the train to woking where cindy lives.

Now we're here counting our change, looking through pictures, and trying to get tired so we can sleep and wake up for the 11 oclock train in the morning to go back to London!

Hope everyone is well, I miss you all, and wish you could see all this!

Love

HEY GUYS!

Me and gabby are in London!! It was a really good flight, good food, and I got in around 9.30 am, waited for gab until 12 pm, caught the bus at 12.50, arrived in woking at 1.45 and Petra came and picked us up in her little car! We are now at cindy's house deciding what to do. the weather is terrible... it feels like winter! We are rather exhausted but happy to be here. More later!

:D

From 37,000 feet up in the air.... On the plane to New York!

I'm super stoked there is wifi on the plane. Of course it cost me an arm and a leg, but totally worth it! I'm flying business class for the first time, and lemme tell ya, I may never go back! My big comfy chair has a leg rest and a ridiculously huge amount of leg room. The flight attendants have been really cheery serving us water in little plastic wine glasses, hot towels (are those for your face?), a breakfast menu and then breakfast. Oh breakfast! I got scrambled eggs with bell pepper, jack cheese, and little potatoes, plus a warm biscuit and fruit (actual real fruit!). And, of course, all of this was served on a transportable table cloth and we were given silverware. How did I not know about this before?!

We've flown over the grand canyon and some snowy mountains in colorado (didn't know mountains could still have snow in june!). So far it's been really pretty :)

Can't wait to see New York!

Oh, and happy summer everyone. It's official!