Yesterday when I was walking to school I started thinking. Like really thinking. Somehow I never have time to actually think when I'm at school studying, but I never have this consciousness until my thoughts come back to me. Yesterday morning for the first time in ages my mind was actually clear. I could challenge things and ask myself questions, groping my way through the chasm of swirling knowledge that my mind has become. The voice inside my head had me so captivated that I didn't even notice my friends had become silent as we walked. The interesting part is that my thoughts weren't even that profound. I was thinking about all the places I had travelled to, and how easy it had been for me to feel the national culture. For instance, in argentina the untroubled youth thrives off the sensuality of tango and the buzz of mate. The elderly muffle their past losses in coffee shops, criticizing the youth for their even tempers. I get it. There's a national food, a national people, a national vibe. For some reason, I'm struggling to come to conclusions about greece. This country has worn so many different hats that it's nearly impossible to decipher who she really is. In ancient times, Greece obviously boasted some of the greatest thinkers of all time in a world where democracy was budding and gods roamed the seas. So there's that greece. But then there's the greece that's Byzantine, devout to orthodox christianity, denouncing the paganism of the past. And yet again, there's the greece that's Ottoman, completely multicultural, eastern, 'backward'. And of course now there's the greece that was constructed after 1832, a fantastic rendition of the 'exemplary' parts of history. But how can you pick and choose? This nation has so much history that it has purposefully erased. The split from Turkey left the people so wounded and angry that they'll reject anything Turkish and try to make everything greek. Turkish coffee is the same damn thing as greek coffee. What's the point? I feel like greece is a three year old child going through the 'mine' phase. But ironically, this process of claiming a select history, adopting a people and morphing a culture has left me feeling hollow. Who is greece really? Obviously greece has the tourist attractions, the acropolis, the islands, gyros. But I want a face to associate with this country. Just a face, that's all I ask. I can create my version of her in my mind's eye, but that's just as bad as not having one at all. I guess at this point I'm at a dead end. My perception may be the only thing to rely on. But I still have 9 days and I'm determined. I'm going to discover what is really, truly, inherently Greek. It can't be a conscious decision. I have to feel it. It has to come from within me. I know it'll hit me eventually, probably more like a brick to the face than a feather on the cheek.

I'm ready. Bring it.

pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150261491149661.345679.732944660&l=ae4860387e&type=1

pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150261491149661.345679.732944660&l=ae4860387e&type=1

Kalispera guys!

It's wednesday afternoon and i'm sittin on my backside in Elly and Reem's apartment working on the readings. Actually, taking a break from the readings. It's insaaaaanely hot here in Athens right now... monday marked the beginning of their first heat wave and today it's definitely over 100 degrees. Insanity! So instead of romping around the city I'm sitting inside like a cow getting fanned by the air conditioner as is the rest of the country. So I don't feel so bad!

It's kinda hitting me that we only have ten days left in Greece. This weekend we're taking an excursion to Volos in Thessaly and we're going to be toured by one of Greece's leading experts in pre-modern greek economics. Supposedly on saturday (dad, you would like this!), we're taking an old locomotive up the side of a mountain near volos. Should be a good time!

Last weekend we had one of the most amazing weekends in recent memory. Gab, Reem, Ellie, and I met up with Jason and Lindsey in Mykonos! Mykonos is known for being one of the biggest party spots in the world, so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. But I'll tell ya, Mykonos was swarming with beautiful people from around the world ready to have a good time and dance their little socks off. On the ferry over my friend ellie met a guy from south africa and he told us about a concert happening at paradise beach that night. So when we got on the boat we were on a mission! We found our hotel after waiting forever for a taxi, ate a wickedly expensive dinner at the base of the port, and headed out on a wild goose chase to Paradise beach club near the center of Mykonos. It cost 30 euros, and I really wasn't keen to go in (I'm becoming increasingly thrifty like my mumsie). But once we got inside we had the absolute BEST time!! Liana and I have been dreaming of dancing in a european club since like elementary school, and this was definitely it. I was bummed she wasn't there with me, but there is always a next time. So anyway, we got to see this DJ called AfroJack, a dutch DJ who is one of the best and most famous in the world. And for good reason! His mixes were amaaaaazing and it was so so so much fun!! He came on at 3am (welcome to mykonos) and by about 4am jason and lindsey had had enough and were ready to go. At that point, us girls jumped into the middle of the crowd and eventually made our way to the very front, right next to afrojack! You could absolutely feel the energy of the people in the crowd; quite literally the place was pulsing with every beat. About an hour later, afrojack busted out a bottle of champagne and sprayed it all over the people in the front few rows (ie. us) and we basically took a shower in champagne. Giddy with excitement, we danced until around 6.30am when we realized the sun had come up and we had better get home. Definitely a really fun night!

The next day we woke up around noon after sardining-it in with four of us girls in a queen-sized bed. We rolled over to the beach, soaked up the sun, and totally enjoyed ourselves. It sounds really weird saying all of this, and I almost feel like it didn't happen. At around 8.30 we left the beach and got ready to go out for dinner. We ended up in the main center of town at an incredibly busy restaurant. We revived with some food and later gelato, and later ended up at a club called Space. We had heard it got busy at 1am, but when we showed up at 1 it was dead as a doornail. So we all hung out for a little and it eventually got busy around 2.30 or 3. Typical! I only had one drink so I had a really great time, but one of my friends had one (or in this case a zillion) too many and ended up shmammered. In any case, Reem had a friend from Saudi Arabia who was in the same club by chance, so we got to meet him and his friends. Later I danced with his friend from Jordan who was about 5 feet tall and reeked of grey goose. But all of them were really nice! Anyway, to make a long story long, we finished up the night with a chocolate crepe and got home in a taxi around 5.15am.

Our ferry the next morning left at 9.50am, soooo we were essentially sleepwalking to the boat. But the bright side was we were going to NAXOS!!! Now, for those of you who have yet to experience it's glory, Naxos is one of The most beautiful places on the face of the earth. It is the largest island in the cyclades and it largely still preserves its countryside. Definitely lest touristy than Mykonos, Naxos boasts gorgeous beaches, a quaint little town, and fantastic seaside restaurants that all look like little outdoor living rooms. Again, I wished liana could see this... there were naked lightbulbs around nearly every corner (necessarry in the liana allison utopia). Even though we were only there for one night, we celebrated Jason's 26th birthday, went to the beach, went shopping, ate amazing food and gelato, and had fat smiles on our faces like never before. Honestly, it was like a dream world. I looked into real estate on Naxos and it was incredibly affordable given the recent economic crisis. So I think from now on if anyone ever wants to give me a gift I'm going to ask for a donation to the Allison-wants-to-buy-a-house-in-naxos fund. It's that cool!

On Sunday we left for athens on a 7 hour ferry ride across the aegean. It was incredibly long but equally gorgeous. When we finally got to Pireaus, it was 1am and and we hopped into a taxi cab that ripped us off like no other and practically tried to kill us on the way home with his crazy macho driving. Lame.

The next morning we had class at 9 and I surprised myself with my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed-ness. After all, we had just had the weekend of a lifetime!

It got even better.... last night a few of us saw a modern ballet performance at the Odeon of Herodes Theater at the base of the Acropolis. I had one of those moments when you're smiling and you don't know why. Everything felt so alive sitting in that theater with the stars above us scattered across the velvety purple sky and the acropolis standing majestically behind us. The ballet itself was incredible too. I'm just in awe of how cool life can be.

I hope y'all are doing well, I'm sending everyone my love and good vibes.

Ps, I had some rather existential thoughts about greece this afternoon and i thought I would write a blog about it, so maybe that's to come!

xoxox Allison

Hey guys,

It's 7 o'clock in Athens and still 95 degrees. So I'm taking refuge in my shady room taking naps and working on the readings for the class. Today our class was about greece after the war of independence and gender roles in greece that dominated society before the 1950s. Since I took his archeology class in the spring, I had already heard this exact lecture, so I twiddled my thumbs and listened to my classmates as they laughed at the stories I had already heard. Then Gab and I got a gyro on the way home. Seriously, the greek food we have at home can't shake a stick at this stuff! It's a warm pita (almost too hot to touch), a fresh chicken kabob (or lamb), fresh tzaziki sauce with bits of cucumber, dripping red tomatoes, lettuce, and incredibly well seasoned potato slices. I'm in heaven! With our full bellies we came back to the apartment and I slept for a solid 2 hours. I'm trying to kick this everlasting cold, and I decided laying low is the way to do it. After, I talked to mumsie and since then I've just been catching up with laundry and homework. I found out today I got an A on my first paper, so no worries there! tonight most of our group is going to see the harry potter premiere at a theater in our neighborhood. I'm really excited to see the movie, but opted to go tomorrow instead of tonight because tonight they're showing the 2nd to last movie in the series at 9 and the new movie (the last in the series) at midnight in 3D at a normal theater. Instead, I'm going tomorrow with Gab and a few other people to an open air theater in a park down the street where we're watching it at a decent time in 2D. Much better :) So tonight I think Gab and I are going to have a date night at a tavern we've been meaning to go to at the end of our street. Tomorrow our class is going on an excursion around athens, i think to the national cathedral and a few museums about the city of athens and old houses or something. Should be good!

Just now my roommate leah is making pasta and the smell instantly reminded me of my dad's spaghetti. It brought a little tear to my eye... I feel like running down to the kitchen and sitting down with my parents to a plate of spaghetti. I guess no matter where I go I'll always have a little piece of home with me. Love you guys!

Eating freshly-made pizza in our apartment with Leah, Jason, and Lindsey!

Buying pottery in Plaka. Jason was a great help in making decisions :p

Eating lunch in Monastiraki :) So happy to see these two!

The main plaza in Tripoli

Lovin' me some pottery!

Lunch with Reem in a tiny village in the mountains of the Peleponnesos.

The view from our hotel in Nafplion!!

From the top of the Acrocorithos. I know, it looks like I have spider monkey arms.

Standing over the Isthmus of Corinth between the mainland and the Peleponnesos.

Buenos dias!

I'm sitting at my favorite coffee shop in Syntagma square right now, enjoying a fresh-squeezed orange juice and attempting to study. But instead I thought I would update y'all on what's been going on! This weekend, our class followed in the footsteps of the Greek War of independence. We drove on a huge bus from athens to the Peleponnessos (the massive chunk of land to the west of Athens). We first stopped at the isthmus of Corinth where incredibly skilled architects carved a canal out of a huge chunk of land. It was SO deep and the water was so blue! After that. we drove to a massive fortress in Acrocorinth. In all it's ling history, this fortress was never, ever taken by force. It was only ever conquered by siege. It was completely tourist-free (besides us) so it was really easy to see what life would have been like living and fighting up there. Gnarly stuff. The ground was littered with shards of pottery, and my professor slipped me a couple of small pieces for me to keep because he knows how much I love it! He said potentially after the class if I work with him more on archeology we can reconstruct the whole pieces of pottery from the tiny shards we collected. SO COOL!

After Acrocorinth, we drove to Nafplion, a tiny town on the south coast of the Peleponnese that was the first capital of greece. We stayed in an ancient fortress that had been converted into an amazing hotel. Our room had sweeping views of the sea and the town below. Gab and I definitely did a happy dance or two when we saw the view out our window! That night we toured around the city, saw an old mosque and a madrasa, and then walked to a restaurant up in the hills for dinner. It was run by a really nice family in their home. They invited some friends to come over and play live music for us, and after we finished dinner (which was AMAZING by the way... tender lamb from the local hills, incredibly fresh greek salads, and honey cake), we all got up and danced our version of traditional greek dance (in a circle, snapping a lot, and saying 'opa!'). We all had the silliest smiles on our faces, enjoying every bit of the night. Afterwards, we all went out to a club/bar on the water and danced our little hearts out. In short, Nafplion (and friday in general) was an incredible success. Definitely some of the best memories I've had on this trip so far!

On sunday morning we had a glorious complementary breakfast overlooking the pool and the ocean, got back on the bus, and drove to a tiny little town up in the mountains. The driving was pretty treacherous.... I held my breath a bit as our massive tour bus went over zillion year-old bridges made for donkeys and hand carts. But our driver was a master. He seriously could have driven that bus through an IV without a problem. We had a delicious lunch (I'm now realizing I keep track of my day by the meals I eat) and then drove to another little village to see some traditional mills. Since our class is also studying traditional greek life of 19th century peasants, this was a must see. There was a corn mill, a tannery and a gun powder maker-area all in the same place. And a bonus: the bathroom was literally a hole in the ground, and I mastered it like a pro :p

After that we drove to Sparta to see an olive oil museum. The drive was really long and the museum proved a bit unnecessary. But I busied myself with the amazing storage pottery they had at the museum. I was a happy girl! After that we drove to Tripoli but didn't do any touring around. we just had dinner, lots of wine, and a great nights sleep. I was really excited becasue the hotel in tripoli was playing Buena Vista Social Club at breakfast :)

In the morning we drove back to Athens! I met up with Jason and Lindsey, and went to Plaka and the Monastiraki flea market. It was really great to see them! I was surprised at my tour-guide skills after being here a short two weeks. Pretty soon I'm going to be a local! We had a great aftrnoon stolling thorugh the streets, eating gelato and buying pottery :) Afterwards, we all went back to my apartment and chilled with my roommates for a while. For dinner we went to a pizza place down the street where a dude made our pizzas by hand starting with a dough ball and then baking them in a wood-fired oven. It was delectable! We all hung out and chatted until J and Linds went back to their apartment.

This morning I waslked to their place to get some free hotel breakfast and then we went to syntagma and had coffees together. It was a great time! Definitely nice to be around people you love :)

Okay.... I really need to study, so that's all for now! I hope everyone is doing really well, enjoying the beautiful California weather, and livin the dream!

xoxox Allison

Kali mera!

I'm coming back after a mini drought of blogging. Seems as though the greek lifestyle has swept me away, enamoring me with warm afternoons, wonderful friends, fantastic food, and surreal landscapes. My friend Elly mentioned the other day that Greek mythology makes a lot of sense once you're here. You sort of fall in love with the ocean, the sun, and everything in between, becoming enraptured with the incorporeal majesty of life. Even though the state of greece is in absolute shambles and the government is essentially blown, the natural beauty of the country and the spirit of the people breathe life into a dead skeleton of a system.

I got my first glimpse of this beauty on our walk to Lykavittos Hill where we saw a panoramic view of the city. But this weekend I think I truly got introduced to Greece. It's way more than antiquity, with all the ruins and important documents. Don't get me wrong, those are incredibly important and worth studying. But what I saw this weekend wasn't out of a textbook. I saw real people, real situations, real anger, real fear, real hope, and real unity. Screw what you hear in the news, the people in greece are living their lives the best they know how. They want the best for their families and children just like you do. We've began to look at political situations in a dehumanized way, and it pains me to think we've forgotten about the people involved across the board. We owe it to ourselves to end myopia.

Anyway. I'm learning.

But back to this weekend, we all had amazing experiences. Seriously, this weekend was one of the top 10 days of my life. Sorry for all the serious crap I wrote before this, I have no idea where that came from because I'm in a really good mood. Whateva. But anyway, Gabby and I have become insanely good friends with Reem and Elly. Literally, all four of us are so happy that we just smile our brains out when we're around each other. It's a beautiful thing. ALSO, some news for y'all, Gabby and I decided we want Reem to live with us next year, and she agreed! We're so happy :) Also in the news, last night Gab and I chatted with Professor Gallant and his wife Mary in the patio and he basically offered me a job to work with him. He didn't really go into details, but said something like "I was going to tell you this at a later time, but now that you mention it (I said something about one of his PhD students), I wanted to offer you a position as a fellowship/intern/stipend-given researcher". I didn't know what to say! His wife Mary bumped me and said, "honey, you can close your mouth now" (my jaw had dropped, apparenty). So, new things to think about. This is a major opportunity to work with Gallant as one of his protegees. He has major connections all over the world. And I know I enjoy archeology and social/ historical anthropology, but this wasn't exactly what I had planned for myself. Decisions, decisions. Regardless, I'm thrilled to even have the opportunity and some deep thinking is certainly going to ensue.

SO, getting back to this weekend, on Saturday we went to an island called Aegina (said "eggina") that is a less touristy island but is still near Athens. Ya'll have probably seen the pictures on fbook, but it was so so so beautiful!! The ocean was crystal clear and it felt like bathwater. Us four girls had the time of our lives tanning on the beach and swimming in the water. We all rented 4-wheeler quads and rode around the island for 2 or 3 hours into the interior of Aegina. One of the guys in our group rented a vespa, so halfway through I asked if I could drive it. It was so LEGIT! I can't even believe I rode around one of the most beautiful, traditional islands in the world on a vespa. I was smiling so big I got bugs in my teeth. It was one of those omg-pinch-yourself-you-are-living-in-a-dream moments. Later we got back on the ferry and watched the sun set over the mountains of the islands, a red ball of fire slowly slinking away. The water turned from crystal turquoise to fiery orange and red. I couldn't imagine a better ending.

On sunday we all went to the flea market in athens and saw some pretty cool stuff. I was expeting more reasonable prices, especially becasue most people at the market were greeks. Nevertheless, I found some good bargains on leather sandals and silver jewelry. In the afternoon, reem and I met up with her cousin who lives in Athens. She treated us to a beautiful lunch at the end of the flea market. Later, Reem and I meandered slowly back through the flea market, Monasteraki, Plaka, Syntagma and finally Pangrati where we live. With such hot weather you find yourself never in a hurry. I could get used to this :) Last night gab, Elly, reem, and I went out to dinner at Platea Varnavas and ate delicious food by candlelight. Can't complain!

Today so far we've had lecture (the first half I struggled hard core to stay awake but perked up after a greek coffee at the break). The only downside is I'm getting sick. Like the kind where it feels like you swallowed a thistle and it got caught in your throat. I've been ODing on vitamins and I hope to catch up on sleep this afternoon.

I wish you all well and love you all. xoxoxo