The Jenkins boys playing a little post-dinner football in the back yard.

Backyard dinner at the Jenkins'.

Annabelllla :)

Lunch in town with Annabelle, Wills, Currio, Alba, and Petra. Lovely to see them all!

Hey y'all!

I haven't written in so long and I feel so discombobulated. Where to begin?? I guess for starters, I'm back in California after a whirlwind trip across the world. I left carolyn and the jenkins at 8am british time and got to LA 7pm California time. Sooo 19 hours total? something like that. Whatever the case, my mumsie picked me up, got me dinner from chronic tacos, and drove me to the oceanside beach house to see jason, my dad, and jose :) it was so good to see everyone! Right now everything feels like a dream. Everything... from london to greece, back to london and then home again. It's like i got in a time capsule when i boarded the plane 6 weeks ago. Suddenly i've been whipped halfway across the world and back again in a time warp boomerang. thank goodness for pictures; i need proof it wasn't all just a dream. the truth is, I absolutely feel sick today. I can't find my footing and I'm dizzy as hell. I guess that's jet lag for ya.

Looking past my jello-ness, I'll try and report about my last week and a half in europe. After my last moody post we had a really interesting time in Volos, a city on the east coast of mainland greece abut halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki. The best night for me was when a few of us girls saw the local football team, olympiakos volos, play fk rad Belgrade. it was absolutely surreal to be in europe watching a soccer game with a zillion die-hard fans chanting and cheering. Other than that, Volos was a school trip designated to learning about greece's industrialization. Aka old rusty trains and brick museums. But the waterfront was gorgeous, and gab and I got to try a ton of cool sea food with the local drink, tsipouro. Strong stuff, but it made the brick museum a lot of fun!

After volos, we came back to athens and had a week until our final exam on thursday. Basically we all had to cram 200 years of greek history into our vacationed-out pea brains; not exactly what i had pictured. But it needed to be done, and the final proved to be toothless. That night we all went to Gazi, the major nightclub area where we danced our little hearts out until the metro opened again at 5.30am. the next day we dragged our hung-over carcasses out of bed and went into town to do some last-minute shopping and saw our goodbyes to athens. that night we all went to an incredible restaurant in Plaka that had a view of the acropolis all lit up. The food was amazing and the company was even better. I have to say, that night was bitter sweet. We were still feeling the high from the last few weeks but dreading the next day when we had to leave. So later that night I finally got to bed around 3.30am and the bus came to pick us up at 5am. it was awesome. Gab and I got on the plane, slept, and got to london. She had some issues with the next flight that finally got sorted out, and I met up with carolyn who took me to the jenkins' house.

It was SO awesome staying with the jenkins. They really feel like family to me. I stayed there for three-ish days but it felt like half a day. They took really good care of me... feeding me delicious food and lending me a big fluffy bed to rest in. The weather was beautiful.. so nice we went in the pool every day. They're all coming out to california in a couple of weeks. I'm so excited to see them again!

So now i'm sitting here at the beach, scraping my brain for remnants of what I used to know, of what used to come naturally. My fingers feel clumsy when i text and it feels foreign putting toilet paper down the toilet. But these are all little insignificant accents to the big story of it all. I can't say i'm the same person i was 6 weeks ago, and i'm glad about that.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I stopped looking for a face to label greece a few days after i wrote that last post. Getting stuck in the past blinded me to the living, breathing city that was right in front of my nose. Read into that last post a little more, and you'll see that I, Allison Van Vooren, am Greece. Straight up.

Thanks everyone for following me on this adventure around the world. I hope you've enjoyed my brambling, and I'll catch you all when I make my next journey.

Much love, Allison.

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!