Poet Sandals? Absolutely.

January 25 and 26

Hey again everyone!

I can't tell you how much I love it when people tell me that they're reading my blog! Thank you all so much for following through this incredible experience with me! Now, for the happenings of the past couple of days!

On Tuesday I only had one class, Paul, which, if I'm going to be completely honest, I could hardly stay awake during! I really need to work harder at actually getting sleep, but it's so hard to go up to my room when everyone is down here until curfew every night. I'll definitely do better though! Since I only had one class Angela and I went for a little jog down by the bay. That's when we decided that we are way more out of shape than we thought and getting back into shape is becoming a top priority! Also, maybe I ate 6 too many cheese pastries before I went, don't judge.

After class Kelcey and I pretty much passed out for 45 minutes in our room for the hardest nap I've ever taken in my life, but it was absolutely glorious! Then we had lunch and then.. the real excitement. ATHENS! Kelcey and I drove with Dr. Mike to the Koropi station with Mark and then waited for the metro. People here are just absolutely amazed that I would wear chacos in 60 degree weather so we got several stares, not to mention our American-ness and Mark's super heavy camera gear. We finally arrived in Athens with the goal of looking for the Poet shop, this incredible place where they make your sandals and then adjust them to your feet! The owner is the third generation to own this shop, he's made shoes for John Lennon and, wait for it, Bob Saget. I knew I had to have a pair! He's just a really cool guy in general, he went to underground in New York and has written several plays surrounding Greek Mythology.

Kelcey and I were the first two done with our shoes, so we headed off to find things on our own with the plan to meet everyone at our embassy (aka. Starbucks), and we explored! We initially looked for the meat market, which I don't actually believe exists, and then we just decided to carry on our way. We went into a few shops and met a few people, of course practicing the 6 words we know in Greek. One woman talked for us for awhile, she spoke really good English and walked around teaching us different words :). I would love to go back there and actually buy something from the shop, she had such great items! We explored a bit more, and went into H&M :). I smile just thinking about that store. I only bought one thing, but when I went up to the counter I said "yasas" which is hello. The guy said something super quickly and when I gave him a blank stare he said, "Oh, you don't actually speak Greek do you?" I burst out laughing and was like no, but did you think I did?! And he DID! So basically if all I say is hello I can totally pass for a Greek person. Erm.. well, at least that I speak Greek.

We met back up with everyone and went to Sabbas to get some gyros for dinner and then we had to RUN to catch the last metro. We just barely made it, but we did have to switch a few times, we were very proud of ourselves for navigating back on our own!

Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day, with one exception. We had class and then four of us went to a bistro by the bay to do some homework while most of the group climbed "the mountain." While we were there we heard this noise in the upper corner of the roof. It was an absolutely awful sound, it was a squealing cat. It sounded like it was fighting something, everyone in the restaurant kept staring at the corner. We think...it died. The reason we think that? We heard whimper after whimper after whimper, until it finally stopped. It was awful!

So, hopefully if you ever visit Greece you'll have more luck than this poor cat on the roof. Hopefully I'll have more luck than that poor cat on the roof, but I think I will :).