Eden Beach Hotel Resort Anavyssos

I am shamelessly stealing Papia's phrase for the title of this entry because it perfectly encapsulates the blending of two cultures that was the Thanksgiving potluck dinner tonight at the program. We had a crowd of almost 40 people, including students, their guests, program staff, and professors. The turnout was amazing and everybody dressed up for the special occasion. Unfortunately, Bellingham and Scout were off traveling, and ...

... around 158 B.C., was completely rebuilt in the 1950s and is, aside from its lack of colour, entirely faithful to the original. This building used to be a market, but is now partly a museum containing fascinating remains. Walking through its columned hallway really makes you feel as if you've gone back to ancient Greece, and I loved that! The site of the Ancient Agora also contains the Temple of Hephaistos, the best-preserved temple of ancient ...

... handouts, syllabi, artifacts, and research. b. Handmaking gifts for all the staff in the program and postcards from home to give out to new friends. c. Making my photo flip book. I printed pictures of my state, my university, my family, and my cats, and added captions in Greek to explain each one. Good to show new friends to get beyond "Hello, pleased to meet you." d. Subscribing to the $5 per month Skype plan where Bear can call my landline in Athens from the computer in ...

... where I worked mostly one-on-one with professors rather than sitting in class: it's because I'm unfit to be a student in a regular classroom. I'm that obnoxious nerdy student the cool kids hate. I'm so excited to show the professor what I have worked so hard to already know, and I'm even more excited to learn from the professor all the amazing things I don't already know. I want to ask a million questions. I want to do extra work to learn more. I ...

... same time, and the island prepared answers with frequent sections of one lane roads. Renting your own vehicle would also have allowed more freedom for exploration, like following one of the wine roads. The peculiar Greek grapes grow without the propping of trelices rather like yams. If you do take the local bus like I did, be patient and give yourself plenty of time. I almost missed the boat back to Athens when our bus to the harbor took over an hour rather than ...

... 6am start that morning and not looking forward to the 4:45am start the next day for our ferry to Santorini. In summary I can give Athens a miss at this point it is dirty, smelly and the dogs are not fun. So here I am sitting at our hotel in Santorini on a balcony of sorts looking at nothing but other islands, water and the ferries as they come and go it is quite warm probably high 20's and it is nearly 6pm as we watch the sun begin to set over Oia. The ...

... next Monday the 30th...oh well. We had a nice lunch, and walked the charming pedestrian alleys of Plaka...bought a painting, fresh squeezed orange juice, earrings for the girls (Mia plans to pierce her ears...we told her yes, in 2 years)! We decided to have a nice quiet family day. Daan and I had a beer on the upper terrace, while the children played hide and seek...it's an awesome place for hide and seek, lots of little closets, corners ...

... need to tell you all why we took the bus. Well basically travelling from the north side to the south side of Crete is basically impossible on anything less than motor vehicle we took the advice of the 'locals' and stuck with the bus. I am glad we did, it would have taken us about 2 weeks just to get here otherwise, and its only 55kms from Tavronitis! We arrived in Paleohora at noon and got the local campsite and set up our new home (I am beginning to feel a ...

... and a few drinks in the rooftop bar overlooking the Acropolis, we finally had a goods nights sleep. Today we got up reasonably early and tried to tackle the Acropolis. It is massive and you can see it from almost any place in Athens. The main attractions are; The Temple of Athena Nike which was being restored at the time, The Erechtheion, which is as often photographed as the Parthenon because of the six ladies who support the portico and are still there today, and of course the ...

... without thinking, as we had done with transportation in every city, when on came the dreaded ticket checker. We tried the not understanding card. No dice. The man simply said "You must pay 40 times", which was exactly 20 euros. Poop. We got busted. So we hopped off the bus, each paying 20 euros, and headed on the acropolis, feeling ashamed. After the acropolis, excitingly, we followed debbie around while she looked for a specific pair of 'earrings' which, in my opinion, is the ...