Words Words Words

Name the good days, right? Even if nothing happens. Today, the weather was beautiful. Today, we ate at cafe rouge (french..), had a very amusing science class. But most of all today was great because I have been reading poetry (hundreds probably), and I am full of all the pretty words. Even if it was dreary and horrible outside I would love the ambiguity of my feelings. Here we are in London, and every day is great because I'm surrounded by people I enjoy and people I can laugh with and people that I can kind of feel changing me. And everyday I'm sad that this semester will end and the new flock of pepperdiners will come in and be different and corrupt the ground that those who came before walked on and the rooms that they slept in and all that jazz thats oh so jaded. Thats just the way it goes I guess. So here are the poems I now have posted on my bed:

The Leaden-Eyed by Ezra Pound

Let not the young souls be smothered out before
They do quaint deets and fully flaunt their pride.
It is the worlds one crime its babes grow dull,
Its poor are ox-like, limp and leaden-eyed.

Not that they starve, but starve so dreamlessly,
Not that they sow, but that they seldom reap,
Not that they serve, but have no gods to serve,
Not that they die, but that they die like sheep.


Prayer by Carol Ann Duffy

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade I piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer--
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.


The Horses by Michael Longley

For all the horses butchered on the battlefield,
Shell-shocked, tripping over their own intestines,
Drowning in the mud, the best war memorial
Is in Homer: two horses that refuse to budge
Despite threats and sweet-talk and the whistling whip,
Immovable as a tombstone, their heads drooping
In front of the steamlined motionless chariot,
Hot tears spilling from their eyelinds onto the ground
Because they are still in mourning for Patroclus
Their charioteer, their shiny manes bedraggled
Under the yoke pads on either side of the yoke.


Homage To My Hips by Lucille Clifton

these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in
they don't fit into little
petty placed. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
I have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!


and lastly, Clear Night by Charles Wright

Clear night, thumb-top of a moon, a black-lit sky.
Moon-fingers lay down their same routine
On the side deck and the threshold, the white keys and the
' black keys
Bird hush and bird song. A cassia flower falls.

I want to be bruised by God.
I want to be strung up in the strong light and singled out.
I want to be stretched, like music wrung from a dropped seed.
I want to be entered and picked clean.

And the wind says 'What?' to me.
And the castor beans, with their little earrings of death, say
' 'What?' to me.
And the stars start out on their cold slide through the dark.
And the gears notch and the engines wheel.

First Day In Italy: Thorns and Mud

Pictures coming soon! Please check again!

At five o clock this morning Meggan and I left the house. We never went to sleep. We packed. We took showers we did laundry, put our makeup back on, and eventually headed out the door. So began fall break. First came the tube. Then came Liverpool Station. Then the train to Stanstead. It was really all a blur. I bought some books while we waited for our gate to be announced, walked like a zombie to our plane, read three pages of my book (Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian!! Was so excited to find American Novels at the Airport), and then promptly feel asleep for the next three hours.

As we were landing, I woke up and looked out the window to find Italy in all its autumnal wonder. Meggan and I got off the airplane and made our way to baggage claim. First we had to pass through passport check. Evidently Italians have no qualms with allowing Americans in with the mere nod of a head. We found baggage claim with relative ease. There was our bag. Success! Exiting the airport, we found ourselves searched the faces and few signs that congregated on the other side for our names, or anything have to do with the horseback riding adventure we were hoping to attend. Nothing. No one. So we stood there for ten minutes as Italian guys asked us if we needed a ride. No, thank you very much. We have a destination. We have a driver. We have a planned holiday. I hope!

I began to realize how very little planning actually went into the trip. I contacted a woman named Sarah just to ask her whether or not lunches were part of the program listed on the internet and to get any additional information. Basically, she just informed us that it was fun and there would be lots of horseback riding. We were sold. We bought plane tickets and filled out a one page form and faxed it in. Otherwise, we didn’t have to do anything. As I stood in the Ciampino, Airport outside of Rome, I began to think it had been a little too easy. What if the website and that nice woman Sarah had all been fake and there were no horses and this was going to be Taken all over again except real life this time instead of just in the theater. Obviously, I wasn’t panicking on the outside, but I was just the slightest bit worried on the inside.

Luckily though, a woman finally found us. She had on a riding jacket that read Castello di S. Cristina. She led us to the car. The hoof pick that was laying on the floor of the back seat calmed any fears I might have had.

It took 2 and a half hours to get to the Castle. I slept with my face pointed straight up into the air. Meggan says she was talking to our driver, a nice Italian woman with an Australian accent, and would turn back to include me in the conversation and find me asleep in various uncomfortable look positions. I must have looked funny, but she said she couldn’t think of anything but how jealous she was of my ability to sleep. This nice Italian woman had an Italian name that went with her, but right now I can’t remember it. She had lived in Australia for 15 years. For those of you who know what I’m talking about, she was pretty much Moira from McLeod’s Daughters to a tee.

So, we arrived at the Castle, but we didn’t go to the castle right away. First, Moira brought us down to the arena and tack room where there was a series of hitching posts with horses attached to them. There, we met Ewa (pronounced Eva) a blond haired polish girl who would be our trail guide. The next thing on the agenda was our introductory ride, but first we brought our things to our room, which was huge! There was small kitchen, a living area, a large bedroom, and then finally a pretty spacey bathroom. After we changed into riding clothes, Meggan and I headed back down to the arena.

We mounted up. I, on a large dark bay, and Meggan on a pretty robust looking liver chestnut. Then we headed out on a two hour ride. The thing about Tuscany this time of year, evidently, is that it rains a lot. This, at least, is what I’m told. So the track was really quite muddy. We did some walking at first, progressed into a trot, and finally into a canter. My horse, whose name started with a P, but was Italian so I can’t really remember. Anyway, he was pretty fast. Ewa was on a little dapple mount that was slow compared to the honkers we were on. So it was quite a challenge to keep behind her. We managed it pretty well though. The countryside around us was absolutely stunning despite the fact that the sky was overcast.

The highlight of this ride (or at least the first highlight) was when we began to trot up this little slope. At some point, Meggan and Ringo, the liver chestnut, had fallen behind us quite a bit. Ewa and I stopped our horses and looked behind us thinking Meggan would be mounted atop Ringo right behind us. Instead, Ringo was barreling towards us at a pretty good canter bridleless. We found Meggan, in turn, not far behind us running behind him holding the bridle in her hands. As Ringo came barreling towards us I was faced with a decision: to block him in hope that he would stop, or to move out of the way he fear in that he wouldn’t. I moved out of the way. As Ewa and I had our horses standing right beside each other, Ringo squeezed a third into the line nearly taking my leg with him. Thank God for all those times Tordenn or Sonny tried to take my leg out on a fence post. Got pretty good at throwing it up in the air last second to get out of the way. So Ringo didn’t take me with him. Instead, he passed us and went about his business veraciously eating grass. Typical. Meggan explained that he had fallen behind and she had let him canter to catch up. He bucked out a tad in excitement, which she hadn’t expected and fell off. In trying to keep him from running away, she had grabbed at the bridle and accidently pulled it off. We got Ringo back, put the bridle back on, and then kept going.

Not much farther along in the ride the second highlight of the day occurred. Ewa explained to us that there would be a steep hill we would need to canter up. “It goes to the right, then the left, then the right, and then the left again so it’s important you keep the spaces and pay attention where you’re going.” Alrighty then. We had placed Meggan and Ringo back in between Ewa and I thinking that would be a better combination. I had thought that my horse would take a steady canter at a good speed up this hill. Instead, he ended up basically running up in full speed. As we rounded the first turn in the hill, Meggan was up ahead of us and Ringo let out a little buck again. I don’t remember much after that accept that Ringo and I went from booking it up the hill to him stopping abruptly and planting me in a prickly bush. Ewa said yesterday that she will never forget what I looked liked evidently gracefully flying through the air like I was about to do a cartwheel. I managed to keep a hold of the rains, but my landing was so muddy that I couldn’t stand up quick enough to keep my horse from running off. He pulled the rains out of my hand and quickly progressed up the hills. Meggan grabbed him by the stirrup, which was funny cause that wasn’t keeping him from going anywhere. When she realized that was pretty much in vain she let go. Ewa ended up catching him at the top of the hill. Meggan explained to me later that she had stopped Ringo pretty abruptly when he started to crow hop which left my horse with nowhere to go by the prickly thorn bush once we had rounded the corner. Only he didn’t really have to go in that seeing as I could fly in there all on my lonesome. Honest to God though, landing in that mud was the softest fall I’ve ever had. I wasn’t even sore from it the next day, and instead of making things scary it mainly just had an exhilarating effect to the ride, like a loop in the roller coaster. I laughed it off, telling Meggan that it was good that I had fallen since now we are even. It wouldn’t do for only one of us to fall! One fall each on the first day. A great beginning, right? I told Ewa jokingly that we could blame it on our lack of sleep.

We got back, changed into clean clothes dueled with helmet hair and headed to dinner. Dinner was amazing. We were the only people being served because it’s off season and it was a four course meal. With wine. Every meal you have in Italy accept breakfast seems to be served with wine. Every course was delicious. We felt quite spoiled because the cook served us an hour ahead of schedule because they all knew that we had to leave for Standstead so early. Our first night in Tuscany, and we went to bed at 8 o clock, which is 7 o clock London time. We didn’t even talk before bed. Just crashed.

Dear Coffee, please work your wonders...

Today has been a very long day, but I don't remember a majority of it.

First, I woke up fifteen minutes before class, started my makeup, went to History and then during the 10 minute break finished my makeup. Directly afterwards, I had Humanities. After Humanities, Hannah and I headed to Paul's to get lunch. I ordered my usual: a goat cheese and sweet pepper panini with a mocha. Accept this time... This time... they asked me if I wanted cream on my mocha!

Now the thing is that I haven't been going to Pauls regularly until just lately. My roommates have been going there for lunch almost everyday for a while, and have been getting coffee there all along. The thing is, I don't really drink that much coffee, but the past week or so I have started to just from pure exhaustion. They have never asked me if I wanted cream before. I thought to myself, "Oh, cream must be a new thing at Paul's," as if they didn't have it before. Then, Hannah informed me the truth. They only offer cream to their regulars! Isn't that so exciting?? I'm a regular now!!

Thats all. I have an essay to write, a English exam to study for, and another essay to write for tomorrow. And I just should probs get at least half of that done in the next four hours. Anyway, just had to get that down.
With lots of love,
Ciao

Two Weeks Notice

This past week and a half or so has been so glorious and so sad and so beautiful all wrapped into one. I have found something out in the mean time: I am a horrible blogger. I just can't write fast enough to get everything that has happened down. So, I'm going to try and break it down here.

First of all, Meagan and I went horseback riding in Wimbledon last Thursday,the 22nd. After riding in Hyde Park we were totally ready to be let down, but everything was wonderful. The horses were big (and slow in my case but that seems to always happen to me anyway) and the ride through the park was laden with autumn leaves. There were men walking their hunting dogs through the park. It was picturesque.

Natalie has had a rough couple weeks. This has effected us all, but in a good sort of way. She found out that three people in her life have died, all from different families. One the brother of one of her best friends. He died in a car accident. The kids were toilet papering. This was all going on while Natalie was in a serious funk. Her friends from Florence were in town. Its so hard to see people hurting, and knowing that you can't do anything to fix it. I was hurting for her. She was hurting for her friend because his brother had died, and then we all knew there was nothing really productive we could do about it but give condolences. That and let our friends talk. I guess the best we can do is let them talk it out. It did make me realize I little bit that that sort of thing can actually happen. When we least expect it. When we're having a good time. People get hurt. We're all vulnerable and breakable and temporal. And that's life, but it makes me feel good about being here and going places and taking all the opportunities to live that I can get.

I also had the opportunity to talk to Evanne, Ana, and Tati one night until something atrocious like 4 in the morning. It was soooo good to hear from them. It filled my bucket! We laughed and it felt like a little cyber sleep over. I loved it. I got all filled in on their lives and all the goings on and told them about London. I miss them I miss them I miss them!

The 26th of October was a long awaited day. Hannah, Sonya, Natalie, Amy, Meggan, Emily, and I were all supposed to go to the Brett Dennan concert in Camden. Sadly, Natalie could not join us because she wasn't feeling well. Honestly, she really did need to stay home and have a good sleep and rest up for the busy Halloween weekend she had coming ahead, so I'm glad she did just that. I had never listened to one song by Brett Dennan in my life. Hannah is really the one who listens to him. I went because sometimes its fun to share in another person's excitement for something else, view it in their eyes. That's exactly what I did. It ended up being at a small little venue. We ran into two girls from Texas as we went in as well, so that was super cool. I actually bought the et from the opener on itunes, as well as a few songs from Brett Dennan himself. It was hilarious to see Hannah ewww and aww as Brett shook his hips in this funky little way. Honestly, the dude looks a little nerdy. When he first started gyrating, I couldn't help thinking, "He's not allowed to do this!" But by the end of the night, I was feeling his soul, and the funky little slide/shuffle/thrust jig he had going on had picked up an element of sexuality. I was exhausted before we even got there--I fell asleep on the tube, which I had not done to do. It was a Monday after all, but I got excited at the concert and am truly glad I went.

One thing that has really hit home the past couple weeks is that as fabulous as Christmas break will indefinitely be, it will also be bitter sweet. We will be losing our people! I feel like they're my people now. Nathan, Tim O', and Bob will be leaving us. You have no idea how much this pains me. Nathan always has something witty and hilarious to say. He's extremely intelligent on top of that. If no one else in the class knows the answer to a question, you can always trust Nathan to pipe up and answer without being too conceded about it. I might have killed A.J. in a few of the past few house church sessions if Nathan wasn't there to even it out. Nathan just has a way of giving me warm fuzzies/illuminating things in a way that makes it easier to understand. Now, Nathan will definitely be missed, and I cannot imagine the house without him, but at least we've seen it coming. We've all known all along that he was only staying for first semester. Then, a couple weeks ago we found out that Bob was considering going home next semester. This was just a bit heart breaking. I cannot imagine the house without Bob's happy in the kitchen face. I cannot imagine the lounge without him sprawled out on the couch watching Arrested Development and laughing every chance he gets. Bob makes everybody in the house feel good because he gets excited for you. The decorations for Halloween--they're not just good they're GREAT. Why? Because there are balloons! My chili, for instance, my chili isn't just good it is amazing, its out of this world. I can't imagine this house without Nathan and Bob singing as they walk down the streets of London--whatever song comes into their heads and being quite impressed with themselves when they harmonize. Nevertheless, Bob decided that he needed to go home to get enough credits to graduate in four years. It was sad to hear of his decision, but at least it wasn't a shot out of the dark. Then there's Tim. Tim is just the salt of the earth. Its so great to meet people who have a gift for being nice to everyone without being fake. He just really means it. I sat beside Tim on the plane on the way here. He just seemed so open. He wants to get to know people and let them get to know him. Sit with him long enough and he'll tell you about his favorite poem or show you his favorite videos from childhood on youtube. We found out that Tim O' was leaving on Thursday night. I came back from seeing Chicago with Katie Webb, Amy, and Jazmyne, feeling a little down. I mean, it was great to spend time with them, and it was fun to go to a show, it was my first musical in London, but it just didn't compare to Broadway. Here is a pic of all of us together


I was so tired after the show, came in around midnight, went into the kitchen for some water and then headed up to my room. Tim O' had been in the kitchen and then he met me on our floor and told me that he won't be coming back next semester. There are many reasons for this, and I totally understand. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Its just that it was such a shot in the dark. I hadn't thought that Tim would leave at all and then to learn that it was official and we would be losing another one of guys just pained me so much. Then Tim O' came into our room to talk with us and kind of lessen the blow to our hearts. But i just couldn't get over it. We will be getting a few more new guys next year, but I know that they just won't be able to compare. I'm sure we will be friends with them and that it will be fine, but I will still miss Bob, Tim O', and Nathan so so much for each of their individual and unique attributes that they bring to the house. I guess the thing is that I want to get to know everyone really well and I feel like this cuts everything short, like I won't get to know who they really are well enough. I don't know. I had to leave our room and go to the lounge, listen to sad country music songs, and look up realty and barns online to make myself feel better. So you know, it was bad. I did find my dream barn though. Here's a pic:

I was so sad, I couldn't sleep until four in the morning again. I just kept telling myself, "Tomorrow will be a new day. Tomorrow will be a new day." Finally I got to sleep, and its true. I remember thinking that the next day was a serious improvement. Haha, now I remember. It was! We went to a little area quite a ways from the house to buy costumes for Halloween. Tim O', Natalie, Sonya, and I took the bus for about 30 minutes to our destinations. I have never been a fan of Halloween. I've never enjoyed dressing up and all that jazz, not since I was little. But this store inspired me. It was jam packed with people. I lost Natalie in the crowd many times and then ended up calling for her over the masses of British heads. Natalie and I became inspired. Props are fabulous things, I have decided.

After we had our costumes all figured out and bought, we headed to Oxford Circus for Michelle Barnum's birthday party. Michelle is our RA and she's totally great. We all love having her around. She gets along so well with everyone so it was great to celebrate her life! Anyway, her birthday party was at this ice cream bar that was like a Lady Gaga Club. Some of the ice cream was alcohol and all of it was pretty superb. The pistachio ice cream actually tasted like pistachio. I thought that was pretty impressive. We headed back to the house after that. I had a little bit of bonding time with Mariesa and Katie Webb out by the urn in the garden later that night. We talked and it was great.

Then, it was Halloween... Halloween was quite a production at the London house. I made chili, Mom's "Texas Stew" for 40 people, and it was the first time I had made it. I was quite proud of myself. It was a total hit. It took me four hours to make (we grated quite a bit of cheese to go with it), but totally worth the work to see Selin licking the big bowls we cooked with in with cheese when it was basically all gone.

First, we went on the jack the ripper tour, which honestly paled in comparison to the ghost tour in Edinburgh, but was still definitely worth it. As we walked around East London, checking out all the places where prostitutes had been murdered, back allies and the like, we all became quite cold. I was in short sleeves. Lovely Mariesa lent me her black scarf which has certainly become my good friend. Anyway, a few of us ended up linking arms. And then the chain of linking arms grew until it was Me, Natalie, Sonya, Tim O', and Bob. Bob was the last to join and the one that decided we would stay linked together NO MATTER WHAT as we went through East London, which is not exactly the safest part of London. Anyway, we came up with many different tactics on how to best stay with our arms linked together including the horseshoe, side stepping, and flying V. It was quite amusing.

Lastly we headed back to the house, changed into our costumes, had chili, and played many fun games. Natalie and I dressed up together. We were outback women. Here are some pics of the night. We carved pumpkins, had chili, popcorn, cookies, and candy, shaved some water balloons on top of people's heads (one on my head), and ate caramel apples hung from strings. Natalie and AJ planned the whole thing, and I must admit they did a very good job. The decorations were fabulous. Here are some pictures.

Natalie and I. The powerful duo. Notice the chili in hand. It was a huge hit.

Those balloons are filled with water. At this point Jazmyne is shaving my balloon. Tim, on the far right is going all Sweeney Todd on Hannah's balloon.

At this point, AJ has taken over shaving my balloon. He's about to break the razor trying to cut my balloon. Easier said than done, alot harder than you would imagine.

So yeah, we got into it.

Here we are trying to bite into the Carmel apples without using our hands. Some really gross pictures of me are on facebook because of this event. Worth the laugh though. Notice I'm wearing the cowgirl boots. Thanks for sending them Mom!

Here we have Bob (Liam Gallagher, from the band Oasis) and Nathan (Billy Mays). And you're right in thinking (if you are) that Billy Mays was not that fat. Bob was in character the whole night, complete with a few vulgar comments characteristic to Liam Gallagher (so I'm told) and Nathan was heard to utter, "The power of oxi-clean," more than once through out the night, and also threatened to spill something on us as an example as well. Oh, and he had a fake packet of cocaine seeing as Billy Mays was a user. Btw, that's not Bob's hair. However, that is Nathan's beard. Haha, lost razor?

Right here we have Patrick and Tim Nguyen (Asian tourists! one of my favorites!), Sonya and Tim O' (Mariachi Band members, another good one).

Here we have Tim (asian tourist), Mariesa (dead bride), Michelle Fields (flight attendent) and Patrick (asian tourist).

It was a great night. I'm so glad it went so well. I can only hope that our snake pumpkin might win in the jack-o-lantern competition.

Today, I slept in. I sat in the lounge writing this while the boys watched football. I attended Alex's Birthday party. He turned 3!!! I went to dinner with Bob and Natalie, found a fabulous new Italian place that has been right in front of us this whole time. Get this, its named Pizza and Pasta! Can you believe that? Had some good conversations and the like. But the best part of my day. by far. was Bob and Tim Nguyen's fight in the lounge. Bob is a sports fan. Evidently Tim is a sports fan as well, but I honestly wouldn't have thought it? Anyway, Tim turns on a football game--the niners. He watches it for a little while. I'm sitting in the corner. Bob comes in pumped to watch the Jets game. Tim informs him that he can't because Tim is watching the niners. Sadness. Tim informs Bob he can go into the Law student lounge to watch the jets if he wants. Bob does so. Then, Bob opens the doors that connect to the law lounge about ten minutes later. Tim is watching commercials. Bob kind of marches up to the TV and starts pressing the equivolent of an input button. Tim starts to get really quite hot and bothered about this. Granted, it seemed that Bob wasn't exactly asking permission as he was already pissed that Tim wouldn't let him watch the Jets game. Tim stands up and kicks the chair for dramatic affect, tossing off the things in his lap into the floor. Then, he heads over to Bob standing in front of the tv and gets in his face, arms flairing and the like. I hadn't expected it, but Bob gives it right back to him! I felt like I shouldn't be there. Tims like, "Bob you can't just walk over me like this," and all this other stuff getting in his face. In the mean time, Bob keeps calling Tim Buddy and telling him, "Shut the fuck up! Just cool off!" Cause evidently Bob just wanted to check the program directory to see what channel the game was coming on. Anyway, they had like a full fledged fight, minus the fists of course. Bob eventually left the room, and Tim was left smoldering in his chair. Not gonna lie, witnessing the whole things kind of made my day.
If you've read all of this, you are a saint.
With all kinds of love,
Ciao

Self-explanatory

Today, my professor told me I might be dyslexic. On this fine friday morning he called me in to talk about the inclass paper that I wrote, and told me that I did fine but my spelling is atrocious. "I mean it really is." He said. And then continued to tell me I was probably dyslexic. All of this in an Irish accent. Great.

Greece Day 4-

Our fourth day in Greece was spent on a over romanticized ferry turned cruise boat. On this boat, we visited the Greek Islands of Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. Honestly, each of these islands felt like a complete day unto itself, so I may have a difficult time keeping the narration of this whole complete day short.

This was the best day of the entire trip, but it started so early that many of us could not get excited about the water, the wind, and the view. For instance, take a look at this picture.


Jazmyne and I went up to the top of the boat for a little while where we bought hot chocolate that even came with a little ginger snap cookie that was just lovely. It took 2 and half hours for dus to arrive at the first island which was called Hydra. During this time I talked to some people, lost my book (left it on a table on the top deck where it could have easily flown into the ocean), and then tried to play ERS with a group of people consisting of Mariesa, Katie Webb, and Jordan Smoak (we like to call him Young Smoak or the Tennessean). It was on this particular day that I learned something about Young Smoak. He is very competitive about his card games. I will probably never play ERS with him again for fear of bruising.

When we got off the ferry at Hydra we were surrounded by classic Greek beauty. The water in the port was clear, the shops and houses surrounding us were quaint, and everything was picturesque. There were cats everywhere. When we got off the boat, the cruise organizer fed a large group of cats some catfood. The Greeks really respect their animals. The fishermen through the smaller fish in their catch to the cats as well. They fought over their finds.

First, Mariesa took a picture of Katie web and I. Here it is.

The thing about this picture is that as it is being taken I am planting my buttocks in a crater in the concrete there. A crater filled with water. So, I had wet underwear the rest of the day. Lovely.

So, I want you to imagine for a second. Mariesa, Katie, and I are walking towards the shops taking in the beauty of our surroundings when what do we see? We see donkeys. With tables on top of them. Donkeys that you can pay to ride. A euro a minute. TOTALLY worth it. We paid, and don't you know it, the other people on our trip took pictures. They are such total saints.

From left to right that is Mariesa, being very elegant in her dress and waving at the peasants in the crowd, me, and Katie, rocking the running shorts/boat shoes texas combo. Let me tell you something. This picture was totally worth the money.

After our relazing ride through up the hill we came down and went in some shops. I bought some lovely presents and a ring for myself. I've decided that I'll buy a ring from each place I'll go and then I'll be able to remember each place and its style from that ring. I haggled so well that I got a 99 euro ring for 35.

Then Katie Webb and I split a pizza and had some hot cocoa at a cafe on the water. After an hour and a half, we got back on the boat and headed towards the next island.

What did we do on the way? We played presidents. But not Texas Presidents, which I am used to and I believe powns all other forms of presidents, but these new rules made the game interesting even though I resented it a little bit. I played with Mariesa, Katie Webb, Victoria, Bob, and Jordan. Bob had recently found out that while I was a little tipsy the other night, I professed that he was cute because he is always very happy in the kitchen, and this is true, I've never seen anyone else look so contented making eggs. My roommates told him. Roommates are always traitors when it comes to the slightly funny/embarrassing things that we all say. Anyway, we all played. It was a bonding experience. I think we played on every level of the bus. The hardest level being the top as it was open air and we were all scrambling to keep the cards from blowing away. Yes, we are awesome.

We got off at the next island, Poros, where there were signs everywhere about the clock tower. Naturally, we had to check this clock tower out, it just seemed so popular. So we climbed the stairs up there. We get to the top, and theres the clock tower! Yay! The view really was great though. On the way back down, we stopped to check out some postcards. There were quite a few of completely naked women on the islands. I'll never forget Jazmyne saying, "What did that become alright?? When did that become alright??" Over and over again. Hilarious. So, what did we did with our left over time on the island? We played cards by the water. What else? Here are some actions pics, and one posing pic so you can feel like you were there with us.

Then we got back on the boat and played some more cards which was lovely. Then, we got off at the third island of Aegina. This third island was full or shops and little cafes where the managers would stand outside and try to coerce you to come in and try their food or look at their menu which looked pretty much just like all the other menus. Mariesa, Jazmyne, Katie Webb, and I were walking around checking everything out (passed up the chance to take an ATV), and ended up running into Sonya, Nathan, Bob, and Emily. We sat down at a cafe that I felt had good vibes and had dinner with a beautiful view of the mountains and the harbor.

Greece Day 3--The Shimmy and Shake

Today we took a bus to Corinth which is about an hour and a half away. We went to the anthropological dig of the old Agora where it is believed that Paul would speak to the Corinthians. After walking around the museum and the site, and having lunch nearby (where we fed some very hungry looking dogs afterward) we headed up to the fortress that resides at the Acrocorinth. But first, here is a pic of Natalie and I at the restaurant.

In otherwords, this fortress is on top of a Mountain bigger than all the mountains in the area. The steps are made of marble leading up. For your information, marble can be very very slippery. I’m proud to say that I didn’t fall, but to be honest I was more interested in nonchalantly checking out the lower parts of the fortress than I was in climbing to the top of both of the peaks. It was so classic fortress. So Lord of the Rings. There were those skinny look out things for archers and dungeon looking things and the view was epically amazing. But A.J. didn’t plan on taking things in in this fashion. A.J. had different plans.

We had an hour to spend at the fortress, but we took the first 30 minutes very slowly, going inside a chapel that’s basically ancient where you can light candles and the like. Then suddenly A.J. decided that it was absolutely necessary to bound our way up to the peaks, that’s right, both separate peaks, in the amount of time that we had left. I’m really quite proud to say that we did it. And when we got to the top the wind was so strong it could have knocked us off our feet, but the feeling of that wind, and the exhalation I had from running up the hill was worth it. And then there was the view: we could see the ocean and everything around. Something like being king of the mountain.

Then we took the bus home, dropping some people off at the Corinth Canal to bungee jump. After an less than pleasant jump from a bride at Lake LBJ this summer, I was a little less than interested in Bungee jumping. Maybe next time. When we arrived at the hotel, I took an absolutely amazing and well needed nap.

Tonight we went to a Greek Place that didn’t serve good Greek food (which I think is a rarity in Greece), but they have good reason for this. First of all, it was a tourist attraction—native dancing, singing (in many different languages), and more “native dancing.” Everyone got dressed up to go. I will admit that I put on makeup and braided my hair. One of the girls in our group had on a gown. They were looking pretty serious about this whole dancing business. So we walk to the restaurant which is in the Plaka. I’m still a little bit confused as to what the Plaka means, but I believe it is a marketplace. There are all kinds of stores and large dogs running around. Suddenly, the walkway is filled with people speaking different languages and it seems that we have arrived. We walk in and are seated right beside the stage. The Chinese were there, the Japonese, and the Germans for sure. I’m pretty sure that all the people who dressed up felt like their actions were for naught.

Here are the highlights of the night:

The Greek dancing begins which involves the women twirling so their skirts fill with air and the men hitting there legs and kicking their feet up in the air and then hitting their feet. I really really enjoyed this. Also, part of this involved two men dancing with knives. Very reminiscent of crossing “swords.”
There was a belly dancer. But not just any belly dancer—a woman of middle-age and plenty of body fat who seemed to be having a very good time doing the splits and rolling her fat. Her bikniesque top clasped tightly to raise her very not there breasts up three inches.The best part of this was watching our directors face light up with a certain amount of held back disgust. Also, Caleb and Alex are four and two. They looked intrigued.

Above, you'll see the belly dancer. And below, you'll see Sonya, David, and A.J.'s reactions. All quite different. If you knew them, you would find this funner.





The food was horrible. My chicken had no chicken on it. Neither did anybody elses.

Luckily, we got gelato afterwards, and luckily we’re on our own for dinner the rest of the week