Oh The Places We’ll Go

It’s Boxing Day, otherwise known as the day after Christmas, and nothing is open. I guess usually on Boxing Day people go around to their friends houses and give their gifts, spreading holiday cheer, etc. You get the day off, drink the night away, and have a good time. I guess we just don’t do that in America. Maybe we’re just not cool enough. I think it’s more that we can’t afford to give up more holiday time to people so Boxing Day is a bit of a pointless day, but I get the idea. Christmas is for family, Boxing Day is for friends.

Since nothing is open, likely Boxing Day for Erica and I will be rotting and chilling. I’m trying to get some information on how to make an apple pie, since Erica and I need something to do and I’m craving an apple pie, so we’ll see if that all works out. We wandered around the flea market again and I was finally able to withdraw some money from an ATM! I’ve been waiting in vain for days for this financial aid disbursement and it finally came. Thank God.

To catch everyone up on what we’ve been doing here, Athens has been a pretty laid back vacation. There’s not a lot to do in comparison to cities like Paris and Rome, where you’re literally running around all day like a chicken with its head cut off. Athens is more of a stop and smell the roses kind of place, or at least for us it has been. We wandered around the flea market and some of the ancient ruins on our first day here. I think we saw the Temple of Zeus? Something related to Zeus, I’m not sure. Anyways, all of the ruins and sights here are my favorite “f” word- FREE! That’s all of the ruins, the parks, the Acropolis. Everything, free. Well, for students of the EU at least. Got to love that University of Glasgow student card, getting me discounts everywhere!

We made it to the Acropolis on our second day here. The hostel we’re staying at is right next to the Acropolis so finding it wasn’t hard at all. I guess it wouldn’t be very hard either way- it’s a humongous hill that you can see from anywhere in the city so I doubt it’d be much of a problem finding it. Acropolis hill is really cool. Quite the hike to the top, let me tell you. It’s not at all touristy like things in Rome are, just surrounded by men pretending to be ancient Romans. The Acropolis is very tourist free, just take it as it is, naturally. Refreshing, really. When you get to the top of the hill, you can literally see the entirety of Athens from the top, it’s up so high. The Parthenon is amazing, as you’d think it would be. Funny to think that all these years of being in school and everything, I’m finally looking at one of the most famous ancient buildings in the history of the world. Athens, as it turns out, is a sprawling city. I never thought it was as big as it is from stories and pictures and things. From the top of the hill it’s literally just spread out for miles and miles in every direction. It’s almost a little scary when you look at it from up high like at the Acropolis. But then again, I think something like a third of the population of Greece lives in Athens so it all makes sense.

Other than wandering around the Acropolis and the flea markets, we’ve made it to the ocean (well, bodies of water) twice. First, we went out to Pireus I think it’s called to see the port. Really just to see a body of water, I guess. We’ve been missing that from not being in Santa Barbara, so being at the port was nice. Especially because the weather was pretty sunny that day and not as cold as it had been before. There’s a bunch of scary people down at the port, though, going after the tourists. African men selling the fake bags and cat calling at you. Not fun. Our only little scary adventure in Athens wasn’t really in Athens at all. We randomly decided to take this orange regional bus out to the beach since we saw a brochure about how to do it, so we hopped on the bus and headed for what we assumed to be a close beach to Athens. Not so much. We were literally on this bus for like, an hour before we were like, alright… let’s get off this thing. Haha. The drive was pretty gorgeous, all along the windy road that lines the ocean and everything. Relaxing and everything, I guess, but not when you have no clue what you’re doing or where you’re going. We hopped off the bus, chilled at the beach for a little bit, and hopped on the bus again back into Athens. Oh, how exciting. Haha. We got back and were just relieved that we didn’t get lost/hijacked/kidnapped, etc seeing as how we had no clue what we were doing! A good story, though.

Christmas was good on the food end, but I’d trade being in California any day. It just didn’t feel like Christmas. No pine smells, sugar cookies, gifts under the tree, going Christmas light looking or anything. It doesn’t snow in Rocklin so I can’t really say anything about “White Christmases” and all, but for what I’m used to the holidays never really felt like they were here. The hostel set up this big Christmas dinner for everyone around, so all of us got together and had turkey, stuffing, veggies, all of the usual things you’d have for Christmas dinner. Again, all for my favorite “f” word- free. Erica’s first Christmas dinner too. Haha. Figures. She walked up to me on Christmas morning and just goes, “Look, I’m wearing a green sweater for Christmas, all for you!”

My last American leaves on the 30th and I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get back to Glasgow. The thought is really depressing, that’s for sure. I wonder what the new Americans are going to be like when they move in to the 2nd and 3rd floor. The Duke and Dartmouth kids were living there before, so there’s a bunch of empty spaces left for more study abroad kids to move into. Plans for New Year’s at the moment are a little up in the air, since the tickets for Glasgow Downtown are sold out. I think Erin’s working on getting it all figured out but we’ll see what happens. As long as everyone’s together and drunk and merry I don’t think it really matters where we are. What am I going to watch, though? I don’t think Brits watch the ball drop in Times Square… I didn’t even think of that until now.

Erica and I are off to find some pie supplies… find something to do with our laid back day. Merry Belated Christmas from Greece and I’ll be sure to post more about Delphi when we get back from there tomorrow.

-Catherine

Erica and I are on day 3 of our Greek excursion and we’re having a good time…

To pick up where I left off, we had a lot of time to kill in London and made our way around the city, re-seeing everything, falling, and catching a train to Gatwick to catch our plane.  We had to practically run the entire time we were in the airport since security was INSANE.  We showed up around an hour and a half early and that still wasn’t enough time.  We checked in our bags at Easyjet, made our way to security which took absolutely FOREVER and then almost ran the entire way to the gate, which was of course the furthest one away possible, before getting on the plane.  Luckily we were one of the few rows that didn’t have anyone sitting in between us.  Maybe we smelled from the lack of showering or teeth brushing all day?  Who knows.  I don’t think the Greeks looking for seats liked us very much.  Sleeping on the plane, just as with the bus, was impossible.  I had fun dozing off, people watching, and attempting to read my book.  3 hours later, we got into Greece.

Athens is a very modern city considering the fact that it’s one of the most historically ancient cities in the world.  You know, Athenians, Gods, Zeus and all.  Everything is written in Greek and in English so getting around is really easy.  Plus, everyone speaks a lick of English so asking questions hasn’t been impossible so far.  Very surprising, since all through my travels in Europe there are at least SOME people who don’t speak English and that’s not the case here.  The metro from the airport took about 45 minutes to get into the city center, but it was cheap so we didn’t mind.  Finding the hostel was really easy.  Lots of cool, young people staying here.  Lots of Americans, surprisingly enough since most of the time you tend to run into more of the Aussie Brit crowd in hostels, but that’s not the case here.  Our room has some intense snorers, let me tell you.  I think Erica got the worst end of it though, with an older man sleeping underneath her bunk.  I’m surprised she’s getting any sleep.

My hands are hurting so I’ll update more of Greece later.  Christmas in 2 days… can’t wait!

(Oh, and Happy Hanukkah for Erica)

-Catherine

Erica and I finally made it to Greece after TOO long of traveling, bussing, flying, running, and falling all over the UK.  Everyone left the flat by the time Saturday rolled around, finals were done and papers were turned in.  Anna and I were the last 2 in the flat.  I’d been working on my jigsaw puzzle that finally came in, all 1,000 pieces by myself.  Oh, what an exciting life I lead.  Grabbed a cab at around 10:30 and headed over to the bus station for the overnight bus down to London.  Thankfully I got sat next to a sane, normal person and was close to Erica, who was across the aisle from me.  The girl I sat next to was from Calgary, and I talked her ear off.  I tend to do that to most people I travel near.  Cabbies.  People I sit next to.  I almost feel bad.  Almost.

Anyways, the bus was… a bus.  Long and boring, weird combination of smells and impossible to sleep.  My neck was hurting after a while of trying to fall asleep so I mostly just sat up and daydreamed until the 8 hours passed by.  We got into Victoria station at around 8:30 in the morning with a few hours to kill so Erica and I walked around London for a while.  We actually did a good amount of walking by the end of it.  We went from Trafalgar Square all around to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament.  A lot of walking but a lot of re-sight seeing since we’d see it all before.  I took the HUGEST dive in front of one of the buildings near Buckingham Palace though.  Not only did I manage to trip and fall in the dirt, but like full on spread and roll onto the ground, afterwards dropping all of my change and saying, out loud, “My life sucks right now.”  It was insanely mortifying.

Will update more about Greece when I feel like paying the Euros to use the internet.  Very pretty here and no rioting yet!

-Catherine

It’s that time of the term again.  Time to buckle down, lock yourself in the library, and read until your eyes start to bleed and you’re spouting facts out about Samuel Johnson and Richard Savage that no human should ever know.  Welcome to what will be consuming me for the next few days.

I’ve been on the major procrastination bandwagon the last few days.  I should have started these papers (yes, there are multiple that I haven’t started) a couple days ago, and I didn’t.  I don’t know what has gotten into me, since usually I’m pretty good at shutting my computer, walking away, and getting down to work, but this term just hasn’t been my term.  I haven’t been on my game as far as academics go.  It’s not like it’s all that different of an atmosphere from home.  There are still things that you’re supposed to read every week, talk about and write down notes.  But when it comes down to it, I haven’t had a single productive day in the library aside from the day I spent writing the last paper I turned in, and even then the paper wasn’t anything of amazing quality.  My brain just isn’t cooperating this semester for whatever reason, and I’m about to be paying the consequences.

My sleep cycle is starting to take its toll on me.  Staying up until 630 this morning probably wasn’t the wisest idea, since I didn’t wake up until 1 and didn’t start accomplishing anything until much later.  I’m making myself sleep within the next half hour so I can avoid another afternoon wakeup time since I have a lot of work to do tomorrow… hopefully that way my sleep cycle isn’t all messed up like it has been for the last MONTH.  I’m tired of waking up at 3pm and hating myself for sleeping through my alarm clock… it’s gotta stop.

After I finish these next couple of papers my life is FREEDOM for a good number of weeks.  I’ve got a couple of books I want to sit back, relax and read, a few places I want to wander off to so I can relax, just looking forward to the break from the stress and everything.  Greece, obviously, is another highlight of the next couple of weeks but I can’t give myself the luxury of daydreaming about it for now since I have to focus, but I’m very excited about going.  I don’t know how I feel about missing out on Christmas back home since I’ve never done that before, but having Erica around and handy will keep my mind off of it.  I have no idea what we’re going to do for a Christmas dinner in Athens since I think a lot of the restaurants may be closed, but maybe we’ll make something.  Erica’s Jewish so maybe she’ll make me some latkas?  However you spell them.

I signed up for an unlimited calls to the world subscription through Skype yesterday.  Now I’ll be able to call anywhere in the states anytime for as long as I want instead of paying by minute.  I’ve also got an online phone number set up, which is a Sacramento-local area code phone number that anyone can call for the same cost as any normal phone call would, but it connects you to my Skype.  That way if anyone calls it and I’m near my computer, they can call and talk to me in Scotland for nearly nothing when it would cost a fortune calling my cell phone directly.  I’m always amazed by how technology works, to think that people can call Scotland for nearly nothing through a computer program.  Amazing.  Skype has been my lifesaver since I have been here, for sure.  I was really afraid I’d feel homesick all the time being away from California and all, but I can call my Dad’s cell anytime I want to talk sports with him and it’s no big deal, so it’s not like anything is drastically different.

I’m hoping this holiday lull will go away for me soon.  It’s messing up my normally cheery mood and making me into this black cloud hovering over the apartment like the plague.  Maybe it’s because the holidays are rolling around and I won’t be around family; I’m not quite sure what it is.  All I know is that for the last week or so I’ve been secluded, anti-social, and dreary.  Like I said earlier, I’m just looking forward to a break from everything and everyone to go into myself for a little bit, if you get what I mean.  Sometimes I think it’s just overwhelming being around the same people all the time, every day, all day long.  A someone who cherishes their privacy, sometimes I just want to escape from everything and do my own thing without having to tell anyone or go with anyone there.  Do it for myself.

After the papers are all done and I’ve had myself a good nap after all of the work, I’ll post more pictures and elaborate on the goings on around here… but I don’t have enough time to do an extended proper post until then.

Wish me luck…

-Catherine