Greece Journal Entries Days 7-9

Tuesday: January 31th, 2017.

Day 7: January 8th, 2017. 

 Our 2nd free day! But also known as our last free day of the weekend. We decided to head back to Monastriaki since it is had tons of food and shopping, with things to do. We planned on observing more today as part of our studies. My group began discussing our experiences and what we've been observing during our trip. That is why we hit a big spot known for both tourists and greeks. And being that the only places open on Sundays are the tourist shopping areas. It had been the coldest day yet, but we still made it out, to try to get our greek experience before it was too late. Literally, the first laugh of today though was trying to help my roommate get out of the bathroom during lunch yesterday, i'm always up for a laugh. We had groups of people trying to get her out, so it was my big thing to laugh about for the moment, out of caring. But besides that and still being cold, I layered up, double pants, triple jackets, hats, gloves, scarf, everything. I could not stand being cold, especially being anemic with a weak immune system, knowing me I will end up sick on this trip. Our lunch we stopped at the first place we noticed opened and I ordered french fries with that spicy cheese dip. First thing I noticed the fries were covered in oregano, not something I'm use to at home, and also they always have paprika on the table. We never use paprika at home and oregano goes on pizza or spaghetti not french fries. It was not a bad touch though to the food. I just ended up dipping my fries in the spicy cheese dip filling myself up for the day. Also with a simple glass of white wine. I will literally miss being able to casually have a glass of wine at lunch without being judged or a year under the age. Also during lunch we finally heard some greek music, which I've been waiting to hear. All the places we tend to head into always are filled with american music or greek mixes of the top american pop music. After lunch though we did some shopping and bargaining like in Greece they are waiting to bargain with you. The price on the label is not the lowest price, you just have to talk them down. We went to a place called top man, which was like a mini hot topic with name brand clothes. Too bad I had no hips to fit in any of the jeans. The lady offered to get me a smaller size in the jeans, but of course they were the smallest size. They fit everywhere but my no waist self. I ended up buying a KORN hoodie, for you know, the band KORN. Going to bring that back too, just like Juicy. Also bought some skinny black velvet pants as well, at least they make up for the jean incident. Our agenda today was about shoe shopping. We went around to tons of shoe stores and my one friend on the trip bargained down popular PUMA sneakers. Legit, way cheaper than they are at home, you'd be surprised. My whole thought process before this trip was TO BUY SANDALS!! I had to have greek, handmade, leather sandals. That is exactly what I did today. I went out and bought these cute, classic black leather sandals with straps that mold to your feet that match everything. Originally 18 euros but I got it down to 15, a true bargainer. I was so happy with this purchase, being all I wanted before even going on this trip. Since I am really particular with sandals, in the summer you see me in sneakers, for once, you won't. Also I found a gift shop with tourtisty Greek shirts, one for me and one for the boyfriend, only at 5 euros a piece. Had to let him know I was thinking of him. He will probably just sleep in the shirt, but its the thought that counts. After this the other girls went and got some crepes, and me and my one friend had found a cafe selling Ben and Jerrys. It is never to cold for icecream for me. I saw a flavor that was a caramel, honey greek yogurt Ben and Jerrys, had never seen it at home and that was all I wanted to try. It was only 2 euros and she filled the whole cone up, it was quite delicious. We sat in the cafe with our free wifi eating up our icecream. I hope I can find this in America, or could I even order some icecream online?? We just sat in the cafe relaxing, no one minded us at all. We had just been chilling, had our icecream, some water and free wifi. We relaxed and were writing down in our journals, getting our work done. It is a nice feeling that a lot of places where people can just sit in for hours, keep conversations going face to face and not be on the phone. It is just a relaxing feeling with no worries. People were not in a rush, here it is never a rush. I've mentioned it before, the slow place atmosphere. It is a no need for a drive through, fast food type of place. Sit down, relax, with a home cooked meal. They laugh, they talk about their days and are in no rush. It was a completely different environment at home. Home is just so fast pace, everyone has somewhere to be, no one has time to sit back and smell the roses. I just sat here watching these guys in the cafe for hours mingling and wondering why we are not more like this at home? Why is everything so rushed? Maybe that is why some of us have such bad anxiety and depression. We have to manage class, homework, a job, eating healthy, exercising, showering, relaxing, and get at least 8 hours of sleep in one day, so here we are rushing instead of getting a break. It must be nice to know you can have a peaceful laid back day. I did not mind it at all being in this slow motion life style. This was another place that had played lots of greek music. I am a huge music fan so being able to listen to other culture music means a lot to me. It was mostly greek music, for at least a straight hour. Then we heard like a couple american songs, or well english lyrics. Who even knows. A lot of these places play tons of the pop culture american music with greek remixed rap but still have the original english singer in it, like Ariana Grande for example. If America though had this mind your own business, hit around relax atmosphere, I wonder what everyones daily moods would be like. When I was younger my parents would talk to all the neighbors and be out there for hours talking and it was not too bad back then, it did not seem like a rush sort of life style. Now it is like rush to work, get paid, rush to pay the bills, all so stressful. Makes me never want to adult, which I'm literally adulting being on this trip. It is also interesting that it is pretty cold here but people are still out hanging out and talking in the cold. At home I'm like this is hibernation weather, I'll see you next week. As observing the others, I realized for the past week we have been doing the same thing. We have become part of the culture. Once you're around something for a while you start to mimic it, which is exactly what we have been doing. We spend our days sitting around at cafes, eating, talking, relaxing for hours. Later in our evening we decided to end the night getting slightly dressed up with our makeup done to just head out. We wanted to experience greek life, especially since we are usually in bed by like 8 o'clock. This time we were suppose to go to a live greek music show, but our friends just were too exhausted from the long day. I was excited to go, but I understood their point of view too. I just love listening to live music. We still were able to have a fun night and we just did dinner and cocktails instead. I would still like to see a live greek music event, but things happen. We went to a restaurant that had a indoor, outdoor seating arrangement. It was covered outdoor with heaters on. We decided to order pizza and cocktails. I ordered a Porn Star and the guy had me repeat it multiple times and laughed. It was quite awkward, but actually got to enjoy this passion fruit cocktail as well as try my friends lollipop one, I think it was just called lollipop since it had a lollipop on top. It legit felt like I was on an episode of Gossip Girl since they head to these fancy places and just sip cocktails for their evening. Serena actually was traveling through the islands of Greece looking for her dad in Santirii. It was just a nice idea of dressing a big nicer and doing your make up, feeling bougie and hanging with the girls. Better than Philly, that is for sure. Literally you can sit at a place by a bar with no fights or anything going on, just able to relax.

  Check List:

  -Flea Market

  -Observation

  -Lunch and Dinner

-Jackie Kensey

Day 8: January 9th, 2017.

 Today's my dads birthday, I may be 7 hours ahead of him, but for sure made sure to contact him and let him know. I've been gathering him Greece gifts including snacks and other little things. To give him a cultural experience for his birthday, also to let him know that I did not forget about him. It was my first time not seeing him on his birthday, but him and my mom went to visit my sister and the kids on her army base instead. Just wanted to make sure he knows I thought of him even if I'm half way across the world on his birthday. Because he is a huge part of the reason i'm on this trip, him and my mom, being able to help me in my journey as a art major. Wouldn't of been able to any of this without them. So far today has been an amazing cultural experience day, what cultural in a society really is about. Even though I woke up this morning feeling awful. The on and off cold to hot weather is really getting to me. I layer up and still get this way. My nose was feeling stuffy and outside was on the chilly side still. But I still made my way out of bed, the day I was waiting for, the graffiti walk. We walked through a rich neighborhood that had security cameras and the rich places had no graffiti. We even passed an american movie theater with all american movies playing with greek subtitles. We also found more shops in a cute little neighbor hood with cobble stone paths. It was so beautiful, I wanted to come back for a photo session. We finally made it to our first spots of the graffiti walk that I have been waiting for. Since I've always loved the idea of street art versus graffiti art and first thing I noticed when I got to Greece was all the graffiti. Legit tons of photos filled my camera roll during this walk. It was interesting learning that graffiti is actually illegal here, with it being everywhere just strange. But the street art is commissioned. Most street artists do not get along with graffiti artist but we will get into that. We toured the city seeing art from political views to tags to commissioned work. Some were completely beautiful and outstanding. The reason that some places have graffiti all over it is because they can not afford to paint over it and that is why some of this graffiti is everywhere. Street artists don't appreciate this because then they have no where to be commissioned to paint since it takes up their space and they do not want to waste their time or money painting over it. It is also a rule about graffiti not to go over another artists work. Through art I start to feel one with the cultural and feel as if I am connecting with the culture. Learning their view points of how they feel with politics and things going on in their society, likes, dislikes, all of it. Also some people like it, some people don't, showing we all are the same in aspects of opinions. I just find it so fascinating, as well as having some art up for interpretation. We even were learning background stories of some of the art as well. This moment made me want to consider art journalism. I always loved the idea of journalism, running a fashion blog about my every day life as well made me always want to continue journalism in some way. The idea of journalism in cultures with how we become one. The idea of how our cultures bring us together through experience and learning how we may all be different but we are all human with similarities and differences. We continued our art walk past china town. It is funny how china town is in every area of every city not just in America. Through china town we headed to the Anasa Cultural Center. It is a cultural center for african americans in Greece to come together, like a safe zone, where people understand what they are going through. They deal with things such as racism, bringing their community together, civil rights, etc. It is a place to learn how to connect all cultures together. It shows cultures can come together in art and music for example. For instance as an American I connected with greeks through their graffiti and street art. I even got my tattoo which is a form of art on my neck by a greek graffiti artist in outstanding magazine. We also connect in things such as music where we may mimic instruments or beats off eachothers, some of us even listen to the same music. Since most of these places play a lot of popular american singers music. They also have a lot of american musicians merchandise such as bands. I bought a Korn hoodie here. I saw other merchandise for bands like Slip Knot, Metallica, Beetles, etc. Right before getting to the cultural center, passed a shop with Elvis Presley posters. Also at the tattoo shop we all connected in there not just with art through the idea we are all artists and been in some form of art school or program. Since some were painters or graffiti artists that attending Athens School of art. We also connected through american 90s rappers. Mod, NWA, 2Pac, and more. I'm taking this as a experience that we are all humans no matter where you go, have a open mind that we all have our similarities and differences. But we can connect no matter what, we all bleed the same. During our session we drank some tea here and had some deep discussions. Discussions involving how we celebrate our culturals and things such as church. Like even religious aspects. They spoke about how they try to empower each other and meet together in the african community such as church. They learn different ways to come together here in Athens for a place to connect, have rights being a mostly white area. Even at home church has been a way for people to come together, like my church you don't have to be catholic to join, it is a place to welcome you. A social place that is of worship. Athens is still dealing with civil rights here especially for africans. The cultural center does try to find and create new ways to connect people through art and music. Also learning ways to express themselves and create civil rights and get people to hear their messages. They even have festivals and shows and all. It also made me think of how fashion connects us all. We all need to wear clothes, we all want clothes. We are into trends and fashion that get sent through out the world globally. We have tons of the same stores all over the world from high end to low end. And clothes are art. We can connect through designs such as graffiti art on clothes or even how we wear our favorite bands on our clothes. The cultural aspects of clothes. Fashion is a connector as well for us. It may be different everywhere but we all have our ideas for fashion. with fashion being art and a huge thing. Also learning here about how in american we have a big african presence but here it is so small. It has only been here for about 30 years. Legit since the 90s. We are a very diverse at home being in a city like Philadelphia, with having Obama for 2 terms, weird that places in this world are not diverse. They have small black communities here not big like ours is at home. Since they recently were aloud to come into Greece with citizenships. It has me thinking about incorporating different cultures into clothing, my own line. I hope no one takes my idea, where they can't see inside my head, just this vuage thought. But a line as well as journalism based off art in culture creating 3d art aka clothing. Today has been a big motivation for me, motivating me in so much. That learning so much gives me a whole new appreciation in life. Sometimes I feel as if I could be sort of close minded towards certain things, but now I feel as if my whole mind has been broadened. Also I felt sort of offended by a comment one had made during the thing asking the man here if his group sells the bracelets on the streets. Basically a reference to them since they are black and it was just a out of line comment. I don't think she understood too much of what she was saying. But it is just an example on how some people can be raised so close minded and need to broaden their life up to more. Because just by being african selling bracelets at a flea market does not mean they are in the same group fighting for their civil rights. It was just out of line and needed to mentioned for future reasons on the educational system of learning how not to be disrespectful. Also you should be happy with your heritage. And not deny your background. A girl also asked this man if he considers himself an african or a greek. Clearly he said both because he is both african from Greece. Just like african americans so it is like an african greek. He is not denying himself. After this we had a dance lesson. So far this has been my favorite day of the trip, super eventful. We did african dancing, rythm, singing, music. We were all so awkward and out of beat, but we attempted to try. We had team harmony dancing around. And we kept having to change beats and songs over and over, it was so exhausting. I had no rythm for this. It was quite a work out and fun. Our group got along great. It helped us connect more with people that we may have not been talking to until this grouping up, dancing around and singing. We all saw all new sides of people, less shy then before. We were energized then exhausted. Literally felt myself sweating though too. After this we split into our dinner groups. We headed to a roof top garden where we could view Acropolis with of course free wifi. The food was amazing. From the twisted cheese fries that were mouth watering delicious, they were the ribbon fries from the carnival at home but covered in so much good sauce and veggies. Also had a huge falafel platter with falafels and more fries and everything. I was well fed, it dinner for 2 that I had to force myself down the rest. Dinner was worth it, but still annoyed i ordered a cheaper wine and they charged me for a more expensive one that I did not order. I tried to talk to the waitress but at this point 2 euros more was not worth it. They messed up and here is not even a place that people actually tip service besides like 2 euros per a table. So just the idea of no tip in my head for not the best service, or a low tip. Would of gotten a beer or nothing at all for all of that. But officially ending my night well rested after this day.

  Check List:

  -Graffiti walk/street art

  -Cultural center

  -Roof top dinner

-Jackie Kensey

Day 9: January 10th, 2017. 

 Literally today my sickness was hitting me at full effect. I was sick and worn out at this point. After doing things every day with not a single break, it just wears you down. You end up sick as a dog. I have been drinking tons of water and trying to get sleep by going to bed early, but nothing can really stop you from being sick. I got up this morning even though I was coughing non stop since I wanted to see the refugee museum and learn about it. We had to wait up for some other students and ended up extremely late. Which was the fail of the day. The other students came got there safely, met us there, but since we were not in contact with them we did not know that is what happened. So we sat around and waited for some time. It just is a sucky point that we are told a time, all here on time and gets wasted. I don't know, they should of just let us leave and head there and said to the others like if you are not here on time we are leaving with out you. Like that is what they thought we did and went on their own. So not our fault, just miscommunication and disorganization. But just in general this is for school, it is a class to meet up and be at class for a grade, participation. While some people treat it like a vacation. This has nothing to do with the people who attempted to get their own their own, they took the situation into their own hands, good for them. But in general on the fact their are people who just choose to part all night, miss the trips, have tons of drama, acting like this is some vacation, instead of learning. This is still a class. It just feels like at this point too much estrogen. Just an episode of the Bad Girls Club. After this we went down to the marina for lunch since that is the only thing we could end up doing and everyone was hungry. I just felt sick and all I wanted was to go home and rest. We ended up at some fancy restaurant but I did not want to eat. A couple of us split a medium sized veggie pizza. The sauce was on the watery side though. I had two small slices and everyone ordered drinks around me and I was like I might as well. Bad idea being sick and I hated it. I ordered a grapefruit drink with tequila, forget the name, waste of money, was not worth it. It was decorated beautifully. Except I did not know they would put so much salt on it. Originally I had thought this was just sugar all around it, but nope salt, It had made me feel worse and so I just gave it away after like two sips. After this we made it back to Syntagma and everyone just split up at this point. I had no idea where my roommate went but I knew the trolley root home and just left for bed. I decided to take a nap in hopes of feeling better for later. Instead after I had gotten up from my nap I felt even worse. I was coughing up a storm, my throat felt like something was in it and I was not feeling well at all. I legit could not get up out of bed at this point, I was just literally dead. I was super disappointed to miss the greek dancing lesson and greek cooking. I did dance for 7 years as well as musicals, and I am a huge foodie. I love greek food here and eat everything, as long as heir is no meat. I also really enjoyed the african dancing the night before and learning different cultures dances. So I wanted to enjoy this too, but since I was not feeling the best I did not want to force myself to go and feel even worse. I laid in bed in the dark on and off sleeping and my roommate brought me some medicine in hopes to help me feel better. I took some nightquil and my usual medicine and went back to sleep. Just wanted to take this night easy and sleep off the sickness.

  Check list:

  -Refugee Museum

  -Marina

  -Sickness

-Jackie Kensey