Greece Journal Entries Days 10-12

Wednesday: February 1st, 2017. 

Day 10: January 11th, 2017.

 Of course I am the one sick in another country, should be enjoying my time, not completely bedridden. I hate getting sick, but of course I am always getting sick. I have the worst immune system from having endometriosis, pcos, anemia and all the medicines I take. It just flat out sucks and not many people just understand any of it unless they deal with it. Water and exercise is not what cures everyone, being under 100 lbs and going through all of this does not make me the healthiest person out here, not matter how hard I try. I planned on trying to make todays event with an alarm set and everything. I woke up literally dying from coughing, the feeling of something in my throat was horrible and I had no voice at all. I wanted to make it through today but the non stop coughing and feeling, I just needed to chill for a bit. Who really wants to be sick in another country missing events when this could be the only time I ever will be here. I stayed in for the morning and heard it was truly best for me, that I would of just ended up even worse. I heard it was rainy and windy, beyond cold that I just would of gotten worse. I was happy I ended up staying in trying to get some more rest and to shower in hopes of feeling better. I went out for some lunch and had the worst lunch. I was like I need to get out of here and get some fresh air, try to get better. It was muggy out still raining as well. I went to that franchised place Goodys for the mac and cheese they are always advertising. My receipt everything said mac and cheese, just the plain regular nothing else. I got home super excited since mac and cheese is my favorite food. I wanted to see how they made it here. I opened it and completely my order had been messed up. They decided to cover the top of the mac and cheese in bacon and parm cheese. Since the parm cheese covered the bacon it was easy to scrape off, had to even scrape off the top noodles since I did not want to have meat flavoring on my mac and cheese. Even if I ate meat I knew that I would not of enjoyed that. At least the rest of the mac and cheese was not touched by the meat and I attempted to eat it. But it was not macaroni noodles at all. It was penne in some cheese wiz. I was not impressed, it was not good. I would of taken it back if I was not sick and it was not raining. After my fail attempt of getting lunch I headed back to the Arcadia center, made the walk for some fresh air. Since staying in all day was not going to get me better, I wanted to feel better. I tried to go out and not just sit in the dark all day. I had no wifi, nothing to do but just sit and stare at walls. We headed to a weaving place with everyone. We were welcomed so kindly. They had tons of snacks and drinks for us to relax, sit and go over a power point of their work. They even shared a video with us. They make amazing textiles here at their place and being out seeing this had me feeling a bit better. I had some OJ and snacks, at least to make up for the mac and cheese. Later they took us down to their studio to show us their machines, the weaving, how it works. Even had saw some of their creations in the process. I had seen weaving process in philly, how they scrape the wool into the pile and try to form it before turning it into a textile on the machine on a class trip previous this year. It was exciting to see this as well. Since that trip had me consider textile as minor, maybe. They cheered us with a little rum and honey drink, it may of been too strong for my liking, but it was kind. Then I always knew silk was not vegan and came from worms, but had never seen how they were formed before. A man peeled back the silk cacoons in front of us, cracked it to see the dead worm in side. So gross, but the cacoon is what creates silk. Since they drop that in water and it expands, just fascinating. Sad little bugs have to be killed in the process, but I don't wear silk anyway. After this for some real food, my friends and I had went out to dinner. Feeling bad that I have barely ate this day and have been bed sick. Since traveling does that to you. We went to an "american" burger bar. Their french fries had feta on them, i'm not complaining but just not american. French fries have salt on them, ketchup on the side. But I love cheese. I ordered their veggie burger, I order veggie burgers everywhere to see how they prepare them. Here they put the saganaki aka fried cheese as the main thing for their veggie burger like the protein (meat), as well as tomato, lettuce, their secret sauce (nothing like russian dressing, more like a vinegar), and something else. It was big and pretty good, I'd order it again. I like how they use saganaki as a veggie burger main thing, it was quite smart. I was still a bit under the weather, but well nourished and heading back home for sleep.

  Check List:

  -Bad Mac and Cheese

  -Textile/Weaving

  -Saganaki Veggie Burger!

-Jackie Kensey

Day 11: January 12th, 2017.

 AIGINA! I did not care if I did not feel well today, I was not missing this trip to an island. I was like no matter what I'm making my way there. Of course their was delays in our travel trying to ruin my way to the island, but did not let it stop me. A couple of us could not fit on the trolley of course. We had tried to get on and the bus doors could not shut, no room and we ended up off the trolley. We had to wait for the next trolley to get to the metro. On the trolley I was like isn't this our stop, no one seemed to notice, we ended up down at a different line of the metro, but had found our own way to Piraseus to the boating dock. I legit adulted today and felt great about that. MY anxiety was a bit on the high side and rough as first and we had indoor seats on the flying dolphin. Which was our speed boat to the island. I chewed glum and closed my eyes to try to avoid motion sickness. As it rocked back and forth. It was not along ride and I had no idea what we were even doing. I was just like what is this trip to the island, I hope it is worth it after this boat trip. I did not know like this was a free day for us on an island at first, I would of researched stuff for us to do. But we ended up going to a museum once we reached the island. It was an ancient greek artifacts museum. An archeological museum. It was only a 2 euro entry, cheap and small. It was nice, took some photos. It had this beautiful outdoor walk through the fields in the back, but there was way too many caterpillars. It covered all of the fields so we did not head to far back. We started to head back to the front of the island, saw the ocean view and found this cute cat that wanted to follow us. I just liked this idea of the sea view being relaxing and being able to just wander around and explore a little. I felt more comfortable. Back to imagining how this would be in the summer. Could you imagine this in the summer? Amazing. This beach area was a must. I like California beaches but this here is an island. Like lets get a get away home here. I could sit here and write for hours, do art work, everything. Back in my head thinking about sister hood of the traveling pants 2. That is my biggest imagination of Greece came from that movie since the one friend spent the summer in Greece on a island. We found a Pistachio stand and went crazy buying Pistachio everything. From honey, to butter, pistachios itself and candy. She was a great sales person, from samples and samples of pistachios, it made you just want everything. It was tons of free pistachio candy and samples so she had us hooked. Ended up spending like 15 euros on just pistachio stuff, worth it though. She had a competitor pistachio stand like two stands down too. We headed to a nice place to eat for lunch. Had spaghetti and Pina Coladas to relax. It was just an enjoyable island day, to relax with the girls. Like I wish this was more accustomed at home, but everyone is always busy. A lady who worked there who had studied in California had cheered us on with free shots. I'm not a shot person, so I was just like "momma ain't raise no bitch" and went to just take the shot, completely shocked on how yummy and sweet tasting this liquor was, not burning my throat. It was a homemade liquor from Greece. I may be 2 weeks too late, but finally picked up some sunglasses on this trip. Ended up with two pairs and cases. Finally the most eventful part of this island trip after we had some pistachio icecream,  that was quite tasty. We are looking for this one girl on the trip, worried we may miss our boat ride back, wondering where she is. Finally here she is marching down smiling with tons and tons of bags. And we called out her name in question, more of a shock though, like what did she buy?? At first I thought she just had a shopping spree of a bunch of items, like good for you. And I asked her what did she buy? And she responds "12 coats." And I asked her how much and everyone starts crowding around, people who barely even know her on this trip. And she responds 4,50. I thought she spent like $4,50 a piece, but no she meant $450. If it was just 4,50 a piece I would of been like great, good for you girl, literally a steal. I started running to find my teacher to let her know she is safe but what happened and what to do. Since we had to catch our ferrie. We were all freaking out not sure of what exactly to do at this point, but we knew we had to get on that boat. Some how there has juts been a lot of drama on this trip and I just sit in the background, listen, watch just like okay. Legit the anthropologist. I was just in shock about how someone could spend so much on coats at once, when winter just has two more months and the idea of trying to get it on the plane back home as well. We tried to help her out by trying to return them when we got back to Athens at a place near us. But it did not work. Turns out it was just a store who sold Funky Boudhha not an actual store owned by them. So she ended up keeping all her 12 coats, happy, good for her. With all this drama and stories on the trip watching from the side lines, i'm just like this is eventful. And now my journal must be interesting from the background. And the story to be lived on for the moment, 12 coats. After this trip i had a little bit of home personal drama to deal with. My trip was coming to an end and I just did not need to deal with stuff in America while I was away. It started to effect my mood, I started to cry in the middle of Monistiraki, but I was like no I need to wipe my tears and get over this. Instead I did some retail therapy! I went shopping bought more clothes and shoes with great deals. Then headed back to bed.

  Check List:

  -Aigina

  -12 Coats

-Jackie Kensey

Day 12: January 13th, 2017.

 I can't believe these two weeks are coming to an end. They have went by so fast. It sucks when you start off anxious and then by the ending you are finally loving it and comfortable. I was getting so use to this, just to go back home. I'm not ready to go back home, yet, even though I really do miss it. I'm just like these are the last days, last moments, to make the most of it. Then tomorrow is our last official day and we have a early flight in the morning, not excited for that either. We had a later start today, able to sleep in some more. The plan was go to to the fresh market, I wish we were able to this before. If this was last week could of picked up food for the week, prepared at home meals. Everything just looked amazing. I love fresh markets like this, so do my parents. I bought some real homemade pomegranate juice. It was so much fresher and better than that POM brand at home. After this I got my favorite morning breakfast which included a cheese pie, a croissant and my double cappuccino sweet. I literally spent this whole trip eating all the time, worth it though. And I really will my morning breakfast rituals, sometimes I even get spinach pies too, can't find pastries this good and cheap at home. After this we viewed a bunch of galleries. 6 to be exact. They took us to this "bougie" neighborhood. The upper class side, more like our downtown center city at home. It had all the high class stores, similar to the idea of 5th avenue in New York, but not as crowded at all. Every gallery we went too, I took photos and their information sheets to view and learn more about the artist and their work. The first gallery happened to be my favorite. The artist had a use with the kitsch style work, collaging as well as her animation. It was a use of childish characteristics of art in a morbid way. It was just very out there but appealing to my eye. It made me want to understand their point for the art, and a lot of it was political. It was comical and morbid but enjoyable. There was moments of other art in other galleries I had liked, and I really appreciated all the artists worked we had viewed. But the first was just my personal favorite, since kitsch style is my favorite form of abstract. After we had our dinner in Syntagma. They did not have enough crepes so I settled for some spaghetti, at least I like pasta. We then finished out night up shopping in Monistiraki, we had to get all our last minute gifts. I learned how to bargain so well at this point that I ended up with 4 handmade leather greek sandals for only 65 euros. Amazing quality, at home it is because $50-$100 for the same price. Also had gotten handmade leather and wool slippers, 3 pairs at 9 euros each. These shoes were not just all for me, but as well for my mom and sister, we all love shoes. This was just a great shopping day for me. I legit got a huge heavy coat for only 45 euros, a deal you can not get at home, also for a coat you can not find at home. It was black with the interior all hot pink fur all lined around the coat. It was beautiful and have never seen this on a coat at home to be this color, it was just not in style yet. I had a great time shopping and I found gifts for my friends and family, I was so happy. I should of just brought an empty suit case because no idea how I am fitting all of this to take home. I finished my list of stuff for my family in things I know they would want and appreciate and little things for my friends to know I was thinking of them. I made the most of my last night with my friends I had made on the trip and we always have a great time with our teacher as well. I was really enjoying this and I did not want it to  come to an end, and it was realization that it was. I just want to come back with a empty suit case, shop and spend more time here. I ended up being so exhausted after this long day of galleries and shopping. After we finished our shopping my roommate and I went to a cafe known as gallery cafe just for a quick bite to eat. It was down the street from our apartment so we did not have to head to far. She said they had good cheap grilled cheese, which is my favorite so I was up for that. They call their grilled cheese though, "toast." It was just cheese and tomato with chips and they had a yummy spicy dip to dip the chips in as well. I also decided to try a greek beer known as "mythos," it is advertised everywhere and cheaper than american and I was like its basically my last night, might as well. It actually tasted a lot better than american beer. This trip has been a cultural thing since I don't drink at home except for special occasions so living more like a greek being of the age to drink here, having a beer was different. I mentioned before how we missed our greek live music thing the other night and this whole trip that is all I wanted to hear. And finally here we are. We sat in this empty little family owned cafe who actually throws little events. Reminded me of the coffee house in friends or somethings. A place that friends come to hang out and relax and they use to have live music at the coffee house. I wish we had a place like this at home, locally. Maybe we do, just have not found it yet. But they were having a little performance tonight. I love music and we sat finishing our food, listening to the music with more mythos. And accidentally ended up with another grilled cheese because they waiter thought we wanted another one, when really just was ordering more mythos. It ended up on the house though. Then they had friends there who wanted more people to stay and listened to the music, so they sent us over some free mythos as well. The one asked to cheer with us and asked if it was okay he had sent this over to us. Since he just wanted us to stay and listen to the music for his friends performing. It was completely friendly and I appreciated it. The singer had dedicated american music to us being that we are american. Including some beetles, "let it be." It was great, and also there was greek music too, all I wanted to hear. It was an amazing atmosphere. It was great for my last friday and basically last official night here. And I ended up with a great sleep and well fed after that. 

  Check List:

  -Fresh Market

  -Galleries

  -Monistiraki (shopping!)

  -Cafe/Live Music

 -Jackie Kensey