Okay
here's the latest...I've been slacking, I know-that's what happens
when you're off in Europe...lol I
just got back from Greece-what a fabulous time that was!
I met my cousins (on my grandmother's side) and saw so many awesomely
old things. Nate D. (a
former S.U. student) came up and toured Athens with me. It was nice
to have someone from home!
I hiked up the Acropolis, saw extremely old ruins, ate Greek food,
got lost a lot, and saw where the first democratic meetings (EVER)
were held...what a week!
If you look REALLY closely at the picture
of the Temple of Olypian Zeus (above), you can see me-I'm the minature
dot on the bottom.
I
realized the people in Greece spoke Greek, but I did not realize
they still used the Greek alphabet. I know it seems really obvious
now, but at the time I didn't think about it. This made it really
hard at some points in our trip, our map was in the Latin alphabet,
the street signs in Greek. I know my Greek alphabet (thank you Delta
Phi Epsilon New Member Program!!!), but that didn't help me much
on finding my way.
Thankfully on the more touristy roads they had a translation under
each sign...too bad I still managed to find myself on roads that
were not translated.
The
drivers in Athens made me very happy to have the department of transportation.
I was almost run over ten times by motorcycles driving really fast...ON
THE SIDEWALK. However, becuase of the Olympics, the underground
train stations were the best I have seen. You could eat off the
floors they were so new. I wouldn't-but I suppose you could. I
am also glad for transportation department in the maintence of our
roads (even if it did take a million years to finish Junction Hwy
near the school...).
At some points during our trip into downtown Athens I was not sure
if I was stepping in water that could not be drained, or sewage...hmmm.
Before
I left for Athens it was Guy Fawkes weekend here in London. At first
I thought it was a ridiculous thing to celebrate (the failed attempt
to blow
up Parliament a long time ago...I think), but then I realized that
I eat candy left by a big rabbit to celebrate the rising of Jesus.
In the end, it
all makes sense. To celebrate Guy Fawkes we had a bar-b-que and
watched the fire works, it was fun.
 We
also have to give walking tours as part of our British Seminar Class
(I did mine on The Beatles, thank you very much!). One of the tours
we went on was on the East Bank and was predominately a Bangladeshi
(I think that is spelled right!?!) area, it was incredibly neat
and had SPECTACULAR food.
We also celebrated Halloween with pumpkin carving a bit of costumes.
I thought our street would be filled with trick-or-treaters, it
is very well lit and had loads of residents. Any smart kid would
come here to get candy! Aparently the kids here aren't as big on
trick or treating as I would have been. We had one kid come all
night, it was very disapointing.
 Even
though they don't celebrate one of the best holidays here with as
much excitement as I would have liked, I still carved the BEST Beatles
inspired pumpkin EVER.
When Nate came to visit he brought me some toothpaste-it is amazing
how hard it is to choose toothpaste at a drug store when none of
it is approved by the American Dental Association or anything remotely
like it.
London has gotten very cold, and exciting. It gets dark around 4:30
in the afternoon, so if I want to get anything done I have to start
early. The sun
doesn't come out very often, but when it does it is very pretty.
I am having a fabulous time here in London, but I still cannot wait
to get back
to Mamacita's, Sonic, Big Red, and Taco Cabana!
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