So all this week I have had to study for exams. i have had modern culture, ancient culture, and greek art exams. they were all easy in their own ways. i bull shitted my way through both the modern and greek art exams. i think i did pretty well for myself too. i stayed up til 3 in the morn last night studying for ancient culture. i was in the lobby with nick and tabitha. then tabitha went to bed and it was just me and nick. so i apparently fell asleep in the chair in some really weird position at some point and then erin and mark were down there at some point and erin woke me up and asked me if i wanted to go to bed. i was like no so i just turned around to another position all curled up after erin and mark left and then nick was like do you want to go to bed and i was like no. then he was like do you want me to wake you up when i am done. i was like yes. then i totally passed out i was so tired. the next thing i knew was that he was waking me up at like 3:15 in the morning and it took him a while and he finally woke me up and he was like it is time for bed b/c i don't think you want to sleep here on this chair. so then he took my notebook that i had thrown on the floor earlier and was like come here and get the notebook and he led me all the way up to my room on the second floor and was like come here and get it the entire way up there. he treated me like i was some sort of dog or something. it was kind of hilarious. then i went to bed. so today i had my last exam. that was pretty fun. no more school. however, the bad thing about that is that means i am leaving on tuesday and i don't want to. but don't tell anyone i said that. i mean i want to come home and see everyone but i don't want to leave greece and all the great friends i made here. there was so many great times. o i think i am going to cry. ok enough of that sappy shit. last night we went to hard rock cafe to celebrate val's birthday. it was one of the best times here. it was hilarious. i have great pics. we got the huge ice cream mountain. it was yummy. we sang happy birthday there. then amy and her parents came up to where we were and they started singing happy birthday really loud and that made the entire restaurant start singing happy birthday to her. it was so hilarious. ok well that is it for now. i will post again eventually.

plaque in olympic stadium 

painting in olympic stadium

 

my family's plaque in the olympic stadium 

so this weekend we finally went to pylos. the weekend i was waiting for. it was all what i expected it to be. we went there for easter weekend. michael and debbie's kids were there and I absolutely love those kids. marilena has gotten so big. vassilli is still my main man. we got there on thursday. me and bry got a shitty room again without a balcony and frig. nick and val roomed together. it was awesome. thursday night me, dino, and peter went to church for a few minutes. it was a really pretty church. i had to stand on the girls side b/c dino told me it was a male and female side thing. then we went back. that night we had a bonfire on the beach and that was awesome. that day I took the girls to the castle there and that was fun. friday we went to the palace of nestor with michael and a museum and to see the tholos tombs. that night we went to good friday service. the entire thing was outside and we walked around the entire town. it was an awesome experience. then i went into nick and val's room and hung out and listened to pink floyd which nick got me hooked on. it was awesome. he played my favorite song for me. the first day the guys also played soccer in the plateia with some local kids. it was hilarious. friday night me and val also went walking around pylos. saturday we went to olympia with nota and that was fun. everything was free b/c of easter and everything. that night we also all went to the resurrection service. that was so different then in the states it is not even funny. at midnight they all go out of the church with their candles and have a service out there. it is amazing my hair did not burn b/c everyone was hoarding out of the church with lit candles. it was scary. the people also all mauled the priest to get the light that came from jerusalem. then local people set off major firewors for the rest of the night. it was so loud I could not even hear the priest chant or any of the service that took place outside. that sucked. i did not like the fireworks thing. you really had to watch your step too. these people would just let these fireworks go off and would not warn anyone. so if you take a wrong step you would definitely be a goner. the bells also went off. then we all left. val and i went out walking again that night to a playground again and took pics. then sunday was kind of our day off. we just had an easter/end of term party in the afternoon. it was fun. all kinds of food and lots of pics. that night they had another bonfire but i did not go this time b/c val and i turned on the tv and evita was on so we had to watch it. val, nick, and i did go down to the plateia though for a little bit and i watched them play air hockey. nick slaughtered val. then we went back and watched the movie. stargate came and watched it with us . then i went to bed. fister was his regular asshole self and threw an lemon at me at some point so I have not talked to him since. then monday we left and it was sad. we also went to mycenae and nafplion for the day with nota. that was our last time with her. so that was sad. then back to athens we went. pita pan opened back up after renovations. so this week is exam week and i just gave a presentation for debbie's class and i had to do koliva. so that was easy and fun. so now i have to majorly study. i am coming back home on tuesday and do not want to in many ways. i was mad b/c dino went to the olympic stadium and saw the painting without me. luckily someone got a pic of it for me and my family's name on the plaque. dino's birthday is today but we celebrated yesterday. i went to the school and studied though. they all went out partying and got so drunk. dino was drunk for over 24 hours. then i went to eleusis for the last time. michael got pissed b/c mark and i were late and then when i was getting out of michael's car some guy sped up right beside the door as I was opening it and luckily i caught the door before it got taken off. my arm probably would have gotten it too. val's birthday is tomorrow so we are going to celebrate again. that is basically it from this end.

So last weekend we went to Mykonos from Saturday til Monday. It was fun. It was meant to be just a weekend to relax and sit on the beach and that is exactly what we did. It was fun. On the way over to Mykonos I found out that Paul Dubis died and I was really sad that I was not home to go to the funeral and be supportive and I hate that I was not there. They went out every night and I stayed in. The first night me, mike, and rachel star gazed at night and there were so many of them. It was awesome. The beach was nice except it was rocky and that sucked. The second day me, fister, lauren, rachel, and bry went to delos for a few hours. I took so many pics there and it was such an awesome place. Then we went to the beach. Dino got so drunk one night...He made me go with him to findErin. every 5 minutes he asked where she was and every 5 minutes he said that the moon shining off the sea water was fucking amazing. so that was fun. we had to walk up an incredibly steep hill and I said that i could not carry him if he fell. but it was fine. we only made it half way up the hill b/c he could not make it. he made it back down which was a very good thing. he hugged me every 5 minutes as well. it was a hilarious time. a few of the guys rented 4 wheelers for the day. so yeah we basically just stayed on the beach the entire time. i got a tan. we were staying in a camping place with cabins. it was freezing at night. all in all it was a fun weekend.

So it’s been an amazingly long time since I last posted something, but that is ok. I have been really busy. So last week on Tuesday we went to Ampherion and Eretria. At Ampherion we saw the temple there. We went with Nota to both of these places. It was fun there. Many of us snuck under the roped off area of the theater and sat in the ancient chairs where the elite sat and took pics there. I did it. One of the pics that I will post has me in it. From there we went to Eretria. We traveled by ferry which was like a 20 minute ride or so. Our little bus we took had to come with us on the boat so that was fun. We first went to the museum at Eretria and looked around there and had a little lecture from Nota. When we came back we could not find the bus driver so we casually started walking to the next site. Then we found him and went back to the bus and piled in. We drove to the site with this really cool ancient site where there is a very well preserved house from back in ancient times. We did not stay there for very long. Then we got back on the bus and drove back to the museum to give the people there back the key to everything. Then those of us who wanted to got out and walked across the street to this site where an ancient theater was and residential houses from ancient times. It was really cool. About half the group went to explore. I took a lot of pics. There were like these little tunnel like things toward the back of the site and a lot of us climbed all the way down and into the tunnel to take pics. I was one of those pics. I almost wiped out like ten times, though. Then I climbed back up and followed everyone else to get to the theater. However, something happened and I did not make it to the theater. There was this fence we had to climb over in order to get into the theater. So our teacher went first and hopped over Indiana Jones style. Then everyone else went. Amy, Dino, and Erin were still behind me. I started to climb the fence and all the sudden I slipped. I caught myself on the edge of the sharp part of the metal or iron fence. So I pulled myself up half way over the fence. I looked to check and see if my hands were ok. My right hand was but my left hand was bleeding like no other mother. There was a huge gash right on my palm. So I climbed back over the fence to where I started and I saw Dino and I said to him “Ummmm Dino I have a problem.” He said “What? Do you need to go back to the bus?” I was like “yeah.” Then I showed him my hand and it was covered in blood and dripping all over the place. Then he was like “OH SHIT!” So he walked me back to the bus and got some water and cleaned it up somewhat and Val got me a bandage to wrap around my hand. Then I went to the bathroom and cleaned it up a little more. I had Dino clean my ring that got blood all over it. Then everyone got back on the bus and looked at it. They all thought it needed stitches. So we went to the beach and ate lunch and hung out. Then traveled by ferry back to where we were. Then we drove back to Athens. When I got back to the hotel I cleaned my hand a little more and took a nap. Then I woke up later that night and looked at it and it was still bleeding. So I went up to 34 to ask their opinion. Peter thought I needed stitches. I showed Nick for the first time. He was like “Let me see it I took med school.” So I showed him. His eyes practically bugged out of his head. He was like “ummmmm yeah ummmmm I don’t know what to say. They did not teach that in med school.” So I told them I was going to the hospital to have docs look at it and clean it. Rachel Stack came with me. We got there and did not know what to do so I found an English speaking doc and she told me to get a number and wait. I got number 16 and they were on like 95. So it was not going to take that long, or so we thought. 4 hours later I was still not seen. So I called Cosmopoulos and told him the situation and what happened. So he called a doctor to come meet us at the hotel to look at it. So Rachel and I took a taxi back to the hotel at like 4 in the morning. Then I did not have any money so we had to go to an ATM and my debit card was not working. So I could not get money. So the docs came and looked at my hand and she said it was not deep enough to need stitches. So she just cleaned it out and told me to go to the pharmacy and buy some meds to clean it out and she gave me a wrap and gauze. So after all that it turned out not to be a big deal. Then I went to bed. I was supposed to go work at the museum the next day but Michael told me to just stay at the hotel. So I did not go. I went to class the next day, though. My debit card still did not work and I did not have any money on me. So I called my mom and told her. She fixed it so now I have money. Cosmo lent me 100 and I paid him back. So everything is good. I did go to class that day.

top: erin and rachel playing air hockey in pylos
last two: nick and mike playing foozball

 

top: erin riding a horse in pylos
second: bry riding a bike of sorts in pylos
third:nick and mike playing foozball (i don't know how to spell it)
fourth: erin riding the same horse


 

areas outside the tholos tombs


 

areas outside the tholos tombs

 

tholos tomb
 

outside tholos tomb


 

inside tholos tomb


 

Inside tholos tomb


 

Palace of Nestor
 

Palace of Nestor