A Little Fun In The Sun

21.7.08 0:12

What's up?!

I realized today how much I miss hearing that! No one here says it, so I decided I would start. Maybe I'll get a trend going...

Contrary to what it may seem like from my posts, they actually do let us out of the classroom every once in a while. Today was especially, well, AWESOME, so I thought I could tell some stories.

Most days, we get out of class sometime in the early to late afternoon, around 3-5. If we are done at 3, we try to head to a beach, but I've only been twice. The beaches here are crouded. They are very different from what we see in the states (granted, living in a KC I'm not really an expert on beaches...) The beaches are covered with seats that have umbrellas. They are sectioned off and decorated to different themes and colors. These are how we describe to each other where we are, because they are on every portion of every beach. So we hang out by the "Mythos" umbrellas, or the "Distijl" umbrellas, or near the "Milos" club. Each set has a bar attached to it, which is the catch. The umbrellas and chairs look wonderful, but to enjoy them, you're expected to also enjoy a nice drink or two or seven. Which wouldn't be bad if the drinks did not cost 7.50 euros ( a little over 11 USD)

So the beach is really nice, though it's not really my favorite. We all hang out and play games in the water, and usually drop by a bar for a drink - emphasis on singular here!!! I fell asleep listening to music on Saturday...

Alec - 0
Grecian Sun - 1

My back hurts quite a bit now! Yes, mom, I did wear sunscreen :-) Saturday ended with a formal dinner. It was the last night for a high school group that was doing a program at MAICh as well. The menu was great - and very international. Regular salad, greek salad, feta, guacamole dip, salsa, lamb, barbecque ribs and greek potatoes. And of course, since we are in Greece, bountiful bread and wine! The dinner ended around 11 PM. Some people went downtown, but I decided to stay. The greeks started dancing, so I joined that for a while. We walked around campus. I had an hour or so conversation with Saef, an Egyptian, about how to organize a Model United Nations convention. Dr. Armstrong, get ready. I'm coming back to the states motivated to get one of these organized at Jewell. Saef, Mohammed al-Ashiri and Sarantis Michaelopolous have all agreed to come to America and help if it works out. How about those names???

Anyways, Saturday night finished about the normal time for a night to finish here in Greece...maybe 4 or 5 AM! Sunday morning brought a bus ride to Iraklion and Knossos to see the ruins of the ancient Minoan civilization. I have some incredible pictures of a culture that was so advanced for its time. The most impressive technology was their pipe system. There is a water spring 10 KM away from the palace. The Minoans dug a pipe system from the mountain spring to Knossos with clay pipes buried 4-6 ft. deep. This brought running spring water to the entire palace year-round. And when they were done with the water, they could simply put it into a bowl-looking thing that drained into a nearby river. The drainage system was something else! It weaved all around the palace, going into rooms and under walkways. Very neat stuff. We had lunch at a cafe in Iraklion and got to walk around the harbor area for a couple hours before heading back. I've made friends with some Egyptians: Mohammed - I probably spend more time with him than anyone! Yasmine - she looks like Mimi from rent, and really likes Aladin...:-) Iman - She calls me her guardian, even though she's 23. Shahir - he has probably the biggest smile I've ever seen to go along with a cackling laugh. Saef - funny, funny guy. He's like my Egyptian Theo... Jayla - Jayla is so much fun. We chill like there isn't a care in the world. And a Lebanese guy named Ralph - he does unbelievable voice impressions. He started talking today like he was California, and I would never have guessed that his first language was Arabic.

So we all hung out in downtown Iraklion before catching the bus back to Chania. A pretty terrible dinner, a shared cigar and just a little studying followed. And then we sang! I felt like I was at EOYC singing with Lynn. Probably 40 0f us were circled up, huddling around sporadic lyric sheets. Tal from Israel, Edward from the States and Ralph from Lebanon were on the guitars. Chris Carr, if you're reading this, we sang "Killing Me Softly", and I wished you were here at that moment!!!

All in all, a wonderful day in a wonderful place. I think I forgot to mention that we had a day off of classes today, which made it even better. But it's back to grind tomorrow....today, actually....with the beginning of our Conflict Management course. We have finished the course on the Good Society and will have our exam over that this coming Saturday, along with the exam for Conflict Management. Good times here in Chania!

Good night!