Ah, my humblest apologies for the duplicate episodes last time--the internet here has been ridiculously patchy over the last three days. Some of my fellow ACA group have been complaining about it to the degree they want to bug the desk about it, but I'd rather stay at peace with them. They do make our food, after all. It's just frustrating when there's only one person on the hotel staff who knows how to fix the internet, and we have to wait for them to get on duty every time it crashes. . . but that's life, I guess. Just wish it wouldn't do funny things like drop half of some emails and send other twice in the meantime.
We did not have Sunday off, like the rest of Greece, heh. The rest of Greece takes Sunday so seriously, they shut down almost everything, so there's nothing to do but go to class or the beach. So, I studied extra-hard, and tried to go to the beach with my room mate, Damali. She's from New York, so a beach like this one is even more of a novelty to her. Unfortunately, we found it to be so crowded, what with the rest of Greece having the day off, we went to the pool instead. There was a large group of American high schoolers there, but at least I was able to swim and to get some work done in turns. It's actually a rather therapeutic way of dealing with homework, I discovered.
The quality of dinner, I've noticed, has improved with more vegetarian food than before. For several nights, most of us were reduced to eating potatoes and watermelon, but now they've started to pull out different varieties of eggplant, falafel, and, finally, some spanakopita, or spinach pie. Over dinner, I get what I believe has been some of my real education on this trip--listening to my peers discuss issues from their locales. It's fascinating, to learn what different issues are discussed in different parts of the church.
Today I spent mostly in study, because I'm not liking my grades in translation. It feels like I lost a lot in the week I was gone; the teacher, Dr. Bruce Johansen, was kind enough to work with me and my room mate, Damali, this afternoon. He says I'm just jetlagged, and I'll improve quickly. I hope so; I was getting a bit discouraged, looking at my translations. I've started taping charts and old assignments to my wall in hopes of making myself learn even more--it's intense, the study program here. At least we have a beautiful locale; right outside the classroom is a veranda overlooking the sea, and that's where I'm writing from right now. The weather is hot during the day, but pleasant in the evening, and I've enjoyed being out here tonight.
This afternoon, Damali and I went into Glyfada again, and had a good time getting lunch and looking in the newsstands for various items. I find it amazing, that with all the postcards they sell there, the only place to get stamps is the post office, several train stops away. Eh, well. The train system works beautifully here; I wish the US would convert. 80 euro-cents for 90 minutes anywhere sure beats gas for that time.
Anyway, enough musing on life here in Greece. Tomorrow, I get to go to Corinth and Mycenae--I will write after that, if I can. For now, I just thought I'd leave all of you with my best wishes, and a few pictures of what it's like. Hope you all have a wonderful week, full of bright horizons.
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