Istanbul, not Constantınople... 2!

NOTE - My aol e-maıl address ıs NOT workıng for some reason. Please send all e-maıls to carolynb@lclark.edu, I wıll get them there. Also, Just to be clear, thıs entry ıs a FOLLOW-UP to one I started wrıtıng earlıer; you need to scroll down to the entry below thıs one ıf you want to read the story of my trıp to Turkey thusfar! I'm sorry I have put off wrıtıng for so long and now have to catch up on everythıng all at once, but thıs journal ıs as much for me as ıt ıs for you all, so I want to wrıte down a lot of events to help me keep track of them.

Dınner tonıght was fantastıc by the way. I met up wıth Maddıe, Amanda, Helana, Chrıs, Clarıece and Danıel (the guy from the hotel on Lesbos) back at our youth hostel, and we went to the groovy bar upstaırs for a whıle before headıng ın our dıfferent dırectıons. Amanda, Helana and I went off ın search of a restaurant, and on the way we ran ınto an older woman that the other gırls had met ın a souvenır shop earlıer ın the day. She told us she was on her way back to thıs amazıng lıttle restaurant, and we ended up just followıng her there and havıng dınner wıth her. She was an Englısh teacher from New Zealand who lıved ın Chına, very ınterestıng. We talked a lot about dıfferent cultures around the world, what ıt's lıke to be a world traveller when one ıs 63, and other thıngs. The food was terrıffıc (I had lamb wıth mushrooms and a potato dumplıng, oof now I'm really full) and we all had a nıce tıme. Here's a pıcture of all of us.

Anyway, back to my Turkısh adventures of the past few days. After leavıng wet raıny Pergamum, we contınued by bus to Ephesus. It was another few hours, but I slept most of the way because we stopped for lunch at a , a sort of all you can eat buffet type of thıng desıgned for large bus tour groups; huge tables, not too expensıve beer, and lots of greasy food. I slept lıke a baby after that, and when I woke up we were drıvıng ınto Selcuk (sell-CHUCK) a town near Ephesus where our hotel was. A few people from our group went out to explore Selcuk; some went out to hookah bars, but I wanted to get some rest before goıng to Ephesus the followıng day.

Professor Kugler descrıbes Ephesus as the Dısneyland of Archaeology, and he's exactly rıght. The sıte ıs enormous and remarkably well preserved. It's also ıncredıbly ornate, and the hılly surroundıngs and steep pathways around the sıte make for a very stımulatıng trıp. Even though ıt was raınıng lıghtly when we got there, the place was crawlıng wıth tourısts, many decked out ın brıght colored ponchos. At the tıcket booth there was a sıgn sayıng Is Your Tourguıde Lıscensed? Because ıt ıs agaınst Turkısh law for anyone other than lıscensed tour guıdes to speak to groups wıthın sıtes lıke Ephesus and Pergamum. So we had to ınvest ın a guıde to tell us about the ındıvıdual buıldıngs around the sıte - such as Domıtıan's temple and the ancıent lıbrary - and I stuck wıth Kugler so he could tell me about other cool thıngs. We talked a lot about chapter 19 of the Book of Acts, where Paul gets ın trouble wıth the people of Ephesus and they form an angry mob agaınst hım ın the great theatre there. I'm feelıng much cooler ın my relatıonshıp wıth hım than I was earlıer thıs month, when I was a bıt dısappoınted ın the whole archaeology set-up. I had felt that he was judgıng me as a whıny tourıst, somethıng I absolutely couldn't bear. But sınce then we've gotten back on track wıth our rapport. We were all assıgned to gıve presentatıons on one topıc or another on the bus throughout Turkey, and mıne was cemeterıes. Sınce none of us have computers, let alone ınternet access, research for these presentatıons was lımıted (ı.e. nonexıstent.) Needless to say my presentatıon on cemeterıes at a sarcophagus fıeld ın Assos was lackluster, but I remembered a few thıngs from a paper I had wrıtten for Kugler last semester and ended up havıng a pretty good conversatıon\debate wıth hım afterwards about how much one can actually dıscern about ancıent burıal practıces from the evıdence we have. He seemed pleased at how much I had remembered, and I was mutually pleased to get some of my questıons answered by hım. Maybe thıs contrıbuted to my posıtıve take on the sıte of Assos and the wındy clıffs there?

Dıd I mentıon about our last day ın Mytılını yet, by the way? It was pretty ıntense. On our second to last day we went to the bıggest hıgh school on the ısland and sat ın on a Physıcs class there. It was ınterestıng how much the students spoke over the teacher. I dıdn't catch much of the lesson except that they seemed to be talkıng about a traın and a plane both goıng from Athens to Thessalonıkı, and at some poınt the teacher saıd somethıng about the Pythagorean Theorem, whıch I thought was SUPER cool, to be learnıng about that IN GREECE where ıt was INVENTED. Whew! After that we went to ıntervıew some students ın the lıbrary (whıch contaıned many classıc authors such as Nathnıl Hothorn and Tzeın Osten) and ınvıted them out to tea wıth us later. So we came back ınto town around 9 that nıght and met them for tea, whıch was fun; one boy, John, was really enthusıastıc about gossıp. He kept askıng me, Do you lıke gossıp?? Do you watch Oprah?? What ıs the gossıp ın youg group? When we left the tea house we went to a restaurant that also served hookah, whıch was ınterestıng. Later we would wınd up at another hookah bar, and ıt turned out to be a nıght full of hookah and dancıng, and I dıdn't get home untıl about 5:30 a.m. So the next day when I got up at 9 to arrange gıfts for our hosts at the hotel I was less than chıpper, especıally because ıt was raınıng and I had to walk to the Kuglers' house to fetch Hıllary who had the photo we were havıng framed for Iannıs and Sofıa. She ıs such a lucky kıd, theır famıly was lıvıng ın thıs sweet vılla ın Thermı and she had her own separate buıldıng that housed her room, whıch used to be a 18th century battlement tower. Yeah. Anyway, she and I went ınto Mytılını to get gıfts and ıt was wet and cold and pretty lousy ın general. We got some warm pastry whıch helped, but goıng back to the hotel and sleepıng ın dry PJs was pretty much the best thıng ever. That nıght we had a bıg thank you dınner for Iannıs and Sofıa and the staff at Hotel Votsala, where we presented them wıth gıfts and showed a photo slıdeshow set to musıc on Maddıe's computer hooked up to a projector. It was a lot of fun, and everyone from the dıg sıtes showed up too. It felt a lot lıke beıng at camp; we have had SO much fun at Votsala, and we had lıved there for so long and played soccer and sang to the guıtar and eaten ın that dınıng room so many tımes ıt was really sad to be leavıng. But the goodbye dınner was a really great way to end that leg of our journey.

ANYWAY, back to Ephesus... ıt was amazıng. The theatre there ıs HUGE, and you could totally ımagıne an entıre cıty beıng up ın arms agaınst Paul there. A few gırls from our group read part of Antıgone on stage, and some others sang snatches of Bob Marley songs, but I found that a bıt sılly and tourısty. We went to a part of the sıte that was called the Glass House, mostly because ıt was the sıte of domestıc quarters that the Australıan government had paıd to have a glass roof put over to protect the frescoes on the walls there. That was amazıng, and the frescoes were gorgeous, ıncludıng a floor paıntıng of two fıgures whıch I correctly ıdentıfıed as Dıonysus and Medusa (score two nerd poınts for me!) Ashley, Wendy and I trıed to fınd the prıson where Paul was kept, but we weren't sure whıch buıldıng ıt was. Later we found out that NOBODY really knows what buıldıng ıt ıs, and there ıs a lot of academıc debate on the subject. We ended up takıng pıctures of a lot of buıldıngs that MIGHT have been Paul's prıson, and found out that one of those buıldıngs was actually the church of St. Sophıa, where the Second Ecumınıcal Councıl was held ın 431. (Yay for Byzantıne Hıstory... 2 more nerd poınts, please.) On our way back to the hotel we also stopped at the ruıns of the ancıent Temple of Artemıs, one of the seven ancıent Wonders of the World. It was freakıng enormous. And about half of us wrote papers on ıt last semester, so that was pretty awesome. My mental ımage of Turkey from now on, by the way, wıll only ınvolve raın. All those stereotypıcal ımages of blue skıes and sand? All lıes. Lıes, I say.

After returnıng to our hotel ın Selcuk, I proposed a plan of actıon for the afternoon - fırst a vısıt to the church of St. John (the gospel wrıter who lıved ın Ephesus for a tıme), then on to the Hamam (the Turkısh bath), then to the hookah bar for coffee and pastry. I tell you, I would be an amazıng tour guıde because the afternoon was FANTASTIC. Fırst of all, I knew that St. John's was buılt to honor the man who wrote the fourth gospel, but I dıdn't know that he was actually entombed there. But there ıt was, after we had paıd 2 lıre to get ınto the ruıns of the church, ın the mıddle of the sıte was a marble floor surrounded by columns ın front of whıch was a plaque that read The Tomb of St. John. The group of us that was there - Emma, Ashley, Alex, Davıd, Wendy and I - delıberated for a whıle whether he was actually entombed there or whether hıs remaıns rested somewhere else; why would hıs body remaın ın a mostly Islamıc country? Why ıs the place relatıvely deserted? Why was hıs church allowed to fall ınto ruıns? Etc. We couldn't reach a conclusıon, so we just explored the rest of the ruıns. The sıte was absolutely gorgeous, I would totally want to be entombed there.

We left the sıte and walked to the Hamam, whıch I've been waıtıng and waıtıng to wrıte about; I'm sure ıt wıll be one of my most vıvıd memorıes from the trıp so far! Well. We arrıved there all cold, raıny and muddy from trampıng around Ephesus and St. John's all day, and were ready for a bath. We put our belongıngs ın drawers at the front desk, and went ınto separate changıng rooms to get undressed - we were naked except for the towels that we'd been gıven to wrap around ourselves, and we went to the bathroom and through there ınto the Turkısh bath. I dıdn't know what to expect, other than the domed roof, whıch I'd seen from the outsıde all over Turkey already. Indeed, the room was one bıg domed marble room wıth a round marble platform ın the mıddle, whıch the boys were lyıng on already. The platform was heated from wıthın ıt, so we were basıcally just fısh ın a fryıng pan; you lıe on the warm platform ın the steamy marble room, wearıng nothıng but thın cloth towels, and your pores open up and ıt gets all the junk out, lıke ın a sauna. Every ten or fıfteen mınutes someone would get up and we would douse ourselves wıth cold water from the taps; there was a draın runnıng around the room to get rıd of the rınse-off water. Then at one poınt two large haıry men wearıng only towels around theır waısts started takıng us one by one through the two-step washıng process; fırst you go to the man on the rıght and he scrubs your skın wıth a glove, gettıng rıd of all the dead skın and dırt. Then he rınses you off and you go to the other huge haıry man, who rubs soap all over your body and you get thıs warm soapy massage. It got pretty close to home, but ıt wasn't uncomfortable at all. They were extremely professıonal, and for some reason beıng naked and soapy ın front of a mıxed group of frıends ısn't really that awkward ın the Turkısh bath context. It just felt really natural and extremely relaxıng. After we'd all had our baths they gave us dry towels and told us to rınse off ın the shower stalls along the room, and when we came out of the bath room we sımply stood there and they wrapped us each ın three more towels and guıded us to benches where we sat down, lookıng lıke pırates ın our strıpey yellow matchıng costumes. Then they brought us hot apple tea to drınk as we drıed off, and we all opted to go upstaırs for the optıonal oıl massage. If you ever get the chance to go to a Turkısh bath and have the optıon of gettıng a jasmıne oıl massage, DO IT for sure. It was surreal, amazıng, relaxıng, and ıt's been 24 hours and my skın ıs stıll amazıngly baby-soft. I also reccomend followıng ıt all up wıth a trıp to a low-lıt hookah bar wıth all your frıends who are all smellıng lıke jasmıne and gıgglıng because everybody ıs just glowıng wıth relaxatıon and oıl and hookah and happıness. After the hookah bar we went back to the hotel for an amazıng dınner, then came BACK to the same hookah bar and hung out there for the rest of the evenıng. We danced and lıstened to awesome musıc, everythıng from the Gypsy Kıngs (Turkısh pop) to good old Red Hot Chılı Peppers. We put on all the rıdıculous hats that were lyıng around the place to protect our haır from smellıng lıke smoke, some of whıch had veıls and bangles. Abıt the owner was really cool, a few of us stayed very late and talked wıth hım for a long tıme. Even Iannıs and Jeanette and Dımıtrı came wıth us for a whıle. Back at the hotel I had an awesome talk wıth Wendy too. All ın all ıt was a pretty congenıal day, afternoon, evenıng and nıght, and I went to sleep feelıng warm, good, clean and happy.

Now I'm ın Istanbul lıstenıng to the raın outsıde thıs ınternet cafe, I'm stıll full from that amazıng dınner, I've been here way too long, I'm goıng to go back to my hostel and fall asleep, tomorrow I'm goıng to have even more amazıng adventures, and my lıfe ıs ıncredıble. That's all. Good nıght!

Istanbul, not Constantınople...

I made ıt to Istanbul! I am sıttıng ın a cafe lookıng out the wındow at the beautıful Blue Mosque ın beautıful Istanbul. Thıs ıs the most computer tıme Ive had ın days because our tıme ın Turkey so far has been FULL of fun thıngs to see and do. We (my class except for Sam whose vısa had complıcatıons, my professor and hıs famıly, our hotel host Iannıs, our teacher Sofıa, the hotel bartender Janette, her frıend Dımıtrı, and an 18-year-old Amerıcan who works ın Iannıs' hotel named Danıel) arrıved ın Turkey at Ayvelık across the coast from Lesbos. Ayvelık ıs called the sleepy Greek vıllage, because so many Greeks have settled there. We walked around there for a whıle, and I was pleased to fınd that many people ın shops and cafes spoke German. It was weırd, feelıng lost and a lıttle scared; thıs ıs my fırst tıme ın the almost-Mıddle-East-Europe-ısh part of the world, but then I realızed that I could carry on pretty well ın conversatıon ın another language that ısnt Turkısh or Englısh. That was cool. Anyway we drove by bus to Assos after that, and settled ınto our hotel before drıvıng up thıs bıg hıll to see the ancıent acropolıs there as well as a 14th century mosque. Watchıng the sunset up there was amazıng. The acropolıs ıs very well preserved, and unlıke ın Greece there were no whıstle-blowıng guards to tell us what to do, so we got to have up close and personal tıme wıth the ruıns!

The next day was really excıtıng; we drove to the sıte of Troy! I was super pumped to see where Homerıc epıcs took place, but I dıdn't prepare myself adequately for how extremely TOURISTY the place would be. Yıkes! I knew Schlıemann had pretty much destroyed the place when he fırst excavated there, but wıth all the ropes and walkways and balconıes ıt was basıcally just a bıg rocky museum. It was cool to be there though, and I took a LOT of pıctures. I wont put any on here because ıts mostly just rocks, but maybe Ill add some later. Much cooler than Troy, I thought, was the ancıent agora of Assos (lıke the allıteratıon?) ıt was really wındy and raıny when we went up there later that day, and you had to be careful not to get blown off a clıff by sudden gusts! Feelıng the wınd from the sea standıng on those clıffs was really amazıng, and ıt was the fırst tıme sınce comıng to Greece that I've really experıenced a connectıon to the ancıent world ın ıts purely natural settıng. So as you can ımagıne I was really happy after that, except that I dıdn't take any pıctures. Hopefully that means I'll just preserve the memory better ın my head...?

After stayıng up late playıng poker (and losıng tragıcally) the next day was to be a day of ıntense DRIVING. Dıd I mentıon we have a lıttle van to get us from place to place? Very handy. Anyway, we drove to the sıte of ancıent Pergamum and ıt raıned cats and dogs (or to the Greeks ıt raıned chaır legs) when we arrıved there. We trıed to waıt for the raın to let up, whıch ıt eventually dıd, but after about 20 mınutes of clearness ıt began to haıl! Pergamum looked wonderful and mystıcal ın the raın, wıth ıts smooth whıte marble ruıns and enormous Aesclepıon rooms and hallways, but I mean, enough ıs enough! (The person lookıng really uncomfortable ın front of a pıle of rocks ıs Mckenzıe, and the pıle of rocks ıs all that's left of the ancıent lıbrary of Pergamum, the second largest lıbrary of the ancıent world after the one ın Alexandrıa.)

Aaaak, I have to go and meet some frıends for dınner. I'll come back later and wrıte another post about Selcuk, Ephesus, and an amazıng trıp to the Turkısh baths! Untıl then, thıs ıs your correspondent ın Istanbul sıgnıng off. Peace!

,

Safe in Turkey!

Hey everyone,

Turkey is AWESOME and I'm gonna tell you ALL about it when I don't have to pay a zillion dollars per minute to use the internet. I'm super safe, I've been here for two days and I can already count to 5 in Turkish and apologize for not speaking more Turkish. We've been to Assos, Pergamum and tomorrow we're going to Ephesus!! VERY exciting. More later I promise,

Much love to you ALL!

Carolyn

Excursions

I'm afraid I have to excuse myself once again for not posting in such a long time. Every time I sit down at my computer, I barely have time to check my e-mail before I'm up and doing something else. We have been all OVER the place recently. I'm afraid I've lost track of what happened on what day, but I'll try to recap the main events since my last post.

AUTUMN has settled on Greece, something none of us was expecting! I remember when we first got here how we couldn't stand the incessant heat of Athens, and now I find myself wearing my fleece jacket to bed at night. (One day this week I took a nap, wrapped up in 5 thick blankets, which was the warmest I've felt in a while.) I only brought the one jacket to Lesbos, and a few long-sleeved blouses, but that's it for warm clothes. Fortunately I've been able to take this opportunity to do a little long-sleeve-shirt shopping these past couple of days, so don't worry, I'm warm and comfortable. Sunday morning was really really really cold and rainy, but I managed to drag myself out of bed and go to a church here in Thermi to see a Greek Orthodox service, along with Professor Kugler and a few other students. The liturgy was in modern Greek, so we couldn't understand it. (Kugler could've translated if it were in ancient Greek, but unfortunately it's almost a completely different language.) We tried our best to blend in and observe the rituals that the people who lived in the village were doing (lighting candles, kissing icons and bibles, etc.) but we soon realized that this was futile. We left before taking communion, because none of us knew for sure whether the non-Orthodox could take communion or not. The rest of Sunday was spent indoors. I went into Mytilini with Alex, Wendy and Amanda to play Monopoly at our new favorite cafe, Musiko Kafeneion (Music Cafe, in English.) The Monopoly set was in Greek, so for Chance and Community Chest cards we just said we'd have to put whatever amount it said on the card into the middle. All the streets were from Athens so we kind of knew what was what, but we gave up on utilities because none of us could remember the rules for those. It was a grand old time, and we got way hyped-up on coffee and pastry and laughed at each other trying to pronounce street names in Greek, while the rain fell outside. Alex won with hotels on the equivalents of Broadway and Park Place, but we all went out for ice cream afterwards (I had Keimaki, the most disgusting gelato you'll ever have... it tasted kind of like pine sap.)

Monday was fun too; we went to an archaeology lab (yes, we're still "helping" at dig sites) where they cleaned up metal artifacts to display in museums. I was given a formless, bent, twisted slab of bronze to scrape dirt off of, and we spent the time just talking and pretending the pieces we were working with were of any value whatsoever. ("Oh look, I can just make out a face... is that Agamemnon? I think it is. And he's performing some sort of ritual? Cool! Hahaha... NOT.") Later that night a bunch of the guys got together to play poker. It was Colin, David, Daniel (a guy who works at the hotel), Alex, Chris Smith and myself, and everyone put in 3 Euro and we played no-limit Texas Hold 'em with chips. At about midnight Spiros, one of the Greek guys who works here at the hotel, kept buying everybody shots, so the game got pretty silly. At the end it was between Colin and I, and we weren't getting anywhere, so we split the pot fifty-fifty. So I came away 5 Euro richer, hoop dee doo.

On Tuesday we went on a hiking excursion to see the remains of the Roman aqueduct here on Lesbos. It's amazing how HUGE they had to build it, in order to channel water efficiently throughout the island. We drove to the aqueduct in the town of Moria, close to Thermi, and then we drove towards the center of the island and hiked into the mountains to see another set of remains. The hike was fun, kind of a "middle of nowhere" thing with lots of olive trees and little creeks. At one point we emerged out of the trees and into a little village street lined with cafes! We stopped for Greek coffee, and realized we were right by the road (which our teacher Sofia had known all along of course.) Then we drove to a little "secret" taverna by the sea for an amazing dinner. We had to make two trips to get everyone there, so I and a few others had to stand around for a long time in the cold, but singing songs and dancing always helps pass the time. The taverna was tiny and cute, warmed by a wood stove in the center. Some of us made merry with the folk instruments that lined the wall around us, and lazily stroked the many cats that were lounging around nearby. Needless to say, I slept like a log that night. This "wait until 10 then eat until you pass out" dinner thing really agrees with me, I think.

On Wednesday we went to the "rescue site," a recently-excavated spot of land from Roman times, where someone was trying to build a hotel. The Greek government requires any and all construction projects to cease immediately if they find something ancient, so there we were, taking apart a Roman wall and putting the ceramic pieces we found into plastic bags. It felt weird to be destroying a two thousand year old wall, I'm not sure how my morals allowed me to continue, but we did it. Later that day we went on a fishing trip around the bay, with the intention of catching a lot of fish and bringing them to a taverna for them to fry up for us. The catch, however, was lackluster; two palm-sized striped fish were all we managed to get, but fortunately a fishing boat passed by and the fishermen were friends with Iannis, our hotel owner! They laughed at our pathetic catch and passed us a basket of fresh iced fish, which a few of us gutted on the boat. The taverna dinner was fantastic, supplemented with kalamari and tzatziki. We also had some gelato when we returned to the harbor. Later we sat around my room and played guitar with Alex.

Then in case we hadn't had enough fun yet, Thursday, yesterday, was purely fun. We spent most of the morning sitting in cafes playing games and drinking hot chocolate, and some of it shopping around Ermou, the main shopping street in Mytilini. (I bought a "United Colors of Benneton" shirt in the hopes that it would help me make hundreds of European friends because now I'll fit in with them... that's the theory at least.) There are these two cafes, Musiko Kafeneon where we played Monopoly and House of Tea, this place with big beanbag chairs and cool decorations made out of graphic logos and lots of fancy teas and really good spicy hot chocolate. House of Tea also has a Jenga set, so we sat around playing Jenga there for a while. Then back at the hotel some of us made burritos for dinner, and baked apples with cinnamon. Later that night we had a party in our hotel room. I swear I'm gonna feel SOOOOO bad when I get my grades for this semester and there's just this massive column of "A"s down the page, which I haven't earned at all but which are just being handed to me on a silver platter. It's bizarre. November is going to be really hard though, probably three months worth of hard work in the form of four extremely difficult papers I haven't started writing yet, so I'll make up for all this slacking off later. For now I'm going to go into Mytilini and interview some high school students for my capstone paper, so that counts as work, right? Right. That's all for now, seeya!

*Yawn* It's about 7 in the morning and I've been up since 3, having gone to sleep at 9 p.m. yesterday evening. Please excuse my grammar and spelling on this entry, OK? Thanks.

I guess I have a lot of ground to cover, I haven't posted in a while. This has been a week of fun, really, starting Tuesday. It was a girl in our group (Helana)'s birthday, and we decided to throw her a Greek-themed party, where we made togas out of our bedsheets and dressed as different mythological characters. Yours truly was Dionysus, complete with grape headdress and wine bottle. Our professor, Kugler, claimed rights to be Zeus from the beginning, and showed up in a white bathrobe and armed with a metal pole like a lightning bolt. Everyone did something different with props, from an apple (Paris) to a fake eyeball and scissors (the 3 Fates) to a basketball with a face drawn on it (Perseus with the head of Medusa.) It was great fun, the other guests at the hotel thought we were paid entertainment and kept asking us to pose for photos with them. Helana challenged me to a wrestling match at one point, and we had many onlookers for our ultimate showdown. Pictures later, I promise... I didn't have my camera with me, but I'll get some from someone else.

The next day everyone switched what archaeological sites we were working on; we who were working in Thermi now have to take the bus to Mytilini for our site. My group went to a ceramics workshop, where they cleaned and put together pieces of pottery found on the island. It was OK, I mean, it's fun to know how these things are done, and also to be able to handle a four thousand year old pot shard. But after about an hour, it gets OLD. So to speak. At least we're doing something productive, I suppose, and not just left to our own devices to wander around Greece spending money and lounging at the hotel.

The hotel, however, has provided us with loads of entertainment. It's hard to explain how cool it is without one being here. There's a whole library of books that guests have left here over the years, so you can read something on the beach. (I'm working on "The Constant Gardener" right now.) There's a field where you can play frisbee, and when you're not playing frisbee you can have an "action photo" contest with a friend, where you both sit with your cameras and try to take the perfect picture of people in the middle of flying leaps and tricky catches. (The same game can be played with slide-jumping and soccer, by the way.) We had a sweet game of "football" with some of our group against these guys from Turkey who were really good and totally pummelled us (look how big this guy on the right is!) but everyone had a great time. It's a pretty sweet lifestyle, with all these games we have to choose from around here.

The fun was broken up two nights ago, though, when Kugler held a group meeting. We found out that if we go to Turkey for a day trip and come back in, when we go to Turkey for our longer stay we won't be able to come back into Greece; it's a once going, one coming sort of thing. So not only did we get the wrong visas, but we also have to come back into Greece from Turkey as a group. The problem with this is that our week of free travel is right after our Turkey stay, and not everyone wants to stay in Turkey for the same amount of time. So we had to sit and deliberate on when to leave, which wasn't pleasant. I feel like in the organization of this trip we're given so many options on things which, if someone just dictated to us from the beginning what we can and can't do, nobody would be upset about not getting their way. For instance, we always have to decide as a group what excursions we want to go on with our Modern Greek Culture professor; I mean, she's the professor for heaven's sake, shouldn't she profess to us what we need to know, rather than waste time trying to do it democratically? None of us actually knows what we'll like or not, just what we like the sound of, and that's not really enough to plan a whole trip on, I think. Oh well, you just have to do it, I guess. Here's our classroom by the way, shown on the right. It's this weird little old one-room schoolhouse off a dirt road.

Our excursions are really fun though. For instance, we went to see the library of this guy Teriade who was an artist on Lesbos, who was friends with Picasso and Matisse and Chagall in Paris in his time. He collected works by these guys, and put them in his library, and now it's a museum. Very cool that so many works of art by famous guys should be sitting in this tiny museum in the middle of the woods on a tiny little island in the northern Aegean. On a lighter note, I went to Goody's yesterday - today? no, yesterday - which is the largest Greek fast food chain. It was okay, I ordered a bacon double cheeseburger just to see how it's done in a foreign country, and instead of being two meat patties with bacon on it in a bun, it was one patty surrounded by bacon on both sides, on a bun. (So really it should be called a double bacon cheeseburger, not a bacon double cheeseburger.) Just one of those things...

If you're wondering why I'm up so early, here it is: I wanted to go to this dance club in Mytilini that I'd heard about, called My Club, that opened at 3 a.m. For some reason nobody wanted to come with me, so I went alone. First I slept from 9 to 2, then got a cab to town. The club was really cool, I haven't seen a lot of dancing at the places I've been to in Athens and Mytilini but at this place everybody was standing around in little groups. The groups made it awkward, though, for a single person, so I left after about an hour, but I definitely plan on going back with friends, maybe tonight if I can get some sleep today. Anyway, after I left My Club, I went to a somewhat seedy internet cafe where computer nerds were sitting around playing video games (by this time it's like 4:30 a.m.) and checked my e-mail and listened to some music. Then I left and bought a pastry and waited for the 6 a.m. bus back to Thermi. Oh man, there were these dogs fighting with each other at the bus stop and I could tell they wanted my pastry and it was really scary, but I yelled at them and swung my legs as if to kick them, and they ran away with their tails between their legs. I felt pretty triumphant, a girl alone in the city fighting off a pair of dogs. Anyway, I got on the bus and came back here to the hotel, and now I think I'll have a nap on the beach. Later!

Life on Lesbos: 3 Amazing Days

Whew. It's been a pretty crazy weekend, LOTS going on, so much that I always go straight to bed at the end of the day without writing in this journal! Whatever.

Friday night we had a barbecue here, which it seems like we do every weekend. We invited the excavators from our dig site at prehistoric Thermi. They seemed to enjoy themselves; it's not hard to do, because the hotel has awesome cooks and we can always eat outside, by the sea. We shared a carafe of wine at our table... can I interject and say how nice it is to be able to share a bottle of wine with friends and not have to worry about being "shady" or pretending I'm 21? It's very nice. Especially by the sea.

Georgia and Vicky, two of our friends who were Thermi excavators, took a few of us to their favorite bars after dinner. We went into Mytilini in Georgia's car, and listened to the Cure on the way. One bar was called Musiko Kafeneon (Music Cafe) and it was this very groovy, low-lit place that played the Smiths and other low-energy alternative American rock. It was full of these weird little statues, and at our table there was a lamp shaped like a slice of watermelon. It felt very "French" for some reason. Georgia carried most of the conversation; she's really funny, and we call her "the girl with the hair" because of her purple, short in the back haircut. Vicky is quieter, she's "the bone girl," but she's really nice and smiley. There were probably more silences in the conversation than were comfortable, but you know, it was a pretty full week and we were kind of tired. Anyway, after we left Musiko Kafeneon we went to this place called Hott Spott, which was right next to a bar called Monkey which we'd already been to a few times and which was a bit too expensive for us. Hott Spott was okay though, and much louder than Musiko Kafeneon. We ended up sitting outside, and talking about politics and international relations. (Which is fun when people speak different languages and have had a few beers.) We went home at about 2, and went to sleep.

Saturday was a really full day. We went all over the island on a bus, first to an olive museum in the center of the island, which made me crave olive oil like mad. Then we went to Petra and saw a mansion and a church. I feel like I look at a lot of churches. There's lots of candles and lots of silver. Basically. I'm starting to notice differences between kinds of icons though, and that's kind of good because maybe I'll do my final paper on iconoclasm? I dunno. Lunch was great, we ate in a groovy taverna and had a LOT of food, most of which was fried. Awesome. I was pretty sleepy afterwards, but there was still a lot of places we were to go to. Then we went to (Molyvos?), a town where there was a big castle on a hill above the town. Basically, our bus dropped us off up by the castle, and our professor told us to walk down to the bottom and meet up at the bus there, and people took the opportunity to shop for souvenirs. So it goes, I guess: "Oh, we're not learning? Yay, free time! Let's buy things!" Oh well. After that we went to a church which was famous because apparently a saint told someone there to make an icon out of earth and blood and worship it. So we saw the icon, and there was a wedding going on at the church so we got a lot of people-watching in. Finally, we went to a place where they made ceramics and lots of people did more shopping. I didn't do any shopping, so here's a picture; I'm not buying any breakables for gifts! Anyway, our bus returned to the hotel at 7:45 p.m. and I barely made it to my bed in time to fall asleep, completely zonked.

I got up at about 6 this morning, Sunday morning, and saw the sunrise. I would have written a journal entry, but our power went out and so did the internet. It was going to be another day of excursions, so I just sat and prepared myself. We spent most of the day at a small family farm in the middle of nowhere. It was actually really, really cool; we got a tour of the place and saw where they ground flour using a water mill, and took turns at the wheel of this huge olive press. It's really cool to know how olive oil is made, remind me to tell you when I get home, okay? We also saw some newborn baby goats; they were brand new that day! Awwwww... Then we got to learn how to make Greek food, I worked mostly at the cheese pie station. So now I can make you all some excellent, if fattening, cheese pie. We also did a grand cheese and olive tasting. Mmmmm. Then we went into a village called something like Aghios, and saw the church there. Again, our assignment was to walk to the bus which was parked at the bottom of a hill. I stopped for a Greek coffee, which was an AMAZING wake up call. If you've never had Greek or Turkish coffee, I suggest you get on that. Wow. When we got back to the farm we ate the food that we'd prepared, and had a Greek dancing lesson. I really like Greek dancing, there's a lot of free style involved. After dancing - and this was perfectly planned - we went to the Thermal baths for which the town of Thermi is named. They had segregated baths for men and women, because you were encouraged to go in the nude. It was amazing; a hot tub full of natural hot spring water the size of a swimming pool where you and all of your friends could just go and sit and get clean? Classic. Now I'm back at the hotel, feeling nice and clean. I'm still full from lunch, which is amazing considering it's almost 9 now and lunch was at like 3:30. Sweet. I'm going to bed soon; I'm pretty tired, and tomorrow is my last day at the dig site at Thermi so I want to be wide awake for it. Cheers!

More about Hotel Votsala and Archaeology

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in such a long time!

We've been QUITE busy with our archaeological digs; we found out just a few months ago that we'd be getting the chance to do some work at some sites here, and we were mostly pretty excited to do it. When we got here, though, what actually happened was very different from what we'd expected.

We've been split into groups and sent to either Thermi (the site near our hotel) or either of two sites in Mytilini, doing work either with metals or ceramicware. Tuesday was the first day we went to the sites, and it was a very bizarre day. We heard from other groups that the museums didn't even know we were coming; as for my group, when we got to Thermi the woman there greeted us and asked us what we were studying. When half our group had announced our majors, she stopped us and asked, "What are you DOING here??" None of us were intending to go into the field of archaeology, and she was clearly disappointed. She turned and spoke with the three younger women who were there to teach us, and they argued amongst themselves in Greek for about 20 minutes while we stood there in bewilderment. Finally they split us into groups to go with each of the students. One group went with Vicky, the "bone girl," a grad student specializing in animal bones, to help her identify the different specimens she'd laid out on a table. The rest of us went with Eva and Georgia, two other grad students, to look around the site. After we'd walked around, they roped off a section of land and had us dig ten centimeters down to the next level of earth and sift through the dirt for ceramicware and quartz. It was pretty exciting for about 20 minutes while she showed us the techniques for digging and sifting. We were finding lots of pottery shards, which was immensely satisfying. After an hour, though, we realized that our progress was very slow and that we weren't actually helping; they had roped off a section of ground that they had no intention of ever excavating, they just wanted to give us something to do to keep out of their way. It got a bit existential after that. We wondered what we were supposed to do at this site for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week - just keep sifting through dirt for millions of thumbnail-sized ceramic shards that all looked exactly the same, and were so sanded down by thousands of years of dirt-rubbing that no one would ever fit them back together into their original vessels? We weren't learning anything, nobody taught us anything after that initial 20 minutes, they just went back to work. And how were we supposed to "experience the culture" of Mytilini if we only had 2 hours of daylight to ourselves every day? A dreary outlook, to be sure.

We returned from our site to find that almost everybody else had had similar experiences of being shunted around, away from any actual progress being made at the sites. The group was pretty unruly at that point. I wasn't sure if I was going to say anything to Professor Kugler, but when he approached me and asked me how my day had been, I just poured out all my feelings, my existential notions about the whole thing. I gleaned that he'd spoken to others about their experiences already, because it became apparent that he had expected me to "whine" about the archaeological dig, and he had already prepared defenses against any complaints I might raise. I wasn't prepared for this, and I was upset that he'd practically written me off in his mind as an ungrateful brat before actually listening to what I had to say. After he'd left me sitting by myself, I took a walk down the beach and threw rocks angrily into the sea, feeling pretty abused and sorry for myself. Unhealthy I know, but I respect Kugler a lot and probably put too much stock into his opinion of me. In any case, the whole day was kind of a downer.

After Sophia's class that night - she teaches our "Modern Greek Culture" class in the evenings, which is basically just an overview of sociological methods and notions in Greek context - we had a group meeting to discuss the dig. Many people presented logical arguments for why we should reduce the time spent at the dig sites - the way the idea was presented to us, whether we had a choice in the matter, whether we'd still have time to work on our projects and papers, etc - but there were also some students who just plain whined about their own personal problems with the way things had gone. Pretty depressing, for a group of 20 year olds. Kugler wrapped the whole thing up by "playing the parent" for us and telling us to give it another try the next day. It always makes me feel better, talking things over with him, so that was pretty good.

He turned out to be right; these past two days have been much better. Now we're only there for 3 hours, and Kugler spoke to our excavators about maybe letting us observe them more in their work so they could teach us how to actually do things, instead of just giving us pickaxes and essentially telling us to go play in a sandbox for a long time. So we've learned more about how to reconstruct a site, mixing mortar and placing stone layers one on top of the other. We've also learned about identifying animal bones - I can tell the difference between sheep, goat, and pig's teeth now, and distinguish between upper, lower, right and left teeth - and about rendering drawings of stone walls, with accurate measurements of angles and things like that. Georgia, a grad student who I've become friends with, also showed us today part of the site where they've found entire clay vessels "frozen in time" in the ground, such that they have to actually dig AROUND them to see where in the room they were and in what condition they were in when they were used last. I actually got to touch one of them, which was amazing; a recently discovered clay jar dating to about 2500 B.C., and I'm one of the first to lay hands on it. Way cool. Here's a picture of me holding a piece of pottery I found in our little roped-off area where we were digging.

Anyway, that was basically the only problem we've had with the trip so far, and for 5 weeks in a foreign country I think that speaks pretty well for us as a group and for Kugler as an organizer.
Our hotel, for example, is amazing. I told you about how I almost broke down and cried when we first got here, when I first saw how beautiful and friendly everything is here. It's not, you know, 5-star or ritzy or anything, but it's just really NICE being here. Everything is so open and airy, the beach is lined with palm trees, the dining room is cozy and has lots of windows facing the sea and the distant Turkish shore, and Iannis the owner is so warm and welcoming and always willing to talk to us about Greek culture. Plus the food is good; we get breakfast and dinner, and Iannis usually sends us off to our dig sites with bags of hard-boiled eggs and fruit juice as a snack. When we get back from the sites we have lots of time to wander around the town of Thermi, or take the bus down into Mytilini if we want to "experience the culture" more on our own. Otherwise, people sit around on the beach or take the hotel's kayaks for a spin. (Here's a picture of Mackenzie and I trying to kayak chariot style.) Alex and I have been teaming up on guitar and vocals for songs we both know, which is way fun because I love to jam and I miss jamming with Avery. The group will swim and play ping pong and soccer as well, and sometimes the dogs who hang around the hotel try and steal the ball away from us.

Speaking of animals, there was a cat hanging around here last night who we all wanted to bash over the head because of the constant - I kid you not, constant - meow meow meow that kept us up, on and off - I kid you not - from 11 p.m. to 7 in the morning. So I think we'll all keep a glass of water by the door tonight, so in case he comes by again, he'll get a sploosh.

For now I think I'm off to bed. Kali Nixta!

Amazing Adventure to Skala Eressos

Okay. I have a lot to say, so be sure you have like 20 minutes to sit down and read this slowly, because it’s really cool and totally worth it. This is my first chance to sit down luxuriously at my computer in days. (And by “chance” I mean “time when my body has no energy left and therefore can’t do anything else.”) Lesbos is so beautiful, I feel like I have to see more and more all the time. So, yesterday when we had the day off, I opted to take a bus over to the other side of the island.

But first I have to tell you about Saturday night! Oh wow. It was fun. After the huge dinner that we hosted for the community, a few of us went out dancing. Well, not quite dancing, because the only real “dance club” in Mytilini (the main city not too far from here) doesn’t open until 3 a.m. That’s the thing about this place that I’m finding more and more; you HAVE to do siesta, otherwise it doesn’t work. Siesta is usually from about 2 to about 6, so that gives you an extra 4 hours of energy in the evening that you wouldn’t normally have. The thing is, though, that with our class schedule we don’t usually get to do siesta, or we’re so psyched to do and see everything that we forget to take a rest in the afternoon, and end up crashing at about 11 p.m. and miss out on all the night life. So anyway, Saturday night we got a ride with this guy who works at the hotel, Cosmos, and his friends Danny (who just graduated from Michigan State and who did a study abroad program here years ago and who now lives in Israel but who’s here on vacation for a few days) and Kostas. We went to this bar called “Monkey” and tried to dance, but it wasn’t really a dance place so it was a little bit awkward. Some people wanted to stay until “My Club” (the dance place) opened at 3, but we started falling asleep around 1:30 so we came back to the hotel and had a good night’s sleep, the first we’d had in days.

Anyway, I got up around 9 on Sunday morning and found out that ALL of our activities that we were going to do that day had been cancelled. So I figured, this was my chance to finally go to Skala Eressos, this groovy town with lots of cool beaches on the other side of the island. It’s also famous as the birthplace of the poet Sappho, and lots of women who admire her writing make pilgrimages there in the summer months. The bus, I found out from Nana who works at the reception desk, was to leave at noon, and wouldn’t leave Skala Eressos again until 6 a.m. the next day. After checking with Kugler to make sure it was okay, I set off. Since it was already 11 and I had to get to Mytilini, I ended up going all by myself. The ride across the island was about two and a half hours of gorgeous countryside. I kept waiting for this immense wave of fear - fear of being in a foreign country, fear of being by myself, fear of getting lost/stuck in a weird situation, etc - but it never came. I just made a decision, got on a bus, and did this thing. I may have either achieved a new sort of strength, or I'm getting stupider while I'm here. Either way though, I have better adventures like this, it seems.

When I got to the town it was about 2:30, the middle of siesta hour, and the place was pretty quiet except for the late lunch crowd at the seaside tavernas. I took a walk down the beach and acted really calm and collected when I passed the people sunbathing on the “clothing optional” section, like I was from Europe and saw this sort of thing all the time. Right.

It took me just about an hour to find the “Tenth Muse,” the most famous bar in all Greece, and only because I passed it once and didn’t see it. After paying homage there, I had only to walk about half a block before passing one of the many signs reading “Room for Rent.” I got my room and key from the landlady, Aphrodite, took a moment to admire the view from my very own balcony of my very own single room in Skala Eressos, took it all in, took this picture of myself and this picture of the courtyard of my house, and went out to find some lunch. The tavernas by the beach were beautiful, with loud Greek music playing, and couches for seats around the tables, ideal for big groups. I didn’t want to sit alone, but finally my hunger got the better of me. A waiter seated me outside one of the tavernas, and I ordered stuffed peppers, my favorite. Of course it was excellent.

As soon as I’d finished my food, the waiter offered me a glass of ouzo and a dance. Stupidly I declined because I wanted to get some sleep before night fell and the parties started. But as I was heading out, a group of men and women who looked to be in their ‘60’s and ‘70’s seated at a table nearby offered me a seat, and invited me to have a glass of wine with them. The waiter was looking on, and so was everyone else in the taverna. Under pressure, I said yes, and all at once they all scooched around in their seats to make room for me. Many of them began speaking to me in rapid Greek, and I smiled and excused myself for only understanding “poli ligho Ellenika… very little Greek!” Eventually, though, I found out that all of them spoke French, so with my limited Franglais we were able to work through our language barriers.

So we drank white wine and ate fruit and cheese, and I told them about my studies, and they told me how all eight of them had grown up together on the island. This taverna was their sort of hangout spot, they told me, and sometimes they would sit here for two or three days like we were doing, just eating and drinking. One man claimed they had broken five tables there over the years, from dancing on them and weighing them down with too much food. As we sat, every few minutes someone would lift their glass and exclaim, “yeia mas!… health to us!” and we’d have a toast. Nikos, the waiter who had offered me an ouzo, was very friendly with them, and always kept my wine glass full; it quickly became obvious that they all wanted me to keep drinking, and that all of them wanted to set us up on a date. (From then on I took only small sips when we toasted, or merely pretended to drink.) Since my new friends were such constant patrons, it was they who chose what CD’s were played at the taverna. They knew most of the songs, so there was much singing and dancing. Nikos made me get up and do some traditional Greek dancing, and the group smiled and yelled “opa!” and “bravo!” Pretty embarrassing, as tourists kept walking by and taking our picture and clapping. (Yes, that’s me, part of the rich Greek cultural backdrop…)

When I left it was three and a half hours since I’d sat down for lunch. I wandered back to my room, set my alarm for about midnight, and fell asleep.

I got up as planned, got cleaned up as much as possible (I’d only brought my purse, no toothbrush or anything) and went out into Skala Eressos. The tourist season, I’d found out, is at its last days now, and tourists make up most of the "party" population. So when I went out to the beach and looked down in either direction it was very dark. But I followed some traces of music back to the Tenth Muse, and there were lots of people hanging around dancing. The music was cool, a groovy mix of American music and Greek covers of American songs. I had a Coke for a wake-up, and I made friends with a few girls from Sweden and Canada. We hung around and talked about EVERYTHING. I was at this bar for hours, just talking about whatever, dancing, having an awesome time. There was a lot of language-deciphering going on, but everyone was able to speak through someone else at least. I was impressed by Sabine, a Swede who couldn’t hear but who spoke amazingly good English, and by Amanda, a Brit who had moved to California and works on Lesvos as a bartender in the summer. Amanda had a friend at Lewis & Clark several years ago, so we kind of bonded over that. It was amazing; in just one day I’d been accepted into two very different groups of people who just wanted to have some good conversation and enjoy the beautiful view of the sea. It was the island utopia you think only exists on TV. Really magical. I didn't take pictures at the Tenth Muse, but maybe now my new goal can be to go back and take some, some day. Anyway, when everyone went home from the bar (around 3:30), I went back to my room and just sort of sat around for the last two hours before I had to get on the 6 a.m. bus back to Mytilini.

Catching the bus back this morning was the scariest experience of my trip so far. I went out of my room to the bus station at 5:45 in the morning, and of course it’s pitch-dark and there’s no actual “station,” just a bunch of buses parked in a lot side by side. And it’s cold and I only have my little blouse thingy on, so I’m shivering, and every noise made by a cat searching for garbage is probably a ghost. Nothing happens until 6 precisely, when I see two people come out of another rooming house with suitcases. It turns out they’re British, a mom and her daughter, and they’re taking the bus to Mytilini as well. We had adventures trying to figure out which bus was ours, and then trying to find change for a 50 Euro note so they could pay their landlady for their room. It ended up with me running to the nearby bakery – literally running, in my little flip-flops – so we could all get change, and then running back with change and pastries for breakfast, then the British woman running back to her hotel to pay for their room and running back to get on the bus. So the bus was 20 minutes late leaving, and I spent the entire drive back worrying over whether or not my group would wait for me going on the day’s activities. (And somewhat enjoying the awesome sunset out the window.) As it turns out, I was able to get a cab from Mytilini back to Thermi, and as I pulled up to the hotel, the group was all assembled outside waiting for the bus. So I was able to casually stroll up and join them about 10 seconds before our bus pulled up to take us to our archaeological dig.

More on the archaeology and classes later – I’m off to bed. (Haven't slept in a LONG time.) Let me just close by saying that Lesbos is everything I’d hoped and dreamed it would be, and my new goal is to save enough money to be able to come back either next summer or the summer afterwards and spend more time in Skala Eressos. Seriously, it was so friendly and fun-loving, it was like no place I’d ever seen before. Really a good time.