FOOD!!!!!! . .. among other things

The food here, for the most part, is pretty great. For breakfast in the hotel, everyday I have an orange (which is usually amazing), but they also have apples, pears (which are also very good), kiwi (ditto). and clementines. They have orange/clementine trees everywhere here, but they are mostly for decoration, as my roommate found out. She tried picking one from the tree to eat, and she said that it really didn't taste very good at all. They also have Greek yogurt, which looks like sour cream (that's what I totally thought it was the first day) but tastes amazing. Some people think that it tastes too bitter, but it also is extremely good with some honey and a cereal that has oats and dried apple bits and raisins, and is really filling. In fact, one night our desert was yogurt with honey. They also have bread in the mornings, with feta cheese and also a sliced goats’ cheese and ham and lox and a spicy venison-like meat and also lamb. Cucumbers and tomatoes are also a part of the breakfast spread, and cookies with chocolate filling (no lie!) and dried apricots and plums and hardboiled and scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage, and a sweet bread. There is also a food called dolmades, which is grape leaves (real leaves) stuffed with rice, meat and beans. The texture is a little weird, but they really do taste very good. Lunch is on our own, and lately I’ve been having bread and cheese, which is what most of the locals do, if they eat lunch at all. But I’ve also had a gyro, which is shaved pork, lamb, or chicken, with tomatoes, tzatziki (yogurt with cucumbers, dill, salt and pepper, kind of like a dip or sauce), onions, and peppers wrapped in pita bread. It’s so good, but it’s so full of cholesterol it’s ridiculous. The grease just drips out of it. I’ve also had spanakopita, which is spinach pie. It has spinach (obviously) and onion, cheese, and herbs inside of a flaky, pastry-like crust. I also like that, and even though it’s probably not any better for you than the gyro, it makes me feel better knowing there’s spinach in them. J I’ve also had just a normal ham and cheese sandwich wrapped up inside pita bread, a frappee (an iced coffee that’s really popular here . . . I know you can also get them in the US), and . . . bread and olive oil. Also very good. We usually have supper at the hotel, and it’s always a three course event. There is bread and a salad to begin the meal, and then an appetizer, main course, and desert. The salads differ. Last night, it was cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and onions with olive oil and some spices, and we’ve had some normal lettuce salads with only olive oil on them, and also some with sliced carrots. Some of the food we’ve had at supper (I can’t keep the appetizers and the main courses straight) have been musaka, a lasagna type dish with eggplant, potatoes, ground meat, and cheese; meatballs with spice in them and fries; spanakopita; large white beans covered in a red sauce; peas, covered in the same red sauce; a pizza type food that had ham and cheese and a different type of crust, more crunchy than chewy, and not really at all like the pizza crust in the US . . . like packed bread crumbs, is the best way I can think to describe it; zucchini, eggplant, and potatoes covered in a sauce; chicken wing with fries (they do try to cater to the American palate occasionally); dolmades with a white cream like sauce; and we’ve had some of these foods more than once. They’re usually very good. And desert has usually been amazing also. We have fruit every other day, but we’ve also had a nut cake (I’m not sure what kind of nuts it was made out of), an apple soaked in wine and the core is filled with walnuts, tiramisu, and last night, we finally had some ice cream covered in chocolate . . . it was amazing. I’ve decided that there’s nothing like topping a Greek meal off in chocolate, but the Greeks have not discovered this yet.

On Sunday, we went for a bike ride around the city at 11:00 am. It was an hour long, and it was pretty fun. It was a really nice day out, but it wasn’t too warm. It was hard to get around everybody in the streets. Sunday morning is a majorly crowded time in Athens; a couple of times we had to get off of our bikes and walk them around people. Another thing: those bike seats had no padding whatsoever, and my butt still seriously hurts from that trip. But, other than not being able to sit for a few hours, it was pretty fun! We were done around lunch time (1:00 pm) and then most us spent the rest of the day doing homework and napping. Later that night (midnight actually) we all headed over to the Athens’ Hard Rock Café to watch the Super Bowl! The Café had it through satellite. The game didn’t start until 1 am, but we had a great time sitting around, watching all of the Americans who have lived in Greece for a few years salivate over their bacon cheeseburgers. The only problem with the game (and the reason that many of us went to watch the game at all) was that there were no commercials! We couldn’t believe it. Instead, they had wide shots of the stadium, which was nice, but not nearly as entertaining. We ended up looking up the funny commercials on youtube anyway, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal. We didn’t get back to the hotel until about 5:30 am or so, and luckily class didn’t start until 1 pm the next day, so we got to sleep in for awhile.
Monday was a busy day, since we only had half of it, and there was a lot of homework due for Tuesday, so most of us spent the day in our hotel rooms, reading “Prometheus Bound” (a story about the god Prometheus who was ordered to be chained to a stone by Zeus because he stole fire from the gods and gave it to the humans) and the Greek Creation story (which is quite different from the Biblical Creation story. If you really want to know what it is, you can find it here: http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/The_Creation/the_creation.html )

On Tuesday, we discussed the Apology and the Phaedo, two discussions with Socrates, in the places where they actually took place. For the Apology we went to the place in the hills where the senate council met and where Socrates went to defend himself from the accusations of the men of Athens. Obviously, he lost his case and was sentenced to death. The Phaedo takes place on the last day of Socrates’ life in the jail cell where he was condemned until he had to drink the poison that would kill him. There a few places in Athens where it is speculated that Socrates’ prison was (no one is sure) so we went to one place that had three caves right next to each other; it doesn’t take much imagination to see them as jail cells. It was really interesting to see these places that I had read about, never imagining that I'd be able to see them for real some day.

I hope you all are doing wonderfully!! I’m going to try to upload some pictures, but I can’t guarantee that anything will work . . . I love hearing all of your comments; it makes me feel right at home.