The Vegetarian Who Loved Turkey

Ok so continuing on from my last post:

Then that day we went to the Bulgarian mall which we tried to walk to but it was actually about four miles away (lol) so we had to get a cab. I got to buy a long dress so that I’m not offensive in Morocco (and also it was cheap and I’ll wear it at home) and a thing of earrings because I lost the one for my cartilage. That night we went to the beach to hang out again but another one of my friends, Amanda, started to feel sick. She also got food poisoning. L

Fourth day in Bulgaria: We went bungee jumping!...hahah just kidding. I went to watch my friends jump but I personally didn’t want to pay 50 leva to publically cry and pee my pants. Everyone survived but they had to push Andy off the bridge to make her do it…which is DEF INITLY not legal to do in America.  Then we got to access the internet and then got a sushi platter to make up for our sushi night from H.E. double hockey sticks.  I accidentally ate a piece of a fried chicken roll. Ok. I’m not gonna lie it was good and I did not get sick. BUT.  Who in their right mind puts fried chicken in sushi..?!

Then we had one day back on the boat. They called it Turkey Day because it was a day where we just had global studies for almost three hours and learned about Turkey. Everyone that thought they were funny called it Thanksgiving.  But get this: they didn’t even serve turkey at any of the meal times! (not that I care but a girl can dream for some cranberry sauce J )

After Turkey Day it was time to actually experience Turkey! 

Almost the whole time in Turkey we had our own personal local tour guides because my friends who go to Trinity in Texas go to school with three people that live in Istanbul.

First day in Turkey: 

Went to the Grand Bazaar. So overwhelming. I could barely even buy anything because there was just so much going on. It’s basically this indoor maze with a different shop every ten feet. They sell everything from spices to ceramics to lamps to shirts to key chains to diamond rings. INSANE. Thank goodness our Turkish friends were with us or else we would’ve gotten lost in there or ripped off! The shop owners immediately cut their price down as soon as they realized we were with Turks. A few people actually asked me if I was Turkish. HAHA so I just nodded. So I bought some gifts and then we left to get lunch. I got a zucchini stuffed with cheese. 

Next, we headed to the Hagia Sofia – a HUGE church turned into a mosque, but no longer a practicing mosque. The church is so big you could fit an 18 story building inside of it! It’s one of the buildings you can pick out from the Istanbul skyline. Then we headed over to the Blue Mosque – another huge mosque. This one is still practicing so we had wear shawls and long skirts (keep in mind I was already conservatively dressed). I personally liked the Hagia Sofia better but it was cool to see a practicing mosque too! Then we ended the day at the spice bazaars. I didn’t even know there were that many spices in the world!

Then that night, our Turkish friends showed us Taksim – the district of Istanbul with all of the shops, restaurants, bars and clubs. It was really cool going with Turkish people because we got to go to a lot of private places that only locals know about. We ended our night in a private club-ish thing that was on the top floor and roof of an apartment building. It was absolutely beautiful, overlooked the whole city! Then I paid 30 lera for a taxi ride because I’m an idiot and I thought that was an appropriate price. Last time I ever let a cab driver take my friends and I home without turning on the meter. (See this is what I was talking about when I said we would get ripped off if we didn’t have our Turkish friends)

Second Day in Turkey:

We went to Topkapi Palace. (Pronounced “Tope Cop Ah”). It was SO BIG and had really beautiful courtyards. Some of the exhibits were closed but we still found stuff to see there for a few hours! Then. We had a weak day. A few of us decided we NEEDED Pizza Hut. (Typical Americans) So we walked a mile or so basically straight uphill to reach Pizza Hut and then just threw pizza down the back our throats until we realized we had been full for about twenty minutes.  Such a poor decision but what’s done is done. Hahah.

That night, we went back to Taksim, met more Turks and basically did the exact same thing we did the night before!

Third Day in Turkey:

The third day we went to the harbor where you can take boat tours of the Bosporus (the strait that Istanbul straddles between Europe and Asia). One of the Turkish guys we were with helped us get a private two hour tour with a stop in Asia!!! This was one of the coolest things I’ve done this entire voyage. We had our own boat to about ten of us! When we got to Asia we got off and got a snack. They have these things that are similar to baked potatoes but they’re a lot creamier inside and you put so many topping on them. I got olive paste, crushed red pepper stuff and tzatziki. Nom nom nom.

When we got back to the boat, we all grabbed our laptops and tried to get on the internet at a local internet café. My internet wouldn’t connect (typical my computer). I may or may not have had a meltdown.

That night we went to a really nice restaurant by the bridge for dinner and then to a hookah bar to hang out after. Hookah bars are actually very typical Turkish hangouts. And no hookah is not a mind-altering drug, its flavored tobacco (still yuck). It was a pretty cool atmosphere but that being said, I don’t smoke.

Fourth Day in Turkey:

We went back to the Grand Bazaar with more confidence. Ahh the funniest line from a shop keeper (keep in mind this was the first day of Ramadan) he says “Come in, I don’t bite – I’m fasting!” HAHAHAHA So then I bought a few more gifts. Then we took a shared taxi to Asia and got a Turkish Bath! I wish I lived in Turkey so I could get a Turkish bath every day! Basically you get to play around in a pool, go into a sauna and steamer and then these old ladies scrub layer upon layers of skin off of your body. I lost probably about half my tan. But it was so worth and so relaxing and more importantly – so Turkish! The Turkish girl we went with told us that most Turks go 1 to a few times a year.

Then we got to see more of the Asian side including the main shopping street, one of the guy’s Turkish house, (A real live Turkish person’s house!) and the port on the Asian side. We took the ferry back to the European side and then went back to the boat.

That night we went to a really nice night club near the bridge for free! It was really nice, multi levels and a deck all over-looking the Bosporous. Since it was the first night of Ramadan, it was pretty much just Semester at Sea people but still really fun!

Fifth Day in Turkey:

We tried to go to a traditional Turkish breakfast but there were some serious miscommunications so it didn’t work out. So we found internet near the port – we went to a different café so my computer worked! And it was a nice relaxing day. We also spent our last lera on souvenirs and this food that was basically like cheese baklava, but its intended to be a meal, not a dessert!

The thing I was most surprised about in Turkey was how expensive everything was! We were told it would be “dirt cheap” compared to other countries, but quite frankly that was false. I mean, some stuff was cheap but it’s the kind of stuff that’s cheap everywhere. Also, the Asian side was a lot cheaper (hence why we went there for the bath).

Regardless of the fact that Turkey ate my bank account, Istanbul may have been my favorite port so far!

Now were on the boat for a few days of classes, tests, papers and recovering! Morocco is our last country, we’ll be there for 5 days and then were back on the boat to Boston. I’ll be arriving in Boston on August 20. Which is so soon and insane - I can’t believe I’ve been gone that long!

See you in 16 days!

 

 

I promise I'm still alive!

Haven't updated my blog since Greece whoops! Everything's been so busy so I haven't had time! I only have about 15 minutes right now, but I'll try to explain Bulgaria (where I was about a week ago)

 

First day - wandered around and saw some monuments and the cathedral. After eating a pita with cheese for lunch, we made our way down to the SeaPark which is basically just a park near the ocean and we went to the aquarium inside the park. We had alot of aquarium enthusiasts in our group so the aquarium was a bit of a let down - it was remarkably similar to the fish section in Walmart, not many fish and some descriptions were either a really bad attempt at sarcasm or just horribly inaccurate. That night we hung out on the beach and the surrounding nightlife with other SASers.

 

Second day - went to an orphanage and a school for children with physical disabilities, mental disabilities and behavioral disorders. It was really touchign an intersting. We got to learn about the different laws that have come into place regarding children's safety, the attitudes towards children with disorders and disabilities and then ways the two different organizatiosn worked. We also got to play with the children at the orphanage - SO CUTE. And we got to explore a random bunker from the soviet war that just happened to be in the backyard of the school. hahah. Then, we tried to get sushi. This restraunt experience rivals the one with TGIFridays with my family a few years ago. The sushi didnt come til 2 and a half hours after we ordered it and only half of it came...It tasted excellent tho! That night we did the same thing as last night, just hung out around the beach area.

 

Third day - so really really really early in the morning I got a phone call from one of my friends asking me to come help because she kept throwing up. Ended up having to take her to the health clinic. It was so bad she was just convulsing adn shaking uncontrollably and couldnt even keep down water. They had to give her a shot for food poisoning...(potentially that cursed sushi place!!) Anywho she's better now, but since than about 1/2 the boat got food poisoning from Bulgaria. Either that or its the noravirus (which if it is, I pray to God i'm immune)

 

Welp! Gotta go out for a traditional dinner in Istanbul - I'll write more later!

F. Harry Stowe to Mom and Dad!

After my last blog post, we went out in the hopes of getting a good beer and some baklava. I guess that the concept of going out for dessert is more of an American thing though because we ended up just getting wine, cherries and bread hahaha. And then, they brought out ANOTHER liter of wine and more cherries! So we asked for the check because we were all like "oh crap they're gonna charge us for this and we didn't even order the extras." Well, turns out all of that - our 2 liters of wine, bread and cherries - was all on the house. Awwww! Must've been those British accents again! We felt bad so we left them  20 euro anyways and then they came running down the street at us trying to make us take the money back! We didn't of course.

 

Then I called my parents and watched Mamma Mia!

 

(side note - someone is whistling Katy Perry's "Firework" right behing me in the computer lab...)

 

The next day, we slept in, got brunch on the boat, and then went to the museum district of Athens and saw the Benaki museum. Basically, a museum of all things Greek from all different time periods. We also got baklava (yay!) and nachos (rando) that were made with actual Nacho Cheese Doritos. I highly recomend both!

 

Then it was time to get back on the boat.

 

Today was a class day which has been very productive! Class in the morning, got back my paper. Class in the afternoon got back a test. A's all around which is nice cause papers are always a toss up! In between class I went to the gym, laid out, ate lunch and went to yoga. So relaxed right now!

 

After dinner I went to a "Big Explorer Seminar" on Bulgaria. Basically learned about communism and such but what stuck out what that Varna is a prominent organized crime / drug trafficking area. Wonderful!

 

Now we're passing right through Istanbul. Its incredible! Everything is lit up and we're probably only 100 yards from the land (not sure how thats possible, but we are!)

 

Tomorrow is another class day which will probably look very similar to today.

 

The title of my blog blog post is a shoutout to my parents. F Harry Stowe is the way you say "Thank you" in Greek! Its not spelled like that but if you say it really fast thats what it sounds like! So FHarryStowe mom and dad for giving me the world! I'm a little over half-way through the trip and I've already learned and experience so much. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything!

 

 

 

Toodles Noodles  :)

Ompa! Continued

So after we got back from Aegina on Tuesday we went out to dinner at this really pretty outdoor candlelite restraunt over-looking the harbor. Ordered a greek salad and fried shrimp. Recieved 4 large fried animals and a tomato-cucumber-onion salad with a block of feta the size of 2 decks of cards. Hahaha I was dying trying to eat this fried shrimp. I was totally mislead by my premonitions of American food. The shrimp were about the size of my hand and still had heads, eyes, "things" inside, etc. It was horrifying but I didn't want to waste their lives so I fought through it.

 

Wednesday (yesterday) was the day we were going to try to go to Olympia on our own.

 

Ok.

 

So alot of Greeks don't like Americans very much. Everyone we asked for directions acted like they had never heard of Olympia befor in their lives. Others just pawned us off to "an information desk just 200 meters down the street". Others said that they had no more bus tickets to sell even though it was 9 o'clock in the morning. So Kaleigh, Abby and I started just talking to everyone in British accents. BOY did things change! Someone followed us on their motorcylce to get us to the right station, people all of a sudden had tickest to sell, we got things for free, people let us use their bathroom and wrote down names of exact places we had to go to get to Olympia.

 

Still didn't make it there because in part of the taxi strike (we had to take a bus), our bus driver (who was not wearing a uniform and I'm pretty sure was a hooker), and the fact that by the time we figure out the British accent trick, we wouldn't have made it there in time. (Olympia is about 4 hours away and Abby and I were so paranoid that we'd have another Rome experience and get stranded overnight)

 

But we had an amazing day anyways. Basically we just explored Athens as British / Canadians and everyone loved us. Its incredible what an accent can do for you! We looked the exact same and had the same attitude, just  people thinking we weren't American changed everything. We almost got ourselves into a pickle though when we found out our waiter was from Canada...just like us! ;)

 

We also got to know a group of the taxi drivers on strike, very friendly people and we all talked about how much we hated Americans and why.

 

Really interesting day!

 

That night we just hung out in the port terminal where there is free internet. Not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but my computer is working for the time being! The IT people worked a small miracle and I got to get all of my files off my computer. They said it was definitly crash again and next time, they won't really be able to do anything but as long as I save everything to my flashdrive, I should be good! The free internet was wonderful - I got to skype Chris for an HOUR! Yay!

 

Today was another long, good day! I went to Delphi  - the oracle up in the mountains 2.5 hours away that used to give advice  to leaders and such. It was also thought to be the center of the world and is probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

 

ALSO AH - I know what Bisio means in greek! It was part of the story of Apollo and the founding of Delphi. Bisio was the name of a certain month around February / March back in ancient Greece. And we also learned where the term "lesbian" came from.

 

Then we toured the museum and then got lunch! Lunch was amazing but so much food! I definitly had "the itis" at the next place we visited - a monestary. We didn't get much time at the monestary but it was really neat and had mumified remains in it.. hahah

 

We got back to the ship just in time for dinner, took a nap and now were about to head out to the harbor to get some baklava!!

 

Bye!

Ompa!

Greetings from Greece!

 

Today is our thrid day in Greece. My friends and I are going to try out  our independent travel skills and hopefully get to Olympia for the day.

 

The first day in Greece, we went into Athens by a "Hop On, Hop Off" bus which is basically a double decker bus where you can plug in these earphones they give you and it tells you about all of the places you pass in Athens. It cost 20 euro but we get to use it for 2 days and seeing as we are 10 km (6 miles) from Athens AND there are transportation strikes out the wazoo, its a pretty good option.

 

About the transportation strikes - taxis and the metro are not working. AND on top of that, the taxis and some of teh buses even parked their cars int he middl eof the road so not only are they not moving people, but other form of transportation can't get through. This is one of those times where it'd be nice to have a motorbike haha. But anyways its a very effective strike! There is also a protest in the main square of Athens because of their financial situation.

 

Basically, if Greece doesn't reach an agreement with the EU (aka privatizing things like their port by selling it to China / making really extreme budgets cuts that will effect their pensions and welfare and stuff / use all of that money to strat paying back loans) they are going to have to default on their loans and be kicked out of the Eurozone. So its tricky because no matter what the Greek government and the EU decide on, someone will probably be displeased. They are suppose to reach the decision really soon - by the end of this week or the next is what we were told - but hopefully we will be out of Greece befor that happens!

 

Speaking of politics, Hillary Clinton is in Greece and made a speech at the New Acropolis Museum about two hours after we went to it. But we saw her whole entourage driving through the streets!

 

Anyways - the frist day we made it up to the "high city" aka the Acropolis and saw everything. Every temple, every monument. It was really hot. But the view is amazing and just the fact that somethign that old is still standing is pretty incredible. The New Acropolis Museum was really neat too! Half of it has glass flooring and you look down on the ruins from above.

 

We got lunch in the city too! I got a Spinach Pie which is the filo dough we use for baklava + spinach + feta. Yummm. Then the restraunt kept trying to get us to stay but offeringus free stuff. We got free dessert but had to refuse the free coffee. No clue what the dessert was called but it looked / tasted like a fruity couscous poundcake... in a good way! We think maybe they kept trying to get us to stay so that they looked busier and got more business?

 

That night we saw Harry Potter! Kaleigh and I did some low risk planking in the theater too (hahahahha) Harry Potter was so good tho!  A real nail biter!

 

The next day, I bought a ticket to go on the Saronic Island trip. It was so cool! We were basically on a one-day cruise ship and we went to three islands - Hydra, Porrous (sp?) and Aegina. We also got lunch on the sip and there was lots of Greek entertainment.

 

Befor we even got to the island, I got locked in a bathroom in the basement of the boat. SO BAD. It wasn't a stall, it was a room and there was no way otu and it was so hot and the lock was jammed so I started banging on the door and a professor from SAS heard me and at first tried to just bust the door open with force. In the end, we had to get someone that worked on the boat to bring down tools and get me out.... typical me!

 

Hydra was my favorite. The islands has no cars on it so its really clean and Kaleigh, Abby and I rode donkeys! Mine pooped all over the road and then the guy had to like clean it up and then he died the bag of doodoo to my saddle....niceeee!

 

Porrous was also really pretty. We saw a clocktower up in the distance and just kept going uphill until we found it. It was a really pretty island.

 

Aegina is the bigger more commercialized one, but still really nice. We walked to the Monestary and to the ruins but the ruins were closed because it was a Monday.

 

Whoops! Gotta go meet people at the gangway to try to get to Olympia!

 

 

 

Croatia Wins

Croatia. Is. Hands. Down. The. Most. Beautiful. Place. I've. EVER. Been.

 

But seriously, if you have some spare change laying around and need a place to go  to relax, go on a honeymoon, go on a second honey moon...this part of the world is where its at. Just picture the cute light stone houses with red rooves among so many trees in between the stony mountains and the perfectly blue water. Its really incredible.

 

We ported in Dubrovnik 3 (or maybe 4?) days ago. The port is either a 20 min walk or a 1 hour walk away from the old city depending on who you ask. I personally walked for 35min and was no where near the city walls. Whether that is a sign of how bad I am with directions or how much I exaggerate is a good question hehee.

 

Regardless, the first day I didn't have a field excursion until 1 pm (or 1300 shipboard time!!) so my crew and I attempted to make it into the city. That did not work but we did stumble upon a grocery store called Konzum which is remarkably similar to grocery stores in America - a refreshing change from the past two ports which have had real weird grocery stores the size of gas stations. I suppose the size of the grocery stores in America probably directly correlates with our circumferences.

 

Anywho so we stumble into Konzum just trying to get a nice cold something to drink and what do we find? Apple juice in these weird carton things except they call it apple nectar. I was a little skeptical but it was only 4.99 Kuna - AKA 1 US dollar so I got it. IT WAS THE BEST JUICE I'VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. it was literally a liquid green apple. fabulous. (this will come into play later in this port too I promise!)

 

The we go a pastry for very cheap and go back on the boat so that I made my field excursion bus.

 

My trip was to the old city which is basically a fortress so it has these really thick walls / watch towers / etc. surround all of the red-roof houses. (literally every roof is red. I think its probs a building regulation kind of thing) So we climb up these walls and walk all around it. I have no idea how long it was because they told us in kilometers and I can't quite grasp that...hahah

 

So then after becoming a sweaty mess, I came back to the ship to meet up with my friends and make our way back to the old city. Lucky for us / the rest of the cruise community, there is a bus that runs from the port to the city that comes about every 10 minutes and takes less than that to get there. Its a major time save and only 10 Kuna!

 

That night we got dinner right in front of the clock tower. Best quesadilla I've ever had in my life. It tasted sweet? but it worked. Then a few of us went to a piano jazz bar. Really cool atmosphere and its right outside in the middle of one of the main squares. Funny story - we tried to order a glass of wine each and dessert to split. Something got lost in translation so we ended up getting a glass of wine each and a dessert wine to split... oh Croatia!

 

Next morning I had a trip to Montenegro which is actually a different county than Croatia. They both used to be part of Yugoslavia. This turned into a mini nightmare. I set my alarm for 6:35 becuase my trip left at 8 and I wanted to meet Amanda for breakfast. (Fun fact: Amanda is from Hawaii!)

 

Well turns out I set my alarm for 6:35 PM...!! So I woke up at 7:57 by the shear grace of God and my roommate's watch alarm that we can't figure out how to turn off. I am immediatly stressed out. This is so bad. I haven't showered since the previous morning and I was suppose to meet for the trip at 7:45. I honestly almost started crying. But then I pulled it together and threw on a dress that was still wet because I washed it the night before. On my way to the bus I bobby pinned my hair up (thank goodness for the "poof") and threw the rest in a bun. I got to my bus out of breath at exactly 8:01. Pretty impressive actually.

 

I'm sitting on the bus for about 7 minutes when I realize I DONT HAVE MY PASSPORT. So I get off the bus which thankfully hadn't left yet and ran up to my room in record time, got my passport and got back on the bus. SO BAD.

 

Then follows an hour or so of super high winding roads and extreme nausea from not eating anything and not having my trusty little earth water bottle. But its ok because it was EVEN MORE beautiful than Croatia and definitly worth it. Words and pictures wont even do this place justice. Plus the bandwith limits wont allow me to upload pictures. But look it up online. We drove through / around all of these inner bays that were so remote that that they looked like lakes. Turns out, this aread used to be a valley until the Adriactic Sea (I think) flooded it.

 

We stopped at Kotor which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is another fortress type city with the walls, the saints, the cathedrals, the works! Really pretty and we got a guided tour and we got to tour the catherdral and the museum upstairs. Then it was off to the next place - a small village / cheese farm out in the stoney hilly countryside of Montenegro only accessible through roads with "hairpin turns" (according to our tour guide)

 

While we're all freaking out winding through these super crazy roads, our tour guide then told us a joke: "A priest and a bus driver died driving on this road. When they got to heaven, God said he will only let one of them in. God chose the bus driver. Outraged, the priest asked 'Why?!' God replied 'When you were doing your job, everyone was sleeping. When he was doing his, everyone was praying.' " bhahaha

 

The cheese village was very quaint. Basically just alot of farms and then a big house / restraunt where you can buy their home-smoke ham and home-made cheese sandwiches on their home-made bread. I didn't realize that Montenegro only takes Euro...so I did not buy one.

 

Next stop - lunch time! We went to yet another area, this time - a city (sorry I have no specific names for these places!). Got lunch and then had half hour of free time so I walked around the harbor and the old city / fortress there. Then back on the bus and time to go home and SHOWER.

 

That night we went out to the old city again! Pretty much every night we made our way there. Last night we went for dinner again. I had the best salad of my life with super fresh feta cheese! One thing I love about these old cities like Dubrovnik and Rome, there are huge fountains with safe drinking water all over the city, so you can refill your water whenevery you want and don't have to pay for it!

 

After getting dinner we walked around for a little "exploring" aka wandering aimlessly thoughout the city. We stumbled upon a dock and hung out there for a while. Then we went to meet our friends at a club. It was 11 and I was so tired. We got to the club and they told us that it doesn't really open for another hour or so. Since I felt that I would probably fall asleep in an hour no matter where I was, a few girls and I left to go back to the boat. I couldn't hang - I'm gettin to old for this! ;) But we didnt leave befor gettin nutella and banana crepes!

 

This morning we were extra productive. Woke up at 7, breakfast at 8, off the boat by 8:30. We went to the old city (of course) to hit up the beach and go kayaking. For only 60 kuna (12 bucks) we got to rent kayaks for an hour. So we kayaked around the city walls and one of the harbors and then Kaleigh and I kayaked out to one of the islands. Ah it was so cools. You could HEAR the island there were so many birds / bug / wildlife on it! Plus it was super far away so I was pretty freaking pleased with myself that we got there and back in an hour. We also got to spend alot of time swimming and stuff. The water there is amazing and clear. Also it was a nice not crowded familyish beach.

 

Then we went to lunch where we all got pizza (typical Americans) and I got fresh lemonade. And let me tell you - they weren't kidding! I basically was drinking lemon juice hahah but it was really good!

 

After lunch we found the war museum. Really neat place. Basically its just all of these pictures with stories under them about the people. For anyone who doesn't know, there was a civil war / genocide in Yugoslavia in the 90s with concentration camps, rape camps, the whole nine yards. Thats basically what the museum was about. It was really modern but mostly just really sad. Glad I went tho - I learned alot.

 

Then we came back to the boat. But not befor stopping back at Konzum to get more of that apple nectar. We were all so excited to spend out last 10 - 12 Kuna buying juice to bring back onto the boat. Usually youre not allowed to bring twist caps on board because you could have "contaminated it" (put alcohol / drugs in it) But they let Vanessa bring on these juice box things with caps two days ago so we bought HUGE things of it.

 

They wouldnt let us on. This was not funny at the time. I luckily only bought a liter of it. Vanessa bought 3.5 liters. HAHAHAH. So we had to sit outside and drink it or throw it away. I drank probably 3/4 of it until it was no longer good or worth it. Too much sugar!

 

The next two days are class days in which I have a huge midterm paper due and a test. Then we'll be in Greece!!

 

 

 

Dovidenja (Goodbye in Croatian!)

My Ancestor's Stomping Ground

Hello world!

 

The past two days have been pretty relaxing since we've been on a regular class schedule in between Italy and Croatia. Theres been alot of essay writing and alot of class time and alot of laying out on the deck doing homework.

 

Two big things happened though! :

 

1) In Global Studies yesterday one of the other faculty acted as a guest speaker and talked about the Grand Tour of Europe that rich guys right out of school used to do. Now alot of people doing it as backpackers. IT LOOKS AMAZING. And it got me really excited about doing it after I save up enough money - so probably not until I've been in the real world for a few years hahah

 

2) Same lady also offered a seminar that night on a non profit womens organization she started in Guatemala so I went to listen cuase it sounded alot like El Salvador. I got so excited that I talked to her at the end and we're gonna meet up for lunch or something and shes gonna give me some advice on our El Salvador project for SIFE. weeeeee!!

 

So I don't know if I was just really easily excitable yesterday (Kara - if you're reading this: we would have been dangerous together yesterday lol) or what but I got so pumped up.

 

Then I discovered all of these modern witty travel guides on the shared files and found some neat places to go in the upcoming countires. My friends and I also planned out some  things we want to do in Greece - mostly because I have NO field excursions so I have 5 free days. We're gonna go see alot of the stuff like museums and such in Athens the first day and then we're gonna try to make it out to an island (probs Aegina) for a night or two and see some stuff there!

 

Croatia I'm basically booked - I have an field excursion everyday but the last! But they'll be awesome and I get back between 3 and 6 everyday, so I'll still have lots of time during the late afternoon/night.

 

Tomorrow I have a tour of the city walls of Croatia  - aka my ancestors stomping ground :)

 

 

 

Missing everyone!! <3