Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Team Drunchen? No, No, Team Munchen!


OKTOBERFEST 2010-EPIC.           

Friday morning, at 3:30, Mary and I ventured to the Athens airport to begin our journey to Oktoberfest. However, our journey does not start there. We decided it would be best to not sleep at all and then just sleep on the 2 ½ hour flight to Munich, so we did what any rational person would do in our situation, we went to Mercury. After a few drinks, we decided it was time! We met Sena at the Olympic stadium and set out for the airport. Once arriving in Germany, we realized drinking before flying is a TERRIBLE idea. Good thing we were in Munich and quite frankly didn’t care.

After 45 minutes of panicking, Mary and I found each other (because we had been on different flights) and realized we didn’t actually know where Oktoberfest was. We obviously could not ask someone “hey, where’s Oktoberfest?” without sounding like complete tools, so we did the next best thing: followed an enormous group of teenagers in lederhosen and dresses for ten blocks until we finally made it!

 It was love at first sight. Let’s just say, if Oktoberfest had been a person, in my book it would’ve been Lil Wayne. That’s how in love I was! We found Hadley and the huge group of DU people we were meeting and it was just magical. Everyone was standing on benches, singing, drinking and just so happy! Another noteworthy thing to mention, it was Italian weekend… This is an unofficial thing, but the Italians all seem to come the same weekend and typical us, we picked the same weekend. They were old, creepy, and so flirtatious but it was very entertaining.

The next day, Mary, Katie, Liz and I woke up ten minutes late, so we went by ourselves. We waited in the pouring rain for an hour and a half being pushed by the huge mob when we decided we were not getting into the Augustiner tent. We left and went downtown to the real Haufbrau house, but there was a huge line, so we settled at the Orlando. We got the best currywurst any of us had ever tasted, and in fact I’m pretty sure Liz ate at least 7 sausages within 24 hours! Very impressive Liz, very impressive! After some food and a few beers, the rain had stopped so we made our way back to Oktoberfest, much happier this time. We settled at a table outside the Augustiner and had the best day ever!

A few hours later, we found the rest of the big group and met back up with them. Some random man, might’ve been British (?) took us to a beer garden within Oktoberfest where we sat and hung out more. Olivia and April went on rides, and Liz and Laura fell asleep…

Overall, Oktoberfest was VERY successful and sooo much fun! I loved being with Team Munchen and honestly Saturday was one of the best days ever. It was so nice to see everyone and it just made me so much more excited to go back to DU eventually J

On a different note, I am so excited rush is over and we have the new Tri-babies! I am very proud of all the work my sisters have put in and everything looks so great! I can’t wait to meet them in January and get a granddaughter! 

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Pants for 4!

Here in the wonderful country of Greece, the Greeks, being the natural philosophers and educators they are, decided it would be a fantastic idea to better understand American movies by changing the titles to what makes the most sense to them! For example, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is more widely known as "Pants for Four!" I agree, this is the best thing I've ever heard in my life. When explaining this to us, our accountant at school (we don't understand either, don't worry..) reassured us Inception is still just known as Inception.

On the plus side, my roommates and I have become more Greek. We sat at a souvlaki cafe for around five hours, outlasting just about everyone. We did have a legit reason for the first 3 hours because Athens was playing Barcelona in soccer, or football. We've also noticed, when you stay somewhere for long periods of time, you can accumulate free items, such as beer, french fries, and more beer. It's key for saving money!

Our classes have been good, I'm taking Nature and Conservation, Contemporary Greek Society, The Archeology of Alexander, Greek Language, and this joke class called the Greek Key. These two ladies who teach the Greek Key are most likely dating, and very very odd. We meet either Mondays or Wednesdays and it's very sporatic. Obviously, this is not real life... My Greek language class met in a cafe this morning called Lucky Charms (like the cereal with the leprachaun...) and practiced useful greek skills, such as ordering coffee in Greek. We were sitting in the top part of the cafe when we hear an obnoxious honking sound. Turns out, a Mercedes was parked in the middle of the street, so two busses were stuck behind it. One old lady in particular was furious she was going to be late for work, so she took the most obvious solution to this situation: she got out of the bus, walked over to the Mercedes, kicked the side mirror off, and then stole the Mercedes logo off the front of the car. The police came, but according to Apostolos, our Greek teacher, she most likely won't get in any trouble because she's so old. I am soooo coming here and wreacking havoc when I'm 85. New life goal!

I booked my flight to Istanbul for one of our fall breaks, so I'll be traveling Turkey with some girls from school Oct 1-5, and am really excited.

I'm even more excited to see my best friends in Munich for Octoberfest!!!!!!!! Germany better get ready real fast...!


Kalinichta!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Fruit Pants with Alkool

Apparently, my roommates and I are the dumbest Greeks in this country. You are most definitely not supposed to drink Ouzo straight, but rather mix it with water and ice cubes. It would've been nice if the bottle had come in English and told us that...

We spent Thursday-Saturday in the island of Tinos, which is where there are a bajillion churches (surprise, surprise), and old people. They had this carpeted path along the road leading from the bottom of the harbor to the church up this HUGE hill where people, mostly women, wear knee pads and crawl hands and feet up to the church. That is some SERIOUS dedication!

Friday night, a bunch of us went to dinner on the harbor where I had the best calamari of my life! We then decided to go to another cafe/bar where we heard there was this amazing sangria. This is where we found this on the menu:


Yes, Fruit Pants with alkool! At least it was fresh? Turns out they meant fruit punch with alcohol.. We've discovered the Greeks don't actually use spell check when translating their menus, because when we went to the Mercury Cafe where our friend Theo works, we saw they offered hum and cheese sandwiches. We were dying! 

After enjoying the best sangria of my life, we went to a club, which was in some sketchy alley. Clubs in Greece are not normal clubs. The age range is MUCH higher, and no one dances. Naturally there were like twenty of us dancing in a corner, getting sooo excited because Lady GaGa came on, while the rest of the Greeks just stood watching us. Once that became uncomfortable, we left and went back to the hotel. 

It was a really fun trip, but we're all glad orientation is over, although I'm not sure you could call giving us a lecture on alcohol poisoning and telling us how to get Plan B is orientation... 

Yassous! 

Monday, September 6, 2010

Why do you say "it's all greek to me??"-Theo, our new best friend!

Eratosthenous 18 is moved in and unpacked! We were supposed to have 5 of us, but when we showed up there were only 4 beds, so that created a situation. Maria, who's in charge of our living situations showed up and took Alexa away so now it's just Kelly, Grace, Becky, and me. Our apartment is on the Greek 4th floor, or American 5th floor. We have a nice foyer with a little table and chairs against the wall when you first walk in. Then there's Grace and my room(s). It looks like it's supposed to be the living room, there are sliding doors to shut it, but the only thing separating our sides is two dressers. It's still really nice and we both have doors to the balcony. We have beds, desks, and lots of floor space! Kelly and Becky each have their own room in the back of the apartment. We also have a creepy room with a washing machine, a kitchen that looks like Play Skool made it, and a tiny pink bathroom. We are in love! We are having soooo much fun! The orientation part is pretty boring and extensive, but the exploring part is great! It's so nice to just sit in a cafe and watch the culture and interactions between people. Last night, my roommates and I decided to buy our first bottle of Ouzo, the very popular Greek liquor. It tasted like licorice and I am not a fan at all! After we bonded and had a few drinks, we decided to venture out. Even though it was a Sunday, there were quite a few places still open. Becky stayed in because she was just exhausted. We started at this little cafe/bar where we each got a different beer and shared. Kelly asked directions to a club with music and we ventured off. We, of course, got lost on the way, and ended up at a McDonalds trying to ask directions, but the lady kept yelling that they were closed. We ventured more and found ourselves at this quaint little bar where we got coronas and settled into a corner table. The bartender never told us a price on the beer and no one billed us, so we were kind of confused as to what to do. Kelly made friends with these two Greek guys, Theo, and the other one we couldn't pronounce his name, so we called him Matt! We hung out with them for a while, and then Theo took us to a dancing club. It was loud, booming with Arabic and Greek music, and the people there were an older crowd we weren't expecting. By this time, it was about 4 in the morning, so we decided to venture home, since we had to be at the Arcadia center by 9:30. Naturally, we got pretty turned around and thank god Kelly had a map! We ended up navigating ourselves home just fine, and fell fast asleep. Overall, it was successful roommate bonding and we had a blast! We are quickly learning our way around the city and our little neighborhood of Pagrati. There's a nice little square we like to sit in, with coffee, and people watch. It's so amazing that all of the Greeks sit for hours and hours outside a cafe, just sitting, drinking coffee, and soaking up life! Thursday we leave for Tinos, the small island that is untouched by tourism, so we're all really excited for that. Tonight we start our 3 hour a day Greek intensive courses!

More to come later!

xoxo