It's Raining Cats and Dogs... in Athens??

well it's been almost 3 weeks since my last update, that went by fast! There has been so many things going on here I don't seem to be noticing the time go by. Last week we took a school trip to Crete. It was a 10 hour ferry ride from Athens to the 3rd largest city in Greece, Irakleion, which is actually a nice city. As soon as we got off the boat we started our archeological explorations with CYA Delta Force, headed by the Thornberries, Nigel and Stephanie Kennel. We saw Knossos, along with half the people in the world! After we hiked up a very large hill/small mountain to see ancient grave sites only to discover the gate was locked! but never fear Nigel had a plan... we would hop the fence. After walking the entire perimeter of this extremely remote and large grave site we found a spot we could easily hop over. After we were allowed to go back to the hotel and nap and get ready for dinner. My new friend Deedee and I decided to meet Alex and Arielle for dinner by the water. But would just couldn't seem to find them anywhere.... the next day Arielle informs me that in fact we weren't actually in the same city!
The next day we took another hike to the ancient town of Eleutherna. As a nice detour we discovered some Hellenistic cisterns carved out of the bed rock. We had lunch in a little town nearby and were invited to watch the men there make Raki. We were then led on another hike down a mountain to another ancient village with a very nice Byzantine basillica. We spent the night in Rethymno which is in the middle north of Crete and very pretty.
Thursday we saw a Venitian fort and then were on or way to the gorgeous city of Chania. We had the day free to explore Chania and decided we all were ready for a day at the beach. The water was very warm and very sandy. We had dinner on the harbor at a nice resturaunt and tried to no avail to find a bouzoukia.
On our last day we hiked a 6 mile gorge called Agia Irini, which was magnificent and then had a day of swimming before we go tback on the boat to Athens.
Being back in Athens has been nice, and being back into a routine. I am starting to really feel at home here.
I'll try and be more vigilant on this blog thing in the future
<3

First weekend!

so we just had our first weekend in Athens! we decided to embrace our Greekness and go to the Bouzoukia on friday night. we brought along some of our new friends and had a really great time singing all the songs we knew and dancing. But alas the rest of the weekend had to be spent doing homework. which actually wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. I have had all of my classes now and I must say they are very interesting. Although not quite what I'm used to, the question in Byzantine history was "What is an Icon?" and I miss Hellenic a lot. I went to my first church service, since being here, this morning and it was so nice to be in a familiar atmosphere and know what was going to happen and such. As much as I love all the new things here!
well this has been another random popst from me.
<3

Crazy weeks!!

So I've been in Greece now for 2 weeks! And I love it! We had a fun week on Paros exploring all the sights there.
I'm back in Athens now and just started classes today. My first class was the Archeology of Athens class which I think will prove to be very cool. And I am reading this book called the Last of the Amazons which happens to be set in Athens and it totally helped me answer questions in class that I would never have known. WooHoo!
well thats it for now, I'll try and keep up with this on a more regular basis now that I have a regular schedule.
<3 Nikki

Count Down!

so with only two days left until I'm heading off to Greece, I have yet to finish packing and am avoiding doing so. oops. and I definitely have too much stuff, but I can't decide what I'm going to need. Jeez, what a mess.

and while that is going on I have a bazillion (yes, I did just make up  a word) things going through my head about all the things I'm going to do and see, and let us not forget the fabulous outfits I will surely be wearing at the same time! 

so, in three days from now I will be in London. WooHoo! I've always wanted to go there, like when I was 10 I had two cats.... one named England and one named London. I also wasn't the coolest child around. But back to the point, London, I'm excited. I want to go to the British Museum and see the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon. Kinda weird seeing something from Greece in England on the way to Greece, but hey they're pretty cool. 

Anywho, this was my first attempt at this thing so it may be crazy, I'm sorry! But they will get better as I have more interesting things to talk about.... I promise!

<3 Nikki