So I stayed in Athens this weekend but nevertheless managed to have some pretty dang good adventures.  Thursday night, my friends Jessica, Cory, Ryan, Joe and I planned a cheese fondue night since a majority of the people had never had fondue and I insisted they try it.  Joe made caprese, I made a fantastic Greek salad, we heated up the Gruyere/Swiss cheese mixture and dipped broccoli, peppers, bread and potatoes into it and literally ODed on cheese.  I’m swearing it off for some time, I swear.  I had brought over my laptop since Joe and Cory proved to be fellow music snobs, and the five of us sat on their balcony, watching the Parthenon and trading music recommendations.  Jessica and I didn’t mean to stay there until 2:00 in the morning, but as I’m quickly learning, in Greece, nothing ever goes as planned.

Friday I went to a Greek pharmacy for the first time.  I have been trying to fight off a cold for some time, and though I felt like I was winning, my American medicine ran out, so Joanna, the housing director, took me down to the pharmacy for some new meds.  The woman behind the counter asked Joanna what was wrong and after telling her my symptoms, she prescribed some de-congestant pills and some wicked nasty cough syrup.  Both cost about eight euro (that’s about $12 in American dollars) and by the afternoon, I was already feeling better.

I did a little family gift shopping during the day and then that night, my friends and I finally made it to Gazi, the old gas lamp district of Athens with an awesome nightlife scene.  We went out to dinner first, which was excellent as usual.  The waiters serving us seemed to have an affinity for us and ended up giving us free shots of this kind of honey ale after dinner. I’m not sure what it was… it looked like a less viscous honey and was obviously alcoholic.  We walked to Syntagma, jumped on the metro, and took off towards Gazi.  My friend Carrie had found a little club/bar called SoHo (like in Manhattan!) and we took over the back room and danced the night away.  We didn’t actually get there until about midnight, so you can imagine we were out pretty late.  A few of us (and my family members are going to probably all kill me when I say this) ended up walking back home… at 3:00 in the morning… I didn’t actually get into bed until about 5:00 am, which comes to show you how far away from home we were.  Looking back, it probably wasn’t the safest decision, but we made it back with no problems and for that, I know I am extremely lucky.  Wandering around some sketchy parts of Athens at 4:00 in the morning is probably not an experience I should repeat.  But man, we just didn’t want to get a taxi…

I woke up at 9:00am on Saturday (yes, went to bed at five and woke up at nine. Yikes!) and did a little homework before heading back to Syntagma for some pants shopping.  Then later, I made salmon for a few friends and we went out to see “Burn After Reading” since Petros, our friendly librarian, helped me find a nearby theater where it was playing.  Seeing a movie in a Greek movie theater was certainly a new experience.  Our seats were actually assigned and a woman at the door showed us to them at the beginning.  People are way less courteous in Greece, it seems… a woman answered her cell phone twice during the movie and didn’t even bother to lower her voice.  Also, there were three of the most epic cigarette commercials before the movie began… commercials I’m sure I’d never ever see in the United States.  Oh yes, and the movie had Greek subtitles, which was super fun because I kept trying to figure out what words meant what.

After the movie, we went out for gelato and somewhere walking down Immitou Street (the main drag of Pagrati), we heard some girly voices screaming our name.  We looked down one of the streets and saw a bunch of our Arcadia friends standing on the balconies of one of their apartments.  They were playing 90s rap and dancing and screaming “Yassas!” at all the cars going by.  After getting gelato, we went back where I proceeded to join them in being the crazy Americans spreading love to the endless line of cars passing through the area.

Today I had a literature make-up class, which basically meant going to the Museum of Modern Art, seeing an exhibit, almost buying a pair of 45-euro earrings (they were really cool and really unique… if I don’t find my special piece of jewelry by the end of my stay at Athens, I am so going back to get them) and going out for lunch.  I left my peers who were going out for coffee and came back home to do some homework – but not before buying a piece of chocolate baklava!  Apparently, there is this couple in Athens, and they have actually patented chocolate baklava and there are only two stores in all of Athens that sell them… one of them is right next to the Eftihidou apartment where we are having our Tuesday night dinner parties.  I had to run back there because I accidentally left my garlic press there the night before, and the baklava was there calling to me…

For about 45 minutes this afternoon today it rained raindrops the size of hail.  It was so hot all morning and now it’s getting very cold.  The weather is schizophrenic.

I have a paper due every day this week save Tuesday in which I have a Greek language midterm.  It’s going to be a tough week… but I have Crete at the end to spur me on!