the thin line between optimism and delusion…

I really apologize everyone, I have lots to say, I just don’t have time to say it. I’m having a really good time on the island, and it is really laid back. Coming to the internet place is hard when there is so much other stuff to do, like lay out in the sun and hang out with people. But I really appreciate all the emails and know that you will be rewarded for keeping in touch, cause I like to bring people prizes. weigh in on what would constitute a good prize. love you.

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You put on your shoes, thinking about how the socks that you are wearing might give you a blister. But you don’t know where your other socks are, anyway it would be too much trouble to look for them. You have really cool shoes that you special ordered from nikeid.com. They make you look “with it”. Grab your ipod (also adds to “with it” image), put on some chap stick and run down the stairs. Once you get outside your hotel you realize that you didn’t put on any sunscreen, and the noon-day sun is scorching. Since you have pale skin, you run back up the stairs, thinking that the stairs should count as part of your workout. Sunscreen application takes an exceptionally long time, simply because the heinekens you drank the night before made running up the stairs less fun than anticipated, and are causing you to rethink this whole running thing altogether. But you are already dressed, and the chance to listen to your music tips the scale. Before you can change your mind, you run down the stairs and out the door. Music – Bob Seger, Roll Me Away. The road runs along the beach for a while, past architechtually straight lined houses – white with blue shutters, cream with pink shutters, all with terracotta roofs and italian brackets. The houses are complete with flower covered trellises and potted geraniums. The flowers are amazing. Most of the houses are on the left side of the street, with the beach on the right. The run is going fairly well, the road is lined and shaded with big, gnarled pine trees that smell spectacular and this encourages you to take deep breathes, and makes you feel athletic, you know how to breathe. The only thing that you would change is the mopeds that keep speeding past you, carrying beach clad greek people to some nook of the island that is yet to be discovered. Looking to your right, across the sea, mainland greece is no more than a few miles away. You spot a couple hotels and big looking houses, wondering if people actually live there and who is staying in the hotel and isn’t it weird that Odysseus lived here. But you are glad to be on your little island. You like islands, but like them best when you can see the mainland. The road starts to incline, and you glance at your watch to see how long you have been gone. Five minutes. You tell yourself that this might be a short lived run. But you keep going, the Greek kids are staring at you, and you will show them. As you climb the hill, houses appear on your right, on the cliff, hindering your view of the water. These new houses are big, and blocked from view by big hedges and tall trees, possibly leland cypreses, but you don’t know. You wish you knew more flowers names, and plan on looking them up on the internet. Your still trucking along. It is fun to look through the breaks in the hedges at the houses, and image what it would be like to have a key to the door in the hedge. You can tell the gardens around the houses are exceptional. But the gardens on the road leave you dumbfounded anyway. Terraced gardens, well taken care of, and a wheelbarrow here and a trellis there. Your knees are a little sore, probably from the fifty pound backpack you were lugging around on Saturday. But you are a fighter. The sky is the most unbelievable blue, unless of course you look at the water, which puts the sky to shame. It is the deepest blue, and you can’t image anything in nature that comes close to this shade of blue. A ferry passing by leaves an aquamarine wake in its path through the deep blue. Deep breathing, as the road inclines again, and the smell of the pine trees is overwhelming and invigorating. There is some bug, or frog or something in the trees that is making a comforting rhythmic noise. The farther you get out of town, the less mopeds, which is nice. But the trees are starting to thin. There are dead trees strewn about on the cliffs, and signs in greek about forest fires. You think about how difficult Greek is as a language. Finally, you are no longer provided with shade. You are in the sun. And it is hot. But the wind is blowing. check watch, 17 minutes. You can make it to 20. there is a curve in the road, and this gives a little shade for a second. The road inclines again and you are back in the sun, and at this point you are pretty high above the sea, and you can see a lot. Ever curve in the road reveals another cove, with more soothing water and pretty rocks. But at this point, you are hot and starting to think about what time you went to sleep last night. Check your watch, run to a stop sign at the top of the curve, and slow to a trot and then a walk. Turn around and walk back the way you ran, taking in every daisy, oleander, pansy, geranium, jasmine, queen annes lace that you missed on your run, and make up names for all the flowers you don’t know the names for. Music to start your walk – Operator – Jim Croce.

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I have hyperextended both of elbows. I couldn’t remember why I normally pull my luggage with my left arm until last night. Because I broke my right elbow and it doesn’t like it when I make it carry heavy things. I am in Spetses, and I am very happy with my surrounding. The hotel here is totally different, much more European (the Rhodes hotel, the Olympic Palace, would have fit nicely down the street from La Vela in PCB). I have to have a new roommate, which is very disconcerting, since I miss Kallie and wish she could still be my roommate, and because I wish Alex could be my new roommate like I was hoping. But they are both back in the old US of A. I went to sleep last night at midnight, after watching Holland lose to Germany in a European cup game, and I am sad, because I like Holland, but I am also very confused because I watched Holland and Germany tie last wednesday and don’t understand why they were playing again last night. But it was an awesome game. I got up this morning and ate breakfast with a Tulane teacher and Janice – who is sort of in charge of making sure we all get registered and everything. Then I had big plans of exploring the island, but instead went back to my room and took a 3 1/2 hour nap. I think I must have been a little worn out. So today was a personal day, and I think I am now going to go find some feta flavored potato chips, or maybe some chocolate. Tomorrow I have class, then I am going to go look into renting a bike or a moped for the time I am here, since cars are not really allowed on this island, and there are only 2 taxis, well, there are lots of water taxis and horse taxis, but onyl 2 real taxis. Oh, I had a terrible dream that my new roommate and I got into a huge fight like minutes after she arrived. I hope it isn’t true. I love anxiety, I think I look for it.

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this is going to be breif, because I am running out of my time in Rhodes and my time card. I’m off to savor one more chocolate crepe before flying off the Athens, and from there, Spetses. I will update when I arrive. It really means a lot to me that you have all been keeping up with me, I have been a little emotional the past twenty four hours and the emails and posts mean a lot. know that and love you all!!
p.s. Brandon, you can post if you click on Anonymous, instead of the default setting of livejournal user.

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I keep forgetting…..

p.s. how do ya’ll feel about this picture of me and travers?

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Well, tomorrow I have exams. And this afternoon Professor Davies sponsored happy hour by the pool. And yesterday Professor Friedman told Kallie not to study. Really. I find this all very encouraging, because I just don’t have the heart. I have been concentrating my efforts on packing and getting clothes washed in town. But going to town sometimes makes me feel rather ripped off, either by a cab driver or by a sales person, etc. I like to think that one of these days I am no longer going to get taken advantage of for being blond and fair in the greek islands, but I think I am just being naive. Today I was asked if I was from Holland, or England. And I’m TAN. TAN! I haven’t been tan in probably 7 years. Now, I’m sitting with my friend Andy, who wants a shout out on the livejournal. He is from the east and west coast, kinda like the bar. He went to Clemson, and now he is in law school at Tennessee. After my exam tomorrow we are going out, and then I am leaving Rhodes for good on Saturday, and heading to Spetses via Athens. For those of you who are concerned with my soap opera life, I haven’t seen my greek boyfriend since i got back from santorini and turkey, so I don’t know how things are going to play out. But now I have an english bartender boyfriend, who is also probably unaware that he is my boyfriend. He spent a good fifteen minutes explaining to me how the European Cup works and telling me that I shouldn’t call Bella an English bulldog, that she is a British bulldog. And Uga is a British bulldog as well. so spread the word and stop being ignorant. Mama and Daddy, break the news to Bella for me, will you?

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Okay, since I updated in Mykonos with the bare bones of my trip, I have decided to write a few lists for everyone out there in internetland. This might take a while.

Experiences I might never get over (because they were so beautiful and unabsorbable).
1. Watching the sunrise over the Aegean in Syros (apparently Kallie, Nicki, Randy and I have all seen entirely too few sunrises, because we thought the sun had already risen, and we were about to walk off and find some coffee (since we hadn’t had any sleep), when all the sudden, the sun actually DID rise. The conversation went something like this:
C – Wow, that is really pretty, it looks like a water color.
K – I know, I’m so glad that we are here.
N – So, you wanna get some coffee before we pass out on this rock?
C & K – definitely, I’m about to lose it. Where is Randy?
(vague glancing about for Randy, irritation that we can’t find him, thoughts of leaving him for the chance of coffee)
N – there he is.
(sun actually appears over the horizon)
C, K, N, R – OHHHHHHHHH. WOW. (bags dropped, group collapse on to rocks)

2. Donkey ride up cliff in Santorini. Kallie on her donkey Nick, me on my donkey Steve. Nick and Steve were pretty slow most of the time, unless Nick got the itch to pass Steve, in which case they would both break out in to a trot. Trotting on a donkey, on a stone path, up the side of a cliff is quite comical. Nick kept sneezing on my foot. Forever I will think back on the donkey ride up the cliff and be unable to restrain a laugh and a smile. It is one of the happiest memories anyone could ever desire, it is the most priceless thing I gained on my trip, and it only cost 3.5 euro (the same price as the cable car, so essentially it was free).

3. Watching the sun set in Io on a rock, with hundreds of other people from all over the world, great company, a bottle of Santorini wine out of a plastic cup, with the already cliff shadowed volcano and city of Fira behind us. This experience was followed up by an unbelievable dinner at a cliff top restaurant, that included another exceptional greek salad (of course), more santorini wine, grilled chicken, lots of chocolate dessert, and conversation with our new friend Sen about relationships, different parts of the country, religion, marriage, and how Santorini would be the best place in the whole world to get engaged. Sen picked up the tab and paid for our cab ride home, which was the nicest thing he could have done. Kallie and I were not in the position to eat such a first class dinner, and Sen provided us with an irreplaceable experience so graciously.

5. Eating dinner in Mykonos with windmills on my left, colorful houses on my right, the bay in front of me complete with the sun slowly dropping in the sea, and behind me a tank of the biggest sea crustacions I have ever seen. Most of you probably know that I don’t eat crustacions (this spelled wrong, but you know what I mean, shrimp, lobster, crab, etc. they are the bugs of the sea), but these suckers were huge. I’m not kidding around when I say these crabs were bigger than my head(just the body, not even counting the legs), they had barnacles all over them. I don’t eat them, but I think they are pretty cool in a tank. Drinking Mykonos wine, once again watching the sunset, with the waves lapping at our feet, and a couple different greek guys waiting on our table.

4. Standing around in a Turkish rug factory, drinking Turkish apple tea out of little glass cups in tiny silver trays, watching six turkish guys unroll rug after rug after rug after rug. I’ve never felt very strongly about rugs before, but I think I would have cut off my left pinky finger for a couple of these silk on silk turkish rugs. I could learn how to hit the shift key with my right pinky. I think that is the only time I use it. These rugs were exquisite. absolute pieces of art work. ART WORK!!!! Really, I think I would pay money to go in a museum that only had turkish rugs in it. It was like a firework display. But better. We got to sit on the rugs, feel the difference of the rugs, lay on the rugs, flip them over, and afterward they wanted to bring us some more turkish apple tea. It was overwhelming. I like to think I have seen a lot of beautiful things; I have been to most of all the big museums in Europe, seen the treasures of the Vatican museum, seen the priceless pieces in the British museum, the crown jewels, the egyptian collections, the sistine chapel, the Uffitzi (sp), I have stood on mountain tops in Switzerland, in Colorado, on top of the twin towers, seen the fountains in Versailles, the canals of Amsterdam and Venice, and the mountain of Maui. There are few things I think that come close to the display Turkish Rugs. I might have dreams about these turkish rugs forever. The Turkish market was also an array of beautiful colors and exotic prizes. I learned how to bargain. Learning how to get all this stuff back to the states is going to be a whole ‘nother lesson.

5. Sitting with Kallie at the top of the theatre in Ephesus where Paul preached for 2 years. it was the coolest theatre, you could see the water and the olive groves in the distance, up close you could see the ruins of Ephesus, and the acustics of this place were unbelievable. It sat 24,000 people, and 1,000 standing room. I mean, that is much bigger than Stegman Coliseum. It is probably bigger than Tech’s football stadium.

Experiences I will never forget because they were a little less pleasant.

1. Realizing at 10:35 that our ferry (departure time, 10:40) was not going to be stopping at the port in which Kallie and I had been sitting for half an hour. It would be stopping at the harbor two miles down the road, the harbor we could see. After running about 1/3 of a mile with our bags down a dirt road, the coast guard picked us up with some Australian girls and took us to the right port. Lucky, nothing in Greece ever happens on time, and the boat didn’t get to the port till around 11:30.

2. Not being able to find our hotel in Santorini. Everyone we asked told us just to walk down the beach, and we would see it. So we walked down the beach. and down the beach, and down the beach. The sun is setting. We are no longer near other hotels and beach bars. We have been traveling for 26 hours. Things are not looking good. Greek guys keep riding by on scooters beeping at us. other than that, little life is evident in this section of the beach town of Kamari. Finally, around 9, when we are both about to lose it, we stumbled on our hotel. Conversation:
Hotel Man: Ahhh, my little girls from Rhodes! I thought I had lost you!
Us: We thought we had lost you too.
H. M. : I called Rhodes, they said you had left, I was worried.
Us: We too were worried.
H.M.: Didn’t you have my phone number?
Us: Well, that would have just been too easy, wouldn’t it? Too bad we don’t really know how to use to phone.

3. The plane from Samos to Rhodes. Propellers, never a good sign. The wind was blowing me up the stairs of the plane. Take off, the plane is being blown from side to side. Kallie and I look at each other and realize this might be the longest 35 minutes of our lives. but after take off things got better, and the rest of the end our trip passed without worry.

I love and miss you all and if you have made it this far, you must really love and miss me.

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Hello everyone!!! I am in Mykonos, Kallie and I have an eight hour layover here on our way to Samos, which is our greek island homebase for our excursion into Turkey. We left Santorini this morning, and I need to pause for a second and tell everyone that Santorini is everything that anyone says it is. I am in love. The island is one big cliff, with the houses on top of the cliff. there is one part of the island that slopes slightly and has a beach (this is where we stayed, it is called Kamari), but the rest of the island is a big cliff. Kallie and I arrived in Santorini friday night after 24 hours of travel (1 taxi, 3 ferrys and 2 buses), and got a good nights sleep. Yesterday we took a bus to town – Fira, took a cable car down the cliff to the old port, ate lunch, took a boat to the volcanic island, which blew up the whole island about 3500 years ago (it was a whole island, now it is about 5 islands in a ring and the volcanic island in the middle). The volcano is like another planet. Kallie and I made friends with Sen, from San Francisco, and he spent the rest of the day wandering around with us (we were fine and safe, neither of us wandered off alone with him and we were always around people, Mama, don’t worry). Once back at the port, Kallie and I rode donkeys back up the cliff, and Sen walked behind us. It was really fun, actually, it was really funny. Then we shopped around and helped Sen pick out a present for his girlfriend. A bus trip later we were in Io, which is exactly what you think Santorini should look like. We watched the most amazing sunset, and had dinner at a cliff restaurant. It was the most perfect of perfect days. I’m in love. Oh, remind me to tell you about how my greek boyfriend that works at the supermarket was cheating on me with some greek girl out in front of the store the other day, I was quite devastated. I don’t think he ever even knew we were dating, and now it is over!! Running out of time, I love and miss you all!

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Okay, this is going to be a quick post because I am about to run out of money on my card. Tomorrow Kallie and I are embarking on an island hopping tour off the Greek Islands and Turkey. But today we went to the beach. The beachwe went to was called Tsampika (t is silent). It was really pretty, and the sand was REALLY hot. like I had no idea that sand could get this hot. I thought my feet were going to start bleeding before I could make it to the water. But it was beautiful, as long as you ignored the topless older women and the nude folks down the beach. The water is crystal clear, it is amazing. We all fell asleep on the beach, since we stayed out too late last night. Last night was lots of fun, but Kallie and I overslept, and miss half of our first class, but we had to go to it late because we just paid the travel agent for our excursion and the trip involves missing two days of class and that is the most we can miss. Needless to say, everyone thought this was quite entertaining and wanted to laugh at us all day. The past three days have been the best so far, we are really making friends and monday and tuesday we layed by the pool which was great for meeting people. I am having a better week than last week, and I am still finding wonderful things to eat. I miss you and I love you all!!

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I feel the need to clarify something. It is easy to stay up very late around here because of the jet lag/time change. We all have a tendency to not get sleepy until 4 or 5 in the morning, since that is 9 or 10 at night EST. In addition, it is a lot easier to stay up late if you aren’t drinking a lot, since alcohol is a depressant. The moral of the story is that every time I state that I was up till 4 or 5 in the morning, it does not mean that I was drinking heavily each time. Also, as I stated, we have a tendency to get into deep discussions. I’m not saying that there isn’t a lot of drinking going on, because there is. And I love beer (I’ve never been a big liquor drinker, and I don’t drink wine much anymore) and I like to drink. but let me tell you that these people are serious drinkers, and I don’t even try to keep up. The bars are expensive and I prefer to drink early, and sober up before I go to bed, since this gives me the opportunity to be amused by the effects of alcohol on those around me and I feel better the next day. The law profession is full of alcoholics, and being around people who start drinking at 9 in the morning and drink all night is one of the best deterrences to not getting carried away. We are on vaction and everything, but I’m interested in remembering most of the trip. I can get plenty drunk in Athens Georgia, I don’t need to be in Greece to do that. I’m not trying to justify this to anyone, I just know that people read my journal that don’t know much about my habits (particually maybe my parents friends), and I don’t want to misrepresent myself – as either too drunk or too sober. And David Moore, I’m not writing this to you, because I decided that I am glad that you read my journal, since I’m pretty sure God reads my journal, and he is the issue at hand. I love and miss you all!

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