the thin line between optimism and delusion…

I keep forgetting…..

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

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?

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.

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!

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!!

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!

I appreciate everyone who has posted to let me know that they are keeping up with my journal, I like to know what ya’ll are doing. I miss you all, and I will try to get a note out to each of you this week. Make sure that you have emailed me your address and I will send you a postcard!!

Yesterday we went to Haliki, a little island near rhodes. It was really pretty, the ferry trip was really fun, we had a good time. I actually fell asleep on the way, ships make me sleepy. The amazing thing is that the weather hasn’t been very good the last couple of days. It has just been sort of cloudy and rainy off and on, this is not to say that there hasn’t been lots of sun, but it has been broken up by rain. I thought it wasn’t going to rain the whole time I was here, this is the mediterranean for crying out loud. For some reason, yesterday everyone wanted to have intense conversations, some about heavy topics. Alex and I had a couple of intense conversations, about boys, and then literature. Kallie and Gini talked about divorce and only children. Alex, Gini and I had a long talk over heineken about the federal government and the criminal system and the insane cost of litigation. Gini went to the merchant marine academy and so we also talked about women in the military and at military academys. Then last night Michael and I discussed in depth the trends in racial issues, and how the south is so different from the rest of the country, and how San Francisco is so segregated. We also chatted at length about sex discrimination and the augusta national. I’m telling you, it was a very thought provoking day. Last night Dan and I got into a deep discussion about whether women should work or stay at home, and how he feels like too many intelligent women sell themselves short with regards to the work that they could do. We also talked about how so many people chose their careers based on what the world expects, and how he at one time wanted to be a teacher, but some stupid girl he was dating at the time told him that girls didn’t want to marry teachers, and that he was really scarred by the comment. I would pull that girl’s hair if she was around. Alex is of the opinion that it is a lot of times better for women to either have a job, or have children. Then Dan thinks that women should be able to have children and have a job, and that this is accomplished by the father being more involved in the child raising. I don’t know what I think, I think that all the people on this trip (including me) think too much. I mean, on our saturday, when we shouldn’t have to think, this is the stuff we want to talk about. I’m telling you, we’ve got to come up with a way for us to all lighten up.

Last night, almost everyone in our program sat out and had a few drinks by the pool. It was really fun, it is good to get everyone together. But I guess we were being too loud, because they made us go up to the roof bar after a while. I really had not intended to go out, but I ending up going into town with Alex, we were suppose to meet a bunch of people at a bar in old town (this is where the greeks mostly hang out, the tourists mostly hang out on bar street, which is where I have been out previously). Well, the cab driver didn’t drop us off at the right place, he dropped us off at bar street. Alex and I thought that we would be able to find old town and find the bar, but we were mistaken. We spent about an hour and a half wandering around looking for the bar. Since it was saturday night it was crowded, and there were people everywhere. It was entertaining just to wander about and look at the town. But irritating to not be able to figure out where you are going. Finally we abandoned our quest and caught a cab to bar street. We quickly found a bunch of friends and the night really began. I had a lot of fun last night, but we stayed out really late. The bars don’t ever really close, and I think we finally left around 4:45 am. The sun was coming up when I was getting into bed.

Today Kallie and I took our laundry to the laundromat in town. Because it was sunday, all the shops were closed, so we window shopped for hours while our clothes were spinning in the machines. A lot of people on our trip rented cars and drove around the island. I was really happy to walk around Rhodes. The town reminds me of Italy, and that makes me happy. After we had enough of window shopping, we sat at a cafe and drank fanta and told stories. It was a good day, nothing really exciting, but enjoyable. love you miss you

Daddy sent me this email, I thought it was pretty funny.

> If the University of Georgia has lost ownership of its name to the UGA
> Foundation (see today’s AJC), and can no longer call itself by that
> name, could we change the name to Herschel Walker University?

6 2 04
Roland,
I just returned from Athens last night with the latest intelligence on
the situation there.
You should not mistake “The University of Georgia” for its name. That
is “the fallacy of misplaced concreteness” defined and described first by
Aristotle in his “Principia Logia.” Abraham Lincoln illustrated the
fallacy by posing the question, “If you call a tail a leg, how many legs
does a dog have?” Answer: “Four, because calling a tail a leg does not make
it a leg.”
The pile of bricks owned by the Regents in Clarke County do not
constitute The University. That holy institution, truly a state of mind, is
made up of the alumni, the faculty, the football team, the students, the
Foundation, donors, etc. It now appears these powers-that-be will fall back
on the original search committee’s program and move The University to
Watkinsville with their $600 million in assets. Classes will begin as usual
in August temporarily housed in the new Oconee County High School nearing
completion just west of Watkinsville.
Meantime, the regents are considering whether to rename their brick heap
in Athens the University of Clarke County or Clark County Community College.
Mike Adams has not said whether he will agree to the lowered salary, now
that the Foundation will no longer supplement his salary and he and the
Regents must rely upon the good will of Georgia taxpayers, the legislature,
and Governor for his pay.
The University of Georgia Athletic Association, a separate corporation
owning its own name, reportedly has decided to move to Oconee County, too.
Mark Richt is said to be amenable to the move provided Vince Dooley will
agree to serve as Athletic Director Emeritus. And Hershel Walker has
already signed on to head the new fund-raising campaign. Coach Hartman, who
turned 89 on March 17, has agreed to be the new kicking coach.
Go Dawgs, forever!

Tiger

I think I am going to need some affirmation about who is reading what I post, because it is encouraging, it makes me blog more, and it makes me happy (I’m far, far, from home), so if you get a chance, PLEASE post a comment, it is really easy, just click the “post a comment” link right below the entry. love you

When I last left you, it was to go do my homework. Well, let me tell you about how that hasn’t happened yet. The night I last blogged, I went upstairs and went to sleep. Yesterday, after class (which for the the record I have a really hard time staying awake for, since it from 1 am to 4am EST. But the coffee at the hotel is great, and I try really hard to get up early enough to drink a lot of it before class, and to eat spectacular apple pie strudel things and toast (I love things for breakfast that are totally inappropriate, like apple pie, chocolate cake, lasagna, etc).

I have been able to diligently blog because there are computers in my hotel, and the internet cards are much cheaper than phones, plus, I can’t figure out how to work the damn phones. I really love my hotel, I really don’t ever need to leave. On the first floor they feed me breakfast and dinner, on the second floor we have our classrooms, the computers, an inside pool, ping pong, and an excellent little store that has everything from english paper back novels to adapters, including cokes and water and chocolate at bargain prices for a hotel. The one thing I can’t find in this joint is a phone that I can operate.

Yesterday after class a group of us went to a place called Anthony Quinn Bay, where the Guns of Navarone was filmed. It is basically two coves that back up to each other on the mediterranean side of the island (as opposed to the aegean), and they are really rocky. We climbed up a bunch of the rocks, it was really pretty, I gashed my toe open on one of them. Actually, it is a stretch to call them rocks. they were more like daggers sticking up at lots of different angles. or maybe steak knives. Good thing I came prepared with band aids. Two of the boys we were with bought masks and snorkels, and we traded off swimming. This worked really well because it was so cold, you couldn’t stay in the water for very long. and the masks sucked. But the water was so beautiful, and so salty you just kinda float. I think I got dehydrated from the salt and the wind. A couple of other kids with us climbed up some of the cliffs in the cove, and I guess they are sort of stupid, or I guess what is more likely the case since they are in law school is that they don’t get out much, but they didn’t wear their shirts while hiking around, and they weren’t on a trail, and all the plants are of the cactus type, and they were all bleeding by the end of it. That, and they couldn’t get back down off the cliffs. The goats didn’t seem to have a problem climbing down, I think they boys were being wimps. Oh yeah, did I mention that there are goats everywhere? Goats and germans. The goats are really cute, cuter than the germans, especially the men in bikinis. Two kids rented a car yesterday and hit a goat with it by accident. They claim the goat was almost as big as the car. I bet they don’t get out much either.

Last night we went to Karoke at the bar on the roof of the hotel, which was really boring. Then we went to bar street and went to the Colorado Bar, which is like 6 different bars all in one, and was really cool, but once again rather cancunish. They had a cover band that played mostly 80s, but half the people in the band looked like widespread, and the other half looked like ace of base. The lead singer had a key on the zipper of his pants and kept asking who wanted the key to heaven. I think that is going to be my last trip to bar street for a while, I want to explore old town. When we got home, Kallie and I talked about boys till we both passed out around 4. Needless to say, I didn’t feel so great this morning.

I think admiralty law is really cool, I’m enjoying how it seems to bring everything together, like contracts and civil procedure especially, but a lot of property and torts, plus it is really heavy in the risk management and insurance forum, so I’m not totally lost. And our classes aren’t that big, so we have the opportunity to talk, which you know I love.

Kallie and I decided that some of the boys on this trip aren’t very nice. Most of them are awesome, but some of them talk down to us like we are stupid and we don’t really appreciate that. Alex is my other new best friend. She is super awesome. Alex, Kallie and I can sit around and start talking, and never stop. Really, I think we could talk for years. YEARS! it is awesome. This kid from las vegas (little dweeby) went to lunch with us today and told us that we sounded like a live, female seinfeld episode. We were flattered, but once again, I am going to assume that he doesn’t get out much more than the other law kids.

Kallie and I are planning an elaborate island hopping excursion. It is going to be awesome, and we are going to go to Ephesas, which I am very pumped about. We have an exceptional travel agent. We can see the mountains of Turkey from our balcony, and today was the clearest day so far, and we can see the detail of the mountains. It is really, really, really, pretty.

Well, I want you to all know that I am eating a paprika pringle in honor of each of you, tomorrow I might eat a paprika ruffles chip for each of you, as I think I like those better. We are going on a trip to another island with the group. Okay, the mosqitoes are biting, I am going to go get ready for dinner. I love and miss you all as I love and miss Zaxbys!! (which is a lot)(even though I got to eat at Alex’s fast and tasty today for lunch!!!!).