Mt. Pelion

This is on top of Mt. Pelion next to Volos. Leaves were changing! The elevation is so high here (5,000 ft) that the clouds rolled down the street!

When Travis and I got to the top of the mountain this man (George) greeted us and welcomed us into his shop. Inside we found a real wood fire (which smelt amazing) and George's homemade honey (meli in greek).He next showed us how he made it (he learned in Italy) and let us try some.

George also picks mountain tea.... which looks like something that should be illegal. The tea was amazing and the honey was the best I've ever had.

Halloween half way through November

Being the only natural blond on campus has some perks. Here it is such a rare thing that it draws immediate attention whenever desired or not. Here on campus people are getting more comfortable and boys call me Barbie or Blondie and the a sweet lunch lady calls me beautiful girl every time she sees me. Here they do not celebrate Halloween but the general understanding is that when there can be a good reason for an organized party we are definitely going to have one! As October 31st came and went students began questioning when this shindig was going down and the students themselves organized the party.

I don't think that Balkans in general understand that Halloween doesn't constitute dressing up as something scary or dead but it made for some rather interesting costumes...

I decided to be Barbie... which was AWESOME! Of course I'm going to take the only opportunity to entirely clothe myself in hot pink in eastern Europe! Thanos (one of my supervisors) has 2 really sweet young girls and they wanted to see dressed up like Barbie before the party. As I ran up hill (a real hill yall!) in 4 inch hot pink heels with a purple hair peice, hot pink makeup and a colorful purse with a stuffed puppy inside I was thinking a combination of "If my mom could see me now!" & "You can do this, you can do this, you can do this!" As I rang the door bell of their house the younger sister answered the door. Her name is Arietta and she is 5. As her mouth quickly turned into and giant smile she grabbed my hand and pulled me inside to greet her older sister, Katerina- 7, and mother. Katerina was speechless and their mom just grinned. I don't think that any of them have ever seen such a white, blonde, pink person in all of their lives... I knew that T had done barbie (or Elle Woods) justice.

 Yes- we are standing on a table which is a really normal thing here... they dance on tables all the time! In a good party or get together there is always traditional Balkan dancing. This consists of the classic scene where everyone holds hands and dances in a circle facing inward. There is another traditional dance where everyone kneels and one person dances in the middle. At this party people tossed napkins in the air and even lit some on fire- we stepped on them quickly but still... throwing things in the air here while dancing and after drinking is normal. The only time I was genuinely concerned is when bottles were thrown down- opa!

These are the Americans here (minus Carrie)... me, Matt (Montana), Kate (Montana) and Micah (Kentucky).... Notice the foot pop :)
That was only Friday night...

Saturday night was the high school Halloween Party. After the first high school party I knew was going to be an epic party but I was mistaken. They needed some encouragement to have some fun but most of all creativity to dress up! These are some of the high school girls that I prepared for Halloween in less than 1 hour with a room full of 2 Greek girls belongings... I made 1 pirate, 1 rock star, 1 UFO, and 1 hippie... thank you very much!

As Carrie (high school intern from Connecticut... and a really good dancer!) and I stood on stage teaching Greek high school students dance moves to lighten up there dreadfully dull Halloween Party I kept thinking to myself "Thank God for Universities" neither Carrie nor I would have had the courage or enough desire to literally tell the dj's what to play and when to play it... before we intervened it was 2-3 Greek girls with a microphone on stage trying to dance to European techno while 15-20 others sat in chairs down below looking ridiculously bored.
If anything that night has taught me (other than to continue pretending to be Miley Cirus, Brittany Spears or Lady Gaga and dancing along with whatever) is to roll with the flow and when you want high school girls to dance and have fun the only way to encourage them is to get the guys up and interested :)

For 3 days my calves were sore... I mean come one- did you check out my shoes... they were awesome yet deathly painful when danced in!

Either way being Barbie was a highlight of my adventures thus far in Greece!

A quick catch up

There are so many ridiculous stories to be told. Many times over the last couple weeks I've just thrown my head back and laughed. Greek culture is SO unlike my own. Things that would be insanity at home are perfectly normal here. Travis visited last week and we traveled south to Volos and Pilio (about 3 hours south of here by bus). When I first moved here I realized these differences quickly and now I've become more accustomed to things. In Volos Travis and I walked around the city to taste some of the local life. We walked into a small shop with jars on the walls. I was curious to see what was inside. After asking the sweet family sitting down what it was the mother sitting behind a desk beamed with excitement to share her culinary creations. The daughter explained that this was her families shop and that all the jarred preserves were made by her mother. This is what I love about Greece- it is SO usual to drink alcohol made by ones own parents or eat jam made from the trees in your front yard. After Travis and I got a few jars for our parents I asked them what a dark liquid was in this beautiful vase on top of a table. Knowing that it was probably a self brewed sepora they handed us small cups to try their sweet concoction. Sepora, raki and other balkan made drinks are made by families all over this region. This particular one was brewed with cinnamon and spices- it was AMAZING! Unlike American drinks where they are incredibly sweet or really alcoholic these are meant to be sipped on and enjoyed with friends. I love how Balkans typically respect alcohol far more than Americans.

The mountain next to Vollos is Mt. Pilio. Standing on top of this elevated masterpiece with Travis was incredible. Looking around at all the trees that were changing colors I felt something very comforting as this cloud surrounded us... Mount Pilio is literally in the clouds. In this small town (literally 1 road with 7 stores) people worked in multiple stores and invited us to each others businesses. Honestly the marketing strategy is very limited in such a small location but still it was a cool feeling being around people so content with a simplified existence.

Moving forward with life in a culture completely alien to one's own brings this unreal feeling. Some days its like you slammed your finger in a door and there is no ice around. Other days are wonderfully beautiful and filled with new experiences that I've fallen in love with. But everyday there are these beautiful shining moments when things are shared across cultures. Small moments where I've used google images to communicate with students parents have resulted in victorious success. Learning Greek by communicating with the cleaning lady always brings the biggest smile to her face. Two weeks ago I learned how to say "Thank you for cleaning." A couple days later I was cleaning the windows to my office with her and we both were just rambling in our own native languages... I'm pretty sure we were both saying that neither of us can speak each others languages but it's all good.

One of my latest words I have LOVED learning is xallarah (said Ha-lla-rah) which is a Thessaloniki local word for "chill out." Any culture that was a local word expressing emotions towards others to calm down is all right in my book!