Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Now that nearly a whole month has gone by, I've started to get a little homesick. To honor this little twinge of nostalgia, today's blog post will include a small taste of what it is that I miss about home.

1. Dogs on leashes. Stray dogs run around Athens everywhere. They jaywalk streets expertly, as if they were native New Yorkers. Also, they will follow you for blocks if you just stop to pet them for a few seconds, or even if you don't. I had a running buddy all of last week!

2. Speaking of running: running outside. Greeks don't seem to run outside, and no matter how many Yeia sas' (hello) I say to each person I pass, I still get funny looks.

3. Clubs that actually have dancing! It would appear that there is a direct correlation that the fancier a dance club is, the fewer people there are dancing. Rather, the norm is to stand around and hold drinks.

4. Skim milk. Milk here is sold at 1.5% and 3.5%. (I never once considered that this would be different abroad than at home. I just assumed that at some point in time milk fat percentages were standardized.

But of course, there's the new things that I've done that I wouldn't trade for any of the above.

1. I have now dipped my pinky toe into the exclusive glistening, sun-bathed, Infinity pool that is Greek island-hopping. We went to Mykonos for the weekend, and Crete for a little under a week. Ferries are surprisingly pleasant, and have four person cabins that are quite accommodating.

2. Waking up to the smell of goat. It doesn't sound appealing even now while I'm writing this, but we lived next to goats in Mykonos, and even fed them bread and apples.

3. Climbing the caves at Matala Beach. Artificial caves were carved out by the Romans to use as tombs; one is even named after Brutus, because he was a supposed frequenter. In the 60s, hippies used them for permanent residences, but were made to leave by an infuriated archaeologist. Now as a tourist you can climb into the caves and swim at the beach that Zeus brought Europa to when he seduced her.

4. Meeting new European friends. A few weeks ago, we met rowdy Croatians here in Athens for a "football" match. They were excited about the game, to say the least, and eventually riot police had to be called. Fire was involved.

5. Seeing demonstrations in person. While in Crete we were able to see a protest of the new economic measures enacted by Papandreou.

More to come!