update and observations

hellooooo

we are in athens! woo. headed to zurich airport this morning, and now we are at our hostel here. if feels so weird to be in a hostel after a week without staying in them. this one is pretty small and has no kitchen, but hey, we are only here two nites so its no big deal. we actually just went down the street and ate some very yummy gyro-type stuff. freakin delicious. its so strange to be in greece. the language is so far from anything i know. it makes me realize that, although i know absolutely no french, comparatively, i can understand quite a bit of french. did that make sense? at least everywhere else weve been the alphabet is mostly the same and we can read things and pronounce them somewhat even if we dont understand, and often words are shared within the languages. with the greek, well, its just all lost. i dont even know how to say "yes" and "no." will have to consult the book weve got for the basics like that. im pretty excited to be here and feel loads better at the moment. i dont even feel tired and wish it were earlier so i could go out and do something. there is lots to see in athens but weve only budgeted in two days because there were so many other places we wanted to spend a bit of time.

a couple things ive noticed... in every country, i feel i am the only girl who wears a tee shirt or a hoodie. seriously. i pay close attention to this every time we get on a subway. never once have i seen another girl wearing a tee shirt. i think once i saw someone in a hoodie and im sure they were a tourist. its interesting. all women dress well. im sure at home they may wear whatever, but no one leaves home looking the least bit sloppy. i remember feeling like a slob or a scrub last year, and the feeling hasnt changed. i own decent clothes but generally that stuff isnt able to keep up for wearing days at a time. tee shirts are easiest with you only have a small bit of room and dont do laundry too often. but yea... its strange. everyone gets dressed in the morning, haha. thierry said something about a 24 hour carry-out place and how it was funny bc the ppl who lived near it could just stop there in their pjs whenever. i thought it was a pretty funny observation because at home i go to 7-11 or kroger in my pjs and dont think about it. and a good majority of the people i went to college with didnt bother to get dressed in the morning either (include me sometimes!). it sure id different. and speaking of the hours places are open, i know ive mentioned it before, but its so odd to have places be closed on sunday and closed early other days. just about no where was open in zurich yesterday. weirds be out every time. i just feel so lost. i get mad when i want to go to barnes and noble and realize it is sunday and closes at 9 instead of 11... when in geneva the bookstore closed at 7 on normal days and im not sure that it was even open on sundays, id guess not. its just a different way of doing things and would take some getting used to. another interesting thing to note is that eva longoria is the face of magnum ice cream bars throughout europe! hahaha. its funny, because ive heard of celebrities doing advertisements for odd products in other countries that they wouldnt ever do in the US because it would look bad or tarnish their reputation or whatever the reason... but i started seeing her all over in barcelona and then again in nice. these pictures of her eating a magnum "temptation" ice cream bar with a seductive look on her face. its pretty hilarious actually.

okay, must be going. will update again before we head to the island. :-)