closing time...

it's been such a crazy week!

you'd think that with the academic part of the trip being pretty much over (for some of us), things would slow down. and i suppose that they have. but still, although the afternoons are slow (*cough*boring*cough*), we've crammed our evenings so full of things to do that it's difficult to fit everything in that we want to do before we head out early on Sunday morning!

on monday afternoon Jerry, his brother, Christos, and his dad, Spyros, took myself, Leesa, Michelle, Neil and Mike with them to the place where olives are turned into olive oil. They'd spent the last 5-6 days picking olives from their fields near Enos Mt (the main mountain on the island) and so took a truck FILLED with those olives to this place where they'd end up with enough olive oil to use for at least this next year. A LOT of olives.

it was fabulous! the man there who, i think, was running the place was all excited that i was taking pictures and kept grabbing my arm and instructing me on how i should be posing -- catch these olives, rake these olives, look at this machinery, stand with your friends, etc.

so that was fun. i got to see how it all worked and "help out" too! he gave us all some of his homemade sipero (not sure how to spell it) but um, leesa, michelle, and i took a sip or two each and generously offered the rest to mike (by pouring it into his cup while he wasn't looking). sipero is a REALLY strong alcohol. probably something like "moonshine" back home. blech.

anyways. so after that we had one final greek class, mostly review and then... i feel like we did something but i can't remember what.

on tuesday i took a nice walk up the river bed (which is dry right now) and found some beautiful spots where water had pooled up from the rains earlier this month, the rocks surrounding (and in) the pools were smooth, the trees were still green and the water itself was crystal clear. they were like little patches of heaven.

in the evening we hung out with jerry and christos at maistrali's -- the cute cafe just a few minutes walk from where our hotel is. since pantelis' has closed, we've spent a lot of time there. in part because the freddoccino's are SO GOOD and in part because they've got decent wireless internet.

what else?

wednesday... spent most of the day studying and refreshing our memories for our greek exam which was REALLY easy. i think that it must have been, by far, the easiest and shortest exam i've ever written. hurrah!

after all three of us finished writing it, leesa, michelle and i went out for dinner to celebrate at the italian-esque restaurant in town that we had only been to once before with the whole group for a lunch thing with the dean.

anyway. it so superb. we all enjoyed a heart attack on a plate to start (it's cheese, breaded and deep-fried -- called "saganaki" and it's delicious) and then we thoroughly enjoyed WAY too much moussaka (me) and souvlaki (michelle and leesa) before waddling back to the hotel.

later that night, leesa realized that by finishing the exam, she's actually now completed her entire undergraduate degree (congrats, hun!) and went with a few others to celebrate at vasilli's bar. michelle and i hung back and ended up watching "She's All That" which michelle had never seen before (can you believe it!?).

and so ended wednesday.

today is thursday. well, technically it's friday now... but whatever.

today i slept in, unpacked and re-packed about three times before i was finally satisfied with my packing, and otherwise did a lot of nothing.

michelle, leesa and i made dinner (leesa made spaghetti, michelle made garlic toast and i made apple crisp) for jerry and christos as something of a "thank you!" because jerry's just been so wonderful to us -- driving us all over the place to show us a zillion and a half of the cool things on this island that aren't within walking distance.

after dinner, we all went to argostoli to walk around (there are a few christmas lights up now!) and then to have some hot chocolate (or iced tea, if you're leesa) one last time by the main square.

i also stopped by "the body shop" which was still open (!) to buy some cheap (and small -- which translates into PACKABLE) shampoo and conditioner. my hair will smell like bananas for the next little while. woohoo! and... i picked up a few more postcards (must use up the stamps i have left!) and a mickey mouse comic. it's all in greek... i couldn't resist!

and thus ends thursday.

tomorrow (today, *sigh*) is friday.

we don't have much going on for the day, but in the evening the mayor is throwing us a going away dinner party, much like the "welcome to poros" party he threw in our honour when we arrived in september. we're checking out yet another of the restaurants i haven't been to, so that should be fun. it's still weird to have parties thrown for you by government officials. but i love it!

saturday is our last day so we'll all go to vasilli's bar in the evening... there are rumours of a few people intending to show up still drunk for the bus ride back to athens on sunday morning. i'm not one of them. but it should be a fun evening nonetheless.


and with that. i'm off to bed so that i can be awake tomorrow to enjoy my second-to-last day in poros!

much love, friends!