There are so many small things that I love here...
At Pantelis'... They always have flowers on the table that they've cut from their own garden. They bring out fresh ones every day. Today, there were roses.
Pantelis (yes, the name of the owner is also the name of the restaurant) calls me "Sa-ron" because he tried about 6 times to pronounce "Shannon" the first time I told him my name (focusing on the "sh" part -- they don't have that sound in Greek) and the closest he got was "Sa-ron" and I didn't have the heart to correct him again for the "nn" part in the middle.
At the first grocery store, they always give me a free candy (or two, or three) before I leave.
They give out candy at the frozen foods store too -- today, the candy switched from a gummy kind, to the most incredible chocolate... In hindsight, I'm wishing that I'd gone once today for fish and then again tomorrow for frozen corn instead of buying it all at once. Sigh.
I love the way English words are spelled. Almost always wrong... but always sounded out correctly. Yesterday we passed a store on our way back from Pylos to Kefalonia that sold "casoual" clothes. Leesa's favourite dish at Pantelis' is the "Spesial in Oven" (spaghetti).
I love seeing goats being herded around the top of the mountain we dig on almost every morning just after 9am.
I think it's cute that I've been asked a bunch of times if I'm from England. And when people outside of Kefalonia find out we're from Vancouver, they always remind us that the Olympic torch will be lit here soon and on its way there for the 2010 Games! On Kefalonia (especially in Poros and the towns nearby), everyone who finds out we're from Vancouver immediately goes, "Ah! Study! Archaeology!" or something along those lines. They know who we are in any case.
In other news...
Pantelis asked me a week or two ago if I could help him buy something on eBay. Today he told me that he was ready -- he knows what he wants now: a "Citizen" watch for scuba diving! I had no idea that he was a diver!
I got all excited and explained that I like to dive as well and he immediately offered to give me (which I think means lend, not so much give) his wetsuit and equipment if I'd like to use it here. Apparently he's got everything you need! Sweet!!!!! Here's hoping that works out sometime... I brought my snorkeling stuff but diving would be more spectacular than I can express with words right now.
It's been rainy again today...
We didn't excavate today and probably won't tomorrow either because we can't work when its stormy outside (too dangerous at the top of a totally exposed mountain with a bunch of metallic equipment).
Michelle, Leesa and I went for lunch at Pantelis (hence the conversation re: diving watch and diving...) where his mother brought her parrot (Loreeto) down to whistle and kiss and laugh and cry and sing for us. So cute!
We then went and bought some groceries hoping to wrap it up before the rain really started. Didn't happen. So I took off my birkenstocks (it'd been dry and only a little cloudy when I left the apartments!) and walked the rest of the way home (through streets that had become like rivers and rain that came down in sheets) in bare feet. Lovin' the smooth marble. Definitely easier (less slippery) to walk on without shoes.
Then we watched some TV (Michelle has "Angel" dvds) and now... we're Interneting before dinner.
Whataday.
It was nice though. Relaxing. I feel refreshed. Though... Michelle has a pasta recipe book and I was flipping through it until I came upon a page with a recipe for homemade mac n cheese. I don't need a recipe -- I already know how to make it. Now, however, I don't think I'll be able to sleep until I do. At least now I don't have to waste time deciding what to make for dinner. Good thing I bought cheese today...
Oh! Another good thing. I keep trying different kinds (it's so cheap here -- much cheaper to buy deli-style cheese in chunks or slices that the pre-packaged stuff) but none of it has been especially wonderful as just regular cheese-cheese. Today, I told the guy that I missed my Canadian cheddar and/or mozzarella and he gave me some Gouda. Ah. Perfect. JUST what I've been looking for. And cheap too!!
All this talk of food is making me hungry. Time to go make dinner...
Much love friends! (πολύ αγάπη φίλους μου - pronounced "paul-y a-gap-y fil-ous moo")
Monday, October 12, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Busy Weekends!
I have so much to write but so little energy left to write it!
We have a few busy (more-so than usual) weeks coming up... Tomorrow we're catching the ferry at 6:30am and heading to Olympia! We'll check out the actual archaeological site first and then have a lunch break (aka time to buy souvenirs) followed by a trip to the museum! I think... I'm really not all that excited about museums. Which is sad, really. They hold so much HISTORY. Somehow... I still find them mostly boring. Le sigh.
Anyway. Geoffrey's taking us out for dinner in Pylos, which is where we'll be sleeping (not at the restaurant -- in Pylos) aaand then on Sunday we're checking out the Palace of Nestor and another castle before heading back to Poros!
It's thanksgiving this weekend so on Tuesday (the only day that we don't have class or pottery washing in the late afternoon), we're all getting together for a potluck dinner to celebrate!
We're going to try (again) to have a BBQ on the site on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon and then Thursday when the dig is done... it's the start of our long-weekend/mid-term break! I'm not sure what I'm doing yet... A few of us were hoping to check out the island just south of us (Zakynthos) and it looked like it would work out PERFECTLY (and quite inexpensive!) but now we're not sure that the hotel (the only one in the town where we wanted to go) is even open in mid-October. They've got prices listed for October... but some of the other hotels on the island have prices listed for October as well and they've already closed. Bah!
Either way... at least it should be a relaxing weekend. The weather's supposed to remain hot and sunny from now 'til the end of the lunar month. The farmers here have told our prof that when a new weather front comes in on the same day as a new moon, the weather stays that way until the next one. So far their predictions have been correct! Hurrah!
Not too much else to write about for now...
The cat (Rio) that was kind of adopted by our group (some people actually paid to get some antibiotics for this cat because it had a respiratory infection) was hit by a car and died last night. We (Leesa, Michelle and I) found it last night on our way to dinner. Apparently they'd (Nela and Brayden) JUST given it its medication only 15-20 minutes before we found it. It was particularly hard on Leesa -- she'd actually been looking into the cost of bringing it back to Canada. Good thing that none of us actually saw it get hit. That would have been REALLY bad.
Anyway -- it kind of put a damper on the rest of the evening. We've still got Lola (a dog we've also sort of adopted) but now we're all scared that she'll get hit by a car too since all the animals here just wander all over the town (on the roads) all the time and it gets really busy when the ferries come in.
On a happier note... I made fish for dinner last night and it was INCREDIBLE!!! Seriously. I was surprised by how well it turned out. Shocked even. I used an egg and instant-potato mix to make a batter (I didn't have flour and the crackers I bought to use are actually really good crackers so I didn't want to waste them on batter...) and fried 'em up in olive oil with a little salt. Add a little lemon before digging in and and VOILA! Heaven on a plate.
Time to head out -- I want to enjoy what's left of the sunshine today before it sets! Will write more updates when we return from Olympia and Pylos!
We have a few busy (more-so than usual) weeks coming up... Tomorrow we're catching the ferry at 6:30am and heading to Olympia! We'll check out the actual archaeological site first and then have a lunch break (aka time to buy souvenirs) followed by a trip to the museum! I think... I'm really not all that excited about museums. Which is sad, really. They hold so much HISTORY. Somehow... I still find them mostly boring. Le sigh.
Anyway. Geoffrey's taking us out for dinner in Pylos, which is where we'll be sleeping (not at the restaurant -- in Pylos) aaand then on Sunday we're checking out the Palace of Nestor and another castle before heading back to Poros!
It's thanksgiving this weekend so on Tuesday (the only day that we don't have class or pottery washing in the late afternoon), we're all getting together for a potluck dinner to celebrate!
We're going to try (again) to have a BBQ on the site on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon and then Thursday when the dig is done... it's the start of our long-weekend/mid-term break! I'm not sure what I'm doing yet... A few of us were hoping to check out the island just south of us (Zakynthos) and it looked like it would work out PERFECTLY (and quite inexpensive!) but now we're not sure that the hotel (the only one in the town where we wanted to go) is even open in mid-October. They've got prices listed for October... but some of the other hotels on the island have prices listed for October as well and they've already closed. Bah!
Either way... at least it should be a relaxing weekend. The weather's supposed to remain hot and sunny from now 'til the end of the lunar month. The farmers here have told our prof that when a new weather front comes in on the same day as a new moon, the weather stays that way until the next one. So far their predictions have been correct! Hurrah!
Not too much else to write about for now...
The cat (Rio) that was kind of adopted by our group (some people actually paid to get some antibiotics for this cat because it had a respiratory infection) was hit by a car and died last night. We (Leesa, Michelle and I) found it last night on our way to dinner. Apparently they'd (Nela and Brayden) JUST given it its medication only 15-20 minutes before we found it. It was particularly hard on Leesa -- she'd actually been looking into the cost of bringing it back to Canada. Good thing that none of us actually saw it get hit. That would have been REALLY bad.
Anyway -- it kind of put a damper on the rest of the evening. We've still got Lola (a dog we've also sort of adopted) but now we're all scared that she'll get hit by a car too since all the animals here just wander all over the town (on the roads) all the time and it gets really busy when the ferries come in.
On a happier note... I made fish for dinner last night and it was INCREDIBLE!!! Seriously. I was surprised by how well it turned out. Shocked even. I used an egg and instant-potato mix to make a batter (I didn't have flour and the crackers I bought to use are actually really good crackers so I didn't want to waste them on batter...) and fried 'em up in olive oil with a little salt. Add a little lemon before digging in and and VOILA! Heaven on a plate.
Time to head out -- I want to enjoy what's left of the sunshine today before it sets! Will write more updates when we return from Olympia and Pylos!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
What a stellar day! For the last little while in the dig site in our Trench VI.2 we found absolutely nothing major, nada, zip zilch. Diddly-squat I tell you! But that all changed today, after our persistent waiting, we found four fantastical things. First we found part of a rim of a bowl, cup thing (Geoffrey wasn’t sure, we weren’t allowed to take it out :( ). Then we found a chunk (“sherd” technically speaking) of pottery with what looks like a flower pattern on it (Attic from about 6th century B.C.). Just a few seconds after that, we FINALLY found the burial on the left section of our trench, and it was a roof tile burial! Not sure why that’s so significant yet, I suppose maybe because it’s the first of it’s kind at our site. Now for the creme de la creme, the mini Lekithos we found! (I should also clarify “we” stands for myself, Leesa, Shannon and Chelsea at this point. Also Leesa found the burial, Chelsea found the shard, I found the Lekithos and burried bowl/cup thing. Total luck though, of course) Oh it’s so tiny and we think mostly intact!! Geoffrey said it was probably part of the funerary rituals and was used for anointing the body with oil. It’s so cool looking! I can’t wait till tomorrow so we can hopefully dig them up, and then wash them on thursday! :D
I also realized that at this point I have failed to mention the animals which have grown as tentative pets to our group. First we have Rio our stray cat which we nursed back to health. The first time we saw him, he just cam strolling into our Greek class, wandered around as comfortable as can be, hopped on the tables looking for love. It was so cute. For a little while he stayed around the Herculean Building until one day he followed us home, and Nela (who worked in a vet) fed him and determined that he had an upper respiratory disease. After some humming and hawing a few people chipped in and bought him some antibiotics. And he is so much better, his eyes aren't gunky and gross anymore and he doesn't wheeze anymore! I think he is going to be a very loved cat by the end of the trip, he’s so cuddly! When we watch movies in the Herculean building he comes and cuddles with us, and now he sleeps in the common room on one of the comfy chairs. Our second pet’s name is Lola, not sure what kind of dog she is but she’s brown with a black patch on her back. She is just a puppy and is teething, so she tries to chew on most things, although I have now made it clear that she is not to chew on me. Except that now I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me very much.
Well thats that, I was going to post this yesterday with pictures but I can't get them off my camera with Shannon's memory card for some reason, so I'll have to edit that later on.
Now lets talk about today! We also found cool things today, we uncovered the rest of the burial and in part of the edge of where we are digging we found the rim of a wine jar! ttehehehe. It looks pretty intact to, but I don't want to get my hopes up in case it is broken except for the rim. Other than that we did a ton of waiting around so tomorrow we can hopefully take them out! I suppose for now, I can put some pictures up from the internet, I didn't take these and here's where they are from:
http://pottery.about.com/od/glazesurfaces/ig/Ancient-Greek-Pottery-Images/Oenochoe.htm
http://www.acropolart.fr/us/Archeologie_classique.html
And i'll take them off as soon as I have my own! :D
I also realized that at this point I have failed to mention the animals which have grown as tentative pets to our group. First we have Rio our stray cat which we nursed back to health. The first time we saw him, he just cam strolling into our Greek class, wandered around as comfortable as can be, hopped on the tables looking for love. It was so cute. For a little while he stayed around the Herculean Building until one day he followed us home, and Nela (who worked in a vet) fed him and determined that he had an upper respiratory disease. After some humming and hawing a few people chipped in and bought him some antibiotics. And he is so much better, his eyes aren't gunky and gross anymore and he doesn't wheeze anymore! I think he is going to be a very loved cat by the end of the trip, he’s so cuddly! When we watch movies in the Herculean building he comes and cuddles with us, and now he sleeps in the common room on one of the comfy chairs. Our second pet’s name is Lola, not sure what kind of dog she is but she’s brown with a black patch on her back. She is just a puppy and is teething, so she tries to chew on most things, although I have now made it clear that she is not to chew on me. Except that now I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me very much.
Well thats that, I was going to post this yesterday with pictures but I can't get them off my camera with Shannon's memory card for some reason, so I'll have to edit that later on.
Now lets talk about today! We also found cool things today, we uncovered the rest of the burial and in part of the edge of where we are digging we found the rim of a wine jar! ttehehehe. It looks pretty intact to, but I don't want to get my hopes up in case it is broken except for the rim. Other than that we did a ton of waiting around so tomorrow we can hopefully take them out! I suppose for now, I can put some pictures up from the internet, I didn't take these and here's where they are from:
http://pottery.about.com/od/glazesurfaces/ig/Ancient-Greek-Pottery-Images/Oenochoe.htm
http://www.acropolart.fr/us/Archeologie_classique.html
And i'll take them off as soon as I have my own! :D
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Ithaki and the Cute Old Man
We went on our (fourth?) field school on Friday... to Ithaki! Which, for a long time, has been considered the home of Homer's Odysseus. Apparently there are better arguments for Homer's Ithaca to actually have been in the area of Kefalonia where we're staying for the semester but much of the research has not yet been widely published.
Anyway.
It was a lot of driving around but the scenery was pretty spectacular and the towns we visited were are all very cute!
The highlight of my trip actually took place in Vathi, the capitol city on the island. Is has a population of about 2000 people which makes it big; the population of the entire island is roughly 3000.
Vathi itself was surrounded by sailboats and filled with all kinds of shops and things. I went into a small market at one point, though I can't remember what I went in looking for... I spent almost twenty minutes inside talking with the man who, I think, owned it! He was so cute! He asked if I was from England (I get that a lot here -- so weird!) and when I explained that I was from Canada, he responded with delight, "long time! long time! Toronto, Montreal, New York... long time!!" and ushered me over to this counter where he proceeded to show me about a dozen really old photos of a big ship and of he and his friends on that ship. It was so much fun -- he was so excited to show me the pictures! Especially when I picked one up of him when he was 17 and held it beside his face to take a comparison photo -- he was thrilled with the result and proceeded to try to explain in greater detail which areas of the ship the other photos were taken at. I think he was mostly just excited that I was interested in looking at his pictures with him.
Anyway. He grabbed my hands and said "Bravo! Bravo!" a bunch of times and kissed my cheeks to say goodbye when I left. Apparently when Neil went into the same market a few minutes later, the man was still pretty excited and started to tell him about this other Canadian girl who had just been in and looked at pictures with him... *grin*
And so it happens that the highlight of my trip has very little to do with where I was and everything to do with my experience of a cute old man who once spent years sailing all over the world and obviously loves telling people all about it. Beautiful!
Anyway.
It was a lot of driving around but the scenery was pretty spectacular and the towns we visited were are all very cute!
The highlight of my trip actually took place in Vathi, the capitol city on the island. Is has a population of about 2000 people which makes it big; the population of the entire island is roughly 3000.
Vathi itself was surrounded by sailboats and filled with all kinds of shops and things. I went into a small market at one point, though I can't remember what I went in looking for... I spent almost twenty minutes inside talking with the man who, I think, owned it! He was so cute! He asked if I was from England (I get that a lot here -- so weird!) and when I explained that I was from Canada, he responded with delight, "long time! long time! Toronto, Montreal, New York... long time!!" and ushered me over to this counter where he proceeded to show me about a dozen really old photos of a big ship and of he and his friends on that ship. It was so much fun -- he was so excited to show me the pictures! Especially when I picked one up of him when he was 17 and held it beside his face to take a comparison photo -- he was thrilled with the result and proceeded to try to explain in greater detail which areas of the ship the other photos were taken at. I think he was mostly just excited that I was interested in looking at his pictures with him.
Anyway. He grabbed my hands and said "Bravo! Bravo!" a bunch of times and kissed my cheeks to say goodbye when I left. Apparently when Neil went into the same market a few minutes later, the man was still pretty excited and started to tell him about this other Canadian girl who had just been in and looked at pictures with him... *grin*
And so it happens that the highlight of my trip has very little to do with where I was and everything to do with my experience of a cute old man who once spent years sailing all over the world and obviously loves telling people all about it. Beautiful!
Early morning, with a pinch of late night.
That is the latest I'be stayed out this whole trip, but it was worth it. We finally got to go to the club, Spilos, after trying every weekend for practically the entire time we've been here. It was so nice! You walk up the steps in the front and usually the outside bar is the main drinking area and the inside is the bar but the weather has been so shitty that they had to move inside for the weekend. The inside had comfy chairs and tables along the wall-window (which I am assuming also opens up) then the mid section of the bar had taller tables with cave like pillars through it. The bar itself was pretty standard but the backdrop was a white lit up cave from the bar to the pillars which I have a feeling were supposed to possibly be stalagmites? maybe?. All we did was dance and drink Smirnoff North Nordic Berry shots which everyone who is reading this NEEDS to try, which you can drink pretty much straight, it's bloody fantastic. So in total I had one Smirnoff ice, 3 shots and that's it. Thankfully no guys tried to pick us up, they all just stared at the strange Canadians rocking it out in a circle in the middle of their mellowed out bar. Awkward, but ok! We were out from 1:30am to 4:30am (only because the people who went the night before said it didn't get "hopping" until after 1am -.- which was silly if you ask me but whatever) and it is now 11:55am! No one else who went got up, except maybe Shannon, who left early last night.
Today, the plan is *drumroll* finally uploading the last of my "Athens Day Two: Part 2", play FarmVille, maybe beach, finish my book, and possibly a wee bit o' Angel, but If I do that I wouldn't get anything else done...so we shall see.
P.S. I learned how to make rice from the Rice Master Simon, and Katie! It was super tasty and hit the spot! Also, sorry if there are any major grammatical mistakes I don't usually check my blogs over, but if my writing is particularly horrid please tell me!
Today, the plan is *drumroll* finally uploading the last of my "Athens Day Two: Part 2", play FarmVille, maybe beach, finish my book, and possibly a wee bit o' Angel, but If I do that I wouldn't get anything else done...so we shall see.
P.S. I learned how to make rice from the Rice Master Simon, and Katie! It was super tasty and hit the spot! Also, sorry if there are any major grammatical mistakes I don't usually check my blogs over, but if my writing is particularly horrid please tell me!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
A Week in Review
What a week! I’ve been so busy!
There wasn’t so much exciting stuff happening in our trench this week (Ζιτα, Δύο) mostly just messed up inverted stratigraphy, with two separate sections because of the wall smack-dab in the center. BUT in the other trenches Simon and Cassandra uncovered the rest of the skeleton buried under the wall, and Vicky and Rebecca uncovered the body in rest of the tenth Pithos. Two skeletons, with full sets of teeth, oh man it was soo soo cool. In our trench we found little shards of pottery, big rocks, little rocks, dirt clumps and more rocks. We do have part of a Pithos right on the road, but I have a sinking feeling most of it will be eroded because of the road and the big rocks which seem to have only fell into only our trench. Luckily, Geoffrey said we could stop messing with changing baskets (every time we either find change in the layer of dirt we are digging, or a burial or a wall of some sort we have to change baskets so we know where it came from) and finicky stratigraphy and just dig it up. Hopefully we find something soon.
As for last weekend, it rained for both Friday and Saturday, and when it rains here, it storms not exaggerating. Irregardless we went out anyway. On friday Leesa, Mike, Shannon and I went to Skala a little town about 20 minutes from where we are staying. Originally it wasn’t raining when we left so I didn’t bring a jacket -.- which was silly. Even though it was really, really cold we still got some good souvenir shopping done (I got such a pretty ring!) had some good food and taxied it back with our crazy driver by about 6ish. Pretty much did the same thing on Saturday but in Poros, except it rained harder and I had a raincoat this time. My Puma’s were soaked for almost 3 days to put it in perspective. We did also go to Zanza Bar that weekend to, we were all a little pooped so it wasn’t as exciting as the first time, but still super fun.
Now I’m almost up to date! Yesterday we did one of our bi-weekly field trips to “Ithaca”. There isn’t much evidence supporting the idea that Modern Ithaca was Homer’s Ithaca, where as there is more evidence that it is actually Kefalonia (but you didn’t hear that from me). We didn’t get to spend the entire day there, our ferry was at 8:30am from Sami, and the last ferry was at 3:30pm. We just visited two little towns and the major port city on the island, not any sites, which really sucks but the weather was decent and the pictures turned out well.
Tonight we are going to the hippest club in range, for no particular reason at all other than to just party for the last time for the next few weeks and because we get to sleep in on Sunday. :D
There wasn’t so much exciting stuff happening in our trench this week (Ζιτα, Δύο) mostly just messed up inverted stratigraphy, with two separate sections because of the wall smack-dab in the center. BUT in the other trenches Simon and Cassandra uncovered the rest of the skeleton buried under the wall, and Vicky and Rebecca uncovered the body in rest of the tenth Pithos. Two skeletons, with full sets of teeth, oh man it was soo soo cool. In our trench we found little shards of pottery, big rocks, little rocks, dirt clumps and more rocks. We do have part of a Pithos right on the road, but I have a sinking feeling most of it will be eroded because of the road and the big rocks which seem to have only fell into only our trench. Luckily, Geoffrey said we could stop messing with changing baskets (every time we either find change in the layer of dirt we are digging, or a burial or a wall of some sort we have to change baskets so we know where it came from) and finicky stratigraphy and just dig it up. Hopefully we find something soon.
As for last weekend, it rained for both Friday and Saturday, and when it rains here, it storms not exaggerating. Irregardless we went out anyway. On friday Leesa, Mike, Shannon and I went to Skala a little town about 20 minutes from where we are staying. Originally it wasn’t raining when we left so I didn’t bring a jacket -.- which was silly. Even though it was really, really cold we still got some good souvenir shopping done (I got such a pretty ring!) had some good food and taxied it back with our crazy driver by about 6ish. Pretty much did the same thing on Saturday but in Poros, except it rained harder and I had a raincoat this time. My Puma’s were soaked for almost 3 days to put it in perspective. We did also go to Zanza Bar that weekend to, we were all a little pooped so it wasn’t as exciting as the first time, but still super fun.
Now I’m almost up to date! Yesterday we did one of our bi-weekly field trips to “Ithaca”. There isn’t much evidence supporting the idea that Modern Ithaca was Homer’s Ithaca, where as there is more evidence that it is actually Kefalonia (but you didn’t hear that from me). We didn’t get to spend the entire day there, our ferry was at 8:30am from Sami, and the last ferry was at 3:30pm. We just visited two little towns and the major port city on the island, not any sites, which really sucks but the weather was decent and the pictures turned out well.
Tonight we are going to the hippest club in range, for no particular reason at all other than to just party for the last time for the next few weeks and because we get to sleep in on Sunday. :D
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Lessons in Greek Language and Culture...
In our Modern Greek (language) class this week, we focused on learning how to ask a few more basic questions (who/how/where are you? What are you doing? etc.) and on numbers as well as TIME!
I can now count to 50 (πενήντα - pen-een-da) in Greek AND tell someone what time it is.
Learning about time was interesting... in part because it meant remembering all the numbers (at least up to 12). It was also interesting because Stella (our teacher) spent quite a while explaining to us when you say "good morning" or "good afternoon" or "good evening" or "good night" or just a regular "hello" (between morning and afternoon in the strange time of day when you may not be certain which to use).
SO here it is:
Good morning (kali-mare-ah / καλημέρα) is from when you wake up until about 1-1:30pm.
Remember in my last post (or the one before) when I wrote that all the stores close at 2pm until 5 or 6pm? That's because people are here legally REQUIRED to be quiet during those hours. If I were to phone someone here at 3pm, it'd be like calling my parents at 3am -- they'd think something was wrong because you otherwise just don't interrupt people at home at that hour of the day. So that'd be about the time to use the regular "hello" (he-air-et-ay / χαιρέται OR yah-sas / γεια σας - which also means "good bye").
5:30-6pm-ish would be when you'd begin to greet people with a "good evening " (kali-spare-ah / καλησπέρα).
Good night is only used when you're leaving. kali-nicht-ah / καληνύχτα.
Fun times... Fun times.
Tomorrow we're going to Ithaki!! Saturday it's supposed to rain (boo!)
We've found two graves so far... the people excavating them have gotten quite a bit of the skeletons uncovered. The skulls are the most incredible parts... It sounds creepy, but it's actually really really cool! I'm honestly the most surprised at how both skulls have ALL their teeth and they're all still in incredible condition. Crazy. One of the skulls is all crushed in because the upper torso and head was actually buried beneath a wall (the wall would have been built over the body long after it had been buried there). The other one is still all round -- just one hole above the right ear (probably because that's the one facing up -- that skull is kind of on its side).
ANYWAY. There are four of us (Chelsea, Michelle, Leesa and myself) working in Trench #VI.2 and we haven't really found too much yet. Well... we found a wall. The wall is kind of cool -- we (by we I mean our prof) think that it's part of an enclosure within the cemetery. So far we've only found one burial inside of it, but it looks like there might be at least two. Can't wait to start actually excavating the burial we do have on Monday!!
So that's about it for now...
Will update more after the weekend! Hoping for some good weather this time around... at least on Friday and Sunday since Saturday's supposed to be crappy.
Muchos love, friends!
I can now count to 50 (πενήντα - pen-een-da) in Greek AND tell someone what time it is.
Learning about time was interesting... in part because it meant remembering all the numbers (at least up to 12). It was also interesting because Stella (our teacher) spent quite a while explaining to us when you say "good morning" or "good afternoon" or "good evening" or "good night" or just a regular "hello" (between morning and afternoon in the strange time of day when you may not be certain which to use).
SO here it is:
Good morning (kali-mare-ah / καλημέρα) is from when you wake up until about 1-1:30pm.
Remember in my last post (or the one before) when I wrote that all the stores close at 2pm until 5 or 6pm? That's because people are here legally REQUIRED to be quiet during those hours. If I were to phone someone here at 3pm, it'd be like calling my parents at 3am -- they'd think something was wrong because you otherwise just don't interrupt people at home at that hour of the day. So that'd be about the time to use the regular "hello" (he-air-et-ay / χαιρέται OR yah-sas / γεια σας - which also means "good bye").
5:30-6pm-ish would be when you'd begin to greet people with a "good evening " (kali-spare-ah / καλησπέρα).
Good night is only used when you're leaving. kali-nicht-ah / καληνύχτα.
Fun times... Fun times.
Tomorrow we're going to Ithaki!! Saturday it's supposed to rain (boo!)
We've found two graves so far... the people excavating them have gotten quite a bit of the skeletons uncovered. The skulls are the most incredible parts... It sounds creepy, but it's actually really really cool! I'm honestly the most surprised at how both skulls have ALL their teeth and they're all still in incredible condition. Crazy. One of the skulls is all crushed in because the upper torso and head was actually buried beneath a wall (the wall would have been built over the body long after it had been buried there). The other one is still all round -- just one hole above the right ear (probably because that's the one facing up -- that skull is kind of on its side).
ANYWAY. There are four of us (Chelsea, Michelle, Leesa and myself) working in Trench #VI.2 and we haven't really found too much yet. Well... we found a wall. The wall is kind of cool -- we (by we I mean our prof) think that it's part of an enclosure within the cemetery. So far we've only found one burial inside of it, but it looks like there might be at least two. Can't wait to start actually excavating the burial we do have on Monday!!
So that's about it for now...
Will update more after the weekend! Hoping for some good weather this time around... at least on Friday and Sunday since Saturday's supposed to be crappy.
Muchos love, friends!
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