Never Thought I'd...

Let me begin by saying WOW!

Every Friday we have a field trip and this week we went to Zagorohoria and traditional villages. We some some amazing and a monastery over a huge gorge. We decided to go hike out on a small pathway up on the cliff, and it was unreal. It was one of the coolest things I have every done. In one week I worked on my fear of enclosed spaces underground in the Cave of Perama, and then hiked on on a huge cliff to conquer my fear of heights. The photos we took don't do the place justice, but our professor might have had a mild heart attack while we were doing it. When we came back he told us that he "shit his pants three times while you guys were out there."

On a different note, on thing that is getting really old, really fast is being so clearly American. It's hard to look Greek because the women wear a pound of make up and high heels all the time. I'm not trying to look like a clown that can't walk just to fit in. Not to say all Greek women look like clowns, because they don't, but the distinction is that even naturally pretty women who don't need to wear make up are always decked out. 95% of the women dye their hair, and about 99% wear make up, and 75% wear clothes that look like they're on their way to the club. I'm a more casual person an I prefer Jean, a t-shirt, and my trail running shoes/Sorel slippers to just about anything else. Needless to say, getting use to the clothes has been somewhat challenging for me.

Today we went out for some food and wore our clothes that we had on while we were hiking earlier in the day. It was about 70 degrees so we had on shorts and t-shirts and went strait from the hike to get food downtown. It was shocking how much we got stared out. Exercise is extremely uncommon in Greece, especially for women, so we looked so obviously out of place that is was uncomfortable. I don't mind wearing my work out clothes, but all 6 of us were getting stared at like nobodies business. It's so different from the US were people don't really notice that kind of stuff, or care because there are so many different types and styles of clothing and ways to dress that are socially acceptable. The fact that dying your hear and wearing make up is almost an obligation here is so strange to me, and just about everyone else.

Anyway, time to get back to my homework.

Signing off,

T