Many Successes!

Today's alarm rang much earlier than I was prepared for. Out of bed and getting dressed before seven is not a great start, even to the middle of the week. But I did manage to get out the door and to the Visa Extension center again by 8 am. This was one of the more stressful experiences of my life. When I go there, the office was not open (and wouldn't for another 20 minutes) and already 97 people were listed by number on a sign-up sheet. No idea when number 1 got there that morning, nor do I particularly want to think about it. Student ID card in hand, I waited in front of the door to be ushered through. Everyone eventually accepted my circumstances (CYA has a deal where we don't stand in the ridiculous line, because we pay our fees and get our papers through the school) and shooed me through the line. 90 minutes later, I was free with polite permission to remain in the country for the duration of my program - Hip Hip Hooray!

This, however, was only the start of a most exciting morning. After that success, and armed with the knowledge that my financial aid is officially underway, I decided to treat myself to a tiny shopping trip. I went to a bookstore that I already knew of first, with the express purpose of tying to find an ancient text of the Homeric Hymns, which I'd like to have for my ever-growing personal reference collection. I found one, but it was far to bulky (and expensive) so I left without it. I did not leave empty handed though, as I found a small watercolor-ready sketch pad, some lovely felt pens for the cheapest I've seen them anywhere, and a little book you may have heard of called Ο Χαρι Ποτερ και την φιλοσοφικη λιθος. It has a different name in America, where Scholastic decided to use "Sorcerer's Stone" instead of "Philosopher's Stone". I read the first page aloud to myself and understood most of it. This will be considered an "educational investment" as I will probably pick up a fair bit of vocabulary with it, and it will definitely help my pronunciation. :-P

Then, encouraged by my purchases and the large amount of time remaining before my class, I started walking around the section of Athens I was in, which I hadn't really explored yet. About 10 minutes into this walk, I started noticing a lot of jewelry stores and beading stores. Remembering that this was the layout of the area in Chania, Crete before I found the yarn store there, I kept going - at a slightly faster pace than before. Then I found it - the fabrics and crafting shopping district of Athens! Fabric stores with their wares in the window and spilling out the doors, entire shops devoted to trims and tassels, huge stores with nothing but lace ribbons, a two story building that might have encompassed your average Dillard's. And a yarn store. I managed not to buy more yarn today (it was a very close call) but I did pick up a tapestry needle set and a crochet hook of the right size for the yarn I have. The woman working there spoke a little English, too, which was incredibly helpful. I need to ask her how to say certain things concerning sewing and needlework in Greek when I go back. Possibly tomorrow. Or Friday. Or Both.

After lunch, things calmed down quite a bit. Class, homework, more class, more homework, some crochet, dinner and now blogging. There's a small possibility that we could go to Sounion to see the Temple of Poseidon there this weekend, but I don't know yet. I went ahead and figured out how to get there, anyway, so it won't be hard whether we do it this weekend or some other time. It's supposed to rain this weekend, so we'll see how everything goes.

We're all so ready for the Friday open market. No one in the apartment has been buying food, and we're really pretty out of things to eat. We haven't ever had to purchase food elsewhere, and never realized exactly how much we were saving by buying all of our food there. One more day. :-P

My 8:30 am class is meeting at the National Archeological Museum tomorrow morning. Since my next class isn't until 12:20, I think I'll spend a little extra time walking around after class and exploring the museum on my own. Might also find the yarn store again as I walk back. It's almost on the way.

Kαληνύχτα!