Macy Goes Greek: Ice Cream Covered Waffles You Ask?

Greece continues to get better and better with each day. This past week following Santorini has been quite eventful. I shall begin with the riots that took place on Wednesday because nothing really cool happened Monday or Tuesday. During the early evening (around 6ish) a bus full of crazy soccer fans got a little out of control- at least that's what our program wants us to think. I'm hesitant to believe that because there are constant riots taking place in Syntagma Square throughout the week and the extent of what went down was way too extreme to just be some fans who got out of control. Anyways, tear gas cans were thrown, people were throwing rocks at windows/police and all hell was breaking out. Pretty much it was a raging mess and something that I had never experienced before. While the following pictures are not taken by me, they are ones taken by a fellow classmate. I think they capture some of the emotion that was among the people involved as well as the overall craziness of the situation. It's taking some time to get use to the police being everywhere ALL the time. We can't walk more than 5 mins without a group of police being posted somewhere on the sidewalk. SO different than Brunswick, Maine!

fire in the hole!

one of the crazier peeps getting detained.

enormous amounts of police.

bloody noses from the tear gas.

Greece "swat".

Moving away from that kind of craziness to another- Thursday night was Vogue Fashion Night in Athens! It was absolutely amazing. A few of us girls decided to get dressed up and hit the town to preview some of the new fall and winter designs for some ritzy fashion places. Immediately we were offered lovely champagne and different kinds of games in order to win free prizes. The companies here do not play. One of the girls in our group won a free perfume for hitting a bullseye on a dart board. A few of us made some purchases- I got a sweet tote and the others got some sweet shirts. It was an interesting experience because Athenians are already well known for being stylish and Thursday night was just an extension of that stylish living. Everyone was so gorgeous and dressed like they had just walked off the runway. Camera crews were covering all the new styles and the atmosphere was very fun. They gave out a ton of free booze, so us college kids capitalized on the hospitality and took it all in. I'm not usually into that kind of scene with fashion and whatnot, but it was fun to experience it while in Athens with all the fabulous Athenians.

After all the photos and drinks from fashion night, Amy and I were invited by a local Greek our age to hang with her and her friends at this waffle house 30 mins from Athens. It was SO nice to get out of the area for a while and escape the CYA bubble with some locals. We met Alexandra around 9 and went out with her friends Nikkos and Stella. They are incredible! Nikkos is hilarious and Stella is a riot. The 3 of them were absolutely hilarious together. At one point we were driving and Nikkos reached over to whisper in my ear, "When we stop, get out and let's dance". SO at the next stop light, we unbuckled, hopped out and danced to Party Rock Anthem in the middle of the road. I absolutely enjoyed every second of it. As soon as the light turned green we jumped back into the car and continued on our way. We arrived at the Waffle House and I was blown away by the selection. We had waffles and ice cream. I went for Ferrer Rocher flavored ice cream. It was so glorious! I thought chicken and waffles was an interesting combo- try waffles and ice cream. SO.MUCH.WIN.

After we finished our food, Nikkos thought we had to see the marina. He was right. There were the most amazing yachts and beautifully colored water. They had put in lights in the surrounding walls that showed the fish in the water and created this purple-blue glow for the water immediately on the edge. Beautiful. Here is where we learned about Greek culture and got to witness the bustling life that exists at 2 in the morning. I swear, people here barely sleep. I'm starting to get use to it though, which can be good and bad. I was definitely tired for my class this morning, but it was so worth it. Finally we headed home and called it a night. Nikkos invited us over for a roof-top garden party on Sunday. I can't wait!

Today I experienced why I chose this program- on site classes. My monuments class was held at the National Archeological Museum of Athens. After a nice 20 min trolley ride to the site, our professor spent the morning showing us everything we had discussed in class. I was wowed by the preservation of such ancient artifacts and I really appreciated the opportunity to witness the greatness of Greek history. Below I share some of my favorites from the day. I am so happy I have the chance to not only learn more about this amazingly interesting country, but to see the artifacts first hand. Yay study abroad!