blog link and picture

here's the link to Alex's hair blog and a photo he took of me!

hope you enjoy


Hair Blog

hair cut anyone?

As many of you know, I take great pride in my hair, so I always seem to have a hard time deciding what to do with it in terms of cutting it. I'd like to think that one day I will take that huge leap and chop it all off, but we all know that day is far from today. Anyways, my good friend Yiota from CYA showed me this blog of her friend who cuts hair and takes photos of his work. He's a hair stylist as well as a photographer. Talk about amazing in art. I saw some photos of others and of her that he had done and thought he was amazing.  After mentioning to her weeks later from seeing the blog that I wanted to cut my hair, she asked me if I would want to have Alex cut my hair. Heck yeah! I was so excited but also really nervous. There have only been 2 people that have actually styled my hair when cutting, so it was going to be a big step for me. As the days came closer I played with the idea of cutting it short, keeping it straight or going with something in the middle. At last I was on my way to his place where I was meeting him and Yiota. It was after a really stressful Greek final, so in a way it was a nice shift in moods.

I arrived at his beautiful loft and immediately we got down to business. I threw out the idea of cutting it short and immediately he said "no". Haha. In a good way of course. He explained to me that with my hair, he was going to respect the length because it is just too "beautiful" as he said. I was really relieved actually because I didn't know how well I was going to deal with chopping it off. Ha, go figure. As we talked, he mentioned to me that he would really like to shoot me for his photo blog. I was ECSTATIC. Because I had agreed, he told me I would have my make up done by his make up artist friend, Renny, and that he had an idea for clothes to put me in. This had gone from a hair cut to a full blown photo shoot and I was not complaining.

The styling began and he did the most amazing job. He took off about 4 inches, which to many might be a lot, but with my hair you can barely even tell it's been cut. He also did a few layers that made my hair feel a lot lighter and look really healthy. All the dead ends and dry parts were gone. Next we talked about what to do with my bangs. He wanted to give me this new fringe. I was scared because I've always done side bangs, but began to grow into the idea. In the end we decided to keep the side swipe because it works well with my face. Whew! In total it took about an hour and a half to style and cut my hair because this head has a lot of hair. During the entire time we had some hilarious conversation about Greek life, relationships, zodiac signs and pretty much anything you can think of. The three of us enjoyed one another's company and I really started to feel comfortable.

Next we moved to the make-up and photo shoot. Romy is this beautiful German who has lived in Greece 18 years. She came here when she was 4, so she considers herself Greek. She was lovely and so pretty. She told me that my eye shape was easy to work with and that made me happy because I call my eyes big ol' fish eyes. Haha. She works in the fashion and film industry doing make-up for the productions. At last Alex showed me the "outfit" he had planned for me. It was a fun dotted type, bubble-y top with strings in the back. It was complicated to put on, but once we figured it out (3 of us), I really loved it. I was placed against a white wall with lighting, shadows, etc. So awesome. I had tons of fun being a model for a day. He's going to post to his blog and send me the link/pictures from the shoot. I'll be sure to post that link late.

Overall I had one of the most amazing times since being in Greece. Alex and Yiota were so fun and kind to me. We shared music, talks, advice and laughter. It still amazes me that I have been able to meet such genuine, wonderful and beautiful (inside/outside) human beings here in Greece. I'm so grateful that I can make positive impression on people to the point where they want to introduce me to their friends. I'm glad I have a friendship with Yiota and now Alex. We've planned to get drinks on Tuesday :D

delphi and the peloponnese...check!

is this real life? I've returned from a wonderful week of traveling in southern Greece and I am still convincing myself it really happened. I'll give you a basic outline of the week and where we went. We began with the site of Delphi. It is here where the Pythian games were held as well as the site of the Oracle mentioned in most of Greek history. The views were absolutely amazing, but a task to hike up the steep mountains. I almost fell coming down, but luckily there was a huge boulder on the side of me, so my hand slapped down and caught me. It stung for a bit, but definitely better than falling completely on my butt! Anyways, we hit the first portion of the site and then the bottom half where the athletes would bathe, oil up and practice. During the break in between, we ate a picnic lunch on this awesome cliff [see below]. It was so surreal to be sitting there like it was no big deal at all, when in reality it was something so absolutely incredible. I need constant reminding that this is all real. That night we stayed in the small town of Delphi where the weather was a bit cold, but felt great.

site of Delphi.

stadium for the games.

temple of Apollo cont'd.

SUN.

reppin' cali all day.

location of lunch.

temple of Athen in delphi.

The next day we hopped into the bus and drove a few hours to Olympia where we were strongly disappointed because the site was closed. That day [wednesday] and the following day all of Greece was on a general strike. This included transportation and site workers. Yay for us! It was unfortunate we weren't able to go onto the site, but there was a road that gave a decent view. This is where I gave an on site presentation on cheating and other shennanigans that took place during athletic competitions. I was nervous because not only was it for a grade, but it was in front of a huge crowd of tourists/ people not usually in my class. It would've been in front of 10 people back in school, but this topic had to be given on site. After my initial shakey voice, I managed to get through it and a huge weight was lifted. After looking from a far, we met with a local woman to discuss efforts made by the community to clean a river near by. We walked through some bamboo, caught frogs and had the Greek national anthem sung to us by our group leader. #winning.

Olympia!

stadium for the first olympics. #nbd

jungle baby.

 Our next destination was Sparta. Ilove the movie 300, so naturally I was excited. Despite the movie not being 100% accurate [what movie is?], it was still cool going to Sparta. We even had a "this is Sparta!" moment on the edge of a cliff. I decided to rock my Bowdoin B that day and I think it was pretty fitting. The surrounding town is built on pretty much the ancient city, so it was interesting to think of being on Spartan soil.

views driving to sparta.

reppin' Bobo all day.

spartan-sized ladybug.

While in Sparta, we visited Mystra- a now monastery that is believed to be the ancient palace of Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon. This was by far my favorite site we went to during the whole trip. The buildings were amazing and the views the best from all week.

mystra in sparta.

views all around.

tunnels <3

church.

chillin' with elizabeth.

AFter our Mystra visit, we headed to Nafplion where we would be for 2 nights. This city was so awesome. Our professor told us it was almost the capital of Greece. Thank goodness it's not, otherwise it wouldn't be as beautiful. I can speak from experience with Athens.

oh, hello bug.

naplion.

this is what i love about greece.

mine one day?

i miss the ocean.

 From Nafplion, we went to Nemea. This is also a site of one of Panhellenic Games held during antiquity. The site was small, so we made our way through it quickly. The stadium was neat to walk on and some of my classmates reenacted the ways the athletes use to have foot races. It was also neat to see a Temple of Zeus. I love seeing the tall columns and imagining myself living back in those times. I like to think I would be a super awesome Greek.

nemea stadium.

aw yeah, covered this area.

temple of zeus in nemea.

been working out ;D

 Our last night we returned to Nafplion and went to the top of what use to be a fort for fighting. I'm blanking on the name at the moment, but it was insane to be at the top of the city. We walked down over 800 stairs to get back down. My knees were so shaking afterwards. A friend and I were comparing leg shakes. Ha, it was quite the experience though and I'm glad I did it.

fort on top of naplion.

see the sailboat?

herro.

views <3

I am absolutely in love with Greece and it was this past week that helped to confirm the fact that Greece was the right place to choose for my study abroad. 

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!

prof. explaining the swords found in graves.

mycenean cauldrons. 

death masks-full gold.

pillars to the entrance of cities.

greek style decoration (mild nudity ;D )