Hike to Bremke

Hike to Bremke

Lab hike to Bremke, good meat at the local restaurant
German nature at its very best
(I will try to forget the number of the ''naked snails'' due to the previous day's rain)


Leaving at 8.30 (well, I joined at 8.34 and they were already gone!)


Lab looks tired and still at least 5Km to go!

15Augoustos (finally)

15Augoustos (finally)

First time in my life I'm spending 15Augoustos in miserable rain, cold (16 C) and the ERT Deutero Programma on my headset!! Ouf!
So, Xronia polla to all Maries, Despoines and Panagiotes. Live long, have fun.
Sas afierwnw to 'H varka mas n kourelou, n xiliompalwmeni'
An to 3eren n mana mou pws douleua stnv trata,
tha mou stelne ta rouxa mou kai tnv palia mou vraka
(giati me ta rouxa pou exw edw, THA PSOFISW...POU EINAI TA GANTAKIA MOU!!!


Some thoughts

We all know I'm a trouble-maker. It took the German teacher about 2 minutes to find out. The other day, we went to German class (my first ever) and after the teacher asks me if I speak any German and I answer no, she asks the typical stuff: name an country. Then,the conversation continues in German:
- How long have you been here?
- One month.
- How long are you going to stay here for ?
- One month.
At which point she probably thinks that I can only count up to one. And continues.
- So, in a month you will return back to Griechenland.
- Nein.
And we start again. ''How long have you been here? How much time will you stay? So, in a month you're going to Griechenland.'
The Romanian girl was cracking laughing! I see her and I decide to give an end to this by saying that I will return to the States! Oh, what a relief!!

During the class, the vocabulary was about the family. As the teacher was rambling about young people who are engaged and finally get married and what words we use (all in German) I started losing attention (I mean, I have ADHD after all!!) and when I wanted to start paying attention again, I was completely Lost. So, I did the most natural thing that every student would have done: I leaned over the notebook of the Indian guy sitting next to me - only to discover that he was writing the translations in Hindi! I wanted to laugh so badly! Of, course, it is very natural that he does so...but it didn't even cross my mind! So true, but so unexpected! Next time I'll sit next to the English guy.

Even though the languages we speak are hundreds, our world is small. The other Indian in the German class looked familiar. After the introductory (where do you live, where do you go to school) we desperately tried to find out how we know each other.
- You hang out with the Greeks.
- No
- I met you at the Bhaghra party
- No
...the guy had lectured a few times in a course I took, and now he's in Göttingen doing his post-doc!!! The world is small.

Foreign among Foreigners

As a German guy said, 'you speak Greek, English and French, you hang out with French, Canadians, Singaporeans, Americans, some Germans. You don't really know whether you are in Germany or not. It makes very little difference'. OK, partly true, but it makes. (the sun just came out) On Friday night, at 11.30, there were 10 people in the streets in the Zentrum. Come on! Anywhere in Greece it would be so much more lively!

The other day I was talking to my dad, who said something along the lines of me being a foreigner among foreigners in Germany. But, the problem as I see it is not that I'm a foreigner in Germany where I don't speak the language and where I've been now for sth more than a month. The problem is that I feel foreign in Greece where I've spent 18 years. After all, if I pick up the phone, there are so many more people I feel confident to speak to in Boston or NYC rather than Athens. Sad? Sad. True? I feel this way, so... Anyways.

Tonight we're going for Greek food. If I find another Pontiaki here, I will be happily surprised. If not, all is gut.
Kalos 15Augoustos!

15Augoustos

15Augoustos

I just found out that the Lower Saxony people do not have a holiday on the 15th. But, the Bavarian (hard-core catholic) ones do.
Moral of the story: Munich is the place to be!
Note : Image from the http://www.muenchen.de website showing BAVARIA!

ATHENS!

ATHENS!

''Athina, poln t'ouranou, n gns se kamarwnei''
Finally I have some real adventures: wild animals, accidents, heat and messed up plans. But tons of fun, as always.

I arrived in Athens airport around 1am on Thursday night, which means arriving home at 2am, since the new airport is literally in the middle of nowhere. It was such a relief to arrive in Athens, since the temperatures in Göttingen had fallen to winter scale. A few people came to the lab with coats(!) and I couldn't stop sneazing, so the 39C of Athens' heat was a gift.
Semeli forgot the plans for swimming, being a tourist's idol (she went to Koufonisia, then Luxemburg, then Paris, Athens and was leaving for Crete the same night) so I found myself sleeping until lunchtime. When I finally met her, she gave me the next two books of the trilogy 'Akuvernites Politeies' by Tsirkas, so now Maria I can have a complete view. I just started 'Ariagni' and it makes much more sense than the firts chapters of 'Lesxi'. Let's see. Semeli said she never finished them, as they were quite confusing and unexciting.
Saturday's plans were to go to Aegina with Nikolas and Roselita. After a lot of SMSes and my excitement soaring since I haven't been to Aegina for years and I really like that island, I woke up early and prepared, only to find out that we're not going...pfff...Chaotic conversations and some French guys arriving in Athens cancelled our plans and those waiting for us in Aegina...oops...sorry.
So, I crossed Athens, which I haven't done for five years now, I saw the Calatrava design at the Olympic Stadium, which I should have done in 2004, and finally with Nikolas, Roselita and Konstantis we went to Sxoinias for a swim. That was fun!
After my plans of getting the windsurf of some dude that clearly had trouble staying afloat fell flat, calamari, octapus and tzatziki along with a white parrot sitting at the next table made my day. The parrot seemed very carefree, eating a marida for half an hour, and a fried potato for another hour. Very elegant animal. Holding the marida, eating in peace, scaring the the guys selling stuff in the beach and attracting all sights, esp. when the owner tied a napkin around its neck!
Sunday's plans for Aegina were cancelled once more, and trying to avoid the oil spill in Vouliagmeni, we went swimming in Voula. Oo, what a mistake, mama! Around 19.30, as I was swimming quite further in than most people, something (probably a jellyfish) stung me! There were so many people there, how come it came to me? I got stung twice, and I covered the 100 meters in 10 sec to find myself in ridiculous pain in the beach. Water, gel, car, home. Pain. I was cool, complaining about the pain, until I actually saw the bit. It was this huge red line from behind my knee all the way to my butt! And it was big and swollen. I didn't like that at all. A trip to the pharmacy and to the patisserie made me feel much better, although I still couldn't sit, and in the airplane back to Germany at 6am I had to sit on the edge of the seat...what a pain.
Moral of the story: avoid beaches with sand. Rocks, rocks,rocks. After all, that's why I go to Vouliagmeni. I can't believe an oil spill took place there the 3 days of the year that I decide to go swim there and travel from Germany just for that!!

Now I'm back in Göttingen, and it's cold...let's see what I'm going to do this weekend...I'm thinking Munich or Nuremberg...any suggestions? No, I'm not trying to cover the Third Reich Germany, come on!!