A new semester is upon us, with our flight from Boston to Athens behind us now the adventures and need to quickly think on our feet has already put to the test. The stop over in London kept us on our toes with a a slight mixup that found two and myself scrambling to get their suitcases that were accidentally not checked all the way through to Athens. Turns out the person who entered their information at the Boston counter thought they were just going to London. I have to give some thanks to one of the London customs assistance who was empathetic after I told him about our situation and recognized our risk of missing a flight and quickly bumped us to the front of a line that would have otherwise taken 30-40 minutes to get through. Another helpful person we encountered in London was the women at British Airways luggage check in. She too was considerate of our situation and though she would have had to charge one of the students again for luggage that was too heavy, she instead urged us to move items from the luggage into other bags in order to get the weight down effectively avoiding an extra charge.
Arriving in Athens was glorious, the students though tired seemed to have a shot of energy as the idea of living in Athens suddenly became real life. The cab ride from the airport to the apartment was fast a filled with sights of motor bikes dodging in and out of the traffic, squeezing between cars. Though they seem almost invincible we did see the results of the risk taken on a motor bike as we passed by a recent accident scene where a girl on a moped had been hit by a car. She was laid out on the ground and seemed to be moving as she received attention from others at the scene.
Walking into the apartment everyone moved from one room to the next in our four bedroom two bathroom apartment, the moment of awe came when we walked through the french doors out to our balcony and took in the view of central down town Athens and the terra-cotta roof tiles on the building adjacent to us. Ideas of how to best use the balcony were excitedly brought up by everyone. The one idea that seemed most appealing was to place a table on the balcony so we can enjoy breakfast outside when the temperature warms up.
After taking a much needed nap, the five (soon to be six) of us who live in the Sina street apartment walked over to the Zoodochou Pigis apartment so we could meet up for dinner at a near by Greek restaurant. We ordered a bunch of small appetizers and a few of the main dishes and shared everything on the table. All of the food was delicious, the one dish that got the most attention and questions asked about was the Saganaki (fried kasseri cheese) appetizer. The cheese was salty and had a sharp cheese flavor. I personally squeezed some of the lemon juice onto the cheese and found it citrus taste paired with the cheese to be very good. Other dishes we had included Tzatziki (another favorite on the table), Pork and Chicken Souvlaki, Fried Zucchini, "Greek Meatballs" (Kaftethes), Sausage (like Kielbasa), and Fava Bean spread. Needless to say not one person went home hungary, and we even had a little left over to get a second taste latter.
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