a few days....

this is of a cross from the old village we visited. the tiny cross in the middle is from the 800's!!!
so again the weather here is wonderful....but it is getting hotter every day. its going to be smokin by the time we leave...and there is almost no AC here....lots of deodorant i guess lol. wednesday was the first day of classes. i am taking sociology of the family and an ISS class which stands for integrated social science and is required by the university. we have to walk along the beach to get to our school building...... which is super small but cute...and hot! in between class i went to the market in town... its kinda like a walmart...but not at all lol. they sell cheese by the ton i swear. and u have to pay a euro for a cart and they make you pay for bags!! also they dont have near as much crap as we do but greeks are very loud and move very quickly and are kinda rude.... at least in the grocery store. but i bought some greek pop and other little things i forgot like notebooks....
so after classes got done we had a class to try and teach us a little greek...which i can not remember to save my life. i dont think i will ever b able to learn another language. then we had dinner at a cute little restaurant that has gyros. the were 2.40 which is soo cheap. im not sure what meat was in mine but it was really good. it took us longer to order than to get our food because there was a little um language issue hahaha. anyways apparently we dont eat gyros right in america. they put french fries and mustard and ketchup on them along with everthing we usually have. it was really good though! the rest of the night we finally got to relax.

yesterday was probably one of the best days so far! we got up super early but it was worth it. i had a nice relaxing breakfast of all sorts of crazy food on the beach. we then loaded the bus to head for an old mill. we learned how the make olive oil with the old presses and how virgin olive oil is a lie! they also had a flour mill from the 1800s that is still in use. we then learned how to make greek food and we made sooooooo much! things like baklava (the dessert) and grilled feta, stuffed peppers, that white sauce, and a ton of other things i have no idea what they are called. while our food was cooking we we went to a small village in the mountains. it has been around since the 1100's! we got to visit the really old church and see some museums with some really old stuff related to the church. we also had real turkish coffee that they make on hot sand....it tastes nothing like coffee but was really good. we got to go around the town a little. everywhere on the island there are beautiful flowers. roses everywhere that are bigger than any i have ever seen! the village had really pretty gardens. i learned they have their own dialect and music and art style and the pass it down to the children through a school class they take. its pretty interesting. the town was also known for its wood furniture which it makes out of cyprus trees! people come form all over the world to get it. after town we ate are feast and then had dance lessons in traditional greek/turkish dances. they were super easy and really funny! so as i said before it is hot here! they told us today that this is how it usually is at the end of june so it wont get much hotter luckily. well by the end of the day we were pretty hot and dirty so we ended the day with a visit to the thermal bath. this is what the town (thermi) that we stay in is known for. rich people have been coming here from athens and rome for thousands of years. they are supposed to have healing powers. i guess they really are good for you though....i think there is sulfer and other stuff in the water. traditionally people go in naked. well us being prude americans we were not okay with this! there was a girls and guy side and it was like a big underground swimming pool....a little cooler than a hot tub. well at the last minute a few of us said hey we will go naked....we have to get the whole greek experience lol. so we did...and then everyone else decided to also. so there were 19 naked girls in a hot tub.......then sofia (the leader of the group) came in and made us get together to take a picture.....talk about awkward!! hahaha tooo funny! so after a long day we all relaxed for a while then headed into town at about 11 to have dinner and then went out dancing....except no one really dances here. its kinda weird. but we all danced!! and man am i sore today.......

today was an early morning following a late late night! we headed on the bus for a nice long ride through the island to a very wealthy new town with a few (boring) art museums. i mean im all for museums but not so into the art..... we then went to make our own pottery. i quickly discovered that this is not my calling. we used a wheel and my "pot" did not turn out to be a pot....not even close. after that we had a real gyros again at a little restaurant and i learned that in greece the usually have pork or chicken not lamb. middle eastern countries are the ones with lamb. no we are all back at the hotel. i took the paddle boat out for a bit. its really cool because the water is so clear that you can see everything! well the bugs are eating us all alive and its starting to get a little chilly....