relaxing weekend

Well everyone all is great in Greece. The last time I updated I was feeling pretty sick. Lucky the next day I woke up feeling almost completely better. The wonders of modern medicine I guess. So Friday morning I took a taxi to the other side of the island to meet up with the group. It was probably the prettiest drive I have ever taken in my life. I could see the Aegean sea the whole time on one side and on the other green. Everything was so lush and green and just pretty. Also everything is very hilly. The whole time it was up and down mountains. There were a few times I feared for my life because people are pretty crazy drivers here. We also drove through very cute and very small greek villages that I would have loved to stop at but maybe another time. Upon arriving it at the hotel in Molyvos it started to down pour. On the bright side the hotel was beautiful! It was on high ground over looking the sea with a nice pool and everything hear seems to be marble… on the island I mean. After the rain ended a few of us headed into town. Molyvos is the most touristy town on Lesbos. Its no wonder why. The town is very well….what you would see a small greek village like in the movies. All kinds of little shops and cafes and a beautiful view. Oh there is also a castle here which I checked out the next day of course. On Saturday it also rained so we went into town again and did a little shopping. I loved the jewelry stores and of course bought a nice evil eye bracelet. So that evening it got pretty nice out and good thing because we had a wedding to go to! Now this is quite the story so stay with me….
In greece it is very accepted for strangers to attend wedding ceremonies. It is actually a very nice thing to do I think. So Sophia (our leader) heard about a big wedding that was happening down the road from the hotel and thought we should go. Well the only requirement was we had to wear all white (for this wedding not all greek weddings) so we all get dressed in white and head to the wedding that was on the beach. Everything was going great we were talking to the guests waiting for everything to get started. Well this wedding was a little different than we thought…. It was between two gay men (which we already knew) and they were both pretty well know (ones a fashion guy and the other owns spas all over the world) also one was german and the other armanian. To makes things even better than are in a kind of cult on the island. Is a yoga group and they all live together… kinda strange. And to top off the weirdness they were have a native American ceremony….yep kinda crazy!! So long story short we went to the ceremony and then got kicked out because of the whole cult sacred ceremony thing….hahaha it was too funny!!
We all got back from molyvos on Sunday and just relaxed and got ready for a full week of classes. That’s what has been going on Monday and today. Just class and nice weather. There is another study abroad from msu here for a few days just stopping by on there way around Greece so that’s interesting. We also have acquired a dog friend that we named peanut and follows us everywhere. She is so cute! There are stray dogs everywhere on the island and if you feed one it kinda stays with you…. This time it wasn’t me who feed it lol.
So something interesting about Greece that we learned is the really don’t celebrate birthdays the celebrate name days. Yes its just what it sounds like. Everybody with the same names celebrates on a certain day. This is because its to individual to celebrate your birthday. With a name day its more collective. It was Kostas (our peer leader who is from here) name day on Saturday so we celebrated that and he loved it. I just looked mine up (my name in greek is Pavlina) and its June 29… so ill guess I’ll be having a party when I get back lol!
i wont be able to update for a while because tomorrow we sail away to athens and then onto our week off in santorini where i hope to go cliff jumping and see a volcano... and hopefully spend on a lot of time on the beach. i tried downloading some pictures but i just wouldnt do it. sorry. maybe next time. i do have some on facebook though....