Wandering the City . . .

It's 7:30pm in Athens - and still so hot. Similar to many Latino cultures, the Athenians recognize a siesta in the middle of the day . . . most shops close open around 9am and close around 2pm - some open for a few hours again from 5pm - 8 ish-pm. Then, the streets come alive. People are out and about, strolling, eating, laughing in the city until 1 or 2 am. We have to be extra careful in our apartment to be quiet during the middle of the day, as most people come home from work to rest - escaping the heat of the day. It's not humid at all, but the heat is severe. Bodies packed into the breezeless metro (which feels like a sauna despite running underground) . . . standing in public squares with the sun beating down between slabs of concrete . . . walking down tight streets . . . I feel sticky and wish I hadn't decided to grow out my hair. I may chop it just for fun (and my personal sanity).

My days have been pretty full as my flat-mate Laurie and I learn to maneuveur our way around the winding streets (and crazy traffic) of down-town Athens (not without help from Nea-Zoi staff). Sheila was right - lots of walking here. I could get used to traveling exclusively by foot and metro - in fact, it's one of my favorite things about the city. From where I live, there are few things more than a 40 minute walk . . . and even fewer that are outside the reach of the metro that was redesigned for the Olympics a few years ago. Love it!!

As I think I mentioned earlier, our flat is only two blocks away from the Acropolis - the Pantheon - the Temple of Zeus - a whole mess of ruins and a new museum (that only costs 1 Euro - less than 2 dollars) with tons of history on it all! We actually haven't had much time at all to go exploring yet as we've been pretty busy with orientation, outreach, meetings, etc., but we're hoping to have some time this weekend. Gloriously, Emma (the director of Nea Zoi who is also from Seattle) is having a 4th of July party at her house this Saturday - so my heart is not quite as broken about missing my FAVORITE holiday. Still, I won't get to see the fireworks (so Alex, remember to buy extra so we can shoot them off on MLK, Jr. Day. Fireworks + rain = great Seattle advall enture.) We have explored a bit around our neighborhood, though - and walked around the Acropolis last night on this beautiful cobble-stone pedestrian street surrounded by all manner of musicians, mymes (is that how you spell that), and other entertainers . . . as well as fresh bread and fruit markets. It was quite the romantic image of Athens as commonly publicized in the US. But most of the city feels nothing like that . . .

The city is close-quartered and tight - almost everyone lives in apartment buildings stacked high and tight together, reaching to brave heights before the blazing sun. People are everywhere here - I've heard from a few sources that of the 6 million people living in Greece, 3 million live in Athens. This city feels BIG . . . and ironically reminds me more of Kathmandu than of Seattle, though really it's a world on its own far different than either. Street vendors everywhere - graffiti and garbage littering the cement (Strangely, the garbage truck visited our street at about 11pm last night. We thought there was a fire with the bright, spinning lights and unfamiliar beeping. We were relieved (and confused) to see him methodically lifting the huge trash bins and dumping them. No garbage cans - neighborhoods share large bins.) - I've heard Athens described as "a concrete jungle" by many people already. As in many cities throughout the world, I think there are just many sides to it . . . not all is glory and not all is poor.

A new government was recently elected, which has caused a bit of . . . unrest in the city. Because so much of Greece is surrounded by water, Athens draws in immigrants and refugees from countries all over - particularly various nations in North Africa as well as border countries like Albania. Most of them obviously don't have correct paperwork, but survive pretty well dishwashing at restaurants and doing other odd jobs - many of them live in camps along the coast. Lately, the new gov't has been doing sweeps through Athens to get rid of them - and is deporting them by shiploads. Obviously, there is controversy over this issue . . . and it's also definitely causing shifts in populations of immigrants and drug-users throughout the city (which also gives rise to other problems). There's so much more that I could write about that . . . but on to Nea Zoi . . .