The Ups and Downs of Greece

We are back in Kazakhstan. Back to our good ol' former Soviet Union country. No Starbucks, no Pizza Hut, no McDonalds. Guess what it did today -- it snowed. Not just a little fluff, a serious snow. And I was just enjoying the lovely spring weather in Greece. Quite depressing, I must say.

Pictures are taking forever to post, so I thought I'd at least write a little about our vacation/school trip. The dreaded 10-hour layover in Amsterdam wasn't that bad. We did go out into the city with the students. We even managed to steer them clear of the Red-Light District and the coffee shops. It was cold and rainy, so Sophia and I headed straight back to the airport. Sophia wasn't that bad actually on the flights over.

Our first impression of Greece was not a good one. The students only had a couple of days to sightsee due to their 3-day conference, but unfortunately, it rained the first whole day we were there. Sophia and I hung out in the hotel room, and Joe and the students saw the Acropolis while being hammered by rain. They came back looking very gloomy and not very impressed with Athens. The next day we were going to take a cruise to three Greek islands. We got down to the lobby and one student informed us he didn't want to go; he didn't have the money. Sigh, that meant that Joe had to stay back at the hotel with him. I took Sophia and roughed it through a day of rocking sea-sickness to see the nearby islands. I'm really glad I did because it was sunny and the islands are clean and picturesque. It was nice just to stroll along, enjoying the shops and the white houses against the backdrop of the vivid blue Mediterranean. I could tell the students had a better impression of Greece after this, and they were ever so sweet about having a baby tag along.

The next day, the conference started, so I strapped Sophia into the baby carrier. She is at the very limits of its use, but there was no way I could stroller her around the ruins. I must have looked pretty funny with a baby almost half my length strapped to my chest. We saw the Acropolis in the sunny spring weather. It wasn't as awe-inspiring as it should have been, but maybe Egypt's sites have ruined me. There was a lot of scaffolding since they are doing repairs. I really enjoyed just strolling around the section called "Ancient Agora." It is the foundations of the old central meeting place/city center where Sophocles and St. Paul would speak. The best part was the quiet and the wildflowers. The birds were chirping and I was soaking up some sun.

The next day, Joe cut out for an hour or two to tool around the flea market and have a Greek meal on the pedestrian walkway near the ruins with me. A good meal -- I do like Greek salad and the olives are oh, so yummy. However, we bought Sophia a balloon to distract her from her crankiness and I forgot to strap her into her stroller as I was setting her in it and tying the balloon. Yep, she fell over, right on her face, to my own horror and the horror of the other people at the cafe. I've never felt worse. I think I'll feel guilty forever. When she gets teased that her parents dropped her on her head, it will now be true.

The final day, when the students were free again, there was a downpour, so we went to a mall. Good European shopping, but a bit expensive. The Euro slips out of our fingers so quickly. The students loved it, though.

All in all, I got lots of rest in the big, luxurious soft hotel bed, and they donned a suits and dress clothes for the conference. I got all the sun, and they got all the rain. I got to see the sites at their best, and they got to get drenched. So, I liked Greece, and Joe says, eh, it was okay.

Actually it reminded us a lot of Eygpt. The buildings and sidewalks looked very similar. The city looks very crowded with apartment buildings, but the traffic was organized and it's much cleaner. I think they did a lot of work for the 2004 Olympics. I can imagine it being very different at one time.

The flight back was a disaster. The three hours to Amsterdam was fine, but on the overnight to Almaty, Sophia refused to sleep. We came back with maybe a half-hour of sleep. We slept for about 45 minutes and went to work. What saints. Everyone kept asking why we came to school. Good question. We were zombies all day and still are. Hopefully tonight we'll get caught up.

Sophia had a good time, I think. Everyone was oohing and aahing over her. I think they really like babies there. She loved the students, and she got good practice at waving bye-bye. She was even waving at the sleeping plane passengers to my annoyance. I had to point out that they were sleeping, why not her? In the last week, she's really grown. She's much more aware and interactive. She even pulled up for the first time tonight. We are in trouble now.

Pictures will be coming soon, especially after this long blog. Hopefully, after I bring myself to do taxes this weekend, I will get them posted.