First Weekend

FRIDAY & SATURDAY-
I wake up around what I guess to be 8:30 or so. For the last couple days I haven't known what time it was ever because I didn't have a watch. So I pass through the my door into the lobby/reception area and get a coffee out of the vending machine. An impressive apparatus whose contents include but are not limited to coffee, beer, and soda. I take a walk around town and finally buy a watch.
I cook myself lunch for the first time in a few days, and finish in time for a meeting. The teachers (Barry, Sarah, George, Ben, and Mosha) tell us about their classes and we ask questions. REALLY EXCITING STUFF! This program is the most amazing thing I've ever heard of. I enroll in Painting, Interrelated Media, Literature, Art Theory, and Philosophy. The philosophy course will be a lot different than what I'm used to from St. John's. Instead of only caring what dead white guys think we're actually going to think about what we think! Not what we think that some guy thinks.
Allison, Molly, Libby, Phil, and I go to Karen's for a wine. I go to refill my cup and Phil's and I meet Karen. Karen is a Character. She is probably 60ish, and has a smoked out raspy but soft voice in a thick Scottish accent. She makes me take a shot of something Greek without making a face. When I don't make a face the guy next to me screams, "This guy's fucking Keanu Reaves!" She offers another free one on the house, but I tell her to save it for another time. I go back to the table to join the group again. But soon enough Karen calls me back to the bar to play her in a drinking game called "Mexican". She kicks my butt. Then Allison has to play.
Eventually we head out, but not to go to sleep. We watch some skate videos and then go for a late night swim at the beach right by our apartments. Out of a manifested fear of Jaws and sea urchins in the dark, we get out of the water. We get back and stand around in the lobby not ready for sleep, but not knowing what to do next. And then Madeline who has just woken up from a solid 8pm to 5am (yes, 5am at this point) comes out of her room and invites us in to share her wine. Ty, who thought he was the only one awake comes across us and joins us on the balcony to drink some wine and listen to the roosters kokadoodling from the hills in the distance. The sun comes up and eventually it's late enough for places to be open and we decide to get coffee instead of more booze. Then we jump a bus for 2 euros to the opposite side of the island to Pounda Beach. A beautiful beach and a beautiful day with beautiful people. We get back and cook a lovely dinner.
I take a two hour nap (the only slept I've gotten since Thursday) and Madeline and Allison come to wake me up because there's a party all of us students are supposed to go to, but it seems hopeless. There's no way I can get up and go to a party. BUT, I do with the help of Red Bull and Cross Examination jammin' on my iPod.
We mass exodus to the party at Dubliner's a pub owned buy the same guy from NV. He hooks up the HISA kiddos with a free shot and a free cocktail, but when it comes time to buy drinks a bunch of us decide to leave because there's no way we'll pay 8 euros for a cocktail. We walk to Karen's where we know there's cheaper drinks. The owner gets a little heart broken when we leave and says that he would tell the bartender to only charge us 5. So we say we'll be back. At Karen's we are all having a good time and I step into a conversation with Mosha, the photography and historical sites teacher, and Amanda who are having casual conversation. All conversation up to this point has all been a casual "get-to-know-ya" type, but then because of the drinks probably I drop Mosha a serious question and finally get everyone to talk seriously about art. It stimulates more people to talk and then I get caught up in a nice philosophical talk with Allison. Then I talk with a homeless Parian about his life. Then the bar gets a noise complaint and has to close. Amanda is trying to get a job at Dubliner's, so she drags us all back there.
The owner is happy to see we're back and offers us all a glass of champaign. Then I get into a deep and long conversation with him. It's fun to talk about the Ancient Greeks and their ideas with someone who is actually Greek for a change. We talk until what's probably 5 in the morning. I would probably have stayed longer but the only other two HISA students that were there still were really drunk and needed me to walk them back. I hear the Roosters when I fall asleep. Finally, sleep...

SUNDAY-
I need to wake up without an alarm clock for our group excursion around the island. Luckily I don't sleep forever and hear people in the lobby outside my room look out my bathroom window and see that they are all ready to go. So I quickly grab a banana, chug some coffee and hop on the bus. We tour a couple of towns and hit up a beach. I remember Parikia, but Lefkes was especially fun to wander and see the the restaurants and shops that I visited before with my family and be like, "Hey, I've been there before!". We get back and I write this.