καλημέρα. It is 7am and I am reflecting upon what happened yesterday.
YESTERDAY WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!
We had the day all to ourselves until our class movie at 4:30. A big group of us met up at 10:15 and made our way to the Athens Flea Market. Our Flea Market adventure started with mepurchasing 2 hats that I've always wanted in the States but found here home made. Things started to heat up when I tried to barter for a pair of knitted mittens I wanted.
I believe it is my responsibility to educate my fellow Americans on international relations. Well here is a teachable moment.
The above gesture is an extremely rude gesture in Greece, and is similar to flipping someone off. This is inadvertantly how I STARTED MY BARTERING. I threw this little number up when I tried to cut the price of my gloves in half (which I guess kind of WAS the message that would've been getting across). The look that I received from the lady almost scared me out of her underground kiosk. I bartered hard for a price cut from 10 euros to 8, but after numerous headshakes I felt defeated and handed over the bill. To my surprise however, she ran back with 2 euros change!!!
SUCCESS.
With my newfound confidence I went and purchased a nice gift for my mother (I cannot say because she will be reading this) where I also did not pay full price.
It was also during this journey down the extremely crowded flea market that I made an old Greek man with a cigarette erupt in laughter after I, in animated fashion, imitated how difficult it would be for someone with an umbrella to walk through the flea market as they would have to constantly shout "Excuse me", or in Greek, "Seeg-no-me."
After making him laugh like that I felt like a real Greek. After a short lunch break, I found some
more gifts and was elated when I found a shop that sold Greek flags. After this I was called "THE BEST TOUR GUIDE" by a Greek shop owner. By 12:30 my shopping day was over and I had already had the best day ever.
After the Flea Market we walked farther down the road. This is where we encountered ACTUAL Greek culture.
People would put their entire life belongings up for sale in what turned out to be a HUGE garage sale. Here if you didn't speak Greek, you were out of luck. It was just beyond here that we found an authentic Greek farmers market. Being a part of the authentic Greek culture was something amazing that I'll never forget.
We ended the night with a wonderful dinner with Prof. Finitsis. We ate rabit, cheese filled meatballs, honey glazed beef, and other delicious treats, including this amazing desert.
We finished the evening with shots of a special drink called Tanduri, which smells like Fireball Whiskey but is much sweeter and does not have the burning sensation in your throat afterwards. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful day.
TA-TA-FOR-NOW!
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