Sept. 7

Photo: Hot springs at Thermopolis

Day 11 September 7

We got to Volos today!! Finally! I am so ready to be here! We stopped at Thermopolis on the way here. Not much there. Apparently it’s right by some hot springs [hence ‘therm-opolis’ meaning ‘hot gates’]. Volos is a town of about 150,000 people. It is the third biggest city in Greece. Athens is the biggest with four million. Most people live in small villages. Volos is the place where the Argonauts launched from, but other than that there is not too much reason for tourists to come here. That is why we’re here. We like the tourist areas, but we want to learn about the real Greece. I am living in the “Anargyron” apartment so called because that is the street the apartment is on. We are only a couple of blocks from a grocery store, thankfully, and only about a ten or fifteen minute walk from our school building. We are also close to “Ermou” street which is the pedestrian shopping district and to the port. We can catch a bus and be to a really nice beach in a short amount of time. We met our Greek teacher, Yannis, and the administrator of the Center, Becci. Becci is an American. She lived in Florida and got her Masters degree in Art Therapy and came to Greece to take some art classes after she graduated. She fell in love and moved here. She’s been here two years and still hasn’t gotten used to the erratic driving of the Greeks. We finally got our stipend money [Whoo!]. After lugging our things into the apartment, all of us went out for lunch. Our science teacher couldn’t be there, but his T.A. Maria was. She is going to teach one or two of our sections because the main teacher will be at a convention. We went to lunch at a Tsipouradika restaurant that was right on the sea. In these kinds of restaurants all you have to order are these little bottles of alcohol and the waiters bring food to go along with it. They bring whatever they have in the kitchen, so it’s a bit of a luck of the draw situation. We got some really good food and a couple of things that I just couldn’t eat. The only thing we really had to order was liquor, some French fries, and a mushroom dish for the vegetarian in the group. I caught a glance of the bill as Prof paid. For the thirteen of us to eat a really good meal with two drinks each it was less than 80 Euro. Then the adults left us to our own devices. We took a look at one of the other apartments then walked back to our own. We walked down “Ermou” street. That’s going to be a fun place to shop. I’m turning in early tonight. I’m pretty tired.