Tuesday, September 29, 2009

What did I do today?

I woke up, stuffed my mouth with breakfast, went back to bed, had a dream about a tree falling and almost hitting me, woke up again, showered, walked to school, went to my first meeting of a Greek music class with all my study abroad friends here, took a break from the class and had a slice of spinach cheese pie which is my favorite food here so far, went back to my class, finished class, finally finished writing this new rough musical theater story that needs a lot of work but is fun anyway to write, saw croissant girl who was sick and realized the older woman who works with her is her mom, realized croissant girl is most probably out of the picture because I truly don't believe she is interested, did not get my 5-song EP tracks back yet but will most likely get them tomorrow, took the train and walked to Philopappos hill to see a Greek dance thing but all that was there was an empty stadium and a dog lying down on stage near vacant wooden chairs, we walked and took the train back, I called Tim Mulcahey and Luke Holloway by dialing their number on Skype like I did yesterday with mom and dad, Tim picked up and I introduced myself as Scone, Luke did not pick up and I left him a message telling him he better have his pants on, I watched half of "He's Just Not That Into You" which made me laugh a lot, I talked to Amy Johnston on Skype through video chat, and now I'm sitting here way past my bedtime and hungry as any of the thousands of poor stray dogs wondering the streets in Greece. I also had a damn good Powerade today.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Updated Greek Song

To those who would like to listen, my Greek song which you can find at youtube.com/sblackall (Omorfia Mou) is now translated into English!

Now that I'm writing, I might as well say some extra things about my day. Hmmm, let's see. I had another chocolate croissant (they never get old), I was told that I speak Greek well by the other older croissant lady (but she doesn't know ANY English so I'm not sure if that's exactly what she said haha), the fish I was supposed to eat for dinner at the hotel went nearly untouched because it was so disgusting, and lastly I got a free water today. How? The Momus store that I eat at doesn't take credit card but that's all I had at the moment but the girl behind the counter who always smiles at me (could be just how she is) just told me to take it. It made me happy.

Off Track

I can't keep getting off track, where I write about the day before and then put off writing about today until tomorrow. But here goes. I have to tell you what I did yesterday besides writing my blog about the day before.

On Sunday, I woke up at 1:00 after the night of clubbing. I actually didn't have much to drink at the club so I felt fine. I just wanted to get out and be creative so I walked my 40 minute trek to the school with the mission of getting a practice room and writing music. I drank a lot of water to prevent myself from becoming overly thirsty due to the afternoon sun. Being overly cautious, I stopped and got a HUGE bottle of water outside my hotel. I realized I had to pee once I had left but I figured once I got to the school I could do it. The feeling of having to pee increased intensity exponentially. By the time I walked by the Panepistimio metro stop, which is the one I come out of when I take the train, I was bursting at the seems. All I could think of was unzipping my pants. I was dreadfully afraid when to my surprise, the store, "Momus" that is across from the street from the school was closed, as well as the chocolate croissant girl's shop. "This couldn't mean the school is closed. No it COULD NOT mean that," I uttered to myself, speeding up now while fearfully expected to be disappointed. Sure enough the door to the school simply hiccuped when I pulled it and returned to its closed state. I started the pee dance and also probably yelled "Fuck." I walked back the way I came and noticed that every store was closed. I even asked directions multiple times at places that were open, without bathrooms of course, and no one spoke English. I had to rely on my eyes to interpret where they were pointing but that didn't do much good. I was sent to this area near a park by two different people, finding absolutely nowhere to pee. I didn't walk that far but I knew I would not survive if I tried. I kept saying to myself, "I'm going to pee my pants. I know it. If I don't find it soon." I remembered this story my science teacher told my class in 8th grade about a scientist named Tycho Brahe who died of a bladder infection. Even though I know Wikipedia is not considered a great source aside from its usefulness when it comes to references, here is a quote about Tycho and how he is thought to have died:

Tycho died on 24 October 1601 in Prague, eleven days after suddenly becoming very ill during a banquet. Toward the end of his illness he is said to have told Kepler, "Ne frustra vixisse videar!", "Let me not seem to have lived in vain." For hundreds of years, the general belief was that he had strained his bladder. It has been said that to leave the banquet before it concluded would be the height of bad manners, and so he remained, and that his bladder, stretched to its limit, developed an infection which later killed him. This theory was supported by Kepler's first-hand account. (Wikipedia)

When my teacher told me that, I about died from a mental infection. This image has haunted me ever since and yesterday it was no longer the elephant in the back of the room with all the other zoo animals. It was sitting on my face. Or on my groin for that matter.

I decided that I had to improvise. Noticing that the park was surrounded by hedges and ignoring the fact that it was in between two busy streets, I snuck inside. Note that standing anywhere in this park could not completely mask me from anyone outside of it. I knelt down on the grass and realized I had anticipated a more hidden situation. My head was peaking out above the hedges so anyone looking my way would suspect some strange events were unfolding. In order to dilute the strangeness of my position, I pulled out my Memoirs of an Invisible Man book (ironically wishing I were invisible at the moment) and pretended to read it. This, I realized, only made me look weirder. Why would a boy be reading his book at the corner of a rectangular park, pressed up against some hedges. Improvising some more, I held my book in my other hand and took my phone out, saying a couple unrelated words into it like, "Yeah, just bring it over" or something. I don't remember what I said. Realizing this made things even worse, I went back to reading. At this point I was at really paranoid that someone, especially a cop, might pop up and deport me back to the U.S. so I decided to cut off my pee stream once I felt comfortable again. I had to deal with the fact that I would still have to pee a little bit and had to face the expected sting when you cut off too early.

Success! I walked out of the park and sat on a bench with a smile on my face. Now I had to come to terms with the fact that I had nothing to do now that I was by the school. Nothing was open because it was Sunday. I walked all the way back and the pee feeling quickly came back to me. At one point, I walked by an opening in a gate that said, "Cafe ->" so I followed the sign through the gate and peed in the cafe bathroom. Ahhhh the first real bathroom since I left my hotel room. That felt good. Before leaving the gated area, I stopped by this awkwardly organized and clean museum with loads of some kind of religious buttons or coins. I was clueless so I walked out after no more than a minute. Further along my trek home, I bought a soda and then noticed a war jet parked across the street. That was strange. Mostly that I hadn't seen it any of the other times I had walked to school. It was this fascinating war museum with helicopters, different kinds of jets and the shell of a napalm bomb. I touched it. My hand made contact with something that "touched" thousands of people's lives in such a terrible way. It was a weird, awful feeling.

Guess what? I had to pee again. I found this square and walked in because I saw signs for bathroom. Yup, this day was all about my bladder. I was aware of this funny fact. The outside bathroom was of course out of order. However, I for some reason was extremely enthused with the pigeons that were scattered around the square. I ran up to one and yelled, "Jordon! Jewels! What's up? Are you ok? You left me so suddenly back there," I had in mind that her name was Jewels but she liked the sound of Jordon. The pigeon was high tailing it away from me, keeping an eye on me. "Do you still love me Jewels? Come on, I know I was stupid but just talk to me a little. Give me a god damn chance. I'm sorry, I don't mean to yell at you." At this point, the pigeon leaped off the staircase we were on and landed on the grass the lined the edge of a park. I jumped up and yelled, "Jewels, come on!" God, wowww this bird was FREAKED out. It just KEPT going away. In her mind, any minute I was going to eat her. Then I stalked three or four different birds, doing the same thing. I called another bird Gary and talked to him about girl problems and how I wondered if I could crash at his place. He obviously ran the hell away from me too and flapped his aggravated wings. I was getting a huge kick out of this. Don't worry, I made sure no one was watching me and I was obviously aware how weird it was.

Later, I watched "Scent of Woman", a must-see, and then finished watching "17 Again", which was a lot better than I thought it would be after watching the beginning.

TODAY,
I went to school, had my Greek language class and then my piano lesson and went to see the croissant girl. Nothing to add here. She was on the go both times. She asked me how I was. I asked her if she was feeling better. That's it. I worked on original musical theater ideas today in a piano practice room, went and got a beer at Momus while working more on musical ideas and then went to the post office to send Luke Holloway our winning Chipotle gift cards for our Vebby movie. I also met some terrible people working at the post office that were mean to me. Haha, they were just annoying. After that I went to my History of Music History II class. We talked about Italian and French opera. I took the train home and then had a discussion with myself about how I couldn't ever really get outside myself. No matter what you do, you will always be yourself. In my case, I was thinking that I wanted to be relaxed at the hotel dinner with the group, not worried about being late for it. I didn't want to analyze the dinner. I wanted to NOT think about what people thought of me or think that I had to keep the conversation going. I didn't want to analyze the situation and just sit back, say things when I wanted to and to avoid thinking that when someone was quiet at dinner it was because of me somehow. Ironically, I realized that I was analyzing the situation right at that moment and had a brief thought stroke because the fact that I realized I was analyzing the situation was also like me to do because I like to always be aware of myself and what I'm doing. So it was a case and point situation. Backtracking a little, I also felt like people usually see me as a random guy, saying spontaneous things. But even if one day I were boring and didn't say one word, that would still be like me because related to my usual actions, that act would appear as a spontaneous one. BLAGH, mind bend.

So I got to dinner and they told me I was like 40 minutes late plus however late I thought I was. It wasn't my fault. I was told dinner was at 7:30 and arrived about 10 minutes late. In reality, dinner ended up starting at 7:00.

I think this is the longest blog I've written. And I don't know why. Going to the island was a much more eventful and "important" time and I didn't write shit for that. Haha.

Stoddy.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Club Sandwich

Yesterday, Michael and I woke up at 1:00pm and called Courtney. The three of us went to Syntagma square where there was this place called "Golden Chopsticks". Courtney and I shared Gyoza. Mmmmm sooo good. I also had this Thai dish with Chicken, Beef and Pork. It was spicy and amazing. Then we all went to an electronic store called Public. I bought the movie, "Scent of a Woman". I've already watched some of it today. It's VERY good. Pacino is spec (spectacular). Courtney and I bought a late birthday present (a poster) for Michael. I paid for half of it by letting Courtney buy it for Michael and then buying a coffee for Courtney that was exactly half the price of the poster. I announced how awesome it was that with one purchase, I did a separate nice thing for two people at once. After Public, we went to this 7 story bookstore which was cool. There weren't many books in English but it was still fun.

Mia, Zoe, Cody, Ricky and his two sisters, Michael and I went out last night at around 11:30pm We hung out in this really small club for about three hours, dancing more and more as the night went on. I kept saying how I thought that I was in a subway car club because it was so jam packed. It was a club sandwich. So many times this waitress had to say "Sorry!" which every time sounded like she was yelling "Stoddy!" and squish through the croud. I was CRAAAAZY last night, dancing my ass off with my friends. I made friends with some Greek guys and eventually went over to this girl at the end of the room. Cody told me I had to go hit on a girl. I was like, "NO, I don't just hit on random people," but I still went and tried to dance with some. I found this Spanish girl who was cute and started dancing alongside her and her friend she was shimmying with. They were laughing as I was dancing but not looking at me but it was scary cause I knew that they were laughing at me. Finally, the Spanish girl grabbed by hands and let me dance with her. I did my crazy dancing and they were laughing. Then this weird ugly, older girl kept tapping me and bumping her ass against me cause I guess she wanted me. I humored her for a while and danced with her. She turned around and wanted me to grind against her so I did that a little but not that strongly. I turned back to the cute Spanish girl and continued dancing. We talked and that's when I found out she was Spanish. I said I was from Minnesota and we danced a little more. I told her I was going to take a trip to Spain (I'll explain this a little later in this blog) and she said that was cool but didn't seem too enthusiastic. I was afraid she was thinking I was trying to somehow make it so I could meet up with her there when I visited Spain. I'm sure that's not what she was thinking but I'm always thinking of excuses for girls not to like me. Suddenly, she asked me if I was here with friends. I told her I was and the ugly girl bumped me again. I humored her again with another short dance but quickly turned back to the Spanish girl. She leaned over to me and asked me if I could go back to my group. I wasn't sure if I heard her right so I asked her what she said. She repeated, "Are you going back to/with your friends?" I assumed this meant she wanted me to go away and hang with my friends. I'm not sure, now thinking back to it, what she was exactly saying. I'm actually thinking she could have been asking me if I had to go back with my friends and she was wondering if I wanted to go back with her but that was just Cody's theory. He told me that I always had to assume the best with girls, that if a girl says, "I hate you," that means, "I hate the way you dance." Haha, I only laughed when he told me that but started worrying that maybe she was hitting on me. Cody did get me thinking about how I was pretty much waiting for her to say something negative so I assumed the worst at that moment. Let's kind of hope she was telling me to go away because that just makes me too sad to think I passed up such a cute girl. Although, I might not have known what the hell to do if I had gone home with her anyway.

Yesterday before I went out to the club I bought a eurail ticket so that I could take European trains from anywhere to anywhere else for a period of five travel days (not in a row). The days of travel can take place any time within a period of two months. You can also pick up to three countries to travel between. So on my first break from school in Athens from the 22nd of October to the 28th, I'm flying to Rome, Italy (I found a really cheap ticket!) and then after a couple days I'm taking a train to France. After a couple days there, I'm gonna hop on over to Spain to practice my Spanish. Then I'll have to take a plane back to Athens. But that I have not bought yet. And also, I have to find places to stay in these countries. I haven't figured that out yet.

It's actually 7:10pm now but my blog thinks I'm in California or something so if I change the time to what it is here, it waits to publish it until like 10 hours later. I could be wrong but pretending it is 9:00am seemed to work.

Me.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Mission Impossible (Blog Is Rated PG-13)

So, Wednesday, before I went to the strip club with two girls and other guys from our group, I jammed with Zoe (she plays flute). It was SO fun cause Zoe is really good and for some reason we just click. Flute and piano mix well I realized.

At the strip club, the girl that I got a lap dance from was the first girl we saw get up and strip when we got there at the beginning of the night. She danced to the Titanic theme song. She was definitely my "favorite" one but I wasn't thinking she would be on my lap later. The people at this place were really weird though. This old witch lady with big boobs, probably fake, came over to us and was trying to figure out how big our dicks were by checking our hands. Also she was pinching our nipples to see how aroused we were. They kept asking us if anyone wanted a lap dance. All the while this Nigerian woman was sitting on my lap, trying to get me interested in her I guess. It was not working haha. The witch tapped my roommate's crotch like three times. That was awkward. Finally, while she was leaving, Witch asked again if anyone wanted a dance and my roommate pointed at me kind of as a joke. But I decided to just do it. Witch then came over to me and asked me who my favorite was. She asked me if I liked black or white. I embarrassingly said, "white" cause that titanic girl was white. So that girl ended up coming over and Witch asked me if she was the one I wanted. It was like I was shopping at a sex store for a real blow-up doll. VERY awkward. So I just kind of said, "Yah," and looked down while I said it. I couldn't look at her like a product. So she took me in this back area and started rubbing against me. Then Witch forced my hand on Titanic's boob, saying "Touch, touch and kiss if you want". I was NOT going to kiss. And touching was very weird for me. To be honest, it was not very enjoyable at all. And I think her boobs were fake. They had a strange plastic bounce back effect to them that I didn't remember experiencing in previous encounters with boobs. Not something I'll be doing again.

So on a different date, yesterday I gave the croissant girl a CD with Hot Damn Got a Woman, Avery and Dream With Me on it. She said, "Oh good! Good! I'll listen to it!" while saying good like food is pronounced. It was cute. And then I got a free cookie from her and she said it was from the older lady there. That was nice but slightly weird haha. All I said to her was "Poli Kalo" (very good) after she made me a smoothie. I guess the older lady likes me haha.

Today, I saw the girl again. We were talking and laughing. It was fun. I saw one of those chocolate croissants that I love (AHHH so good!) after having a whole 12-inch sub. I told her I wanted it and she laughed, saying "Now?" I told her that I would wait a little. She laughed again and said, "What, in 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes?" from now, kind of making fun of me. I told her that I would order it in a minute and twenty seconds. She said ok haha. About 10 minutes later, I went up and said, "It's about time. It's been one minute and twenty seconds about 8 times." She thought that was funny. So I got the croissant and she said, "Thank you" kind of quietly. I said, "What?" And she said, "What?" back to me cause she didn't know what I said. I finished the confusion with "Did you say thank you?" She laughed and nodded, then continued "Thank you so very very much." Hahahaha so I said, "You are VERY welcome." She also asked me how old I was. I found out I'm older than she is! She's 20. I thought she was like 24. So I thought we were really hitting it off. And then she made tea for herself and made one for me. FOR FREE! Awesome. It was really sweet. The tea was sweet and she was too obviously. I kept stalling on hitting on her cause I planned on asking her what she was doing this weekend and if she wanted to have coffee with me. But then a whole throng of Greek girls came in and ordered stuff. That was interesting haha. I was surrounded by girls. Then this manager guy was there too. So annoying. I didn't want to have an audience when I hit on her haha. Finally, I decided to face my fears after the girls left even though some guys were still in the room. I went up to her with a water and said, "I'll get this to go." She laughed and put it in a bag. Then I finally uttered the words that seemed to weigh my tongue down into the bottom of my mouth, drowing it - "Ti kaneis to savatokiriako" (What are you doing this weekend?) She said, "I'll be here. Then I'll probably be sleeping cause I don't feel too well. I added the next sentence, "Tha itheles na pas yia cafe," (Do you want to go for coffee?) Then my world caved in.

But before I continue, I'll also write about what happened on Wednesday when I saw her. She asked me to write my name down cause she wasn't sure what I was saying. Then she showed me how to spell her name. It was cool. After that, she randomly goes, "You're name is Stoddy. And my name is possible." I looked at her strangely and said "What?" She repeated what she said. I showed that I didn't get it with my wrinkled brow so she blurts, "I was just kidding, haha!" I still didn't get it at ALL. But I didn't want her to think I didn't like joking around. So my brain was swimming trying to think of some way to come back to her. So I announce, "Well...my name is IMpossble. Have you seen the movie Mission Impossible." Yeah, right, another failure. She said she had seen it but then adds, "But I'm the positive kind - possible." I said "OHH ok, I get it," but still I didn't really get it. After I sat down, I thought about it and figured that she might have been coming on to me. I thought maybe she meant to say her name was "Available." I was hoping that at least. So when I gave her my CD yesterday, just before I left, I said in a shaky tone (cause I was DAMN nervous), "Hey possible, is it possible for me to give you something this time instead of getting something from you?" It was pretty smooth but I didn't say it very confidently haha. I got some advice from my friends here in what to say. Hahaha it was ridiculous sounding though.

Previous story continuation - after I hit on her...

"No, I'm afraid I can't. But I'll see you on Monday?"

I said, "Probably," and said thank you and left. I was sure that she rejected me until later when I thought about it and maybe she just wants to get to know me better. Also, she was feeling sick. That could have been the reason completely. But I went to get a piano room and recorded a song on the flip video camera to let out my feelings. My voice teacher sensed I wasn't feeling too well and asked me how I was doing. I kept saying, "I'm good," but she must be great at reading people cause she seemed to doubt me. So I told her I was having girl problems. She told me that Greek girls are very friendly so it's sometimes kind of deceptive. But she said to keep going there, to keep showing my face and things might change. She also asked me if I have always felt like I'm from a different planet cause she always felt the same way about herself. I said yes and told her I knew exactly what she meant. Haha it was cute of my teacher. She's an amazing teacher too. I'm lucky. I hit the jackpot with classes here.

Silly me.


Thursday, September 24, 2009

Shorter and Shorter

These blogs are getting shorter and shorter. It's 3:40 am and I've gotta go to bed.

I had Greek Civ class with the other 7, recorded a video of my Greek song on Youtube that I still have to translate so wait another day to watch it if you wanna understand it (the video's called "Omorfia Mou"), I saw the croissant girl again, I ate dinner with a lot of the others like usual and then I hung out with Ricky and Cody. It was actually really fun!

S.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Wowza

I'm under my covers so my roommate doesn't see the light from my computer. It's 3am right now. I had a crazy day today. Sang a lot, recorded a video of my Greek song but failed at it. I'll do it again soon.

Talked again with the croissant girl. She said some funny things. I'll explain tomorrow. I'm trying to type quietly.

6 of us went to a strip club tonight. I got a lap dance. All I'm gonna say. Not much more to say.

Cheers,
S.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

New [Greek] Song!

To clear some things up, I did end up dropping out of my flamenco guitar lesson and replacing it with piano lessons. So now I have piano lessons and voice lessons. I love my classes. Haven't had my Mediterranean drum class yet. Can't wait for that.

Michael and I went to the croissant place again today while we were waiting for our laundry to be done. I wanted to show him the chocolate croissants and how good they were. BUT THEY WERE OUT! NO! Anyway, I found out that the place used to be a subway. It still has sandwiches but now has Greek food products too. Also I found out her name. I told her my name too. She was confused by my name so I said, "It's like Study but with an O." And now she knows that Michael and I play piano and go to Nakas. She said she has a friend who plays piano and told us that she likes piano. I asked her if her friend writes music and she said yes. She then asked me if I do and what do you think I said? Yes haha. And I said Michael does too. After talking to her and hanging with Michael, I went to a practice room and worked on my music. I FINISHED MY FIRST SONG ENTIRELY IN GREEK! Then I met up with Cody and had some food and refreshments with him. I walked home (a 40 minute walk) which is what I'll do most days, worked on more music, went to dinner with the other seven, came back, worked on more music and then had dinner with the other seven kiddos. After dinner I hung out in my room, working on MORE music and trying to watch something on my computer. But to no avail, it looks like I can't watch anything because I'm not in the U.S. That's nothing new though. It's reallllllly annoying.

I came by the used-to-be-subway later with my suitcase of clothes and the girl asked me where I was going. I said that it was just my laundry. She inquired where I go for laundry and I said I didn't know but that I could get clothes cleaned for free there because of Nakas.

Yddots.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Piano lesson, History of Music Lesson and Perfection

I had my piano lesson. I played him "Hot Damn Got a Woman". He liked it and laughed. He assigned me Satin Doll to arrange. While waiting for my one-on-one History of Music II lesson, I ate a chocolate croissant and another similar bread-like thing with ham and cheese for lunch at my favorite snack/bakery place I like to go to and asked the girl behind the counter who's always there, "Pos Lete Perfect?" which means "How do you say perfect?" since I had 4 euros and it cost 3.90. She looked at me with a dumbfounded, shocked face. She replied,
"What..."
I said it again in English since she speaks both languages perfectly, "How do you say perfect in Greek?"
She paused and finally said, "Telios...but you just told me I'm not perfect. You said 'then [something] telios' which means 'You're not perfect.'"
I was so confused because I knew that 'then' (that's the English phonetic spelling of it) means 'not' or whatever but I don't remember saying that she wasn't perfect. I WAS TERRIFIED. EPIC fail.
"No...what? I said, 'Pos Lete', meaning, how do you say, right?" She asked me if she gave me my ten cents back (probably to change the subject) and I said yes. I said I'm sorry twice and that I totally didn't mean for it to come out that way. She told me not to worry about it.
I finished eating my two pastry things and looked up 'perfect' in a Greek dictionary to make sure I knew the word. And I had already forgotten it. When you're under pressure like that, you don't remember what people say. At least I don't haha. I already knew that putting "Esai" before "Telios" would make the phrase "You're perfect" in Greek so I was all set. I was hoping that I wouldn't do some other stupid thing but I knew what I had to do. I picked up my tray and brought it to her while saying "Poli Kalo" which means "Very good" (She taught me how to say that a week or so ago). She said I didn't have to bring the tray to her and could slide it up against the wall where the other trays were. DUH. Ugh, another stupid move. I put my tray away.
"Whatever", I thought. "I'll say it as I'm leaving". I started to walk out and looked over at her. She had her hand rested against her palm and was smiling at me. OH yes. I announced to her, "Esai Telios" ("You're perfect"). She said, "Thank you," in a happy, smiley voice. I turned away and forgot to say "Parakalo" or even it's English equivalent, "You're welcome" but at least I did what I had to get done considering the hole I dug for myself. In my opinion though, I didn't only fill that hole back up - I created a mountain in its place! Just think, somehow an opportunity opened up for me to tell her she's perfect! Weird. Weird weird weird. Awesome awesome awesome.

The history of music lesson is going great! It's telios! It's SOOO nice to have a one-on-one history lesson since I've always struggled with ANYTHING having to do with history.

Good old Stod.

Videos

Go to http://www.youtube.com/sblackall and see some videos I took yesterday on the trip to Aegina. They are not that detailed but they're something! The videos are titled Stoddy Abroad (Episode #1, #2, etc.)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Aegina

We. Went. To. Aegina. Today.

Amazing.

Since I don't feel like writing at this moment, I will give a quick summary and then post links to videos that I recorded today on the island with my little video camera. Those will be available sometime tomorrow.

1. We ate lunch. I had pizza and calamari. Not as good as Austin's homemade stuff but good. Pizza not that good either. But on island so everything still great.
2. 6 of us were on trip: Cody, Michael, Courtney, Zoe, Ricky and I Rented 4-wheelers. Courtney and I shared one. Michael and Cody. Zoe and Ricky. I drove the whole time and absolutely LO

OVED it. The blank line stands for a million O's.
3. We stopped at a beach and swam. Some of us stood on a tiny rock island that was sharper than I predicted. I sat from the highest point and sang "Colors of the wind" and "Part of Your World".
4. After driving for a while towards the marina with possibly jet skiing in mind, we stopped at a hotel for refreshments. It got late so we drove back because man who rented it to us gave us a deadline of 7pm. So we'll have to save jet skiing for later. Sad. But anyway, Courtney and I got back first, others got lost and arrived later. Driving really made me feel like a man. Haha.
5. Ate dinner. I had pizza and beer now that driving was done and legs were hurt from driving long.
6. Took ferry home. It was beautiful. Listened to part of "Dark Side of the Moon", Santana's "Song of the Wind" and "Blues for Salvador", Joni Mitchell's "All I Want" and "My Old Man", Van Morrison's "Day's Like This".
This weekend was RAD. But today topped it all. Best day yet.

Me.

DANCE

Yesterday, Michael and I went exploring. We took the metro to distant places and found a place called "The Mall". It was a big, 3 or 4 story mall with a movie theater and arcade. Reminded me of Camp Snoopy in Minnesota.

Last night, we all went out to Monastiraki with the desire to go clubbing. By the end of the night, I was dancing with a 5 or so group of Greek people about my age and about 3 German kids. Then Mia, Cody, Michael and Zoe joined in. It was a blast. At the end of the night, Cody, Michael and I walked home while the others, those who stayed out as late as we did, took a taxi. We thought the metro ran all night on Fridays and Saturdays. GUESS NOT! I walked home as sweaty as a fish.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Caught in the Rain

I was on one of the highest hills, Lykavittos hill, in Athens when the storm started today. The storm consisted of minor flooding, LOUD thunder and lightning, and heavy, heavy rain. The rain was so strong, it looked there was a river going down every steep road. I was up at the top of the hill where the telephone pole was when the storm started and had to walk down some metal stairs. Scary. But walking home was fun, the getting drenched part, not the fact that I got lost again. My map also turned into a ball of paper cause it stuck together and then fell to the wet pavement, rendering it useless. My camera was also slightly injured. The screen is a little messed up but it still works.

My voice lesson is gonna be AWESOME! My teacher is great! She asked me to play her a song of mine. I played Avery and she LOVED it and said she has a good direction in mind for the voice lesson. She kept saying I was really talented and should definitely keep going with writing. YAY! I'm excited.

Tonight was movie night with all eight of us. We watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". I've seen it three times and by far my favorite part is when Paul Rudd acts like he hasn't thought about how old he actually is for years. You'd have to see the movie to know what I'm talking about.

Sssss.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Plaka

I walked around the Plaka, where the Acropolis is, again. Michael, Courtney and I had lunch at this really good place and then Michael had to go to class. Courtney and I walked through some stores and soon after, came home. We all ate dinner together again tonight. Except for Zoe. She's feeling under the weather which sucks. But tonight was awesome. We were all laughing and being very loud just like college kids should be. I like these people I'm here with.

I also put up a video of me on the Philopappos hill on Facebook.

S-boy.
I put up pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/stoddy.blackall?ref=profile

Star.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Socrate's Game

Today I was going to throw caution to the wind and take a train up to Nafplio, a city two hours away that I heard was a must-see from my Western Music II teacher. It ended up that the train was leaving in a minute and I was just going to miss it. The next train was in four hours and by then it would have been too late in the day so I passed on the awesome idea of a getaway.

I decided to do something possibly even cooler. I stopped at the Acropoli metro station where the Acropolis is, yes. Awesome, right? I know that for my class at Nakas, we're going to take part in an informative tour of the Acropolis so I passed on that for now. Instead I went on a mission walk to find the Ancient Agora, which was allegedly the stomping ground of Socrates where he would strike up insightful and philosophical conversations with people in the market place. I went around asking everyone, "Milao Agglika?" which I thought meant "Do you speak English" but now I know why a lot of people were laughing at me. What I actually was saying was, "I speak English?" Hahahaha oh man. But it worked. Many of them either misheard me and figured I was saying "Speak English?" and said, "Yes." Anyway, I asked those people that I stopped where the Agora was. I must have asked more than ten people and they sent me everywhere around the area of the Acropolis. I walked for more than an hour and a half under the tackling late afternoon sun, looking for it. At one point I struggled up a grassy incline complete with rocks and chasms only to find myself back where I started. I became incredibly thirsty and yearned for the Agora like nothing else. And water, which I found multiple times. Finally, I arrived at the Ancient Agora, now a broken village due to the Persians. I had to pay two Euros which was way worth it for me after all my work. I went into the museum to read about Socrates for a while and then walked through the ruins until I found a perfect place to sit. While resting my back against the same ancient stone that Socrates one day might have even sat against and read my book of philosophy: more specifically, Matrix and Philosophy. Haha, not exactly ancient philosophy but still...pretty cool, right?

Oh and another piece of news. I saw the Olympic stadium. The old old old Olympic stadium, not the new one. Where the first naked men flaunted their manliness in competitive games. Wow, today was a big day. A masculine, introspective hell of a big day. I think that makes up for not going to Nafplio. But I'll just go this weekend. On the day that I don't go to Poros (not Paros - I think that's a different island). Ha, Greece is fun.

S-MAN.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Planning

Today I woke up feeling a little sick but I had planned to go to breakfast and meet with Courtney to plan our trip to Hydra, a Greek island, so I got up. We met and decided not to set anything in stone 'til Michael said he was for sure coming with us. I went back to my room and fell back to sleep until 12:55 and I felt better already. I went to the school and had some lunch at this small sandwich shop near my favorite bakery shop. The guy there behind the counter was weird and said I had to be extra careful in Greece being a visitor because store owners could trick me and ask me to pay more than I had to. It could have come across as a considerate remark if he hadn't said it in the creepy way that he did. Then he asked me if Minnesotans would be nice to him if he decided to stay there when he visited the U.S. I said "Yes, they would" and he smiled but I wish I had said, "Absolutely not." He also wrote the name of a documentary that I "have to watch because it has a lot of truth to it and make sure to tell the others about it." How the hell did he know there were others. Strange. The documentary is called, "Zeitgeist".

I had my Flamenco guitar lesson which was intimidating but I think I'm gonna go through with it. I stayed around the school for a while afterwards because I wanted to ask Maria, the receptionist lady for the head guy at Nakas, about other private lessons I could take, possibly in piano (I might still ask her anyway tomorrow even though I'll probably keep the guitar lesson). My guitar teacher would not leave her office though and I didn't want to go in there and possibly mention dropping his class in front of him so I never ended up walking in after many times of passing by the office and glancing in to see if he was still there. I even found a back way a couple times so he wouldn't notice me spying on him.

I walked home instead of taking the metro. The walk wasn't bad. Only about 25 minutes or so. From now on I'll walk home if I have time before dinner back at the hotel. Speaking of dinner, at dinner tonight, Mia said that she went to Hydra today but said that it was pretty boring and that one day was enough to stay there. Courtney and I were talking about going for two days. Mia also said that Paros was a cool island with a nice beach so Courtney and I are going there on Saturday. We're taking a fairy in the morning and staying 'til the evening then taking the fairy back. At least that's our plan.

I feel a lot better than I did this morning.

Star.

Monday, September 14, 2009

4

Did list
1. Ran up Lykavittos hill, the same hill we all walked up the other night. It was very tough. After 20 minutes and finally reaching the top, which was very rewarding since I could see all of Athens from that high, I had to stop with fear that I might faint. Soon I want to be able to run up that hill and all the way back down. After walking down the hill, I got lost and found my way back to the hotel with a map.
2. Showered, took the train to school and stayed around there for three or so hours until my 6 o'clock History of Western Music II class. I had a two chocolate croissants at this bakery place (SO GOOD!) and did some more Greek language practicing on people in stores.
3. My music history teacher is awesome. All the kids in the class are unbelievably cool. They are also all male. And handsome. And surprisingly full of themselves. And me. Yeah, I'm the only person in the class. Weird, right? That's cause all the Greek students at Nakas speak Greek obviously. Why would they want to take an English music history class? That's what I figure. And not many people go to this school. And no one else in my group are taking it. So, this'll be interesting. Well, I'll learn a lot I guess.
4. Got home and received a package: a deck of cards, 56 of them, each of them being a free burrito coupon. They look and feel exactly the same as good playing cards but they're for Chipotle. I died of happiness when I opened it. And I'm so excited! Luke Holloway's and my winning chipotle video is up on mychipotle.com!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Beach of Living

Dear Evan,
I went to the beach today with the gang. We took about an hour ride on the metro and tram. We couldn't find the blue flag beach so we settled on this rocky area right near the highway. Not as nice we expected. But the water was slightly saltier than we're used to and refreshing. And Greek. Everyone else seemed to have no problem floating without treading water since the water was denser but I had more trouble. I would bob up and down. They laughed at me. We ate lunch at TGI Fridays which was good and nostalgic. Then realized we had been at the wrong beach before and walked over to the blue flag beach. It still wasn't as good as we expected but we hung out on the sand and occasionally washed the sun off our backs in the water. At least from the water, the gorgeous mountains could be seen in the distance. I didn't even see them until Cody pointed them out. The best thing about the beach was lying on my stomach and swirling my feet and hands in the mounds of tiny rocks. I remember saying, "I feel like a little boy again." Cody said, "You ARE a little boy." The worst thing about the beach were the cigarettes that I kept finding as I churned the sand with my sand speckled fingers. It ruined the mood. I can't wait until we go to Sifnos. That's the island we've all decided to go to. We're gonna try to find a hostel and rent out two rooms for the weekend, one room for the guys in our group and the other for the girls. Sifnos is supposed to have good music and it's not too popular while still having a good reputation. And I'm sure the beach is to die for. Seeing Athens from two high hilltops has definitely given me a taste of the "I'M ACTUALLY IN GREECE" drink but I don't think I'll truly drink it all until I'm on Sifnos.

Star.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Forgot to say...

Yesterday, I did not only go to the bar haha. Earlier in the day we got off at the Acropolis metro stop and walked around the market place which was a nicely quaint area. We had lunch together and I got Moussaka. I gotta say, I didn't like it that much. I liked it all except the eggplant. Then we let Courtney get us lost because she asked directions in Greek and didn't understand the response. And to that I say, good for her. She has guts.

Short but most definitely sweet

I climbed to two steep hills today. The first time in the late afternoon with my Roommate, Michael. UNBELIEVABLE. Later at night with my new study abroad friends. Seeing the whole of Athens from one spot really is almost too much to handle. And then seeing it again at night with all the lights from the buildings takes it a leap further. I said at one point, "I feel like I'm in a plane that's not moving."

Bedtime. Going to the beach tomorrow! EXCITED.

S.

Friday, September 11, 2009

A Sitcom Night

Tonight, we went to the same bar that Cody, Michael, Ricky and I went to last night. It was really fun. Cody, Michael, Ricky, Zoe, Mia, Courtney and I sat around a table and once the ball got rolling, we were goofing around and laughing a lot. I wish Sadaya were there cause then that would have been everyone in our group but it was still really awesome. Hahaha Cody is soooo funny. He always joke-hits on Courtney so at one point he handed her a potato chip as a way to "hit on her" and she took her fist and smashed it. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.

One more thing. Earlier in the night, all eight of us were together and we watched a lot of my movies - Hot Damn Got a Woman, Be My Valentine, I Have Nothing (My Parody on Whitney Houston), I Wanna Go Out (Yes they saw our video mom haha), Choking out Faces and The New Neighbor. It was really fun cause there was a lot of laughter and Ricky said to me, "You know what's really cool? From seeing your videos, I think I now can say I actually know who you are."

Cody described all of us at the table as if we were in a sitcom. He said I was the goofy one who'd say something random and everyone would laugh at it even if it wasn't really funny cause they would just say, "That's Stoddy!" Michael would be the quiet one that would every once and a while say the perfect thing or do his funny two-thumbs-up move. Cody said Ricky was his roommate, the sidekick. Zoey was the really quiet one who wouldn't say anything and then suddenly blurt out something in Greek and Cody would think "Wait, did she just talk?" He described Mia as the feisty person would lays down the law. Courtney was labeled as the geeky intellectual in the group who could get us out of any problem. I told Cody he was the outgoing jokester or something like that. The truth is, he is the glue that holds us together. He left to go to the bathroom at some point and the conversation died for like a minute, haha. It was sad.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we're all meeting at 10:30 and eating breakfast in the hotel lobby. Then we're gonna go to the beach if it doesn't rain. I HOPE IT DOESN'T RAIN! The weekend after that we are probably going to at least two of the Greek islands. The nearest ones are Makronissos and Kea. I'm thinking those will be the ones.

S.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

O Mikros Prigipas

I bought "O Mikros Prigipas" which is "The Little Prince" in Greek! I also bought an English-Greek and Greek-English dictionary. I walked into a book store today and said to the lady behind the desk "Tha ithela aghoraso ena lexiko...anglika-elinika" which means "I would like to buy a dictionary...English-Greek." I actually wanted one that also went from Greek to English but I didn't think too hard about that fact at the moment. I was too concentrated on getting the Greek words out right. I stuttered a little but it felt so good to actually talk Greek with someone. But anyway, I had a reason to buy the dictionary other than the obvious fact of having a useful reference. I've started to translate Little Prince! I won't do it all obviously but it's fun having one of my favorite books in Greek be my teacher for the Greek language. Less intimidating than a textbook.

I also attempted to speak Greek while buying a pastry at a bakery (I said "Tha ithela aftos" which I thought meant "I'd like that") and I said it quickly and confidently but I realize now that I think I said "I'd like he". I'm not sure though, haha. Later I stopped at a snack and drink shop and got a Coke Zero. I said the same thing while pointing at a Coke - "That ithela aftos". She knew I didn't know Greek. At the end I said "Efharisto", which means, "Thank you". She said "You're welcome" but then soon after, to humor me, said in a joking and drawn-out, make-fun-of-American way, "Parakalo" (You're welcome) and smiled. It was all in good fun though. I liked it. A lot.

S-man.

P.S. Cody called me "Stodmeister" tonight. I told him that so many people have chosen that nickname for me randomly and without influence from others. I deduced that it must just be a good nickname for me - my universal alias. Haha.
P.P.S A little piece of info from a couple of days ago when I went through airport security (for the second time after traveling 7 hours from Boston to Zurich, Switzerland!) I was SOOO tired that I accidentally groped one of the security women who was stacking the bins (the bins that hold the stuff going through the X-ray machine). I was just trying to reach for my bag which was near her chest! I was nervous because I didn't want to act all tired and loopy so I was trying to move with confidence. But lo and behold, the back of my hand totally rubbed against her right boob.

Out tonight!

I went out with Cody, Michael and Ricky tonight. We walked around to different bars/clubs and all of them were PACKED and really small until we found the complete opposite: an open bar that was completely empty. We all had some beer and talked to the bar tender who was funny and kept making fun of us depending on where we were from. For example, he said Ricky (born in Guatemala) must be a good swimmer. I didn't get it at first of course (because I didn't hear it correctly haha). Nevertheless, tonight was really fun and put a glorious cap on the night. It was really fun and relaxing. We also found out that the bar tender's favorite island is Mykonos Island. He said it was 5 hours away by speed boat. I have to go there! I really hope I do.

S.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

My first full day in Greece

Dear Evan,
Dinner was great! I had Mythos which is a Greek beer! It didn't taste too distinguished, just a little more sweet, I would say. I brought my little Greek phrase book and that caused some laughs when the guy next to me, Cody used the "pick-up lines" section to "hit on" one of the Greek faculty members at Nakas who was sitting at the end of the table. It was funny haha. The head of the school hugged everyone at the end and kissed all the girls' cheeks. I voiced the fact that I was upset he didn't kiss my cheek to Mia next to me haha. On the way back, a 25 minute walk, I talked to Courtney which was also very fun. We talked about jetskiing, waterskiing and other water sports for some reason. Here and out,

Stoddy.

Dinner tonight!

"Tha ithela na paragilo ena nifiko" means "I'd like to order a wedding dress."
I thought that it'd be so funny if I told that to a waiter while pointing at the
menu, all the while with my innocent unknowing face on. Speaking of
ordering, I'm going to dinner tonight with all the people on this trip. We
all have been hanging out a lot. Today we actually went out for lunch and
dessert and now we're going to dinner with the head guy of Nakas
Conservatory in Greece. Earlier today there were a lot of awkward
silences because no one knew what to ask him about the school. I can tell
he's the kind of guy who likes to be asked things so I'm gonna tell him
my travel plans and ask him to give me suggestions about the best way to
do it. This is what I've decided to do (the plans might change but it doesn't
hurt to have a goal). I'm goin' island hopping! I'm gonna go to the closest
one which is only aboutan hour and a half away by boat and then hop all
the way along on different islands until I get to Santorini, my ultimate
desired island. I might go with a few people. I know others want to see
some island action. But I'm thinking they'll like my idea of seeing around
8 or nine of them! All right, dinner time!

Things are getting easier :)

I've said "Efharisto" (the English character way of spelling it) to a lot of
peopleand they replied right away. It means thanks. They said right back
to me, "Parakalo" which means "You're welcome". Just that little
communication has made me feel so good. You were right Whit.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Arrived in Greece!

I'm so tired. I've been up for 24 hours and that includes 12 hours of traveling...to GREECE! I'm here and the first thing I noticed was that the mountains were amazing! So high and beautiful. The city looks as if a random jumble of buildings were scattered on top of each other by a child at playtime. Oh man I'm so so so tired I can't think and my head hurts. Met my roommate, Michael! We went and got a big jug of water and some snacks. After I get some sleep I'll tell more about my travels.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Lying Down

I'm lying on the couch right now, listening to the nearly final mixes of the songs from my EP (short album). In a week or so, check out my website (stoddyblackall.bandcamp.com) to hear it! The album's called "Refresh".

I never said why I'm on the couch. Well, I've been sick for more than a week now. Hopefully I'm on the tail end of it now. I bet by Friday, I'll be all better. Last night I slept all the way through the night. That is amazing for me. I slept from 4:30am or so (yeah, stayed up late again with my mom, watching reality TV shows haha) and woke up at 1:30pm when my alarm went off. Who knows how long I would've slept for if I hadn't set an alarm.. Wow. I'm shocked.

5 days from now, I'll be about to take the first plane out of Boston, which will arrive in Zurich, Switzerland. Then I'll take a plane to Athens, Greece from there. I can't even fathom what this experience will be like. I'm just hoping that it will be similar to all those other people that study abroad while they're in college. People like my cousin, Brecken or my Dad. Especially my dad. He always has these long, drawn out stories that are so interesting and memorable. Some of them are not happy stories, however. But most of the stories I hear about studying abroad always end in, "That was the best experience I have ever had". I hope I can say the same thing. I'll do my best to make that happen.

Star.

:

Dear Evan,
In about 6 days I'll just be arriving in Greece. Here are my feelings about it in emoticons -
:) :/ :0 :6 ;)

At least there's no :|


Star.