Colorado (Micro)Brews

Today was a rather fun and relaxing day. Jenée and I spent the day on the CSU campus again. We walked by the Oval, where the main buildings on campus are located. It looks pretty much the same from every angle, but there are some neat spots around.

The admissions office is just beyond. UW's former associate director for admissions is now the executive director of admissions there. Great guy, Jim is! Nice to chat with him again, albeit only briefly on the phone.

Barack Obama spoke here last October...the whole place was packed, we heard.

After stuffing ourselves at the nice new dining center on campus, we chilled at the library again before meeting up with my friend, Katie, whom I had not seen since high school in Portland. We met up in their student union center, which has its own little bar. Isn't that crazy?

I had a good Oktoberfest beer, which really was pretty good and only cost $2.50 for a pint. Good spot on campus to meet up with friends, I'd say. It was great to catch up with Katie and hear about her experiences at CSU. Brought back some good memories from high school.

By mid-afternoon though, it was time to actually do work, so we met up with Michelle to talk about our presentation for Thursday. We went for another drink in Old Town, and honestly, I'm liking Colorado beer. Certainly, more so than I did back in February. I'm also trying a lot more different ones, so that's nice.

We did some work and then headed across the street from that bar to a restaurant for dinner. I didn't have a beer here, but I did have a "Tornado" which was basically Sierra Mist mixed with fresh strawberries. Delicious!

We headed home after that so Andrea could feed the animals at the house. The family who owns the house also have two dogs, two cats, and two horses. It's pretty awesome!

I haven't ridden horses since sixth grade, so it's been a while since I've been in a barn and around such huge animals. I didn't realize just how big they were. Not to mention beautiful too. One of the cats lives in the barn, since they'd only found it recently hiding in a tree. It's name is Barney. :P

Tomorrow, we were planning to go to Estes Park, which is nearby or part of the Rocky Mountain Park, but it's going to be snowing up there, so we have to change plans instead. So, we're going to Wyoming!

I've never been to Wyoming, so we're going to drive about 45 minutes north of Fort Collins to get there. Supposed to be really beautiful. Should be fun. Then Rockies baseball game tomorrow night...hope it doesn't rain too much tomorrow in Denver. Don't want the game to get delayed, postponed, or canceled. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Ok, pictures from Wyoming tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

Sam

Exploring Colorado State University

Well, after a nice relaxing weekend (enjoyable too with the Huskies beating USC :D), I'm on the road again. This time, I'm in Fort Collins, CO, at Colorado State University for a Dream Project presentation.

I'm here with my friend, Jenée, and we're scheduled to present this Thursday morning. Should be fun.

Today, though, we arrived around noon Denver time (after getting dropped off early this morning so kindly by Grant). We were picked up by Michelle, one of our co-presenters for the conference and a super-awesome host. After our hour plus drive north to Fort Collins, she showed us around the town and took us to lunch at a quaint Italian restaurant.

I grew to appreciate wine when I was in Greece, so it was nice to enjoy a glass of red wine with my creamy Farfalle with capers and peppercinis. We had a great conversation with Michelle as well about the Dream Project as she asked us some pretty insightful questions. I'm pumped for Thursday!

After lunch, we headed to campus so Michelle could head to her meeting. Jenée and I decided to roam the campus a bit before settling in at the library. The campus is quite large and is rather flat. In fact, Fort Collins is rather flat as well. Just like Denver actually. I took a few pictures of campus.

CSU used to be the Aggies, but now they're the Rams.

The weather this week has been much different, I guess, from what it has been. It's a bit rainy and overcast, whereas it had been nice and sunny. Oh well. I'm missing out on 90 degree heat in Seattle, but I'm glad I don't have to fry in my oven of an apartment. So, no worries.

The library we went to on campus was very new. The sliding doors reminded me of walking into a department store or something. Other than that, I loved the whole thing. The librarians were nice enough to let us use computers, since they had to log us on as guests.

After catching up on email, we met up with Michelle again to meet our friend, Andrea, for dinner. We also met with Michelle's boss, Oscar, who had, along with Michelle, attended our Dream Project presentation at the NACAC Conference last September in Seattle.

Dinner was at the Crown Pub in Fort Collins, which is known for its great selection of local microbrews. It was great. I even took a picture of my food.

Anyway, after that, we headed to Andrea's house where we're staying for a few days until we return to Seattle on Thursday evening. Tomorrow should be fun. We'll head out early and then probably roam around the campus more.

I'm meeting with an old high school friend in the afternoon for a beer, since we haven't seen each other in about 5 years. Total coincidence that I realized she went to Colorado State too since I had forgotten. I logged onto Facebook today and saw a photo album she had just posted from last Saturday's CSU football game, and then I realized we were in the same city. So it should be fun to catch up.

Alright, my jetlag and less than 8 hours of sleep last night are catching up to me. Time for bed.

Ciao,

Sam

Back in Seattle...and Jetlagged

It's early Saturday morning...and I've been up for more than an hour now. I'm suppose I'm not all that surprised about jetlag, but I was super tired last night and went to bed around midnight after going to Oktoberfest in Fremont.

I arrived home on Thursday night after traveling for almost 27 hours, including the time it took to take a taxi from Akropoli to Syntagma Square and taking the X95 bus from Syntagma to the airport in Athens. Nevertheless, nice to finally be home.

My trip was smooth, and I got to spend a few hours in Munich after knocking out on the plane from Athens to Munich. I got on, fell asleep, and the next thing I heard when I woke up was, "Meine Damen und Herren, Herzlichen Wilkommen in München"...two and a half hours after take off.

In Munich, I cleared security, got another Munich stamp in my passport, and headed for my gate with two hours to spare. I decided to grab breakfast at a nearby cafe, and seriously, a ham and cheese sandwich and a cup of Sprite should NOT cost 9 Euros and 10 cents. When the cashier told me the total, I almost dropped all my stuff. Munich is wayyy to expensive; hence, why I prefer Berlin. :P

From Munich, I flew to Toronto and, amidst a few hours of napping, watched a few of the same movies I watched on my way to Europe back in August. Had a nice chat with the gentleman next to me. He was a businessman who was returning home from a business trip to Munich. He was telling me all about his travels...to Japan and all over Europe. Sounded pretty neat, and he told me he wouldn't trade anything for his job as he truly loved it.

In Toronto, I spent about two and a half hours waiting for my next flight (this time it was on-time as opposed to my three hour delay on my way to Frankfurt). I found a good looking sports bar and had a red beer and Great Canadian Grilled Cheese...it came with a tiny Canadian flag on a toothpick. You can see the flag on the edge of the plate in this picture.

Once we got on the plane, a young Somalian lady with her 6-month-old baby sat next to me in the window seat (only two seats on either side of this airplane). He was quite cute and surprisingly calm for his first flight ever. He cried only a few times, and his mom even asked me to hold him for a few minutes as she got his milk for him. That was fun.

As we got closer to Seattle, the sun was starting to set, and outside our window, the Cascade Mountains were visible in the pinkish sky. It looked awesome, and as beautiful as Greece is, it reminded me of why I love the Pacific Northwest so much as well.

When we arrived, my luggage arrived quite quickly and my friend and GEAR UP co-leader from this summer, Latana, picked me up from the airport. Nice to catch up on things after being gone for six weeks.

Once I got home, one of the first things I did was add another flag pin to the world map on my wall. I know, I'm such a nerd, but it's nice to add Athens and Crete to the spots I've traveled. : )

Yesterday, I ran around for errands and meetings as I typically do when I'm home, and it was great to see so many people that I hadn't seen for a while. That was really very nice to catch up. Then last night, I also checked out Oktoberfest in Fremont (I just missed the real Oktoberfest in Munich as it started the day after I left the airport). It was a bit underwhelming, to be honest, but it was still fun to go with a few friends.

Coming home from Greece after spending the past month plus there, though, has made me notice a few things I'm getting accustomed to again.

1. Flushing toilet paper instead of chucking it into the waste basket next to the toilet.
2. Crossing streets between cars and use the crosswalks with lights instead.
3. Using my credit card now instead of having to find ATMs and withdrawing cash.
4. Wearing warmer clothes.
5. Saying thank you in English instead of saying, "Efharisto" (I kept catching myself almost saying that in Munich too when the flight attendants spoke to me in German...).
6. (Also, forgot to add this one originally) Using miles, feet, Fahrenheit, etc. instead of kilometers, meters, and Celsius.

Anyway, today is a big day. I need to crank out my Fulbright essays with all the feedback I've received. The Huskies play USC today and then tonight, I think I'm going to the Mariners game against the Yankees. Have to confirm that still. I hope so though...Ichiro hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth last night to beat the Yankees, against the best closer in baseball over the past two decades too. Pretty awesome.

Alright, I should go work on those essays. I leave Monday for Denver for a Dream Project presentation at Colorado State University, so I'll have an opportunity to post on the travel blog again before school starts in two weeks.

Until then, toodles.

Sam

A Journey to the Center of the World...Then Home

Only a few hours left in Greece...it's a weird feeling. I'm quite bummed to have to leave, but I am hopeful that I will return to Europe--and to Greece--in the near future.

After taking the overnight ferry from Crete back to Piraeus, we got picked up by Knut in our rental gray Peugeot 207 around 6 am at the port. It was still quite dark out, and Erinn and I both had pretty restless nights so we were a bit tired. I only got maybe three hours of sleep.

We headed back through town to the guesthouse to drop off our luggage and grab Erinn's camera battery. The sky was only starting to get light, so it was nice to see Athens start to come to life as we headed on our three hour drive northwest to Delphi.

Our drive was quite pleasant, although I slept a bit on the way. I couldn't keep my eyes open...I woke up as pulled around the last few winding roads around Mt. Parnassos, the cliffside on which Delphi is located. The entire area is absolutely gorgeous, and it's a marvelous wonder to behold when you consider how they had to lug these huge stones up the cliffside to build the massive buildings.

We bought our tickets for 5 Euros--a combo ticket that also would let us into the archaeological museum (gotta love student prices!). The climb, according to our trusty Rick Steves's guidebook, would entail an ascent of 700 feet and would take about 90 minutes. Boy, he was totally right as we spent exactly 90 minutes, puffing and sweating as we hiked up the side of the mountain.

The breeze at the top felt great, though, as we overlooked the ruins of this ancient holy site. Delphi served as the home to the ancient oracle, with whom people from far and wide would travel to Delphi to consult on any number of issues. The major wonder at Delphi was the humongous Sanctuary of Apollo with its colossal columns looming high overhead.

As we traced our way up the rocky path, the views of the surrounding mountains and valleys as well as the Corinthian Gulf further in the distance were quite stunning. You could feel an almost spiritual aura to the site, which is little surprise since the Greeks decided over 2,000 years ago that the side of this mountain would serve such an important purpose.

Along the pathway up to the theater, the stadium, and the Sanctuary of Apollo, a small, cone-shaped stone sat on the corner next to the path. According to legend, this was what the Greeks considered to be "the center of the world." So, there you have it, I've been to the center of the world. : )

We made our way all the way to the top, past the theater and even further up to the stadium, where the Pythian Games were held every four years, just like the Olympic Games. These were just two of four Panhellenic Games that rotated every four years, and the ones in Delphi were in honor of the god Apollo. Like the theater, the stadium itself is still well-preserved. Quite impressive.

From there, we clambered down the steep drop to the museum to see some of the major pieces excavated from the site of Delphi itself. I was not too fond of the massive tourist groups that took up all the space in the museum, so I didn't bother to look closely at much. Some of the major pieces though, included the Sphinx of Naxos, some metopes of Hercules, and a model of ancient Delphi.

By far, my absolute favorite, though, was the grand finale of the museum--the bronze statue of a charioteer.

I had studied this since my sophomore year of high school, so again, I was naturally very excited to see it. It's nuts to think that you've learned about something as ancient as the charioteer in your art history books and lecture slides, etc., but to actually stand in front of it and see the fine detail...that is just something else.

By the time we left the museum, it was around 2 pm, and we were planning to head back by 3 pm so we could make it in time for Kristoffer's lecture at 7 pm. We were hungry though and decided to head into the town of Delphi for a quick lunch. We found a taverna that looked good and went for it. What a great decision!

Our table directly overlooked the entire valley, including views of the Corinthian Gulf. It was absolutely beautiful. The food was delicious too as I had a chef's salad (my favorite salad in Greece!), while Knut and Erinn each had the delicious lamb special. I had some of Erinn's, and it tasted amazing.

Once we finished, we headed back towards Athens, and again, I fell asleep on the ride...only to wake up once we were quite close to home. Knut dropped us off at the guesthouse before going to return the car. I had a blast traveling with him. After taking a shower and trying to pack though, I had to run as Kristoffer's lecture was starting soon.

I arrived at the Norwegian Institute, same place we had our final presentations, and was pleasantly surprised to see such a great turnout. I know Kristoffer was happy as well. After a fascinating lecture, during which I am thankful I did not fall asleep, we went out for some drinks. Taso and Knut also attended the lecture, so they joined us for drinks as well as Doros, who was kind enough to come since it was my last night in Athens. I really appreciated that.

We went to a small cafe near our guesthouse and had a few beers. Turns out, this place has one of Athens' largest selections of draft beer imported from all over Europe. We had a few beers and food, all while watching Olympiakos beat their opponent tonight 1-0. The player whose jersey I wore to last Saturday's game (number 35) was the only one who scored a goal. Niiice.

Around midnight, I returned to the guesthouse one last time, and now I'm writing my last blog entry in Europe. I leave for Munich in a few hours and, then after a three and a half hour layover there, I fly on to Toronto before returning to Seattle at 8 pm Pacific time. It's going to be a long trip...about 24 hours of traveling in all.

Speaking of which, I still need to finish packing and then head out to catch the X95 bus to the airport. I'm running on very little sleep so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll stay awake long enough to get on the actual flight.

Greece has been an absolutely fantastic experience, and I feel extremely fortunate having had the opportunity to come study in Athens as well as travel around this beautiful country. The country and people here have treated me very well, and I am also glad to have expanded my network to now include a number of new Greek friends as well as a few Norwegians too. I look forward to more international opportunities in my future, and I can't wait to hit the road again. Well, after this next trip to the airport, that is...

Until next time,

Sam

A Relaxing Day in Heraklion

It's weird that I'm sitting back at my hotel, even though we checked out hours ago. But we came back to pick up our bags, and I decided to use the internet for a while.

This morning, quite early actually, Maggie and her mom left for Rethymno to catch their ferry to Santorini. I was probably only half awake, but we said goodbye and off they went. In my experiences, when you say goodbye to friends on study abroad programs, you're either relieved and somewhat apathetic or sad and wishing to prolong your time together. In this case, the feeling was more sad since we'd pretty much become good friends over the past month. But, we will see them again soon as fall quarter is starting in about two weeks.

I slept for another few hours after they left and before Erinn and I finally got out of bed and decided to head out. Since our ferry doesn't leave till 10 pm, we decided to just walk around slowly since we had the whole day. I passed by an electronic store and decided to buy headphones (mine broke a few weeks back) and also one of those nifty USB-memory card sticks to upload pictures. I couldn't resist not having pictures for my blog.

We strolled down towards the Archaeological Museum and grabbed lunch in the square across the street. We ended up staying there for almost two hours as we ate our food and drank white wine. We were so Greek!

By the time we got the museum, it was close to 4 pm. The museum houses some of the frescoes and other art pieces excavated from Knossos, so I was, as usual, quite excited to go. Thankfully, the entrance fee was only 2 Euros for students from non-EU countries (EU students get in for free...that goes for almost any museum in the EU).

Turns out, the museum is actually quite tiny. We actually probably could've seen the whole thing on Sunday evening when we all arrived. There was a massive French tour group in front of us blocking just about every art piece, so we had to stand and wait. Nice way to practice my French though. I actually got a bit out of the tour guide's explanations.

Some of the famous pieces included the Snake Goddess, who supposedly represents fertility, and also the fresco of the man jumping over the bull. We saw the picture at Knossos yesterday, and we saw the real thing in the museum today. Cool, huh?! Other pieces were interesting as well.

The famous Bee Pendant.

Cretans love bulls. Or maybe Minoans is more correct.

They also love octopuses...or octopi?

They also seem to love snakes. This is the famous Snake Goddess. It's smaller than I had imagined...which is my usual observation of anything I study in AP Art History (i.e. St. Theresa in Ecstacy, the Sistine Chapel).

I just realized I posted mostly art of animals. I guess they loved animals.

And yet another animal art piece...a man jumping over a bull. The REAL version instead of an ugly picture at Knossos.

This is the Phaistos Disc, which was found at another Minoan palace on Crete (Phaistos). It's famous 'cause we haven't been able to figure out what it says yet. In fact, I wrote about this for my UW Honors essay when I applied during my senior year in high school. Such a nerd.

More art pieces of animals. The sash across the bull's head indicates it's a sacrificial animal.

Some statues, including Egyptian versions of gods and goddesses on the left.

It's Cerberus! Or Fluffy from Harry Potter...

The museum only took about a half hour, so we headed down to the port and visited a Catholic church and the Venetian fortress on the port. It was quite windy!

The lion symbol of St. Mark, which I saw all over St. Mark's square in Venice. Makes sense...this is a Venetian fortress.

After that, we strolled back toward the hotel and Erinn bought a new suitcase and gelato. We also passed by the classiest looking Pizza Hut I have ever seen.

We got back to the hotel a while ago, and I've been catching up on email ever since. I realized my email had been down for the past two days, so I missed a whole bunch. Just heard from Maggie and her mom too. They made it to Santorini and now are enjoying the sunset. I'm jealous.

Tonight though, we head back on the ferry (Festos Palace!) to Athens and arrive early in the morning. Knut, our Norwegian neighbor, is going to pick us up at Piraeus, and then we're going to drive three hours up to Delphi for the afternoon. Should be fun! I need to charge my camera batteries tonight...

Then after that, once we return to Athens by early evening, I'm going to try and make it to Kristoffer's lecture. Tomorrow night, I'm going to grab a drink with Doros, Nas, Mike, Maria, Georgina, Knut, Kristoffer, Taso, and Nekteria if they're all willing to go out with me. They're all invited anyway. I leave early the next morning for Seattle via Athens to Munich, Munich to Toronto, and Toronto to Seattle. It's gonna be a long 24 hours of traveling.

Probably talk to you again one more time before I leave Greece. Sad...

Ciao,

Sam