The photo above is part of a blood orange I ate for breakfast this morning, out on this balcony above Stassinou.
The trees in the picture are in fact orange trees, but are laden with bitter inedible fruit. I bought the blood orange yesterday at the Friday street market in Kolonaki, a neighborhood adjacent to mine where a number of my friends live. To get there, I walk up by the National Gardens and past the president's house, where at all hours of the day and night young gaurds in elaborate traditional uniforms do drills outside the gates, stepping high in shoes with pompoms on the toes. The market was wonderful, bright and busy and full of unknown things. I bought tomatoes, citrus, apples, cucumbers, lettuce, oregano, and some very interesting greens. I thought I knew more than most about greens, but I have no idea what these ones are - peppery and a little tough, but not so much as to need to be cooked like chard or kale. I wish I had a picture for you, dad. Maybe next time.
Life here is great - I'm having an easier time adjusting to the different hours than I had anticipated. Thus far I appreciate how many things are done more slowly, more generously. Meals go on and on for hours, walks around the city through endless new blocks, a general interest in quality of life, in things done well. A case in point: yesterday around four in the afternoon, a couple of friends and I decided that we wanted coffee before class. We headed out and stopped into the first cafe we came to, a place around the corner from our apartment roughly the size of a closet. The proprieter, after listening to our request for coffee, ushered us to seats by the window and proceeded to give us shots of cherry brandy and talk to us about the spirit of Greece. The coffee never came - we just spent the hour nursing our liquor before heading off to class, after promising to come back soon.
In other news, it appears that my apartment is the land of Very Attractive Women. We all get along very well thus far and have been having a lot of fun exploring the area and getting to know one another - it is reassuring to have good company in a strange place. It is interesting and a little unnerving, the sort of attention a group of American females receive around Athens. When I stroll by myself I can feel relatively unnoticed, particularly if I wear black and avoid eye contact. Going out with one of my blonde housemates, however, is an entirely different story. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out as we all get more comfortable here in general - right now i suspect our map-clutching and strictly English-speaking ways mark us as tourists rather than expats. We'll see, we'll see.
I guess that's all for now, I'd rather be off to see the day.
