May 16, 2000

So this is going to be the final message in this journal. I went to Joanna's house and Sofia was there too. We just sat and watched tv. Alex called and we made plans to meet at 222 but hours later. Me and Joanna took her luggage to the house to get that out of the wy. We sat there until Alex called. We went to 222 and I had my last frappe. It was a bad one too. I was getting very sad about leaving. George came me a variety of teas. It was so sweet. We sat there for a long time but I did not care because I was dead tired. We all decided to go to Gus' for kabobs. Me, Joanna and Dina went and Alex was going to meet us with George. It was crazy in the store because the fan broke and they could not grill a lot of kabobs at a time. Christina came with Angela. We ate and then sat for a while so we could talk to Vicky a little too. Finally I said my goodbyes and went home. I cried a little. More because I felt bad for what I did to them then the fact that I was leaving. When I got home, I started fixing the luggage. Mom got up and was yelling and being crazy. Anyway. I was able to get two hours of sleep in. I woke up at 4 to shower and get ready. Mom heard me and woke up yelling again that I got up too early. She was planning on getting up at 5, fixing the luggage and being on the plane by 6:20. It is a good  thing I am anal about these things. Another crazy thing she did, I asked her to sew my pants a little and she only did one leg. We went to the airport and checked in. It all worked out very well with the luggage. Mom left and then I and to wait for one hour with Uncle Jim and Joanna. Not exactly the typical goodbye party. Finally the time came for me to leave. I cried saying bye to Joanna a lot. The plane was really nice. The seats were leather and I could actually sit Indian style in them. I slept most of that flight. My layover in England was very short and my gate was very far away. But I did have time to stop and buy my perfume, Dolce Gabana BY. When I boarded the plane I almost freaked. It was tiny and dirty and had that nauseating plane small. Luckily there was an empty seat between me and the other lady. She was a really cute English lady. She asked me if I was a yoga instructor beacue of the way I was bunching up int he chair to sleep. I had attempted to bring kabobs for dad but they would not refrigerate them for me so I had to throw them away. Anyway. I tried to sleep for most of the plane ride but it did not work well. It seemed like it was taking foreve. Then the pilot announced that we would be landing in one hour. I though we had three left. What I had done is changed by watch for England time then American or something but was off by tow hours. I was suddenly the happiest girl in the world. At the airport, I found mom right away. All of our luggage came in ok too. We went through customs and they opened the luggage with the olives but put them back. I went running out and Babs was calling my name. I left her all the luggage and I went running to my daddy crying. I was so happy. So then we all came home like a family. Rania came over that day and so did Sofie and Mrs Dina. It is really good to be home. 

May 14, 2000

This is many days later of so it seems. I never ended up sleeping that day. I tossed and turned forever. Mom told me that I could not go out so I decided to get up. Uncle Jim came by and picked up all of my luggage. Me and mom then went to Neon for dinner. We were home by 10 and mom went straight to sleep. I stayed up and was writing letters to Patty and Joanna. Joanna came home at about 12 and went straight to bed. She was pretty sick. A little while later Patty came over. We were supposed to go out one last time but that was not going to happen. Joanna actually gave me an attitude like I chose to toss and turn all night and to be dead tired all day. Patty left and we went to bed. I woke up in the morning to do some last minute stupid shopping. As I was walking, my feet started bleeding. I was wearing the same sandals I wore all last summer but for some reason I got bleeding blisters now. So I stopped and bought myself a new pair of shoes. I went by Vicky's for a little while. At 1, me, Joanna and Patty had a date and Takis for our last frappe. I was the first one there and Patty came a while later. We waited for Joanna but she did not come. She needed to so some shopping so she ditched us. I was very annoyed. But me and Patty just sat together and thought. She needed to spend a lot of money so we bought lotto tickets. Joanna and Patty then went to the airport and I went to Vicky's again. We ate lunch and then I came to Uncle Jim's. I started packing and I did a great job. There was a ton of stuff. Alex and Aunt Noni came by. They left and then Angela left and I was alone. I snuck a phone call to Babs to complain. I called Joanna then. She was very sick so she told me to go over. So I did. We started watching Ms Universe but I fell asleep. When it finished, I came home. I had problems falling asleep again. Listed to what happened to Patty. She go tot London at 9 and was supposed to leave at 12. What she had not realized was that was 12 the next afternoon. And they wanted her to take her five piece of luggage too but she told them she can't. Anyway. So this morning, I woke up and it was Mother's Day. The original plan had been to go with Vicky and Aunt Adi to the Hilton. Vicky had to see someone at the hospital so she couldn't. Then me, mom, Alex and Aunt Noni were supposed to go for coffee but that fell through too. So we decided to see Nick who had been bothering us for so long. He came and picked us up and we went by the house. We sat there and I was bored out of my mind. We lied so that we could leave. We came back home and ate a very good lunch. Now I am going to go to Joanna and then we are going to 222. Then next time I will probably write will be in the plane.

May 12, 2000

So yesterday Patty came and we went to 222. We just sat there doing nothing special. After a little while Joanna came too but me and Patty left because she had to go shopping with her grandmother. I came home to do my history essay. Then I went to school to take my last final. On my way there, I dropped my purple sweater from Alex and I thought I lost it so I was about to freak. Luckily, Kranin found it for me. The final went ok. I did it very quickly just to get out of there. I went and wrote my last emails from CYA and then I went to Vicky. I sat there and had a coffee until Patty came. Vicky gave me a really nice pair of earrings. Then we started heading towards home. We stopped in some stores on the way. When we got to her house, we attempted to repack her luggage. It was absolutely crazy. That girl bought so many things. She is going home with five luggage. We went through hell to get it shut but we worked miracles. She wanted to take them to her grandmothers but we were kind of late for our reservations. She went anyway and called and cancelled htem. In the meantime, Helen called and said she wanted to come with another group and we did not want that. So anyway, we decided we would go anyway so we all got dressed up and just walked in,  just me, Patty and Joanna. The menu only had one type of food with either chicken, steak or salmon. First the brought out French bread with this spread. It was green and buttery but I have no clue what it was. Then they brought the lettuce salad that had a delicious dressing. Next was the main course. I got salmon and the girls split the steak. Then they served these really think like French Fries and it was all covered in this sauce. Very good. And for dessert we had profiterole which did not thrill me. Afterwards, we went to Takis. Carrie came too. We sat there and had a drink until about 2. Bill came too. We had plans to go to one of the big clubs but Patty was dead tired and I could care less. So we cam home. I could not fall asleep for the life of me. It was horrible. I only ended up getting one hour of sleep. Dad called again, in the morning, no big surprise. I was supposed to meet mom at 9:00 to go shopping. She ended up coming at 9:30 with no money. We started fighting of course and she was telling me I don't know how to clean. We sat at Vicky's a little and then I went to the academic center. I ended up getting an A in Greek, a B in Art & Archaeology, a C in Byzantine Art and those are the only ones out so far. From there I stopped by the dining hall one last time. Then I went shopping! I bought some gifts for people and a lot of purses. It was so much fun. Me and Joanna then started packing up our little apartment. It is very strange. Mom is here too but she is sleeping. I think I am going to try to do that for a little while too. 

May 11, 2000

Yesterday morning I woke up extra early to go and study for my Byzantine final. I wen tot school and did not do too much. I guess that is why I did not do too well on the test either. I came home afterwards and mom came over too. I took her to Everest for lunch. Joanna and Patty went shopping but once again, I could not go with them. We stayed home a little bit, then I took her to the academic center to meet Nadia. She left and I sat there and productively did homework. Alex called so we could make plans but the lines got cut off. I got sick of waiting so I went to Uncle Jim's. Anna was getting ready to go on vacation. Alex finally called back and so did Kathy, at the same time.. twice. I needed to see Kathy, because she was leaving for Mykonos today. We decided to meet at the house. I said bye to Anna and then Uncle Jim drove us htere. We sat and ate. Larry came afterwards too. We were saying for me to sleep over but I decided to come home. Patty and Joanna came back from their soccer game. They had a great time. Then we all went to our respective beds. I wanted to wake up early this morning to go shopping but that did not happen. Who cares. I was tired. Now I am waiting for Patty to come and I am going to go for coffee. 

May 9, 2000

I only have a few days left in Greece and now I am starting to slack off on my journal writing. I guess it is either because I am too busy or too bored or simply too sick of being here. Yesterdays was the first day of finals. Greek went pretty well as expected. After the test, I came home and sat like a very good little girl and read for history. I think that test went ok too. I did a lot better than the other times. We hung out at the academic center for a while, then Joanna and Patty wanted Everest. We went to Metropolis too and I did some cd browsing. I was meeting mom and Sofie and Vicky's so we could go eat. We went to Ciao and had pasta. Mine was too spicy. Mom and Sof got one with shredded chicken. Afterwards, we went to the computer lab because Sofie needed to use the internet. She walked me home with a stop for ice cream. I wanted to study but I could not concentrate so I cleaned and went to bed. Joanna had gone to her cousins house because it was her birthday. I woke up early today to studay. I went to the academic center and read until I realized that no matter how much I studies, I would not be able to keep anything straight. The test was really hard (Attic Tragedy that is, and the second one yesterday was history). He asked easy things but no one thought they would need to study them. It was funny because Babs called in the middle of it and I actually answered. Later we met Angela, Anna and Sofie for coffee. We sat there for a pretty short while and then I came home to do some homework. Mom went to talk to people about coming to school here and it is pretty  much not happening. Mom went and got some teeth pulled today. Yesterday they introduced new mini Bake Rolls and they make this in pizza flavor. Not only that, but Greece got BBQ Ruffles.. 

May 7, 2000

Yesterday morning right now I cant even remember what happened. Mom came home from  the village pretty early and she came over. She brought with her some of Theia Pat's yummy pita. We sat just the two of us because Joanna had gone shopping again. When Joanna came home, we just sat some more. It was a very lazy morning. We wasted a beautiful day. Something weird happened though. I was packing my box and all of a sudden my legs got very itchy. I started jumping up and own. I lifted up my pants to see what it was an my thighs were bright red and puffy and burning. We put on some of Joanna's allergy cream and the itching stopped. I had packed my Benadryl so Joanna tried to find a pharmacy but had no luck. Luckily it passed on its own but I have no clue what it was from. Anyway. Barbara got back at around 5 after having left at 9 from the village. She said hat they kept stopping every hour for thinks like grapefruit. I forgot to mention that the bus I can home on even had a tv screen that they played a movie on. Babs and mom started fighting as usual. We got Bab's things ready and then we started getting ready because it was her birthday. First we went by Vicky's house. We sat there until Vicky got ready. Then we went to Gus to eat kabobs. I met some Americans from Michigan. I had to help them order. It was funny because they were asking about clubs and totally hinting for us to invite them with us. After dinner, we went to 222. Slowly everyone started ocming. We had a few drinks and cut a cake. I told Vicky to get a cake but she couldn't since we were going together so she called Alex but she had no ay of getting one so she called Angla. Personally, it made me sick. From there, we all went to Diplo. We danced and had fun. John at one point was not feeling too good and actually fainted. It was scary. We left at 4:30 and a bunch of us came home. We got some things ready and headed to the airport. It was actually not the saddest goodbye. At the club I was really sad because I felt like she was leaving and that I would be stuck here miserable again. We came home and slept for the night at 8am. I woke up at about 1 today. Mom came over with food and practically force fed me. Then the rest of the day was kind of boring. I sat and read about Alexander the Great. Mom slept for hours. When she woke up we had coffee together. Then Patty called and told me to go by her grandmother's to studay. We actually got no studying done. I really love that girl. I met her grandpa too and he is adorbale. Now I am home. Joanna just got back. She had gone to the goodbye party at the school. I have some studying to do now so I am going to stop writing. 

May 5, 2000 Part 2

Angela called and said she wanted me to go shop with her for Babs. I was thinking of going by the house anyway so I went over first. We ate tuna salad and rice with vegetables. They actually warm up the mayo which was kind of gross. Mom called and she did not come today. Uncle Jim had car problems so he went to get it fixed. They are going to leave bright and early tomorrow. We sat around the house for a while and Mrs. Dina called me again. She is so cute. We want shopping. I bought some make up at Hondos Center. Then the girls got Babs a funky necklace from the place by Vicky. We went to see Vicky for a little bit, then we went to Dinks for coffee. I am enjoying the time I spend with them now. They walked me home and left. Joanna was home already and she bought me a plain cute tank top. It was so sweet of her. She bought herself a lot of cute stuff. We spent the night at home literally doing nothing. Patty came over now and we are just sitting.