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Published: March 10th 2008
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Now we are in a town south of Heraklion called Katalagari. The town is tiny… it isn’t even in the guide book. So at first we were a little hesitant because we are going to be here for five nights. When we got here we walked through the town, and there was almost nothing… It was a small church and a mini mart, but then we got to our hotel. It is amazing! It is like a little resort. We have rooms that are like little villas. Each room has a kitchen and a living room. They are awesome. And there’s a pool, it’s not heated, so it’s incredibly cold, but it’s there. 😊 But I will start with last Thursday night because that’s where I left off… So we all went out to a hookah bar that night, including the professors’ wives, so that was a lot of fun. It was a place where Peggy said they went a lot last time they were there. It was a really cute place. So that was a lot of fun. Then on Friday we got to sleep in, which was really nice. And we met one of our guides, Dimitris, and he
took us to a local organic food market. That was a lot of fun because they all let us try a lot of the food. It was all delicious! Then we went to a ceramic workshop/store. That was really neat to see how they make all the pots and stuff. The guy who was making them was amazing! He made like 5 pots in about 15 minutes! All on the pottery wheel, and then another guy made some just by rolling out the clay. Then we got some time to look around the shop and buy stuff. I hope the stuff I bought will make it back to the states because it’s breakable. But anyways, then we went back to the hotel and just hung out there for the night. We had to get our stuff packed up because we left for Katalagari early the next morning. So then we arrived at Katalagari on Saturday morning and checked in to our amazing hotel! And then we left for a cooking class. That was super fun because we got to walk along the road and pick out what looked to be weeds, but they were actually edible and then we brought
them back to the lady’s house so we could cook. All over here there area almond trees that are in season, so when we were walking along the road, we kept picking almonds. And since they are in the shells we had to crack them open with rocks. That was fun. And the almonds were delicious! I could actually taste the almond oil in them (like the almond extract flavor) which I have never been able to taste in the actual nut before. Then we went back to the lady’s house and cooked. We had to separate all of the greens for the salad and the spanikopita (typically spinach pie, but it was mostly mixed greens for us). It wasn’t just greens that we had picked off the side of the road because we needed a lot because there were so many of us, so she had picked some earlier in the day for us. So we cut up all the greens and mixed some with oil and vinegar and spices for the salad. And then we mixed other greens with oil, spices, and feta cheese. This became the spanikopita once we put the dough around it. Then we cooked
it and it was delicious! I’m normally not a huge fan of spanikopita, but I think since we made it, I liked it. And I saw exactly what was going in it. So that class was so much fun! And it makes me want to make it when I get home too 😊 Then we went back to the hotel and had another delicious dinner! It was all home made by the local owners of the resort. It was just meat and potatoes and a salad, but it was delicious. Then we all watched The Last Temptation of Christ after dinner for the religion class. I did not like the movie. And I can completely see why it was banned from so many countries and why the book was too. But yea, so that wasn’t much fun to watch that, especially because it was kinda bloody too. I think it was good that we watched it though because we are reading Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis, the same one who wrote The Last Temptation of Christ. And he was born here in Crete, and we went to his tomb the other day too. But anyways, then yesterday was our “cultural
immersion day.” That was tons of fun! But that didn’t start til later in the afternoon, so I’ll start with the morning…When we got up we had a delicious breakfast here at the hotel, including a pastry called “bougatza” which is apparently their food that they eat after a long night of partying, but it was delicious for breakfast! Along with cereal with chocolate and jam and delcious bread. Yum! Then, after breakfast I sat out by the pool and worked on my paper and then I tutored Cameron a little for math. That was really fun. I’m really glad that I am able to do that because it’s good experience for the future when I’m teaching. Then before we left for the day, David went to the market and bought stuff for a picnic, so we had a delicious picnic by the pool. Then we left the hotel and went to another ancient castle and church, not too exciting because we have seen so many of those, but then we went to another little village and celebrated carnival with them. There was a parade and free wine and pastries, so that fun. And everyone, including the professors and their
wives took advantage of the free wine. It was just like a big party in the streets and we were all dancing and stuff. It was so much fun! Then we had to walk back to Katalagari, it was like two miles (thanks to my pedometer I know how far we have walked every day). The walk back was fun, we were all singing and just having a blast. Then when we got back, David (theater prof) got his swim suit on and jumped in the super cold pool, and Michele and I saw this and were like “hey let’s just go jump in.” So we did… with our clothes on because we knew we would chicken out if we took time to put on our suits. It was freezing! But we kinda started a trend…Like three other people just jumped in with their clothes on and then about ten people got thrown in with their clothes on. So that was a lot of fun, it was freezing, but it was still fun. And I know the Greeks were thinking that we were crazy because not only did we jump in the pool, but we did it with our clothes
Sara and Erik
With the pile of greens that we cooked into spanikopita
on and stayed in there for a while. But yea, so yesterday was a great day being “immersed in the culture” as the professors call it. And they said we have another “cultural immersion day” today. We are going to go make kites and then fly them and then there’s supposed to be another party in some small town in the streets again. So that should be fun. We are leaving for that in a little bit here. Then last night we had another great dinner, again it was just a meat and noodles, but since it was home made, it was delicious! And then last night I just worked on a paper that’s due today.
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