More Pictures

This weekend, I've been working on my paper and enjoying the sunshine. On Friday, I met Michelle and Marfo at Costa for coffee, then headed to school to do some research. The weather has been beautiful...still very cold, but nice and sunny. The cold weather here isn't unbearable at all...it gets cold in Mississippi, but usually it's just a cold front and then it warms up again. Here, it gets cold in October and stays cold until April. I heard that it snowed in Memphis and north Mississippi yesterday - fun! Friday night, my housemates and I went to dinner at Cafe Uno for some delicious pasta! I was telling Marfo and Cat that a lot of people my age and younger are getting married back home, and Marfo was so surprised! She's going to be 26 in a week, and she thinks she's still too young to be getting married! She's been dating her boyfriend for nearly 6 years, and she wants to wait a couple more years before marriage. In our culture (well, mostly just in the South) it's normal for people in a serious relationship to get married right after they graduate from college, but that's not the case in Greece! Marfo is from Corfu, an island towards the northern part of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea. She went to college in Athens, and she's fluent in three languages! Tonight, I went to a Rotary Valentine's Dinner at a restaurant in Warwick called The Cellar. My entire host club was there, along with their wives/partners. In England, it's very common for couples to live together for a long period of time and not get married. The vice-president of my host club has lived with his partner, Jeanne, for 20 years and they've never married! They don't say "This is my girlfriend/boyfriend," instead they say "This is my partner." Usually in the States, "partner" is associated with gay couples, so needless to say I was a bit confused at first when I heard about Peter and his partner, or Sarah and her partner. :) Dinner was wonderful...I'm sure you can guess what the two vegetables they served were...carrots and potatoes! Never butter beans, string beans, sweet potatoes, peas, etc...just carrots and potatoes. :) Everyone in my club is SO nice, and I really love getting to see all of them! Since the area where I live is so close to Birmingham, many people in my club have a bit of a Birmingham "Brummie" accent. Mike, my host counselor, and his wife, Judy, have lived in Birmingham their whole lives, so their accent is very thick! The Brummie accent is very distinctive, and a little harder to understand than your typical English accent. Instead of saying "lovely," it sounds more like "Loove-ly." "Mother" sounds like "Moo-ther." It's fun to listen to! Tonight I'm going to post the pictures from our ice skating trip, and also a picture of my host counselor and his wife!

Marfo getting warmed up for the ice...it was actually her first time to ice skate!

Me and Natalie, pooped from a night of ice skating

Michelle and Marfo

My wonderful host counselor and his wife, Mike and Judy Taylor. Tools and I think that Judy looks like a British version of the Chi Omega housemom, Mama Jones!