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Memories...
Looking back on that semester seems like a lifetime ago. I have found that I remember the oddest things. I can't tell you what most of Rome looks like, but I remember there were stray cats in the Coliseum, that the Circus Maximus was HUGE, and that this Roman business lady gave me a ride (yikes, did I DO that?) to a restaurant. My (step)dad had gone to this place in the 60's (Da Meo Pataca, I think..), and had a menu in the house the whole time I was growing up. I was determined to find that place. And I did and had a most excellent, most over my student budget meal. I got another menu for my dad. They are framed at the house in Oklahoma, now. (The original one from the 60's is about 4 feet long, my 90's version is more like 3 feet). I remember the COLD bed and breakfast in Ireland. (I think the heat turned off at 11 PM, and I only had one blanket). I remember sitting in a pub alone for 3 hours one night just watching people (they had music, it was kind of fun) and no one said a word as I nursed my half pint (hah, never was a lush???) of Scrumpy Jack, until I got up to leave.. .and then several people called out to stay! Except, of course, the buses stop running really early and I had to get back to my B and B with no heat in the burbs. People thought I was local in Ireland. Until I would open my mouth to speak. I'm so pale and I had those purple contacts... and had been living in London absorbing the dress for 3 1/2 months... Greece was probably the place that changed me the most. I didn't notice it, but when I came back from the term my friends noticed I had changed.. for the better. I know that in Greece I was the most independent I had ever been... and the farthest from any safety net. I bought a off-season British vacation to Nea Makia. [I must be spelling that wrong, the only thing Google finds are my pages.] Anyway, it was a resort about 90 minutes by bus from Athens. As a holiday destination, it was an all-you-can-eat resort on a beach, with a charter flight and all that. I think it cost me us 500$ (or was it 500£?) for a whole week.
And it was incredibly freeing. A little boring some times (it's much more fun when you have someone to point things out to!). Hmmm. Other things about Greece... I've never been the kind of girl guys just walk up to on the street and try to pick up.. except in Greece (well, and Brussels and Paris. heh.) One of the bus boys tried to pick me up at the resort through the translation services of a waitress, too. I think I must have confused the *hell* out of the, b/c in my innocence (it's a state of mind, baby), I had no idea what he thought we would DO if we went out since I didn't speak Greek. Yeah. Hell on a tour bus My life is made up of these random stories that people just don't believe, but I couldn't make up if I wanted to. The first leg of my European tour was on a bus. With a bunch of tourists. I picked it up cheap by being able to join in London. This was kind of a budget tour (or I wouldn't have been able to afford it!). Anyway, I thought it would be safer than wandering all of Europe alone, and I wanted hostels, not hostels due to Not Packing Light... and actually being homeless at that point due to the term being over, and needing to haul all by belongings from 6 months across Europe with me. Ok, so I don't pay the 200$ for the single supplement. And get assigned a roommate. This woman was South African (about 1/2 the bus, the rest were from Wyoming or Australia, and ALL of them were over 55), she was, if not mentally retarded, "slow". And she was having hot flashes due to menopause. She had never lived alone in her life, and her mom sent her on this trip. She just flat out was NOT prepared for the trip, and she was overdosing on her medications. I knew I didn't want anything to do with her b/c she was just weird, but I didn't know why. [I didn't hang out w/ the bus. We would go into the City of the Day, and I would take off on my own. And see about 3x the stuff. heh.] Anyway, in Germany, I come up to the room from the hotel pool (indoor. woohoo.) and found two guys in those traditional orderly coats outside the room. And I wasn't allowed in. You know, my German text books had the words, "nerverzusamnbruche nahe," which is SUPPOSED to mean "near to a nervous break down," but either my accent was just that bad, or the book lied. Anyway, the woman vanished, and some people on the bus told me she was in the German mental hospital. Okay then. I'm happy now b/c I have the room to myself and Weird Lady is gone. But then she comes BACK. She flies in to join the tour in France. And I flat out REFUSE to room with her anymore. At this point (2 weeks of 3), I've made friends with this one woman who was a farmer from Durban. She was cool. She was about 70 and did the whole tour on her own as well.. and always wore overalls. Anyway, she was my Bus Friend. The tour guide insisted on having us out of the hotels at 6 each morning, so I would usually stumble out and crash on the bus. The "old people" all over the bus started noticing that this "nice young American" was skipping breakfast. So they started lifting me buns. I got on the bus one morning and 3 different people handed me rolls... Anyway the Lady from Durban became my co-conspirator in Hiding Cheryl From The Evil Tour Bus Lady (evil on multiple counts). She would be seen heading back to the back, and I would get a nudge and "go to sleep. now!". I managed to avoid Evil Tour Bus Lady for like 6 days. Then she wanted me to pay a single supplement! (She finally made them "wake me up.") I wrote a hand written bill on the notice about how they could try suing me in America, and here's my address, but they should have never let Certified Nuts Now Lady back on the tour and I was NOT going to pay the supplement.... I missed Paris. I had to write a paper on Women in Britain during WWII. Or the impact of Syphilis on the war? One of those. I had the research books from the British library packed in one of my suitcases...
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How could I forget to talk about the flat? Yale In London gave use
about 3 days to find housing (yikes!) as the program was too small to have
dorms. So I ended up housing with 5 random other students (adding heavily
to the Huge Final Roommate Count).The flat we could afford was in a formerly nice part of town now divided into Yuppie Flats and Substandard Housing. So, we find this place, that was actually Not Bad. Flats in London come with beds, plates, towels, sheets, etc.
Basically, I lived in a bordello room for 6 months. Through a long and painful story.. that flat ended up with one of my roommates shutting a cabinet that I hadn't emptied yet.. and the housekeepers coming the next mornings and throwing out all my CD's and all my photos, letters and diaries from my childhood. The stuff I wanted for homesick days and considered important. I think I cried..
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I got bored
pretty quickly wandering this little town and the resort, and I was
determined to find Athens. So, I managed to find the bus to
Athens... I have no idea how. I don't speak Greek, and I don't read
Greek, and I think I had a really lame phrasebook. Anyway, I found
Athens. And then I found the Acropolis. And then I climbed it.
I did all of this on my own, no one knew where I was, no one was watching
out for me, no one would notice if I didn't come home.
It was 3 levels, one with a tiny single bedroom, 2 bathrooms, 2
single bedrooms, and a double. There was much argument over who of the 6
of us would get which room and who would get the big bed. One of us was
going to have to take the dining room. So I made a deal, I got the only
double bed, but I took the dining room. And they had to help me set up the
room. Pretty fair, I thought.
Anyway,
the dining room had a chandelier. And a 70's style mirrored wall. Then we
moved in the king sized bed. Which came with a blanket. Which was
Hairy Leopard Print. Then I dumped the 200 (yes 200) condoms I had brought
as the Resident HIV Peer Educator into a drawer.