Is it Friday, really?

July 7, 2006 (I realized I haven't been good about putting the dates in here...)


Yesterday was a good day in that we managed to finally meet up with the rest of the PSU people. We actually were able to spend most of the day with Masaki, whom we found during the conference registration period yesterday. (I feel that is repetitive somehow!) We had lunch with him at this yummy place called Pizza di Napoli where I had a yummy (could I find a different word?) salad and a slice of pizza.

I don't remember whether or not I mentioned the fact that you have to buy water where ever you go, but it was good we did yesterday. We managed to find ourselves in a shopping district and ended up walking around quite a bit. We found some pretty neat shops-- where I found Kei two bracelets and a few postcards to send to peeps back hom.

The day ended with us going to the opening ceremony at the Fortezza towards the end of one side of town. It turned out to be about a 30 min walk from our hotel which was only slightly difficult because of the numerous hosts trying to get us to eat in their restaurants. At the opening ceremony, I ran into Dr. Mike Johnson, a member of my committee and his wife. Of course, Jim Dillard & Denise were there-- in addition to Chris, Mandy, Jen Theiss, and her mother. After a rousing speech by William Cupach about ORI (or obsessional relational intrusion), it was time to ATTEMPT to get food-- and I mean it when I say attempt. We gave up pretty quickly when we saw the line... I mean, 300 to 400 hungry, cheap, conference participants and free food and drinks? Yeah, we would have been there FOREVER.

So, instead we went to another Taverna which was absolutely lovely. I had Souvlaki and it came with french fries (yum!)... so I was in heaven. Another part of the greek meal I didn't know about was the shots of Ouzo that came as "dessert." We managed to finish the whole bottle-- and the slices of watermelon that they also provided helped them (the shots) go down. I don't know how to describe the taste of this liquor and when I asked the others, they can only describe it as similar to the nasty ones Walid has given them (without the lemon). The funny part of the shots was that everytime we took one, we toasted one of the waiters that Alysa thought was really hot and looked most like Wentworth Miller of Prison Break. He was pretty cute. We ended up going back to our hotel and drinking more (till 2am!) just to finish out the night.

So, today we're at the beach! It's the first day of the conference and we decided to celebrate our own relationships instead! So, now I'm sitting on my bright pink towel in my new bathing suit getting a lovely tan. So I think I shall pause for now to get some more sun.

Adio for now!