Dude! I put last semester’s textbooks on Half.com less than an hour ago, and already I have a sale! This is definitely the way to fly.
The luggage delivery guy called around midnight, as I was getting ready to go to sleep. He said he’d be by in about two hours. I asked if he could just leave it with the front desk so I wouldn’t have to wake up. I then called the front desk, who told me it would be fine, but I’d have to pick up the bag before 8AM. Fine by me. I set my alarm for 7 and promptly fell unconscious.
I awoke at 4:30, probably due to jet lag weirdness. I headed downstairs in my socks and Anne Taintor pajamas, only to find it hadn’t been delivered yet. I called the bag guy, who told me he was a block away from my dorm. My timing rocks! I told him I’d meet him downstairs, and he said he’d call me if there were any problems. Instant dilemma. If I went downstairs, I’d miss the phone if he felt the need to call me, and it would wake up Ko. If I stayed upstairs, he might not be able to find me and call me anyway. I figured the best thing to do would be to meet him outside.
I blame jet lag for such a ridiculous decision. The temperatures were in the low 30s, and I was wearing light cotton pajamas. But Ko’s sleep was at stake, so I ventured out into the cold, only to see the bag guy taking my suitcase out of the van (about half a block away), a cellphone glued to his ear. I started jumping up and down and shouting “I’m right here! Don’t call me!” etc. Eventually he spotted me and we made the handoff.
The next morning, Ko told me that she didn’t remember the phone ringing, so he must have been calling someone else, or maybe Ko’s just a heavier sleeper than I give her credit for.
And now I have good bras and stripey socks and deoderant and all my favourite shirts and the various tchotchkes I picked up in Greece and the buttons for my purse and other assorted goodness! Hurrah!
Grr. Still no word on my bag. They said it would probably come to Philly on the equivalent flight today, but by those standards, it would have arrived hours ago. I called US Airways, which was no help.
Funny that I miss my bag more now, when I have plenty of clothes, than I did when I had nothing by the shirt on my back, the jeans on my tush, and a single sweater. I want my deoderant and multicolored socks!
Jon Stewart is hosting the Oscars. Excuse me while I *SQUEE*. I’m wary, yet absolutely thrilled!
Whedonverse meme! Comment here with your user name and then people can comment anonymously or not about what Whedonverse they think you would fit into best as well as who would be your best friend, arch nemisis, etc.
And to continue another meme: Don’t you think Bush looks tired?
All sorts of fannish glee awaits me!
Blue Sun BioDiesel! Aaron points me to the first sign of Alliance domination. And horror–they’re targeting the liberals first! And speaking of Firefly, I am positively gleeful about the Penn Movie Channel’s shedule for January — they’re airing Serenity nearly every day. And Serenity won the BBC 2005 Film of the Year! Shabooyeah.
Next, Will tells me that Neil Gaiman is coming to Temple! Thursday, January 26, at 8:00 PM in Room 222 Temple University’s Center City campus (1515 Market Street, entrance is between Market St. and JFK Boulevard). He’s going to read from recent work, and I assume sign as well. I wish I’d known earlier, so that I could have brought my Mirrormask book from home! Oh well. I could get him to sign Anansi Boys, which I finally finished in Greece. OOH! I could make prints of some of my Sandman images and give them to him! Mmm, good idea, me! Vote in the poll and tell me what I should do.
In addition to Anansi Boys, I also finished Jim Butcher’s Furies of the Calderon (quite nifty, but I’m not as big on High Fantasy as I once was) and John Hodgman’s Areas of my Expertise (read it NOW). Speaking of Jim Butcher, we have the cover for the 8th Dresden Files book, Proven Guilty! Also, I’m trying not to dance around my room and squee over Jim’s endorsement of my idea for the “name” for the fans/fandom. I took a leaf from the X-Files’ book and jokingly suggested “DresdenPhiles,” only to have the list rally in its favor! I’ve been in this fandom a couple months, and I’m already naming the fen! So amused.
I’m not surprised they lost my bag again. I barely made my connection through Rome as it is! In fact, I shouldn’t have made it at all. I guess the whole Meteora pilgrimage thing earned me a mini-miracle.
Full story later!
Off to Meteora this morning! Athens was a bit of a bust yesterday–for reasons unfathomable, the Acropolis was closed. Fortunately, many photographic opportunities still presented themselves, and I found a very cute satchel-purse thing in a nearby market.
When I blogged last night, I’d totally forgotten that we’d gotten tickets to visit Aegina this morning. We were supposed to visit the island in our Saronic Island Hop, but the touring company visited Aegina after Hydra rather than before, as Chungy was led to believe, and we already had hotel reservations in Hydra and couldn’t exactly leave.
So that brings us to today! Now, first off, Chungy and I have very different ideas of how one travels. She plans exactly how much time a certain thing requires and then crams in as much sleep time as possible. I, on the other hand, prefer to move at a more leisurely pace, and give my travel plans plenty of padding. In this morning’s mad rush (we go by Chungy-time, to my chagrin), I realized that my digital camera wasn’t in my big camera bag. I did a quick scouring of the house and quickly found it, juggled my stuff in order, and ran. It wasn’t until we were on the train to Piraeus (Athens’ port) that I noticed that my digital camera was still not in my camera bag.
I was fairly sure that I must have just left it on the bed when I was juggling all the rest of my stuff, but as I didn’t remember seeing it in my cursory glance around the room before running off to catch the train. As we rode further and further from the house, blind panic and visions of worst case scenarios won over common sense. We scrapped our Aegina plans (my two minutes of searching had apparently pushed us into “we might not make the boat anyway” territory, cough cough) and went back to Chungy’s cousin’s house in Kiffisia, a Northern suburb of Athens, to put my fears to rest.
As we both expected, it was there on the bed all along. It had been covered up by the umbrella I decided not to bring. So instead of visiting Aegina, we’ll be doing what I wrote we’d do in my blog anyway! Today, we take Athens! Chungy is going to take a short run while I pore over the travel books I finally have access to, now that I have my bag back, and pick out what we should see. Then I’ll drop off my film to be developed, and we’ll be off!
In a way, I’m glad this happened. I’m sure Aegina would have been awesome (I saw pictures of the Temple of Athena–I would have loved to visit), but it would have meant two hours of boat travel each way, and we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to really investigate Athens. So yay for my absentmindedness and paranoia, and yay for Chungy’s down-to-the-wire system of travel planning!
Bwee! Our day trip in Delphi was fabulous. The trip was much more structured and we didn’t get any time to walk around on our own, but I still loved it. I just wish I’d had the chance to photograph in the nearby village!
The city was at the level of some of the clouds, high in the mountains, and the result was pure photographic glee. I can’t wait to get my film developed. Delicious atmosphere! No wonder the city holds so much mystic significance to its inhabitants–the clouds practically writhed.
But first, the bus ride! Our tour guide was a native Greek woman with a relatively strong grasp of English, but there were certain words that she definitely didn’t know how to use. The most amusing was probably her obsessive over(mis)use of the word “precise” when no adjective was necessary, ie “This road precisely connects Athens to Delphi,” and “unique” when she meant “only,” such as “Apollo’s unique sister, Artemis.” Also, she kept referring to things as “anonymous” when she probably meant “eponymous.” (Mad props to her for attempting vocab I didn’t even learn until a few years ago!) Additionally, she felt compelled to point out the most random things on the 2-hour bus voyage, the most noteworthy being a lengthy lecture on Greek aluminum production, and a repeat of the Oedipus myth at least four times. I found it hilarious, though somewhat distracting as I ploughed through Anansi Boys. Poor Chungy, on the other hand, was trying to sleep! She still has her cold, which I managed to skirt thanks to the powers of Echinacea.
First, we visited Delphi’s archaeological museum, which was chok full of ancient goodness. It’s one thing to see drawings and diagrams of the city’s layout, but it’s difficult to grasp the sheer scale until you realize that stone sphinx atop a giant pillar could eat you and your dog in one bite.
Next, we got to tromp around some of the ruins. I stood on the stage of their acoustically fabulous ampitheatre and wished I could remember my Eurypides. I took lots and lots of photos that I am positively gleeful about getting developed. One of my Christmas presents was the Lensbaby 2.0, and I’ve been playing around with the different aperture rings and squealing over what I’m seeing through the viewfinder. I think I’ll get some of the film developed tomorrow instead of waiting until I return to Philly.
Tomorrow, Chungy and I finally investigate what Athens has to offer! Hurrah! Also, hopefully my grades will be posted tomorrow!
Back from Island Hop #1! The weather was utterly perfect, and I got along quite handily without my bag. It’s so nice to have it back, though! Apparently, it didn’t make the connection from Munich, which is pretty silly, as that was the longest connection I had!
Spetses, while lovely, wasn’t nearly as charming as Hydra. The people were rude, and there was very little to do, not to mention surprisingly few places to eat anything beyond a sandwich or an omelette, a far cry from the authentic Greek cuisine we sought. We ended up changing our boat reservations and returning to Athens a few hours early.
My New Year was surprisingly nice. After dinner, we crashed in the hotel room, intending to wait for midnight to approach before heading out to a bar. We watched bits of “Finding Nemo” dubbed in Greek and a chunk of Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord of the Rings. It was rather funny, as LotR had Greek subtitles, and Mordor’s Greek equivalent looks to an English speaker like “Moptop.”
All the bars were closed (?!), so Chungy and I sat on the porch of the hotel and just talked, which is the best way to celebrate the New Year I can think of.
And now I’m off to prepare for tomorrow’s day trip Delphi! Happy New Year to all! Khronia Pola! Or my mneumonic, “chronic polio!”