Well, they're here. The kids are here. All seventy-some odd of them, mostly speaking Greek, but with plenty of English thrown in as well as some Bulgarian, Albanian, Danish and maybe more. There are so many languages going around that I sometimes sort of feel like I could start speaking Latin or Swahili, and nobody would notice the difference. Of course, I don't know any Swahili, and my Latin is so terrible nowadays that I only know enough for crossword puzzles, so that's no good.

It's interesting; people here just seem to assume that I speak Greek. Every time I walk into a shop or get on the bus or walk into a restaurant people will just start chattering away at me. It's a little bit intimidating but also encouraging, because it makes me feel like I don't stand out too much. On previous trips to Europe I've always felt very obviously American, but that's not quite as true this time. Maybe it's because Thessaloniki isn't as much of a tourist destination as Athens or Florence or London. I don't think there are nearly as many Americans around here.
Maybe that explains why that street vendor asked me if I'm Bulgarian...

I also had a funny conversation with a man at a street market today. I was looking around his store and he asked me a question in Greek that I didn't quite catch. "I'm sorry," I told him, in Greek. "I don't understand." (This is an extremely useful phrase; Dhen Catalaveno. Memorize it if you plan to come visit me. ) He nodded. A few moments later, he asked me yet another incomprehensible question. I was confused as hell and really starting to doubt my Greek skills.

Is my accent so awful that Greeks can't understand me? Am I so hopeless that I can't understand a single word of a simple question? I just stood there, probably looking completely wide-eyed and bewildered, until he asked me, in Greek "You are not from Italy?" I shook my head and he started speaking perfect English to me. But man, it's hard enough to keep track of one foreign language that I semi-speak, without having random other languages cropping up as well.

This weekend was nice and relaxing; I had some more great seafood and tried ouzo for the first time. Joe (that's my boyfriend for those of you who don't know him) has commented that my blog seems to be largely about food. I guess that's true, but I challenge any of you to visit Greece and come away not talking about food.

Actually, one of my favorite things to do in foreign countries is shop for groceries; it's a good way to figure out what people like to eat in that particular place, and grocery stores are not generally a place where tourists hang out. When I studied abroad in London, I spent a rather ridiculous amount of time at Sainsbury's, reading labels and saying things like "Look! They have Marmite next to the peanut butter!" and "Ooh, the sign says 'aubergine' instead of 'eggplant!" Here, grocery shopping is both unnecessary (because I can eat in the dining hall) and extra fun, because I often really have very little idea of what it is that I am buying. Will I get the detergent home and discover that it is actually fabric softener? Why does the yogurt have pictures of cows and sheep on it? Is that baking chocolate or eating chocolate? I still don't know. I do know, however, that Hellman's, a brand that I usually asociate with mayonaise, makes tzatziki sauce here. I find that very funny. Also, there's plenty of octopus on the shelf.

I'll stop talking about food now- and start talking about alcohol instead. Retsina is one of the traditional Greek wines, made from pine resin, and it's extremely cheap and pretty good. Apparently real wine snobs look down on it, but I am absolutely not a wine snob, and I've liked it so far. My guidebook goes on about the wonderful tradition of red wine in Greece and all of the health benefits that go along with it, but my guidebook neglects to explain that higher price tags and headaches also come with the health benefits. (I don't know why, but it only takes one glass of red wine with dinner to make me feel positively wretched the next morning.) In any case, retsina is classier than the cheap wine at the supermarket in Grinnell, which came in a variety of colors, including jolly-rancher green- and it costs about the same.

Actually, speaking of shopping, I went on a marathon shopping trip today, in search of ponytail holders. I consider ponytail holders to be a basic need, something that shouldn't be hard to find. After all, every country has people with long hair, right? Surely they occasionally need to tie it back?

Maybe not. I went into several pharmacies and inquired, using broken Greek and lots of crazy gestures involving my hair, (God knows how you say "ponytail holders" in Greek) but everyone shook their heads. I went to several supermarkets and finally, tucked away in the corner of the basement of one store, I turned up some sparkly scrunchies that look like they've been sitting on the shelf since the reign of Agamemnon. There were also some tiny little hair ties with Hello Kitty logos on them, but I've already been mistaken for a high school student enough; I don't think I want to create any more confusion about that. Anyway, the end of the story is, the ancient hair ties (of which there are two) cost three whole Euro. For the past few hours, I have been watching the hair of every Greek woman I encounter, to see how she has tied it back. Surely there must be a good source of hair ties somewhere!