Antiparos Sea Caves

Antiparos

Antiparos is an island right next to Paros. It's literally a 5 minute boat ride. It was probably one of the best trips here! It was such a nice day, completely sunny and insanely hot, maybe 80 degrees.
We first went to "the cave of Antiparos." It was the coolest place ever! It actually reminded me of "The Goonies." So here's a little bit of background on the cave...
The interior of the cave remained a mystery until 1673 when the French dignitary entered the interior of the cave using ropes. The archway leading into the cave has a width of 65.5ft and a height of 26ft. The cave has a depth of 328ft, we had to take 411 steps just to get to the center of the cave. Once we got to the bottom, it was amazing! We seriously stood there in awe! There was graffiti everywhere! Although, now nobody is allowed to right on the walls of the cave. The graffiti is from 16 and 1700's. It was so cool to see writing from that long ago!
After the cave we went on a boat ride to see some sea caves. We stopped the boat and went swimming for a bit. It was amazing, like always, to see how clear the water was. After swimming for a bit we climbed to the top of the sea caves and went cliff diving. It was so much fun but I thought I was going to have a heart attack because we were so high up and I was so scared to jump. I did it though and it was so worth it! I thought I was never going to stop falling but it was the best feeling ever! The day was definitely a success! :)

Sailing!

I learned how to sail the other day! It was such a blast! A few of my friends and I took out a boat with an instructor and went sailing for two hours. It was kind of difficult, I was scared I was going to flip the boat a few times when I was steering. The instructor made me get in a small boat with my friend who has been sailing for a while and made us capsize the boat. I was so scared I was going to hit my head or something on the sail but it really wasn't so bad. It was just really difficult trying to flip the boat back over and to get back in. My friend Clay had to pull me in by life jacket. haha It was so much fun, though!!!! I wish I had pictures to show for it...

I rode on a motorcycle/scooter yesterday! My friend Dan rented a scooter, that looked more like a motorcycle, and we drove to the other side of the island on it. It was pretty scary especially with all the winding roads and mountains. I still had fun but I think riding on the back of one once was enough for me.

George

My creative writing teacher's name is George, he's an older white-haired man with a beard. He's written two memoir novels that I know of and both have been published. So here's the interesting and really cool part... His book "Bones of the Master" was bought by Hollywood, I don't remember which company bought it, but anyway it's in preproduction right now. What's really cool is that Richard Gere wants to play George's character in the movie!!! George has been keeping in contact with Richard Gere's "people" and the production company has to have the budget set for the film by this coming winter. I think it's so cool that I'm being taught by an author who had these wonderful published books, and one is soon to be a movie featuring Richard Gere!!!

Update!!!

So here is a little update about what is going on in Greece and with my studies here. Finally! The weather is becoming beautiful!!!!! Yesterday and today felt like it was nearly 80 degrees. The weather channel has been saying its only been about 65 degrees but with the sun it feel so much warmer! I am getting such a great tan, it's so exciting! I have to be extra careful here because the sun is so much different and I burn instantly if I don't have sunblock on. It's so great to be able to just walk to the beach and layout whenever I feel like and also to finally be able to go swimming! The water is so incredible! Last weekend we jumped in the middle of the ocean (probably at least 30ft deep) and I could see my shadow on the floor of the ocean. The water is so so SO cold! It takes your breath away every time you jump in... it's not bad after a minute, once your body is numb. haha I'm missing home a lot but with this nice weather it's going to be really difficult to go back.

On the work rather than leisure side of things, the end of the semester is coming so quickly! Next week is our last week of classes and I can hardly believe how fast the time went by. We've all been working really hard on our own projects and on May 28th all of us students will be presenting all of our final projects at an art exhibition that's put on for the whole island to see. I'll be showing a painting I have been working on for the past month and reading some pieces of my writing that go along with my painting. It has been so much work especially considering I have never painted in my life before this. It's taking me so much time just to do little details on the painting and I'm even nervous I won't have it done in time or it won't be good enough. I have to say, though, I'm surprising myself on how well the painting is coming along. I'm also nervous to read my writings... I hate public speaking!!! I guess I have to get over my fear at some point in my life! Depending on how confident I feel with my pieces, maybe I'll post them on here when I am finished... but we'll see...

On another note...
I cannot wait to be home! I fly in on the 3rd and I couldn't be more excited! I think I've been homesick for the past 2 months. Once I get home, I really want some Olive Garden or Johnny Carino's, or Jimmy John's!!!! I also can't wait to take an actual shower... I just went three (or four) days without showering; don't worry I wasn't trying to be gross or lazy but we had no hot water and no water pressure and the little bit of water that was trickling out was orange/yellow! I also can't wait to see grass... there is really no legit grass in Greece, it's all weeds or wildflowers. I promise I'm not over-exaggerating. I miss having freshly dried and clean clothes also... I don't mind hanging my clothes out on the line every time I wash them but I'm starting to get sick of the crusty feeling once they dry. I'm going to miss Greece a lot but I'm really missing home right now!

Fleet Foxes - Mykonos

One of my favorite bands, Fleet Foxes, wrote a song about Mykonos, the island I just visited. Just a fun fact, but it's a really good song! :)