I'll Be Your Alternate, Baby

In an alternate universe, I have a boyfriend. I live in Los Angeles with this boyfriend. We just decide to leave one summer, we put everything in storage, we take off across the country to New York and visit my family, then we go to Europe, we travel by train to Greece from Germany.

Oh, wait...that IS my universe. YES!

::Eva does the happy dance:: <-Eva = Dork

It’s going to be hot today, I can only assume.

The internet isn’t working. All we’ve been eating is pasta and greek salads and spinach pies and gyros (glorious!). Myzethra too. And cheese! We’ve been eating in a lot and M makes his Arrabbiata sauce which is actually quite tasty. I don’t mind not doing much in Thessaloniki, because we’ve been go go go since the beginning of June and even before that, so I’m okay. It’s nice to not do anything and just relax, to just wander, especially since from the 15-20th it’s probably going to be go-go-go again, with flying back home and then Melissa’s wedding and then driving to Sara’s (although, don't get me wrong, I am excited!).

Yesterday I was not very creative. At least not as creative as the day before yesterday. The day just faded away and there was nothing left of it. We went to the store and at the stores here they weigh the fruits before you go the final register so the final register people don’t have to weight the fruits. See, there's this fruit girl who specifically weighs the fruits in the produce department and that is her job. Not that it really matters who's weighing the fruits in the end. Actually, those big supermarkets are not so different from how it is in the U.S. Except cheese and fruit and vegetables are much cheaper here. Much, much cheaper. Or at least certain ones are. For instance, avocados are actually more expensive then they are in Southern California, but then, they're expensive in New York, too. But hungarian green peppers are EXTREMELY cheap here! Like .35 euro cents for 7 of them. Also, I didn't realize how obsessed I was with sushi! And avocados, apparently. But even New York doesn't have the variety of sushi that LA has (sorry New York?). Sure, there is expensive and yummy sushi places in NY, but I haven't found cheap, affordable and yummy places yet (if anyone knows of any, let me know!). My point is, Sushi and avocados and yummy asian and mexican food and fresh fruit and vegetables and sunshine is a Southern California thing. Granted you can have fresh fruit and vegetables on the east coast too, this I know...sigh...I'm just going to stop comparing. The two cities are just...different. It's like comparing a really big apple to a really big orange. Good thing I just like fruit, period.

Right now: There's the smell of tomatoes boiling, someone shouts down the street in tune with the music on the radio. There’s some Japanese cooking show on television and the challenge is to cook with mushrooms. For whatever reason there doesn’t seem to be many mushrooms in this town. I don’t know why but Greeks don’t believe in mushrooms, maybe the 'shrooms can’t survive in the arid ground? Maybe Greeks just make what’s do. Or I’m not looking in the right places.

I miss beaches! Sarti was fun (and relaxing - I'm all about relaxing right now, can you tell?). I think we're going to try to go to one of the blue flag beaches outside of Thessaloniki. You can take a bus to them, that's what I hear. Yup. On the telley they had a news feature about the "crazy" beaches of Greece. It was actually funny. They had a segment about the bikini and just showed lots of pictures of women's butts! Really, Greek News? Really? Is the bikini that extraordinary? Plus, they just showed people partying and dancing all crazy on the different island - which I don't understand. How is any of this breaking news? Isn't that what you're supposed to do in the summers in Greece? Just dance to electronica on the beach? Hmmmmm?

Or...perhaps, perhaps...something was lost in translation. That could be it, too. I can't understand all the words yet, but I am getting there. Slowly, slowly... :)