Random Thoughts From A Thessaloniki Apartment

Yesterday I went to the gym that’s right by Thea’s house and asked how much it would be a month to join. They said 75 euros the first month then 65 euros after that. That’s SO expensive! Especially if you’re converting it to dollars. Europe’s just a bad choice to travel to if you're working with USD right now. But still, even if you had euros - that's a lot for a gym! Plus, it was a woman's gym. Hee, no boys like M allowed. Or any boys for that matter. I guess it's like a fancy Curves? But no, they had yogalates and pilates. I like how it's right down the street from my Thea's place though.

Darkness. The air here from the fan blows, but I can’t really feel it. Thea got this from the old ladies down the street. They said they didn’t need it and gave it to her. It’s a heater but also a fan. It blows and blows and blows. They say things like this help. The Fan, for instance, but it’s hardly cooling me off on this hot August day. It kills me that there’s no AC here. This could be fun. We could rent a car. But…but…but…

In Kormista, there is a man who drives around and honks his around – blam blam blam blam blam blam (no, more like buh buh buh buh buh) – very melodic and staccato – like he’s driving over rocks, bumpy concrete. A personalized horn to let you know that – yes! The cart man is here! - And he brings the villagers fruit and other goods with pop music blaring from his speakers so that you know he’s there.

This man, he's in Thessaloniki too.

I like booking my hotel accommodations in caves. Meaning, you find an empty one and you set up camp and then you don’t leave until you want to leave. Caves by beaches, hard to get to caves where you won’t be disturbed or where you will drown in your sleep because of the tide. This is a careful process, but it’s a delicate one, and it’s one that can be done, obviously.

The dates are all out of order. It’s early, before noon. So people are out on the streets. There’s the low murmur of voices, though I can’t make out what they’re saying. Occasionally a kid will scream for his mama. Thessaloniki is hot like New York is hot in the summer. Unbearable. Sweltering. The only difference is that my family doesn’t have AC in Greece (which is fine – most everyday apartments that I’ve been in don’t have AC in Greece). I’ve lived in a lot of places without AC too. The apartment in the North End didn’t have AC, the house in Los Angeles that we just moved from didn’t have AC. I tend to choose old world places. My house in New York sort of had AC, but it was the AC that comes from those clunky window units and for whatever reason my room didn’t have one, just Gina’s and my parents. How fair is it that she got the bigger room? M brought up that subject when he went to visit my childhood home. It’s funny actually. He was like, “What? You’re older! Why didn’t you get the bigger room?” And I didn’t know how to answer. It’s a good question and I’d like to know the answer. Why didn’t I get that room? Ha. Not that it matters now. Anyway, M was just teasing me, giving me a hard time as he often likes to do.
There’s the rustling of keys outside this window. There’s someone breaking glass, trying to fix a broken laundry rack, the splash of water on the street, the old ladies hosing down their balconies. The crickets outside, the silence. Dogs barking.

There are all these ads on Greek TV for work out gadgets that get you fit without you doing any work. I can’t make out most of the words, but a lot of it involves putting on Fit-U pants or Shake It Skirts and then just sitting down and reading a book and letting the pants do the work for you. I can only assume that people must buy these products (because there are so many of them advertised on here) and the only reason people buy these products is that they are extremely lazy and do not want to do the effort and go to the gym or go for a run or a swim or a whatever. Also, there is this man that rides around in a truck (the Karpouzi Man!) and he shouts strange words to people and there is fruit in the back of his truck and all you can really hear is this washed out voice and it’s almost like he’ll kill you if you step outside of your house: Come outside now and I will throw watermelons at you and you will surely perish. Though my Thea says he’s only selling melons. Plus, there is an old lady that watches me through the curtains and there are all these old ladies and they peer in when the curtain blows and so what if I’m in my underwear I’m not going to apologize for walking around like this because for the next few days it's where we live and I’m alone and if it wasn’t 100 degrees outside maybe I would put some clothes on but because it’s so hot in this silly country with no AC then you leave me no choice, Greece, you leave me no choice. Anyway, this old lady is leaning back on her chair and she is peering in and you can see her crane her neck to get a good glimpse but I don’t care I really don’t I just hope this old lady isn’t friends with my old lady aunt and I hope my old lady aunt doesn’t walk in when I’m prancing around in my birthday suit because just because I want to do this doesn’t mean that she’d be okay with it...or would she?

I actually had more random thoughts but the internet is shoddy in her apartment so blogger deleted the rest. I guess this is the end then.

Pfft.

I will say one more thing though, you see M just made me a frappe and he's better at making frappes then I am, maybe because he shakes the stuff more than I can, he's just stronger I guess. How you make a frappe is you put one spoonful of the crumbly frappe mix in an empty water bottle and then you put some sugar and then you put some water and you close up the empty water bottle with its cap and then you walk around the apartment shaking the bottle and jumping up and down and dancing through the rooms and then when you've shaken the empty water bottle enough you uncap the bottle and you pour the contents in a specifically designed frappe glass (all the glasses in Greece serve a purpose, they have water glasses and greek coffee glasses and other glasses and naturally the frappe glass has "nescafe frappe" written in curvy letters on the side). Last but not least you dip a curvy rainbow-colored straw in the frappe and voila! You have yourself a cold drink for the summer heat. Also, here's the important thing, it's good to use ice cold water for this drink otherwise there's really no point in it. Who would want a luke warm frappe? Blegh.

Question: Why do europeans not believe in ice? Por que?