Yeia sou!

Now that I am safely back home in Rome, I can give a thorough description of my adventures in Rhodes. Since there are so many, I will only mention my absolute favorites.

I have to start off with my favorite topic, food. I would have to say my favorite dish of the week was the first night I was in Rhodes. We went to the restaurant called "Jason Inn" and the dish I had was called Chicken Souvlaki. Chicken souvlaki is pretty much a chicken kabob but had a seasoning that I had never tasted before. The chicken was cooked well and it had a faint hint of something sweet but spicy at the end, almost like cinnamon. My plate also had fried potatoes, carrots sautéed in butter that melted right when I bit into them, flavorful rice and fresh salad. The girls I traveled with (Maeg, Jessica, and Claire) and I managed to get thirty percent off of our meal and complimentary refreshment drinks! I started to fall in love with Greece that very moment. One thing about the island of Rhodes is that the Greeks LOVE California girls. Its very rare that people from the United States travel to Rhodes because it is so far away, but it is the perfect get away for Italians. Every time we told people we were from California the Greeks' eyes would get as big as saucers and assure us it was their dream to travel to California. The locals in Rhodes for the most part were very hospitable, generous people who wanted nothing more than to just sit down and have a conversation with us.

Secondly, I have to talk about my favorite city. Lindos by far takes the cake. I talked about it a little in my previous blog but a small description doesn't do it justice. Lindos is a little town pressed up against a hill consisting of nothing but lovely white buildings and houses. The city overlooks a harbor of white sand and clear, turquoise water. This is where I had my first hand experience living as a Greek, riding my donkey all the way to the top of Lindos. I rode my little donkey Georgio (pronounced as Your-go in Greek) up the cobble stone streets of Lindos overlooking the Aegean Sea. What more could I ask for?

Fortunately, I was able to do something just as exciting the following day. I went parasailing for the first time. My friends and I had been eyeing our fellow tourists parasailing day to day and we decided to finally go ask a few questions about it. After speaking with the man who signed people up, it sounded like parasailing was a bit pricey. We also only had three people who wanted to go which is a difficult number to accomodate to go all at once. After walking away and thinking about it for a little I decided this was really something I would like to do. After talking to Mauricio(the man in charge) for a little he was able to let all three of us go at once for a good price. He also mentioned that if I come back next summer I would be able to work for him and his company to rent out parasailing and jet skiis to tourists. So mom if I'm not in the states next summer, you'll know exactly where I am :) Anyway, we continued on our parasailing adventure. If you haven't heard of parasailing before, it is almost like skydiving but after you are closer to land and have already pulled your parachute. You are harnessed into a parachute and a speedboat pulls you as the wind lifts you to a decent height. It all happened very quickly, all the sudden there was a boat to pick us all up, we were harnessed in, and up up and away we went. The view was breathtaking, you could see the beautiful, clear Aegean Sea underneath my dangling toes and the entire west side of the entire island. To say the least, a sight I will never forget.

Just to top this incredible day off, after we went parasailing we all laid out on the beach and I suddenly spotted something very familiar. A big white volleyball. A few of the locals were playing by the water, and being the true Mascari that I am(I'll give credit to my dad for this one) I walked over and asked if I could play. More excited than I expected the locals George and Michael warmly welcomed me to play with them. My friend Maeg who was also at the beach with me saw us and also joined in. We had a good game going for about an hour, which definitely made my day.

Overall, the Rhodes island trip was a success. Fun activities, good food and great company. The island was one of the most naturally beautiful places I have seen in a long time. It was nice to experience a different culture, but I have to say my favorite place is still by far Roma. Although Rhodes was very relaxing to visit, I found myself missing the craziness of Rome.

Tomorrow I start my first official day of my semester. I have my Italian language course at 9 am and Ancient Roman Civilization from 11:30 - 1:30. I'm looking forward to beginning all of my classes and meeting my new professors. I will blog an update later this week about my classes and as they say in in Greece yeia sou! (pronounced YA-sue meaning hello and goodbye!)