athens, greece

I've been in athens for about 10 days now, and most of it has been spent inside the stephanopolous house. I'm in Kifisia, which is a far northern suburb of Athens; it's about a 30 minute train ride to central Athens, so it's not too far. The tube here is amazingly clean and everywhere is fairly easy to get to (around Athens). Now getting around to the other parts of mainland Greece is a different matter entirely. The roads here wind about (even more so than in England) and so I get very car sick. I've been to the coastline and to Lake Marathonas which was amazing. Kifisia is very clean, rich, and pretty; it has a major shopping area so there is a lot of traffic, but since it's very short walk to the shopping I appreciate it.

The family...what can I say? They're so nice, obliging, and wonderful. I love the kids, they're very unique and sharp, but the very fact that they're triplets always leaves me in wonder.

stella: very vivacious and effervescent, but does an amazing job of whining and complaining. actually surprised me. when she's in a good mood, she's an angel. when she's tired, she's... something else completely. i think that's her charm, she's very versatile and incredibly smart. she's also very anglo looking with pale skin, light hair, and hazel eyes.
petros (peter): is also very outgoing and sweet, likes to please people but is a bit spoiled. also an amazing whiner when he wants to be, is very physically aggressive, but cute and sweet. he's more mixed than stella and has darker hair, but still has hazel eyes.
i find the hazel eyes to be amazing from any korean parent, just because most kids with one korean parent always have brown eyes. weird!
finally,theo: my favourite, but don't tell. he's the most asian, but still very greek looking. he has dark hair and dark eyes. he's also more korean in the way he acts. he's very obliging, smart, and obedient. he's the easiest to deal with b/c he doesn't whine or complain half as much as the other two (although on occasions he is a normal 8 year old boy with a temper). he's also very logical and intelligent. i think he's the brightest of the three. he's soooo nice and by far the most introverted, perhaps that's why i like him so much. he reminds me of myself at that age.
arleen is one of the best mothers and the sweetest cousins of all time. I've actually spent a lot of time telling her about our (my dad's) side of the family, and she's very interested...or she's just a very good listener. Panos, her husband, is strangely like the boys in my family. He's very traditional, Republican, and likes to tease everyone. He's also very stern when he needs to be, it's strange that there are so many similarities, yet it's an entirely different culture.

anyway. I'll post more after i've travelled a bit.

posted by chungy @ 11:21 AM