Last weekend I went to see the archaeological sites at Brauron and Sounion. Even though the professor that went with us explained what the sites were, I'm still kind of unclear about what the sites were actually used for. Apparently the Brauron site had a temple that was dedicated to Artemis. Greek families used to send their daughters there to worship Artemis, it was almost like a summer camp. I can't remember anything about Sounion except that it was the temple of Zeus. I tried to pay attention but since I'm not a classics major I was more interested in the actual structures and the landscape and less interested in the actual history/mythology behind them. The Greek countryside is so beautiful. There are olive trees and mountains everywhere. Even though the land is really dry, it's still really pretty. After we went to Brauron and Sounion we went to a beach to go swimming. Swimming in the Aegean was so refreshing and the water was so clear and pretty! Last Saturday was the hottest day of the week and even though I enjoyed the field trip the heat at the sites and on the bus (it didn't have AC) was horrible.

That field trip was Saturday and on Sunday morning I decided I wanted to go to the flea market at Monastiraki, which turned out to be a bad choice. Even though I left relatively early for the market, by the time I got to Syntagma Square, it was already so hot that I decided to turn around and go back to my apartment. Since Sunday it's really cooled down in Athens (it was probably 65 today) so I think I might try to go back this weekend.

This weekend is our first entirely free 3 day weekend and after much discussion and research, two of my roommates and I finally decided that we are going to go to the island of Aegina. Basically every other person at CYA is going to Mykonos this weekend. But the weather isn't supposed to be too nice this weekend and Mykonos is supposed to be extremely crowded so I decided it wasn't worth it to travel that far. Aegina is only about 40 minutes from Athens and has a lot to do so I'm sure it will be a lot fun. My next island stop will be Santorini!