Caves, Canyons, and Clubs

Ok, so this could be another fat post, but I'll spare you. I've come to terms with the fact that this blog will be a few days behind our actual trip, so you should too.

Left off the last post right before our first tensions class. This is one of the most interesting and engaging classes I've ever taken. We started by discussing the difference between ethnic-states and nation-states and the steps central to every nationalist movement in history. Sometimes I feel really uneducated in this class. But this professor is a PhD in history, and has a deep knowledge of the social, political, and religious history of every Balkan state. Aside from the fact that he gave us reading packets enough to have killed a small South American forest to print, he is also very understanding of the fact that while we are at school, we are essentially on holiday here. He's assured us the final exam is not going to cover anything that we did not expressly discuss in class -- and that most of the readings are enrichment.

Went on an excursion to a cave in a nearby hill. The cave was discovered by locals hiding from bombardments during WWII. There were a lot of big rooms in the cave, stalactites, stalagmites, the whole nine. Also, a lot of spiders. Our tour guide said that they are the only thing that live inside the cave. On the way back to the bus, we saw the guy who actually discovered the cave sitting in a cafe. Unfortunately, my camera died earlier in the day so I have no pictures of the cave.

Later in the week we went on another excursion to the Zagori villages in the hills near campus. Saw a weaving factory. Only two people work on each rug, and they take about a year to complete. They go for 4,000 Euros each. No younger Greeks want to live in these villages anymore, and are moving to the city. Because of this, it is mostly younger Albanian immigrants working in the weaving houses now. Nearby, we saw one of the biggest canyons in the world. It was impressive and really beautiful. Pictures of all of this available on my flickr.

Tried to go to a club called Privilege this weekend. Apparently we weren't privileged enough -- they didn't let us group in.

Today we went to see the local division 2 soccer team, Pas Ioannina, play against a team from Athens. Beforehand we stopped at the team shop and picked up a bunch of gear so we wouldn't be singled out as tourists. Everybody was actually really excited to see that us students had adopted the local football club. The hooligans took a big group picture and said they would post it on the club web site. I'll try to find that link for the next post.