The weather the past few days has been much nicer than our first day here!  Our second day we were sitting on our balcony in tank tops and we were even hot than--I felt so haram compared to my clothing in Jordan!!  We walked to Thira, the capital of Santorini, and looked around at the little shops there.  They had a lot of nice jewelry, so it was fun to window shop.  It was nice to just be able to walk around for a little while, especially because the weather was so nice!  Our land lord brought us a bottle of wine, and we have yet to drink it, so it is sitting on our kitchen table!

Homemade wine on our balcony

The Blue Dome

We have a little apartment for the week, so we get to cook and clean our own dishes.  It feels so nice to be able to do that.  My homestay has a maid, and it is so weird to not have to clean or cook anything, that it makes me feel a little more normal and doing regular things for a little while.  The sheets in the apartment also smell like grandma’s house, so when I go to sleep at night it’s like I am sleeping at her house!

Today we sucessfully used the public bus system, and took the twenty minute ride to Oia-Ia, a northern city in Santorini.  The public bus was a coach bus, that had a sign on the outside saying “city bus”.  This city is located right on the cliff of the island, and is absolutely gorgeous.  All of the hotels were getting ready for tourist season, so everyone was bustling about and cleaning.  There was also a lot of white paint, since everyone was repainting the buildings to keep them looking fresh!  I believe the white buildings with the blue domes are churches, and there are a handful of them around the island.  But, we were able to see the one that is in all of the photos of Greece!!  There are mopeds all over the city--I thought that the taxi’s in Amman would get me, but I think it might actually be the mopeds!

Abbi and I--Oia

While we were exploring, we met a guy who was from Long Island and works in NYC--what a coincidence!!  He gave us his business card so that we could keep in touch once we were back in the states, and he is actually in Forensics; consulting, reconstruction and training!!  He worked for the NYPD for a while, and is now in the private sector, he just taught a weekend course in Milan to the students there!!  It was such a coincidence not only that we met him, and that he was from NY, but that he is also in forensics!!  Exciting!