Athens

June 1st through 4th, 2011

Athens is a busy, lively city that is proud of its history and has a hopeful yet weary eye on the future.  The Acropolis protrudes at the center of the city, high above the surrounding buildings, and is a consistent reminder of the region's powerful past.  At the same time, everywhere I went megaphones echoed and students waived banners, demanding a new democracy in the wake of Greece's financial crisis.  The contrast between tradition and modernity is one that the whole city seems to struggle with, but this challenge is also what seems to give Athens its eclectic appeal--ruins and churches are scattered between international fashion stores like Zara and local hole-in-the-wall eateries selling €2 souvláki.

the parthenon

Chicago

I spent the last couple days of May in an atypically cold Chicago hanging out with my friends Peter and Danielle.  I have become a master at third-wheeling them (hi guys!), and we had ourselves a fun time walking the streets of Chicago and eating deep dish pizza.  It has been years since I had had some, and boy was I excited :)  They had just eaten at Lou Malnati's (which I'm partial to) a couple days prior, so we ventured into Giordano's, the other Chi-town staple, so that they could compare the two.  Check out some pics below:

 "everybody should believe in something. i believe i'll have another pizza." wise words.

Bubbly

In Finland, two shipwrecked bottles of champagne dating back to the 1840s were auctioned off today along with some rare bottles from Veuve Cliquot's cellar.

swedish wine expert sampling the champagne

picture courtesy of globalpost

One of the bottles went for an astonishing €33,000.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is fourty-four thousand dollars! (!!!)  Yes, the "sale of the champagne bottles will go to charitable causes…improving the quality of water in the seas,” but really?  A year's worth of outrageous Georgetown tuition for a bottle of 170-year-old champagne?  Does it really taste that much better after nearly two centuries?  Needless to say, it was a new world record in the history of champagne sales.

The purchaser is said to be a Singaporean investor.  Again, this goes to show the growing purchasing power coming out of the Far East, and the desire of these new millionaires to invest their money in 'cultured' luxury products, such as wine and champagne, which is traditionally where wealthy Europeans spent their money.  This trend has been observed in China for quite some time now, and this purchase at the Finnish auction demonstrates once again that there is little limit to where money can be spent nowadays.

So, who wants some Barefoot Bubbly?  It evokes sandy beaches, though sans shipwreck.  For that $41k, I can get almost 6000 bottles of this lovely stuff...

Nostalgia

I finally got around to uploading some of my graduation pictures to my computer today!  Have a look...

Senior Ball
It was held inside Union Station, which takes the occasion to a whole new level of regal.  Everyone was dressed all fancy!  I wore a short black-and-white number by BCBG, along with a pair of white cutout patent leather oxfords and some red lip stain.  No heels for me :(  I had busted my ankle a few days before and it still hurt when I put on heels (trust me, I tried!).  I tried to channel my inner Coco Chanel and rock the menswear-inspired shoes.  I think I pulled them off alright; I wish I had a picture to show you.

 the fam

I'm Alive!

...as you can very well see from my super-long previous post.  Now I can say that I've been up til 3am blogging.  Well, there's a first for everything...I just got too excited about the topic.

I'm currently in Athens and will do a post about the first part of my trip very soon.  I promise: less text, more pictures :)