Good Morning! Sorry I failed to post anything on the blog on Friday I was running around and forgot all about it until it was late and I figured everything could wait until Monday.

David and I had a very relaxing weekend for the most part. On Friday night we went to Applebees for dinner. Believe it or not but it was wonderful. You might all think that it is strange but when you are surrounded by Greek food and culture all day long everyday sometimes it is nice to get a little piece of America. David and I both had steaks which we would never order at home from Applebees but they were pretty good. The Appleebees was packed too and expensive. I believe our whole meal appetizer, steaks and drinks was 75 euro which is not cheap but it was worth it.

On Saturday we went to the grocery store in the morning and then spent the rest of the day lying around the house. I made dinner and we watched college football on the Slingbox. We had two really bad storms on Saturday so we were happy to stay home.

Also Saturday was November 17 which is a Greek Holiday and also the name of a Anarchist group in Athens.

Some history from Wikipedia, "The group's name, 17N, refers to the final day of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising, in which a protest against the Greek Military Junta (1967 - 1974), also known as the Regime of the Colonels took place. The uprising ended after a series of events that started when a tank took down the main gate of the Polytechneion and security forces, including soldiers, stormed the campus."

They are mostly disbanded in Athens now after a big crackdown by the Greek government in early 2000. They are very anti-American but really have not been relevant for sometime. But on November 17 each year the Anarchist spend the day inciting riots in some of the poorer neighborhoods of Athens and then they come to the Embassy and protest America all day. The Embassy was locked down all day and Americans are told to keep a low profile. Last year there were close to 12,000 protester's and they like to throw molotov cocktails and usually get pepper sprayed by the Greek Police. November 17 is also the reason that college campuses in Athens are classified as Asylum Zones and the police are not allowed to come in for any reason. So they can insight riots and throw there man made grenades and then run back into the campus and the police can't do anything about it. Lovely!

Sunday we went with Dan, Stacy and Colin up to a Casino on the top of one of the mountains close to Athens. No we were not taking a child to a casino. It was actually really neat. You have to park about halfway up the mountain and then take a gondola up to the Casino. There were amazing views of Athens from the gondola and then we had lunch up top at the Casino. We did not actually go into the Casino. We were looking for something to do and it was a fun little day trip. We again had a really bad storm on the drive home. David and I made it to church on Sunday night and for the second week in a row David did all of the readings. I was so proud!

Today I am at the Embassy taking care of a few errands and then I will head home for the rest of the day. It is cold today in the high 40s I would guess but sunny. Since winter is approaching we are going to start getting a lot of cloudy and rainy days so I am happy to have sun.

Hope you all had great weekends....Love from Athens...