CONCERT

Here are some pictures of Brian, myself, Fotis and his girlfriend Maria at the concert we went to last night.  It was Greek musicians (I have no idea their names) but it was still good, good music is universal right!?  We got there too late to get a seat though, so after 1 1/2 hours of standing we left early.  It was still a cool experience.  The concert was on the field of a huge futbol stadium.  You can see the stage in the background.  There were three singers, two females and one male, with like 10 musicians accompanying them playing all sorts of instruments from the violin, keyboard, guitar, to the Bazoukia (sp?), which is a Greek instrument similar to the guitar or banjo.  The male singer was especially good, and is Fotis's favorite so he and Maria sang along.  It was a true Greek experience.  Afterwards we went for dinner (at midnight) and had gyros at a yummy restaurant near by.  In the picture you see them making faces.  This is the Fotis face when he wants to say that something is really nice, Brian has picked it up.

The night before last Maria and I went for a little window shopping in the center.  It was nice of her to get me out of the house and I got some things I needed, like a hairbrush and some lotion.  Then we walked to Libido, a cafe/bar in that area where the movie theater is that I mentioned before.  We sat on the roof and had some wine while we waited for the boys to finish up practice.  We had a nice conversation.  Her english is very good b/c she studied in the UK for 6yrs.  She now works for the government and we talked about an interesting situation that is happening in Patras right now.  There are many Afghanistan & Pakistan refugees that have arrived here fleeing their countries.  They come to Patra because it is such a ferry hub and they try to get on a ferry or truck to Italy or Germany.  What has happened is that the police here have not been able to stand up to them and they have grown in numbers.  They are quite harmless but they have become quite a nuisance because they are constantly fleeing from the authorities and have created a small community, building shacks in what was once a high-end part of the city.  You can see their shacks from the street and you often see them loitering around the beaches and walking the streets.  For Greek women they pose a threat simply by their appearance but she has said that they never do any harm, they don't even make eye contact with you.  I had actually not even noticed them until Brian came home one night and said there was a riot going on in the street by the port.  Refugees were on one side of the street and cops were on the other and the refugees were throwing rocks at the cops, breaking windows and creating quite a driving hazard for the cars trying to get through.  Maria says that the government has said that they need to do something for these people, have a place where they can go for clean water and food and a place to sleep, but she is weary at the reality of this happening since they have yet to actually name a location.  I just find it all interesting, there are struggles all over the world.  Now I am off to the gym, will write more tomorrow!