Blessed Be:: 10/31/10

So last Sunday we decided we needed to do something so we went to a ruin close by. It was Apollo's Temple. It was fairly interesting, the actual temple part was reconstructed in 1980 so this really is a replica of what it would look like. Sadly there aren't many pictures because I forgot to charge the camera battery (yet again!) and it died right after we got there. I think it could be a good spot to take my sketch book later and just sit and practice drawing some. After we finished there we went for a drive and found this cool little beach area that had a million rocks! Instead of sand there were tons and tons of shiny, small rocks so of course the obvious thing to do was to practice skipping them into the water. I am very inept at this so it took some coaching on Matt's part. We continued to drive and ended up driving through the little town of Pissouri, which is actually no small feat. This town is so tiny and has one way streets all over the place and people just hanging out in the middle of the road-it was an adventure to say the least ;)
Also, I am looking into getting involved withe the saddle club on base! I'm really excited because they are in desperate need of help in general but they really need experienced riders to work the horses, enter me :) I went out to the barn (aka yard) yesterday to meet the people and take a look around. They only have 10 horses and ponies and they are all skinny, bug bitten, need love, and need exercise. There will be a meeting tonight with all the members that I'm going to attend so I can see where I really fit in and what others are thinking. They're really trying to revamp the whole club so it's perfect timing for me to enter. And it looks as though I may be the only American there which they are excited for. Everyone there is from the UK but that doesn't mean we speak the same language. The one lady (Jenny) and I joked that we will need to put up a phrases chart somewhere since I use different terminology and phrases than they're used to and visa versa. At least I can mostly understand what they are saying and what they want ;) They were also fascinated by "American" riding, known as western to us in the states. The one lady was somewhat snobbish about the concept of western riding and didn't really want to participate in the conversation but everyone else wanted to hear about it and how it really differs from British (English in the US) riding. It was fun to be able to talk about stuff from the states and have people interested and not look at you like you're a total loon. I warned Matt that he may have to watch out, if I end up by spending almost all my free time with these people from England and Scotland (the new manager and one other lady are from Scotland and can be confusing to understand!), I may start to pick up all sorts of funny phrases and ways of talking! I think the funniest so far has been them saying "half eight" instead of "eight thirty"-that confused poor Matt at first but I got it straight. The meeting tonight starts at 6 so I'll be leaving around "half five" to get there in time to get a good seat and chat with the ladies before stuff starts. Wish me luck!

Apollo's Reconstructed Temple (or partial that is)