Today is day 24 of the trip. That means we are exactly 20 percent of the way in. That explains why today will be a pictureless blog entry. We've pretty much settled into routine life here. I remind my friends and family that we're not tourists: we're living here for four months. That means some pretty routine days.

I went to a lecture tonight (more on that in the next paragraph). Kim wasn't doing well and didn't go. Last night as she was preparing dinner, she stumbled and hit her head rather hard on a metal shelf in the kitchen. In addition to the headache. she's suffering from the sort of extremity pain that jerking her spinal column would cause. She put a lidocaine patch on and took pain medicine but still is not well. I hope she improves by taking it easy, but we may find out how the Greek healthcare system treats aliens.

The lecture at the Hellenic American Union was delivered by Evelyn C. White, biographer of The Color Purple author Alice Walker. Her talk was uplifting. She seemed almost spiritual. The 75 minutes passed quickly - she was very easy to listen to. The audience of about 60 people included a mix of Greek and American university students.

I was introduced to Yvette Jarvis. I didn't know what a celebrity she is when I met her. It wasn't until I got home and saw her Wikipedia entry and website that I realized what an Athens legend she is. I hope I get to meet her again - I want to talk women's basketball.

That provides the segue for me to mention that the English-language newspaper did a feature on former Purdue women's basketball standout Katie Gearlds. Katie plays for Seattle in the WNBA but she's over here playing for the Athens women's team in her off-season. If we can find the arena we'll go to a game.

Today's English-language paper ran a story about The Pain of Autumn, a film about the 1955 attack on Greeks living in Istanbul. It wasn't a movie review for Greeks but rather an explanation how it is the first time Turks are seeing any discussion about the events of that time: something that was simply not discussed for decades. Relations between Greece and Turkey are good for the most part (if you don't mention Crete) but people here still worry about their bigger, stronger neighbor.

Finally, a random fact (did I mention this already?): the majority of Greeks wear wedding bands on their right hand rather than their left.