I am now the proud inhabitant of a very pretty very green flat. My very own home! I have just sent out a multitude of e-mails with my address to avoid blogging it and giving it to the whole world, so if you're reading this and haven't got my address please e-mail/ comment and leave an e-mail address and I'll send it to you asap- I don't want any excuses for people not sending me LOTS of letters!
Now I'm just waiting for some crockery, cutlery and saucepans which my landlord should be providing so I can stop living off pizza and my bliss will be complete. Oh and the air-conditioning unit too. My landlord is being very kind and helpful. He brought the television round the 2nd day I was there along with a huge box of yummy local speciality cakes as a house-warming present and then proceeded to invite me to his daughter's wedding in August. I don't even know the daughter's name but it'll be a great opportunity to see a Greek wedding. Someone has promised to give me an essential crash course in Greek dancing before that...
The new flat is also half an hour's walk from this internet cafe, so apologies for not writing sooner! Hopefully I'll set up a landline soon so I can get a dial-up connection at home.
I went on a little holiday to Nafpaktos just over onto the top half of the 'egg-timer' earlier this week which involved taking a coach over the amazing new bridge from Patra that crosses right over the sea- stunning views. Nafpaktos itself is like a mini version of Kalamata with a castle at the top, cute little harbour and pretty beaches where we spent most of the day. It was lovely to see a familiar face too. Thanks Tessie I had a fantastic time!
This weekend I'm heading off to visit family friends in Arcadia for a week or so, so I'll be away from the internet for a while unless I get my connection sorted before I go. Promise I'll write again soon though!

Jack- thanks for your comment- did someone pass on my mobile number too? Please send this address and mobile number round to Clare, Beth, Stu and Sacha if you have a moment. I don't have much of an address book on my hermes account! Thanks.

Hello again, thanks for all your messages! This is my second attempt at writing today- I got to the internet cafe this morning and was told that the internet was down. They were open anyway, they were just serving coffee, so I've come back. That was after spending an hour at the bank watching two frustrated bank people argue about why I couldn't actually use any of the money sitting around in my account. But now I have money and an internet connection so everything's fine again!
The family has had a lovely girl staying with them the last couple of days doing work experience at the garage. She had a car so I've been treated to a bit of the Kalamata nightlife. (You never thought I'd set foot in a club? Well there you go then.) We went to an incredible place last night half way up a mountainside overlooking the bay. We sat surrounded by lanterns on plush purple cushions on a sort of extended balcony staring out over the whole town and over the sea towards Crete with music just quiet enough to still be able to talk and sipped G&T till 2 in the morning (also being eaten alive by mosquitoes but who cares?). When we got back to the car the thermometer was still registering 25. That's the kind of clubbing I like!
It sounds as if you've had it a lot hotter than us the last couple of days, and in a place much less geared up to heat. Commiserations! They've been complaining about the 'British' weather here because it's hardly got over 35 and we've had the odd storm.
I'm off for a mini-holiday to see Tessie in Nafpaktos next week before coming back to actually move into my flat on Thursday. A date! An actual date! And it came a whole week in advance!
So in reply to your comments:
Jojo- Err January but you might hit 3m of snow or 6 weeks of incessant rain apparently. I reccommend October!
Julia- It exists! I've seen it and it's gorgeous. Don't know if the teacher exists though. It would be a shame to ruin the surprise. There's no need to crash on the floor, I have a spare bed ;-)
Annie- This is me you're talking to. I'd love to link to your blog, but some instructions please???
Heather- Contacts. The cousin of the husband of the lady who Annie's father knows. Miss you too!!!
So, next time I blog I should have moved in and have an address to give you. Watch this space...

Hello again!
OK, so it's hot now. REALLY hot. We had a thunderstorm the other day but it seemed to clear the air to let the sun through rather than clear the air to cool it.
The flat is mine. Or at least, it's mine as soon as the previous resident moves out. She was due to move out on 15th June, but this is Greece so there's no hurry... Still YAY! The family took me to a little village festival up in the mountains yesterday where they showed off their traditional threshing, bread-baking and cheese-making skills and then played lots of folk music, drank, danced and handed out a chunk of bread, a slab of cheese and a hunk of pig to everyone present, all before 11.30am. What fun.
I was also taken to meet my host's parents; they've lived in the same place all their lives in one of the oldest parts of the city down a tiny alley. Their home consists of a single room including a bed, a small table and 2 chairs, 2 camping-gas rings and an air-conditioning unit. They're a lovely pair and 'Yiayia' (Grandma) produces copious amounts of very good food for any mouths that turn up at the door.
So, statistics so far:
-Swims: 3 (There is a female Greek obsession with counting how many swims you've had each summer as if it gave a direct indication of your fitness.)
-Mosquito bites: Miraculously, only 3. Or perhaps it's due to the very effective mosquito nets on all the windows. I think and hope I have some in my flat.
-Members of host's extended family I have been introduced to, including my future landlord: 6- I can't remember most of their names, but I'm fairly safe if I call the men Costas and the women Xeni...
-Number of times I've been asked why on earth I'm learning Greek/ told that spending a year away from home when I'm 'so young' is a 'very brave thing to do': I've lost count. Greek children still live with their parents until they marry. They maintain this tradition despite the fact that they've abandoned the tradition of marrying at 16 so lots of 'children' still live with their parents well into their late 20s or even 30s. Or at least in the same city so they can send their washing home and take advantage of their mother's cooking.

Phew! I have at last after 3 days exploring found an internet cafe, so I think you all deserve a decent length update. First of all apologies for typos, Greek keyboards are irritatingly subtly different from English ones...
Thanks for commenting already, it's good to know people have found me!
Kalamata is beautiful- it takes about an hour to walk from one end to the other, so not tiny, but in any bit of it you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in a village- the streets are definitely designed for mules not cars. When I say '3 days exploring', that's a bit of an exaggeration- despite everyone complaining about the 'disappointing weather' I am completely unable to leave the house after about 2pm, not very comforting to be told consistently that it's not hot yet.
Tasks have been achieved though which means that I should be able to move into my new flat soon. I got myself into a bit of a vicious circle trying to rent a flat without a bank account and set up a bank account without an address, but thankfully extricated myself from that one yesterday by using my hostess' address to set up the account.
But anyway, the GORGEOUS flat, which I mustn't get too excited about since nothing has been signed. *Sigh*. It's in a new block about 20 metres from the sea with a balcony overlooking the mountains. The landlord is in the process (so he assures me although there's no visible evidence of it) of installing air-conditioning too, what bliss. There's a large double bedroom and decent-sized sitting room including a sofa-bed, so do come and stay!!! I walked there from the place I'm staying at the moment a couple of days ago and sat on the beach at the end of 'my' road by a pretty little jetty looking over to the harbour and couldn't believe my luck. Maybe I shouldn't believe it yet, I haven't moved in...
I'm staying with a very kind family (thank you Annie- I am forever grateful!) who reintroduced me to the concept of the evening 'volta' last night. It consists of going out at about 10.30pm, walking down the main boulevard, dropping by to see any of your friends who happen to live on the way and then settling down at about 11.30 in wicker sofas outside one of the roadside cafes 'to have an ice-cream'. How's that as a variation on 'Let's go and have a drink'? 'Let's go and have an ice-cream'!
So, come and visit, and I'll put you up on my sofa-bed and take you out for an ice-cream on the beach :-)

Hello all!
I'm off to Greece tomorrow to start my Big Fat Greek Year Abroad, so here I am online to keep you all in touch while I'm away. Enjoy, and be sure to leave me lots of comments!
'Kiki' (I'd better get used to that...)