Ooh! Greece!

Hi,
Have fun on break Nikole!!!!! Take lots of pictures :) we can skype when you get back.
How did the LGBT conference go Elenor? Did you meet lots of interesting people?
Tonight I had a liturgy committee meeting and afterward went to a talk on "The Early History of Chocolate" about the cacao bean's cultural place in early Mesoamerica. Growing on the cacao tree are lots of pods, and in the pods are the seeds and the pulp. The pulp was used to make chicha, or beer; the fermenting also gives beans their chocolaty flavor. The beans were also used for currency (one bean=one tomato/avacado in wealthier trade areas where cacao was cultivated). So, a basic message: in pre-Colombian mesoamerica they made beer out of chocolate and money grew on trees. There was also hand-made chocolate (milk to 85% dark!)from the anthropology class that sponsored the lecture and hot chocolate there too (yum!). Also some chips of the inside of beans (extra yum!) and some whole cacao beans that I may send with the baton next time. Overall, a very excellent event.
Tomorrow there is a sleepover at the Ithaca Youth Bureau for Littles and their Bigs, so I'll be going to that since I didn't get to see Taniesha on Tuesday. We're going to go see a Cornell Women's basketball game. I'm really excited! The only thing is that I don't have a sleeping bag :(
Hope to hear from you adventurers soon!
xxoo Shannon