Last night we basically turned the bar we went to into a dance party. The DJ was playing all kinds of American club music. We were dancing and singing and just having a great time. Julie, Steph and I didn't get back until 2:30am. We were all exhausted. I was dreading waking up at like 7:45 but we had so much fun that it was worth it. Also we weren't going to be able to go out for a while because we're leaving for the island called Myconos for 4 days 3 nights tomorrow.
So I go to my room and crash again on my bed and it takes me forever to fall asleep. I seriously tossed and turned all night. Since I couldn't really sleep I just naturally woke up at 7:00 and looked at my feet and was like "I need to take a shower." So I took a shower. It felt really good even though the water was lukewarm. After showering, Steph, Julie, Jess and I had breakfast in our little kitchen and the three of us just told Jess about our crazy night. P.S. I Love You - needs no explanation.
So we finish eating and we get our bags and head out to the church to start class. Today we visited two museums. So we didn't do as much walking today. We basically just stood around for a while. At the first museum we learned about the Greek fight for Independence against the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. We saw lots of pictures of generals and army veterens. One thing they all had in common is mustaches - apparently this made them look tough. I personally thought they looked kinda goofy but then again if I was face to face with one of these guys and they were armed with a weapon, I would get the H-E double hockey sticks out of there no matter what they looked like. After the first museum we went to a local park/zoo and listened to a student presentation on the 3rd reading we have to read. Each student in the class has to present one reading as a part of their grade. I presented the first day so I'm set, suckers!-haha. After the presentation we went to the second museum which was the War Museum. Here we saw pictures of generals, leaders, maps and weapons. We also saw sculptures of the same thing. It was really interesting.
Since then I went to the market and bought a loaf of bread because everytime we pass the bread markets in the morning, I'm like "dang that bread looks good." So I got some bread and began eating it since I was starving from walking around all morning. And now I'm here at my apartment updating this blog and feeling really tired from walking and being up late. My plan for the rest of the day is to sleep, study, facebook, sleep, study, facebook, sleep, study, facebook and basically sleep, study, facebook. I also need to pack for tomorrow because we have to meet our student leader at 5:30am to catch a ferry to Myconos! We're all excited about Myconos because we all want to hit the beach! I can't wait to see what the Greek islands look like! I imagine it's amazing since that basically describes everything else I've seen. I'm gonna leave my computer here so I won't be able to post again until Sunday. But I hope everyone's enjoying their summer. Just want to say that I miss everyone in the US and Scotland and Ireland for Fiona and Liam and Eoin and that gang! Aight next post: SUNDAY - it's gonna be another crazy 3-4 days!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
endless wine
Day 2 was crazy, or at least the night was but I'll start from the beginning so I can remember what I did in the morning to help me study for my first quiz tomorrow.
So today I got woken up by my alarm this time except I fell asleep with my pillow over my head so I didn't actually wake up from my alarm upon the first sound. This scared me b/c I'm a light sleeper but I figured I haven't gotten much sleep in the past couple days that once I actually fall asleep I'm out like a lightbulb. So we met our student leader at 8:30 in front of the same church we meet at every morning and began our class. We did A LOT of walking today. We basically walked all over the city of Athens talking about the "different layers of the Greek identity." We went to the Plaka, Monastiraki, Roman Agora, Byzantine Churches of Plaka, the Ottoman Bazaar and the Modern Bazaar. I didn't take as many pictures today as I did for the Acropolis because honestly, I was just too tired to take pictures. I was really just too tired to even look at anything. But I made it.
So we get back to Pangrati, which is the town in Athens where my apartment is and I met up with some girls and had lunch in this cute old man's restaurant cafe. One thing about old men restaurant owners is that they like to give you wine and free food which is great but when you want to leave they bring you another bottle of wine and food! They are all very friendly but it's so hard to leave these places. Lunch was really good though. We all shared and ordered an authentic Greek salad, pizza and saganaki. New Greek food to know except I didn't really like it that much. Saganki is fried cheese with an oil base - some people liked it but I thought it was gross. So we are sitting there eating and all of a sudden the old man owner came up to us with a bottle of wine and a calzone looking food. We were like "oh no no," but the man didn't really understand and was just like "sit sit, enjoy." So we sat and enjoyed what he brought us. We were there for about 2 hours.
I went back to my apartment after lunch and slept for an hour. We had class again at 5:00pm so I got up for class and went to listen to a really interesting lecture on the history of foreign policy in Greece. By the way, the freakin Turks suck! The Greeks have always had a "poisoned" relationship with the Turks, as our guest speaker told us. See there's this island called Cyprus which is located south of Crete (one of the Greek islands) and over the past century Greece and Turkey have been fighting over control of Cyprus. So Greece and Turkey have fought back and forth for this freakin island trying to prove who's the better country. Till this day there's a stagnation between the two countries but it just goes to show you that some countries are far from peace. The thing is how many people know about this stuff? I'm one of them for sure.
After class we headed back to the apartment and got ready for dinner. I went out with Steph, Julie, Alex and Veronica. We found the cutest restaurant cafe for dinner. So we walk in and there's literally nobody there. It was 8:30pm and the sun was setting and it was just beautiful. So we walk in and once again there is this old man who's serving us. We sit down and try to talk to the man but the only english he knew was "yes, no, thank you and hello." Oh and he also knew what we ordered in english because we would be like "chicken filet" and he would be like "chi-cken fi-let, yes." I ordered a Greek salad and split a zucchini salad with Veronica. We also ordered ONE bottle of red wine. So we're sitting there taking pictures, enjoying the sun setting and just having a grand old time when the man walks out with a basket of bread and our bottle of red wine. That bread was so good! The wine was alright - not too strong but not too light. He then brought our food out which tasted amazing! Everything was soooo good! We all agreed to definitely come back before we left. So we finished eating and we're just laughing and enjoying each other's company and we're feeling like we should finish the bottle of wine. So Steph pours each person another glass and we're each working on our last glass thinkin "alright, when we're done with this glass we'll go out and try to find a club and go dancing." So we're finishing up and we see the man walking over toward us with another bottle of wine in his hand. He placed it on our table and pointed to himself signaling "this one's on me." So we all looked at each other and were like "uh, we don't really want any more wine but since he brought it out we didn't want to offend him by not drinking it," we poured another glass for each person. So we're taking our time still laughing and talking about babysitting stories and we're noticing that we're almost done with this second bottle of wine. Steph pours everyone the last glass and 5 minutes later, the old man is back with another glass of freakin wine! We were like "no, no, can we have check??" He was like "take take" and he noded signaling he would bring the check shortly. So once again we felt bad that he brought out this wine and if we were to leave it we would feel bad so Steph poured everyone another glass. At this point I'm really giggly and I can't stop laughing, haha. Then everybody else couldn't stop laughing because I was laughing. So he brings the check, the total came out to be 45 euros. We all pitch in some money and we're sitting there thinking we should finish the wine because he just gave us this one on the house and we don't want to feel bad for not finishing it. So Steph pours the last bit of wine left into everyone's glass. We all finish it and we get our bags because we're thinkin he might bring another one out if we just sit there. We get up to leave and right as we're about to head down the stairs, the old man comes walking with another freakin bottle of this red wine we've been forcing down all night! We're like "no no" but he didn't understand so we turn right around and begin again working on this bottle of wine. We told the man "this is our LAST one! no more." He understood after this one. So we basically finished that bottle and then went to the bathroom b/c we had to pee like wo. So if anyone ever goes to Greece, just don't order any wine - that will solve the problem! hahaha. Gosh walking down the street was crazy. But the night wasn't over then...
So today I got woken up by my alarm this time except I fell asleep with my pillow over my head so I didn't actually wake up from my alarm upon the first sound. This scared me b/c I'm a light sleeper but I figured I haven't gotten much sleep in the past couple days that once I actually fall asleep I'm out like a lightbulb. So we met our student leader at 8:30 in front of the same church we meet at every morning and began our class. We did A LOT of walking today. We basically walked all over the city of Athens talking about the "different layers of the Greek identity." We went to the Plaka, Monastiraki, Roman Agora, Byzantine Churches of Plaka, the Ottoman Bazaar and the Modern Bazaar. I didn't take as many pictures today as I did for the Acropolis because honestly, I was just too tired to take pictures. I was really just too tired to even look at anything. But I made it.
So we get back to Pangrati, which is the town in Athens where my apartment is and I met up with some girls and had lunch in this cute old man's restaurant cafe. One thing about old men restaurant owners is that they like to give you wine and free food which is great but when you want to leave they bring you another bottle of wine and food! They are all very friendly but it's so hard to leave these places. Lunch was really good though. We all shared and ordered an authentic Greek salad, pizza and saganaki. New Greek food to know except I didn't really like it that much. Saganki is fried cheese with an oil base - some people liked it but I thought it was gross. So we are sitting there eating and all of a sudden the old man owner came up to us with a bottle of wine and a calzone looking food. We were like "oh no no," but the man didn't really understand and was just like "sit sit, enjoy." So we sat and enjoyed what he brought us. We were there for about 2 hours.
I went back to my apartment after lunch and slept for an hour. We had class again at 5:00pm so I got up for class and went to listen to a really interesting lecture on the history of foreign policy in Greece. By the way, the freakin Turks suck! The Greeks have always had a "poisoned" relationship with the Turks, as our guest speaker told us. See there's this island called Cyprus which is located south of Crete (one of the Greek islands) and over the past century Greece and Turkey have been fighting over control of Cyprus. So Greece and Turkey have fought back and forth for this freakin island trying to prove who's the better country. Till this day there's a stagnation between the two countries but it just goes to show you that some countries are far from peace. The thing is how many people know about this stuff? I'm one of them for sure.
After class we headed back to the apartment and got ready for dinner. I went out with Steph, Julie, Alex and Veronica. We found the cutest restaurant cafe for dinner. So we walk in and there's literally nobody there. It was 8:30pm and the sun was setting and it was just beautiful. So we walk in and once again there is this old man who's serving us. We sit down and try to talk to the man but the only english he knew was "yes, no, thank you and hello." Oh and he also knew what we ordered in english because we would be like "chicken filet" and he would be like "chi-cken fi-let, yes." I ordered a Greek salad and split a zucchini salad with Veronica. We also ordered ONE bottle of red wine. So we're sitting there taking pictures, enjoying the sun setting and just having a grand old time when the man walks out with a basket of bread and our bottle of red wine. That bread was so good! The wine was alright - not too strong but not too light. He then brought our food out which tasted amazing! Everything was soooo good! We all agreed to definitely come back before we left. So we finished eating and we're just laughing and enjoying each other's company and we're feeling like we should finish the bottle of wine. So Steph pours each person another glass and we're each working on our last glass thinkin "alright, when we're done with this glass we'll go out and try to find a club and go dancing." So we're finishing up and we see the man walking over toward us with another bottle of wine in his hand. He placed it on our table and pointed to himself signaling "this one's on me." So we all looked at each other and were like "uh, we don't really want any more wine but since he brought it out we didn't want to offend him by not drinking it," we poured another glass for each person. So we're taking our time still laughing and talking about babysitting stories and we're noticing that we're almost done with this second bottle of wine. Steph pours everyone the last glass and 5 minutes later, the old man is back with another glass of freakin wine! We were like "no, no, can we have check??" He was like "take take" and he noded signaling he would bring the check shortly. So once again we felt bad that he brought out this wine and if we were to leave it we would feel bad so Steph poured everyone another glass. At this point I'm really giggly and I can't stop laughing, haha. Then everybody else couldn't stop laughing because I was laughing. So he brings the check, the total came out to be 45 euros. We all pitch in some money and we're sitting there thinking we should finish the wine because he just gave us this one on the house and we don't want to feel bad for not finishing it. So Steph pours the last bit of wine left into everyone's glass. We all finish it and we get our bags because we're thinkin he might bring another one out if we just sit there. We get up to leave and right as we're about to head down the stairs, the old man comes walking with another freakin bottle of this red wine we've been forcing down all night! We're like "no no" but he didn't understand so we turn right around and begin again working on this bottle of wine. We told the man "this is our LAST one! no more." He understood after this one. So we basically finished that bottle and then went to the bathroom b/c we had to pee like wo. So if anyone ever goes to Greece, just don't order any wine - that will solve the problem! hahaha. Gosh walking down the street was crazy. But the night wasn't over then...
Monday, May 26, 2008
DAY 1 - the Acropolis
Aight so...
I got back really late last night and was extremely exhausted since my body was freakin out not knowing what time zone to follow at all. It was 1:30am Greece time - by the way I'm 7 hours ahead of east coast time so right now I'm writing this entry at 11:30 pm when its really like 4:30 pm in VA. So yeah, I got back with Julie and Steph (two girls I'm living with) and we get to the front door to our apartment and we pull out our keys to try to open the door. Our freakin door sucks by the way. First of all you have to put two keys into the door for two different locks. Second of all you have to figure out if you do the bottom lock first or the top lock first - it's bottom and then top by the way. Third of all you don't turn the key once to open both locks. You turn the bottom one twice and the top one 4 times to open. One good thing out of this is that there is no freakin way someone is breakin into our place because we're basically pad-locked inside. Now to get out you gotta use the keys again and I think you basically do the same thing. Man I sware it takes us each like 10 minutes to open and lock the door.
So we get inside and I just go straight back to my room and crash on my bed - literally. And I didn't wake up until I heard someone beat on my door at 7:55am. When I heard this I kinda paniced because I thought for a second that my alarm didn't go off and we were supposed to be in class in like 5 minutes. But I had time. I set my alarm for 8:00am so she beat me to my alarm. And class/the day started at 8:30.
Today we went to the Acropolis. It's basically like the top tourist attraction here in Athens. We learned today that the Acropolis was a place to worship the goddess Athena (zeus created her out of his head - yeah she basically popped out according to the myths), a place where the Greeks stored their wealth and also a place of gathering from danger. It was amazing! I'm gonna post pictures on facebook where you can actually see where I'm coming from here. Inside the Acropolis are 3 main monuments: Propylaia, Erechtheum, and the Parthenon. Man guys, the Parthenon is so freakin sweet! Everything was being renovated which kinda brought the beauty away from it but I've never seen so many Greek columns in my life! Most of these monuments you had to use your imagination and visualize what they used to look like. Basically you had to put yourself in a 5th century Greek's shoes. So I put myself in the shoes of Zeus and shot thunderbolts down at everyone - no i didn't, just kidding. But that would be pretty sweet. Each side of the Parthenon symbolized who the Gods fought against to protect the Greeks during times of danger. The four corners were giants, trojans, amazons, and centaures. Pretty interesting I thought.
So after learning about the Acropolis, we hiked up to the top of it. It wasn't too bad of a walk but the heat made it hard. I would say the weather is really similar to Richmond. It definitely ain't no Blacksburg. It's about 76F during the day and mid to lower 60s at night. NO WIND. I was a typical tourist today. Everywhere I turned I took a picture because everywhere I turned it was amazing. I really wish our teacher could have explained a little more about what we were looking at but she's kinda hard to understand. She's nice though. After spending quite a while on the Acropolis we made our way down to the Agora which was known as the civic center.
The civic center was where the citizens of Greece hung out. At that time period, the citizens of Greece were only men. Women, slaves and foreigners were not allowed to be citizens of Greece. Dude, talk about discrimination...man. We learned that Greece was mainly a democracy and voting was a privledge for the citizens. Basically any citizen of Athens could propose a law to be voted on. To vote, citizens met every ten days and in order for a law to be passed 6,000 people had to be in favor of it. That means at least 6,000 people had to gather in the Agora, which was actually really big, and vote. Another interesting fact I learned. While in the Agora I got to see the sacraficed alter of Zeus - man I don't think I would be able to stand before this alter and kill a sheep for someone even if it was almighty Zeus. I mean, poor sheep.
Well, after that we headed back to Arcadia where we had our orientation. The last thing I remember hearing about was "we're going to talk about safety and health procedures." Then I think I feel asleep. Or I was just dozing in and out. I felt bad because I was sitting right in front of the woman who was speaking but I'm hoping she understood because I'm still jet-lagged like wo.
After orientation we went to the super market and I stacked up on some groceries for the apartment. I saw cereal and I was like "dude, sweet! I'm getting that!" They had the typical cherrios and corn flakes and other brands which just looked too expensive so I stuck with the standard corn flakes. I got some yogurts and bananas and pasta and detergent for washing clothes. I also bought a little can of lemon flavored ice tea just because they looked so cute. So I get to the register and the woman is like you have to weigh the bananas. I was like "what" even though she flat out told me to weigh the bananas in English. She explained to me what you had to do with fruit and I got the picture. So we left the store and went back to the apartment and I took a shower for the first time in like 2 or 3 days - man that's gross. I just want everyone to know that I would have showered earlier but I seriously didn't have time- seriously.
After the shower I explored the town a little. I convinced Jess to go out and about with me. Christine wanted to stay in which was perfectly fine. Julie and Steph were out hitting the beach. So Jess and I went exploring. We saw and stuck to a lot of the main roads. We hit the hoppin' spot which I guess was considered downtown after walking around and playing in a random park for a while. They were blasting all kinds of American music as we walked by the bars/cafes. I know I heard Rhianna's Please Don't Stop the Music and Timbaland's The Way I Are. Everytime we walked through I wanted to dance but I refrained to save Jess the embarrasment. We eventually found this place and I got a Gyro with chicken cabob. By the way Gyro is pronounced kind of like "yearo." So far I've learned "yesso" is hello and "eucharisteo" is thank you. I get so nervous when it comes to communicating with people because I know they know that I'm American and I probably sound completely rediculous. I'll try it eventually. After dinner I basically met up with some other girls and we went to get gelato - I sware it's almost like I'm in Italy again! Gelato is so freakin good! I got yogurt di fragola - basically strawberry flavored frozen yogurt - that jank was dank, haha.
And then I basically headed back to the apartment and called it a night. I found out again that we have class at 8:30am and will be traveling a lot tomorrow. And then we have class at 5:00pm. Gosh another busy day for tomorrow. Well I'm out guys. later.
I got back really late last night and was extremely exhausted since my body was freakin out not knowing what time zone to follow at all. It was 1:30am Greece time - by the way I'm 7 hours ahead of east coast time so right now I'm writing this entry at 11:30 pm when its really like 4:30 pm in VA. So yeah, I got back with Julie and Steph (two girls I'm living with) and we get to the front door to our apartment and we pull out our keys to try to open the door. Our freakin door sucks by the way. First of all you have to put two keys into the door for two different locks. Second of all you have to figure out if you do the bottom lock first or the top lock first - it's bottom and then top by the way. Third of all you don't turn the key once to open both locks. You turn the bottom one twice and the top one 4 times to open. One good thing out of this is that there is no freakin way someone is breakin into our place because we're basically pad-locked inside. Now to get out you gotta use the keys again and I think you basically do the same thing. Man I sware it takes us each like 10 minutes to open and lock the door.
So we get inside and I just go straight back to my room and crash on my bed - literally. And I didn't wake up until I heard someone beat on my door at 7:55am. When I heard this I kinda paniced because I thought for a second that my alarm didn't go off and we were supposed to be in class in like 5 minutes. But I had time. I set my alarm for 8:00am so she beat me to my alarm. And class/the day started at 8:30.
Today we went to the Acropolis. It's basically like the top tourist attraction here in Athens. We learned today that the Acropolis was a place to worship the goddess Athena (zeus created her out of his head - yeah she basically popped out according to the myths), a place where the Greeks stored their wealth and also a place of gathering from danger. It was amazing! I'm gonna post pictures on facebook where you can actually see where I'm coming from here. Inside the Acropolis are 3 main monuments: Propylaia, Erechtheum, and the Parthenon. Man guys, the Parthenon is so freakin sweet! Everything was being renovated which kinda brought the beauty away from it but I've never seen so many Greek columns in my life! Most of these monuments you had to use your imagination and visualize what they used to look like. Basically you had to put yourself in a 5th century Greek's shoes. So I put myself in the shoes of Zeus and shot thunderbolts down at everyone - no i didn't, just kidding. But that would be pretty sweet. Each side of the Parthenon symbolized who the Gods fought against to protect the Greeks during times of danger. The four corners were giants, trojans, amazons, and centaures. Pretty interesting I thought.
So after learning about the Acropolis, we hiked up to the top of it. It wasn't too bad of a walk but the heat made it hard. I would say the weather is really similar to Richmond. It definitely ain't no Blacksburg. It's about 76F during the day and mid to lower 60s at night. NO WIND. I was a typical tourist today. Everywhere I turned I took a picture because everywhere I turned it was amazing. I really wish our teacher could have explained a little more about what we were looking at but she's kinda hard to understand. She's nice though. After spending quite a while on the Acropolis we made our way down to the Agora which was known as the civic center.
The civic center was where the citizens of Greece hung out. At that time period, the citizens of Greece were only men. Women, slaves and foreigners were not allowed to be citizens of Greece. Dude, talk about discrimination...man. We learned that Greece was mainly a democracy and voting was a privledge for the citizens. Basically any citizen of Athens could propose a law to be voted on. To vote, citizens met every ten days and in order for a law to be passed 6,000 people had to be in favor of it. That means at least 6,000 people had to gather in the Agora, which was actually really big, and vote. Another interesting fact I learned. While in the Agora I got to see the sacraficed alter of Zeus - man I don't think I would be able to stand before this alter and kill a sheep for someone even if it was almighty Zeus. I mean, poor sheep.
Well, after that we headed back to Arcadia where we had our orientation. The last thing I remember hearing about was "we're going to talk about safety and health procedures." Then I think I feel asleep. Or I was just dozing in and out. I felt bad because I was sitting right in front of the woman who was speaking but I'm hoping she understood because I'm still jet-lagged like wo.
After orientation we went to the super market and I stacked up on some groceries for the apartment. I saw cereal and I was like "dude, sweet! I'm getting that!" They had the typical cherrios and corn flakes and other brands which just looked too expensive so I stuck with the standard corn flakes. I got some yogurts and bananas and pasta and detergent for washing clothes. I also bought a little can of lemon flavored ice tea just because they looked so cute. So I get to the register and the woman is like you have to weigh the bananas. I was like "what" even though she flat out told me to weigh the bananas in English. She explained to me what you had to do with fruit and I got the picture. So we left the store and went back to the apartment and I took a shower for the first time in like 2 or 3 days - man that's gross. I just want everyone to know that I would have showered earlier but I seriously didn't have time- seriously.
After the shower I explored the town a little. I convinced Jess to go out and about with me. Christine wanted to stay in which was perfectly fine. Julie and Steph were out hitting the beach. So Jess and I went exploring. We saw and stuck to a lot of the main roads. We hit the hoppin' spot which I guess was considered downtown after walking around and playing in a random park for a while. They were blasting all kinds of American music as we walked by the bars/cafes. I know I heard Rhianna's Please Don't Stop the Music and Timbaland's The Way I Are. Everytime we walked through I wanted to dance but I refrained to save Jess the embarrasment. We eventually found this place and I got a Gyro with chicken cabob. By the way Gyro is pronounced kind of like "yearo." So far I've learned "yesso" is hello and "eucharisteo" is thank you. I get so nervous when it comes to communicating with people because I know they know that I'm American and I probably sound completely rediculous. I'll try it eventually. After dinner I basically met up with some other girls and we went to get gelato - I sware it's almost like I'm in Italy again! Gelato is so freakin good! I got yogurt di fragola - basically strawberry flavored frozen yogurt - that jank was dank, haha.
And then I basically headed back to the apartment and called it a night. I found out again that we have class at 8:30am and will be traveling a lot tomorrow. And then we have class at 5:00pm. Gosh another busy day for tomorrow. Well I'm out guys. later.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
I'm here!
Yeah, um I definitely just figured out how to make this blog thing. Wow, yeah so I made it to Greece and I must say it is really hilly here! My plane rides weren't that bad aside from my TV screen in front of my seat didn't work. But I figured out that I could see almost perfectly on the person's screen to my left if I leaned into the aisle. So I "watched" National Treasure with Nicholas Cage until I feel asleep which was pretty quick - I'm a sucker for falling asleep during movies (I think everybody knows that). But anyway I got off the plane and met about 10 girls that were studying abroad through Arcadia also. Can I just say that I love meeting new people! We did the standard:
"Hi, I'm so and so. Where are you from?" There are girls here from California, Oregon, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersy, etc. I think I'm the only one here from VA - represent yo. Then we would ask:
"What school do you go to? What year are you?" Most of us are rising juniors, although there are seniors also. The ages range from 19-21. Of course everyone was talking about drinking and how much they wanted to go to a bar and order shots of who knows what and just drink the night away every night and everyday. We'll see how this ends up as the trip goes on.
After arriving in Athens from the airport, we were taken to our apartments and then we were shown the Arcadia Center where people study can study and use the computer labs during their stay. The apartments are pretty nice. I'll work on getting some pictures up. I've got 4 other roommates who are friendly and easy to work with. Their names are Julie, Steph, Christine, and Jess. Julie and Steph are two best friends from New Jersy who are just staying for summer session 1. Christine is staying for 3 summer sessions and Jess is staying for summer session 1. Julie, Steph, Jess and I are all in the same program, Magnificent Mosaics. Christine is in the Of Gods and Greek Culture - I wanted that sooooooo bad! But yeah they're pretty cool peeps.
At 5:00 Greece time, one of our "helpers/leaders" took us to the beach which was like a forever ride on the tram. Also we were supposed to stick our tram/bus tickets into this machine before we got on in order to activate it but I didn't know that so I bascially got a free ride on the tram for the ride down to the beach. On the way back I stuck it in. The beaches are small and kinda gross actually. The water was really rough since the wind was blowing. I was gonna get in but I was too freakin cold. The plan was to stay for 2 hours and then leave, but after 1 hour rolled around we decided to get the heck out of there because we were all about to die of hypothermia. Also we were tired since we basically got like no sleep from the plane ride. And everybody was freakin starving because nobody had any food or had eaten anything in what seemed like a billion years. I would go up to people and be like that looks so good even if I couldn't see what the heck they were eating. So we all took the tram back to Pelligrati which is the town in which we all live.
10 of us were so hungry that we went to this Italian place after walking around trying to find food on a Sunday night. It was called Ciao! - original. That food was sooooo good too. Everyone was in the mood for wine so our table ordered wine. One girl at our table was an avid wine drinking because she made it clear by saying "I love wine! Can we order wine, let's order wine!" I didn't know what the heck to order so we all kinda just let her make the decision. We order Pinot Grigio - it was really good by the way. One bottle split by the table. I figure if I'm in Greece I'm here for the experience so I'm gonna try the wines and foods and desserts and basically things I wouldn't be able to try back in the states. You just have to remember to "pace" yourself which is apparently what I kept saying last night as I was "trippin off the wine." I just also want to say that I have such a low tolerance. Man, after 1 glass I was talking crazy like I always do. I sware I'm a loser. The night was really fun though. After dinner we all tried to go out to a club/bar but it was so quiet and we didn't know where to go and some of us had class at 8:30 the next day so we called it a night. I eventually went to bed/crashed into bed at 1:30 am Greece time. I was so freakin exhausted! I can't wait to see what the classes are like and what Greece looks like! Tomorrow we see the Acropolis! I guess we'll begin there!
"Hi, I'm so and so. Where are you from?" There are girls here from California, Oregon, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersy, etc. I think I'm the only one here from VA - represent yo. Then we would ask:
"What school do you go to? What year are you?" Most of us are rising juniors, although there are seniors also. The ages range from 19-21. Of course everyone was talking about drinking and how much they wanted to go to a bar and order shots of who knows what and just drink the night away every night and everyday. We'll see how this ends up as the trip goes on.
After arriving in Athens from the airport, we were taken to our apartments and then we were shown the Arcadia Center where people study can study and use the computer labs during their stay. The apartments are pretty nice. I'll work on getting some pictures up. I've got 4 other roommates who are friendly and easy to work with. Their names are Julie, Steph, Christine, and Jess. Julie and Steph are two best friends from New Jersy who are just staying for summer session 1. Christine is staying for 3 summer sessions and Jess is staying for summer session 1. Julie, Steph, Jess and I are all in the same program, Magnificent Mosaics. Christine is in the Of Gods and Greek Culture - I wanted that sooooooo bad! But yeah they're pretty cool peeps.
At 5:00 Greece time, one of our "helpers/leaders" took us to the beach which was like a forever ride on the tram. Also we were supposed to stick our tram/bus tickets into this machine before we got on in order to activate it but I didn't know that so I bascially got a free ride on the tram for the ride down to the beach. On the way back I stuck it in. The beaches are small and kinda gross actually. The water was really rough since the wind was blowing. I was gonna get in but I was too freakin cold. The plan was to stay for 2 hours and then leave, but after 1 hour rolled around we decided to get the heck out of there because we were all about to die of hypothermia. Also we were tired since we basically got like no sleep from the plane ride. And everybody was freakin starving because nobody had any food or had eaten anything in what seemed like a billion years. I would go up to people and be like that looks so good even if I couldn't see what the heck they were eating. So we all took the tram back to Pelligrati which is the town in which we all live.
10 of us were so hungry that we went to this Italian place after walking around trying to find food on a Sunday night. It was called Ciao! - original. That food was sooooo good too. Everyone was in the mood for wine so our table ordered wine. One girl at our table was an avid wine drinking because she made it clear by saying "I love wine! Can we order wine, let's order wine!" I didn't know what the heck to order so we all kinda just let her make the decision. We order Pinot Grigio - it was really good by the way. One bottle split by the table. I figure if I'm in Greece I'm here for the experience so I'm gonna try the wines and foods and desserts and basically things I wouldn't be able to try back in the states. You just have to remember to "pace" yourself which is apparently what I kept saying last night as I was "trippin off the wine." I just also want to say that I have such a low tolerance. Man, after 1 glass I was talking crazy like I always do. I sware I'm a loser. The night was really fun though. After dinner we all tried to go out to a club/bar but it was so quiet and we didn't know where to go and some of us had class at 8:30 the next day so we called it a night. I eventually went to bed/crashed into bed at 1:30 am Greece time. I was so freakin exhausted! I can't wait to see what the classes are like and what Greece looks like! Tomorrow we see the Acropolis! I guess we'll begin there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
