GREECE Summer 2008

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2008-06-15T23:37:00.002+02:00

I think I just realized one of the hardest things in life - saying goodbye. These last 3 weeks have really been an amazing experience for me. I got to see the beautiful Greek landscapes, I learned about the many magnificent mosaics and how the Greeks identify themselves today, and I met 16 new friends who even though I may never see some of them again - we will be facebook friends for life.
Friday was officially our last day all together as a class. We took the final exam that morning and then after we all took our teacher out to lunch. The exam wasn't that bad either. I knew the information enough that I was perfectly ready for our final which was just an essay. I actually enjoyed writing it. So after the final, we all headed to a cafe right around the corner from our Center. After the final, I started feeling probably a million emotions. I was happy to have been done with the essay, I was proud to have walked out feeling like I had written a good, successful essay, I was upset when I thought about leaving my classmates, I was laughing with everyone as we reminisced about the last 3 weeks - I was basically all over the place in my head. So we head to lunch and we're all laughing and having a good time just like we always have together. We didn't even think about parting or saying goodbye. We just wanted to save this for when we actually had to do it. But even through all the laughter I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that this was the last time I was going to wake up and see these people. This is the last time I'm going to wake-up at like 8am and prepare for a day of class with everyone whether we'd be climbing a mountain or touring through a museum. In fact there's a lot of "last time" things in life.
The food was pretty good too! I had this mac and cheese like penne pasta and a stuffed tomato. It was good but I didn't really eat much because I was too busy laughing and just having a good time. So we finish lunch and we're heading outside. This was my first goodbye out of 16. I first said goodbye to Alice, my teacher and then second to Julie who was leaving for Mykonos with her roommates for the weekend. While I will probably never see Alice again I will certainly never forget her and what she taught us. She's the reason why I've come back here with such an appreciation and a knowledge of Greek culture. Everything we did was amazing on this trip and I enjoyed every second of it. Then I had to say goodbye to Julie. Julie was awesome - she's from NH and she's a college senior. She did my make-up and hair when we went out in Mykonos. She cried when we all said goodbye to her. I gave her two hugs.
The rest of us decided to meet at 4:30 for gelato to say goodbye to Alex and Sarah who were leaving for Santorini for the weekend. So in between lunch and gelato, I went with heather, lauren and cathy to the Bizarre to do some last minute shopping. I was wearing myself out at the Bizarre. After about 2 hours of shopping we were exhausted so I go back to the apartment with about an hour left til gelato. I was seriously dredding saying goodbye to Alex and Sarah. Alex, Sarah and I hung out a lot over this past week and really got to know each other. We became really, really good friends. The two of them were staying for the next session so I wanted more than anything to stay. So we all met at 4:30 and had our last gelato and said goodbye to two. Alex and Sarah's ferry was scheduled to leave at 8:00 so they had to leave at 6:30pm. After everyone pretty much left around 5 or 5:30 I stuck around and hung out with them until the two of them got on the taxi and left to catch the ferry at Santorini. You know how people talk about how they don't actually feel things until they hit them. Well it hit me that it was officially over as I watched the taxi drive away. "parting is such sweet sorrow." I think I say this quote a lot. Sarah lives in L.A., CA and Alex lives in New York. We decided that the next time we see each other will be the beginning of next summer when Alex and I meet up to drive across the country on a mo-ped to stay with Sarah. Man I'm going to miss them.
After saying goodbye to them, I met up with lauren, heather, cathy, jess, steph and julie b to watch the sunset over the 1st olympic stadium. It was here that I said goodbye to lauren, heather and cathy. The three of these girls were three of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. Heather and cathy were actually runners so we ran together some times during the past 3 weeks - we were the runners of the group. Lauren and I always studied for the quizzes and the final together. But in-between the hard work, the three of them were apart of our clubbin/party crew. Man I miss them too! Lauren is from Rhode Island, Cathy is from Minnesota, and Heather is from Washington, state that is. I think it's so cool how we were all from all over the US. Although it sucks because it just makes it that much harder to see each other again.
After the stadium, I met shaina, cassie and vina for dinner to say goodbye to them. Man by this point I couldn't take anymore goodbyes. Cassie ended up being our semi-translator/Greek teacher because she took 2 years of Greek in school. In fact I remember her teaching me Greek words one night and she taught me how to say I love you = Sagapo. We definitely said this word a lot throughout the trip, mostly jokingly. After dinner, I went back to my apartment because I had to shower, call my parents, pack, and clean my room. I didn't go to bed til about 2:00am that last night. I had to wake-up and be at the bus stop to take us to the airport at like 7:30am. Man I was dragging that whole day. Luckily there were four others on my flight to JFK so we all got seats together and spent 10 final hours together. We watched the Bucket List - such a good movie, really sad but good! So we get off the plane and say goodbye and I head to layover for 3 hours in a little spot in the airport.
In the airport I did a lot of thinking just about everything really. I thought about how much fun I had over the past 3 weeks. I thought about what it was like to be back in America and seeing Americans and reading and hearing everything in English. I thought about American food and just the way of American people. I felt like after 3 weeks I was just starting to get used to everything in Greece - the people, the location, the food, the way of life. I miss it so much just writing this now.
But I'd say after spending 3 weeks in Greece away from my friends and family, away from my home, away from who I am, I've never learned more about myself. I didn't realize how much I wanted to stay until I had to say goodbye to these 16 people. I didn't realize what great friends I just made. I didn't realize that I went off on my own, halfway across the world. Man, it was awesome! I can't believe it's over and I'm back home. I recommend if you ever have an opportunity like this to take it because if you don't you will never realize this experience. so that's it. I'm back in the US until I make a trip to go back to Greece - hahaha jk. Now I'm set for the second part of my summer - camp counseling. Bring it on.

Gerolimenas day + Athens BACK

2008-06-12T16:41:00.002+02:00

So we woke up around 8:20 and definitely had class at 9:00. We were slow this morning but we eventually made it as everyone was waiting for us on the bus. Today was probably one of the coolest things we've done this whole trip. We went to the Caves of Diros. It was sooooo cooooool! Right when we got there we were given life jackets because the first part of the cave was a 1200m boat ride. So we divided into groups of 6 and hopped on the boats and began our boat adventure. I was snapping pics like crazy. And I was trying to remember what stalactites and stalagmites were, like which ones grew from the ceiling and from the ground. I hypothesized that stalactites hung from the ceiling - fyi, I was right according to wikipedia. We sang songs during the boat ride also: Row, Row, Row your boat - we did this in rounds. Once we got off the boat we walked for about 300m through the cave until we reached the exit. I told Alice as we were walking out that the next time I come back to the caves, I'm going to swim the canal - she laughed at me.
We were all telling Alice how much we enjoyed the cave. So we made it outside and we were all waiting around for the 3rd group to come through. We got attacked by killer beatles while we were waiting. At 11:00am we were all starting to get hungry so we were assuming that the bus would stop fairly soon after we got on. We didn't end up stopping til 2:00pm. Man did I have to pee! We eventually got back to Athens around 5:00. I went back to my apartment and dropped my luggage off and went to Arcadia to check email, blog, etc. After that Steph, Julie B, Julie, Alex, Sarah and I went to this gelato dessert place and studied for our quiz for a while. This was also the night that Greece played Sweden in the European Cup which is a big Soccer tornament in Europe every four years I believe. We found out the next day by context clues on the newspapers that Sweden beat Greece 2-0. We're hoping the Greece can pull through to the next round. They play again June 14th at 10:30pm Greece time - at this time I'm gonna be on the plane heading home...dang.

Gythieo day + Gerolimenas night

2008-06-12T15:40:00.003+02:00

So today we met up at 9:30 after breakfast to head to the area called Mani. The breakfast at the hotel had these little cookies sandwhiched together by this weird tasting jelly - those things were so good that I ate like 5 of them. So after that we packed our stuff up and piled onto the bus and left Gythieo to head to Mani. We probably drove for like 1 hour and 30min or 2 hours til we stopped at this little cafe and had class. First some off some people ordered milkshakes or coffee or water. Then Alice gave us an introduction on the people of Mani. She told us that Mani was basically known for its architecture and laments. The people of Mani (Maniots) have a very interesting history. During the Ottoman Empire, the Turks could never conquer this land because the Maniots were very strategic people, so the land was basically up for grabs among the clans and families that occupied the area. Therefore vendettas occurred between the clans/families for control over certain areas of the land. They fought for wealth and power toward a family. Heather then did her presentation which was really interesting - it made me really want to read her reading. After Heather's presentation and our small group discussion, Julie presented her reading on the reign of the Ottoman Empire. The main thing from her reading was again emphasizing this concept of developing the Greek Identity and how in the past three centuries, Greeks have been drifting back and forth between classical/hellenic Greece and the Byzantine Empire.

After the presentation we all just hung out for a while in front of the Aegean Sea. Then we all hopped onto the bus and headed to two Mani villages up in the mountains to notice the architecture of the buildings. It was really cool! Then we started to head toward our hotel in Gerolimenas. Oh my gosh, the bus ride was a nail biter. We felt so close to death because the turns were so sharp and our bus was so freakin huge. But eventually we made it. The town we stayed in seriously had a population of about 30. In fact our group made up 1/3 of the population alone. We were all laughing at this. It was definitely really isolated there. So when we got off the bus we were all starving. We broke into our rooms and put our bathing suits on and headed to the closest taverna/cafe that served food. Sarah, Alex, and I roomed together. So after changing we saw the rest of the class at a cafe where we sat to have lunch/dinner. Right when we sat down, three dogs came running over. In fact no matter where we were in Greece, everytime we went to a cafe there was some animal right below our feet begging us for food. But there was one dog at this restaurant that had a hole in its leg and was hobbling around. This one dog made us all feel sad and sick to our stomachs. Here in Greece there are so many stray animals that there's pretty much no such thing as a veterinary here. No one smiled at all during lunch. Toward the end, we fed them with our left-over food. Everyone was talking about how much they disliked this place. I personally didn't mind it that much. I mean I wouldn't want to stay there fore more than 1 night but I liked how we got to see what it was like there. I just kept telling myself that we're here for the experience. So after lunch some of us went to try to lay out on the "beach." Alex, Sarah and I found a spot along the concrete where we layed out for a while. We actually ended up reading for like 30min to an hour until Lauren came over and we all started talking. We had a really good discussion for a long time. Cassie came and joined us eventually and we talked about how Americans are basically stupid and how we don't deserve all this attention as the powerful nation in the world. Of course mixed with the seriousness there was laughter. We talked for like 2 hours until Sarah, Alex and I went to get ice-cream. After that we basically walked back to the room and I took a shower. Then the three of us stayed up and watched Under the Tuscan Sun in the room - it was pretty good! We were all laughing! Then around 12:00am we all went to bed in our log cabin hotel room. Oh by the way there was a loft in the room and I jumped on that bed like "wo!"

Monemvasia day + Gytheio night

2008-06-10T16:38:00.011+02:00

Definitely this day is dubbed the "Top crazy day of the whole trip"

So we all wake-up and get ready for class at 9:30am. So I'm sitting at the continental breakfast and Aubrey gets a phone call from Julie saying that someone broke into her room last night and stole her camera and wallet with basically all her information in it. We were all freakin out! Julie was freakin out and crying. I mean I would be feeling the same way if my money, credit cards, social security card, and camera were all stolen. So we're all waiting around outside of the hotel for about an hour because Aubrey, Alice and Julie were waiting at the police station for the police to show. The police may not have been there since it was Sunday and the Greek Orthodox basically spend the morning worshiping so they could have been at church. So after a while, Alice comes back and we start class in the lower and upper town of Monemvasia. The lower town was filled with shops, churches, restaurants and ice cream! It was so pretty! The upper town involved a climb and we saw the remains of St. Sophia church. Or we basically saw the outside of it because when we got up there, the chains were locked on the door. The view was once again amazing!! You just can't capture it all in a picture. We stayed up there a while and then we headed back down and got some lunch in the lower town. On the way down we were sliding all over the place on the marble. Alex fell and split her toe. It wasn't that bad. We went to the bathroom at the restaurant and fixed her up. The food was pretty good. I got a STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKE and it was dang good. I also split spaghetti with Sarah. Then we all hopped on the bus and made our way to the town of Gytheio. The views from the bus were simply amazing again!!! And the bus ride wasn't that bad. We get to the hotel and Alice tells us that we have the rest of the evening off. We were all like "cool, what are we going to do?" We thought about the beach but it was too far. We asked about horseback riding but they didn't have it. So we all went down and sat at the cafes for like 3 hours just like typical Greeks. We talked about all the crap that happened to us lately. Our group is crazy! Then this bug flew into Lauren's shirt and she freaked out and jumped out of her chair which flew into the canal/water that was behind us! After she got the bug out of her shirt, she realized that her stuff was attached to the chair so she jumped down into the water and pulled her stuff out of the water. Her camera, ipod, cell phone, notebook, and walet were all inside the bag and pretty much all got ruined. We were all trying to dry the stuff as fast as possible. We were all thinking, "honestly what else can possibly happen to our group?" Then we immediately knocked on wood. After that cafe we basially walked across the street and had dessert. Sarah and I split this waffle with toffee ice cream on it - it was sooo good! After that we went back to our rooms and we all chilled on our balconys. It would be really funny because you'd walk out and notice the beautiful view and then you'd turn left or right and see someone right there and be like "wo!" After chillin on the balcony for a while, Alex, Julie, Sarah and I went out exploring around the little town we could basically see from our balconys. I bought a purse/bag! I'm excited because it's orange and it reminded me of VT! We then took pics in random places. And we took pics of our feet. That was fun. Then we got some food and went back to our rooms and went to bed.

Sparta day + Monemvasia night

2008-06-10T16:38:00.008+02:00

So we woke up today and had our usual hotel breakfast and prepared to take our quiz. If I could change one thing about me it would be to make me a better test taker. Yeah so after that quiz we went on an adventure to see the Olive Museum - yeah Greeks are known for their freakin olives! I was really excited for this because I LOVE OLIVES! It took us a while to find the museum but we found it! The name of the museum was The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil. We basically learned everthing about olives or at least the Greeks used olives and olive oil for basically everything. In fact I read that athletes used to drench themselves in olive oil before competition to make their body's glisten. Haha - showing off from day 1. Attached to the olive museum was this little exhibit about Greeks and America. The mass immigration of Greeks to America came between the times of 1880 to 1950. There were lots of pictures in this small exhibit. We learned that the Pap test which tests for cervical cancer was invented by Georgios Papanikolaou and diners were first started by Greeks. I also saw a Virginia is for lovers frisbee in the exhibit and I took a picture with it because I was like "represent!" After the olive museum we went to Mystra which was an old archeological site. Mystra was a basically small ancient occupied area on top of a mountain copied from the Byzantine era. We started from the top and worked our way down. Again we took pictures of the awesome views and talked about how we all wanted gelato. When we got back to the bus we made our way to Monemvasia. The bus ride took forever! We seriously got lost like 3 times. Everyone was saying that the ride should have taken 1 hour but it really ended up taking like 2 - i wasn't really complaining but we were all starving so that made it harder. The only good thing about the ride was that the views were amazing! haha I keep talking about those views because they were seriously probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life!

So we get to the hotel, divide into our rooms and all decide to get food and hit the beach. So after seeing Alex, Sarah and Julie's room we were all like "let's hang-out in here tonight!" So we all were deciding on the drinks we wanted to buy and the food we wanted to bring while we were on the beach. Eventually we went to the store bought stuff and then Sarah and I went to the bakery because we were hungry. I got something really good but I can't remember the name of it. After eating Sarah and I went back to her room and watched TRACK AND FIELD on TV! After that we all split up and showered for the night throw-down. I wore my white dress and Lauren, Heather and Cathy helped straighten my hair and do my make-up. We had so much fun getting ready. Then we all headed down to the room. 9:30 was when the party started! So we all got there and we started playing Kings. We were all having so much fun! Alex picked me as her "8 pick a date" so everytime she drank, I would have to drink too. I was like "dang it Alex!" everytime she had to drink. We were all laughing! So after two games of kings we all wanted to go out in this little abandoned town. So we go exploring and immediately get attacked by creepy guys. It was so creepy. We found out that the clubs didn't open til 12 so we were sitting around for the longest time. Then Shaina, Alex, Sarah, Lauren and I decided to go back. I was just getting really creeped out that I couldn't stand it anymore. Plus I was exhausted! So as we're walking back, the little boys were following us so we all get pissed and Alex moons them! Of course they keep following us after that. So we get to the hotel and Alex gets so loud that I know for a fact that we basically woke-up the whole hotel. Since I was scared I stayed inside for a while and then went up to my room and fell asleep.

Nafplio day + Sparta night

2008-06-10T16:38:00.005+02:00

So we woke up in the town of Nafplio today. Nafplio was the first capital of the Greek independent state back in the day. There was a continental breakfast provided by the hotel so we all hit that up before we met for class. We first started our day of class at the war museum. We learned about the first president of the Greek independent state - Ioannis Kapodistrias. We even saw the church where he was assassinated at - yeah, I definitely got the chills just standing in front of it. It reminded me of the scene in batman begins where Bruce's family walks outside and his parents get shot by that pick-pocketer. Man I miss movies. That whole morning we were all hyped up about climbing Acronafplia - 999 steps of fun!!! We were all dreading the climb but I was actually looking forward to it! After the war museum we headed over to the first step of the climb. At the base there was a little shop and a bench. We all bought waters and started stretching out legs to prepare for the climb. Some people even got out there ipods so they could have some music to motivate them along the way. Haha, they made me laugh. The climb really wasn't that bad. The whole way up we would joke by counting the steps or saying "this is my workout for the rest of the year!" Everytime we would stop and take a break you would look over the ledge and there would be this beautiful view of the town of Nafplio down below. Once we got to the top it was like a giant maze/jungle gym with stairs going even further to the top. We stayed up there forever just exploring and doing whatever like posing in pictures and what not. Our group is so AWESOME! I'm going to miss these people so much. It's like we all know how to have fun together.

So after that Shaina and I got lunch in the square or plateia as it is called in Greek. I told our waiter that I wanted "chicken gyro" and he was like "breast or leg?" Yeah, he totally brought me the wrong freakin thing but it was ok because it was an experience and I laughed about it with everyone later. We also got ice cream and then got on the bus for like 2 hours to Sparta. The mountains were so beautiful! You know it's hard to read when you have these picturesque right outside your window. But we got to Sparta, checked into our hotel and then had class for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Then some of us went out to dinner. Alice and Aubrey came with us. We had so much fun. We were all laughing and having a grand old time. I tried lamb for the first time. On the menu it was spelled Lamp. It was really filling. I couldn't finish it, plus it wasn't that great but definitely something to try. So after eating we were all having fun by reciting lines from My Big Fat Greek Wedding - specifically the part where his mom is like "uh I'm sorry but I'm a vegetarian" then the Greek woman goes "oh, that's ok, I'll make lamb!" Haha great movie! I'm watching that when I get home by the way. We were cracking up. Then we all headed back to the hotel and studied for the quiz for a while until we went to bed.

The Tour of the Peloponnese

2008-06-10T16:38:00.002+02:00

Aight so I just got back from touring through the most beautiful towns I have ever seen along the tip of southern Greece called the Peloponnese. We basically would drive in our huge bus to a town, have class and then spend the night there and then head to our next destination. The towns we visited were Corinth, Nafplio, Sparta, Monemvasia, Gytheio and Gerolimenas. Guys it was so awesome! The views that I saw from the bus can't explain it in a million pictures - it was just, amazing. But again I'm just going to log starting with the cities I went to first. Man, I'm really starting to like it here and the people in my class. We've definitely all bonded and it's going to be hard to walk away from each other in a couple days. But I'll start with my adventures before I start crying about leaving.

DAY 1 = Corinth day + Nafplio night 6/5/08

So I woke up at 8:00am this morning and went straight on facebook. We didn't leave Athens until 10:00am so I figured that I had time so why not. After washing my face I left the apartment and went to get breakfast at a local bread shop/bakery. I got a sugar covered bread in the shape of a circle - in America we call this a doughnut.
So after that we all boarded the bus. Our first destination of the day was Corinth. We had no idea how long the bus ride was going to take but in the end we were riding it for about 2 hours. The whole time I basically read in our "textbook" and listened to my ipod. Everytime I heard a song it reminded me of one of my friends back home. For example, I heard "Don't stop me now" by Queen and I though of Lindsey - haha, good song. There was a time also when I tried to fall asleep but my head rattled too much against the window. Everytime that happened it made me think that your brain was getting messed up from the rattling so I would jerk my head away everytime it happened. Basically I couldn't sleep on the bus. Our first stop in Corinth was at an archeological site for the gods Athena and Apollo. We saw lots of buildings and statues that go back to the 2nd century B.C. By the way I think Julius Caesar is known for conquering and establishing Corinth in Greece. After the site we got in the bus and traveled up to the top of this mountain. We all took pics and walked around. We were also trying to save our butts from falling down the marble. Then we headed back down the mountain and all went to lunch. I split a spanakopita and french fries with Shaina. The place wasn't bad. We ate in front of the archeological site. After that we all piled into the bus and headed to a vineyard/wine tasting place. The wine was sooooo good!!! We tried a white, rose, and red wine. We also got a little tour of the facility and basically how they make wine. After that, we headed to our hotel in Nafplio. Nafplio was the first capital of Greece until it was moved to Athens in 1834 because it emphasized classical Greece. We arrived at like 7:00pm so Heather, Lauren, and I went for a run because amazingly there was a really nice track right next to our hotel. I was in heaven again! We did 2 laps together and the I did a mile on my own. I decided that I wanted to wake-up early and do a run before class, so I went back and called Kelly because it was her birthday and my mom and dad just to say hey. For dinner, I met up with Alex, Julie, Steph, Julie B. and Sarah. I got a gyro with kabob on lagana bread. It was pretty good although the waiter kept messing up our orders. I'm telling ya, communication is so hard when your talking in two different languages. It gets frustrating sometimes. Then we went to get crepes. I think this was my first crepe ever. I got chocolate and banana inside. The chocolate was gnutella. It was alright but I'm not a big chocolate fan so I gave the rest of it to my roommates. Then I came back to the room and took a shower and went to bed.

DAY 5 - Syros and back to Athens

2008-06-04T18:21:00.002+02:00

So after trying to figure out how to turn on the freakin AC in our room, we all fell asleep in the heat which wasn't so bad because I get cold really easily and it actually felt comfortable to me. We woke up at about 8:30 and I took a shower and went down to the lobby to hit up that continental breakfast before taking the quiz at 10:00. We all decided the night before to meet as a group and study before the quiz at the breakfast. The quiz was once again hard. I'm just going to admit that I'm not good at history. I'm just gonna say that. After the quiz we met our guest speaker for the morning. Her name was Valentine and she was the most energetic woman I have ever seen. Her mother was a famous artist in terms of the theater. In fact her mom helped start theatrical productions in Syros. So all morning, Valentine showed us her house, the church of Saint Nikos, the theater her mom basically created and beautiful views of the city. It was a great morning. We all loved Valentine and wanted her to adopt us as her grandchildren.

After the tour we had free time til 3:00pm. I had mentioned earlier that I wanted to get my ears pierced on this trip so Alex, Sarah and I saw a clean, sterile place right around the corner from our hotel. We headed over there after the tour. So we get there and there is no one there that speaks english so we left and were like "we'll try to come back later!" So we started going to shops with really nice clothing. We looked for dresses and shirts and pretty much any article of clothing or jewelry. We shopped for an hour and then went to lunch. For lunch, I got a tomato and feta sandwhich for 2.50 euro. It was really good except the feta was too overwelming so I just picked it out and put it on my plate. Man that sucker was salty. After lunch we hit the shops again for the last 2 hours that we had in Syros. At 2:45 we were like, "let's try the piercing place again before we have to meet the group at 3:00! Plus the hotel is right there." So we ran to the piercing place and there was a woman who spoke English and I explained to her that I wanted two holes, and I picked out two pretty blue studs and he sat me down on the piercing table and pierced my ears. So guys, I got my ears pierced on the Greek island of Syros. It cost me 20 euro total which wasn't too bad. I showed everyone when we got back to the hotel. I was telling people how I really wanted to get another hole so we'll see how that goes...

So we all packed up and left the hotel to head for our ferry which was to leave at 4:00pm. As we were waiting for the ferry, Alex, Shaina and I went for a quick gelato run. This time I got cherry and cream - it was good once again. So we boarded the ferry and left Syros and headed back to Athens. We all felt depressed to head back since the islands were soooooo beautiful. This is my last night in Athens once again for a while. We're heading to 5 more cities on the mainland so we'll be gone for 6 days 5 nights. Apparently we're making a 999 steps climb up a mountain in Nafplio which was the first Greek capital. Hopefully we will all survive this, man I can't wait! guys, everyday is an adventure here. When I come back from our 6 days of touring I'll basically be getting ready to head back into the states - man I sware it's going to be hard to leave. But I don't want to think about that yet...

DAY 4 - Syros

2008-06-04T18:04:00.002+02:00

So I ended up waking up at like 10:30 the next morning and Steph, Alex and I really wanted to go to the beach so we got our suits on and went right to our backyard. We layed out, swam, and said goodbye to Mykonos for like an hour until we had to go back and take showers and get ready to leave for the island of Syros. Syros is the Greek island known for its ports and its neo-classical buildings. Of all the islands we visited Syros and Tinos were my favs. So we caught the ferry to Syros and got to our hotels. They were really nice. We soon learned that it came with a continental breakfast the next day.

We had about 2 hours to kill before class so Cassie, Vina and I went to get a gyro since we were hungry. A gyro is chicken, tomatoes, french fries, and tziki (cucumber sauce) all rolled into a pita. They're pretty good but after a while they get old. The only good thing about them is they are cheap! 2.50 euro for one chicken gyro. Being students, we've kind of been living off these things. Class was at 6:30pm so we met and had our discussion for a little over an hour and then a pretty big group of us went out to dinner. For dinner I got an eggplant salad - ewwww!! I've never seen so many freakin onions in my life. I couldn't eat it. Luckily there was bread and my new friends offered me food. I seriously love everyone on this trip. What a great group! We were all laughing and having a great time at dinner. We were there for-ev-er. There was also this dog that kept wanting to eat our chicken. Haha, it was hilarious. After that some of us went back to the hotel to study for our quiz the next day. I got back and lauren, Cathy and I wanted to make a gelato run so we went right down the road and got it! If you have never had gelato before then have it. It's really freakin good. Almost as good as TCBY-haha. We all got the space cookie as a flavor - it tasted like a vanilla waffer - soooo good. After that we called it a night and went back to the hotel and crashed until class the next morning.

DAY 3 - Tinos

2008-06-04T17:13:00.002+02:00

Aight, so again today we had to wake up early to catch another ferry to the religious island of Tinos. Tinos is famous for the church of Panagia Evangelistria which is where Greek Orthodox make their pilgrimages. We learned that the two most important dates for the Greek Orthodox religion are March 25th (the enunciation of the Virgin Mary) and August 15th (Dormition of the Virgin Mary). Tinos was basically Mykonos only more mountainous and less touristy. We spent the whole day in Tinos. We started by going to see the church of Panagia Evangelistria. I would have taken pictures but they were like NO CAMERAS, so I just held mine in my hand. Alice explained to us that people will make a pilgrimage up to the church on their hands and knees as a way to pray for any problems or just anything going on in their lives. We passed two women making the climb as we walked up the hill to the church. The church was beautiful! It was filled with icons and incense holders and beautifully decorated murals and candles lit as a prayer. I lit a candle as a prayer for all my friends, family, the people in my class and basically just all people everywhere. Greek Orthodox believes in the Virgin Mary or "Pan Agia." In fact about 90-95% of the Greeks consider themselves Greek Orthodox. I asked Alice so many questions about the religion because I love learning about it. She was very informative.

After visiting the church, we sat in a little cafe and had our class discussion/presentation for the day. It was at this cafe that I tried spanakopita which is basically spinage pie. I don't know if I'll ever get it again but it was pretty good. I just kept reminding myself that I should try new things. In our discussion we learned about this crazy, freaky story about this woman that was possessed by the devil and she tried to make a pilgrimage on her hands and knees to get the devil out of her. We also learned about this nun who had a revelation that there was an icon of the Virgin Mary burried somewhere on the island so they spent years trying to find it and eventually found it and the nun became famous. Man if I were that nun I'd be living the good life in that time. After the discussion we took a bus to the top of the island and visited the nun's house and 3 other villages. Apparently there's like 1 million kagillion villages on the island and we visited 3. Oh well, that just means I'll have to go back which is not a problem at all. The first place we visited was the place where the nun lived and died. We also visited the church where she worshiped. We were fighting the bugs like crazy up there! They were these tiny, gross, green looking flys that showed up really well on a white dress if I should say so myself. The views from the bus were incredible! just facebook it. I saw a FOR SALE sign at one of the villages so I got this great idea to ask Alice how much it would cost to own property on Tinos. I was just, ya know, wondering for later...yeah. She told me it would be like 30 euro a month. I was like "DANG! I'm gonna hit that up." She laughed at me.

At the first village we stopped at, the bus driver got off the bus and immediately two kids come running around toward us. The little girl and boy were named Kosma and Claudia and they were twins and they were really cute! They would walk around picking flowers and then randomly giving them out to each one of us. I got a really pretty flower from Claudia - I took a picture of it and posted it on facebook. Then I took a picture with them and posted it on facebook. After that village we went to the second one to see a graveyard. Yeah, it was kind of creepy but cool. After that village we went to the next one and had lunch. It was a cute little place right along the water. I got Moussaka for the first time. Moussaka is kind of like lasagna with cheese, potatoes, eggplant and a little bit of meat. It was pretty good although once again I probably won't order it again. Experience, experience, experience. After lunch we walked through one more village until we went down to catch the ferry.

That night we all wanted to check out the Scandinavian Disco which was in Mykonos. It was definitely hoping! We were all dancing and having fun until after a while it got completely packed in there and almost became impossible to move. So I went outside with Sarah after a while to catch some fresh air. We left at like 3:30am. All I wanted to do was sleep that night. I was exhausted. Plus we didn't have class until 1:00pm the next day so I was excited to sleep. So we get back and once again we fall asleep to the freakin BBC. Oh those British news reporters crack me up.

DAY 2 - Delos

2008-06-04T16:48:00.002+02:00

Alright so after barely recovering from the night before, we got up early once again to catch a quick ferry to the island of Delos. Delos is known for its mythological, historical and archeological sites in Greece. So we walk out our hotel door and we're like blown basically back to Athens it was so windy. This also made it kind of cold so I grabbed my sweatshirt and hit the road. It was sooo cold that day but we all sucked it up aside from the goose-bumps and continued on toward the bus to take us to the ferry.

For class, we walked around the island viewing ancient structures of lions and people. Alice (our instructor) taught us about the Greeks and what it was like to live back in the time of ancient Greece. Alex and I saw this huge mountain and saw people climbing up so we convinced Alice and the rest of the class to climb to the top! Oh, how they all loved us for that. The climb really wasn't that bad. It really only took like 10 or 15 minutes to get to the top. Once we were up there, it was like you were surrounded by never ending water and land. Facebook has the views. Being up there kind of motivated me to sky-dive or to just grab a hang glider and fly off the top but then I was like it might hurt when I hit the bottom so I changed my mind. Alex, Cassie, Aubrey and I just sat up there in the blowing wind for the longest time to soaking everything in. Then we went down and met the rest of the group in front of the ferry. On the ferry ride back, Alex, Cassie and I went to sit on the top deck of the ferry with Aubrey and Alice. hahaha, while we were sitting we all got nailed by a huge wave which completely caught me off guard since I was sitting with my back toward the bow of the boat. It was really funny.

When we got back, we all were talking about going to dinner to see the sunset that night. Those are my sunset pics on facebook. We all met up at like 7:50pm and caught the bus to Mykonos and made it just in time for the sun set. Then we went to dinner together at this cute fish/everything place and I ordered risotto with shrimp which was amazingly good. It was filling, but dang good. We also got bread with our meal and that was good too! In Greek bread is called pain. It definitely is a pain when you eat too much of it that's for sure. And then we all went back and we all fell asleep watching the BBC which was basically the only channel we got and it was a perfect channel to fall asleep to. That ends day 2.

I think I just found heaven...

2008-06-04T16:02:00.002+02:00

So yeah, guys I just got back from a 5 day 4 night tour of some of the Greek islands and it was seriously one of the most beautiful/relaxing places I have ever been or seen in mi vida. Hopefully these next couple of posts will explain a little bit more about what we did and describe the wonderfully taken pictures on facebook which I took by the way. I'm thinking about becoming a photographer now guys, forget triathlete or doctor - jk. So what I'm gonna do is make a post for each day to recall where our group went and what we did. Aight so I'll start day 1 right now.

DAY 1 = Mykonos

Today was the day we woke-up from our apartments in Athens at 4:30am to meet the group at about 5:00am so we could travel to catch the ferry to the island of Mykonos at 7:00am. Yeah, we were exhausted! We basically carried our luggage on the bus and on the metro until we got to the ferry for 2 hours. But aside from all the moaning and groaning, we made it to the ferry all together and all in one piece. Now a little bit about the beautiful island of Mykonos. Mykonos is one of the top Greek islands of the Cyclades (island chain) for tourist destinations. So we weren't surprised to see millions of foreigners there when we got off the ferry. The island was believed to have been named after a local hero who was considered to be the god Apollo's (Apollo is the god of sun) grandson. Aight so enough of that. Pulling into the port, our jaws literally dropped. It was beautiful! I seriously think I just found heaven because I definitely think we had to pass through golden gates at one point as we entered the island. In fact we passed through them on the bus that took us to our hotel-yeah!

So on the bus everyone's like, "I am definitely coming back here for my honeymoon." My friend Alex and I agreed that if we were convicts or destined to go to jail for commiting whatever crime that we would escape and meet up and run away to Mykonos and just go into hiding. So guys if this happens you know where I am, but just don't tell anyone...yeah, cool. Alright so we get to our hotel in this little town called Ornos. After dropping our bags off in our rooms and changing into our bathing suits we run into the front office and ask the man in the slowest english that we could, "where's the beach?!?!?" He told us to take a left and then right or something like that but the important thing to remember is that the beach was basically in our backyard, yep, backyard. The water is so clear that when you get in you can see the bottom and the fish right next to you! I had to buy some goggles to get the full scuba diving affect. By the way SCUBA stands for self contained underwater breathing apparatus, just a side note. So we all just chilled on the beach till we had to head back for class at 6:00pm.

For class we went to Alice's mother in-law's house and took our quiz and then went on a walking tour of Mykonos. Once again it was amazing! My facebook pics show the little alley looking walkways that contained lots of shops and restaurants. Golly it was AWESOME! We ended up walking into a small museum to see models of ships and navigational equipment from back in the day. Class was pretty short today since we had been up early and traveling all day.

So after class we were all hyped up about this party at Paradise Beach that night. Paradise Beach is a beach located about 10 minutes from our hotel which was not far at all. It was the grand opening party and after reading the flyer everyone was like "Let's go, let's go!!!" So...we went. We all got ready after class and prepared to take the bus to Paradise. On the bus we met this really cool girl Jody who was from Australia. She was really friendly and she explained to us that she was interning with Paradise Beach club in Mykonos for the summer. We all loved her! In fact she ended up staying with us for the whole amount of time at the party. So we get to the party and we're inside and we start dancing and seriouls right when you start dancing a guy comes right over to you and dances with you. Sometimes the guys are creepy, and sometimes they are pretty chill. Basically that night, we all met creepers. There were a lot of foreigners there, specifically Canadians, Australians and Americans but there were also Greeks. At about 2:30am we called it a night. We had to leave at 2:30 b/c that's when the last bus came. The next day each one of us had a story to tell. haha crazy night.

P.S. I Love You

2008-05-28T13:48:00.000+02:00

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!

endless wine

2008-05-28T12:40:00.000+02:00

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...

DAY 1 - the Acropolis

2008-05-26T22:21:00.000+02:00

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'm here!

2008-05-25T13:02:00.001+02:00

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!