Update - Athens

Soo. the past few days have been crazy. We get up
early and stay out late so we're all pretty tired! I
have been going nuts without the internet! I've been
having serious withdrawals like a drug addict. So I
left my hotel the other day and found a much simpler
route to the metro. I took the metro took Sydagma
Square and after i got off the train i just kinda sat
on the benches and people watched. There isn't air
conditioning on the train so I was really hot and need
a break from lugging around my 100 lbs. worth of bags!
(literally) So i people watched, Athens is a busy city
than L.A. I think, either that or everyone uses public
transportation, which of course they do because in
Athens you are only allowed to drive your car, if you
have one, on certain days depending on your license
plate numbers, what they start with. It's something
crazy like odd numbers can only drive M, W, F and
even numbers like the other days or something along
those lines. Anywho, after i relaxed for few, saw all
these people, and hogged down some snacks, i continued
to try to find the hotel. It was of course 98 degrees
outside so I was breaking a sweat, disgusting i know.
I was looking around because i couldn't find the
street on the map, some guy tried to sell me a cruise
and he gave me directions...after this i made it to
the hotel, checked into my room, and waited for my
roommate, she wasn't there yet. I kinda took an
accidental nap and then woke up when Sarah, my roomie,
showed up. We only had like 20 mins. till we had to be
at the orientation deal. There we met our tour guide,
costas, and our mentors, one of which i already had
met because she is from our campus. Then, we all
introduced ourselves and such, you know the usual
"let's get to know each other games." They gave us a
lecture like high school students (Johnson and Wales
policy i swear), treated us like we were 15, and then
we all walked to dinner. The food was good, there was
music, and the water doesn't have ice. We made friends
and then went to bed because everyone else just
arrived off planes, so they were tired.
The next day, which was yesterday, we all went to the
Acropolis and saw the Ancient Agora and all the ruins
and such. We got some lecture before we left about
ancient athens from this archeologist and she was
really great. Soo.. the acropolis was breathtaking!
All you can do is just look at it and say, is this
really real? Can you believe that people thousands of
years ago were walking right where i'm walking? It's
so huge too, I can't believe that they built this sort
of stuff. It was really hot and the acropolis is
really high up so the wind was blowing like crazy!! I
was sweating so every-time the wind blew it blew
little rocks and sand on me and when i was showering
later, nothing but dirt was coming off of my legs and
stuff!! I got some great pictures though and it wasn't
as crowded as the tour person said it usually is, of
course it was sunday. After all this excitement I had
my first gyro, they were supposed to be the best in
greece and they definitely were, and again we had
bread, greek salad, and water with no ice....these
three items come with like every meal you eat here!!
Then, we walked back to the hotel and got showers and
then had a greek lesson at 5pm. I learned some more
words and about the alphabet that they use here. It
was interesting. After this we were on our own for
dinner, so myself and a group of girls went out to get
something to eat, we shared salads and appetizers and
again, water with no ice. Then we shopped around and
went to a cool bar to chill for a while because we did
not have to be up early the next day. This day was
very jam packed, walked around lost twice and was very
hot and tiring. There's just too much to say about it.
BTW my roommate broke the shower head but we got it
fixed today, thank goodness.
Today we slept in, had some breakfast, which is pretty
much the same as the other hotel i stayed at. They
have the same thing everyday...lunch meat, weird
items, cereal that tastes like paper, warm milk, and i
swear on my life the "orange juice" is really just
tang, or orange kool aid, and the apple juice tastes
like straight shots of liquor. lol GOOD THING i
brought like 3 boxes of Special K bars!! After
breakfast a group of girls and I went shopping in the
Plaka, where we spend most of our time. It has nice
restaurants and neat little shops and is so pretty
it's like something out of a magazine. I finally made
it to the internet today and we are now getting ready
for dinner as a group at 7.

If I get up early enough, i might post tomorrow
morning before we leave athens, we are going to the
national archeological museum tomorrow and then we are
taking off for delphi and few other cities. I packed a
duffle bag to take in and out because everynight this
week we will be going to different cities and staying
in different hostels everynight! Well I hope
everyone's missing me!! I'm having a much better
time, the first day or so was rough, but now i'm
caught up on my sleep and such and having a great
time!! BTW Chelsea won the Benedum Festival Queens
pageant! (NEWS, but not big news, (like we didn't know
she was going to win!!) PUH-LEASE she's a freakin pro!
:D This means that i get a free shopping spree to
Charleston in Jan.!! :)

Arrival

OK, so i made it to Athens, it was a long plane ride. My flight got delayed a little before i made my connection in Newark and then my flight to Athens left about 30 mins. late but we got here 30 mins. early.  It doesn't make a lot of sense i know. ANYWHO, the flight wasn't bad, reminded me of the one to vegas, i watched the movie fools gold, read some of my book, and ate lots of snacks to try to lighten the load. lol I had 43L which was sorta all the way in the back BUT, i had the window seat and there was just one lady sitting next to me and she was pretty nice, she let me out to use the bathroom like 3 times. The meal wasn't too bad, we had salad (which was amazing) and then we could choose between lasagna or chicken something, i wanted lasagna but they ran out so i had to settle for chicken, it was pretty good though, then we had a cookie for dessert. Then i took about a 4 hour nap and then i woke up and we were flying over Italy, it was really pretty, they also have a ton of coastline! Then we had breakfast and that was a croissant and a fruit salad, it was good too. Soo then we arrived at the airport, I was like the last person off, and it was extremely hot. Then i had to stand in the longest line ever to get through customs and they didn't even give me a nice stamp in my book, just a date! Ridiculous! So then, i went to get my luggage, both bags made it, then i went to bathroom and rearranged everything for easier transport and changed into something cooler. After all this, i had to find directions, this was difficult, i waited in line at like 2 different places and then finally there was this greece travel place, which i guess is what the janitor lady that was practically yelling at me in greek was talking about. haha Anywho, they gave me a map, which is nice, and showed me where to go and such. So then i bought a metro ticket, my first 6 euros spent, and got on this train with all my crap. It wasn't crowded at first but then, the further we went tons more got on this train! The city here is nice, kinda dumpy in some parts when you get into it but, the ride here was lovely, there are tons of trees and irrigation everywhere, most things are in greek and english but not all. They seem to be very proud of their "green" atmosphere here. There are tons of little trees that you can tell were just planted and crops of some weird bush nearly everywhere you could put one! Everyone here drives a small car, like smart cars and the little hatchbacks. It just as i would have imagined a city in Europe. The taxis look much nicer than american ones though. They're very modernized over here but then again, i'm not sure why i was expecting they wouldn't be. So after i got off the first train i had to changed to a second one. After getting off this train, I was a little lost, all the guides are in greek and don't match all the words on my map. I started walking in the direction that I thought the hotel was in and then stopped in another hotel for directions...haha, i was going the right way though, he helped me the best he could but said he wasn't sure. I found out the name of the street and then tried to find my hotel. The street signs are on the buildings that are on the corner and are faded and very small rectangles like the size of a cherrios box. You can barely tell what they say, if your lucky enough to find one! Its ridiculous! Then the stoplights are not hanging in the air they are on poles on the sides of the streets and i nearly got run over when i had a walk sign, i tried to remember the piss off phrase in my phrase book but couldn't get it out in time! lol The streets are kinda dirty and you can tell that they are ancient! They really need to update their sidewalks, and people with mopeds or bikes just park them right on the sidewalk blocking everything! Anyways, i made it here and was awfully glad because its like 95 outside and i almost broke a sweat. Its not humid though, its just hot, which is nice. I checked in and made my way to my room, very interesting the way things work in here, you have to put your room key in this little slot for any light to come on or any other electric use. I guess its a good way to cut back though, intelligent idea. I took a nap, got a shower, and now i'm trying to decide what to do with the rest of the evening and during the day tomorrow before everyone else arrives. I'm going to try to work out the phone situation but i'm not sure what i'm going to do about that yet, I assume the lady at the front desk might know, she speaks good english too. I'll probably post again in the morning because the hotel i'm staying at tomorrow charges 5 euros for 3 hours of internet access, plus, i will probably be busy with the JWU people! I'm very glad i decided to come a day early though, we all know how stressed i can get and this definitely would have been bad if i had to meet all those people and get lost all in a days time. :)

Departure

Soo, it took me about all day yesterday to pack my things. Mother and I were up until about 2am trying to get everything i own in a suitcase. It was the hardest thing I think I have ever done. Deciding what to take and what not to take was tough, i had to leave behind some of my favorite things, especially lots of clothes. We got up at about 5:45 this morning, stopped and had breakfast at Bob Evans, and then headed to IKEA for some shopping. We didn't buy anything however, we came up with some great ideas for what we want to do to the house!!! When I get back, we are going to stop by and pick up some things! We got to the airport at 11. I ended up checking two bags, my one on wheels and then my carry on, I'm just taking my laptop on the plane. It weighed in at 51.5 so we had to move some things around. Sooo, as of now I am all checked in and getting ready to head through the security checkpoint for my flight to Newark in seat 1A!!!! :) The next one is 43L so i'll enjoy this one while i can! :) I'll post again when i've made it somewhere, hopefully Athens!! :)

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