Last time I posted I had just booked a room in Santorini!! I finally booked a flight last night. My friends Heather and Macy are going with me! It should be a blast. We have a whole list of things we want to do there, the volcano, swimming in the hot springs, the white beach, black beach, and the red beach, see what they think is the lost city of Atlantis, restaurants, and ride donkeys! We will be leaving at 10:30 am tomorrow morning. It hasn't quite hit me yet that we're going or that my trip is coming to an end with a short 5 days left or 1 left for everyone else.
As for a recap of this week, it was very fun-filled and eventful! There were other interns working at the resort for the 3 summer months. They were all our age and doing internships for college and such. They were from all over the world, Sweden, Russia, Cosovo, Macedonia, Albania, and more. There were 2 girls from the US. They weren't really nice though, kinda bitchy! So between morning and evening shifts we all hung out at the beach allllll day! It was so wonderful and relaxing. Everyone played volleyball, swam, laid out and just had a lot of fun. They also had a trampoline at the beach that I entertained myself on just about everyday! I miss having one! I tried to get everyone on it, but only like 3 people would jump with me!! I also bought my own floatie this week. Like a long one that you lay on a float around. It was the best 6 Euro I think I've spent this whole trip! It was relaxing and I just floated around in the ocean for hours! :D It was well worth every breath i put in it to blow it up!! THEN, yesterday when we left Alexander I deflated it and am now taking it to Santorini with me tomorrow! One day this week at the beach, this kid from Sweden named Phillip caught an octopus!! He brought it to shore and I got to touch it! Everyone was touching it and when we put him in the water over the sand, he camouflaged himself. It inked one of my friends Nicole like 6 times! haha It was sooo cool to see something like that up close. Some guy that was working at the beach eventually came over and they squeezed out its brains and he took it home to eat it!!!! Ick!
So they next day, Sweden as we called him, took me out snorkeling, we went really far out, we saw a baby octopus and fish and then we caught what i think were oysters!? They were shellfish of some type. He taught me how to find them under the sand! We swam back to shore with like 10 huge shells. When we got back I just wanted to keep the shells because they don't have seashells on the beaches here, they have rocks instead. However, he got a knife and a lemon and cut them open, rinsed them with fresh water, squeezed some lemon on it and ate them!! Not what I was expecting. I got to try one too, it didn't really taste like much of anything though, just a weird texture! This was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done! Go out, catch the food, and eat it right there on the beach! It was crazy!!! They also had a really tiny pearl inside so I'm guessing they were oysters. After we ate the shellfish, we set them back out into the ocean for the fish to clean up the parts you can't eat. Like a million fish came over out of nowhere! After this I put them in a cup and am bringing them home with me!! This is something I will never forget!! After laying around at the beach we went up and had crepes!! Ah, I love crepes I had a chocolate and banana one with yogurt ice cream! BTW the Greeks looove their yogurt over here, and it's not like American yogurt, its very different, it took a while to get used to but I really love it now! Anyways, so the crepes were great and then I got ready for dinner and went back for the night shift. At night at the resort they always have some type of party like a beach party, a pool party, a greek night, or a party at the kassandra bar. This night it was Greek night. They had dancers and music. It was pretty cool, I went to bed early this night because I was so tired though.
So the next night they had a pool party and we all went to that, it was a lot of fun! Everyone ended up getting pushed in the pool and then we all eventually made our way down to the beach and had some fun before going to bed around like 3! The next night they had a beach party that I helped decorate for. It rained for a brief 5 mins early that evening and it was really chilly for the rest of the night. I actually had to break out the jeans and the ONE long sleeve shirt that i brought with me! I can say that I'm glad I brought it now! I went for a walk on the beach and we had some drinks and danced and then we all went to bed fairly early because it was kinda cold outside! We were all shocked! lol The last night we spent at the Kassandra Bar, it was fun, we all got dressed up for our last night there and went out and danced. It was a blast, I took lots of pictures and I also learned from Amanda, my adopted mother, and Bobbie how to pop a proper squat when you need to go!! lol Thanks guys!
During the day we spent most of the time at the beach, Sarah, John, and I all went into the small village one day because Sarah needed to take more money out of an ATM. It was a short trip. We did a little shopping while we were there and I bought a beach towel and then I got Heather and I snorkels for when we go to Santorini next week! We used them down at the beach when I had gotten back and we got the bright idea for her to put it in her mouth while we poured beer down it!! Haha...it was hilarious, I can't believe this is what she did with it!!! I posted a picture already so you can get the idea! We all said, "why didn't we think of this before!!" lol Fun times! Other than going to the village we spent most of our time at the resort and on the beach! The beach was constantly fun and I had a slushie and a huge donut like everyday! Sarah and I also shared fruit salads. Everything is so much fresher here, the fresher ingredients make everything better. We also had to finish off a bottle of wine this week because I am having a hard time fitting everything in my bags! It was from the winery that we went too and it ended up being really good! I let Nicole keep the bottle because she accidentally threw hers away and she wanted to give it to her parents.
As for the work experience part of the week, it was eventful. I spent 3 days in F&B and then 3 days in lodging. The restaurant wasn't too bad. There were just serious communication problems this week so it made it tough. The employees wouldn't tell us what to do and then when we set it up the way we thought we were suppose to, they would tell us it was wrong and make us do it another way! They should have told us what to do in the first place. Things like this happened all week long. Nobody gave us any instructions, it was like we were just supposed to guess! They also tried to keep us over our time limit a couple of times. It was a mess! Plus, most every employee speaks some English but there are many people that come from all over Europe to this resort especially many Germans, so the language was interesting and I learned some more Greek this week! They also do not have sanitation guidelines here in Greece or other foreign countries just to let ya know! lol There isn't such a thing as a health inspection or health code here. They don't have rubber mats in the back by the dishwasher and they do everything by hand instead of having a automatic dishwasher. The floors are very slippery and they also polish their silverware with vinegar here! ICK! I think that is so gross. While we were cleaning tables during breakfast, I swear we used the same towel everyday to wipe the tables off and my third day there it smelled like straight mildew or mold or something. It was disgusting. It was basically a dry towel and there was no sanitizing spray or bucket full of sanitized water to even dip it in! It was disgusting. We didn't actually "clean" the table, just dusted off the crumbs with a dirty towel. My friends that worked the pool bar or the beach bar told us all not to eat anything other than chicken nuggets and fries and other things like ice cream and slushies. Just don't eat anything that is actually made there. They said that they leave the cream cheese sit out all day!! And that there are no gloves for the employees to use and they just eat and drink freely and wipe their sweat off with napkins and their hands and then don't wash them! When I work i probably wash my hands about 50 times a shift literally! Here, i only saw one hand-washing sink the whole time and it didn't have any soap or paper towels. So....the standards are very different here than in America. However, sometimes I feel its good that we have guidelines and at other times, not so good. I think we freak ourselves out about food poisoning and food safety temperatures too much. I was never like this until I learned about it all in school. Regardless, we're really picky and so materialistic. We want everything our way, btw...i haven't seen a Burger King here! lol The managers here work much different than in America as well. The F&B manager is a real dick-head. He constantly yells at the employees and there was an issue this week with him calling one of students a malayka which means fucker. It's a really long story. He eventually apologized but everyone is afraid of him. It's hard to go into detail about how they manage but they use some extremely different tactics here in Greece! This week wasn't the most pleasant work experience I've ever had but I sure did learn a lot about how different cultures manage and work. Overall it was a great learning experience. Also, the girl that was rude to me and told me I could not use the internet was rude to like 5 other people from our group and it eventually got around to Sharene and then she asked me about what had happened. She checked with Christiana our lady who does this program for us and she said she had never heard of a rule like that and that I could use my computer whenever I wanted. After this, the internet broke though! lol Anyways, we were told that she was sat down and talked with about how she had been treating our group and after that she tried to be somewhat nice, or more or less just not such a bitch!
It was a very long week but a good one overall. I really wouldn't mind working at a beach resort for different reasons. I already know that I want to work at a resort property but I would definitely consider a beach resort now. This week i received some injuries, a kid stepped on my foot and messed up my pedicure and hurt two of my toes, someone was trying to throw me into the pool and ripped my dress (its fixable though), I hurt the heel of my foot by stepping on some rocks on the beach that i didn't see. I also got a small rock stuck in my foot and had to get it out using a safety pin that this girl Bobbie had holding her dress together down on the beach, it was very painful and was sore for like 2 days! I also fell down the stairs once, the marble ones are so slippery but I'm recovering and I strained my leg muscle on the trampoline when i was getting carried away doing jumps but it's feeling better now! lol I also have had a scratchy throat the past few mornings. It hasn't been a great week for my well being I guess.
Yesterday we came back to Thessaloniki and had some free time to do whatever we wanted, i picked up a few items, and worked on booking a flight. We were not thrilled to be staying back at the Astoria Hotel with the construction and such. We hated it there. However, it was only one night. At 7pm we all went out for our final night dinner that the group who won in class had planned. It was very nice and then after dinner we finalized our flight plans and then we all headed out for another booze cruise and then to our favorite bar for the last time! Some people started to get sad and such but we all decided that we would hold off our goodbyes for tonight in Athens. It was a good night out and then Ashton and I had a Gyro for the last time at our favorite Gyro spot. I've missed her this past week because she was with the group of 8 that went to the other resort to work! And then we woke up this morning and we're on our way to Athens.
I really can't believe that I have less than 5 days left here. I'm positive that I will be back soon enough to here and to travel elsewhere in Europe. I love this country, the good and the bad. I could stay forever, I really could. I am so glad that I decided to go on this trip and spend the money. I have made so many memories and new friends to last me a lifetime. It has been a truly amazing experience and I plan to live up the last few days of it. Tonight when we all say our goodbyes because a lot of peoples flights leave at like 7 in the morning, I have a feeling there might be some type of emotion, maybe even some crying on my behalf which is uncommon as we all know how i get that unemotional gene from my Nan! I have really become best friends with these girls and love them dearly. I couldn't have asked for a better group or better times than I have had with them. They're all amazing and we're planning trips to get together already in Denver and my favorites know that i'll be up to providence because of Chelsea to visit as much as i can! It's going to be odd not seeing some of these people anymore after spending over a month with them everyday with the chance that i might never see many of them again. And let me just also say that this trip has truly been an eye opener in so many different ways. My priorities and values have been altered. I realize that some things aren't as important as we make them out to be and that some aspects of life should be more appreciated. I also kinda feel that I have gained much more self confidence and the ability to do much more on my own than I'm already doing. The past two years haven't really been filled with much self confidence or any clear direction or idea of what I am doing or want to do! I think I've finally had some time away from the not so fun reality of everyday of life and the chance to experience something different and it has helped me to take a step back and look at what I'm doing with my life and the things I want to change, need to change. It's put a lot of things into perspective for me.
So as for another post before I leave Athens, I will try to do that in the morning probably at the airport, if not the website of the hotel says there is internet, so we'll see...if there is, i'll most definitely be posting, if not, i will when i return to Athens again! See everyone soon and pray for a safe trip for my friends and I!
6 comments:
I can't wait to see the experienced traveler!! Sorry, it's back to the real world soon. Enjoy and have fun on the rest of your trip.
Oh, Annie, you're all grown up!! Make sure you get some sand from each of those beaches, and a pic of that donkey! I hope you caught your flight this morning, and I can't wait to hear what Santorini is like. Just go do it all, you can sleep on the plane!! Love you.
Have a safe trip to and from Santorini, and back home. When you get back here, I want to hear what you think about "the lost city of Atlantis". That's pretty cool.
Glad to see you made a lot of friends. It makes the trip that much more enjoyable.
Ok.... It sounds like the Greeks need "Shamwow" to wipe up with. And didn't your mom teach you how to "go" when you weren't near proper facilities? You were raised on a farm in WV, weren't you? It sounds like we need to get together and take some "grown up" pictures, especially in that dress and 4" heels. You need some head shots for your portfolio and resume.
I'm so glad it turned out to be a good trip. Santorini is all about fun, so make sure you make the best of it! Will be glad to have you back home, but try to prepare yourself for the real world again. We're probably not nearly as fun back here. We've located a few greek restaurants for you down here. Good thing about a big city-you can find just about anything.
Hey, why don't you try to work at a beach resort in Hawaii! That'd be an interesting work experience and fun for a year or so too.
I think this trip is going to open many doors for you. I think it is really sinking in that you can go anywhere! Just pick what you like, go there for a year or so and then move if you want! That's probably one of the best perks to your career choice!
I can't wait for you to get home and tell us all about your trip. It hasn't been the same without you and I miss you. luv ya
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