Turkey Day and Mom's Birthday....It's a Wonderful Life

Wow, I really have not been doing well at keeping you updated with my adventures. I guess we have to start with a week ago...

Friday- A bunch of us spent the day wandering around the Plaka, which is a shopping/tourist area here. Basically every store sells the same souvenirs so I got bored pretty quickly. We started to climb up to the Acropolis, but they closed it a few minutes before we got up to the top. Just means I will have to go there again to visit!

Saturday- We all got really excited for a Christmas Bazaar that was taking place in Athens. Some people even got dressed up in red and green, which is impressive considering we all have such a limited wardrobe here. My roommates went to it before the rest of the group and called us to tell us it was really small and meant for 5-10 year olds. The age thing didn't bother us, because we act like we are 10, but they told us it wasn't worth our time or money. I ended up going back to my room to work on homework. :(

Sunday- I attended a Greek Orthodox service in the morning for my theology class. It was really interesting to see how a different religion celebrates their service. It was also interesting to hear a service completely in Greek and trying to see if I could guess what part of the service they were in. I finished the day off with, yep you guessed it, homework!

Wednesday- So I don't usually get my haircut very often, but I seriously could not wait another day. I swear they have Rogaine in the water here! My friend Carissa was kind enough to cut it for me and I feel so much better! Pictures to come!

Thursday- Happy Birthday, Mom and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We started the morning with a bus ride to the Corinth Canal which lies between the Peloponnese and mainland Greece. We stopped for a few minutes, took some pictures and then headed to the Epidavros Theatre. This theater was amazing! It was one of, if not the best preserved amphitheaters I have seen. We climbed the 109 steps to the top and could hear a penny (actually a euro cent) dropped on the stage. When we were walking away from the theater we were talking about how it was one of the coolest things we have done all trip!

After that we took a short tour of Napflio and were given free time for the rest of the afternoon. A bunch of us decided to test our athleticism and climb over a 1,000 steps to the top of a fortress in Napflio. I saw the most amazing views and actually didn't get too tired from the whole adventure. We kept venturing through different parts of the fortress taking pictures of the ocean and town below. Malinda and I were enjoying the view at one spot when we ran into a couple from the US. Malinda was wearing a shirt that said CSB on it and the guy wondered where we were from. As it turns out, he attended St. John's Prep many years ago! It's crazy what a small world it is! After we started climbing back to the town we ran into a big portion of our group. They were all sitting on the ledge of the fortress so we took pictures and are going to submit them for the study abroad photo contest! We all watched the sunset together, which was so much fun!

It was sad not to spend Thanksgiving with my family at home, but I had a blast celebrating it with my family here! We all went back to the hotel and got dressed up for Thanksgiving dinner! Everyone looked so sharp, well that's a little bit of an overstatement. At SJU there is a tradition to have "No Shave November." Basically the guys don't shave for the month of November and the guy with the fullest beard wins some sort or prize or rights or something. Just because we are in Greece did not stop the guys on this trip! They all showed up to dinner looking like the cavemen from the Geico commercials! I am writing this on the first day of December and I am definitely looking forward to seeing them with clean shaven faces at lunch!

Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of turkey (not as good as Dad's...it was dry), some attempt at stuffing, which was actually rice based, salad, bread, wedge potatoes, and flan. It was nice for the hotel to attempt a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but it wasn't quite the same. Later that night we went and got gelato...which was actually better than the stuff in Italy. Yum, it was a good way to end a Thanksgiving. After that, Sarah and I went to a cafe and ordered frappes and I Skyped my Mom, Dad, and Steven. Turns out they had pork chops and asparagus; I guess I didn't miss the traditional meal at home! It was good to talk to them and hear them get excited for their trip out here! It was the 1 month mark until they get here! Exciting!

Friday- Again we boarded the bus for a day full of driving and archeological site viewing. We went to Mycenae first and then Sparta. Sparta was a popular spot for our group, especially since the movie "300" was released not too long ago. I guess I am really behind on American pop culture. It probably was quite a while ago. I haven't seen the movie, so it didn't phase me much, but it was still interesting to hear about the Spartan lifestyle! We drove to Olympia that night just in time to have dinner and settle into our hotel. That night we relaxed and watched TV. Later in the evening I was walking around the hotel to see what was going on and I ran into the history professor, Robert. He was really drunk and absolutely hilarious to listen to. He was the only one drinking so he became our entertainment for the evening. Nothing funnier than a drunk, 30 year old British history professor that has a really dry sense of humor to begin with!

Saturday- We went to two archeological sites and one museum in Olympia that day. The museum was pretty interesting because it gave us information on the history of the Olympics. One of the archeological sites held the very first track used in the Olympics. I of course had to run it, which was amazing! We also went to the place where the Olympic torch supposedly is initially lit before every Olympics. That's actually false according to Robert, but I am pretty sure it is where the torch was lit before the 2004 games in Athens. It was all once in a lifetime things that I am so thankful that I get to experience!

Sunday- We just spent the day driving back to Athens. Nothing too exciting, except for we did see a huge, semi-famous bridge that is on rollers. That was pretty cool I guess!

Monday- Last night was the 2nd official mix-it-up night gathering! Everyone had a lot of fun, so I am really glad that my idea worked out! My group sat around swapping Christmas stories while we colored Christmas pictures. Our group consisted of Pat, Paul, Maggie, Alex, Carolyn, and her boyfriend. Carolyn's boyfriend spontaneously flew out here for Thanksgiving so we had fun hanging out with him over the weekend. He's a Johnnie and it was really weird to have someone here that had just been on campus. I guess we are so used to it being the 30 of us, that it will be really weird when we get back to campus and there are 4,000 of us. Emily and I also made Christmas decorations in our room last night. We made the red and green construction paper chain to count down to Christmas. It made me think of when I used to make that at home and mysteriously more chain links would show up the next morning. Thanks, Dad!

I am at a real crossroads right now. It's sad to think that it won't be the 30 of us anymore in a few weeks. I have become really close to this group and I can't imagine not seeing them every minute of every day. But on the other hand I am excited to be done with classes and go to London with friends and travel with my family. I am also excited to see everyone from home! Since I didn't have much culture shock coming here, I am nervous I will have a lot going home, especially since I will have only 2 days at home before I move back into school. Obviously I miss you all more, but there are a few materialistic things that I miss.

Sad, but true things I miss:
~my car and driving in general
~my bedding and pillow
~my clothes (I've done surprisingly well living with so few clothes, but it will be nice to not wear the same things every other day)
~hot dishes (yum!)
~throwing toilet paper into the toilet (let's be honest, you only want to see it once, not every time you open the garbage can)
~hearing/reading English (this has made me REALLY appreciate non-English speakers that are in the US)


One big accomplishment for me: I can now for the most part read Greek!!! I didn't figure it out until the night before my Greek final, but now it's done and I understand some of it! Kind of a cool skill to have!