Between Parkland and Pangrati

Our blog topic for tonight is between Parkland, where Pacific Lutheran University is located, and Pangrati, which is the neighborhood in Athens in which our apartments are located.  We have been instructed to talk about the in-between and that is what I'm going to do.  

All of us applied for this January term program last spring and after we got our acceptance letters we met as a group to talk to our Professor, Finitsis, about questions we had concerning the trip, the culture, and anything else that we could think of.  I remember meeting up in that giant room, all of the voices of excited students bouncing off the walls, eating pizza quietly as we sat around circular tables in the CK.  Most of us were meeting Professor Finitsis for the first time and our peers as well.  I know that for me I only was acquainted with four people on the trip beforehand and I wasn't really friends with any of them at the time.  In the fall of 2011 we had three group meetings discussing all things pertaining to our trip to Greece but I think a lot of the focus was on logistics and the homework we had to do.  The exciting plane ride, group dynamic, classroom learning, and experience abroad in a beautiful country were not prevalent in my mind at the time.  

It took coming back from home after Winter Break and starting to get into actually intellectual study at PLU in the classroom before we left to get my mind actually thinking about the journey ahead.  I'm very much a planning, scheduling, logistics person and it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fun stuff we would be doing in Greece before the anxiety of packing and separating myself from PLU.  However everything went well and I even enjoyed the crazy multiple hours that we spent together at the airports and flying to reach our final destination.

Along the way I have learned things about myself and everyone around me, including the Greeks and I have LOVED every minute of my adventure.  The in-between aspect of this adventure for me has been that adventure and enjoying all of the time that I have already had in Greece and the expiration date on our time abroad as the end of the month draws nearer.  I am excited for the rest of our time here as this is the anniversary of our first week in Greece!  Peace out!