Today, instead of going to class at 10:30 like we normally do in the mornings, our class walked to the old town of Rhodes to see it and visit the palace and museum. I had walked through the town twice before so I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have but because of that, I really got to take everything in. And I decided to give you different pieces of advice based on the pictures I took throughout the day. So, here it goes!
#1 Visit places more than once. Like I said, when you go somewhere more than once, you are less focused on capturing the moment with your camera and more focused on what is really going on around you. It's a whole new experience.
#2 Look through the rain. Our group has been forced to deal with some, lets say, unwanted weather through the trip, including clouds, rain, wind, and lightening. But we have all learned to look past the rain and see the new adventures we can find because of bad weather.
#3 Open your heart. When you open your heart to the culture and the people around you, your experiences become so much better because you have people to share life-long memories with and you have more than just memories of cool things you saw.
#4 Some days you've got to dance. It's just a fact of life. This was solidified for me by the movie we watched for class on Sunday (Zorba the Greek). I wouldn't call it my new favorite movie, by any means, but it had some great concepts and this was one of them. So, as a class, we learned traditional Greek dances, we've broken out in our own little performances here and there, we danced the waltz in the old town palace's ballroom, and we are going to the 80's Disco just down the street! We love to dance!
#5 Wander the side streets. When you are exploring a new town, once you know your way around a little bit, start wandering the side streets. When you do this, you lose the majority of people (tourists in particular) and you find some great things! I did this quite a bit in Athens, sometimes finding nothing but a nice walk, and other times finding great little restaurants, shops, etc. Whatever you find, there will almost always be an adventure around the corner.
#6 Don't forget to look up and don't forget to look down. Sometimes you can find the coolest perspectives when looking in a new direction and sometimes you can find fancy sewer cover things like I did today. It has some sort of deer on it because the buck and the doe are the symbol of Rhodes.
#7 Sometimes you need a light to guide you. Whether this light be metaphorical or literal, it will always be true. Metaphorically: if I didn't have my professor to guide me around Greece, I could very well still be lost in Athens somewhere. Literally: So in our hotel here, we have a key to unlock the door and a little magnet thing attached to the chain and when we put the magnet into it's holder in the room, our electricity comes on for the lights, heater, etc. Today, I walked into my room and realized that I didn't have the magnetic thing to turn on my electricity. And I was at a loss for a good 28 seconds trying to figure out what to do, whether I should leave the room and get the magnet from my roommate or try to pack my bag in the dark...It was not my proudest moment.
#8 Keep your eyes open because sometimes you find the coolest things in the most unexpected places. Today, when we were at the museum, I started walking up the stairs and looked down only to find an old rock with two divots filled with water and tiny little stones. I thought it was really cool and unexpected so I walked back down the stairs to take a picture.
#9 Look before you cross the street (and then cross anyways...). This may not be the best advice for everyone but it seems to work for me. Being that I am not afraid of the cars or the drivers here in Greece, I look both ways before I cross the street and if the car I see coming seems fairly easy to stop or if I can cross fast enough, then I just go for it and I cross the street. One of my classmates actually started joking about it saying that my blonde hair can get police officers to do us favors (like calling to see when our bus was coming on our way to the Temple of Poseidon) and can stop cars (because I just cross without much caution-but still safely, I might add), and that I should use the power of my hair color to make the weather 75 degrees and sunny! So another quick tidbit, it pays to be blonde in Europe :)
#10 Sometimes a foreign church can give familiar hope. If you read my last few posts, you will know that I went to church last Sunday with my professor and one of my classmates. We went to an orthodox church and I absolutely loved it. I had been craving fellowship, a church community, and the familiarity of traditions and faith. I was very pleasantly surprised when I found the hope and peace I needed from this church with a slightly different take on the same God. It was amazing!
So these are some of the things I've taken from my overall time here in Greece and the photos I've taken from the day.
Hopefully you choose to follow my wise advice.
-Jess
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