I can see Turkey from my house!

I can see Turkey from my house!

As I sit here in my hotel room in Rhodes and survey my 6^th floor ocean view, I can see the outline of Turkey. Getting here has been a memorable journey of laughter, fun, and learning all wrapped into one amazing trip.

Today I spent the day laughing, getting excited for our time here in Rhodes, and uttering, “Wow!”

We touched down on this beautiful island at around 2:35pm, and headed to our 5 star hotel. To finally have a shower head that can be mounted to a wall is a luxury that I will never again take for granted. My roommate and I nearly fell to our knees and praised the engineers of this palace. We are being treated with luxury here, including free 4 course meal dinners as well as complementary breakfasts. I’ve never been happier to be a Lute.

I am really looking forward to swimming in the Aegean Sea, which washes up on the beach that is literally across the street from my hotel. To swim in these surprisingly warm waters seeing the outline of the former Ottoman Empire while residing on such a picturesque Greek isle sounds a lot like heaven.

What will be interesting however is navigating around all the closed shops here. Our professor informed us that roughly 95% of Rhodes’ economy is tourism, and with it being a lull in the tourism season, there are only two hotels out of something like eight open. Shops all around the island are closed this time of year due to the lack of commercial traffic, yet upon doing some exploring, our group found quite a few nice restaurant and food joints for us to frequent.

All in all, stories of day were ones of laughter and joy, as our group embarks on a new adventure together on our new home, the island of Rhodes. I cannot wait to see what memories we will all make in this promising little island.