Kalimera! This trip has so far been the most incredible experience of my life and I have only been here for 2 days. It started 10 months ago with lots of planning and essay writing and now I'm here. The flights over were long at times but very entertaining. Flight 1 from Seattle to Amsterdam was 10 hours and half of us were strategically seated in the very last row of the plane. I think Delta did that on purpose. What they got was a party at the back of the bus! Between movies, conversations, lots of different airplane snacks, and jokes, the flight went by faster than I expected, but there was no sleep to be had. When we arrived in Amsterdam we explored the airport, which was like an outlet mall. Chocolate shops with 11lb bars, juice stands that sold Heineken and Amstel, and stores like Hugo Boss. Our layover was about 3 hours so we found ways to entertain ourselves until we finally made it to the last leg our trip. The 3 hour flight was a little rougher. Fatigue was sinking in and we became really drowsy until somehow we finally stole a few minutes of sleep. All that really did was make us more tired when we woke up to land in Athens. We pushed through the grogginess until it turned into delirium and we were left in a crazy fit of unprovoked giggles, slurred speech and confusion. At this point I had been awake for over 24 hours. 

Baggage claim went pretty quickly thanks to our lime-green luggage tags and we anxious made our way to our bus and got our apartment keys. Photo opportunities on the bus were not great so I took the time to simply 'exist' in Greece with no immediate agenda. When my roomies and I got to our apartment we debated on whether to take a nap or unpack. We ended up unpacking instead of napping and lived to regret it. 

We met downstairs as a group to find the supermarket and fruit-stand for some grocery shopping before making our way to downtown. While we were done celebrating Christmas in the States, the Greeks still had Christmas decorations and lights up everywhere. It was an amazing site to see the ancient ruins juxtaposed with modern buildings, lit with decorative strung-lights and rebelliously tagged with graffiti. The modern accents in the ancient city implied a youthful culture that I could definitely relate to. The students from last year's trip who came to talk to us a few months ago dubbed what we were about to experience-"The Death March". We walked all the way around the acropolis, taking photos on the temples on the mountain, listening to the locals celebrate St. John's Day, and locating all the interesting restaurants, cafes and stores for future reference. About an hour into the walk, my body went into survival mode and I felt a surge of energy. I asked my professor why they called it 'The Death March' as it didn't feel so deadly. Wrong. Definitely wrong. There is that moment you experience after 32 hours without sleep, after walking for 2 hours and eating too much airline food when your body decides to just quit on you. My feet were screaming, my back grew sore but I just kept moving forward. I knew I would eventually be back at my room and fast asleep in my bed. 

When we did get home I met sleep within minutes. Then I woke up at 6:30am-BEFORE the sun...I couldn't fall back asleep so I emailed my family and friends to let them know that I was here safe and already enjoying myself. I was looking out of my kitchen window watching the sky slowly shift from black to purple, to pink as the sun rose. The moment hit me as I realized I was in Greece. This hadn't been a dream and I was watching the sun rise (behind clouds) in a city so incredible that even a crowded apartment area looked beautiful. That's when the church bells began to go off. All alone in my kitchen, watching the sun come up and listening to the chiming of the church bells, I felt content. Who wouldn't want to wake up like this?

This is the church by our building. 

When the girls and I finished getting ready for the day we met up with some of our other classmates downstairs to go explore downtown Athens in the daytime. We found this great Flea Market and did some shopping and people watching. I think we made it pretty obvious that we were tourists with our giant SLR cameras and Northface jackets. It was raining for most of the morning but nothing like Seattle so we went without umbrellas. I didn't even need to wear my jacket. But that didn't stop the same group of four salesmen to ask us many times in different areas throughout the day to buy an umbrella. Contact with the Greek people has been pretty interesting. They can all immediately tell we don't speak Greek and many make an effort to help bridge the language gap. My favorite part has been all the people watching. I've noticed that people here parallel park their cars within inches of each other, so when that Mercedes decides to squeeze his car into a tiny space, he ends up doing a 20pt parking job and lightly kisses the moped directly behind him. No one but our group seemed to notice or care. We erupted into laughter and just enjoyed our time in the city. 

We just barely made it back to the apartment in time to relax for a bit before heading the CYA (the campus) to watch a movie for class. This was when I started to nod off, despite the interesting flick. But after the movie, we finally got our 'Welcome to Athens Dinner'! We went to a local restaurant within 5 minutes of our apartment. It used to be a house but was later converted for dining and is owned by a brother-sister pair. They were very hospitable and energetic. Our professor is a very smart man, so instead of everyone making separate orders, he had prepared our dinners with the restaurant before hand. We were served different salads, meats, breads and drinks in multiple courses. Large plates made their way to the table with a new dish every few minutes and each one of our took a little to sample and moved on to the next dish. Dessert was delicious-the best way I can describe it is cookies of pie crust drizzled with chocolate. That-we took more than one plate of! :) The surprise came a few minutes after we finished our meals:

Say hello to Greek Cinnamon Liquor. One shot for each of us and the professor and a fantastic toast! See, the toast (phonetically) is known as "Skinny-Yasas". But, for those of us with a sense of humor, our professor pointed out that the most entertaining way to perform this toast is by very quickly shouting something that sounds a little less like "proper toasting dialogue". Either way, it puts a smile on your face-it means 'to your health'. 

After dinner we parted ways and made our way back to our apartment. Now, it is time for bed. We are doing it all over again tomorrow! 

Kaliníhta! (Goodnight!)