Welcome to Athens!

After months and months of anticipation, waiting, planning, packing, shopping, and whatnot, we finally made it to Greece! We landed yesterday around 3:30 pm (local time) after close to a day of traveling. I was actually feeling really hesitant and nervous when we first landed; I had only been to Europe once before and that was four years ago.

We settled in to our apartments and later set out on the grueling "Death March." It was a two hour walk around the Acropolis and back to our apartments. We were still on Pacific time, so it felt like it was 8 in the morning our time, and we hadn't been to sleep yet. But as soon as we walked out and saw the Acropolis for the first time, I knew it was worth it. The Acropolis sits on this huge hill, and at night they light it up and it stands out over the city of Athens. It was breathtaking. We continued on the walk, and saw so many different ancient ruins all around. It's

so cool to see ruins right next to modern buildings, and so completely different than what I'm used to.

Today was our first full day in Greece. A group of us meandered around the flea market in Athens, looking at everything from antiques, jewelry, umbrellas, and books. We stopped to get a coffee and some lunch in a really cute cafe. Just in case you're wondering, ordering a macchiato in Greece literally means getting a shot of espresso. That definitely helped wake me up.

Later, we had our first "class" time where we watched the movie "Agora." It was about Hypatia, a woman in ancient times who defied the traditional gender roles of women during those times and dedicated her life to studying and learning. After that, we went to a restaurant for our welcome dinner, which consisted of trying a bit of everything in order to see what we like. There was a huge variety of foods, including salads, meat wrapped in cabbage, rabbit, and graham crackers with chocolate mixed in. We finished off the night with a shot of some kind of cinnamon drink, only made in Greece and is a specialty for the country.

At first, I was a little homesick. I didn't have the most amazing plane ride experience in the world, and have been dealing with the medical aftermath since (Benadryl is AMAZING!). But I'm completely sure that while this is a completely different culture than what I'm coming from, I'm already getting familiar with the streets and customs and am really enjoying being here. The group is great, we're already getting close and are having an awesome time together. Overall, I'm so happy to be here and excited to see what's to come in the next few weeks!