Final Goodbyes

As I'm attempting to keep myself busy on this dreadfully long plane ride, It's starting to really hit me that I'm leaving :( It was an experience of a lifetime and I will forever cherish the countless memories made over the past 40 days.

 Man, I'm really going to miss Greece! Not to be a debby downer or anything, but as I'm sitting here squished between two new what I like to call forever friends (because we'll always be connected by this awesome experience), all I can think about is all the things I'm going to miss about Greece. So I'm gonna break it down for you, don't worry, it's not going to be all sad and teary eyed, I'm going to talk about some of my favorite parts about staying in Greece!

Couldn't wait to take a bite before a took a pic...  it's just so yummy!

 If you've read any of my previous blogs or have have known me for any period of time, you won't be surprised what my all time favorite part about visiting Greece...omnom! I loved being able to try all kinds of new and delicious food, who doesn't? One of my favorite experiences of eating out is when we ate as a group right after visiting the Acropolis for the first. It was a cute little restaurant, that served us family style. They offered us a plethora of different traditional appetizers and we got to pick out the ones we wanted. It's a tough call, but I would have to say that my favorite dish I had in Greece was the moussaka (the only thing that I can compare it to in American terms is that it's kind of like lasagna, but not really). Another thing I loved about the food in Greece, was that it's fresh (lot of markets selling fruits and veggies!), even the yummy treats at the bakery tasted like they came out of the oven that very morning.

Not the whole group, but this a good chunk of us
a castle in Rhodes!

 One of the other things that I really enjoyed about Greece was the people. Yes in a sense I'm talking about the Greeks (it was quite a challenge learning and adapting the customs of a completely different culture), but I'm really talking about my fellow classmates. We had a blast these past 40 days and I couldn't have asked for a better group! We all got along really well and everyone was always pleasant and fun to hang out with! With our final goodbyes, we all promised that we would keep in touch and continue on with occasional potlucks, and I sincerely hope that we follow through on this! The experience wouldn't have been the same without these guys and I'm proud to call them all friends now (I didn't even know half of them before I boarded the plane to Greece).

 Well, that just about wraps up the past 40 days filled with sleepless nights, lots and lots of walking, experiencing ancient Greece, classes at Deree, many new friends, and of course...lots of omnom! It's been nice knowing you Greece, but I'm ready to sleep in my own comfy bed and spend time with my family. And to you, thanks for reading!! I hope you've enjoyed my blogs as much as I've had experiencing them. So, ya sas (bye) for now! Who knows, maybe I'll venture back into Greece one of these days...

Bittersweet Ending

To start our day out right, we got the sleep in! After we woke up fully rested, we sadly started to get all of our stuff together and not so sadly began finishing up the rest of the leftover food. 

• Just a forewarning that it's currently 3:30 in the MORNING and I'm trying my best to keep myself awake and busy with hopes of being able to sleep some on our 11 hour flight back to the states, so forgive me if I make any mistakes or go off on tangents (not like I don't do that normally...)

We hadn't planned on doing much today since we were having our final group dinner tonight, so once we had the majority of our things packed, we headed downtown to finish up the rest of our souvenir shopping in Plaka (probably our most visited site this trip). For me, I'm not a big spender on all the cheesy trinky dinks like magnets, t-shirts and the like, well, unless they are for someone else who I know would like them (dad *cough cough*), plus I admit I can be really cheap when it comes to spending my own money. So you shouldn't be surprised when I tell you I mainly just go along for the ride when my friends go shopping. But while we were out and about, enjoying our last day to wonder freely in Greece, I spotted a cute and homey looking store with yummy looking items inside (aka omnom). 

As I was looking around, I saw towards the back that they had adorable homemade jars of jam/marmalade...now this is my kind of souvenir! Something that's made and used here in Greece , and is also something you can't exactly get in the States. In attempt to make the present to myself a bit more unique I was a little daring and chose the homemade lemon marmalade to take home (I've never in my life heard of this stuff in lemon form). I'm definitely excited to try it when I get home! The only problem about items like this is that they may not last that long....omnomnom.

While we were waiting for it to be time to meet up for our dinner plans, a friend and I went hunting for the Panathenaic Olympic Stadium. It took us a while and a awkward conversation with a Greek police officer who thought we spoke Greek (this is the downside of trying to speak Greek to others, they talk back to you), until we finally found it. I'm really glad we did though, it was really cool! There was a secret museum underneath the stadium with Olympic torches from all the different years and we even got to embrace our inner tourists and take picture on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place podium (I got 1st of course).

After that we heading down to Sytagma to meet with the group for the last time (sad face). Tonight we got to hike up to the highest point in Athens where we were able to see a 360 degree birds eye view of Athens, and that's not even the half of it, we even got to see the sunset alongside the mountains (definitely not a sight we can see in Florida). We ended the trip with a scrumptious visit to (can you guess?) a restaurant on the side of the hill. There was lots of poli nastimo (delicious) food to be eaten and plenty of good conversation and laughs to be held. It was a good end to a trip and while I am looking forward to going home and being with family, I'm seriously going to miss this place, and the people I've experienced it with!

Tune in for one (maybe even two) more blog(s) to see how (and if) I survived my 11 hour flight back to the States. Can't wait to be home! 

Mail time!

It took two weeks to get here, but I finally got the package that my wonderful momma sent me from the States! She originally sent it to the Study Abroad office here at Deree, but last night I received a slip of paper that just increased my anticipation for the long awaited and unknown arrival of the package.

When I learned that my package was at the Post Office (instead of at Deree), I immediately started my trek down the street. It probably took me a good 15 to 20 minutes to get there by walking (and I walk pretty fast, just sayin). After walking for quite some time, I finally arrived at my destination!


It was a small little post office with only 4 desks, and it kind of reminded me of DMV back home. When I first walked in I wasn't exactly sure where I was supposed do, especially since Greeks don't really use the waiting in line system, so I sort of awkwardly stood there for a minute until I figured out what I needed to do. I think it was kind of obvious that I didn't know what I was doing...For one, I was the youngest person there and secondly, there must have been a big sign around me screaming American on it from some of the looks I got. Plus the fact that I had a slightly confused look on my face might have hinted it out too.


I kinda figured that I would have to take a number of some sort, but I wasn't exactly sure where it was or how I could get one. And instead of embarrassing myself further and asking someone who probably only speaks Greek, I patiently waited for others to arrive so I could see what approach they took. Turns out there is a little machine right when you walk in that gives you a number, all you've got to do is press a button (easy peasy).

Now just because I had a my number doesn't mean that things got less awkward (when I mean awkward, I'm talking like uncomfortable situations where you don't feel like you belong), now what am I supposed to do? To my delight, there was a seat available and calling my name. Speaking of open seats, everywhere I go whether sitting at the post office or riding on the metro, there seems to be an unspoken rule of letting elders take a seat. I think it's really cool and I wish this rule was applied in the US!

No matter where we go or who is currently in a seat, if an elderly comes along, someone gets up and offers him/her a seat. They never even have the "ugh, do I have to" attitude! And even when the elderly accepts they are genuinely thankful. Sometimes the elderly even decline the offer and let the current passenger keep his/her seat, like one time when my friend offered her seat, the nice lady let her stay because she noticed that we were together. Super nice!

Anyways, once my number was called I happily received my package and started my trek back to the dorm. I opened it right when I was able to get a hold of a clean knife to cut the tape and rip my package open. To my delight, there was a bunch of goodies inside! Wondering what kinds of good stuff was worth waiting 2 weeks for? The content of the package included (but is not limited to): A container of Nutella, dark chocolate M&M's, cinnamon glazed almonds, Oreos, some extra toiletries that you can't find here in Greece, and my favorite...the movie "Despicable Me"!!! You can tell my momma loves me very much :)

What made it even better was that very night I invited the group together to watch a movie filled with minions (I might have bribed them with Oreos too...)! So we had a fun filled night with extremely cute yellow characters (minions!) and sugarrrr (Oreos!). I definitely adding this experience to my list of nights that I'll never forget!

Going Somewhere?

By now you must be wondering how I seem to be getting to all of these wonderful places here in Greece (and if you aren't, I'm just going to tell you anyways). We use the handy dandy public transportation system! 

Parliament building where the changing of the
guards takes place. 

It's really quite amazing. If you want to go somewhere, sayy, downtown to Monastaraki where all the tourist shops are, all you have to do is hop on a bus to get to the station, then take the metro to whichever stop you need to get to. Okay, it may be just a little bit more complicated than that, but still, it's super convenient, especially for someone who doesn't have a car (this girl). 

Here's a fun fact about the metro that I bet you didn't know. The reason it took Greece so long to first build up (or down in this case) the metro is mainly because every time they started digging, they would run into some kind of ancient ruins, and everyone knows that you can't just throw this kind of stuff aside, it's got to be examined and handled with care. So nowadays if you take the metro, you will be pleasantly surprised every once in a while with complimentary ancient art on display (no museum entrance fee!). 

The only not so good thing about the metro is that is does take a little bit longer than it would by car, there's not always A/C, and during certain times it can get rrreeealllllyyy crowded to the point where there are lots of people sandwiches being formed. Now that may seem like a lot, but it's much better that having to worry about keeping up with a car (aka, paying for gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, and any fender benders), it's a cleaner alternate, and you could maybe even make some new friends on your way to work...okay probably not that great of an idea but you never know!

Cool overhanging vines down at the Gardens!

Anyways since we don't have a car here (thank goodness, traffic is insane!), I've been taking full advantage of the metro system here, almost on a daily basis! Today, before class, a few friends and I went down to Syntagma where we checked out the National Gardens (perfect weather for it today), did some shopping (can you say discounts?!), and we got to see the changing of the guards in front of one of the parliment buildings (cool stuff!), all before class! 

Unfortunately tomorrow, we will most likely not be able to go anywhere before class because we have our final to study for, but by 4:30 we will be forever done with that class and free for the rest of the weekend, yayyyy! Come to think of it, that means we can go downtown after class! Thank goodness we've got the metro so we can go whenever we want :D Any who, I gotta go study for my exam tomorrow, we've got to know a bunch of history and the significance of all the Greek art that we've visited here in Athens (those field trips are coming back to haunt us), wish me luck!

Shopping anyone?

Guess what guess what?! For the whole next month, there is gonna be discounts in pretty much all the stores here in Greece (well, at least in part of Athens), you know what that means right?? It's time to go SHOOPPPINGGG!(that was a "White Chicks" reference for anyone that was wondering...)

 

Anyways, after having yet another field trip for class down at the theater of Dionysos (right below the Acropolis, picture included!), we headed to where all the good stores were at. This was the same place that we visited the other day when there was barely anyone on the streets, and all of the stores closed early (well, early to me). This time it seemed like a completely different street, the place was jam packed! There were people everywhere, and you always seemed to be in the way of someone, I was even able to make a "dodge the people" game out of it while we were waiting for group members to make a purchase. So. Many. People!

Speaking of the people here in Greece, I'm really going to miss them! My first impression of Greeks was that they could be not so nice people, and at times, impolite (for example my first rest stop experience where everyone was seemed to be pushing and shoving), But as my time spent here with Greeks here as increased, I have a better understanding about them, and I even feel more comfortable around them :)

Okay, so I'm going to try to explain how things work here in Greece when it comes to people. As for relationships here in Greece, each person pretty much has an ingroup, and an outgroup. The ingroup consists mainly of that person's family and anybody else that they've made friends with, and the outgroup is made up with basically everyone else that he/she doesn't really give a care about (which explains why Greeks can be seen as cold at times). Coming into Greece, I was basically cast aside in the outgroup. Thing is, it's not that hard to switch into their ingroup, and once you do, it's almost like you're best friends (how cool is that?!).

One of my favorite examples is my relationship with the lady who works at the super market down the street. The first time I visited her shop, I was tired, confused, and on the verge of being irritable (so my views might have been a little bit biased), but when I went, I didn't feel all that welcomed. In fact, I felt more in the way than anything. When she rang me up at the register, she breezed through all of my items and quickly went onto the next customer as I scrambled to gather my stuff into bags. But then as I kept coming back to her store (I know, why would I go back if that had happened? But it's super close to the dorms!), and she realized that I wasn't just a drop by customer, she started to become more friendly. She helped me with my bags (we take those Publix guys for granted!), asked me if I needed any help while pacing the store, and get this, I even received a greeting with a smile upon arrival ! Now I actually enjoy going to the market because I get to say hello in Greek! Even some of the other workers are starting to become friendly.

There are lots of other instances that I have noticed during my time in Greece, and seeing as I'm a psychology major, I could go on and on about this kinds of stuff (it's soo interesting!), but I won't put you through that, well, not today at least. But if you every want to know more, or even discuss anything with me, just hit me up! I'd be more than happy to talk about it :)

 

Overall today was a good day! I got to see some cool sites in Athens, learn some history, and get some good souvenir stuff, including a necklace of my name written in Greek! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! Hope you had a good day as well :)

  

Akropolis at night take 2

You know how I was supposed to make cookies for my friend's birthday the other day? Well, all was good and dandy as I mixed the ingredients together and taste tested the cookie batter (my favorite part!), but when it came time to take the cookies out of the oven, all I saw was smoke...

I'm not the best of cooks, but I have burned things on a few occasions, only a few though! Thing is here in Greece, the ovens aren't really the same, everything is in Celsius (including the weather!). I'm not exactly sure what went wrong with the oven that morning (either I set it to the wrong temperature, or the wrong setting), but instead of trying to set off the fire alarm for a second time that morning, I surprised the birthday girl with leftover cookie dough!

In order to make up for the burnt cookies that morning, I lead the way to a look out place down in Athens so that you can see the Acropolis at night, and let me say, it just gets better each time I go! I even get a little pang of jealousy when I see locals hanging out around us, I mean they can pretty much come see stuff like this almost anytime they want, it's just not fair!

The view was extremely breath taking and I have to admit, we were being the stereotypical tourist and taking lots and lots of pictures, which means that we were there probably 30 minutes more than really necessary. But when we were getting ready to leave and gathering up our purses and bags and bags of souvenirs that we had bought that day, something seemed to be missing...Brianna's purse!

Unfortunately we weren't able to find her purse that night (after at least an hour of looking), but luckily it didn't contain anything non replaceable. But the thing that amazed me the most, was that there was 6 of us, a decent sized group, and there was always someone standing near our stuff, but somehow, someone was able to sneak past us (all 6 of us!) and take her purse. There were times when we doubted Brianna's placement of her purse and suspected that she had left it elsewhere or it had fallen, but she was 99.99% sure of where she had left it, and that it was gone. On a slightly funny note, when we were attempting to ask around to see if anyone had seen a purse (don't forget we're in a foreign country and people don't exactly speak English here) we got a lot of weird looks. There were these two guys sitting on the rock looking kind of suspicious so we decided to approach them, but when we tried to ask about a purse, they understood it as us asking can we join you, to which they motioned for us to take a seat (and they even attempted to bribe us with alcohol). Don't worry we were sensible enough to accept the offer and join them for only a little bit, wait, that's not how it went! Luckily we've all brought a decent amount of common sense with us that night and we knew we needed to turn around, so we did, and they left us alone (yay!).

To leave on a completely different, but good note, today was the weekly Monday market that's right down the street from us! They've got a bunch of good stuff like yummy fruits and vegetables, and even some fresh fish. Today we went in between classes in order to get some food to last us the week and I got all of this good stuff for under 10 euros!! My purchases included 5 apples, a banana bunch, some kind of delicious melon, a head of lettuce, carrots and zucchini! This is one of the top things that I'm going to miss about Greece, all of the cheap but scrumptious food that's in walking distance of our place!

Epidavros

So in place of sharing my Friday experiences of class and nap time yesterday (aka blogging), I decided to go to a Greek play. Fair trade don't cha think?

After driving on an extremely curvy road up and around the mountains of Greece for 2 and a half hours we finally made it to Epidavros. What's in Epidavros you ask? Well, back in the day (aka ancient times), the town was originally known for it's spa. And eventually there was enough people who came and attended the spa, that someone decided to add more places of entertainment, including a ginormous theater! And I got the pleasure of being able to attend a modern take on a classic Greek comedy in that very theater!

Would you believe me if I told you that the actors/actresses didn't use microphones, but I could still hear them sitting up in the nose bleed section? It's true! Even though we were seated up in the upper section, we could always hear the words being spoken clearly throughout the play thanks to the layout of the theater, well, we could always hear them just as long as everyone in the audience wasn't laughing in unison (and that one obnoxious laugh that always seems to stand out).

Although the play was all spoken in Greek, and I my tush had to withstand the not so comfortable stone seats, I thoroughly enjoyed myself that night, and I'm really glad that I went! The actors did a pretty good job with their use of body language and expressions so that I could get a general understanding of whats was going on, and there were several occasions where I didn't even need to know what they were saying to get a good laugh in. But one of my favorite parts of the night was when they turned the lights down low, because we were quite a whiles away from the city, we could see all the pretty stars!

I'm sure with my talk of stars and 2.5 hour drives you won't be surprised when I tell you that we didn't get back till early this morning. Fortunately, there were no morning plans for today so we got to sleep in (finally!). After getting a good nights (or maybe morning in this case) rest, I awoke with hopes of exploration today!

Me and my friend Rebecca decided to stay close to the dorms this morning and venture down the main street where all the shops and omnom places are at. And for some reason today there were a ton of good sales going on at most of the stores (I'm not complaining), so I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect article of clothing that's not too expensive but also is something that you wouldn't be able to find in the US, or at least have the potential for a "cool shirt" comment so I can respond "thanks, I got it in Greece!" It's not as easy as it sounds... In the meantime, we passed by a good sized bakery that we had been eyeing for quite some time. It all looked so good and we had no idea where to start, so when a lady that worked there pointed to a cake ish looking bakery and gave it a thumbs up, I said why not?

Froyo place called Chill Box, they even put
your bowl into a fancy lookin box thingy!

It ended up being some kind of delicious pastry filled with some sort of white cream in the middle (it could maybe even pass as vanilla pudding). It didn't take us very long to devour this tasty pastry (hey, it rhymes!), and with full tummies, we continued on our shopping quest.

One of the things that has taken the most getting used to here in Greece, is the hours of operations. I've got the daily everything closes for 3 ish hours for nap time thing (which I don't exactly mind because that gives me time for a nap too :P), but what was really strange (or at least to me) was when we headed downtown to do some more shopping, all of the stores started closing and it wasn't even dark yet! The idea of stores closing early on Saturday night is just so foreign to me that I couldn't wrap my mind around it. Fortunately there was a cute little fro yo place that I've been wanting to check out just around the corner that keep me distracted. If you haven't noticed yet I'm taking full advantage of all the good omnom here, but who wouldn't?! And besides we've been doing a ton of walking so that evens it out...right?

Tomorrow we've got a another free day for exploring annnnnd, it my exploring buddy's birthday so that will make it all the more exciting! I've even gathered up some supplies to make her some yummy (hopefully!) chocolate cookies, but shhhh don't tell her it's a surprise!