Kali Taxi Sto Athina

"Good travel to Athens." I was going to post a video of me saying that, but my computer didn't like how long it took to upload.

The one with the writing on the marble tablet? You're allowed to touch it. You are allowed to actually touch something that some Greek carved in 200 AD. I can't really describe how it feels to be somewhere so old. It makes everything seem bigger. It's so full of stories and feelings, I felt an overwhelming pride to be there.

Abroad in the wilderness

Today I had my first Greek outdoors experience.

You might think that an outdoors trip is less of a cultural activity than touring a well-known site, but to me, I feel that my time was not wasted at all. Sure, I wasn't on one of the islands, or at Mt. Olympus, but I had killer views of the city and the chance to observe the plants. We saw a couple of ancient monasteries on this hike, which were pre-Byzantine monasteries and have undergone renovation, but are still used today.

So we got our cultural fix anyway! But I am mostly blessed to have been through the Greek outdoors because of the nature of the outdoors itself. Especially in Greece! This is the land of the ancients, with more history than so many other countries can say for themselves, which defines the land now. Nature is the beauty of the world before humans decided to create their own beauty, and to me the pristine outdoors goes hand in hand with ancient times, as the base of the world as we know it now. To view a country in terms of its natural offerings is a very different way to see a country, and admittedly not a very efficient one, but I consider my time well spent.

And as promised, pictures:

And I KNOW I'm not in any of these...I'm working on that :)

Evidently I neglected a title last time...

Week one, finally over. Yeesh.

A few days ago I emailed a girl who had studied abroad here last semester and kept a blog about it. I asked roommate advice, excursion advice, and mental survival advice. You see, my classes are all day every day, there are constant strikes in the public transportation (even the Greeks don't know why sometimes), and my roommates don't seem to care that they're in Greece. My school is tucked away in the suburbs where almost nothing exciting happens, and I feel trapped here, as if I still haven't been in Greece. If you want the truth, I hate this residence hall. The rooms are cold, the kitchen and bathroom are not well-equipped, the hallways are so echo-y it doesn't matter what floor you're on, the washer and dryer doesn't make any sense, and all of the other study abroad students are here to party as opposed to all the things I am here for. I wish that my campus were already downtown so that I could just go right outside and explore, and I wish I had known that crappy roommates were part of the package deal for study abroad. I apologize for all these negative attitudes in the posts, but I felt the need to really tell you what studying abroad is ACTUALLY like.

Anyway, this girl wrote back and calmed me down a little, saying that everyone adjusts differently, that her first week was similarly not as romantic as her blog made it sound. And now that the weekend looms upon me, all I have to do is make it through tonight when everyone tries to peer pressure me into going out, and then boy, do I have plans for Saturday and Sunday!

But first. Yesterday was a pretty good one. It's the beginning of Lent, right? The Greeks called yesterday "Tsiknopempti," which means Burnt Thursday, in honor of all the inevitable souvlaki. People are expected to give up meat for lent in Greece. That doesn't end up happening a lot. But the Greeks still celebrate by eating a lot of meat right before Lent starts. From my experience so far, the food in Greece is much more flavored than I've ever had anywhere. They make the potatoes with olive oil and lemon juice somehow so that they taste like something completely different from potatoes. The pita bread, gyro meat, tzatziki, ice cream, and even pizza all are smothered in flavors I can't find anywhere. This must be the secret to real Greek cooking. I should also add that the Greeks are not an impatient bunch; they don't even bother forming lines for food, they just stand there and wait for the opportune moment to get a gyro. The food experience has been a delight, and I only hope that I can take some of their philosophies on food back with me.

I am still bothered a little by the fact that I came to this country less than adequate at speaking Greek, but so far the students, if not the shopkeepers, do not seem annoyed. I spent the Tsiknopempti celebration (on campus) with a friend I made in my political science class who is both Greek and German, and she said she appreciates simply the fact that I traveled to Greece by myself, of my own accord. It's hard to motivate myself to practice Greek with the native speakers when most of them speak fluent English, but I hope that better practice will present itself soon. I am bothered by it, but I'm sure the feeling will pass.

Oh, and the Greek swear word of the day: If you're having road rage, shove your palm out in front of you like you're pushing a door closed, and say, "Muja!" to whoever made you mad. The insult means nothing if you don't shove your palm out noticeably.

Yes, I do have plans for Saturday and Sunday, and Wednesday, too, for that matter...but they're surprises! I'll take pictures.

Now that the first two days of classes have come and gone, I can describe what they're like.

I can easily tell that Greece is the birthplace of philosophy, even if philosophy is not the subject of all of my classes. I also detect the subject of history sliding its way through the classrooms. My teacher for classical Greek literature maintains that history cannot exist without literature, that there would be no way to understand what happened before us if it were not written down. My question with that is: what about religion and mythology? Just take a look at a Greek history record. How do you separate the myth from the history without ruining the story? Things happened at Mycenae or Troy that we'd think obviously are not possible, but we have archaeological evidence to show that the events in the myths took place where they said they did.

So we'll see how that class goes. Another class I have, called "Great Thinkers and Their Ideas," I suspect I will definitely enjoy, as it seems very philosophically oriented, more so than I thought it would (basically, I'm taking another philosophy class without even meaning to!). The only thing I have with this class, and fortunately no other ones, is that the students will ask a question in Greek, and the teacher will go off on a tangent in Greek. Come on! I know I should be learning the language, but please, give us a break!

As for my actual philosophy classes, I don't have much to report yet, because the one philosophy teacher at this itty bitty school is very lax and didn't teach us anything the first day. However, I already feel at home there. I'm taking an upper level philosophy class and before it started yesterday one of my classmates told me that in the entire American College of Greece, there are only seven philosophy majors and they were all in this class. When the teacher arrived he introduced me to everyone in the room. He and they all seemed pleased to have me there representing them!

I marvel how philosophy can be so unpopular here. Don't we need philosophy? Didn't all scientific studies that are more common to get a degree in stem from philosophical concepts? I personally suspect I am a Cartesian, and I would say yes to this question.

Other than the high level of intelligence at this school, I almost feel like I'm in high school. Physically. It's a small, small campus, and all the classes are at the same times, so everyone has breaks at the same times (and EVERYONE smokes cigarettes during the breaks). A very different feel, but something I know will be an easy adjustment.

My home for the next four months

Our campus is beautiful.

Those are marble staircases, smooth stone walkways, and green trees. I think I'm going to have to spend much of my free time this semester drawing the campus.

This, of course, does not count the magnificent athletic facilities, which were put in just for the 2004 Olympic teams, so they are ONLY the best. A gigantic gym, two dance studios, a fully equipped track (trust me, I WILL inquire about that pole vault pit), a grandiose pool, and a diverse rock wall. I am in love.

And if you can see it, check out the view.

Yes, there is the beautiful track, but look at all those buildings of Athens. They are all over those hills due east, north, and west of us. You can actually see the Olympic stadium from our school, too.

I am getting more and more anxious to get out of these suburbs and walk around downtown Athens and take in the glorious art, architecture, and creation that the Greeks have come up with. I know that it is always incredible to see ancient works because the people back then used all of the resources they had to make something important to them. However, the modern day has not ended the legacy of great architecture. There is no reason not to go all out on a building. I can tell you, they go all out in Spain. I want to know if they do it here. That said, this is the neighborhood:

Yes...that's a cat. Why else would I take that photo? :)

And just so we know for sure that I'm in another country, here's something you don't see in the US. Ever.

(Caterpillars)

Judging by first impressions

Good morning. I got into Greece safely!

I don't know what it was that I saw from the plane, but to me it looked like an ampitheatre the size of Pleasant Hill, California. A ruin? The first thing I see outside the plane over Greece is a ruin? REALLY?

A few hours before we landed I found out that we were just north of Spain, and I got incredibly tripped up. The Spain flight I took last summer was an experience for me because it was my first European flight, and to think that I was right there once again, so close to it...I can imagine how I'll feel come spring break when I do head back there.

There were no Greek-speaking flight attendants on that plane. That's apparently how uncommon the Greek language is; they can't put Greek-speaking flight attendants on a plane bound to Greece.

They also didn't have us fill out immigration cards on the plane like they usually do when you travel to a different country. All they did was stamp my passport at the customs gate, they didn't even look at my student visa.

I was picked up at the airport and taken to my dorm, and I spent most of the day there yesterday unpacking, taking a nap, and meeting my (four!) roommates. The only time I left was to go to dinner with all of them plus some neighbors, a few of which go to school at NAU. Athens is like Phoenix, Arizona, where it's divided up into smaller areas; our area is called Aghia Paraskevi (I'm pretty sure that translates into Saint Paraskevi, but "paraskevi" also means Friday), and it's quite small, but has a busy main street, where we found dinner last night. We wound up in an Italian restaurant, which...our first night in Greece and we're getting Italian food...but I was so hungry I didn't care where we went.

First impressions nonetheless of a Greek restaurant. They smoke inside. They take the time to set up place mats and napkins for you. You have to pay for water if it doesn't come from the tap (and it is safe to drink out of the tap in Greece, except for the Greek islands) and you have to pay for the bread on the table, so eat all of it! But they serve dessert on the house. One of my roommates is Greek and actually comes to Greece every summer to see family, and she says all this is common. And they don't try to rush you out like they do in the States, you have to get their attention for the bill.

Today a few of us went to walk down the main street (I wish I knew the name of it, but I didn't see any street signs for it). Another roommate of mine is from Egypt, actually, the only roommate not from the States, and since Greece is a two-hour flight for her, she studied here for a summer session once. She played tour guide for a couple of us, so we walked to the supermarket and to the mall and down some residential streets, all apartments.

First impression of life in one teeny corner of Athens. Jaywalk at your own risk! People go where they want here. Whereas Americans are so confined to traffic and sidewalk rules, these people are not at all. In small towns like Pleasant Hill it's okay to dart across the street or cut across someone's lawn to get to a back street, but you wouldn't try that in a big American city, and you wouldn't try it in Athens.

It's a quiet but bustling little area. Lots of kids running around. I even learned a Greek swear word today (don't tell anyone I told you this: MALAKA!). The trees are nice and green, people speak English in the bigger stores, and almost all the apartment buildings are white.

We also walked around campus today, but I'll talk about that later because orientation is tomorrow (which beats the purpose of walking around campus today, but it was something to do). We'll have pictures for next time!

By the way, when I say good morning, I mean that when I post this, my friends in Arizona and California will just be getting up. That's hard to remember when the Sun shines brightly above Athens, Greece.

We are all human, we all need each other.

I cannot accurately describe how horrible it feels to wait and prepare this trip...and then not being able to because there is two weeks left, or one week left, or five days left...February has been agonizing. I wanted to quit worrying and taking care of business and just BE there. People keep saying, "You'll be there eventually," but what they say doesn't matter right now, because right now, I'm NOT there. I have already been asked why I'm going halfway through the semester, because everyone else I know is in school right now (I miss doing homework so much...it's that bad). Someone asked me if I was leaving Saturday or Sunday, and I groaned and said, "Monday!" It's always one day later! I hate that, I want to just GO!!!

If I haven't emphasized enough how much work you have to do to study abroad, well, consider me having emphasized it now. I really really hope that the rumors are true: that Greeks are friendly. Because at this stage in the game, I know they're bossy...I have yet to learn if they're friendly. One requirement after another, I swear, if one more person gives me an order I will have a meltdown in their face. "Get a visa! Get a residence permit! Do a bunch of work to go into both!" My personal favorite: "When you get here, we're going to prove ourselves to be terrible hosts and make you buy your own bedsheets and towels (and pillow)!"

So I'm frustrated, to say the bare minimum, and I hope that the Greeks are more tolerable in person. They should put themselves in the shoes of the international traveler and HELP US MORE. They don't provide bedsheets, I think that is unacceptable.

I've learned a couple of other things, regarding study abroad.

1. I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF. My coworkers have helped, gratefully, to get my things out of my apartment, and I'm now certain that when I get back, I'm going to throw away half of it. To Greece, I am bringing my suitcase and my dad's old backpack. And a neck pillow. And that's it! I have to leave more than half of my clothing behind, which includes guilty pleasure clothing like "certain" pants that I only wear in "certain" situations, or fuzzy socks that I own in three different colors. I have to leave books behind, art supplies behind, (blankets and towels behind...); but I take a look at the small amount that I will take...I feel spoiled to own all this. I feel as though I lie to myself when I say I need all this. Obviously I need furniture to accommodate SOME things, but...there are so many things I own that I thought I was attached to...and I'm really not attached to them.

That said, I think I did a pretty good job of stuffing all my crap in my luggage. After all the stuff I didn't need was out of the way it became a heck of a lot easier.

2. IF YOU SAY YOU WILL HELP SOMEONE, BE TRUE TO YOUR WORD AND HELP THEM. Don't tell them you will help them and then be flaky about it. People aren't reliable. They're only out for themselves and they will accuse anyone they possibly can if something goes wrong. People offer help and then bail all the time. I almost want to take a ritual vow of commitment to going through with my word to help people because these past few weeks have been so frustrating.

(Reading this paragraph is optional) Last week I unexpectedly needed a feminine hygiene product while I was at the library and hadn't brought any. I went into two bathrooms that have dispensers, and both dispensers were broken (one of them ate my quarter, too, and I love quarters almost more than I love dollars). At my wit's end and in complete physical discomfort, I had to resort to standing in the public bathroom begging. When at last, a girl donated this product to me, I let the fact sink in that EVERYONE is going to need help sometimes. I am going to get to Greece as a self-sufficient traveler with my own goals, but there will be times when I'm going to directly ask people for their altruism. It has happened to you, too, and will happen again. So please, everyone, help others, and don't be selfish all the time. Man, I'm going to need people to help me so much in these next four months.

The musings of a traveling college student. By definition, I need help. 

I was going to write from Phoenix, but I might not get the chance, since my computer will probably be packed. I leave Monday morning. My ex has offered to get me to the Phoenix airport, and I spend the weekend in his home.  Hopefully the next time we meet here I will be on the other side of the Prime Meridian. FINALLY!!!