Marble

During our meaningful talk on the rooftop in Barcelona, my friend told me about his experience in Istanbul, Turkey, at the magnificent marble cathedral, the Agia Sofia. He said his mind had been blown away by the state of the marble floors—they looked rather concave. It seemed to him that the floor represented a very slight crater, coming up at the edges and forming a bowl in the center. He considered how many people over thousands of years had been walking on this marble floor, and he shared with me his subsequent realization. We both marveled at the meaning of a marble floor that has been walked on for so many years by so many people, that it is actually indented now.

After my first visit to the acropolis, I couldn’t help but notice how naturally pretty marble is, and how nice it looks on the modern buildings, and how marble streets make the whole area look elegant. Even though I didn’t see any indented marble such as my friend saw in Turkey, I kept in mind that Athens is a city that always tries to move forward, and the streets and steps have probably been maintained a little too well. If only we could go inside the Parthenon, I’m sure I would have seen the spectacle there.

Still. If this phenomenon were really to exist, it surely exists in Greece. I’ve been looking at the histories of places I visited, and they date back to over a thousand years BC. To know that these places, and their stories, are preserved and treasured to this day…and to have lived there…

The symbolism of marble for me is with my trip. Not only did I walk over the same sites as millions of people before me (way before me) had, but I walked over what will now be a precious memory. I met some great people who impacted my life to worthy extent, I visited places that I’d only dreamed about before, I took chances I had never before taken, I pushed limits, I had fun, and I can’t ever forget it. Maybe later in my life I will do something more incredible…but I can’t imagine it right now. It doesn’t matter that I can’t imagine it. My memory, like ancient marble, has been impacted, like a meteor that leaves behind a crater.

I miss it a little bit. The places I lived in are still so fresh in my mind that I still feel as though I can just walk outside and be there. I miss knowing that I can go downtown and look at the acropolis whenever I wanted to see something incredible. I didn’t think I would miss the neighborhood of Agia Paraskevi. I kind of miss the kiosks selling chocolate and the graffiti on the walls next to the gyro place. Little things are starting to make it more real for me now that I’m no longer there.

I recommend study abroad to every student. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t settled on a country yet, because it would have been impossible for me or anyone I studied abroad with to live in one foreign country without hearing and getting excited about and perhaps visiting so many other countries. Take my side trip during spring break. At the end, I was in Spain talking about Turkey with someone I met in Greece and someone he met up with from Italy, all of us originally from America. That’s five countries in one night.

May you indent many marble surfaces in your life,

-Rosie

Jet lag sucks, and free drinking water rocks!

The 10.5-hour flight was better than the 4-hour one. I managed to speak a few last Greek words to the people sitting next to me, and I bounced down the aisles to get some movement (until the "fasten seat belt" sign turned on again and the flight attendants laughed at me), and by the time we landed I was feeling kind of good, actually. But after going through customs at JFK and finding my gate, I felt like it was 11:00 at night, but the sun was out. I have been dazed and confused ever since. That was Sunday, and now it's Wednesday.

There have already been some moments of weirdness. One thing I had missed about America was the abundant presence of drinking fountains, which has been one positive re-entry occurrence. And I felt almost guilty for flushing the toilet paper instead of throwing it in the wastebasket. I also have had to feel around for the light switch because they're a lot smaller here, and I had to think about how to plug my computer in because the outlets have different sockets. When I walked into the grocery store in Phoenix I felt like I was in a metropolis of food...the size of the grocery store in Agia Paraskevi was the size of, like, two aisles in Safeway. And everyone speaks English. And taking the Greyhound from Phoenix to Flagstaff was, don't freak out when I say this, paradise. The bus driver talked to us to let us know what was going on, where we were, and made us feel comfortable. He said the bus would be stopping in Flagstaff, but go on through cities like Gallup, New Mexico, Oklahoma City...it gave me a feeling of wanting to go on a road trip around America...I've never been to the midwest or the southern states besides New Mexico.

In Robert's house in Phoenix I played so much piano, making up for four months of not doing it, that I actually hurt my hand a little. I also ate cereal like Fruit Loops and Rice Krispies, and some Reeses cups, things I hadn't so much as laid eyes on in Greece.

Now I am in Flagstaff. Fortunately the weather has not put me through any hell yet. My roommates are doing great, and they acquired some more furniture in our apartment, so it's very cozy and homey now. I have yet to get my stuff out of storage so that I can really unpack and use my room again, but I haven't found anyone with a truck yet, so it's slow going. I took a trip to Safeway today. I used to always use the self check out there, but now I don't want to. It felt good to have someone checking out my items and not yelling at me in a foreign language. I didn't go near the oranges in Safeway. I wonder how long it will take me to eat an American orange again. I'm also going to go on a massive search for feta cheese soon at the organic store downtown so I can make Greek salad for my roommates.

Someone asked me if it felt weird to be back. Yes, it does, I admit. I have figured out that I can't wear a watch right now. The first two mornings here I woke up too early and feeling like I was dying, even though I've been sleeping well. Every time I look at my watch I automatically add 10 hours and subsequently get headaches. So no watches until after the jet lag.

It is definitely weird to think that just a few days ago I was walking down the street outside my apartment in Greece...and now I'm halfway around the globe from that street. Upon pulling into Flagstaff on the Greyhound I was hit by memories of Robert, of shopping at Safeway, of riding my bike downtown for the art walks...it's strange to be back in this familiar place after such a trip.

For the next couple of weeks I plan on taking it slow, settling back in, unpacking, and living in more luxury than I've lived in for four months. I'll be writing one more time in the next week, so keep reading. Like I said, I'm still a little dazed and confused, so I'll want to have a more clear-headed reflection about Greece when my strength is back up.

Goodnight, Athens

I can hardly believe that the room I'm now stuffing into my suitcase is the same room I collapsed in when I stepped off the plane in February. Because I began the semester in winter and am ending in summer, two very very different seasons in Greece, it feels like I have been here for much longer than four months. Thinking about the first time we walked around Agia Paraskevi getting to know our surroundings is like thinking about a memory from at least a few years ago...it's been so long. Over four months I reached the point where I felt almost like a resident of Athens: I went to the grocery store all the time, I learned the shortcuts out of the metro stations, I was speaking casually with my professors, and I even learned to say a few words. On that note, for my very first entry, didn't I make a list of goals? Let's look over that now and see what actually happened.

1. I WANT TO GO TO SPAIN FOR SPRING BREAK. Done. I may have a few small regrets about my time in Greece...but I don't have ANY about Spain! It was everything I could have hoped for and more! Without having gone for two weeks, I don't know how my time in Greece would have been different.

2. I WANT MY SPANISH DRESS. It's green and patterned. It ties sort of strangely, but I wasn't passing up the pattern for that little trifle. Having this dress is really good closure, after not getting it last summer.

3. I WANT AT LEAST ONE LASTING RELATIONSHIP. Well, I already told two Americans I met here outside school I'd be in touch. I told the girl from Egypt I would visit her one day. And I told the guy I met up with in Barcelona that we'd recreate the moment on the rooftop having great conversation, but in another country. I want to try to be in touch with some of the people I lived with, plus at least one of the Greek friends I made. I'm normally not very good at keeping in touch...but I might never see them again unless I stay in touch, and wouldn't it be great to meet up with them in some other part of the world? This is a true benefit from study abroad.

4. I WANT TO SPEAK GREEK AS WELL AS I CURRENTLY SPEAK SPANISH. Um...I thought I was worse at Spanish than I actually am :). I think, when I got to Spain, I was so excited to be speaking a language I sort of knew rather than didn't know at all, that I spoke it a lot better. My Spreek got a little too good ("esta al aerothromio"...Rosie, that's two different languages).  My Greek did get to a good level, though. I think my speech is okay, but it's hard to hold a conversation with a Greek because they talk ludicrously fast. You can hear the difference when they revert from English to Greek. This has got to be how they make up for Greek time. I don't know when I'll get to practice Greek anymore, but I definitely don't want to forget it.

5. I WANT TO GO ALL OVER GREECE AND ALL OVER SPAIN. Done! Let me even say this: you can TOTALLY get away with coming to Greece and NOT going to Athens.

6. I WANT TO BE LESS STRESSED ABOUT FINANCES WHEN I RETURN. Um...done! I hope. I did relax a lot about it. I think I was just worked up over it because this year has been the first time I've ever been on my own, having my own apartment and paying my own rent and having a job. So hopefully this one has manifested.

7. I WANT A GOOD PART OF MY TOURING TO BE BASED ON SITES FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY. Done...but what kind of a goal was that? Am I supposed to say, "I don't want to go here because Athena never came here?" I'm a more open-minded tourist now. As said earlier, I like to see what the place has to offer me...and sometimes it doesn't offer mythology. I might as well mention that Greece in terms of mythology and ancient times turned out to be not what I expected. The Greeks preserve it, but they don't really care about it. They prefer to move forward. At their own pace :).


8. I WANT TO ENGAGE IN PHILOSOPHY CLASS DISCUSSIONS. Okay, so I could have done better, but at least my philosophy professor was happy to have me in his class. He's even been to Flagstaff before. He says the best hamburger he ever had was in Flagstaff.

9. I WANT TO BE ATHLETIC. I was. The gym was like my second home there. Plus the only place to run in that suburb was up a mountain...so running was never easy, it was always a workout. I had to keep working out, because I kept gaining weight somehow (who knew souvlaki and pastries and gelato caused weight gain?).

10. I DON'T WANT TO PARTY. Done. But I don't really want to get into how difficult it was to avoid it.

My goals were generally accomplished at least to some degree. So I'm happy. There are a few pangs of sadness that hit me sometimes now that I'm making my last rounds in Athens, for sure. But overall, I feel good about finally coming home, like it's finally time.

Note: keep reading. I'll make at least two more posts about re-entry to the States.

And then it was the last week.

I'm writing now, partly because I need a study break, also because I feel obligated to now that it's the last week.

I'm getting down to the wire. Finals week looms, and our flights home. Everyone is studying like they have nothing to lose. It would have been nice to do something fun for my final full weekend, but alas, no one is making time for it. Plus the weather in Greece is trying to pull a Flagstaff and change every once in a while. That's something I don't look forward to upon my return.

There is a psychological side to studying abroad: there is a proposed cycle of emotion that I was warned about at the orientation (along with all the other freakish things I was warned about that never happened). It starts with excitement, drops down to culture shock, levels out at surface adjustment, and then overshadows re-entry shock. Did I go through these phases? Sure did.

I was so excited to get here that I was irritated by the other students for not being as excited. It took some people for EVER to go downtown and see the Acropolis, and even longer to check out Monastiraki. I disadvise against this completely. Yes, it is true that we got here knowing that we had four full months to do what we wanted, and we were exposed to "Greek time" almost right away, so the slow start was expected. And it's true that I say myself, I'm not in any hurry to see places...now that the excitement phase is over! I was itching to go out, not through a sense of obligation, but because I was freaking excited. So when you first get to a place, I advise you to do stuff! You can settle down later. Of course, there has been excitement throughout my entire stay, too, and it's going to feel strange getting back to America and experiencing less excitement due to less being new.

Culture shock was a fun one. Not. I will not discuss this on the blog, I'm happy to answer questions through email or conversation, but I'll only mention it here: there was a dark side to this study abroad experience. There was one particular experience I had one weekend within the first month of being here that really brought on the culture shock, and after that I constantly thought about it for a week or so. Culture shock is defined as discomfort while living in an unfamiliar culture, which consists of physical symptoms like over-eating or sleeplessness or headaches, but which mostly consists of negative attitudes toward the unfamiliar cultural practices plus ethnocentrism towards your home culture. For me personally, I will say outright without worrying about whether it's ethnocentric or not, that some aspects of Greek culture are displeasing to human society. As in, humans who live amongst other humans in society shouldn't act the way the Greeks do. By getting over the culture shock, I didn't exactly accept their activities so much as went out of my way to ignore them. But you know what? I survived them, and now they will make good stories to tell people. Plus, it should never be expected that travel plans will go perfectly...they won't. They absolutely won't. I'm not disappointed in my experience with culture shock, I just include it in my stories.

Moving on to surface adjustment, which is, in fact, adjustment to the culture and your comfort zones to the point where the strange things don't impede your daily life. This is where Spain came in and saved my sanity, giving me two weeks to be by myself in a country I was already slightly familiar with and could therefore relate to a little better. Once I returned from Spain knowing I did all that alone and survived it, I was ready to be back in Greece and appreciate more that it has to offer. It did feel slightly strange to be leaving the country I'd wanted to come to for so long, so I decided it would be the only time I left Greece (unlike other study abroad students, who were on a mission to knock as many countries off their list as they could in four months. One girls knocked off at least nine). No use wondering what would have happened if I'd stayed in Greece over spring break. What happened was that I got a short leave from it so that my sanity could be retained and I would be more ready to tackle my time here. And May turned out to be excellent!

Now. Re-entry shock. This is supposed to be like reverse culture shock, missing your host country's customs, trying to combine the new with the old, and feeling regret for not having done enough. I'll let you know how the first two go when I return, but as for the last point, I can say something now. I'd started feeling some regret, after turning down Santorini, and thinking about how I missed out on a trip near the beginning. The regret morphed into something like, "It's been four months, and I didn't do enough." The regret lasted about an hour. After an hour, I said to myself, "STOP FEELING REGRET." I wrote down in one long sentence all the cities I went to, sites I visited, places I explored, cultural habits I'd partaken in, and experiences I couldn't have had anywhere else in the world. Anyone who has spent enough time with me knows I have small handwriting. It took eight lines of notebook paper. Okay, so there were some things I regretted not doing, but overall? Ha! I did plenty! I'm not going to let myself feel bad about the overall experience ever again, and if you catch me doing it, put me in my place! Even the freakier experiences were worth it to me, and the less than perfect ones.

I think the biggest lesson I learned from being here was that things aren't always as they seem. For example, last week I learned that there was a protest downtown. Usually the study abroad program sends us emails when those happen saying to stay away from downtown that day. But last week I decided to go anyway. I had to see at least one protest, right? I was expecting something more like a public speaker, signs, maybe a riot, maybe something burning...I got there...and there were people dancing to drums, gyro stands, tents on the grass, banners saying "We Want Revolution," basically. Really? Study abroad has been sending us emails this whole time telling us to stay away from a festival of hippies?

Things are not always as they seem. Greece does not look entirely like the ancient agora, nor does it look like Santorini, nor do people run around restaurants breaking dishes and shouting "Opa!" Expecting the unexpected was an important lesson for me, and also to take things as they come. I'm happy that I came and that I took the bad with the good, and now I have a great story to tell. I'll write more when my flight home draws nearer.