First Day

8:46 pm local time, 1:46 pm home time

I made it safely to Athens. The part of the airport that I saw was small, but I have a feeling it’s actually much bigger. I touched down, get through customs, and grabbed a taxi to my hotel. The taxi driver didn’t speak any English, but we made it here alright. He did charge me 10 euro above what the clicker said because he picked me up from the airport. I think I got taken for more than a taxi ride. As I was getting out of the cab, I saw three other people from my school in the lobby. It was a relief to know I wasn’t the first one. It was too early to check in, so we stashed our luggage and went exploring. We found a little bakery where we learned that cheese pie is not so good, and then we just started walking. We walked and walked and walked. Then we walked. I saw the American consulate and statues of important people I didn’t recognize. We found a great little park that was just beautiful. We walked through and took a rest at the farm animals’ pens. I got some great pictures. We also saw the changing of the Greek guard at one of the important-looking government buildings, but I didn’t get any good pictures of it. Fun to watch, though. Then we found the Old Olympic Stadium. It’s big, and from the large piece of ground in front of it we could see the Acropolis and the church that is the highest point in Athens. I think we’ll be visiting both of those before our trip is over. We’ll be coming back to Athens at other times, too. We found a TGI Friday’s to eat lunch at [around 2 o’clock]. That was weird. All the waiters spoke English, and the menu was in my native language as well [except for the drink menu]. I can drink legally here, but so far I haven’t. The drinks at the lunch place were over 6 euro! That’s like charging eight and a half dollars! Then we found our way back to the hotel after five hours of walking. Our clothing was soaked through. I got a touch of sun. It wasn’t as bad as I first thought, thankfully. After getting into our rooms and turning up the AC, most of the kids went to the pool. I took a nap. I felt a lot better after the nap. The flight was really long. Now most people have wandered off to see about dinner. I’m going back to bed after a snack and more water. I have had so much water in the past few hours, and I haven’t had to go to the bathroom. That’s how hot it is. My body will not let any moisture go. Tomorrow is our first meeting with our Professor, hereby referred to as ‘Prof’. He came around in the afternoon and handed out a sheet about our personal journals, a handwritten account of a youth’s journey through Europe. We meet tomorrow morning at 9 am aka midnight home time. Word on the street is that he’s going to dump up somewhere in Athens and we’ll have to find our way back to the hotel. Since I can’t find the hotel on my map, this will be interesting.