August 30th

Day 02 Aug 30^th

Today was incredible! I saw the Acropolis and the Agora and the Athens Sacred Way! All the sighs were so big and interesting, and all of them had wonderful museums that explained and gave examples of everything you were seeing. The Acropolis Museum was closed because they’re moving it to another location, but Prof gave us a really good run down of what we needed to know. I’m tired, so I’m going to bed.

August 29th

Day 01 August 29^th, 8:50 pm

First of all, you shouldn’t listen to word on the street. Second of all, I LOVE THIS CITY! I got to ride on a subway [or Metro here] for the first time in my life! It was so cool! And it only costs .80 euro cents for a trip! That’s like a buck to get to the other side of town! We ended up near the Acropolis for the entire day, but our mission objective wasn’t to focus on the ancient. We were to take in the sites, sounds, smells, food, and lifestyle of the native Greeks. Some of the streets I walked down were pretty touristy, but I feel like I’ve lived here my entire life. You can sit down at an outside table in front of a café, and people come up to you and ask you what you want to eat! And no one hurries you. For dinner [we ate early] we sat down, had a glass of water and decoded the menu until we found something that sounded good. I had a frappe to drink. Wonderful. So many of the people are just so nice.

Our first and foremost assignment is a travel journal in which we have to observe and sketch life. These journals and our projects will be on display to the entire college and public for about a month next semester. My sketches are… nothing compared to the architecture majors. [I’m ok with that.] However, I did sketch of a stray cat that turned out pretty well. We named her “Athina”. Tomorrow we’re actually going to visit the main archeological sites of Athens and study them. Today we just drank in the culture. I got lost a couple of times. Once by myself, and once with a group. We found our way eventually. It was really laid back. I got the cutest picture of some of my fellow foreigners on the Metro. Even though my back is drenched in sweat and my feet are throbbing, I am so happy. After we were totally on our own, four of us decided to head down to the harbor to attempt to find a beach to watch the sunset on. After about forty five minutes of walking we discovered there wasn’t a beach very close to the Metro station. So we came back to the hotel. It only took about forty minutes once we got on the Metro to get back from all the way across town. Then we walked a few blocks, but I feel so strong and confident. Tonight some are headed out for a real dinner, and some others [including me] are going to hang out around the piano bar in the main lobby and relax. I’m taking my journal because there’s so much to write about.

Mom, thank you for the day pack and compass. They both saved me. Also, thank you for the advice last night. You’re a lifesaver.

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.

Airport

Day 00 August 27th
Because there is no free internet in DIA, this log will be uploaded at another time. For now, it is almost six a.m. and the sun isn’t up yet. Lucky sun. He got to sleep in. My parents, bless them, and I were up at 4 and got to the airport by five. It took about twenty-five or thirty minutes to check in and get through security. It took me another five or ten to get to my concourse which, of course, is the one furthest away from the main terminal. It was really hard to say goodbye to my parents. I love you guys. I would take a picture of me sitting in airport typing, but it’s just like any other airport. Now imagine me writing on my computer. Oh, and I’m in a skirt. It was an attempt to get upgraded for free. Not sure if I was… My flight just got bumped back by ten minutes. I have about a four hour layover on the East Coast, so it’s not a big deal. I forgot to ask the agent at the front counter if there was a later flight to Greece. Right now I’m on the 4 p.m. flight that lands at 9 a.m. Athens time [midnight to my parents if our calculations are correct]. Since I can not check into the hotel until at least noon or later, it would be worth it to get on a later flight and spend some extra time on the East Coast. In an airport. That probably looks like this one. C concourse of DIA looks like B concourse in Dallas. I fly a lot. I had a wonderful breakfast before I broke out my computer. It wasn’t on the heart-healthy diet I’m supposed to be on, but we’ll pretend like it was. I don’t think my doctor’s reading this blog. If you are, please know that I have stuck to that diet very well and that the non-sticking to this morning resulted from getting into the shortest line in the food court.
I’m strangely calm for a young woman about to cross an ocean. I have to cross a continent first. I still can’t believe that I’m actually going. I’m in total disbelief. It’s almost as though I’m just headed back for another semester at my college. I keep looking at the visa in my passport going… “I can barely read this language”. While in line for my wonderfully carb-full breakfast an older couple asked me where I was headed to. When I told them that I was going to Greece to study, they beamed at me and told me that I would love Greece. They went there for their honeymoon. The two of them are headed back home to Washington. My aunt said the same thing to me yesterday, “Don’t skip a thing”.

1:50 pm local time… 11:50 am home time
All the plugs in the Philadelphia International Airport are hidden. It’s like they don’t want you to charge your phone or use your laptop with a low battery because you were off-line blogging in Denver. I found a little niche that I’m hiding in. There are a pair of European boys [I think they’re Italian] stretched out on the chairs a few feet from me, and a couple American girls a row over. This seems to be the college age niche for kids who need a place to wait for their connecting flights. Airport security has passed by a couple of times and not said anything to me, so I’m going to keep writing and charging my laptop’s battery. I had an American lunch. It was small, so I’m probably going to get a snack before I get onto the plane. God only knows when they actually feed us and what it will be. I lucked out on the last flight. I was in the only row in the entire plane that wasn’t full. Of course, the guy on the aisle was really mean to the flight attendants. The movie was “Fracture” which I didn’t watch. I updated my travel journal which was about four days out of date and read a book on modern Greek history that my mother picked up for me before I left. PHL is really big. I was lucky enough to only have to go to the concourse right next to the one I flew into. They have a Liberty Bell made out of legos. [see picture] I’m facing an eight or nine hour flight…I’m still a little unsure of the time change. All I know is that it will feel like the middle of the night to me. Then I get to go through customs and stuff like that. For now, I’m going to continue people watching.

Airport

Day 00 August 27^th

Because there is no free internet in DIA, this log will be uploaded at another time. For now, it is almost six a.m. and the sun isn’t up yet. Lucky sun. He got to sleep in. My parents, bless them, and I were up at 4 and got to the airport by five. It took about twenty-five or thirty minutes to check in and get through security. It took me another five or ten to get to my concourse which, of course, is the one furthest away from the main terminal. It was really hard to say goodbye to my parents. I love you guys. I would take a picture of me sitting in airport typing, but it’s just like any other airport. Now imagine me writing on my computer. Oh, and I’m in a skirt. It was an attempt to get upgraded for free. Not sure if I was… My flight just got bumped back by ten minutes. I have about a four hour layover on the East Coast, so it’s not a big deal. I forgot to ask the agent at the front counter if there was a later flight to Greece. Right now I’m on the 4 p.m. flight that lands at 9 a.m. Athens time [midnight to my parents if our calculations are correct]. Since I can not check into the hotel until at least noon or later, it would be worth it to get on a later flight and spend some extra time on the East Coast. In an airport. That probably looks like this one. C concourse of DIA looks like B concourse in Dallas. I fly a lot. I had a wonderful breakfast before I broke out my computer. It wasn’t on the heart-healthy diet I’m supposed to be on, but we’ll pretend like it was. I don’t think my doctor’s reading this blog. If you are, please know that I have stuck to that diet very well and that the non-sticking to this morning resulted from getting into the shortest line in the food court.

I’m strangely calm for a young woman about to cross an ocean. I have to cross a continent first. I still can’t believe that I’m actually going. I’m in total disbelief. It’s almost as though I’m just headed back for another semester at my college. I keep looking at the visa in my passport going… “I can barely read this language”. While in line for my wonderfully carb-full breakfast an older couple asked me where I was headed to. When I told them that I was going to Greece to study, they beamed at me and told me that I would love Greece. They went there for their honeymoon. The two of them are headed back home to Washington. My aunt said the same thing to me yesterday, “Don’t skip a thing”.

1:50 pm local time… 11:50 am home time

All the plugs in the Philadelphia International Airport are hidden. It’s like they don’t want you to charge your phone or use your laptop with a low battery because you were off-line blogging in Denver. I found a little niche that I’m hiding in. There are a pair of European boys [I think they’re Italian] stretched out on the chairs a few feet from me, and a couple American girls a row over. This seems to be the college age niche for kids who need a place to wait for their connecting flights. Airport security has passed by a couple of times and not said anything to me, so I’m going to keep writing and charging my laptop’s battery. I had an American lunch. It was small, so I’m probably going to get a snack before I get onto the plane. God only knows when they actually feed us and what it will be. I lucked out on the last flight. I was in the only row in the entire plane that wasn’t full. Of course, the guy on the aisle was really mean to the flight attendants. The movie was “Fracture” which I didn’t watch. I updated my travel journal which was about four days out of date and read a book on modern Greek history that my mother picked up for me before I left. PHL is really big. I was lucky enough to only have to go to the concourse right next to the one I flew into. They have a Liberty Bell made out of legos. [see picture] I’m facing an eight or nine hour flight…I’m still a little unsure of the time change. All I know is that it will feel like the middle of the night to me. Then I get to go through customs and stuff like that. For now, I’m going to continue people watching.

Airport

Day 00 August 27^th

Because there is no free internet in DIA, this log will be uploaded at another time. For now, it is almost six a.m. and the sun isn’t up yet. Lucky sun. He got to sleep in. My parents, bless them, and I were up at 4 and got to the airport by five. It took about twenty-five or thirty minutes to check in and get through security. It took me another five or ten to get to my concourse which, of course, is the one furthest away from the main terminal. It was really hard to say goodbye to my parents. I love you guys. I would take a picture of me sitting in airport typing, but it’s just like any other airport. Now imagine me writing on my computer. Oh, and I’m in a skirt. It was an attempt to get upgraded for free. Not sure if I was… My flight just got bumped back by ten minutes. I have about a four hour layover on the East Coast, so it’s not a big deal. I forgot to ask the agent at the front counter if there was a later flight to Greece. Right now I’m on the 4 p.m. flight that lands at 9 a.m. Athens time [midnight to my parents if our calculations are correct]. Since I can not check into the hotel until at least noon or later, it would be worth it to get on a later flight and spend some extra time on the East Coast. In an airport. That probably looks like this one. C concourse of DIA looks like B concourse in Dallas. I fly a lot. I had a wonderful breakfast before I broke out my computer. It wasn’t on the heart-healthy diet I’m supposed to be on, but we’ll pretend like it was. I don’t think my doctor’s reading this blog. If you are, please know that I have stuck to that diet very well and that the non-sticking to this morning resulted from getting into the shortest line in the food court.

I’m strangely calm for a young woman about to cross an ocean. I have to cross a continent first. I still can’t believe that I’m actually going. I’m in total disbelief. It’s almost as though I’m just headed back for another semester at my college. I keep looking at the visa in my passport going… “I can barely read this language”. While in line for my wonderfully carb-full breakfast an older couple asked me where I was headed to. When I told them that I was going to Greece to study, they beamed at me and told me that I would love Greece. They went there for their honeymoon. The two of them are headed back home to Washington. My aunt said the same thing to me yesterday, “Don’t skip a thing”.

1:50 pm local time… 11:50 am home time

All the plugs in the Philadelphia International Airport are hidden. It’s like they don’t want you to charge your phone or use your laptop with a low battery because you were off-line blogging in Denver. I found a little niche that I’m hiding in. There are a pair of European boys [I think they’re Italian] stretched out on the chairs a few feet from me, and a couple American girls a row over. This seems to be the college age niche for kids who need a place to wait for their connecting flights. Airport security has passed by a couple of times and not said anything to me, so I’m going to keep writing and charging my laptop’s battery. I had an American lunch. It was small, so I’m probably going to get a snack before I get onto the plane. God only knows when they actually feed us and what it will be. I lucked out on the last flight. I was in the only row in the entire plane that wasn’t full. Of course, the guy on the aisle was really mean to the flight attendants. The movie was “Fracture” which I didn’t watch. I updated my travel journal which was about four days out of date and read a book on modern Greek history that my mother picked up for me before I left. PHL is really big. I was lucky enough to only have to go to the concourse right next to the one I flew into. They have a Liberty Bell made out of legos. [see picture] I’m facing an eight or nine hour flight…I’m still a little unsure of the time change. All I know is that it will feel like the middle of the night to me. Then I get to go through customs and stuff like that. For now, I’m going to continue people watching.

Airport

Day 00 August 27^th

Because there is no free internet in DIA, this log will be uploaded at another time. For now, it is almost six a.m. and the sun isn’t up yet. Lucky sun. He got to sleep in. My parents, bless them, and I were up at 4 and got to the airport by five. It took about twenty-five or thirty minutes to check in and get through security. It took me another five or ten to get to my concourse which, of course, is the one furthest away from the main terminal. It was really hard to say goodbye to my parents. I love you guys. I would take a picture of me sitting in airport typing, but it’s just like any other airport. Now imagine me writing on my computer. Oh, and I’m in a skirt. It was an attempt to get upgraded for free. Not sure if I was… My flight just got bumped back by ten minutes. I have about a four hour layover on the East Coast, so it’s not a big deal. I forgot to ask the agent at the front counter if there was a later flight to Greece. Right now I’m on the 4 p.m. flight that lands at 9 a.m. Athens time [midnight to my parents if our calculations are correct]. Since I can not check into the hotel until at least noon or later, it would be worth it to get on a later flight and spend some extra time on the East Coast. In an airport. That probably looks like this one. C concourse of DIA looks like B concourse in Dallas. I fly a lot. I had a wonderful breakfast before I broke out my computer. It wasn’t on the heart-healthy diet I’m supposed to be on, but we’ll pretend like it was. I don’t think my doctor’s reading this blog. If you are, please know that I have stuck to that diet very well and that the non-sticking to this morning resulted from getting into the shortest line in the food court.

I’m strangely calm for a young woman about to cross an ocean. I have to cross a continent first. I still can’t believe that I’m actually going. I’m in total disbelief. It’s almost as though I’m just headed back for another semester at my college. I keep looking at the visa in my passport going… “I can barely read this language”. While in line for my wonderfully carb-full breakfast an older couple asked me where I was headed to. When I told them that I was going to Greece to study, they beamed at me and told me that I would love Greece. They went there for their honeymoon. The two of them are headed back home to Washington. My aunt said the same thing to me yesterday, “Don’t skip a thing”.

1:50 pm local time… 11:50 am home time

All the plugs in the Philadelphia International Airport are hidden. It’s like they don’t want you to charge your phone or use your laptop with a low battery because you were off-line blogging in Denver. I found a little niche that I’m hiding in. There are a pair of European boys [I think they’re Italian] stretched out on the chairs a few feet from me, and a couple American girls a row over. This seems to be the college age niche for kids who need a place to wait for their connecting flights. Airport security has passed by a couple of times and not said anything to me, so I’m going to keep writing and charging my laptop’s battery. I had an American lunch. It was small, so I’m probably going to get a snack before I get onto the plane. God only knows when they actually feed us and what it will be. I lucked out on the last flight. I was in the only row in the entire plane that wasn’t full. Of course, the guy on the aisle was really mean to the flight attendants. The movie was “Fracture” which I didn’t watch. I updated my travel journal which was about four days out of date and read a book on modern Greek history that my mother picked up for me before I left. PHL is really big. I was lucky enough to only have to go to the concourse right next to the one I flew into. They have a Liberty Bell made out of legos. [see picture] I’m facing an eight or nine hour flight…I’m still a little unsure of the time change. All I know is that it will feel like the middle of the night to me. Then I get to go through customs and stuff like that. For now, I’m going to continue people watching.