I can't believe my first full week in Greece is already over! This week was jam packed with events including orientation, a scavenger hunt, a visit to the American Embassy, a greek dancing lesson, meeting other CYA students, the President's dinner, a trip to the beach, a taverna dinner, a weekend excursion to Meteora, and classes.
Needless to say we are all exhausted and trying to find time to sleep!
Classes began on monday and we are all finding the greek language to be a bit of a struggle. Not only do some of the letters sound nothing like they look but our professor likes to move along quickly! We also had theology, and our music and culture class. Our schedule was a bit messed up this past week because the other CYA students were just starting to arrive so not all of our professors were even here yet. This coming week we will start our art history class, and our History of Greece class in addition to the ones we are already taking. Some days of classes are incredibly long but the nice part is that the school is very close to our apartments and that they serve you a big lunch (meaning one less meal we all have to make/pay for). The staff at our school so far have been incredibly nice and helpful!
We ran into a few blips with our apartment once we got here including drain problems, a beeping smoke detector, a cockroach, some blinds that wouldn't open, a power failure, etc. I am happy to say that those problems are now (for the most part) fixed!
On Wednesday night we had a welcome speech from the President along with some Greek dancing lessons. After some fun dancing lessons we headed to a local taverna where the food was never ending. We had greek salads, fried cheese, fresh bread, little ham and cheese rolls, mushrooms, meatballs, chicken or turkey and fries, and fresh fruit. Most of the food we didn't know what it was or what to call it so my descriptions don't really match up entirely but it was all yummy!
On Thursday evening we had the formal President's dinner at his home outside of Athens. He invited all of the CYA students which was nice because it was one of the first opportunities we have really had to meet the other students. All CSB/SJU students have classes together separate from the other CYA students so we really haven't had a chance to meet them. There were lots of students from Notre Dame, Union College, Middlebury, and all over the US.
My favorite part of this week was probably our weekend excursion to Meteora. It was about a 5 and 1/2 hour bus ride to get to the monasteries. It is a gorgeous place that I highly recommend anyone who comes to Greece visits. There are quite a few monasteries up on cliffs that overlook the entire city. This weekend we toured 4 of those monasteries. Some have gorgeous churches filled with paintings and nice museums. Others had much better views than others! Overall it was a very fun trip and nice to be away from the city for awhile. We found a small little pizza place for dinner, and enjoyed ice cream from a local bakery in town. It is a fairly touristy town and we were surprised how nice our hotel was! They even had TV's in the room which is a pretty foreign thing to us right now. After our dinner we decided to go back and watch some of the parolympics together. It was really nice to relax and get to bed early for a change.
Some other things I have noticed about greece so far:
If you haven't seen I have tried to keep updating my photos on facebook I tend to do a better job updating those than I have been blogging so keep looking at those! Keep checking back for more updates and I hope to skype with more of you soon!!!
Needless to say we are all exhausted and trying to find time to sleep!
Classes began on monday and we are all finding the greek language to be a bit of a struggle. Not only do some of the letters sound nothing like they look but our professor likes to move along quickly! We also had theology, and our music and culture class. Our schedule was a bit messed up this past week because the other CYA students were just starting to arrive so not all of our professors were even here yet. This coming week we will start our art history class, and our History of Greece class in addition to the ones we are already taking. Some days of classes are incredibly long but the nice part is that the school is very close to our apartments and that they serve you a big lunch (meaning one less meal we all have to make/pay for). The staff at our school so far have been incredibly nice and helpful!
We ran into a few blips with our apartment once we got here including drain problems, a beeping smoke detector, a cockroach, some blinds that wouldn't open, a power failure, etc. I am happy to say that those problems are now (for the most part) fixed!
On Wednesday night we had a welcome speech from the President along with some Greek dancing lessons. After some fun dancing lessons we headed to a local taverna where the food was never ending. We had greek salads, fried cheese, fresh bread, little ham and cheese rolls, mushrooms, meatballs, chicken or turkey and fries, and fresh fruit. Most of the food we didn't know what it was or what to call it so my descriptions don't really match up entirely but it was all yummy!
On Thursday evening we had the formal President's dinner at his home outside of Athens. He invited all of the CYA students which was nice because it was one of the first opportunities we have really had to meet the other students. All CSB/SJU students have classes together separate from the other CYA students so we really haven't had a chance to meet them. There were lots of students from Notre Dame, Union College, Middlebury, and all over the US.
Eating dinner in the President's backyard!
My favorite part of this week was probably our weekend excursion to Meteora. It was about a 5 and 1/2 hour bus ride to get to the monasteries. It is a gorgeous place that I highly recommend anyone who comes to Greece visits. There are quite a few monasteries up on cliffs that overlook the entire city. This weekend we toured 4 of those monasteries. Some have gorgeous churches filled with paintings and nice museums. Others had much better views than others! Overall it was a very fun trip and nice to be away from the city for awhile. We found a small little pizza place for dinner, and enjoyed ice cream from a local bakery in town. It is a fairly touristy town and we were surprised how nice our hotel was! They even had TV's in the room which is a pretty foreign thing to us right now. After our dinner we decided to go back and watch some of the parolympics together. It was really nice to relax and get to bed early for a change.
One of the monasteries in Meteora.
Some other things I have noticed about greece so far:
- There is lots of graffiti everywhere.
- There are lots of stray cats and dogs wandering the city, however, not all of them look unhealthy. Around many apartment buildings you will see little bowls with water set outside and some food. The entire city takes care of these animals together.
- Many greek citizens know a little English and are very friendly and helpful!
- It is very windy here, and the sidewalks are awful so most people walk in the street.
- Pedestrians do not have the right of way and many streets don't have official crosswalks so you have to learn to be good at jaywalking.
If you haven't seen I have tried to keep updating my photos on facebook I tend to do a better job updating those than I have been blogging so keep looking at those! Keep checking back for more updates and I hope to skype with more of you soon!!!
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