I live in Athens, Greece.

So I've been slow, I'm well aware of this.  Finally getting settled into one place has made me quite relaxed, meaning my blog upkeep has suffered.  Also, my picture taking is on quite the decline as well.  It will rise again, I assure, just give me some time!  Alas, I am here, enjoying my new home, Athens!

Now may I rewind and say that pre-travel finished oh so swimmingly and we had no big mishaps or struggles throughout our time.  I'd say, overall, we took Europe by storm and rocked it.  Advice for your future goers: well, stay tuned!  I'm in the process of developing some "do's and don'ts" that we learned throughout our process.  Our pre-travel experience was such a blessing and our group had a really awesome time together.  It is now nice to be in one central location, with the entire group, learning and living in Greece.

To begin, we arrived in Athens toward evening on the 29th and spent time getting settled into our apartment!  Overall, it's nice, but unfortunately our particular apartment has many bug friends that like to live in our bathroom and kitchen.  Adds a little adventure to living I suppose, but we could really do without them.  Beyond that, we have two double rooms and one single, with a nice living room, kitchen and bathroom.  Three guys from our trip are our neighbors and that's been really fun.  One of our first nights we joined together and made a really delicious spaghetti dinner.  Just recently, we all gathered and had a guitar sing-a-long/jam session which was so great.  Overall, its been great in the apartments and us roomies have had a really fun time preparing meals, getting to know one another and just talking about everything.

Outside of apartment life, school has officially begun.  My motivation for class is quite low, but all of the classes are very interesting thus far!  I'm in Modern Greek (language & culture), Art History, Senior Seminar, History, and Theology.  Our classes are very long compared to school back home, but we don't have class Friday, which makes the extra time definitely worth it.  So far, Theology has been my favorite.  We're learning about Greek Orthodox and the professor is great.  He's a priest and makes things interesting and asks a lot of enticing questions.  Later on in the term, we get to attend his church and see how his faith life is practiced out! Another class I like is our Seminar class. Our professor from home, Greg, teaches that and his emphasis is on Fine Arts.  We will be attending a lot of different fine art performances, while also using the class time to reflect on our experiences and just get to know each other better.  For the majority of our classes, we get to get out and see the sights.  Every week for art, we are attending different museums, while in History and Theology, we also get to explore.  This factor makes school seem all the more fun, and I think it teaches far more than any one professor could try and express.  Overall, everything has been great and the homework load isn't too bad!  We're trying to learn Greek in record speed, so that is the main struggle I'm enduring right now.  Greek is hard, in case you wanted to know.

We've done a lot of really awesome stuff outside of class thus far, but I'll just highlight a few that I've particularly enjoyed!

1. Class dinner out at a Taverna.  One of our first nights, a few Greek professors took out our entire group to a local Greek Taverna for a little taste of Greek cuisine and wine.  It was so fun to try all of the different foods!  Greeks usually eat family style, so we had many different dishes, and we simply just passed them around the table until they were gone.  I really liked an eggplant dish and the fried cheese.  I surprised myself, but it was all really good!  Plus, the dinner conversation and being out with the whole group was really great.

2. President's Dinner.  So our first Friday in Athens, we went to the President's (of our college) house for a garden party/dinner.  His house, holy crap beautiful.  His backward is gorgeous, and also huge, being that he invited over 150 guests.  We all dressed up, had really great conversation, and also ate again, a very delicious meal.  I myself ate 4 pitas, exciting I know, but they were so good.

3. Temple of Poseidon.  So our first Saturday, Greg and his wife took us to the beach and then onto the Temple to watch the sunset.  The beach was gorgeous and luckily, quiet! We spent the afternoon there exploring, laying out and swimming.  My favorite though, was checking out the Temple.  I wish I could fully express the view.  It was beyond breathtaking.  On 3 sides, the ocean was far below us and as far as we could see.  Boats crawled all across the ocean and Temple was silhouetted by the sun.  This Temple began being built in early 5th century BC!  I couldn't really fathom being somewhere that held that much history, even before Christ's time!

["The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for founded it on the seas and established it on the waters." Psalm 24:1-2]

Gorgeous much?

The whole group!

4. Exploring the city.  We've done a lot of exploring and that has been really awesome.  We are familiarizing ourself with our surroundings and getting to talk with a lot of locals.  We've done some shopping, eating out, and one of my favorite activities, we went to a sandal shop, The Poet Sandal Maker, where we had custom Greek sandals made for our feet!  They are not only awesome looking, but quite comfortable and look rather good on my feet (:
Just of last night, we went to an outdoor movie theater where us girls say One Day.  This theater overlooks the Acropolis to the left and is just beautiful.  Not to mention, the movie was great.  I'd recommend it, but prepare to be sad.  Beforehand, I had the best crepe of my life.  Strawberry, nutella, graham cracker, whipped cream, and chocolate.  Oh my deliciousness.
Lastly, I'm obsessed with the Friday market here.  Close to our apartments, starting at 6am on Friday, the streets are lined with delicious (and cheap) fruits and vegetables.  I cannot get enough of this and wish they had it everyday.  It is currently Friday here, and that market is calling my name as I type.  So I will end on this note, and try to write again... soon.

My heart and prayers go back to those of you at home!
God bless.