Observations on the bus

Most days I take the free bus to and from campus, arriving at 10 til 11 and getting home around 6:30. However, some days I cannot just sit around in the library wasting time online until the bus comes to pick us up so I venture out the gates of ACT to the city bus stop. Most of the time other people are with me, although I'm thinking that tomorrow I'll catch the bus by myself because I know for sure where to get off to transfer now.

The bus is sort of an adventure. I don't have a ton of experience on city buses to begin with because, hello, Rockford/New Milford and Monmouth aren't really big bus towns, but Thessaloniki is a big city. In a city the size of Philadelphia, a person without a car can't really rely solely on walking, and a college student not trying to go bankrupt (or bankrupt her parents) and planning a trip for fall break cannot rely on the taxi all the time. It's .60 Euro (so 60 Eurocents) for a bus ticket that let's us ride the bus around for 70 minutes.

So to get home, we get on the 58 bus. The 58 bus is sort of special, because it doesn't come that often, not to the panorama that our school is in at least. This means that it is CROWDED. It's probably past some legal code or something, I mean seriously. We pile onto this bus, yesterday just Taylor and I, and we actually had some breathing room which was nice and a change of pace for the bus. But even with breathing room, it's still not the most fun time. It's hot, because well, it's actually hot out, but there's also the body heat. We of course have to stand and hold onto to the lovely handles hanging from the ceiling, which is a lesson in how sweaty your hands can get before you have to switch and hope that you don't let go at an inopportune moment. And we somehow always manage to be standing right in front of the ticket machines.

There are two ways you can get a bus ticket in Thessaloniki, you can buy one at a kiosk for 10 cents cheaper or you can get one on the bus. The machines are next to each other so we end up blocking both of them pretty much. This combined with the crowd translates to us being handed tickets and being asked, in Greek of course, to push them into the machine to get stamped. This is not a problem, despite the language barrier. It doesn't take words for me to understand what the woman next to me wanted when she had her ticket in her hand and tapped my arm because I was right next to the machine. Even later on the bus trip, the language barrier was unimportant, when more people got on the bus and this same woman moved to in front of me and bumped me and apologized. I understood signomi and parakalo (excuse me/sorry and please) but what I understood more was the look on her face. It didn't matter at all that we we're from completely different places, headed different places, or speaking different words, we were both just crowded and uncomfortable on a bus. When she continued, I'm sure saying something about how annoying the situation was, or how unavoidable it was, I still couldn't understand the words, because well, three days of modern Greek doesn't include "talking about shitty bus situations with Greeks," but we could communicate our mutual feelings of resignation with a smile, a sigh and a slight eye roll.

Another thing I noticed on the bus yesterday was the religious observance people have here. Every time we passed a church, people would make the sign of the cross. Every time we passed a cemetery, people would make the sign of the cross. Religion is a very regular thing for people here, more so the people of the generation before mine (I think partying is the religion of the people my age here, which is just like home). It was interesting to see someone who wasn't like incredibly devout, preaching or wearing a collar or anything, being visibly religious on a city bus.

It might be a little early for this, as I've only been here for two and a half weeks or so, but I've come to a sort of conclusion about people from being here. I don't think people are really that different. It's a different language and different scenery, but people essentially do the same things here as they do at home. They're on a less strict schedule to do all these same things, but they have jobs, they go to school, they go grocery shopping and clothes shopping and eat ice cream, they go out with their friends. They have clubs and bars that don't care if you're 21 or 17, but it isn't as though here in Greece those things have some magical chemical in the air to make everything more fun. There is nothing intrinsically better about being in Greece, it really is just much more beautiful scenery. But the things that make me unhappy at home with people are pretty much the same way here. Not being able to sleep here is not better than not being able to sleep at home or at Monmouth.

I hope that last paragraph doesn't make it sound like I'm unhappy I'm here, because that isn't true. I'm happy I'm here, but all the times people told me "oh, studying abroad will change your life and your whole perspective on life", I hope they didn't mean it happens immediately, because if so, then I'm missing something. I also don't mean to sound like I'm being close-minded, because I'm really not doing that either. I just feel like college students are college students, here and at home. It'd probably be a lot different if I weren't in this developed, broke right now but still developed, country in the second largest city.

Birthday

So Tuesday was my 21st birthday, which means nothing in Europe, but I still wanted to make sort of a deal about it.

So we went out to dinner in the upper city of Thessaloniki. By we, I mean me, my friends Taylor, Brittney, and Candy Dream (Andy, in case anyone reading this doesn't know how I refer to Andy). Taylor and Brittney are both from University of Iowa like Staci, my roommate and we've been hanging out quite a bit. I like them both a lot. I really like a lot of the people I've met here. But so the four of us went on a mission to get to the upper city because we've never walked up there before, we just took the bus last time, but so after one false start to a dead end, we found the road up there. It's a decent trek up a hill so we were all out of breath and talking about how we're out of shape. Taylor and Brittney were talking about how they need to get in shape before they go to Mt Olympus in a few weeks. But so we get up to the upper city, and it's starting to get dark and we see the few and it's completely worth the walk. This city is absolutely beautiful. It isn't the magic skyline of my lovely Chicago, and it isn't the American love that is New York City; it is something so foreign and it is near perfect for that. The sea and the city with it's red roofs and white walls and the church crosses standing out are something stunning to this Midwestern girl.

We picked the first restaurant we found and got a lovely view and attempted to take pictures of all 4 of us with the view and totally failed but whatever- when Taylor uploads the photos we did get (we asked the waiter to take one for us), you can see them on facebook. We started off the meal by ordering a bottle of wine (white, which I'm not the biggest fan of in reality) that tasted pretty decent with bread and tsasiki. But we all ordered our food after lots of random jokes about veal being seal meat for some reason and just continued to watch night fall and drink this wine that got increasingly worse as we drank it. Taylor and I ended up being the two to actually drink most of it. They brought out Taylor and Andy's veal, my souvlaki, which is basically pork on a skewer, and Brittney's grilled octopus. Yes, grilled octopus. It actually really did just taste like chicken pretty much. Not that I'd order it or anything, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever tasted. But the wine was not a good match with anything any of us ordered. But we finished our meal, and the bottle of wine once we were done with the meal and had to walk back down to the apartments. The walk back down was much better.

So once we got back, we had about an hour and half to chill before we all were planning on going out. And when I say we all, I don't mean just the four of us, I mean basically most of the building. So many of us went out for my birthday. So as we're all getting ready, drinking and just hanging out kind of, I saw that people were signing a birthday card they had made for me which was really sweet. They just sort of sucked at keeping it a secret but it totally doesn't matter. And as we were all talking and this card got to one of the Greek kids that has been hanging out with us American students recognized that it really was my birthday and comes into the room and starts singing Happy Birthday to me in Greek, or the Greek equivalent of what we sing for happy birthday and he's super loud about it obviously and half way through he stops singing to do the whole European double cheek kiss thing and then continues the song (it's part of the song I think) and it was kind of adorable. How many people get sung to in Greek on their birthday? Well, how many non-Greeks do?

We eventually went to leave, me and a few other girls going outside to wait on other people and then one of the girls called me back inside and everyone was standing in the foyer with a piece of cake and a candle and they all sang Happy Birthday to me. It was super cute and it made me feel better about being away from home. Then we headed out to the reggae boat. We got on after a short wait, and then we sat at the dock for a long time. I was just having a blast talking and just hanging out and kinda dancing. But I got to sit on a boat on the Aegean Sea under a full moon on my 21st birthday with a free drink in my hand, which is pretty much awesome. I did miss my friends from home though.

Since it was a Tuesday night and we did have classes the next day, I headed home about 2:15 or so after the boat docked. I thought about hitting up the bar we'd gone to the previous Tuesday because Kristos said he'd get me free drinks for my birthday (because he works there) but it was late and I didn't feel I needed more alcohol. So I got home and got online and skyped with my mom and ate my absolutely delicious birthday cake.

Really, it was pretty tame as far as 21st birthdays go. But did anyone really expect anything else from me? I hope not.

I'm not complaining

I'm not. I love being here. I really do. But here are some of my not so happy thoughts about being here for the past week and a half.

• I miss diet Mountain Dew. I've been drinking coca-cola light for my caffeine in the morning and it just isn't the same. They do not have Mountain Dew at all here.
• I very much do not like not being able to flush toilet paper. It sort of disgusts me, I'm not going to lie. I realize that I have to deal with it and I am, I'm just saying. I guess I took plumbing for granted.
• I miss wireless internet, although not so much because we have it here at school. But I can't skype here from school and I feel bad whenever I'm on the internet at the apartment because there is only the one connection.
• I don't really like having to depend solely on public transportation or walking. Like not even having the option to drive at all throws me off. I mean, that'll probably get better once I know the bus routes better and really know the city. I feel like I've been walking so very much.
• My ankles/feet feel and look really swollen and it's really annoying. I wish I understood why.
  
• I am so incredibly conscious of money right now that it's bothering me. I need to stop worrying so very much about it, but I know it's a good thing to think about, I'm just freaking out about it.
• I really just haven't really dealt with the fact that I'm living here until January.
  
• No lie, I sorta miss Super-center stores. I don't like Wal-mart but damn it is convenient.
• I only miss that as much because I don't know the hours of anywhere here so I never know when to try to get anything.
  

But that's really it. I'm done being a sourpuss. And I'm really not trying to be one, these are just some thoughts. I really am having a good time. I promise :)

Class

Monday we started class here at ACT and as I always am before the start of the new school year with new classes, I was nervous. Not that I was worried about classes being overwhelming or anything, but I didn't really know what to expect. I never feel like I do with new classes.

My first class was a Humanities course, Religions around the World, which sounded really interesting, especially in comparison to a lot of the other classes they offer here. The professor is an American woman originally from Ohio and she is goofy. I like her a lot. She's really a nice woman, she's just a little spacey. I'm pretty sure she has ADD but it's totally cool. I don't think the class will be hard at all. It'll largely be a discussion course I'm sure and I figured that would be okay on Monday. Today not so much- people jump topic all the time and kind of ramble about stuff. And a lot of the rambling is about obvious stuff. It'll probably get better when we're talking about specific religions though. This class is mostly American students.

My next course was my English course, Contemporary World Literature. There are I think 10 people in the class, with me and my roommate, Staci, being the only 2 Americans. I am the only English major. Our professor seems really cool though. She was talking about how in Greek culture, people don't really read a lot of books. It's just something they don't do I guess. Weird. But we're reading 3 books in the class, one of which is The Kite Runner, which I like because I wanted to read that book anyway and now I'll have to. I think it'll be really strange being the only English major in a literature class. I did get the chance to name drop Harold Bloom today when we were talking about canon though so so far so good.

My next class is Sociology. It's a 101 course but I think it could be really interesting because I've never taken a Soc course. The professor for that one seems cool too; he's from Jersey. Most of that class is not American. A lot of students here aren't Greek though either- there are quite a few Albanian and Kosovo students (I don't know the adjective of Kosovo sorry) and Bulgarian as well I think. Sociology will probably be a really interesting class to have with people from so many different places. I forgot what it's like to be in an intro course though- taking notes today was strange.

My Tuesday class is Greek. I figured learning modern Greek after having taken ancient Greek would be a really cool thing. I was right if by cool I meant difficult. I don't like having to learn new pronunciations, it just throws me off really badly. Like I'm not even that good at reading Ancient Greek and then I have to change it just for a semester? Ugh. But it will be kind of cool to see the similarities and differences is the grammar concepts and stuff I'm sure. I think that will be my most difficult class. Mostly because I haven't taken a spoken language in like 4 years now.

All in all, it'll be an interesting semester I think. It doesn't feel like real school yet though, so I'll give it a few weeks. Maybe by fall break I'll remember that these are real classes that matter.

Thursday night; or "Lenny" in Greece

So Thursday was the first day of orientation and it was crazy to have scheduled events after 2 days of essentially nothing. It was a lot of people talking at us, some of which we needed and other parts we could have read on our own because we all passed the second grade obviously. It seemed like a long time to sitting and listening. We got a tour of the campus, which was interesting because there is a primary school and a high school on this same campus as the college, but at the same time, it felt a little unnecessarily overwhelming. We only need to know where two buildings are: New Building and the Library. (I'm in the Library at the moment, looking for a place to plug my computer in and failing. Hopefully I'll get this entry done before my computer dies, or I'll find a plug-in.)

But during orientation, they told us that we would be going out, to a bar called No Bar, to hear a band. I was already into the idea of going out to hear a band, and then they continued, saying it was a blues/soul type band and I was of course sold. So we sat through the rest of orientation and eventually got to go home to Panepistimou after a trip to Ikea where I finally got a pillow. Pillows are excellent, but they show off just how terrible the bed is. I mean, when I finally get home I'll hit my bed and think it's the greatest thing ever invented.

We went on a short walking tour of the area we live in, even though we were all exhausted because we didn't get our government regulated siesta time (we were half guilted into it by Nikos, our RA) and when we got back from that tour it was time to get ready to go to No Bar. We took the city bus to get there, and that was an adventure because there were so many of us on this bus. I'm sure all the Greeks on there thought we were obnoxious as hell. Especially when Phil, one of the boys studying here (obviously), started talking to the guy next to him just about general stuff. The guy really probably didn't mind, but it was still pretty funny and probably made us look annoying. Phil asked him what he did for a living and the guy couldn't think of the the English word, so Phil started just like saying random occupations- the guy was a travel agent.

So eventually we get to No Bar, and it's like 10 o'clock and we originally were supposed to leave for the place by 8:30 and I was just hoping we hadn't actually missed the band. We had not. At all. They came on maybe 10 minutes after we got there and I knew that I was just going to sit in front of this stage in this tiny bar and watch the man play the electric guitar. And I did. It was two men, one on the acoustic and one on the electric and a woman singing. This band was seriously awesome. They essentially just kept playing song after song that I knew and loved and so of course I was singing along and what not. I was talking to this girl Alexandra and I said something about how I wished they'd play Little Wing and I said something to the singer about it, because obviously if I'm like 3 feet away from her she saw me jamming out and she told me she didn't know the song. The guitarist heard me and said he knew it though and he'd play it later for me if I'd sing it. Before anyone gets excited, that didn't occur, because we left before open mic started (which was at like 1- we had another day of orientation on Friday so we had to be up early). But so after a while, someone else comes up to them and requests that they do Layla and I'm like "Yeah! Layla..or Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughan!" and the guitarist hears me say this and he just starts playing it. He got maybe 5 seconds in, but it was recognizably Lenny and I seriously was just so floored by it. I was sitting in a bar in GREECE! Hearing Lenny. In case you don't know, I'm pretty sure that's one of the most beautiful songs ever written and I was in this place I have dreamed about, getting to hear someone play it.

It's not an overly Greek story or adventure, but it was beautiful so I figured I would share that happiness. I will try to update later today about my first day of classes. No I'm off to find a plug in...

Tuesday night we were supposed to go to the club, but it turns out the club our RA and the Greeks that have been showing us around were going to take us to doesn't open until Thursday. So there was an apartment complex full of dressed up girls and a few guys wondering where we were going instead. We were all hanging out in this girl, Taylor's, room talking and laughing but there can't be too many people in one room so a few of us went outside. Eventually everyone is outside waiting for Kostjan (the Greek equivalent of Christian, and I'm guessing on the spelling) to get hold of one of his friends who works at the bar and this girl, Larissa, who is INSANE and completely awesome says "I can't stay here. I'm walking. Wanna come with me?" and I said sure, because we had been talking earlier and I wanted to go too. I was sick of standing around. I told people I'd just meet up with them later, not really expecting to because I didn't have a phone. I still don't for that matter. I think I'll go get one Monday or Tuesday. It just doesn't seem that important because I can skype people at home and wouldn't be using a phone for that anyway. Not having a phone is really kind of an interesting experience since I've pretty much been living with phone attached to my hand for so long now.

Because really, as much as I do love it here and yes, things are pretty different, in my imagination it's always been like a land of complete magic, Greece has. But it really is just a big city, a big beautiful city. I love the energy in it. I don't love not being able to understand the signs and menus and such but when I'm with another American student, it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. We're figuring it out and I think we're doing alright so far. The things we have to learn, like the bus system and navigating and the like are things we'd have to learn when we moved anywhere, it's just now in a completely different alphabet. We are learning some basic Greek words and the like and I really enjoy trying to figure out some modern Greek stuff using the Ancient Greek I do know, even though learning to pronounce things differently will probably mess me up for a little bit. I want a chi to be hard and it sounds like an h in modern.

But, back to Tuesday night. Larissa and I walked down to the White Tower, which is a historical landmark here in Thessaloniki and it is right by the Aegean Sea (the Thermatic gulf where we are really, but that's part of the Aegean) and it was beautiful. We were having an intense conversation about stuff like her crazy life, because she's traveled all over the place and has done some insane and very cool things, and why I don't like Monmouth sometimes among other things. It was really fun just sitting there talking to her, watching her roll cigarettes. There are stairs leading down to the water every hundred feet or so, so we of course went down them and touched the water. My Classics major brain and my English major brain really went a little silly at this for some reason like "This is the AEGEAN SEA! Achilles had to cross this!" Fictionally, but still; it'd be a bit like being at King's Cross for a Harry Potter reader. But we eventually ran into everyone because we stopped in front of this loud, half outdoor bar and out walks Andy. I was kind of shocked to actually have met up with anyone so we went over there after a few minutes and ordered a drink for entirely too much money. Spending money is so easy here and I feel terrible about it.

But so we weren't really doing much at the bar, because it was entirely too loud to talk and no one was dancing so Larissa and I left. We were just talking again, and Larissa decided she was going to pee in the Aegean and so she went down the stairs to do so, pee'd then FELL IN! She has been joking about us stripping down and jumping in and I told her I couldn't do it, but then she fell in and she decided that she was going to swim around. It was absolutely hysterical. By the time we walked back it was like 3:45 am. I just straight up passed out to go to sleep, I couldn't stay awake to go up to the mountain to see the city like Larissa suggested. It was an all around awesome night and there really isn't a specific reason for it.

I was going to tell the story of last night too, but I'll cut this short. I'm headed to a scavenger hunt now.

Things so far: day 1 and 2

I wish I knew the way to be poetic and informative, but I don't. So sorry for the dryness of some of this. Also, it's going to be long. Anyone reading this knows I run verbose. Very verbose...

I spent a lot of time on airplanes yesterday, or at least it feels like it. Our plane from Chicago took off about quarter to five, in the light. I said a mental goodbye to the skyline of downtown as we taxied and then we were off. The first few hours of the flight were spent with Andy and I coming up with the great idea of a party plane- it's a party bus, but in the air. There can be themes and everything. Turbulence wouldn't occur, it'd just be the bass. And that point it started to get dark. We basically flew into night. The stars look beautiful at that level; I felt like the big dipper was my companion. I slept maybe an hour, I don't really know, I just know that I started listening to a Buddy Guy album, then all of a sudden there was no music and I was waking up.
But eventually we were flying over land again, but I couldn't tell at first. Then I saw the dawn break from 4000 feet up after an abridged night. We landed in Brussels and it was morning.

We had to go through security again in Brussels and no joke, it was terrible. It was just unorganized and hot and I wasn't pleased about it as my body felt like it was still 2 am or so. But then we got through that and the airport was fine. They actually had a lot of really nice stores like, oh you know, a Ferragamo store and a Burberry store in the airport. We found our gate and waited. The flight from Brussels got delayed about an hour; although at the gate it only said 20 minutes, we didn't end up taking off until around 11:30. Our next connecting flight was schedule to take off at 12:50, and it was an hour and a half flight to that connecting flight. I spent that flight pretty much freaking out about what we were going to do, of course getting some quality John Mayer listening time in trying to calm me down (didn't actually work). When we finally did land, we checked the board in the Budapest airport and thank God, the flight to Thessaloniki was delayed an hour as well. We got our boarding passes for the flight and proceeded to figure out European payphones to call the study abroad coordinator to let her know our flight had been delayed and to expect us later.

As we were descending into Thessaloniki, my classics nerd brain started going a little berserk. This is the damn Aegean Sea! it was shouting, this little mini-Sienkewicz/Mrs Longhenry crossbreed person in my head, This is the birthplace of Western Civilization! The rest of my brain was like "this is where I can get some damn sleep!" We landed and get off the plane onto the tarmac, and I sort of feel excitement in my first step, or I want to feel it. I really was exhausted. I was thinking excitement in the first step. We got our luggage and then we met the study abroad coordinator and then we were in taxis being taken to our apartments.

My impressions of Greece from the taxi were as follows: Wow, it's Chicago in a different language. With a TON of graffiti. I saw an Anarchy symbol and a pot-related piece or art amongst the other tons of Greek words tagged on the side of everything. I mean, everything. There were apparently a lot of rallies and the like here this past weekend because the Prime Minister was down here and people were demonstrating their unhappiness to him. Not violently, but just demonstratively haha.

I got dropped off at my apartment and shown around and within minutes I was on my own again. Cue the panic. I could get online really easily though so I emailed my mom and updated all my stuff and then realized that Twitter was going to be the way to get a hold of Andy until I get a Greek cell phone. I then eventually figured out how to get to Andy's apartment and got to use my Ancient Greek knowledge to try to communicate to a lady that I'm American and don't speak Greek but I'm looking for this street that I had written down. It was the next street over, which I had thought but I was confused.
I also got virtually locked out of my room because these keys are so effing difficult to operate so I had a fun time going to a room above mine and asking for help, but that's how I met other people. Met a few more people last night and eventually just went to bed.

My roommate got here at 8:45 this morning and I s hella confused by the doorbell because at first I thought it was my alarm clock. Nope.

But that's all I have time for, Andy is here.

Here and tired

I'm in Greece and safe. I just figured I'd update everyone on that. But damnit all, I'm jet-lagged like crazy so I can't go into full details about the never-ending 29 hour waking day yet. Expect an update sometime tomorrow hopefully.
I do wish I had brought a pillow though; I was told they'd be provided and I was lied to. I am using a hoodie as a pillow, as I am actually that tired.

2 days to go

So yesterday was the last day for me to not think about the fact that I'm headed to Greece on Sunday. I woke up early, packed up one suitcase (mostly clothes and a set of sheets) and then did nothing else related to traveling for the rest of the day. I did what I've been doing since November to not think about stressful things: listen to John Mayer. I keep thinking about what albums I'm going to listen to since I have so much time on the flight, but part of me knows that once I'm in the air and panicking about what's going on in my life, I'm going to ignore that mental list and go to my ridiculously large sized collection of Mayer music and try to calm down. I'm relying on him and Anne Rice to make me not FREAK THE FUCK OUT.

But all of that really just means that for the next two days my brain will not be shutting the hell up in the next three days really, because I know that the plane might be the worst. I woke up about an hour ago and was already thinking about the trip. I am seriously terrified. I know that it'll be an amazing experience and that I'm going to have a blast, but right now I'm terrified. I've never been to Europe at all and I'm going without an adult (okay, I recognize that I'm pretty much an adult now but I don't feel like one) and I'm going for 4 months. I've never been away from home for any time like that straight. It isn't like going to Monmouth where I can just head home whenever I want. I know I signed up for this and I really am excited about it too, but I'm worrying. Uselessly, but worrying nonetheless.

I'm also worrying about money. I know it shouldn't matter, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and if I have to spend money to do it, then so be it, but I still am worried about it. I spend a lot of money, I always have. But this will be the first time I've lived on my own really. I have to cook and clean and buy things to do so. I will have to buy real things for pretty much the first time; I can't just spend my money on entertainment type things. I know it'll be good for my spoiled ass, but that doesn't mean it's less stressful. I mean if I screw up practice adulthood I'm just going to be even more freaked out about real life and guess who doesn't need that? This girl.

Whatever. I'm trying to work through the fear. I'll be fine. I'll be better than fine. It'll be a week of freaking out and then however many of awesome.

H'ok here's the earth

So I'll be using this blog for my trip to Greece because it'll just be easier for people to follow. I'll be posting all the stuff I put on here on my Tumblr as well just because I actually like Tumblr more, but I'll still be tumbling random shit too, so I don't want people to be annoyed by that if all they want is info about Greece. I can't know how often I'll post here but whatever. I'll try