Ελλάδα-Italia 2012: Right In The Thick Of It

A little over a week here and I'm already beginning to feel like a local Athenian. It's a really interesting city, like nothing I've really experienced before. My friend Carl describes the area as a cross between a typical European city and Mexico City. You definitely feel like you are in Europe, but a twisted, quirkier version of it. Also, a much friendlier version of it. Coming here, I was surprised to find that Athens has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, less than most U.S. cities. Everyone we've encountered has been super nice and helpful. We've even gotten on a first name basis with Mohammed at the local gyro shop.

Anyways, here's the wrap-up for the week. This week was officially the first week of classes, but only about half of our classes actually started. Our Art History and Ancient History professors had conflicts last week, so we will start those classes this week. We started the week with Greek Language and Culture. Most of the class struggled through learning the Greek alphabet and the phonetic sounds. Luckily, my ancient Greek training and practice over the summer prepared me for all of this. Eastern Theology is a basic review of the Greek Orthodox church and its origins. We also started our study abroad seminar, which focusses on music and its effect on culture.

Here's just some highlights from the week:

Monday

-Woke up early to start classes. After lunch I went to the National Gardens to do some reading for class.

Tuesday

-The whole college of CYA (30 students from SJU, plus about 70 other students from across the country) gathered to listen the president of CYA speak. After we had a Greek dancing lesson and a social with all the students. Some of us in the group had a good time in a local "pirate themed" bar.

Wednesday

-Due to some classes starting the next week, we ended up having the whole day off. The whole group took the tram down to Glyfaldas Beach and spent the afternoon there.

Sean and I at the beach.

-That night the whole group went out to a tavern dinner, paid for by the school. We were treated to a four course meal that was truly delicious. All the Greek food has been really good. Lots of pork and chicken, cheese, and baked goods.

Thursday

-Classes were cut a bit short so that the whole school could walk to the U.S. Embassy. We registered ourselves and got a talk from the Consulate and Ambassador about living in Greece.

-We were all bussed to the President of CYA's house for a barbeque dinner. He had a really nice yard for it and we got to mingle with other CYA students.

Friday

-We don't have class on Fridays, so we decided to organize our own trip to Meteora. Meteora is a small community in the mountains of Northern Greece, next to the town of Kalabaka. About 5 hours from Athens.

-There were about 23 of us who went on the trip, so we rented a bus for the weekend. We left around 9 on Friday morning and got to Meteora around 3. Meteora is a collection of Greek monasteries that are situated on top of steep mountains. We visited one monastery and one convent the first day. Both were really cool to see. We had to hike up many steps to get there, but we were greeted with great views and intricate architecture and art. These monasteries date back to the 14th Century. We also found out that they were used in the James Bond film, "You Only Live Twice."

-That night we hung out in the town of Kalabaka. It was a nice quiet mountain town, and it reminded me of something you would find in Colorado. We stayed in a nice hotel overlooking the mountains.

Saturday

-We woke early and had breakfast at the hotel before going to visit more monasteries. We saw two on Saturday, making four total. All were similar, but each had different unique features. The chapels were very intricate with Byzantine art decorating every square inch. We had a lot of fun at the last monastery, Holy Trinity, because of how open it was. We were able to wander the cliffs on our own and we had a fun time exploring. Overall we visited Great Meteoro, St. Stefanos, Varlaam, and Holy Trinity Monasteries.

-We left Meteora in the afternoon and took the bus back to Athens. We celebrated our friend Erik's birthday that night and had a great time.

Sunday

-Had an easy day doing homework and laundry. I've been battling a cold the last few days so I've been trying to get lots of sleep.

This week will be full with classes and such. We are planning on going to the island of Aegina this weekend. I'll try to blog again after that.

Here's some pictures from the weekend trip to Meteora: