My first night’s sleep in Athens was wonderful. My bed is super comfortable – so that plus the jet lag let to some good sleep. I awoke on my first day in Athens starving. My last meal was the day before on the plane and not that good. We missed the optional dinner with the groups so my roommate Kathryn and I decided we were going to find a bakery and indulge in some Greek baked goods. But first I had to shower because it had been some time since I remembered doing that. We were previously warned that hot water was more of a luxury than in the States, and informed by our roommates that this was indeed fact and to prepare for a cold shower. The water is electrically heated so about 30 minutes before a shower you have to flip a switch and let the water warm up and then turn it off and get it to enjoy an unknown amount of time of hot water. However, the water did not get hot. Not even luke warm. So there was a big debate standing in the shower of whether or not I was even going to but, as many of you know, a morning shower for me is a must so I did it. It was awful but I got clean. My roommate enjoyed her shower as well and off we went. This was the first time that I had seen Athens in the daylight as well as the first time roaming around. The roads are quite confusing in the beginning. No organization and kind of crazy – but we ended up finding a little bakery shop where the woman was extremely kind in our lack-of-Greek. I indulged in a chocolate croissant and it was to the Athens Centre for our orientation (which was a disorientation apparently because we know “nothing about Greece” – this is what our lecture was on for about an hour, made me feel really comfortable here). So we mingled at the Centre where we discovered the roof and got these amazing shots.
I had sort of seen the Acropolis on our adventure before this but this was the real first view of it all – very exciting. We then endured the disorientation and enjoyed some refreshments and had a walking tour of Pangrati/Mets (the area in which we are living in Athens). This was great because I started to understand the locality of everything and get a feel for the city. After the tour a girl from my apartment, Corinne, and I decided that we needed groceries. Stores close early on Saturday and most are closed on Sundays here so food was necessary. We did this the intelligent way and met up with a girl on our trip, Greek Anna, who has been here since September, to help us shop. The grocery store was great and very close to our apartment. I got a dozen eggs, half gallon of skim milk, pack of bacon, juice, salt, pepper, butter, ketchup, and nuts for 15 euro. We were informed not to buy bread ever at a grocery, and I was instructed on how to buy milk (just look for the percents, 3.5, 1.5, or 0). We stopped at a bakery and bought some delicious bread. Then went back to the apartment and made lunch, which we enjoyed, on our balcony in the beautiful weather.
After lunch, we stopped by a café to go on the internet for a few and then came back. A few people stopped by the apartment, and we all enjoyed a bottle of wine before dinner. We had our orientation dinner at a very nice restaurant with everybody from the program – 20 students (15 PSU, 5 Wisconsin), 3 teachers, 2 program directors. After dinner the party continued at our place for a while until a few of us decided it was time to get to know the city a little. We walked – a lot – and got our first dog protector (strays will follow groups here and then bark ferociously at anyone who passes), until we found somewhere to go. There was live music, fun people, and it was a great time. We made our way back to the apartments around 2 and called in a day on the first day in Athens. Tomorrow we go to downtown Athens for a walking tour and then I plan on spending my day relaxing, doing laundry, and getting ready for our first day of classes.
