Sunday, February 10, 2013

Lauren's 1st post


Blog Day 3
Lauren Miller
February 5, 2013


            After waking up early this morning, Carolyn and I decided to go for a jog.  I am so glad that we decided to do this because there are so many things that we see that are unique to the other sights that we see throughout our day. While running along the VERY hilly roads, we have found many places to stop and just take in the view that is in front of us. In the part of Athens that we live in, Carolyn and I have found many stairwells that lead to beautiful views of the city.  Not only are the roads very hilly, they are very jaggedly and uneven; safe to say they are somewhat dangerous for us to be running on but have to get our exercise in somehow! When we cross over streets, we have to be very careful because the cars and scooters never slow down and have no awareness for pedestrians. From a distance, we can hear horns from the cars and scooters over the iPods. We also see many stray cats and dogs roaming around looking for morning food.
            As we learned in our first class yesterday with Ioanna, people here in Greece stay up late and then sleep in the next day. Their days do not get started as early as our days in America do. While jogging the streets, I see people just leaving for work and the local markets just opening up for the day. Another funny thing that I found was the way people were dressing. I walked outside in a t-shirt and shorts and the locals have on winter jackets and hats! I do not know if they could handle a New England winter.
            Because the boys live in an apartment above us and have a rooftop deck, we are able to go up and sit in the mornings and enjoy the beautiful weather. This morning it was around 70 with the sun shining and we sat with Zach while he ate his breakfast. It is also nice that we do not have class until 1pm therefore we are able to explore and relax in the morning times.
            We left the apartment around 1230 because it takes about 20 minutes to get to the school building and we did not want to be late on our first day! Our first class was with Ioanna- Athens through the Ages. This class lasted from 1-3pm and we discussed the background and history of some of the early art from Egypt and Greece. Ioanna is so happy and loves her job she makes the information interesting even if it does not interest me in the first place. I am very happy that she will be teaching and traveling with us over the next few weeks.  At 3pm, we had an hour break so we walked down to a local café owned by a Greek that studied in America. He still remembers past students that have come to his café! We walked around for the rest of the time and headed back to our next class around 2:50. This class was the Greek Language class. The professor was very delighted with our enthusiasm to learn more about the language. We learned simple things such as the alphabet and how vowels and consonants go together. The teacher even gave us homework!!! ;)
            Class seemed to go on forever because it was from 4-7pm. When she finally let us out, we all decided to go out to eat again tonight since it had been such a long day. We found a small Italian restaurant and had a quick meal. I think everyone is very worn down from the past few days because we have been so excited to finally be here. After dinner, we walked to a supermarket to pick up a few items for the apartments and then headed home on the 25 minutes journey. Everyone’s night is consisting of catching up on reading and f relaxing for another busy, fun filled day tomorrow!

No comments:

Post a Comment