It's all Greek to Me

We made it! I have been living in Greece for a week now and it has been quite the experience. We were in for quite a few surprises that are going to take some getting use to but I think in time I'll learn to love Greece. I'll break things down so you get a better idea of what I mean.

Apartments: 
They are much much smaller than our apartments in Rome were and older too. Ours reminds me of a cabin, but that could just be because of how old everything is. We played Tetris trying to arrange our living room furniture to make everything fit in the tiny space, but it worked out for the most part. The water here gets boiling hot extremely fast and tastes kinda funny. I think the hardest thing is that we can't flush ANY toilet paper, so we had to train ourselves to throw it away instead. I share a room with Dana, which worked out well because we've been roommates all through college so nothing new really.

Panathinaiko Stadium 

(5 minute walk from our apartments and directly outside campus)

Classes: 
The classes here are great so far. All of the professors seem to be very knowledgeable and helpful as well. We learned we only have one final test and the rest of the classes just have papers, so that will be in improvement to Rome. We've gone to a museum for art already, and we went to a Greek Orthodox church service for Theology.


Professors:
Anne Stewart: We have the same professor for Art History and Literature which is interesting. She has grey, short curly (kinda crazy) hair and is pretty laid back. She makes funny comments all the time without realizing it, but she really knows her stuff.
Lida: She teaches us Greek language and culture a few days a week. She's the best. I'd say she's probably my favorite of the professors here. She was the one who took us on our neighborhood tour and gave us a run down of campus. She's got a difficult task attempting to teach us Greek but I think with her as a teacher it won't be all that bad.
Father Stefanos Alexopalos: He is SUCH an improvement from our previous Theology professor. He is a priest with a big black beard and a calming voice. He really just genuinely wants us to learn about the Greek Orthodox church and cares less about memorizing quotes *cough cough FatherGunther cough*. I'm excited to learn about a new faith for once.

Our Classroom

Language:
The language here is probably the most difficult part of living here. We were told that most people speak English as a primary language and not to worry about anything. This was a lie. Nothing here is in English and it's only occasionally where you will run into an English speaker. We can't read any signs on the street, or in stores, or restaurants. It's frustrating because it's an entirely new alphabet so we can't even attempt to pronounce things because their letters make different sounds. We've been learning a little of the alphabet in our Greek course but not enough for it to be helpful.

I'm sure we'll adjust to all these changes soon enough, but we are all currently experiencing culture shock (and I'll admit I'm a little bit Romesick...) More to come soon but here's our school's promotional video to give you a taste of what I've been up to!