Today was the first day in Greece. Not too bad here. We had class this morning to figure out all the different stuff. This morning Kana, my room mate, and I woke up in a sweat and I had a massive headache from how hot it was in our room. The air conditioning is a lot different here. You have to put your room key in a switch in the room in order to keep the air and the lights on, so when you leave your room the air goes off. It can kind of get stuffy. So at the meeting in class this morning they told us to check our thermometer and it was over 80 degrees in here! No wonder I was sweating and had a headache.
So we got that all straight and ate an interesting lunch. It was french fries and a giant hotdog with some kind of mustard, mayo, carrot coleslaw spread all across it. I think they were going for an American vibe but it wasnt greatly liked by us Americans. Water is the drink of choice here but I did learn that Greek coffee is AMAZING! Everyone knows about my obsession with coffee and I have found that the coffee here is the best I have ever had.
Today after lunch we went to walk around in town. It was not as easy as I had planned. My converter broke in my bag while we were flying so I am here without anyway to charge my camera battery but Kana and I assumed that we could find one easily in town. WRONG! The group as a whole tried to find a supermarket, anything close to a Best Buy, anything close to a Wal-mart. No luck. haha welcome to a foreign country. It is harder to get around here because the Greek alphabet is not the same as our alphabet so its harder to read signs and stuff. Another problem we had was that we forgot our maps in our hotel room. Needless to say after much much much walking we found a market, a semi Best Buy but no converters (and a very nice Greek man helped us here and gave us his business card with flowers drawn all over it and asked to come to our house in America. This is when Kana and I decided we needed other boys with us), a Starbucks (yay!), and the tram.
By this point we are burning up so the swimsuits were thrown up and we went for a swim in the Agean Sea. It was wonderful!! SOo pretty and the water is sooo clear! It was absolutely freezing though and by the time we got out of the water, I was shaking and my legs were cramping up. It is crazy here how many old women, young women, and girls go topless. Sometimes its very funny but the Greeks have no shame. They are all out there. We havent run in to any sharks, sea urchins, or other dangerous creatures but we have run in to the salt. It is very easy to float here and you barely have to tread water. The salt is very heavy in the water and you get out feeling like there is an inch on your body. But still it was wonderful and I definitely plan on going back.
Dinner was interesting. There were a lot of Greek foods tonight. My favorite was a pita with some kind of sauce and chicken and tomatoes. Another favorite was a stew like thing of calamari and a marina sauce. WONDERFUL! A not so great food was a greek grape leaf that had some type of steamed rice inside, not too great. haha but that could have been a texture thing. Today at the grocery store I found Nutri-grain bars, Pringles, and after many many stops and searches Cranberry juice. Cranberry juice is the one thing that is very hard to find here and I miss it dearly haha. So think of me if you drink any while I am gone.
After dinner we had a short devotional on the beach. The singing was wonderful. Class starts at 8:30 in the morning with one of my Bible classes. With all the things to do here it is hard to remember that we have homework and class to attend. Hopefully I'll get in to the swing of things.
Enjoy till the next time.