Europe 2013 – Day 1
After over 24 hours of traveling and a good night’s rest, we all finally made it to the Artemis, Harding University’s Greece campus.
I woke up pretty early, probably due to the jet-lag sleep schedule; 5am in Greece is pretty boring, in case you were wondering. So I was able to chat with some people around 6am when I gave up on sleeping, and eventually made it downstairs around 7:15.
After reading through Acts 1 and 2, I got some breakfast, and this is where it gets real. I’m all about food, and I especially love to try new foods. I’ve already been eating gyros, the traditional Greek entreé, since I was young, but I never actually had a Greek breakfast before. The meal consists of various types of Greek pastries, made fresh daily with natural ingredients by a baker down the road, as well as cereal, Greek yoghurt, fruit, coffee, and juice. It was great trying new baked breakfast goods other than America’s donuts and muffins, and there were many great new options to check out.
After breakfast, we had our first Greek lesson, taught by the lovely Vicki, who also functions as the Artemis’s version of a concierge. We learned some basic greetings, affirmation, and pleasantry phrases, and got started learning the alphabet. It was very cool to get started learning the language of the society around me, as well as any language at all; I always enjoyed my German classes when I was in high school, and this is a refreshing new outlet of linguistic study.
We had chapel after Greek class, with singing led by Steven, the assistant to the director at the Artemis. A great devo was brought by Dr. James about legacy and leaving a legacy with those around you that you’ll be proud of. After Eric prayed, we had a short amount of time to relax before our next class, Western Civ.
In Western Civ, we went over the syllabus. No need to expand on that since if you are or have ever been a student, you know that those days are dreadfully boring.
I was finished with classes for the day after that class, so I was free to do whatever I wanted to do, more or less. I chose to play some basketball with Carter, Eric, Micah, Reed, and Zach.
Some time after that, lunch was served; it consisted of roast chicken, bread, and cooked potatoes.
Some time after that, the real activities started.
Despite going through a majority of the orientation on Tuesday, we still had some important stuff to go over. Then came the tour of Porto Rafti.
The group as we crowded the small CoffeeRight café.
Our first few stops had us meeting some local food vendors, including a coffee café owner and the aforementioned baker. After a stop at a gelato shop, (which was refreshing – I got the strawberry sorbet) we headed to the coast of the bay. Winding through back streets and grungy dirt paths, we finally made it to the coast.
Panorama of the Porto Rafti bay.
It was a fantastic view! The clear, turquoise Aegean Sea was sparkling under the hot sun. We explored the coast a bit, eventually making it to a marina where we hung out for a bit before heading back to the Artemis.
On the way back, Eric and I successfully made it back to the local grocery store without dying from the crazy traffic.
For dinner, we went to Demetri’s taverna, where we feasted on delicious salad with feta cheese, friend zuccini with shredded mozzarella cheese, and pork gyros.
The “salad,” aka Feta cheese on top of onions, peppers, and tomatoes. Actually very good.
After dinner, I winded down by playing some more basketball and loaded pictures onto various social media sites, (for your enjoyment) culminating in a relaxing tea time before bed time.
It’s been an exciting first day, so I can only imagine what lies ahead for the rest of the semester.
Money Fallin from the sky like rain
Right now I’m just tryin to get me some
Everybody wants to get paid
Counting so much money our figures numb
Hope you enjoyed the entry!
Next up: Athens!
