Hello folks. I thought I might start a little blog about what I'm up to over here in the land of Zues and feta cheese. I made it safe and sound from the cornfields and livestock farms (
Wells County, Indiana) to
Thessaloniki, Greece, where I will be the PE/Health Education fellow at
Anatolia College, working with the high school and elementary students. My travels took me from Chicago-O'Hare to Brussels, Belgium to Budapest, Hungary and finally to Thessaloniki, and the journey was not without a couple hiccups here and there.
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An advertisement in the Brussels airport. Helloooo, Irony. |
I missed my connection in Brussels and found myself sitting idly in the airport waiting for the next flight for 12 hours. Yup..half of a whole day. Not exactly my idea of quality entertainment, but nothing insurmountable. I arrived at the Thessaloniki airport around 2 a.m. local time. There was a minor miscommunication and/or mistranslation between myself and Stellios (my boss) and I ended up sitting in the airport until 8:30 a.m. before I got picked up. Don't worry, Stellios. No hard feelings. On top of the 18 hours of down time I spent in airport terminals over the last couple days, my two checked bags decided to hang back in Chicago. They just weren't quite ready to make the big move yet. I guess they needed a few extra days to build up the courage. But, hey, you win some and you lose some.
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Super cute dining room |
So...all travel obstacles conquered, I'm all settled in to the adorable apartment the other fellows and I live in on the Anatolia campus. I live with Ana (college counseling fellow), Katie (elementary education fellow), and Ellen (student services fellow). You may not care who they are or what they're here for, but that's too bad. I told you anyway, so you better deal with it. They're all really great...and I'm not just saying that because they could hurt me in my sleep. Katie is actually from Indiana, as well. So that's kind of a fun little fact.
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Katie and Ana at the Greek restaurant, practicing for future careers in "wine glass modeling". It's a real thing...trust me |
Leighanne (a full time college counselor at Anatolia College) took Katie, Ana and I to downtown Thessaloniki for an informal tour and dinner and drinks Saturday night. We ate at a traditional
Greek cuisine restaurant, and the food was fantastic. I'm a big fan of good food. The wine was very good, also. I'm an even bigger fan of good alcohol. The city itself has so much
history, but still has a very young and vibrant feel to it. Basically every time you turn around, you're staring at yet another absolutely breathtaking view of city/landscape. Maybe the best part about Thessaloniki, you ask?? You are allowed to drink beer in public. Oh yeah. Pop a top on a cold one and walk right down Main Street. I'm assuming there's a "Main Street" here...I can't read Greek...stop judging me. All in all, I'm very excited to be here and very much looking forward to working with the students and all the wonderful people I've met so far.
Well people, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the rambling. If you didn't,
not my chair--not my problem. I'll try to do better next time. Until then, be kind to one another. (Ellen DeGeneres says that at the end of every episode of her talk show and I think it's pretty cool)
