I'm Here!

I’m here! I arrived safe and sound, about 5:30 am Minnesota time, 1:30 pm Athens time. By the time I got to the hotel, I had officially been awake for 24 hours. Mom and Dad and Todd and I drove to Minneapolis from Fulda at about 6:30. Which means getting up at 5:30, which is early for a girl who had just spent a week at home, “packing.” So, we met the rest of the group at the airport around 9:45; there are 20 students (2 boys) and 2 professors (they’re both guys, too). There’s a religion professor, Dr. Hammerling, and a theater prof, Dr. Wintersteen. From Minneapolis, we flew for an hour to get to O’Hare in Chicago, had about an hour layover, and then flew to Frankfurt, Germany. That was a looooooong flight, about 9 hours up in the plane. However, it was one of the biggest planes I had ever been on! In the waaaay back (I was in the last available row), there were nine seats across: 2, and then 5, and then 2. It was also one of the emptiest planes I’d ever been on; another passenger and I shared a row of five! I didn’t sleep much on that flight however, as I had to finish up some homework before I got there. We had a 3 hour layover in Germany, went through customs, went through security again, and then flew to ATHENS!!! I got a little bit of sleep on the plane, but not only was it a turbulent flight, the guy sitting next to me could really have used some breathe right nasal strips. Man, his snoring was bad! When we landed in Athens, the pilot said that the winds were 50 mph. :S
On the flight, I continued the memorization process of the Greek alphabet that my sister and I had started on the way to Concordia on Thursday. I think I’ve pretty much got it down (the reading things part, not the spelling or talking things part)! We’re taking language lessons here and also some Greek dancing lessons. Exciting, eh? We met our tour guides, a guy whose name I can’t remember right now . . . and his sister, Maria. We started our trip in Athens with a walk up to the Parthenon! Well, actually, not up to the Parthenon, but up another hill called Philipapou where there were some FANTASTIC views; however, it was rainy today. I had to hang up my jeans and try to save them for another couple of wearings before they have to be washed. Our rooms are quite nice. I’m sharing with a girl named Emily that I knew from the Cobber band (she’s a flute player) before we got here, so that’s nice that I know her . . . or at least her name!
Tomorrow we’re going to . . . well, actually I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do yet! Hopefully go up and have a closer look at the Parthenon and Acropolis. We’re having our first Greek supper tonight in about an hour, and I’m excited for that. I think the best thing about this trip is the long amount of time we have at each place. Norway was great; I loved loved LOVED Norway, but we spent so little time at each place, like a day or two. It’s great to think we have THREE WEEKS here! I still have to get some reading done on the Parthenon before that happens, so I’ll write some more soon!