The First Week

I am one whole week into my study abroad semester. I have mostly been getting used to the pace of life at the school. Meals are pretty structured and there is a small window of time to get served. Luckily the food has been pretty good - usually a rendition of meat and potatoes. It isn’t Virginia Tech good, but it is better than average most days. On Sundays, we get a bag dinner at lunch with the following contents:

-2 cold hot dogs (with mustard and ketchup already applied)

-1 corn muffin

-1 juice box

Luckily I have been saving fruit from lunch all week and bought some deli meat at a German market across the street earlier this week. I am really excited about this German market. They have some imported beers and a lot of really good meat and cheese, plus some other snacks and stuff. When I first went in the woman behind the counter was very friendly and let me try everything that looked tasty and also gave me some recommendations. I will definitely be going there a lot this semester.

I know food is the most important part of study abroad, but I should probably touch on my classes. The first meetings were the usual first class of the semester deal, a run down of the course and some primer info. I am really only going to two classes regularly and I found them both looking pretty easy. I am still waiting to get more info on my guided study classes. I also met a professor who invited me to audit his classes, a courtesy extended by every teacher I have met. This is good because my schedule shifted and I have nothing to do Friday or Monday right now. I am hoping that means a lot of travelling starting in a few weeks, but right now it means I have a lot of free time on my hands.

Last week, I filled the free time with learning my way around campus and doing all the clerical details that needed attending to. There was some leg work involved and I had to even get a copy of my HS diploma sent, but I had the time to kill so it wasn’t too bad. I also worked on my first (and so far only) assignment given by my Service Learning instructor. There will be weekly journal entries and lots of feelings it seems.

My greatest triumph this week was getting to wash all the dirty clothes that I have been hiding in my suitcase. It was a mission too. Before I could even do laundry, I had to find detergent. So I went to the nearby superstore, Jumbo. Jumbo is a Toys’R’Us turned Walmart. After wandering the unmarked expanse of this warehouse of everything-you-could-ever-need for a while, I found the detergent section on the end of an aisle. At the school laundry is free, but there is only one working washer.  I found out about that when I plugged the second one in and turned off the power to the laundry room. There was an embarrassing call to the RA to come flip the right fuse for me. On attempt number two, the room was flooded with dirty water so I figured I could wait a little longer. Finally on my third day of operation No More Living Out of My Suitcase, I managed to get my clothes clean.

This weekend, I went on a field trip to the city with an American intern and a Greek student acting as tour guide. We saw the inside of some landmarks I hadn’t gotten to which was nice. There was a really good lunch and a trip to the cash and carry liquor store. It puts the VA ABC to shame, has a good selection of beer, and everything is much cheaper than in the states! It was also good to learn about the city bus system a little bit.

My Dorm

I should probably say a little something about the dorm. It is brand-new and energy efficient. I suspect this is owed in large part to the heat being on only a few hours a day. Like everything else here, it was donated by the school’s benefactor, Aliki Peroti. There is a giant portrait of her in the front lobby, which just happens to be an Andy Warhol - no big deal. A big difference here is that everyone keeps their rooms pretty Spartan (get it??). It is nice to have a private bathroom shared with only one other person. I was given some sheets, a pillow, and two blankets, complete with the cigarette burns common on most surfaces here. Also worth noting is our suite’s door handle. It was broken when we got here, and the day after it got fixed, it came off in my hand. The compress wood door is full of more screw holes than... I don’t know what, but the handle has obviously never stayed on for long.

My roommates are nice and really everyone else is too. The school is almost completely Greek. Some of the students say this is a recent trend and it used to be a lot more multicultural here. I have met people from Skopje (what some people might call Macedonia), Romania, and one student from Germany.

I was feeling a little homesick this week. Mostly I was missing my full sized bed, my kitchen, and my stereo. I am longing to fry up some bacon and eggs while I catch the morning news on the radio and to bake some fresh bread. To counter, I read a GREAT article on health care in America (http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/) and watched Argo with my roommate.

view from my window