GREECE!

Hello world. It's been a minute!

If you didn't know... I'm in Greece! I know, I know. I never finished my blog posts about Paris from almost a year ago. But I published 4 of them! That's enough, right? It doesn't matter because we're moving on!

I'm currently sitting on the balcony of my residence in Athens getting my tan on (kind of) and waiting for dinner time (which is hours away because Europe eats late!). I decided I don't want my Greece blog posts to be like my Paris ones because the experience (at least, so far) has been entirely different. Paris was a vacation on which I crammed a million things to see and pictures to take and food to eat into one week with my dad.

My 5-week stay in Greece studying abroad has proven to be vastly different.

Greece began with me, myself, and I. Mom, Dad, and Macrea dropped me off at the airport (I was the only one that cried... weird), and I waved goodbye probably 10 times before going through security all alone.

Just me, two books (I read now! Can you believe it?!), my journal, 80 lbs of luggage (mostly of clothes -- I spent months curating a cute closet fit for Greece), and an open mind.

Over the next many hours, I conquered a 54 minute layover in Atlanta (I made it in just 14! No worries, Dad.), and I landed in a foreign country to spend 35 days with students I'd never met. Scary!

I'll stop with the play-by-play here and get into what you're really interested in: how is it going? Allow me to tell you.

I always try to face situations I'm excited for with 0 expectations. That way, I can't be disappointed!

Unfortunately, Sigmund Freud was right about the unconscious because, unbeknownst to my conscious mind, I definitely DID come here with expectations. And I will be honest. They haven't been met (in most cases).

I expected Athens to look like the Greece I imagined and had seen pictures of: blue and white, cobblestone streets, pretty stairs, colorful buildings, 360-degree views, and lots and lots of linen.

Let me tell you, Athens does not look like that! Hardly at all, really. To be frank, it looks so different from what I expected that I haven't really felt like I'm in Greece, yet.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely feel like I'm in Europe! Just not Greece.

I'm living in a little town called Agia Paraskevi. It's a residential town with apartments along every street and several small supermarkets, stores, restaurants, and bars.

The streets are stone, but they're not cobblestone. There's not a ton of color. I haven't seen hardly any linen clothes. Things are not blue and white. There are no pretty stairs in our little town.

To make things worse, the school I'm studying at is a 30-minute completely uphill walk from our residence, and the metro (which is a necessity to get anywhere cool) is also a 30ish-minute walk (not uphill, though!).

At first glance, my perception of the situation sucked!

My first night here, I was going through it. I called Macrea -- a FaceTime call that was interrupted numerous times by crappy WiFi -- and cried for probably an hour. I felt disconnected from the people I'm comfortable with. I was disappointed with the look of our town and the distance of everything from us. I was scared every call would be choppy. I was not looking forward to being here for 5 weeks.

I was terrified that I would end up regretting my decision to come at all.

After my breakdown, I said a prayer through tears and went to bed. To my surprise, I woke up with a much more positive attitude! (I'm thinking the 48-hour day played a role in the negative emotions.) My open mind came back and was ready to take on Athens despite any disappointment. I decided it was okay to feel let down by the situation. But I was not about to let thousands of dollars and 5 weeks in a new place go down the drain.

And can you believe it? I haven't broken down since that first night!

I'm now having a blast. Here's a summary since so much has happened since then!

I made two close friends here (Gabby and Colleen) who are similar to me in all of the ways I was hoping someone here would be in a matter of two days. And we've made a larger group of friends to hang out with, too. It's going great.

We eat half-priced pasta every Wednesday at La Pasteria at the end of our street. We play poker, and we drink cocktails (or straight whiskey for Gabby) at a cool place called Piano Bar (It has globes as lamps!!!!!).

We explored pretty much all of Agia Paraskevi and downtown Athens -- it is much prettier down there, by the way, and there are much better views -- in just 4 days.

We've seen the Acropolis from downtown and from up close! We've been to multiple different beaches (still not like what we imagined, but beautiful nonetheless!).

We've ridden in numerous taxis and figured out the metro to a T. We've exchanged our dollars for euros, and we've eaten delicious gyros. Those did not disappoint in the LEAST. They're freaking delicious, and I love them so much.

Most excitingly, WE WENT SKYDIVING.

Now, THAT. Was awesome... Terrifying... But awesome. (You can see a montage of me falling through the sky on Insta.)

That day was a very long one, and I fell asleep on the train on our way home (we all have matching pictures of us asleep on transportation haha).

Gabby, Colleen, and I found a restaurant in the square of our town called Etsi & Allios, and we eat there almost every day lol. They have the BEST crepes and waffles covered in chocolate ice cream and M&Ms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They simply have the best food, and it's so cheap. We love it so much.

We've eaten at the prettiest rooftop bar covered in hanging flowers with a perfect Acropolis view, and we had the tastiest baklava there. SO YUM.

When we walked in, the guy at the front asked to see our IDs (which confused us because we haven't been IDed anywhere else), then he leaned forward and said, "I'm kidding! This is Greece! Come in, come in!" He tricked us.

Finally, we've taken hundreds of pictures to document this month and remember everything. (P.S. There's more to read after this sweet collage!)

Time is moving fast, though each day is shockingly slow.

I'm almost halfway through my classes already. (Funny, I'm studying abroad, and I spend 4 hours in classes Monday-Friday, yet that feels like the least important thing to tell you.)

The walk to and from school gets longer every time I make it. I'm pretty sure someone keeps adding a few feet to the sidewalk each morning. So, that still kinda sucks.

Gabby and I found a type of coffee we adore: Freddo Espresso. It. Is. So. Good. But Gabby drinks hers with no sugar. I could never. And Colleen and I are especially loving the chocolate croissants here.

All of that to say: I'm having a great time here, but nothing is perfect. I wanted to be able to say, "I'm living my Mamma Mia dream!"

But this isn't Mamma Mia. And, of course, that's disappointing.

But (like Sophie says in the movie) I'm 20! Only 20!

There is plenty of time to come back to Greece and visit Skopelos -- the Mamma Mia island which, as it turns out, is very difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to get to from where we are, so it won't happen on this trip :( -- and live my Mamma Mia dream another time.

Nevertheless, we have trips planned for every weekend from here on out!

This weekend is island weekend! Gabby and I are going to Agistri for a night and Aegina with a group the next day. Who knows, maybe being on those islands will be Mamma Mia-like. I hope so!!!!! But if they're not, I am prepared to be okay with it!

Next weekend, 7 of us are going to Venice!!!!!!! (Before it sinks lol.) Super excited for that!

And our last weekend here, we're all going to Santorini. So, of course, that one will fill the Mamma Mia-sized void in my heart.

Then, Macrea, and the fam are coming over and we'll all hit Athens and Santorini (adding in Caitlin!!!!!) together! (After I take finals, of course...)

Naturally, thinking about seeing the people who know me best makes me homesick.

Not for home itself (though I do helplessly crave fast food, Dr. Pepper, the English language, and dollars), but for home people. I miss them a lot. A whole, whole lot. I don't want to discount how much I want to be with them again (especially you, Macrea).

But that's precisely why I'm really thankful I found people here. Good people.

Turns out there are good people everywhere! I'm thankful we are enjoying the Greece we have here regardless of what Greece we thought we would find.

We will continue to enjoy it, and I'll tell you more about it later!