Ιστορία της Αθήνας

One of the nice things about this program is that we get a rental phone, with a Greek phone number. I had gotten a global phone in the US over Christmas, because at the time I didn't know I would have a phone to use. However, the rates to call from a US phone in a different country are absurd, so there was no complaint when I found out. Still, my family activated my personal cell phone for use here in Greece, just in case.

Of course, technology being what it is, I turned on my phone when I landed in Athens... no signal. To this point, I still haven't gotten it to work. Apparently, despite following all the instructions, Verizon failed at activating my SIM card, meaning I have a very expensive calculator and alarm clock. But, hey, I've still at least got a phone for calling within Greece, right?

For the first day, yes. Turned on the phone, used it, programmed in all the phone numbers, everything was fine. The battery got low, so I charged it. Turned it on the next morning, and entered the PIN for my SIM card. "SIM Card Locked. SOS Only". Now, I'd only entered the password once. It was supposed to give me three attempts before it locked the card. So, I shut it down and tried again. "SIM Card Locked. SOS Only." So, knowing what I do about mobile phones, I shut it down, took out the battery and the SIM card, blew on the contact points, put it back together, and tried a third time. "SIM Card Locked. SOS only."

By this point, I decided that phones hate me. So, I went to talk to my TA, to let him know that my phone was out of commission, and see if he knew who I should talk to. He referred me to Isabel, of the Athens Centre staff. She played with it for a bit, and came to the same conclusion: she had no idea what its issue was. The PIN number I was using was correct. All I'd done was charge the phone. There was no good reason why it was acting up. It was time to ask an expert. She send me down to Germanos, the cell phone dealership nearest to the Athens Centre, and I met a nice employee there who a) spoke decent English and b) had the resources to experiment and figure out what the problem was. It turned out that my SIM card was perfectly fine: put it in a phone, and it worked, no issue at all. When you put any SIM card into my phone, however, it came up with the same dialogue: "SIM Card Locked. SOS only." After determining this, the man in the store gave it back, saying that the phone body was a piece of junk. There was a software issue, and they couldn't fix it. I thanked him, and said I'd talk to my program about buying a new phone. I reported back to Rosemary and Isabel, and they agreed that they would have to buy a new phone body; after all, I'd already been walking around for 2 days with no means of communication. If I were to get lost on an excursion or get hurt or something, I couldn't get a hold of anyone, and they couldn't get a hold of me.

Finally, on the afternoon of Wednesday of the first week, after having two useless phones since Saturday, I got a new phone body, one of the same style but much nicer than my initial one. I've got it all charged up and re-entered the phone numbers of my professors, TA, and classmates. Now I just need to add some more money to my SIM card, and the technical difficulties will be over. For now.

Γειά σου!

First, a bit from last night: the tarverna we went to for dinner was AMAZING. Definitely a great way to start out the trip. About 2/3 of our group went to this little place, that I have forgotten the name of, that Katja took us to. She also explained to us the Greek restaurant custom of "sharing", which is exactly what is sounds like: about 4 people split appetizers and main courses, sharing the food. It ends up giving you more that you would have gotten ordering a main course for yourself, but costing less. I shared with five or six other students, splitting a spinach pie (Σπανακόπιτα [spanakopita]), a rabbit in white wine sauce, and a chicken in lemon sauce. All three were amazing. The rabbit, especially, was really good: I've never eaten rabbit, before. It looks like, and bears a lot of similarity to, chicken, but it is a chewier meat and has a bit of a stronger flavor. I was quite impressed. It was really really good, and split the way we did, only cost me like 4€. Then, I came home and crashed, because it was late and I was very tired from my 24 or so hours of traveling. 


Today continued to be wonderful. The day started at 10, when we went to the Athens Centre for Day 1 of orientation. We first had a lecture by Yannis Zervos, the director of the centre, who told us a bit about modern history and the cultural context for Athens today. Then, we had a brief talk by Rosemary Donnelly, the codirector, about the Athens Centre itself. Then we wandered about the centre a bit, going up to the roof. Where we saw this:

First View of the Parthenon!

Yep. The view from the roof of the Athens Centre is kind of amazing. You can also see a large part of the city, and the mountains behind it.

Overlook of Athens

Once we all made it off the roof, down a slightly scary narrow metal spiral staircase, we left on our tour of the Mets/Pangrati, which is the area of Athens where we live. Katja showed us around the residential areas, to the supermarket, post office, pharmacy, and the best cafes and tavernas, as well as taking us briefly through the weekly Farmer's Market, which occurs every Friday. She then left us to explore, and we split apart as a group. My two roommates and I walked back through the Farmer's Market, then shared lunch with part of the group. We then went back and bought oranges, potatoes, and artichokes at the market. Apparently, unlike in the U.S., when a sign says "6/5€" here, it means 6 kilo, not 6 items. So... yeah. We got 10 potatoes for 2.5€. It was awesome.


Anyway, after that, we returned home, I played with the photographs I've taken through the day (check out my photograph page for slideshows of all my photos), and have just been finishing all my unpacking and writing up my day. It's been really, really lovely so far...Athens is an amazingly pretty and eclectic city. I'm looking forward to getting to know it and its residents better over the next few months. 


Tonight, I have a (free!) dinner hosted by the Athens Centre, and tomorrow we have a walking tour of central Athens all day. I am looking forward to it, and expect to have lots more photos tomorrow. For now, though, I will leave you with one last view of the Parthenon.


Αντίο για τώρα! Τα λέμε σύντομα!

At 3 pm, CST, I arrived at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago. By 6:00, I was on the plane. I have been on the plane until approximately 2 hours ago. How many hours that was in transit, I have NO IDEA. I just know that right now, it is 7pm in Athens, but 12:00 pm in Chicago. So, I'm a bit tired and time confused, but that will go away shortly.

The process of flying to Greece wasn't too painful. My first flight, from Chicago to London, went swimmingly, and I have no complaints. I watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for free, which was fantastic, ate food that didn't make me ill, and dozed through much of the flight. The second part was more troublesome. The flight into London landed, at predicted, at 6:40 am London time. Boarding for my connecting flight ended at 7:40 am, London time. And then it took 10 minutes to get off the plane, more to get through security and into the correct gate at the airport, but I made it just on time, and successfully boarded the plane. Half an hour later, I disembarked from the plane. Apparently, some gasket or connector in the nose of the plane was loose or broken, and maintenance said they couldn't fix it in a reasonable amount of time. So, instead of taking of at 8 am, we took off at 10, putting us into Athens two hours later than I'd initially expected. Once we got in the air, though, everything went smoothly for that flight as well. I didn't want to sleep, so as to get on Greek time, and so watched The Adventures of Tintin, which was a very cute and well-executed movie, and a great way to pass the time couped up on another airplane. I was also fortunate enough to get in the baby seat row on that flight, but there were no babies, so I had lots of leg-room, which was quite nice.

Once arriving in Athens, I met up with the other two students in my program that I knew were on my flight, as well as two others who I hadn't realized were on the flight. We took two cabs to get to our apartments near the Athens Centre. And that's where I am now, relaxing and decompressing and unpacking my bags. The apartments are nice, with air conditioning, large windows, and a balcony. I'll be sharing my room, kitchenette, and bathroom with two other girls, which will be an interesting experience. But I am looking forward to it. Now that I've arrived, much of my nervousness has fallen away, and I'm just excited to explore this new place.

As for program things, we have a dinner trip tonight, which should be fun, and then a few orientation things tomorrow. Stuff really gets going next Monday, when classes start. And that's the point where I'll start being busy, and actually having something to talk about.

So for now, I will leave you to get ready to eat and to finish unpacking. In parting, here is a picture of the view outside my bedroom window.

Αντίο για τώρα! Τα λέμε σύντομα!