Sept 3

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September 3, 2008

Not a very eventful day. Ended up doing a lot of wandering and exploring my neighborhood of Pangrati - did find a Starbucks! …but its even more expensive than back home so probably wont be drinking a lot of iced Americanos while I’m in Athens, sadly. Also found a plant store and bought a purple bromeliad to help brighten up my incredible sparse room.

At 5:30 I had to go to a meeting for students wanting to be placed into upper levels of Modern Greek classes. Here I was told that the Athens office had not received the second half of my placement test - the reading comprehension and essay part = the hardest part - and was made to redo it right there, without a dictionary/textbook. In short, it was rough and I definitely did not do as well as I had originally. Also had to do a short spoken interview with 4 of the language professors, which again did not go so well. I find out today which section I got placed into. Hopefully it will all work out for the best. There were only 6 of us who had had any prior exposure to the language, so no matter what I’ll be in a small class with lots of one-on-one time with the professors, which will be very useful.

Had the welcome reception by the president and other faculty last night - orientation today. Afterwards, my room mates and I did successfully find a taverna to eat a real Greek meal at that is not too far from our apartment, was decently priced and served very good food.

Called it an early night, still pretty tired for some strange reason haha. The knee seems to be doing well with all the walking I’ve been doing. Glad that I remembered to bring a couple of ice packs with me to wrap around it occasionally, since the Greeks really don’t believe in the whole “ice cube” thing. Am going today I think with one of my room mates - Kylene, who swims for her school in Florida - to try and check out a nearby gym, both of us already going through work out withdrawls haha.

Anyways, have orientation 9-1 today, as well as a group taverna dinner tonight. In between am going to try and take some pictures of the new place as well as continue my search for stackable storage tubs. I never thought I’d say this, but I really miss Wal Mart! I can’t seem to find any stores like that here, nor even a Bed, Bath and Beyond type either!

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Comments

[Rozlyn Petersen]

Tep, I love reading your blogs, I feel like I am rereading Eat, Pray, Love all over again, its great! Post more ASAP, miss you