Greece Journal Entries Days 4-6

Sunday: January 29th, 2017.

If you have not read my first entries day 1-3 read that first through my culture shock and then continue with this after! And stay tuned for all 13 days to be posted officially! 

Day 4: January 5th, 2017.

 A double cappuccino sweet to start off my day, who knew this would be the drink I would be depending on every day and my breakfast also included pringles, such an american. Yet again, still exhausted but my cappuccino put me in a good mood. We walked to the Bystine and Christian church museum, which woke me up. I was excited for this being that I learned about it in high school art history and yet again in college art history. The work they had up was quite beautiful. And being religious myself, put through catholic school and comparing what I have seen in my church versus theres was great. A lot of it you could see was similar. Where some ideas and styles may have come from as well. There was beautiful pieces from murals to dish wear. Also first day of amazing wifi to share all my pictures with my friends and family all over social media, to show my amazing greek time. My day had started off pretty amazing and being here has been a dream. Also still laughing over the cranberry juice and sangria thing. We ended up at a local greek restaurant for lunch. Where I had ordered more coffee (moore lol). Also a shrimp and rice dish, originally I just pictured white rice and shrimp, but no it was amazing. It was extremely flavorful filled with vegetables and juicy. It was fresh and delicious with a ice coffee for lunch. I was extremely satisfied. I noticed the night before how fresh my eggplant was and how differently it was prepared just like my lunch now, but I was pleased. Also noticed around me the food ordered including saginaki was fried cheese, palmero which is a hot cheese, as well as omelets that are a huge circle on the plate with french fries cooked in and not folded over. Everything here is Mercedes-Benz, the tour buses, taxis, trolleys all of it. We took a Mercedes-Benz out of town a cliff. On our way there we had passed tons of beautiful oceans and land to die for. I was so appreciative for my experience here and how much I loved it. It made me wish it was summer to be swimming in the water, soaking up the sun. I did not want to leave. All I could think about was tanning on the beach. It is definitely the place to come back in the summer. I just want to visit this ocean, please. It was so blue, and clear. I started to understand why people hate us as americans, hate everything we do. I've noticed how clean it was here. They take care of their country not litter and pollute it. I've noticed a lot of people sweeping the streets and side walks, cleaning up, no trash lingering around, no littering. On the way to the cliff I saw filters in the ocean, cleaning up trash. They help their country and they are keeping it clean and beautiful. Another thing I've noticed even though they are a poorer country they still try to keep it amazing and a lot of things are cheaper here rather than at home. The food, the shopping all of lower price. Going out to end is cheaper for me than at home and I tend to get bigger portions for a lower price. I've been noticing a lot of culture differences that give me a new eye on things, learning all of this. The cliff was beautiful, it was The Temple of Poseidon. I kept making comments referencing The Lighting Thief, due to that being my knowledge on Poseidon. It was a beautiful view of the ocean and this part of Greece. It was extremely windy though, I was blowing up, with it being elevated and by the water. It was worth it even if I had fell into the ocean. After we had gotten back we had tried American food from Greece. Looks can be deceiving as well. I grabbed a can of orange soda Fanta being the only soda I drink at home. The can looked exactly the same of the same orange and design, even brand, symbol all of it. Except being written in greek instead of english. Opened it and noticed the color was a bit off, being a pale orange and not a bright orange. It was time for the taste test. Also different. At first I was not a fan, it was a bit of too much citrus. It was not orange soda like at home, it was a orange juice drink. I was a bit disappointed but intrigued on how the same products are not the same everywhere. Also we went to Pizza Hut. At home I order dominos not Pizza Hut, but this was by our apartment. We had gotten the veggie pan made pizza. We opened the box and it did not look like how it does back in america. It had giant hoagie slice tomatoes and little to no veggies of varies. It was also super fresh veggies rather then being frozen and cooked on the pizza with the pizza. It did not look pan made, usually pan made is elevated dough. It was quite good though and satisfying. It did not look or taste like pan made, but it was good. The crust was amazing and I hate pizza crust. It was soaked in their oil that was fresh and flavorful. My tummy was satisfied and ready for bed, after this long day.

  Check List:

  -Bystine and Christian Church Museum

  -Lunch in Square

  -Temple of Poseidon. 

  -Trying American Food

-Jackie Kensey

Day 5: January 6th, 2017.

 Ready for a new day. Our days have been starting off, just way too early for me, with my lack of sleep. Being a light sleeper and being able to hear everything in the house from the bathroom, to talking, to doors opening and shutting, it was rough. Before our day started a few of us went over to the local coffee shop to pick up coffee to get our day started. I was the last one and everyone and left, no one had waited for me, kind of a rough moment. In another country you should not be leaving others alone. Other then that a greek man inside the coffee shop had laughed at me and made fun of me. He was laughing that they had all left me, like I was just some dumb american. "Where are your friends at?" "They all left you" he said and continued to laugh. I was just like "Oh" and had grabbed my double cappuccino sweet and left. I was offended after that and that was all on my mind for the rest of the day. When I am finally getting use to Greece and being happy, but being left alone and laughed at by some random greek man. It had completely soured my mood. I just knew today was not going to be my day. We took public transportation down to Piraeus to the docs for a religious ceremony. Did not enjoy the walk and how extremely cold it was. The coldest of all days yet. I literally could not wait for it to start and leave, like honestly I did not want to be here at this point. People kept pushing me, shoving me trying to get in front of me the whole time. It felt like GA at a concert at home. I just hate being small and smooshed in a crowd, you can't see, you can't breathe. And the thing is we did not understand anything of what was going on. Like for bands If it is an artist I love I will make my way to the front, but if its not I stay lowkey in the back. So I felt extremely awkward and out of place here, not knowing anything of this. It had no meaning to me. It was really important to people and it was not for me so I just felt in the way. I did not even see the cross being dropped in the water which was the whole point of this thing! I saw people swimming in there like it was the polar plunge or something. Since I know that water was freezing cold and it was an event. I also was not dressed very warm so I felt sickness being brought upon me with a weak immune system. After I was completely frozen I was glad to finally leave. I was able to get my double cappuccino sweet with my friends after we got back and not be left this time. Then we had some lunch. We finally got to try the falafel place everyone was talking about outside of Arcadia. It was amazing and cheap. I kept saying I need to come back to place, I could not wait to come back. I had gotten a falafel with veggies, size small, but still huge and a plate of their french fries. Their fries had this oil on this which had reminded me of truffle fries, also the thin cut of them. I loved them and it was well worth it then heading home right away to sleep. It was chilly and dreary out, no sun, just dull. The weather flat out sucked. It just made me want to go home at this point. After I got home I took a nap. I woke up to our power going off. We had to get in contact with Jan who got a hold of the electrician. We have an electric stove not a gas stove and the roommates were boiling rice at the time. The water from the rice seeped into the oven which had a crack on it, causing the power outtage. We had to wait about a half an hour for the power to go back on for the electrician to fix the problem. I felt like a little kid again with my old previous homes losing power over the dumbest things, it was the worst. The no power put me in a bad mood, being freezing cold and tired. I just wanted to be home, in bed, watching netflix. Since I could not watch netflix here since the wifi sucked. After the power was back on, I tried to watch something but it kept buffering and taking too long to load. It has been a week of this trip so far and I just needed some time to relax. After an early morning, bad weather, bad day. I wanted to come on this trip so bad since I found out about it at Moore open house in April 2016. But days like this, make me so home sick and makes me wonder if I should of came home. The stage of depression when traveling. Culture Shock, Euphoria, then Depression. I have made some great friends on this trip, with amazing times, but like moments like this make me wonder. I just have too much anxiety to handle events like this. I know this is life and it happens everywhere, apart of growing up, you deal, you get over, you learn. All I could think about is tomorrow being better, a better day and getting over this glum state of mind. It is just that it is different than what I expected, but that is part of the cultural learning experience.

  Check List:

  -Religious Ceremony

  -Falafels

-Jackie Kensey

Day 6: January 7th, 2017.

  Our first free day, that I actually got to sleep in. We had our plan for today to meet up in the square for food and tattoos, a group of us. I convinced my roommate to spend the day with us then trying to travel out alone in Greece. Our first destination was Athens Tattoo. The 6 of us deciding on what we were getting and doing, between tattoos and piercings. I've already went through my piercing face, I've had enough at this point. I ended up with another tattoo of course. I always wanted princess on the back of my neck, I considered princessa before, but being in Greece, have to get it in Greek. I love the greek characters so I decided on getting Princess in Greek on the back of my neck. It was a spontaneous moment, but we're here for an adventure, right? " πριγκίπισσα " I was totally in love with my tattoo. After that we walked around Syntagma and I ended up in a perfume shop with my perfume obsession. I collect perfumes and my favorite scents are from Chanel. They had all the name brands including Chanel at a discounted price for their after Christmas sale. The bottles I got 2 for the price of 1. Being that they are usually $100 a piece and I managed for 2 for that. I had gotten Mademoselle and Chance. It was already an amazing day with a new tattoo and Chanel perfumes. All I could think about and dream about, I was so happy. Could of just ended the day there at that point, being so wonderful. We went out to eat after. I ordered some spaghetti, the whole time on this trip I kept thinking about how their pastas taste here. And they treated us to free desert as well. I could get use to this free stuff everywhere we go type of thing. The differences with eating out at home and eating out here is the no hustle and bustle and rush feeling. We can sit in a place, eat slow and linger around and talk as long as we want. We are never rushed out, never forced to leave, it is all about us relaxing. And we get stuck in places sitting around for hours. They will literally just leave you there. Honestly, I did not mind. It gave us time to sit around, talk and hang out. And you have to ask for your check, they don't bring it to you, you ask for it to be able to leave. Since they are in no rush. It was just a nice feeling, being welcomed, and well hosted. It is funny how I've been ordering like beer and wine with my meals and going to be weird without a glass of wine or a beer heading home and no longer being legal. It is truly a different cultural experience. Before we left my roommate headed to the bathroom and went in the stall that said it was out of order in a huge sign. She texted me for help and we headed down there and the people in the bathroom told us to get the employees for help. We asked employees and after like 5 employees later they finally got her out of the bathroom. It was a hysterical moment. After we headed out, but a guy who worked there told us all the greek hangout spots including a live music venue with greek music. We talked about maybe going tomorrow, hopefully we do, live music is my thing. We spent the rest of our day in the tourist area shopping around again, our mini New York known as Syntagma. And this day is where I started remembering these area names to go back in my book and write them down! After this we headed to the market for some snacks and I found packaged honey snacks for my dad and snacks for me. I was finally able to relax for the night after this long eventful day. Which made me keep saying I would not mind coming back, especially in the summer.
  Check List:
  -Syntagma
  -Tattoos
  -Chanel Perfume

-Jackie Kensey