The first few days in Greece have been a whirlwind! Less than half of us arrived successfully on Monday due to flight cancellations and other air travel drama-- then some of the luggage didn't make it here on time either. Not only has everyone had a great attitude about the travel situation, but fortunately we happen to be staying in Glyfada, "the Beverly Hills" of Athens, complete with essentials like H&M and Sephora to fix the luggage problem.
Before the group flight arrived, those of us who got here Monday morning went to the beautiful beach, (and got very nice and inexpensive shoreside massages!!) went to dinner--paid around FIFTY DOLLARS for bread and then slept in Tuesday morning before the group flight got in. With everyone finally here, we played "womp'em" and went on a scavenger hunt around town. Tuesday night we went to group dinner in a restaurant on the water-- with 9 courses of traditional Greek food and wine! The location overlooking the water was absolutely breathtaking. This morning I went running along the beach boardwalk in Glyfada, which sounds decidedly more glamorous than running at home.
All day today we had guest speakers come present to our group. Somalian refugees came and spoke to us about their situation in Greece; hearing these people tell their painful stories was an important eye-opener about the not always beautiful realities of Greece and really brought home the significance of the work we will do here. We then heard two distinguished speakers, one an an established businessman and the other an economist, describe to us the historic and current Greek economic situation. I was shocked to realize that they came to speak to us on essentially on their lunchbreak from their conference with IMF-- no big deal. But really, what an honor that they took time to come speak with us! After the long morning/afternoon we relaxed until dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant and got gelato after! The next few days are going to be crazy-- a three island tour and bungee jumping in the Corinth canal. CANNOT WAIT
Stream of consciousness snapshots from the past few days: Greek soap opera tv, "Fifty dollars for bread?????","Love starts at the gelato shop!", Kostos...a certain new favorite bartender, luggage?, Nervousing, Amerikaaaa, gargonzola, grocery store moving sidewalks, greek menus--aaand its all greek to us
-Cassie Hartmann
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