The very interesting trip to Aghia Paraskevi

Ok so I know I said I would post pictures of the airports but I accidently packed my camera in my bag that I checked in so you'll get pictures of Greece soon.
This post I started writing on February 21 and just finished today. But it was pretty much the same day since I didn't really sleep much.

There’s a weird assortment of people in airports and on airplanes. I gave myself plenty of time to get through security and good thing I did because the line was waaaaaay loooooong, and then they put my bag through the scanner 2 times because there were too many cords in it. Ok so I did have my laptop cord, my Xoom cord, my power converter, and my cell phone charger AND like 4 pair of shoes. At the Salt lake airport they make you go through the x-ray things instead of the metal detectors. On my flight from Salt Lake to Dallas I sat next to this girl who acted as though she was better than flying economy in what might be the worst seats on the plane. You can’t see out your window because the engine thingy is blocking it. They overbooked the flight and tried to get me to check in my carry on at the gate but the second person decided that I change flights one too many times for them to be able to keep track of it (this worried me about my bag that I did check) since it has an extra set of clothes and stuff just in case. This was the hottest and loudest flight I had ever been on.

I hate the Dallas Fort Worth airport. It is huge and confusing, and you have to catch a train to get to the other terminals but they do have charging stations so I got all of my electronics charged and ready for this 9 hour flight. I kinda like flying at night it’s interesting to see the clusters of lights and the one lonely house out in the middle of nowhere. I got a good seat on this flight I got a whole row to myself! Granted it’s only two seats but I can lean against the window and stretch out and I don’t have to ask every time I want to get up and walk around. They have TVs in the aisles and the movie playing right now is Footloose, not the old Kevin Bacon one though. Hey they just asked me if I want beef and mashed potatoes or lasagna for dinner, I chose lasagna. It came with a salad and a double chocolate crunch brownie and a roll and Freshers cream crackers and a cheddar gourmet cheese wedge and butter and a small bottle of water. It is currently 6pm Utah time and I have about 8 hours left before I land.

Sleeping on airplanes is kinda hard. I had two seats to myself against a window and it was hard for me to sleep. For breakfast they served a croissant with jam and yogurt and orange juice. Then I landed in Madrid….

Let’s talk about the most confusing and scariest airport ever. There are signs that have the same information on them right next to each other with arrows pointing different ways. So I was so lost and I took two different trains and went up and down so many elevators I could not tell you how on earth I found my gate. Oh also I was so lost and scared I asked a security guard and before I finished my question he just yelled at me! And said you American and pointed so I just walked that way.

So once I did get on my flight there was like a school group on it and they were super loud and by this point I was so airplane sick and tired and everyone just stood up and talked to each other and walked around it was so weird. Then I finally landed in Greece and that airport made way more sense than the Dallas one and way way more sense than the Madrid one. Then I waited for my bag to come out, the baggage claim there is like the one at the long beach airport but inside before you go out through security. As soon as I walked out of security I saw the study abroad office guy with the sign and was so relieved that I could finally talk in English not broken Spanish. His name is George Daskalakis everyone just calls him George.

So it took like no time at all to get to the apartments from the airport like maybe 40-45 minutes and there were like no cars on the road but no one uses blinkers and they just change lanes at the weirdest times. Then like 20 min after I arrived there was a meeting/dinner thing for all the study abroad students. And you know how people say that when they travel and they say they are from Utah one of the first questions is so are you Mormon? Well at the dinner thing we went around and said our names and where we were from and like everyone after was like so where are you from again and when I would say Utah they had that look like should I ask or not then someone would finally ask and be like so are you Mormon? And I always answered yes I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we usually call ourselves LDS. Well that night everyone got a really small crash course in LDS standards, they all wanted to go to a bar because the legal drinking age is 18 and no one ID’s here and about half of the group is under 21 so I went with them. They were seeing if they could all just split the cost of a bottle of wine so they were asking everyone who wanted wine and stuff and they asked me and I said no thanks I don’t drink I’ll just have a sprite, (which by the way is not like sprite in the US or like Mexico it pretty much tastes like they took some limes and some lemons and squeezed them into soda water and added like a pinch of sugar) so of course they asked me if I just didn’t drink because I wasn’t legal or what and when I said well we just believe that you shouldn’t drink we have a word of wisdom and in it it says not to drink. Well then the questions just kept coming like one girl was like ya you like can’t kiss and stuff like that so I hopefully put a lot of superstitions to rest and helped them to understand it better. I left what they said was early in the night and came back and unpacked and tried to sleep.

My roommates are alright. They are way more into make-up and looks and stuff than I am and are kind of like the artificial, of the world type of girls but I think I can learn to live with it. So one is from South Africa and has kind of an English type accent, one is from Maine but goes to school at San Francisco University, and one is from Jersey Shore. Also they think I way under packed to be here for a semester they all brought like 4 checked bags and I brought one and a small carryon. And most of my clothes fit in it I don’t even think I have four suitcases worth of clothes at home. When they found out I only brought one bag they were like well how many pairs of shoes did you bring? I said like two or three casual shoes and like two or three pair of church shoes they were all like church shoes? What are church shoes? So I explained that I have like shoes I don’t wear every day I usually just wear them to church and they were like you’re going to church while you’re here? And I was like ya every Sunday. And they asked me how I knew there was a church here and I said well the churches website lets you find a meeting house wherever you are. I think the biggest culture shock is being the minority instead of the majority. Really being the only LDS person is weird. And on Saturday  they are all going to what they call a carnival but Kostas said its kinda more like mardigras than like a carnival, everyone just gets drunk and parties all day and they won't be back in time for church so I said I didn’t want to go and they were like so you like can’t miss church and I was like no I can I would just rather go to church.

It’s weird that you can’t just go next door and walk into an apartment full of priesthood holders.

Also these people are like made of money. Their boyfriends and parents and brothers and everyone is going to come out to visit them.