Rafting Trip

Days like today make me think that I am going to miss being in Greece. Today I went river rafting down the Lousios river and it was Awesome!!!! I have found a group of people who share my love for being outdoors. Most all of the other study abroad students just like to go to bars and shopping and you all know that I don’t like shopping and I don’t drink so I’ve been counting down the days when I get to go home and hang out with my friends in Cedar City and go hiking and play ultimate and just be outside! But now I am liking it here. In a few weeks there is a camping trip and there is a rappelling trip coming up its gonna be fun!

I don’t have pictures right now because they wouldn’t let me bring my camera, even though it’s water proof. But they took some pictures and will have them ready for us to put on our jump drives in like 3-4 days.  

Things you never knew you cherished

You know when you live somewhere you don’t realize how good you have it and how much you take for granted. Being on this study abroad I have realized the small things are what mattered most.

Like walking through campus and knowing half of the people you passed by their first name.

Making the long trek from the science building to the institute in 5 minutes as opposed to taking a bus, metro and walking for a total of at least 45 minutes.

Being able to buy Reese’s peanut butter cups on an impulse at the register. (or at all)

Passing 3 other church buildings on the way to church.

Talking to kids. I cannot tell you how much I miss all the annoying questions kindergarteners ask.

Hearing someone humming a church song.

Commercials. I know this one sounds funny but when I watch hulu I now pay attention to the commercials to see what is going on in America.

I think the thing I miss most is the family atmosphere. Even when I’m at SUU I still feel like a part of a family, my friends there are awesome and always make you feel like you belong.

I miss the comfort of knowing that I can knock on the neighbors door and ask for a priesthood blessing right then and there.

Today in linear algebra a first happened for me I finished the problem before anyone else and only three other students got the correct answer. During the smoke break of our two hour long class I was sitting in the classroom while everyone else went out and the professor asked me how I finished so quickly and asked to see my work. He then asked me about where I was from and told me about how he studied in Tennessee and Boston. We talked about the things we never knew we missed until we moved and he exclaimed how each state is so different. People here think all the states are the same since they are all in the same country.

My stay in Greece is half over and I can almost see the plane back to America but first I must see more countries and eat more weird food like paprika potato chips.

Spring Break

Spring break was two crazy weeks. On Friday the 6^th I walked down to the bus stop caught the bus to the airport and met my mom! I was so happy to see her but very confused why she didn’t have any bags with her since at the Athens airport you have to get your luggage before you leave security. They lost her bag! We went and checked into the hotel and then went back to my apartment to figure out where Gma and Auntie were. We picked them up at the airport later and they also had no bags. Saturday we went to the Parthenon and walked around the Athens flea market and then went to the beach. Sunday we went on a tour with George’s famous taxi service. He took us to Ancient Corinth, Mycenae, and Napflion. On Monday we went to the Ancient Agora, and The temple of Zeus, and Hadrian’s Arch then headed to the airport.

                                                      This is the Lions Gate in Mycenae

Monday night we landed in Rome, Italy. Now the days start to get all mushed into one so I’ll just tell you what we did in each country. In Italy we saw the Colosseum and got a tour of it, we also saw the Forum-Palatine we did that in one day. On another day we went to the Vatican and somehow ended up there on a day when the pope was there. We spent like the whole day in the Vatican it was amazing. We even climbed all 537 steps to the top of the dome and looked out over Rome.

The colosseum

I thought it was funny that the boy had a tie on

                                        The steps up to the dome on the top of the vatican

We woke up early and caught a flight to France. We saw the Eiffel tower and the Statue of Liberty and walked around a little. The next day we caught a train to Switzerland.

Switzerland was my favorite although that may have something to do with the fact that there was a family in Switzerland and I have missed family time! Also talking with Jordan and Sage about culture shock and how it’s going to be weird going back to the States was exactly what I needed. I do remember we got to Switzerland on Friday the 13^th because we discussed how ironic it was that their car got broken into on Friday the 13^th while parked in front of the UN building. In Switzerland we toured castles, and chocolate factories and the girls gave us a tour of the town they live in.

The Chateau de Chillion

The cocolate factory

(Jordan, Sage, Soren, Me) 

On Tuesday we woke up super early and went to the airport, Mom, Auntie and Gma headed for the States and I headed back to Greece. I was sad to see them go and kinda wanted to climb in their luggage and head back to America with them but no I still have adventures to go on and people to meet in this very small big world.

I slept for like ever. Ok not forever but I did take a nap when I got home and then slept in the next day until like 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Then I did all of my laundry and packed a backpack for the next adventure.

On Thursday I headed off to meet up with friends in Corfu, Greece. We met at the Pink Palace and it rained the whole first day. We were at a party resort on the beach with no parties. The next day was a little better but they still didn’t have any of their activities going so we went down to the beach to hang out. We all ended up falling asleep on the beach and got sunburns. Luckily the next day they had the four-wheeler safari going (although I’d call it more of a ride around town than a safari but hey it was fun) so Sam, Hannah and I went. It was pretty cool to ride a four-wheeler through the island of Corfu and I saw some pretty awesome views and watched a girl roll a four-wheeler on perfectly flat ground. People do not know how to ride and that alone was amusement enough for me.

One of the stops on the "Safari"

                                            The view of the Pink Palace from the beach

That is how my spring break ended. I came home that night and somehow got myself up and ready for church the next day.

Church here is always interesting, you never know what word meaning we are going to go into a ton of detail about or what an investigator might say or do or even how many people are at church. This week there were like 10 people at church including 4 investigator and not counting the 6 missionaries. My branch got a new missionary couple from South Africa, they are white and the lady sounds like a proper British lady, I never would have guessed they were from South Africa.

So my computer is having issues uploading pictures, so other than the few I posted you’ll all have to wait until I get home and get them put on CD’s to see all of them.