Spring Break is almost upon us

Γειά!

It has been about two weeks since I lasted updated, so here we go.

Penn State's Dance Marathon or THON occurred and raised $7.8 million for the kids! That is truly amazing and I am so proud to call myself a PSU student. Many of my friends and sorority sisters were dancing that weekend. If you don't know too much about THON, dancers are chosen from a lottery system and cannot stand or sleep for 46 straight hours. They endure pain and sleep deprivation in order to channel what the kids are going through during treatment. I was able to watch the event online and I felt so connected. So,thank you to all who danced, were on committees, volunteered, and supported everyone. One day, we will find a cure!

On Monday, February 22, I woke up and did not feel good at all. I must have eaten something bad the day before. So, I missed my first class, but by the afternoon, I was feeling much better and could keep things down.

Two of my professors were away on field trips, so I did not have class on Tuesday or Thursday. On Tuesday, my roommates and I headed downtown to a huge multi-language bookstore. It had 8 levels and had many books in English. Since I had already read book 1 of the Twilight series, I decided to get books 2 and 3. I know what you are thinking. I have fallen victim to the craze, but I'm not obsessed with them like other people that I know.

Nearly every single office and public institution was on strike on Wednesday. Everyone just decided to make a statement to the government and pretty much everything was closed, schools included. Not mine however, because we run separately from the other institutions in the city. It is complete chaos when someone wants to strike. Taxi and bus drivers march down major streets and don't forget about the Communists! Oh, geez. You would never hear of this back the States.

I got my midterms back in Killebrew's classes and I got 98% on each of them. She doesn't believe in giving perfect scores, so she finds the most miniscule things in order to dock points. Oh, well.

Friday's day trip was my most favorite of them all. We made our around eastern and south Attica. We first stopped at Brauron where there was a temple soley dedicated to women. Interesting. We then headed down the coast to Thorikos. Thorikos was home to a theatre and an ancient mine. Pretty neat. However, I was itching to get to Sounion, the place of Poseidon's temple. We finally made it there and I was in awe. The temple is situated on top of a cliff that is right next to the sea. Oh, the water is super blue. The setting was the most gorgeous I had ever seen in Greece. It is a must for any traveler going to Greece. While there, most of my group headed down to the water, but Teresa and I stayed behind and enjoyed the peace. It was mostly silent with the occasional sound of waves crashing and sunny. Favorite place outside of Athens hands down.

Saturday was one of my roommate's birthday, so we went to Aegina for the day. Aegina is an island just off the coast of Attica and takes about an hour or so on the ferry. Everyone in my apartment and all the guys went. It was a great time. We originally wanted to go swimming, but we couldn't make our way to the beach, so we hopped on a bus and visited a very large Orthodox church. The church was incredibly beautiful and huge! We decided not to take the bus back, so we walked back to the main port. That took us a little over an hour, but it was a good stretch of the legs. We took the 6pm ferry back to Athens. It was interesting waiting for the ferry because it was very windy so the waves were HUGE! I got splashed several times waiting.

Sunday was a day of rest and I did my Greek homework. We are learning about the accusative case. Only two of us took Latin and ancient Greek, so we understood the case, but everyone else were scratching their heads. Thanks, Latin and ancient Greek!

This current week, we don't have Killebrew's classes because she's back in the States. We do have John's class every day except Thursday. We finally began to talk about Justinian and the construction of the Aghia Sofia in Byzantium (or Constantinople or Istanbul).

Monday was the first day of March, so happy March everybody! I can't believe my program is more than halfway done. I don't want to leave! Later that evening, a bunch of us went to the Athens sports bar for trivia. We got second place! Not bad.

On Tuesday, we went to the National Museum and talked about Archaic and Classical statues. Whoo. It is incredibly boring mostly because we spend 20 minutes on one statue alone! Oh, so boring.

We had John's class outside at a cafe and discussed Islam. It was super fun and interesting. I am very intrigued by the history of Islam and I can't wait to learn more about its rise, dominance, and conquest of Byzantium. We had Greek again and we are learning so many new verbs. I should try them out, but it is so hard because we try to speak Greek to the locals, but they speak English back to us, so it doesn't help at all.

Tomorrow, Thursday, we only have one class and then my spring break starts sometime before 3pm! I can't wait for spring break. I am so excited to see my mum and oldest sister. It will be a great break! So, Mum and Christie arrive in Greece in 3 days!!

Since I won't be updating again until after spring break, I hope you all have a good two weeks!

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