Athens, Greece

Athens was great. I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like to have studied abroad in Athens instead of Thessaloniki - it's a bigger city, more diverse, maybe...more like America, but with all the Greek influence that you'd expect in the capital of Greece. More parks, museums, scenic roads, etc...
On the flip-side, I think Thessaloniki's really starting to grow on me. It took some time, but better late than never!

statue of runner. the coolest statue i saw in athens.

THIS IS SPARTA!

at dinner

jen eating jap-chae!


korean food in athens! it was GOOOOOD too! tasted authentic, which was very surprising to me. pricey. but worth it.
notice: bibimbap, soup, ggo-chi-chang, kimchi.

This is where the first modern olympics were held. It's 26.3 miles from the site of the old olympics (a place called Marathon) to this stadium. That's why marathon's are 26.3 miles long today! if you look closely, the olympic 5-rings are waaay in the back center.

The Acropolis. And some distracting reconstruction work.

an 'auditorium' where, even to this day, they have performances.

parthenon

i don't know exactly what this building is called - but they are young virgins that serve as pillars.

After going up to the Acropolis, I think I understand why the ancient Athenians worshipped on the hill. Looking out from the top of the hill, all you can see now is the city completely sprawled out, but in the days of paganistic worship, i'm sure it was allll nature 360 degrees around. I couldn't help but think of the vastness of God and His sovereignty while being up that high.

St. Paul preached here.

Changing of the guards in front of Athen's parliament building.

baby girl, guard, me. =)

a little boy that liked the pidgeons.

First Professional Opera! La Traviata

I'd never been to a professional opera before, and it's funny that I finally got to see one in Thessaloniki, NOT Cleveland! We looked up the storyline for Verdi's La Traviata before we went because 1. it was in Italian and 2. There were Greek subtitles (they project the translation above the stage). It was SO COOL how much we could pick up from just the acting though! I loved remembering details from Wikipedia's summary by the cast's simple facial expressions. It was a great experience! (Though a little pricey comapred to those aweomse $5 student tickets to the cleveland orchestra. =)

The Theatre
Sitting inside, waiting

Daniella, Jen, Me. About as dressed up as we ever get.

A shot of a photo of the play. This is Violetta, the main character, who falls in love, breaks up with the man she loves for the sake of his family, and then eventually dies in his arms.

I think that from the entire opera, I liked the clapping at the end when the WHOLE cast comes out to take bows. Kinda like bloopers, when you realize these are normal people just doing their job, but that they're FANTASTIC at what they do.

Scuba Diving!

I was very very excited for this - mainly cuz I've wanted to go scuba diving my entire life!!! It was definitely memorable - though it rained the whole time - and I think I'll be doing it again while I'm here. =)

ewwwww wet suits. I couldn't really breathe in mine. way too tight. but it kept us warm! On top of this, we had to wear a 15 kg. weight belt and a pretty hefty oxygen tank. and masks. all in all, everything was so tight that i felt my air passages were half their normal size. hahaa



that's me! they took underwater pictures, and videos!

Cool fish that we saw. =)

Me...and then the instructor that was holding me in place. I kept plopping down on the ocean floor and couldn't get up cuz of all the weight! Thank goodness for the guy that helped me and propped me back upright.

We were really only under water for 30 minutes, and I definitely had a couple panic attacks, but all I could really do was tell myself "breathe! juuuust breeaathe." =D It was pretty awesome!!