Athens: City University and Orientation

Hello friends and family! Ya su! After departing from Washington Dulles on Monday afternoon, we arrived in Paris very early Tuesday morning, and then flew to Athens, arriving around 5:00 local time. I was very grateful for having managed to fit all of my things into one suitcase, a large backpack and my messenger bag, as trying to get off the large bus which transported us all into downtown Athens and get all of our luggage out without being able to pull over onto a side road was quite entertaining. My good friend Amy Skinner and I were able to do some rearranging as to be in the same apartment, and are sharing a room this semester in Athens!

After dropping off our luggage, our program director, Aphrodite, took us to dinner in a typical Greek taverna. The food was amazing! The tsatzeki was probably the best I've ever had, as was the feta cheese, tomato, onion and green pepper salad for starters. I think everyone slept well the first night, since we were all so tired. Yesterday, the 23rd, we had our first day of orientation, with crash Greek phrases, and tips about how to live successfully in Athens.

The walk to the University takes me around 35 mintues... hopefully this time will be cut later on in the semester when I've been walking more! Today all the girls from my apartment walked down for orientation together, arriving 5 min early ;-) and we had a few more hours of orientation. Amy and I at least are planning on walking back to the apartment for a siesta, and then exploring the monastiraki area this afternoon/evening. We received our food allowance yesterday, and I am trying desperately to live off as little food as possible so I can travel as much as possible! All the girls from our apartment went shopping last night... unfortunately I had to use some of my food money for shampoo and body wash, as I'd only brought travel sizes of those basic items. Oh well...

Plans to visit an open air market near our apartment tomorrow morning before orientation... fresh fruits and vegtables, flowers etc. Miss you all! Hope all of you are well.

By the way, if you want to send anything to me, (preferably just letters, as apparently packages are quite an ordeal to receive over here) I have an updated/better address.

Joanna Barnhouse
City University of Seattle
1 Karitsi & Kolokotroni str.
Syntagma, Athens
105 61 Greece

Stay tuned for more info!