Semester Overseas

While I am in Porto Rafti, Greece I am staying at the Artemis Hotel, which is owned by Harding University. I live in one of the apartments with another girl. It has an entry room, living room, bathroom, balcony, bedroom, and kitchen. The entry room has a table and three chairs and I sometimes use it to study and usually keep my laptop there. The living room has a couch, three chairs, a television on a mini fridge, and a bunk bed. Don’t ask me why the bunk bed is there, because I have no idea. At first we wanted to get rid of the bunk bed, but now I like to use it for taking naps or reading books. The bathroom has a sink, shower, toilet, and some towel racks. There was a little stool in the shower, but we placed it outside the bathroom to hold a stack of extra towels. The shower always fills up with water and to have warm water I have to remember to turn on the water heater, especially since the switchboard is outside the bathroom. We aren’t allowed to flush toilet paper in Greece so we also have a little trashcan. The kitchen serves a dual purpose to store food and dishes and to do our hair. It has three counter spaces, a kitchen sink, a full size fridge, and a four-plate hot plate, lots of dishes and tons of cabinets. We store our cleaning supplies below the sink and in one of the cabinets we store all of our hair supplies, since the kitchen has the best plug-in for our hair dryer, straitener, and curling iron. The bedroom has two beds, two small nightstands (one with a built-in radio), a large wardrobe with lots of storage, and a desk with a mirror. The bedroom and living room both have sliding glass doors that lead out to the balcony. The balcony has a table with two chairs, and a flower planter that runs the length of the balcony. The room has marble floor (pink-brown color) and white walls. All the beds have orange comforters and the curtains are multiple colors, but mainly orange.
The rest of the Artemis consists of a lounge area, dining area, kitchen, pool, veranda, gym, entryway, two classrooms, basketball court, and ping-pong table (a favorite hang-out place for many).
It is a very cool place to call home for the semester!

Last weekend my group went on a Grecian cruise. At that point in time we only had gone to five days of classes, so we joked that those five days were "so difficult" we needed a cruise to relax. We visited the islands of Mykanos, Patmos, Crete, and Santorini and Ephesus in Turkey. In Ephesus we got to see what remains of the ancient city including the third largest library of the ancient world. Apparently very different from our own libraries, because everyone read aloud making it a noisy place. In Mykanos and Santorini we were free to do what ever we wanted, so my roommate and I explored and took some cool pictures. At Santorini I chose to take the cable cars up instead of a donkey and I walked the some 800 steps down. At Crete we saw the ancient city of Knossos, but I felt dizzy and sick during that tour, so my roommate took photos for me. It was also the first time Crete had seen rain since April. On the island of Patmos, we went to the cave that is considered to be the location where John received the Revelation. The trip altogether was wonderful. The islands are very beautiful and scenic, the Greece that you see in movies. I plan to write later about the everyday occurrences around Porto Rafti.

~*Emily*~
.

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world. ~John le Carre

So for the semester I have traded in the desk and now the world is my classroom. Well at least Greece, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, and several European countries will be my "desk" for the next three months. Although to justify the semester we do also have to take courses, many of which provide information useful to the places we will be visiting. In thirty minutes our group will be preparing to go to Cape Sunion and see the Temple of Poseidon. This is our first excursion out of our immediate vicinity. I am very excited. When I visited Sunion last summer, we couldn't stay for the sunset (I had to take pictures of the beautiful sunset from the moving bus), because the next day we were leaving on boat for Naples and needed to get some sleep. Since it is September, and not June the sun should set earlier. It is very beautiful outside and I have heard from the local Pharmacist that we are in for a treat when Autumn sets in and the leaves change color. I have to leave soon for Sunion, but more stories to come...