MISC. & ACS Athens Update

Just a little brief update for you all!

The weather is finally cooling off here and it is feeling so much better! But it has also started raining a lot, after none at all this whole time. On our drive home from IKEA Saturday, our surrounding neighborhood and area was completely flooded. The skies tore open and it was absolutely down pouring! Here are few pictures, attempting to show how crazy it was!

Not too much to write about in regards to my counseling experiences so far, because it has been a lot of finalizing/updating registration, class rosters, and arranging specialists for students who need them. I can't do much with all this because I do not know the students yet, and I do not know or have access to the system used for it. But I have been helping prepare folders for the teachers to learn about their students, and I've been going to a lot of meetings with the counselors and Student Affairs... so I get to sound official with my meetings! Haha. Here I am in my office, at my desk and then with my professional teacher bag that my lovely mom got me! :)

Tomorrow, the counselors (including me) and Office of Student Affairs are having a citizenship assembly with the HIGH SCHOOLERS. We all have to be a part of it. I am with two other counselors, speaking with 105 tenth graders about what citizenship means and what respect is... for an hour. So that should be interesting!

Finally, here are a few more pictures of the last couple of days! To sum up, I LOVE the produce here, I LOVE the views here, and I LOVE the sunsets here! Oh, and I love the random moments/people. Figured I should give some positives after my last homesickness post. :)

That's all for now!

-Brittany

Homesick

Well, it is almost two and a half weeks into my 10 month stay, and I am officially experiencing my first serious case of being homesick. I've been fortunate enough to be able to see and talk to my family almost every day (in some way, shape, or form), and even many of my friends, but I guess with my school year starting up, and seeing everyone else's school years starting up back home, things are finally really setting in.

The majority of my time here so far has felt like a vacation. We arrived, were shown around, had time to relax and settle in, but were also immediately kept fairly busy with new teacher orientation and sight-seeing. It felt similar to the service learning trip to Barbados I went on spring break of my junior year of college. So much to see and do, but also doing service work and observing in the schools. It is only now really setting in that I am here to stay in Athens for more than a vacation/break time span. I know this must sound crazy, because you have all known for some time now that I knew this was going to be a 10 month program... but it has just taken time for me to even believe that this opportunity is real, let alone that it is actually happening.

Last night and today have been particularly difficult for me for many reasons...

First, because I discovered that my younger brother (can't say little anymore since he was beginning to tower over me) was going to be the quarterback, safety, AND kicker for the Cape Cod Tech JV football team... AS WELL AS being the punter for the VARSITY team! And he's only just begun his freshman year there! This, as you can tell, has made me so insanely proud as his big sis, but it also is making me miss him and home terribly. Knowing that I won't be able to see him in any games, or be there in person to pry details of how everything is going out of him (because it is IMPOSSIBLE otherwise) is starting to really upset me.

Also, seeing and hearing about how the Cape is finally slowing back down now that all the crazy tourists are leaving is making me miss it a lot. The times right before and after summer were always my favorite growing up there because the weather was still so nice but it was usually only the locals, enjoying their town and homes before and after the madness occurs/occurred.

I also made the mistake of going through MANY of my pictures on my computer (some of which go way back to around 2005) to compile a folder of pictures of home, Boston, Wheelock, family, and friends to turn into my screen saver collage. While I am happy I did this, and enjoy watching them all go by on my screen, it really got to me just how crazy, scary, and amazing this new chapter in my life is. So many of the pictures came from folders such as, "Summer 2011", "Summer 2012", "Christmas 2009", "Christmas 2010", and "Wheelock freshman-senior years." All of these have been constants in my life, something that would happen every year... everyone else growing and changing, but nevertheless together to celebrate. Even Wheelock, once being a new, exciting chapter, became a steady constant in my life. Going through all of these folders of memories really made me realize how new and intimidating this brand new chapter in my life is. Such a different chapter, that it is actually interrupting old chapters such as Christmas and Wheelock.

Finally, while it is already 9:30 pm here in Athens, my best friend since childhood is getting married right now back home. This has proven immensely difficult for me today. I was asked to be one of her bridesmaids all the way back in December of last year, right after she got engaged. I was so excited and thrilled to be asked to be a part of her special day that I didn't even hesitate to agree. I had no reason to! Then this opportunity of a lifetime came up out of the blue in January. For so long, it seemed just like a slight possibility. An option in a sea of endless options. Then suddenly it became REAL. And the very first thing I thought of and realized is that with the dates they provided us, I would have to leave before my best friend's wedding. I wouldn't be able to be home for it. This absolutely crushed me. I was devastated... and even worse, I was going to have to share this devastation with her. Nothing was more difficult than telling her (after going dress shopping and everything) that I was no longer going to be able to be in her wedding because I would be halfway across the world. Like the true best friend she is, she was nothing but completely supportive and encouraging.

Today, she was able to take time out of her busy morning of preparing to Facetime with me so I was able to still be a part of her big day, in some small way. It is nothing like I dreamed and wish it could have been, but it meant the world to me that I was able to see her and wish her the best of luck. I couldn't keep myself from choking up and crying, then after composing myself and finishing the call, completely losing it. And now, I find myself tearing up yet again... but I will be fine. I am so completely happy for her, and although I will always be disappointed that I could not be there, I will remember that I got to see her and be a little part of her wedding day.

Well now that I have rambled on with my emotion-packed writing for some time now, I am going to call it a night soon. Hopefully some sleep will do me some good.

Sending my love to everyone back home. xoxo
-Brittany

POROS... and a little bit of Parliament

The following pictures are from my incredible weekend getaway to Poros this past weekend. For those that know me, you know how much I love the beach, islands, flowers, palm trees, and gorgeous blue water (and cats, haha). So this was a perfect, relaxing weekend that was much needed before things kick into high gear this week at ACS! 

There are captions related to some of the pictures below, then there are some pictures from our stop at Parliament on our way home from the port. Our sweet, old taxi driver was giving us all a history lesson and told us we had to check out the guards on the way. It was TERRIFYING! They had just finished changing their posts/guards, and then were slamming their guns into the ground when we came close. Apparently this was because they had not quite finished and we had to wait. The third guard fixed the other one's uniform and then we could go up for pictures. It felt really awkward!

Thursday is the first day of school at ACS and things are FINALLY kicking into gear! Things seem to be happening pretty last minute there, but we are realizing that this is apparently how things normally go. None of the teachers were surprised that the four of us girls didn't really have specifics on what exactly we were doing yet. And a lot of the teachers JUST found out where their classrooms were and began setting up today! That blew my mind, especially only a year after my full time practicum where I showed up a week or two in advance to help my teacher prepare the room for the year! But it is all interesting, to say the least, to see how things are done and how they fall into place here.

That's all for now!
-Brittany

Paradise!

Enjoying my "Sex on the Beach"... on the beach!

Where we stayed the night.

The Dream Team out to dinner!

Paradise: Day 2.

This is a kitty we named Earmuff because a piece of the tip of his ear was missing. He was SO sweet and affectionate.

Just call me Cat Lady!

GORGEOUS sunset.

Amazingly fresh, delicious watermelon for dessert!

Clearly, I hated it. ;)

Poros at night!

Quite the outfit they have, right? Our driver kept telling me to get closer but I was too scared after being yelled at by the other guard right before!

Brief Update of Various Topics

Hello again!

Just jumping on this afternoon to update about a few things before I forget.

1) I woke up to tremors from an earthquake today! I looked into it, and it was a 5.6 magnitude quake out in the waters somewhat near Crete (so pretty far from here). My bed shook two separate times for different lengths of time and it really freaked me out! I am still adjusting to sounds and other sense-affecting things here, so my mind didn't immediately jump to earthquake which is why I was so freaked at what else it could have possibly been. Haha. But all is very much well. Absolutely no damage here, just quite an experience to share!

2) It is now REALLY official that I am working at ACS Athens. So that's pretty cool. See?!

3) I just thought I'd share with you all that the whole not throwing the toilet paper into the toilet thing is not as difficult as I thought it would be! It is still definitely very different feeling to me, and still seems a bit weird, but it has been nice to realize that it is not as awful as I worried it would be.

4) As people at the school are already beginning to discuss Thanksgiving vacation plans, it is finally really setting in that this will be my first Thanksgiving away from home. During undergrad, I had missed a couple Easters because timing did not work out, but never a Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can already tell you that I am going to miss all of my family's delicious Thanksgiving foods very much... and all of my family of course! I'm going to have to come up with something fun to do or some place to travel as a way of making myself feel better for not being able to be home!

5) The four of us Wheelock ladies are going to the island of Poros tomorrow morning, spending the night, and then returning late Sunday night as our little getaway for this long weekend. I am so excited! I'm sure I will have lots of pictures to post upon our return. :)

Well I think that's all for now! Emily and I are using leftover pesto pasta and some more amazingly fresh veggies to make a stir-fry for dinner tonight. Yum!

Γειά σας (Yiá sas), that means "goodbye" for now! (Fun fact: It also means hello. Haha.)

-Brittany

The (Almost) One Week Reflection

I feel the need to write briefly before bed tonight because things have finally begun to settle down and fall into place, so I want to share a bit about that.

After the whirlwind extended weekend of island hopping and touring the Acropolis, the past few days have been more about finalizing our documents and getting things in order before the school year begins. It has also allowed us to settle in a bit more into our apartments. We have been frequenting the local supermarkets for meal and snack supplies, but what has been my favorite is going to the corner bakery and the fresh produce stand across the street from the school! I got 2 large apples, a plum, a big nectarine, and a bunch of 5 bananas for only 4 euros the other day! The food is SO delicious here. The only downsides I have come across so far are that bagels aren't really a thing here... they just don't exist. Neither do bags of salted pretzels, only sesame breadsticks. Finally, Greeks do not understand or get what is so great about peanut butter. So I had to pay 5.50 euros for a tiny container of it and it was very upsetting. Needless to say, I will be requesting a care package of various packaged snacks and items I am missing from my family very soon! Haha.

I am currently just a bit concerned by my lack of energy when getting my morning started to get to school for orientation things, and then during the afternoon. It could be for any number of reasons, i.e. the dreadful heat, the long days, the lulls in plans, or that I am still somewhat not fully adjusted to the time here yet even though I feel like I should be.

Finally, I am getting somewhat anxious to really get into what I will be doing and experiencing in the counseling department during this year at ACS. I've gotten a few small, vague insights, but school starts in a week and me being the way I am, I really would like to have more details!

Well, as usual, I am feeling wiped, so I am heading off to bed. But I am going to leave you with a few pictures of the sunset off my front veranda from the other day. Simply beautiful, in my opinion. It hasn't quite set in that this place is my new home for the next 10 months. It still feels like a really cool vacation. That being said, I am definitely really missing home as well. Video chatting with my family has been both so comforting and nice, but also leaves me longing to be there. I am so, so thankful that I am fortunate enough to have wifi to be in frequent contact with them though!

Okay, that's all for now!
-Brittany

P.S. The girls and I just booked a one night, two day stay at Poros this weekend to have a little beach getaway and I am so excited! :)