Traveler – Page 10 – It Is Trish

First Day at Greek School

January 18, 2016January 18, 2016Trish1 Comment

I have started my month-long intensive Greek lessons! It’s in downtown Athens, which means it takes about 1.5 hours to get there. There’s a bus very near the school where I’m staying, which takes about 40 minutes to get to the metro station. I get on the blue line, and ride that for another 30 minutes or so to Syntagma Square. I exit aboveground at the place where, eight years ago, I rang handbells for a crowd in front of the Parliament building. From there, I walked through the National Gardens, exit near the Olympic Stadium, and walk up a sweat-producing hill (altogether about 25 minutes) to the Athens Centre.

The blue line is my walk from Syntagma to the Centre. The red blobs are tourist destinations.

I arrived at the Centre with enough time to fill out a registration form and grab a cup of free coffee. I wasn’t really nervous about the class, but I was…on edge? Ready to be nervous? But I think I’m finally experienced enough that I can walk into an unknown situation with new people and not immediately hyperventilate. Of course, it helped that the Centre is small, beautiful, and comfortable. There’s a fun view of the Acropolis from the roof. Continue reading →

Culture Shock

January 18, 2016January 17, 2016TrishLeave a comment

GEM, my sending organization, sent a great email about culture shock the other day. I’d learned about the process while living it in Senegal six years ago, and knowing that what I was feeling was normal helped SO MUCH in not feeling awful or insane. Before I moved to Greece, I told people that I anticipated the same sort of cycle to occur:

In January, I will be motivated, excited, and overwhelmed. In February, I will become sullen and withdrawn as reality hits and I process the fact that this is not a vacation and I am not going “home” anytime soon. In March, someone will visit me, and I will get to show off my new home to them while simultaneously rejoicing in my new role as Not the Dumbest One Around. In April and May, I will settle into my new life and start to take ownership of my routine, friends, and living situation. After that…I don’t know, because I left Senegal after five months. Continue reading →

A Week in Greece #1: Everything is New

January 16, 2016February 7, 2018Trish2 Comments

It’s been a week! Well, it’s been a week since I left the United States, though tomorrow will be my official in-country anniversary. But soon it will have been so long that those differentiations will be meaningless, which is one of the weirdest things I’m going through right now: constantly re-configuring my brain so that I remember this is not a week-long trip. I live here. One week down, fifty-ish more to go.

That doesn’t make me scared or anything, it’s just weird. After all, I’ve never really been one to get homesick (although I have stared sullenly into the darkness at night, wishing Rory’s tiny paws would push my arm around for optimal snuggling). I feel okay about this being more than a vacation, it’s just….weird! Continue reading →

Oh Hey, Friday! 5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GREEK AND US CULTURE

January 15, 2016January 14, 2016Trish1 Comment

Oh Hey Friday & 5 on Friday

My first Oh Hey, Friday! in Greece. This is a link-up from September Farm and 5 on Friday from A. Liz Adventures, and I figured a listicle was a great way to address some of the differences I’ve noticed about daily life since moving to Greece. I’ll probably do this again on another Friday, because Lord knows there are more than five differences.

5 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GREEK AND US CULTURE

1| Where the Toilet Paper Goes

As a U.S. citizen, I was raised with relatively recent plumbing and could therefore flush toilet paper without a second thought. Not so in Greece, whose sewer pipes are 2 inches in diameter (as opposed to 4 inches in the U.S) and were created centuries before the invention of toilet paper. So in Greece, every toilet has a little wastebin next to it. You wipe, then throw it away.

Some people on trips to Greece (or Turkey, or Mongolia, or anywhere with a culture older than ours) freak out about this. It doesn’t really bother me, since traveling inspires in me an “oh well” attitude toward unusual bathroom habits (see my story about going to the bathroom in Mongolia: Tricia Accepts the Inevitability of Peeing in Public). After all, the wastebins have lids, so you’re not looking at used toilet paper while you brush your teeth. And I have a room to myself, so it’s only my own filth, and I can throw out the bag any time I want.

For me, the problem is in remembering to toss the TP in the wastebin. But it’s been five days now, and I’m nearly at a 100% success rate. Continue reading →

Grocery Shopping in Pikermi

January 12, 2016January 12, 2016TrishLeave a comment

Part of the excitement of traveling is that daily tasks become opportunities for bravery. I slept through the school’s breakfast, so I walked to Cafe Veneti for coffee. Just saying, “espresso americano,” staring blankly at the cashier when she asked me something, then assuring her I had euros when she changed the bill to dollars, took a lot out of me. But I did it! I get to feel proud of myself for ordering coffee – what a world. Next door was a medium sized grocery store (apparently they get bigger the further you walk from the school).

Screen Shot 2016-01-11 at 12.46.54 PM — View courtesy of Google Maps

Although a grocery store is a grocery store is a grocery store, there were some differences between shopping in Pikermi and running to Kroger in the United States. Continue reading →

I’m Packed!

January 6, 2016January 7, 2016Trish2 Comments

There’s nothing I like more than packing and planning ahead, so of course three days before I’m due to fly out, I’ve got my suitcases filled and stacked by the doorway. They were even under 50 lbs on my first try!

When I tell people I’ve got to pack a year’s worth of possessions into two suitcases, most people furrow their brows and look sad for me. They are so wrong! I LOVE IT. I love moving and having the opportunity to choose the things I really like, abandoning everything else. I love leaving holes in my possessions, looking forward to the things I’ll buy in Greece (shampoo and boots). I love the feeling of knowing that I can fit my life into two suitcases, a backpack, and a computer bag. It makes me feel free. Continue reading →

Packing for a Year in Greece: Entertainment

January 4, 2016January 7, 2016TrishLeave a comment

Based on this blog, it should be obvious that I take entertainment very seriously. Ingesting stories is how I grow and/or stay alive. So when it comes to preparing to move to Greece, the majority of my planning has revolved around books and media.

The one problem? I have to pack a year’s worth of possessions into two suitcases and a backpack. While I would LIKE to take two suitcases full of books, even I know that is impractical. So I’ve improvised. Continue reading →

Looking Back on 2015: Travel!

December 29, 2015December 26, 2015TrishLeave a comment

The highlight of 2015 was definitely all the traveling I did.

I went to Athens, Greece in March
I explored New Orleans and kayaked through a swamp in May
I went to Disney World with my family and danced with the Beast in July
I spent the entire month of October roadtripping around the United States, staying with friends and seeing new sights in my self-named #32DaysInMyCar
I took a three-day-long train to Seattle to spend Thanksgiving with my brother
I bonded with my mom in New York City (and saw Hamilton!) in December

You can read more about each of those trips in my Recent Trips page.

Screen Shot 2015-11-19 at 6.40.36 PM — The states I visited in 2015.

All told, I went to 26 states in 2015. Half the country! Just this year!

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to beat that number again.

Hmmm…challenge accepted.

Did you go anywhere awesome this year? Leave a comment and tell me about your favorite trip of 2015!

I’m Officially Moving to Greece!

December 23, 2015Trish1 Comment

As of yesterday, all of my paperwork is in place, and I am set to move to Greece in just seventeen days!

stay calm

I thought that fundraising was hard, but the last couple months of visa-planning and document-acquiring have driven me up a wall. Maybe someday I will write a blog post about what a headache it is to get a student visa, but right now I’m still feeling the emotional headache and I don’t want to relive a second of it. (That’s not true, I totally want to complain about it all the time.)

Now I have my passport, my visa, and my one-way flight itinerary. I AM MOVING TO GREECE. I always knew I was, but also….I worried. Moving to another country is too good to be true, so something was bound to keep me from it, right? But it turns out that I CAN have good things, and I intend to enjoy this one as much as possible.

The next couple weeks will be a whirlwind of last-minute purchases, packing, and goodbyes. It’s going to be crazy, but I am so excited. It’s happening!!

The Rest of my NYC Trip (told via pictures)

December 15, 2015December 15, 2015TrishLeave a comment

Last week I went on a mother/daughter trip to New York City. I’ve already written lengthy posts about the ecstatic joy of seeing Hamilton (and meeting the cast) as well as the surprise opportunity to attend Seth Meyer’s monologue rehearsal. Although I don’t have quite as much to say about everything else that happened, I still want to share what a December trip to Manhattan can look like. So in lieu of words, I will mostly rely on pictures!

DAY 1