Greece ....& Reflection on My 5 Months in Europe

I just got back from a long, yet fast, relaxing week in Greece. It included beach time, amazing food, more beach, a day trip, a little sickness :(, a birthday, and more beach time. And yes I guess I did have to squeeze a little studying time into there as well. We left last week after most of us had gotten at least one final out of the way. Luckily, we all had this week with no finals scheduled, so 9 of us packed up and flew into Athens on Saturday. One thing is fore sure, I'm glad I'm approaching the end of using the cheap air lines that we use to travel all over Europe. On the way there we had horrible turbulence and the ride was really shaky for a while. People were getting tense, including me, and all it took were the 3 long seconds of what felt like complete free falling through the sky that got the entire flight gasping, a few screams, and people clutching their seats. I was clutching the hand of one of my friends sitting next to me and she even proceeded to have a minor panic attack. It had us all shaken up for the rest of the flight. After getting into Athens, we had to take a train about an hour away to the other coast to a smaller town called Loutraki, which was where our villa was located. The lot it is on is owned by a man who is a dean at a college in Greece, and his daughter is in charge of all the renting of the new villas. It was a really nice place that was a great change from the dorms and usual hostels we stay in. It was about a 2 minute walk from the beach and had a HOT TUB!!! The first few days we just spent on the beach and swimming all day, followed by a dinner out to eat some authentic Greek food. We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding one of the nights as well, which was very fitting. Later on our trip, when we heard a woman being called "Toula", we all had to laugh. We had a day trip/tour that we paid for to Athens one morning for a change, but I wasn't feeling great throughout that previous night and woke up with a fever. So I had to stay back from that and try to get better. Luckily, I was feeling better the next morning. I celebrated my 21st birthday on Friday the 12th along with another girl on the trip whose birthday is the same day. We were surprised with an amazing chocolate cake from a bakery down the road from our villa. On Friday, we took off on a day cruise to two Greek islands, Agistri and Agina. It was great because both were fairly small and had a lot of Greek feel to them. We did swimming, walking around, and shopping on the islands. We would have liked to see the ruins in Agina, but they were closed for the day. Agina was actually the first capital of Greece and the ruins are from the period that it was the capital. It also is known for its great tasting and colorful pistachios that are grown on the island. On our way back, we went through the famous canal in Loutraki and even witnessed a person bungee jumping into it. The scenery and landscape of the country is absolutely breathtaking. If you see pictures that look incredible, it looks 10 times better in person. I'm pretty positive that when I come back to Europe (notice I don't say IF I come back to Europe), I will return to Greece and do more traveling. We originally wanted to stay on a Greek island, but the traveling time is pretty long to get to them and we wanted to get as much relaxation time as possible so we stayed on the mainland. It was a great trip to break up our studying for finals and give us the chance to relax all together before people leave. People are already heading home so it will slowly be getting quieter here in Milan everyday.

It's incredible that my abroad experience here is coming to an end. It's definitely something that has opened my eyes to the other cultures, landscapes, and history in the world. Everything I've seen and learned, not only about the world, but people in general and even myself have given me new outlooks and perspectives on things. In a matter of a few weeks, I will no longer find interest sitting on public transportation intently listening to all of the conversations and trying to piece together the words and make meaning out of what people are saying. It will be weird being surrounded by people all speaking English and not having to try and utter sentences of broken Italian and hand gestures and pointing to get my point across. I'm even a little worried that my English will need a little polishing. What amazes me is that I've only had good experiences and never been turned away from when I say that I can only speak a little Italian. Or I don't speak French or Greek or Dutch, or that my Spanish is a little rusty. People in restaurants, stores, or even everyday people on the street have never turned away, but tried to help and understand and give me direction. I've even had the experience of a group of old ladies trying to include me in their conversations on the tram and still do after I tell them I understand only a little. When I think of people coming to the States, I used to always be so perplexed why people would come to our country and not know any English. Well, now I've been in their shoes. So don't look down upon those who can't speak English very well or those who speak with a heavy accent, and take the time to try and decipher their pointing and grammatically incorrect phrases. Chances are, they have seen more of the world than most of us, which now I believe is much more important and noteworthy than having perfect English. Don't get me wrong, I love the United States and can't wait to come home to all my loved ones. To me it's important to be grounded and have a place to call home and be proud of...but my advice would be to never get set in stone and be willing to take the risk and uproot yourself every once in a while to a new destination. The world is a beautiful place, don't miss out on it.

Auntie Meghan!!!!

Congratulations to my sister and brother-in-law on the birth of their beautiful baby boy, Jack Michael Meinen. A healthy 7lbs. 15 oz. and 20.5 in long, he was born this morning, May 26th, at 2:33 AM. Lucky for me being on Italy time, I was just waking up when labor was just about starting and I got a complete update every so often on my computer and was the first to be able to see the little guy on video cam :) Now I only have to wait about a month until I can see him, hold him, and spoil him for the first time! Congratulations Abbie and Jamie, I'm so happy for you two and the start of your beautiful little family!

My Neighborhood

Even though I only have a little over a month left here, I thought it probably would be nice to put up some pictures of where I spend most of my days and nights. Milan is a large city, but in comparison to big cities in the States, most European cities don't have the large skyscraper buildings that can house hundreds of offices or people, so the city is much more spread out to fit everyone in it. I admit that there are many parts of the city I have never seen, and probably won't. I live on the southern side of the city in an old hotel that was bought by my University and houses all of the International students. It's a bit of a hike from our campus, a 25 minute tram ride to be exact. I'll start explaining in the order of the pictures as they appear. The first picture is leading up to the track that is across the street from my dorm. It's a little over a half mile for just one lap so it's not a normal sized track. On nice days the track will be filled with kids rollarblading, people biking, and a few runners as well. The next picture is of my main source of food - Esselunga. It's the large grocery store ever so conveniently located around the corner from the dorm as well. You can tell you're in Italy when in the grocery stores they have two FULL aisles of just pasta and noodles - no joke it's quite ridiculous. Especially when you go to the cereal aisle and they have maybe a max of 15 cereals to choose from - cereal isn't too big here. The next picture you will see is of a tram. The public transportation here is really nice and they have these trams, buses, and subways. I have to take the tram pretty much everyday when I go into school or downtown. They're nice until they breakdown. I've had some bad luck in the last week with that happening two days in a row and had to do a fair amount of walking in the humid and hot 90 degree weather - yuck! There are apartment buildings surrounding the dorm and the next picture shows the one I see when looking out from my balcony. They are very into their plants and flowers which give color and privacy for them. Some of the buildings are nicer than others though. Next you will see pictures of my dorm building. The first one is a look at it from the park nearby. It is the greyish looking building on the right. The park is nice because it's tons of green space that is perfect for sitting out and working on homework in. And it almost feels like you're not in a city, especially with the farmland that lies on the other side. The next picture is a better shot of the dorm. It's a pretty large building and could look nice, but they don't do much to it. And the excessive amount of graffiti on the walls make it look a little trashy as well. Graffiti is everywhere in Milan. It's one of my main complaints about the city because it would look so much prettier and appealing without it. Finally, there are some pictures of my room. The first ones are of my room which, I have to comment about how it may look messy, especially with the tshirt hanging and drying - I went running the morning I took these and it was raining so I was drying it. The glass doors open up to a balcony that I share with my roommate. Also I share the small kitchen area with my roommate. And now you have an idea of where I've been living for the past 4 months. At the moment, I've taken time off from traveling and am studying for classes and exams. My last week of classes is this week and then finals start in June. The weather has been almost to the point of uncomfortable lately. It gets really hot, but on top of the the humidity is always between 80 and 100% so it seems even hotter than it is. This weekend has been up to the mid-90's and has stayed in the mid-80's until like 9 or 10 at night. I've been blasting my AC all week. Once we get a little into next week, it's supposed to drop from the 90's back to 80's so I'm looking forward to that.
Keep your eyes peeled because I'm hoping to post a new entry as soon as my nephew is born, which for my sister's sake, I hope is soon....but really I don't mind him taking a while longer to show up because then he won't be as old when I first get to meet him. Sorry Abbie but it's true:) Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Amsterdam

Happy Monday everyone! I returned from Amsterdam yesterday and like I've said probably after every trip I've gone on, I had a great time and loved the city. Most of my pictures are of buildings because I absolutely loved them. Weather wise, we didn't have the best weekend because it was rainy and pretty cool, but I must say I didn't mind the break from the hot sun and humid days we have had and returned to back in Milan. We arrived on Thursday night and headed to our hostel which, get this, was a boat. Yea, Amsterdam actually has more canals than Venice and they have tons of ports that cargo ships dock on and some have been turned into hostels. Ours was named Christina and usually takes groups on trips around Holland, and then when not traveling , it docks and sets up as a hostel. It was small and cozy rooms, but we enjoyed it and it was perfect for us since we were pretty much only in the rooms to sleep at night. Like the Dutch town of Cedar Grove that I come from, I saw tons of wooden shoes, windmills, tulips, and unfortunately, many streets and names that contained "Oost" in them :) Unlike the Dutch town of Cedar Grove though, Amsterdam is an incredibly liberal city having the Red Light District and the smell of the very legal drug there, marijuana, lingering in many coffee shops. Differences apart though, it was interesting seeing the culture. We started out our Friday by walking the streets in the rain and taking a canal cruise throughout the city. Bikes are EVERYWHERE. They have their own roads and traffic lights as well. All of the houses there are pretty narrow and have small stairwells so the buildings are built with hooks on the top , able to enable a makeshift pulley system that they still use to this day for moving and getting large things to the upper apartments. Many buildings are built slanted forward as well so that as you pull things up, they don't scrape against the side of the building on the way up - those Dutch, pretty smart people. There are also a lot of floating houses on the water. They are incredibly expensive, and despite their rather run-down exteriors, we did some peeping while on our canal cruise and whooooa they are pretty nice inside. We then went to the Anne Frank House and saw the annex where she and her family were in hiding for 2 years before getting betrayed and turned over to the Nazis. (It's the middle building in the 3rd picture from the top) I really appreciated seeing this because I read Anne's diary as a little girl and have still, to this day been amazed at her story. It was chilling seeing the place where it all took place and then hearing her father's story of coming back for the first time, being the only survivor of the family, and reading Anne's diary. From there we had dinner and had a few drinks at some bars. We strolled through the Red Light District just to see what all the fuss was about and yikes, it was pretty disturbing. Women in ALL different sizes and sadly, all different ages, some waaaay too young in very minimal clothing standing in windows. It was disturbing just because it's hard to fathom any woman selling herself that short. So that was probably the least thing I liked about the city. The next day though, we headed out and stopped at a flea market and later a flower market. I really wanted to buy some tulip bulbs, but I asked and they said I wouldn't be able to take them back to the U.S. After that we went to the Van Gogh Museum and I got to see the original of my favorite painting - Starry Night. Enjoyed that, and then we all did a very American thing, and ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I can honestly say that I've never been to one, so it was my first time. It only fit for the evening because we followed it by getting tickets to a comedy show, "Boom Chicago". It was a show in English that made comparisons between the Dutch and America and it was actually really funny. That was pretty much the end of our trip then because we left early the next morning for Milan. On my flight back, I sat next to a man from Amsterdam and I started telling him about the small Dutch town I'm from; our annual Hollandfest and growing up Klompen dancing. He thought this was great and even thought that he had heard of Cedar Grove?! I told him our neighboring town was called Oostburg and he absolutely loved that, especially that it had kept the original Dutch spelling. He said he's going to have to try and make it over to Cedar Grove/Oostburg sometime.
Anyways, enjoy the pictures and I'm off to study for my classes while most everyone else back home is enjoying the beginning days of summer :( Ciao ciao!

Barcelona

I'm back from a long weekend away to Barcelona, Spain. Me, along with 4 other girls, flew into the city on Thursday night and stayed until Monday morning. Our first day was consisted of laying out on the beach for the day. We got there early and took a few breaks for lunch and walks but enjoyed soaking in the rays for the majority of the day. While we preferred to keep our suits on, a lot of women prefer the "no tan-lines" look and went around the beach topless. One older woman, unfortunately for us, took post right in front of us in nothing but a G-string bottom - yikes! While we were there we were approached by a girl going out and recruiting people for a bar crawl that night and so we signed up. According to the girl, they usually get about 45 people a night; well that night they had quite a few less...only 11 of us total. We went to 3 bars and then ended our night at a huge club on the beach. It was fun but we all agreed, not worth all the money we had to pay. My first few nights at the hostel we stayed at I didn't get much sleep due to an old guy that was also in our large room. His snoring was like a fog horn. Sleeping with my fingers in my ears didn't even drone out the noise. The night of the bar crawl we didn't get home til around 5am...I'm still catching up on sleep.
Anyways, our next two days were mainly sightseeing. We went on an informative walking tour of the city and got a lot of history. Basically, Barcelona was hardly on the map until they started preparing for hosting the Olympics in 1992 and now it's one of the most popular vacation and visited cities in the world. All the beaches that they are known for weren't there before the Olympics, they were man-made by shipping tons and tons of sand over from the Sahara desert. So technically...I've buried my my feet in the Sahara! We also spent a day doing mainly Gaudi sights. Gaudi is the famous architect from the city that started the Sagrada Familia church there. This church was absolutely exquisite. Construction started in 1882 and it still isn't finished. Gaudi was a very "out-of the-box" designer and the inside is supposed to resemble a forest almost. The inside hardly has much done, but we could catch the foresty sense already. It's doubtful that it will be done in my lifetime, but I think it'd be amazing to take a trip back there in 50 years and see how much progress they've made. Gaudi also designed a few apartments in the city which stand out and are pretty different. We ended by visiting the park that, again, was designed by Gaudi himself. For all my America's Next Top Model girls, it's where the final runway show was held during the season of Melrose and Carrie D :) We spent a few of our nights at the Traveler's Bar which was down the street from our hostel. Barcelona is a gorgeous city, but its one downfall is the number of pickpocketing that goes on. We were in McDonald's late one night (I know McDonalds? really? it's open late, that was our excuse.You wouldn't believe how popular it is here in Europe - and expensive!!!) and one of my friends was just finished ordering and we noticed a guy (nicely dressed mind you) standing close next to her and someone told her how creepy it was. She turned towards him and caught him with his hand in her purse grabbing her wallet. She screamed luckily, slapped his hand and he freaked out, didn't get anything and took off out of Mickey D's. That was our last night there though, and we made it through the trip without anything taken. I feel like I just got back from Barcelona, and now I have to start packing and I take off for Amsterdam tomorrow. I'll have more pics from there and I also will add some pics soon hopefully of my neighborhood, dorm, and room for all you to see where I've been spending my days here in Milan. Enjoy the pics! Ciao from Italy.