So I've been in Greece for about a week and a half now. The first week was spent in Thessaloniki, where my mom is from, and Halkidiki, which is where we have the new house. We mostly were running around buying furniture and moving in, and my mom and I were running up and down Thessaloniki trying to finalize my Greek citizenship. And as of last Friday, I am a Greek citizen! I have an identity card and my passport will be ready tomorrow. It's a pretty neat feeling, to know that I am now a citizen of Europe.
Last Saturday, I went to Athens and boarded a bus to Pylos to start my archaelogical field school there. Saturday was spent riding the bus for five or six very long hours over the mountainous Peloponnese. It was really sad to see so many burned forests from the fires last summer. Fortunately, the area around Pylos is still very green. It's absolutely beautiful down here. Pylos is located on the Bay of Navarino, which is guarded on one side from the sea by the island of Sphakteria. The town itself is quite lovely. Small and quiet, but charming. I have a view from my hotel room of the bay and can see part of the plateia (town square) too. The plateia is great, with cafes all around, and at night children are always playing (we've started to wonder if they have school in the morning). I really couldn't ask for anything more, especially since we don't have that much free time to begin with.
The people in the program are pretty great too. I think it's around 20-25 students, with 31 people total (including staff). Nobody is too rowdy, everyone is friendly, and everyone is here for an educational experience and enjoys each other's nerdiness. My room mate is also great. She's Greek Canadian, so she and I have a lot in common with the whole Greek background and the struggle to become more "Greek" when we're here but still maintain our own identities which have been shaped by the countries we live in. It is really interesting though - we all started out as strangers, and now we live together, eat together, work together, spend our free time together at the beach or at the plateia - we spend almost every minute of our lives together. Today is the first time in a long time that I've had some time to myself, and that's only because I'm sick and stuck in my hotel room (more on that in a later entry.) But everyone seems to get along and although there are a few people who sort of irritate me, I have to say it's a good group all around.
So in all, it's been good so far and I really couldn't be happier.
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