GREECE!

Okay...im importing my old xanga from my semester in Greece:

Enjoy???

Saturday, January 22, 2005

I'm Truly, Actually, Really in Greece!! Hey guys! Well, I have now been in Greece for 3 days, and in classes for 2 days! The country is absolutely beautiful! Yesterday we took a tour of the city and I really started to realize that I am actually living here! Then last night I made my first official trip to the store! Like 10 people went, so it was fun, and of course the dogs followed us. We have these dogs that bum outside the hotel and every time someone leaves they follow you. It's kinda weird, but kinda feels a little like protection too. The hotel here is beautiful. Never realized before that "The Artemis," which is the name of our hotel, actually has many meaning having to do with fertility. So basically I am staying at the hotel of fertility. Interesting name for a Harding hotel huh? =) But anyway, I am headed off to my first Greek class! Woohoo! More to come another time! Love and God bless, Katie Monday, January 24, 2005 Hey guys! How's it goin? I am still loving Greece so much! Yesterday we got to go into Athens for the first time. We left around 9am and rode the bus to Athens. Then we took the Subway to the House of Parliament. At the house of parliament we watched the changing of the guards. It was pretty cool. Their uniforms were pretty interesting. It's actually really neat seeing the difference when you go to different countries. Anyway, after we saw that Mr.Myhan took us around town some and just showed us the main places to in town so we would have just a little idea of where we were going later on. So after a while of walking around and showing us a few of the big places, Mr.Myhan let us head out on our own and face the world. =) Haha, but anyway, we walked all around the Plaka. Well, first we ate lunch. I had a gyro for the first time. A chicken one. It was very yummy! And cheap. A gyro and a bottle of water cost me 2 Euros. Oh yeah! So after that we went to this shop for this guy called "The Sandlemaker." He is in his 70's and Mr.Myhan said he is pretty famous. He makes the sandles for the people who run the Olympic torch every 4 years. He also said that he has made sandles for the Beetles, Barbara Stressiand (sp?), and others. And they are cute, simple, but cute. I think I'm gonna get some. And the old man was so nice. We took pictures with him. =) So after that we walked around some more and just wandered all over the city. It is a really cool city. It's just sad b/c everything is so expensive right now because the American Dollar is worth nothing over here right now. But ya know, stuff happens. We walked all around the Agora and saw all these ruins. It was really cool, but on Tuesday we are going to be touring there so we actually know what stuff is. I absolutely love it here. I'm actually learning to read Greek too. The only problem is that I dont know what anything means. Then after we all met at Starbucks (There is a Starbucks and a McDonalds in Athens!) and went to church. It was really different not having church in a big building, etc, but in the top floor of a little building on the side of the road. But the spirit of the people there couldn't be topped. Throughout the day they have service in 4 languages (Greek, Bulgarian, Russian, English) and out service is 6-8 at night. It was a really good service. The prayer before the Lord's Supper was in English, Greek, Albanian, Bulgarian, and a guy from Sudan. It was so cool and such a cultural experience. Everyone was so happy to have us there. And every week they stay around afterwards and fellowship and have cookies and juice. It's such a wonderful experience. Anyway, after that we went home. Everyone was so tired and we all pretty much passed out when we got back. Today we just had classes and wandered around Porto Rafti for a couple of hours. Tomorrow we are touring a bunch of historical sites in Athens, so I will have more to update then. Anyway, I'm headed out now. Sorry for so much rambling, I am just so in awe of everything here and love this cultural experience I am getting so much! Anyway, to all of you who read this, Love and God bless. Have a wonderful day! Bye!

Thursday, February 03, 2005

	Currently Playing Disney's Greatest Hits By Various Artists see related Today is a wonderful day! We just had ziti w/ ricotta and red sauce, meatballs, caesar salad, bread, and individual little apple pies! Did I meantion I love it here?! Anyway, that's all for now. God bless, Katie
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Hey! Well, we just got back from a deli shop and the sweet shop. Josh and I shared a piece of cake...mmmm.... But I'll start from last time I wrote. On monday night the girls had our second accountability group meeting, and it was really great. We sang some and then we all shared where we felt we were spiritually and anything else we felt like sharing (like where we felt God was leading us right now, etc), and it was really great. It really helps you understand all the girls better. I really think that it is going to be a really good experience for us to see how we all grow and change through our experiences throughout the semester. But it ended up lasting until almost 1 in the morning, so we definitely need to start earlier next time. Today was a good day. I had classes and everything, and I got a 100 on my humanities test. Then I did some homework for tomorrow. It was a really pretty day so Josh and I decided to go for a walk around good ol' Porto Rafti, which was a really good idea until we were 30 minutes away from the school and it started raining, so we had to walk back quickly. That happens a lot around here though, so I'm getting used to it. And I talked to my mommy for a little while today! Yay! Anyway, I better get down to the homework...but I love you all and am praying for you! God bless, Katie

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Monday, January 31, 2005

Hello again! Well, it had been a few days since I have happened, but tons has happened since then, so this could be long. Don't worry, I won't be offended if you get bored and don't want to read all of it, but I just love talking about what is going on here! I am having such wonderful experiences that I know I will always remember. Anyway, last Friday we had our second tour around Athens. First we went to the Greek Agora, and there are lots of ancient monuments there with so much history behind them; including the Temple of Hephaestus (sp?) which is the best preserved Temple in Greek. I could go on and tell you all about time periods and different kinds of columns, friezes, etc, but I won't. Anyway, after that we walked past the Library of Hadrian (he was rich) to the Roman Forum. There Bryan got in trouble from the lady b/c he posed in a picture where he looked like he was trying to climb the column. We're only allowed to stand there and look pretty for pictures, sad huh? Then we went to the Stoa museum. It was all very interesting, but by then my legs were yelling at me from standing. We do lots of walking and standing around here, which is good seeing as how we also do lots of eating. Speaking of eating, we headed to lunch after that and had a restaurant reserved for us in the Plaka again. We had salad, fries, and some kind of souvlaki with a pita. No dessert this time, but I survived. haha. After lunch we uhhh....I can't remember right now. I'm mixing up tuesday and friday. Oh yeah, so then we went to the National Archaelogical Museum and learned about all the different time periods in Greek history. Then we headed back to school! Saturday we had classes and I did homework. We had a pizza, ice cream, and movie night. It was nice to relax. Sunday morning 15 of us went a couple miles down to road to visit a Greek Orthodox Church for our Humanities class. It was definitely an interesting experience. They did this incense thing, and kissed this bread. I would have understood if better if it had been in English, but it was still very different from everything I'm used to. It was absolutely beautiful outside and inside though. Anyway, after that some people went back to school for a while, but 6 of us decided to go straight from Markopolou (sp?) to Athens. The first time I've caught a bus without the teachers with us, and it wasn't even out of our city! And we even caught the right metro/subway in Athens to get to the Plaka! I'm becoming so domesticated. On the bus to Athens we had a funny experience though, but it's probably one of those "you had to have been there" experiences. Anyway, the guy who has comes by to give you the bus tickets just happened to be fascinated with Americans. First thing he asks is "You know team San Antonio Spurs?" His English isn't perfect by any means, but it's definitely better than my Greek. It was funny. Anyway, he just talked to us the whole way to Athens, and he gave us all nicknames. He told Bryan that he was a snake because Bryan couldn't underdtand him through his accent. He said that Michelle is a laughing girl, Josh is quiet (little does he know) and I'm a twin to his Greek friend, therefore I am Greek. I'm greek? Haha, I'm definitely the furthest thing from Greek with my light brown hair and blue eyes, but hey, I'll take what I can get. So once we were in Athens some of the guys went to the Acropolis to take pictures because it was a sunny day, and us gals, and Josh, went shopping. Carol and I got sandals from the Sandal maker. They are all authentic and leather, and the guy was sitting there making some while we were getting sized for ours and everything. It was really cool. And I really like my sandals. Then we met the guys for lunch and ate gyros. Then we walked all around the city some more, just kind of wandering and in and out of shops. I ended up getting a couple other things. I got a little something for my parents (sorry, can't say, because they read this), and a T-shirt, and some worry beads (it's a Greek thing, and it's actually more for men, but I thought it would remind me of Greek culture. And I got some with girly colors). Other people bought some things too, but I can't remember everything. So after we had been walking from basically 7:30am to 4:30pm (except for the Greek Orthodox service for an hour) we went to starbucks where our group always meets up and I got a white chocolate mocha! It was wonderful! Then our group left starbucks at 5:15 to go to church. Then we came home and I lots of homework to do. So now it is monday, and I really need to get to my homework, but I'm hoping to have to time to update one more time before Egypt!!! Well, Love you all! God bless. And since you spend the time reading about my life, feel free to let me know about anything going on in your (anything I can pray for, or even just fun things to hear. I miss you all.) Well, I'm out! Gotta go study study study. Bye!

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Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Yesterday was a great day!...though most days are around here! I got up early and first thing I got to talk to my parents. 6:45am here, 10:45 pm there, weird... Anyway, so we went to Athens and got to go on a tour of the Acropolis which was really cool. We saw the Parthenon and many other temples. Our tourguide was wonderful and gave us lots of great insights. Then we went over the Mars Hill and on top of it Jordan read the passage from Acts 17 that Paul spoke from the hill. It was really neat. Then we sang some songs and prayed and stuff. I noticed a couple who was about to leave stopped and stayed to listen when we did that, then talked to the Myhans afterwards. It was pretty cool. After that we went to lunch at this cute little Greek restaurant in the Plaka in Athens. It was great! We had vegetable soup, salad, chicken souvlaki, and ice cream. Talk about a filling meal. We filled the whole restaurant too, which was pretty neat. Anyway, after that we toured around Athens (got to see the old and new olympic stadiums which was really neat), among other things. We took a cable car up to this tall peak (after walking hundreds of stairs...didnt really see the point in the cable car ). But at the top we got to see an amazing view of the city. Then we came home, had dinner, relaxed etc. Then some of us went to the Sweet shop a couple blocks from the school. They have yummy yummy sweets there. And we were trying to speak to the guy in Greek (he spoke some English) and he was laughing at us, but it was all in fun. So we came back and had tea time. More homework...then sleep. All in all it was a wonderful day! Today has started well too. I got an 11 out of 10 on my Biblical Archaelogy quiz today! (one extra question, and it was great compared to the Paul quiz yesterday, haha). But anyway, great day so far! Hope you are all having a wonderful day as well. Love ya! God bless!

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Monday, January 24, 2005

	P.S. At church last night we learned how to sing "I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart" in Greek. It was so much fun! Well, I'm out! Bye!
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