I’m living in Athens, Greece. It is very very beautiful, but there are many good things and bad things about this city.

Good:

• Gorgeous
• Place where the greatest thinkers lived
• The nightlife is absolutly amazing
• THEY SERVE BEER IN MC DONALDS
• Amazing amazing apartment…4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an entire floor, two balconies, great view.

Bad:

• No internet in the apt
• NO RUNNING HOT WATER in the apt
• The worse drivers on the face of the planet
• Slightly expensive

There’s so much to say about this city, it’s so unique. You can walk anywhere, and the way the metro works, it’s .80 euro to go anywhere. The metro is  a subway system…except clean…like emasculate. And there’s ruins in the metro…they were digging the tunnel systems and came across artifacts…so they left them there.

The weather is so nice, it’s about 70 in the day time and it’s a little chilly in the morning/at night. Because this isn’t their warm season here people walk around in heavy coats.

I’ve taken a ton of pictures so far, I’ve uploaded a few to facebook. I don’t think I will put any here anytime too soon only because of limited internet use. There is free WiFi in Syntagma Square (Constituion square) and it’s beautiful so I have a feeling that’s where I will be spending most of my afternoons.

The drivers here are like any city drivers…except if it’s between a driver or a pedestrian…the driver has (or possibly just assumes) the right away. Traffic lights mean NOTHING. And if a driver runs a red light and youre in the way…he’ll honk and curse at you. Yesterday I saw an old lady come inches away from getting hit by a car and the guy just screamed at her. Oh, and the mopeds rule. They cut down the lines and do whatever they want.

Greek life is pretty sweet. They start their day around 8, but then around 2 all the shops shut down. You eat dinner (which is a big meal) at 2, and then sleep until 5. At 5:30 all the shops open back up. They don’t eat breakfast here. But then between 9-11 they eat their other huge meal. The nightlife doesn’t start until 11…usually even 12, and bars are open til 5 or 7am.

I haven’t been to a beach yet (they’re not very populated yet because it’s still cold to them) but they aren’t very far.
We have two weeks of orientation and then Easter break for two weeks. I’m thinking about going to Rome for Easter. I’ve walked around and seen a lot of the close by things, like the Plaka, and the acropolis, and some ruins. Tomorrow we have an excursion to the acropolis. And this weekend we’re going to Meteora, a monastary up on a huge peak.

There is so much to see here and there’s so much to do. I hope I can update regularly, and possibly organize it a little better than this post.

I’m taking web design and enviromental science. Each of those classes is only 1 day a week, but for 3 hours. Other than that I have Greek language mon-thur for an hour and a half. It’s about a 30 minute walk to the university. It’s not bad because it’s always so pleasant here. But I can take the metro too.