Alrighty folks, I’m trying to squeeze this in before I go to sleep. 

This week was particularly interesting because I am getting over the fact that I feel like I have just been here for a long vacation and I am trying to adjust to life here for 3 weeks. Everyday I wake up and think I am going to go home soon, but I REALLY am just here for 3 months. It’s true that Thessaloniki feels like a big village or a small city. There’s plenty to do, but it’s small enough that I have done most of the “touristy” things in the first couple of weeks. 

Classes officially began on Monday and while the content is easy, it’s been a weird week of finding my crowd, becoming more comfortable with being around other people all the time and confidently travelling around by myself. 

I was able to introduce myself to my professors and get a taste of the sunsets on the bus ride home. The campus is really really small and coming from AU I think I have a monopoly on small campuses. The building where all of our classes are is two stories and the other building I spend a lot of time is the Bissell Library, a short flight of stairs gets you to the upper part of campus which houses the high school and a tiny gym. I was only mildly impressed by the campus until I saw on Thursday morning, the fog that covers the city of Thessaloniki. From our campus, you can see the clouds since we’re on a hill. Wow, the closest I’ve seen something like that was when I hiked Old Rag Mountain my freshman year. 

I am getting slightly sick of Greek food. There really isn’t much variety here. I am slowly starting to crave Korean food more than I thought. This week I was able to cook a meal with my roommate, Vicky, and try different things as much as possible. I have a few more trips planned, so I am excited to update you on my experience in different European countries! 

On a sadder note, I can really see the economic strain that Greece has been through. A lot of the stores had been shut down, there are people working low wages, and the maintenance of historic sites can no longer be funded by the Greek government so they are often covered with graffiti. This is when I noticed that for the people I saw studying abroad in the past their pictures may have depicted beautiful sites, it could have actually been a rigid environment and not as beautiful as I could have imagined. I realized I need to unlearn a lot of the things I view as normal and take a step back and see that I am seeing many things through an American lens.

Here I am catching up on journaling in the TOMS Flagship cafe here in Thessaloniki. Thanks for reading until here.

Until next week,

JLee

BIG TAKEAWAYS FROM WEEK 2:

-The more cultured you are, the more understanding you become of the world. This may seem obvious, but I am seeing it firsthand with people who are politically incorrect, not because they are bigots, but they don’t know any better. It doesn’t make it justifiable though. 

-You set your own standards.

-You don’t HAVE to do everything. I think I wanted to achieve everything on my list so urgently, that I got overwhelmed. Once I gave myself time to just take everything in and not a price tag to how much 24 hours would cost me, I was able to breathe and just fall into a more comfortable routine. 

-Greeks stare….a lot. Oddly enough, it reminds me of old Korean people who stare not to be rude but because they are curious.