Manny has arrived in Greece!

Tuesday, January 08, 2008 – 12:23AM (Athens time—7 hours later than Eastern Time)

So, I’ve made it to Greece, in one piece, with both of my suitcases AND my carryon! Hurray! The first flight at 3:45PM EST on Sunday went well (I got lucky and was in the Emergency Exit row [extra leg space] AND a window seat!!), but I don’t remember it much because I was passed out for about 6 of the 7 hours of it (not sleeping much the night before paid off, considering I’m now well adjusted to the Athens time zone) …I don’t remember everything from that first flight experience …except the stupid security at Detroit’s Metro Airport decided to confiscate my Simpsons Duff “Beer” Energy Drink that I had in my carryon bag because you can’t bring liquids with you, and I was upset because I had just stuck it in there between getting out of the car after being dropped off by Mom, Dad, & Elaine and going through security. And what else REALLY irked me was the fact that the guy who confiscated it was like “Where did you get this?! It’s really cool!” and proceeded to laugh among his fellow security guys, and probably ended up drinking it…. that little………! But eating a Hani and cheese fries at the National Coney Island at the McNamara Terminal at DTW somewhat made things better :)

…so then I arrived at the Frankfurt, Germany airport at 11:10PM EST (5:10AM on Monday Germany time). I had to go through security again before I could connect to my Athens flight. Guess what happened THIS time! Well, you don’t have to guess because I am telling you NOW---stupid Manny forgot that he kept his Swiss Army Pocket knife in his carryon bag… and they confiscated it. They said they won’t give it back either, because he won’t be back at that airport in under 6 weeks (I WILL be back at that airport, but not for 4 months). So I had a 3 hour layover, which was actually pretty tough to stay awake for… I watched an episode of the Simpsons on my laptop… and then I saw some drink at a store in the airport that had a picture of an apple on it, and I thought (through my feeble attempts to decipher the German language) that this yellow drink was indeed apple juice. In fact, I was wrong. Either that, or it was just really really expired….. *shifty eyes*… I’ve learned not to like Germany.

Finally I got on the plane (on which I was sitting in the very last row, in an aisle seat) that was headed for Athens, Greece. I passed out again for the 2 hour and 45 min flight (arrived 1:10PM Athens time), barely remembering taking off and landing. I found my baggage on the carousel relatively fast, and went to go call for a taxi to head for my study abroad program’s apartments. About 5 minutes into the ride (of a total trip of about 20 min), the taxi cab drive was already flicking off some slow driver the way Greeks flick off others—by pushing their hand out palm first with all fingers stretched out in a “punching” motion. I laughed in the backseat, and he noticed, and smirked himself. He was kind of a weird guy, but I knew maybe a little bit more Greek than he knew English, so it made communication just possible enough to get me to the apartment.

The apartment is pretty nice! I’m living with 3 other guys… it’s basically a 2 bedroom apartment (2 beds in each room) with a kitchen (with dishes, silverware, pots, pans, fridge, microwave, and mini-oven) and bathroom. I’ll post pictures of the apartment later this week, most likely. The other guys seem pretty cool, from what I’ve gathered of them so far. In total, there are 23 people (including me) in the study abroad program. 7 of us are of the male gender.

Yes, that is right.

There are 16 females to the 7 guys on this trip… and, apparently, one of the other guys has a girlfriend from back home, which would actually bring the ratio to 6 guys per 16 koritsia :)

I do NOT have regular internet access in my apartment, though there is wireless internet in my program building that is only 5 minutes away from here (and I have my laptop with me, so it should be fine).

Although, a great part of our trip will be the CLASSES! And the fact that no class starts EARLIER THAN 11:00AM---and most are in the afternoon/evening (like 1pm, 3:30pm, 5:30pm, 8pm, etc.) is BRILLIANT! How did they know I’m not a morning person? :) ALSO, NO FRIDAY CLASSES EVER! (except for when we’re on field trips with the program… so they won’t technically be “classes”)

And for my Spring Break (2^nd week of March), I am still planning on visiting France and Italy for the 8-day trip (I’m looking YOUR way, Hayley and Carrie!)

Anyway, it’s 1:00AM early Tuesday morning now, and I should probably pass out so I can wake up for that 10am orientation session in the morning…… woo!

*passes out*