4.4.08 – Friday
So much has been going on lately, I’m not really sure where to begin…
The most outrageous, devasting thing that’s happened, happened on Wednesday night around midnight, 2 days ago. 2 of my fellow study abroad friends got hit by a car, and had to be taken to the hospital… A majority of our group was going out that night, because we did not have class the next day (I had chosen not to go out that night because I was tired and I wanted to chill). Like I said, it was around midnight and it was raining heavily… so much that there were practically little rivers flowing through the streets. The group was walking along one of the big streets, that is pretty close to where we live. And two of them (Eric and Diane) were walking ahead of the group by a couple meters or so, and out of nowhere, a car comes right at them, BACKWARDS because it was hydroplaning from the rain, hit Diane and Eric ON THE SIDEWALK, and was turned around and the back end of it hit a poll along the sidewalk. The group ran towards them, and phone calls were made and shortly everybody from our study abroad group was there. The police came, and so did the ambulance. I had to talk to the police because I was the only one who knew enough Greek, and they took me to get Eric’s passport from our apartment, and drove me to the hospital. The Program Director of the Athens Centre and her daughter showed up at the scene of the accident, and rode along in the ambulance with the injured Eric and Diane. The rest of the group rode cabs to the hospital, and we all stayed there in the waiting room until around 3am or so, waiting to hear any news. So what we eventually found out is that Diane was in much better shape than Eric – she only ended up with some external scrapes and scratches, but she said her knee and foot hurt really badly and the doctors didn’t find anything wrong. She got transferred to another hospital on Thursday morning, and our whole group went and visited her there. She is supposed to be released on Sunday at some point. Eric, on the other hand, definitely got the worst end of the accident… he had to have surgery on his pelvis, surgery to fix a shattered leg, and had internal bleeding and had to have surgery to fix 3 arteries. Nobody has been allowed to see him since, but his parents flew in from the States early this morning and are with him now. We don’t know much else of what’s going on with his status at this moment, but I have a feeling once he is ready, he will be leaving Greece early from the program so he can get better therapy. Tonight the group is getting together at the Program Director’s house for dinner, so we can all be in each other’s company and talk about the last couple of days’ events.
Today we were supposed to be a day trip to Sounion, but the trip was cancelled because of what happened on Wednesday night. I don’t know if or when it is going to be rescheduled.
This weekend was also supposed to be a 5-day weekend, because our professors had previously cancelled our Thursday classes because they had other stuff going on and Mondays we don’t have class. I was supposed to go to the island of Aegina today with a couple of the guys, but I ended up not going. The group was to go to the hospital today and give blood to the hospital, and for Eric.
Today I had to schedule my classes for next semester, Fall 2008 at U of M. I got most of the classes that I wanted. I have take a LOT of Linguistics classes, if I want to graduate with a Linguistics major by May 2009!
On Wednesday I made some strawberry shortcake with another one of the girls in our program, Hannah T. I had bought a heck of a lot of strawberries, partially by accident, at the farmer’s market the previous Friday, so we decided to put the ‘berries to good use. :) mmmmmm it was soooooo good.
On Tuesday all the guys went bowling, and I bowled one of my best games ever! First I got a 113, then I bowled kind of a crappier game, then in the 3rd game I bowled a 120! I’m pretty sure that’s the best I’ve ever done… at least, in recent memory :)
In hockey news, the Detroit Red Wings clinched the President’s Trophy as the team with the NHL’s best regular season record. WOOOO!!! The Wings will play either the Nashville Predators or Calgary Flames in the first round of the playoffs, which start this upcoming Wednesday or Thursday.
Tomorrow, I think our group is planning on hanging out at the beach in Glyfada if it’s a nice day. We’re going to visit Diane in the hospital again, and then probably head to the beach.
That’s all I can think of for now. Please keep Eric and Diane in your prayers. They need all the support that they can get.
-Manny
