Greetings from Greece!

I've made it to Thessaloniki safely, and have spent the past two days settling in. I arrived yesterday afternoon after a long flight that stopped through Munich. Today we had orientation, which was nice because the study abroad students are separated into three different apartments so it is hard to meet everyone. It was a really long day though, and I didn't get back to my apartment until about midnight. Tomorrow should be the same, if not longer, because we are going out after. They really have the days packed for us, which makes it hard to do other things on the side. I still need to get my Greek cell phone set up, which makes it a little difficult to contact everyone else here. We did get to go to Ikea and a Greek Best Buy though so we got the necessaries for our room, like blow driers and cooking utensils.

The apartments are tiny, but actually nicer than I was expecting! Its cozy though; we have a balcony and a tiny kitchen, with a bathroom that's probably 2x2 ft, and thats including the shower. I actually don't have any pictures yet because I've realllyy been a slacker in the department. Hopefully I'll get it together tomorrow.

The food has been absolutely amazing though, and I have a feeling it will be the main topic that I'll be writing about here. The first night we ate family style and had tsziki with pita, a fava bean hummus type dip, "mystery" meatballs (we're never quite sure what meat everything is, its usually a toss up between beef, lamb and pork), and greek salad, which is tomato, onion, cucumber, feta and olives (no lettuce.) That's a pretty typical meal here from what I can tell. Tonight we went to a pretty nice restaurant on the water, where I had a vegetable soup. I was really surprised how cheap the food is- the first night it was 4euros and tonight it was 6, with wine.

Before dinner tonight we went to a cafe and had Greek coffee. After we drank our coffee, and the school hired some ladies to read our fortunes out of the coffee grounds. They were pretty general though, the whole money, happiness, someone special approaching kind of thing. She did mention that I have really great friends... which is very true:) I miss all of you already! I also have a cough in my future- good thing I brought a bunch of medicine. It was still a pretty neat experience though.

Something funny that I've caught on to- "ni" means yes, which is really confusing. Also, when the nod their head it means no and shaking means yes. So hearing a ni and a seeing a smile and a head shake is super confusing. Very few of us speak Greek, so luckily most people speak English.

Everyone that I've met so far has been really sweet, and the school is really accommodating. I'm really looking forward to starting class actually, and it looks like they have all kinds of weekend trips that are available for us. Sorry if this is kind of a boring read, it may take me a few times to really get in the habit of writing this. Also, I'm taking suggestions for a name, because I obviously don't have one yet. Just let me know!

yassou,
Stephanie