Will I Make It?!?

This is serving in a lesson as to why I should make sure I update my blog regularly... I'll try my best to think back to three weekends ago and share my (extremely windy and rather cold) adventures in Delphi with all of you (and to keep them brief, although that's even harder than regular updates!) The trip was organized by Arcadia (the program I'm studying abroad with), but none of the staff accompanied us -- they just arranged for a hotel and a charter bus for us and we were on our own in Greece. Most of the people on the program decided to go, since Delphi just seems like one of those places you can't turn down.

The weekend began on Friday morning with me running around the apartment trying to make sure I didn't forget anything (now, I feel like I'm an expert at packing for weekend trips -- my travel shampoo practically lives in my backpack) and realizing it was my day to take out the trash. I was getting a bit worried about missing the bus (always my mother's daughter, I was running later than I would have liked), so the next few minutes involved me dashing madly around the apartment collecting bags of trash, consolidating them, and trying to find plastic bags to replace them with. Finally, everything was safely contained in the kitchen bag. I put on my coat, grabbed my backpack and purse, turned off the lights, and realized I hadn't had anything to eat yet, it was almost 10 AM and I would be on a bus for 3 hours. Back to the kitchen I ran (luckily my apartment is small and neither of my roommates were around to witness my insane departure preparations). Fortified with blood oranges and clementines I purchased at the laiki (weekly outdoor produce market), I headed back to the front door, reached for the handle, and pulled. The door didn't move. Greek doors have these insane locks that require elaborate keys and multiple turns, regardless of whether you're opening the door from inside or outside. Of course, in my packing efforts the night before I had neglected to leave my keys out and they were buried in the bottom of my purse. Now slightly more than panicked about my lateness, I dug through the bag, finally extricated the keys, and went to do battle with the door.

Side note: I haven't posted about this, but during my first weeks here, the doors gave me a HUGE amount of trouble. I couldn't get the front door of the apartment building open on multipe occasions, when I could open it, my key would refuse to come out of the lock, and I often spent 5 minutes trying to lock or unlock the two locks on the door to the apartment. I never thought something as simple as a door could cause so many problems, and my struggles definitely didn't help the feelings of ignorance that tend to accompany arrival in a foreign culture -- I couldn't even open a door, so how was I ever going to survive 4 months here?!? I'm glad to say that I've now mastered the art of Greek door opening and can get in and out of the apartment in under 30 seconds.

A few frustrating moments later, I was on the other side of the re-locked door. I walk-ran up the street, flung the (very heavy) bag of trash into one of the many street-side dumpsters, dodged through Athenian parking jobs (I promise you a post dedicated solely to this topic -- it's incredible!) and traffic (even more incredible), and started the trek up the huge hill, with a full backpack, containing shoes, clothes, school work, and my computer, and wearing my winter coat and a scarf even though it was probably in the mid 50s -- Athenian weather is even less predictable than weather in DC. Panting, slightly sweaty, and I'm sure a bit red in the face, I reached the top of the hill and started to walk down it towards our designated meeting point, praying that the group would be there when I arrived. Of course, when I got there, less than a third of the group was there, and Kim, the Student Services Director who organized the trip, informed us that we would have to wait for everyone to arrive before she called the bus to come pick us up because of rush hour traffic. D'oh! Should have known I could count on other people being later than me... and realized that since I followed Dad's advice, my watch was 5 minutes fast! On the bright side, this delay gave me time to set my stuff down, catch my breath, peel an orange, and attempt to look as though I hadn't spent the last 20 minutes moving at close to a sprint. The bus finally arrived and we piled on -- I sat with Kelly, my new favorite bus buddy, as she loves the aisle and is perfectly content to let me sit by the window and stare at the amazing scenery at all times, and we settled in for the three hour trip to Delphi. Due to my panicked state of mind while these events were occurring, I have no pictures to share with you.

Up Next: Visiting the Oracle at Delphi, aka "I hope the wind doesn't blow me off the mountain!"