Last Night in Athens!!!!

Last night we went to see Lil’ Jon at club W in Gazi. We had trouble finding the club in the beginning. We asked just about every person we saw if they knew where the club was, but no one really spoke English. We finally made it there and we saw a huge crowd in front of the door. There were so many people trying to get into the club and we didn’t have reservations. We slid in on the side of the crowd and then pushed our way to the front. Sheila and I were at the front of our group so the girl appeal could hopefully get us in. After a few minutes, we were in the club! I had never been to W before, and it was such an awesome venue. The DJ booth was huge, and was in the middle of the club with an oval dance floor surrounding it. We pushed our way to the front of the stage early so we would be able to see Lil’ Jon up close. We were all front row when he came out. He was such a good performer. He poured champagne onto the crowd and I got soaked. It was so cool! The whole show he was throwing stuff into the crowd and pouring shots into people’s mouths. After the show was over, Sheila, Stef, and I were brought to the VIP section of the club to hang out with Lil’ Jon and his posse. He kept taking shots with us and taking pictures of us on his phone. We all danced together and had fun! While we were at the VIP table, Sheila and I met two other girls from America that were studying abroad in Athens too. It was such an amazing experience. That was the perfect way to end my time in Athens. It was such an awesome night with all of my friends. It made me realize how much I am going to muss Athens. For 2 Euro I saw Lil’ Jon perform and got to dance with him at his VIP table. Priceless…. but that’s Athens Baby!

PHOTOS :)

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Last few days in Greece

Thursday was one of those days I wish I could re-live over and over again. Our group took a trip to the National Gallery in Athens. It was the perfect wrap-up for the semester. We toured the museum and were able to make connections from so many different eras in art. After the museum, we took a walk through the city and were able to see the landmarks we had to take pictures of on our first day for the scavenger hunt!

After our walk we ended up at the National Cemetery. We walked through to admire the monuments of so many famous Greek people. We ended up at Heinrich Schliemann's grave. We read poetry, drank champagne, and celebrated the semester. It was such an amazing day!

For most of the night I studied and worked on final papers and such. My roommate took a picture of me as evidence that I actually do work! I moved my desk into my room and literally just sat and did work for hours. It was so crazy.

Later both apartments met up to commemorate the amazing times we have had this semester. All of our Greek friends came over! It was such a fun night :)

Its really weird that in about 72 hours I will back in the United States chilling in Nashua. It feels so surreal. As much as I want to see my family and friends, I would like to come back here next semester. I definitely love it in Athens and do not want to go back to school in Rindge :( It is going to be a difficult adjustment to go from the bustling, carefree city of Athens to the boring, tiny town of Rindge.

However I am truly excited to see my family and friends. It is probably going to be the best Christmas I have ever had. I am going to appreciate everything so much more now. :)

Espana!

On December 3rd Sheila, Scott, and I went to Barcelona, Spain for the weekend. We stayed at a beautiful garden hostel just outside the city. We were able to take public transportation into the city and see all of the sites. We also took a bus tour of the city so we could hop on and off the bus all day. The bus tour was 4 hours long and we were able to see pretty much the entire city of Barcelona!

During our time in Barcelona, it was pretty cold. We visited many Starbucks throughout our journey in the city. We saw so much in just 3 days! It was such a beautiful city! The buildings were so unique and just amazing.

Thanksgiving Weekend

On Thanksgiving, I took an early flight to Amsterdam to visit some friends from the US and to see MIA perform in concert!!! After looking for turkey for a few blocks, we decided to settle on some thanksgiving pizza! I had veggie pizza for thanksgiving and it was absolutely delicious.

Our hostel was located on the outskirts of the Red Light District which was definitely an interesting experience. I had walked through the district before, but I had never walked through at night trying to get to a hostel.

I went to the MIA concert very excited for the event I had been waiting for this entire study abroad trip. I was EXTREMELY disappointed in the performance. MIA barely sang the first 30 minutes because her mic was going in and out. She just danced around, and the DJ did not play the full song, but instead kept mixing her songs together. After only 57 minutes, MIA left the stage and did not return for an encore. It was so disappointing. She did not even play "XXXO," her big hit off her latest album. It was just a very frustrating night! The whole show was over before 10:20pm. :(

On Friday, I went to the Amsterdam zoo! It was so fun! We saw elephants, giraffes, camels, flamingos, gorillas, baboons, monkeys, a planetarium, insectarium, and an entire aquarium full of fish! It was a huge zoo! We were there walking around, seeing everything for almost 5 hours.

On Saturday I flew to Dublin to meet up with some friends from Athens. It was really cool because Dublin had snow! It was FREEZING and it was snowing so hard. It was the most snow Dublin had seen in 15 years. I had bangers and mash, Guinness Irish stew, and a full Irish breakfast. This was also the first time I had ever tried Guinness beer. It was soooo much fun!

Egypt! November 13th-18th

Egypt was absolutely amazing! We spent time in Cairo and Luxor, Egypt. I rode camels, went inside a pyramid, belly danced, took a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings, went swimming in the Nile River and saw mummies up close. The trip was just so awesome!

On the first day we took a trip to Old Cairo. We visited the pyramids of Giza, toured the Sphinx, visited a perfumery, papyrus shop, visited the Steppe Pyramid, toured Memphis, and went on a Nile River Dinner Cruise.

After 3 days in Cairo, we took an overnight train to Luxor. That overnight train made me a stronger person ;) It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.

In Luxor we toured the Valley of the Kings, Colosso of Memnon, and the Tomb of Queen Hatshepsut.

The entire experience was unreal. Visiting Egypt was something I had wanted to do since I was in elementary school. It was so cool to experience another culture, and visit another continent.

Forever Young

On November 5th, I went club hopping with all of my roommates. At midnight we took a shot in celebration of my 21st bday!!! It was so fun! We were able to dance the night away :) We ended up getting back to the apartment around 4am

On November 6th I went shopping for the day with Sheila! We went out for lunch and then got ready to go out at night. That night we were able to get into a club and actually got a table because it was my birthday! We got free drinks too. It was such a good weekend :)

Halloween in Athens

DAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN-

Halloween is not celebrated in Greece, so the American students at HAU were more than happy to introduce the holiday to our peers. Sheila and I planned a party at Abridor- a cafe near our university. We had carmel popcorn, candy corn, and other sugar candy brought over to Greece from the US. Greek people eat chocolate and other treats, but rarely eat what they call "sugar candy." This is skittles, starburst, taffy-those kinds of candy.

We played a compilation of Greek music, old rock, and popular music. We also had scary, halloween movies playing in the background on a projector overhead.

Our Greek friends did not really understand the concept of halloween so it was fun to try to explain it to them. They could not believe that kids walk around asking for free candy and that everyone actually gives out the candy for free. It was definitely interesting to try to explain the holiday.

I dressed up as a tourist for the party. I had on sandals with white socks, an i love athens t-shirt, shorts, a hat, and a fanny pack. In my hand I had a map and a huge camera. It was funny to see the reactions of the Greek students.

ON HALLOWEEN-

All of the FPU students got together and had a real halloween party. We all dressed up this time and partied like it was 1999. It was so fun to celebrate an American holiday in another country. I dressed up as a housewife. We all had a really great night :)