Starting to settle down

Everything is starting to quiet down here as the end of the trip draws near. Saying goodbye to over half of the group Saturday morning was way harder than I think everyone expected. We drew it out as long as possible and there were a few tears unfortunately. I know we'll all meet again someday. It may not be soon, but someday. We've created relationships here that no one can replace. No one can take away the experiences we went through together.

Some of the goodbyes...

After everyone left for the ferry, we still had to go to class. Booooo. My photography class was actually great. We were able to use the dark room and make our own photograms. It was a nice change of pace from the digital aspects we're used to.

I've developed a little bit of a cold unfortunately and didn't make it to my writing class. A crepe, fat nap, and trip to the beach sufficed instead. ;)

Saturday evening, a majority of the remainder of us decided to check out a restaurant we always pass by but have never stopped at. It's located a little higher up than sea level and from the street, there always seems to be the reflection of a pool on their walls. We were curious, but were disappointed to find out it was just an illusion from a light. It was still a super great view and delicious food. I ate the best waffle ever.

Yesterday, Sunday, nothing really exciting happened. I was able to sleep in a little and make a trip to the beach. The best part about the Tango Mar Beach is they have wifi and beachside service.

I attended my creative writing class and came home to get ready for the evening. Our photography class along with anyone that wanted to join made a trip over the Lefkes, which is a village on the other side of the island. We partnered up and took some portraits of each other while exploring the local Greek Orthodox church plus checking out a photography exhibit going on as a fundraiser. 

Afterwards, we took taxis back to Paroikia just in time to catch the festival going. I'm not completely clear on what the festival completely entails, but I do know it marks the celebration of the passing of Spring and arrival of Summer. A fire was started on the beach and periodically, someone would lie down a crown of flowers in the flames to represent the dying of Spring. The insane part that I am yet to comprehend, is all of the fire jumping. Local children huddled around the fire and would take turns jumping over the fire. Originally, when we heard there was going to be fire jumping, we assumed adults/professionals would be doing the entertaining. Oh, no... it was local kids. Parents lined up and took photos of their children barbarically leaping over the fire. Once I witnessed one child's butt catching on fire and another cracking his head open from colliding with a fellow fire jumper, I was done being "entertained." It was off to bed to wake up for class this morning. 

My cold is progressively getting worse and annoying the hell out of me so I'm pretty much tired 24/7. My trips to 3 pharmacies weren't exactly successful as the language barrier is a huge challenge. I was able to buy the only cough syrup brand the island seems to have, but I have noticed no long term relief.

Today, I had my two classes again. In photography, we chose our 5 final images for our final critique in our last class tomorrow. It was to be a collection of shots from the various photoshoots we did in class to see if we understand the prompt we were given as well as a combo of any other images you had from the last month we've been here. 


In writing, I finally wrote what I believe, was my best piece thus far. I am incredibly intimated by some of the writers in my class. They have so much talent and potential and I truly hope they keep at it.

We went on a trip to the dock/beach and had some dinner. Tonight we're just chillin' out. 

I am so excited to come home. 2 more days and I'll be on my way. Boat, bus, plane, and train... I'm for coming for you, Michigan. :)

No Mykonos :(

Quick note: I just want to start out with a "fun fact" about where I was cliff jumping the other day. haha. I don't know if you guys have ever seen "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" 1 or 2, but me being the curious person that I am, I googled some of their shooting locations and I was surprised to recognize all of the areas they were at on Santorini. 

The cliff in the background of this picture from the second movie is the cliff I jumped from the other day... the top left where the cliff flattens out.

Such a rush

I'm so glad one of the guys on the trip has GoPro Camera 

so we can take it out into the water.

Unfortunately, the weather decided it did not want to cooperate for our voyage to Mykonos. We loaded up a beautiful sailboat and hit the open sea for about an hour. At first, the big waves were fun and we were all laughing as if we were on an amusement park ride. Wellllll... the waves started getting larger and larger and needless to say, I was honestly scared for my life. We had people getting sea sick over the side of the boat, people with anxiety running high, and then the small group of people in the front having the time of their lives not giving two cares if the boat tipped right then and there. At first, I was up front with that group, standing even, for most of the ride, having a blast getting soaked and going up and down with the waves. Eventually, it got to be too much though and we turned around. A 2 hour trip was going to take us 4 + hours, so we bailed. We were hoping to still be able to spend the night on the boat on a different island, but that didn't work out. 

We were able to have a family dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Aeoli, on Paros though, which was great.

Today, I have my two classes and tonight we are having a BBQ on the rooftop of our apartments to say good bye to a lot of people in the group. The group here from California Long Beach is headed out to Athens to continue their trip around Europe, and a few others only took a 2 week class opposed to the 3 weeks like I'm doing. It's bittersweet and sad to say goodbye. It feels like this experience just started and it's already coming to an end.

Santorini!

Our 3 day excursion to Santorini was incredible! It began with a bit of frustration but hey, I'm in Greece! Who cares?! We unloaded to boat and were packed into multiple small vans that were to take us to our hotel. The drive up the mountain was pretty scary not only because of the tight cliff edge roads, but the insane driving! When we arrived, 3 of the 4 vans unloaded while all the girls in mine were instructed not to get off. It's pretty nerve racking to see 30 of the 37 people in your group get off at one hotel with your director and professors, while you're shipped off with non-English speaking Greeks. I was sent to another hotel 10 minutes away from everyone else, which was one of the most frustrating situations ever, but I'm in Santorini and there's no way that was going to dictate the rest of my visit!

We continued the evening with a walk around town and were set free for some shopping and eating. The sunset was amazing.

For those of you who don't know, Santorini was formed from a volcanic eruption, which created the caldera. The caldera is a massive ring essentially of cliff and the island towns reside on top of the caldera. It definitely creates the most amazing view I've seen in my entire life.

My "I'M IN SANTORINI" Face

On Tuesday, we woke up bright and early to Hike from Fira to Oia. I believe the hike was about 3 ½ miles. It took us about 3 hours because we went up and down the steep cliffsides. Feeling like I was going to have a mini heart attack walking up the steep cliffs was completely worth the view that came alongside. 

After ending our hike in Oia, we stopped for some lunch then made our way back down the sea level. We jumped in the sea from a spot that was off the beaten path on the side of a cliff. From there we were able to swim to a tiny island that simply consisted of a chunk of rock. We swam to it and cliff jumped down! It was such a rush.

Afterwards, you had the option to walk back up the steep stairs or pay 5 Euro to ride a donkey. Needless to say, after a 3 hour hike, my lazy butt wasn’t walking back up. Plus, I can officially say I’ve rode a donkey in Greece!

The rest of the evening we hung out in town and chilled at the pools in our hotels before going out for the evening.

This morning we woke up pretty early to check out of our rooms and headed to a museum of Cycladic history. (The Cyclades are the series of islands where we live and have had our excursions)

From there we packed up the buses and headed to the ancient ruins of the Minoan people. They existed during the Bronze Age and mainly came from Crete, Greece, although multiple settlements existed elsewhere, including in the Cyclades, and more specifically, Santorini. Years later, layers of volcanic ash covered the ancient city and farmland was on top. Farmers began noticing their water was running downhill in one direction which led archeologists to find the ruins of the Minoan people. Ironically, no human remains were found, showing that they knew the volcano was going to erupt and fled. 

The most interesting part is how well the ruins are preserved. They are maintained inside of a building built around the entire ruin site. 

From there we a had lovely 2 hour wait at the boat port... but once the we were on the boat headed back home to Paros, everyone seemed a bit more at ease. 

Unfortunately, I developed a little bit of a cough/sniffle ordeal. It was straight to bed for me and I fell asleep in the middle of posting this blog! haha. 

It is now Thursday and originally I would be getting ready for my day and for class. Well, I just received a knock on my door saying that  classes are cancelled and at 3:30 we are headed to Mykonos! We will be staying the night on a sailboat... pray for me, and then heading to Delos in the morning. It's my last excursion to any of the other islands! I can't believe how fast this trip is going by! One week from today my program ends and I'll be headed to Athens to catch my flight back home!

I'm sure I'll have updates on the Mykonos/Delos trip tomorrow evening! 

Hope all is well over there in the "first" world. ;)