who knew a beetle could be so much trouble?

yup, the beetle that gave me trauma this summer has left a lasting impression on my ear- and not in a good way. for those of you who don't know, before coming to Greece, a bug dug its way into my ear and caused me to go to the hospital. after flooding my ear, suctioning my ear and tweezing in my ear, the little buggar finally came out. after that, my ear was pretty sensitive and I couldn't sleep without the fear of something climbing in my ear. When I came to Greece, my ear still bugged me, but I tried to put it in the back of my thoughts, I mean I'm in GREECE! However, I couldn't do it while I was in Crete because my ear began to really bother me. So, after telling my coordinator, we went to the pharmacy thinking it was just an ear infection that could be treated with some drops. While the drops mentally helped, my ear continued to bug me, but once again I put it in the back of my mind. 

I wish it went away, but during my recent trip to the Peloponnese (which I will blog about after this post) I slowly began to lose my hearing in my right ear, as well as having some pain whenever we climbed to different elevations. I finally started to think there might be a real problem, so I told a friend and she convinced me to seek some help. Today I went to the hospital, but before I could get a diagnosis, I had quite the adventure. 

My director Aleko told me which place to go and showed me on map where I was going. It was a straight shot to the hospital and I was sure I wouldn't miss it. Boy was I wrong. I first walked into the wrong place, but didn't know it was wrong until I stood in a line for 30 minutes with screaming kids biting each other, a janitor waxing the floor around me, and impatient Greeks. Once I finally got to the counter, I said my ear hurts and the lady said, "Speak Greece". Um, yeah. So then I was directed to a different window only to be told I had the wrong hospital. Win. I had a few more blocks to go. It was partially my fault for not asking the name of the hospital, so I couldn't get too mad.

So after leaving there, I finally find the right place. I get directed to the first floor. That's the problem here though, my first floor does not equal their first floor. Naturally I go to the wrong area. I can't read anything and I am just utterly lost. It was like and American ER though- crowded, old people and chaos. When I get to the counter and start speaking English, the lady automatically says, "There" and points to yet another window. A guy next to me tells his friend what happens in Greek ( I sort of understand as well as being able to read the situation because he looks at me/points in my direction). They start laughing and that makes me even more frustrated. At this point I want to cry and I'm just so frustrated. The entire situation was emotionally draining.

At last the lady at the next window reads the note Aleko gave me that said 'ear specialist' in Greek and I am sent to their first floor (so my 2nd floor). here is where the waiting starts. a few people are in front of me, so I journal a bit, write and email and read. I keep waiting for about another hour and a half until finally the doctor comes back to me. I go in, give him my info and am taken to a chair. This is when 4 different doctors take a look into my ear and I explain to them what happened with the bug back home. Their faces were priceless. Ha, it was funny. The last guy who checked my ear then grabs this long suctioning tube. NOT AGAIN. gah, my experience with this ear is just terrible. He tells me he needs to clean it and begins the dreaded suctioning. I can hear everything and I absolutely abhor the sound of the device and it hurts a little as well. He decided he needs one with a wider opening and goes at it again. Then, it happened. He got some huge piece of funky, nasty, goodness knows what out of my ear. I breathed a sigh of relief along with a huge, "What is that?!"

He explained to me that there was a huge build up in my ear from a small piece of cotton getting stuck. It was the reason my ear had felt clogged and why  was experiencing pain. He also mentioned that there could be a possible fungus, so I need to go back for a check up when I get back from France. I was prescribed some ear drops and told to keep it from getting wet when I shower. Augh, what an experience. It's all thanks to that darn japanese beetle. Sheesh. I was able to leave with a prescription. But before I could be happy that it wasn't more serious, I eat it so hard on the pavement walking back. I get a nice little scrape on my right leg and a huge audience to the fall. At this point, all I could do was laugh. That's all. My day had already been a mess and to add the cherry to the sundae, I fall. Win.

I make it to the pharmacy and get my drops. The entire cost of this hospital trip was € 1.96 ( = about $3). Yeah, for being in a crazy economy the medical expenses here are extremely minimal. Talk about cheap. After going through this, it made me realize how messed up the system in the states is. I can't imagine how much this trip would've cost me. They charge for the visit as well as the prescription and don't even get me started on what happens if you don't have medical insurance. I paid $3 to have some nasty thing sucked out of my ear and the drugs to make it better. They didn't require insurance at all. I was impressed as well as extremely relieved it didn't cost me an arm and a leg. I am also more appreciative of my ability to hear. I was so scared that there was possible permanent damage from the suctioning done with the bug and had all these possible scenarios running through my mind for if I lost all hearing in my right ear. I am grateful for the ability to hear and I will not take this ability for granted. It's unfortunate how easily we can take things like hearing and seeing for granted. It was a good lesson and I am glad I had this opportunity to have my perspective checked. 

just don't speak.

I love Athens. I full heartedly love this place. It's amazing. Today while walking in the open air market (greek version of a farmer's market+ flea market) with Sakina, I stopped, looked around and realized I am in love with this place. The sounds, sights and even the smells-including the garbage. The mounds of garbage are daily reminders that the people of Greece are standing up to their government in order to have better lives. If this means garbage collectors on strike as well, so be it. I know at first the smells of the trash annoyed me, but being here and talking to the people in Greece, I have a better understanding and appreciate for the strikes. Speaking of which, there has been a 48 hour strike of all transportation in Athens. Pretty intense and weird to see the streets full of cars but nothing else: buses, trams, and taxis. I have enormous respect for the people of Greece. Do your thing :D

On a different note, I had a wonderful evening today with Rahmat from volleyball and his Greek friend Areti. She's a lawyer who met Rahmat when they were working with minorities in Greece to get them better treatment. He translated for her. I absolutely loved chatting with her. We discussed the lack of appreciation for work with less fortunate and how if we had it our way, volunteering would be our careers. We all know we can live off volunteering, so it becomes a difficult path when there doesn't seem to be jobs in this field. Talk about my entire emotional roller coaster during the summer in India. It's so amazing to share views on these kinds of things with people in different parts of the world. We also had an enormous chat on the increase in immigrants to Greece from the Middle East. Because Greece is the eastern border to Europe, it gets so many people coming in from abroad looking for work and a better life. Sound familiar? I'm in a European version of America. So.many.similarities! It was intense, but also refreshing to be able to honestly talk on the subject. She touched on the fact that Greece, right now economically, can not, as she said, absorb the large amounts of immigrants. I've craved this kind of conversation and boy was I pleased after it all. She is extremely intelligent and I can't wait to spend more time with her. When I asked her what she thought I was ethnically, she said I could pass as Greek- as long as I just don't speak. Ha, I was happy for the compliment and encouraged to work on my Greek. She said that my round eyes, golden skin and wonderful hair make me appear like a natural Greek. Aw yeah! #winning.

The dinner was so delicious. After weeks of having to cook for myself, having a homemade meal was so  wonderful! What made it even better was that Rahmat opened his home to share with me a little of his Afghani culture and ways of cooking. We had incredible chicken with rice and then a chicken based soup that packed a punch. I MISS SPICY FOOD! India totally spoiled me in that realm, but here in Greece, I don't think they believe in spicy foods at all. I haven't had one spicy Greek dish. Maybe I just haven't found any? Anyways, I was in heaven. It was the funniest moment though when Rahmat brought our a Greek salad! Here we were having a Middle Eastern meal and then BOOM! Just goes to show the ways in which living in a different culture for a while begins to have its influence. Overall, the meal was ever so yummy.

After dinner, the 3 of us bonded over music- each showing one another which songs we liked. I totally passed on showing American music and opted for my new love of Bollywood music. It brought back a flood of memories from India and prompted me to share stories from the summer. Areti thought I was well spoken and versed for being so young. She's 26 and said when she was 20, she had no idea about stuff going on in the world. Shout out to my liberal arts educations and the opportunities it has granted me to travel! I felt proud to be able to hold my own with this well-educated woman who has done so much for the people around her.

Rahmat also had things to share with us other than his amazing cooking skills- pictures of his family back in Afghanistan! He has 6 siblings- 2 older sister, an older brother, 2 younger brothers and a baby sister. They're all 3 years apart. INSANE! I told him his mom is my hero. Haha. It was so nice to hear him tell us all about them and shows us his parents/siblings/nieces/nephews and people from where he grew up. I thought, "Wow, here are 2 genuine people sharing pieces of their lives with me". I don't think it could have been a better night. We continued to chat, drink coffee and listen to music. Soon Hussein (another guy we play volleyball with) came over for a bit. He's one of my favorites from the group, so I was happy to see him and hang out. It was getting late so Hussein offered me a ride back to my house. His English isn't as great as Rahmat, so we struggle communicating with one another, BUT he did know enough to say, "Now, we are friends". Gah, these wonderful human beings. I wanted to melt.

I'm really proud of myself for taking that first step to play volleyball with them. From taking that step, I have been blessed to meet some amazing people. They are kind, funny and easy going. It's a true blessing to meet people that honestly change your life. And I can whole heartedly say that they are changing mine. How beautiful, don't you think?

pancakes?

I've decided that for some odd reason, I miss pancakes the most out of any other food I have back home. Strange, I know. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful Greek host mommy that made me some yesterday! well, the kind they have here at least. They came in a frozen package that required an oven. Yes, I know- strange. Despite the weird method of preparing, they were actually quite yummy! I would describe them as a thick crepe with similar traits as a pancake. On top of that, she had like 4 choices of jam, including:

strawberry

fig

apricot

orange

I went with the strawberry and apricot. Boy was I one happy camper. Not only did I get fed something I've been searching for since being here, but my darling Alex told me all about his friends from school. He even has a girlfriend! 6 years old and already has swag. We're coming to a good spot in our relationship where I can tell he's really getting comfortable and when that happens, it also means kids start to tests some of their limits. For example, not wanting to clean up the games we were playing before going to the next one. I held firm in that no new game would be played until the mess was clean. So far, we're pretty good together and he's slowly making his way into my heart (per usual with children).

In other news, I've made it through my week of midterms. I have to admit, I didn't give studying as much attention as I shouldn't. I feel etsy-ketsy (greek for so-so) about one of my tests that I took yesterday. I guess I'll find out later! We head to the Peloponnese on Tuesday for a week then it's off to France for my to visit my love Jess. Pretty much school's out for the next 2 weeks. Aw yeah!

service?

This weekend a few of us "volunteered" for an event called Dance for a Cause. People would pay 10 euro to participate in as many dance/aerobics courses as they would like for a day. The money would then be donated to two separate cancer organizations that specifically work with children.They even had a kids area where the kiddies could play, hear stories, get their faces painted and many other fun activities. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful event and soon was chosen to be the leader/organizer of the other students in my program who signed up to volunteer. I was SO stoked to be able to sign up to volunteer because this past year, volunteering has become an essential part of who I am. I had the responsibility to get everyone together in order to commute to the location and divide the team into groups to work the different shifts- one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

When we arrived, we were instructed to hand out flyers and stand around the stadium directing people. It was really tough and frustrating for me because these tasks required interactions with the people we were trying to inform about the event- and they all spoke Greek. My Greek is not even close to being good enough to understand substantive conversations, so we all had a hard time with this. I felt as though my abilities as a volunteer were not being used to their proper capabilities. There was a lot going on, and I felt as though I could have contributed more if I was asked to complete manual labor or some form of activity that required me to really do something. There weren't many people to hand flyers to in the area because the stadium was located in an awkward area and the language barrier just proved to be too difficult. I didn't know what the people were asking, so most of the time I just pointed while they stared at me aimlessly. Our shift was from 10-3p.m. and I have to admit that I didn't feel as though I contributed at all. I was really frustrated and almost left early. I recognize that big events are stressful and a lot to handle, but the woman in charge didn't listen to what I had to say about what I could contribute and as a volunteer, I didn't feel put to good use. It was a tough day and I was really challenged to stay positive.

my team! 

lovelies waiting for the tram <3

peace and friendship stadium

area for the kiddies.

i wanna jump!

face painting :D

While our actual contribution to the overall event seemed to be not as great as I had imagined, we were able to meet some great new friends. The students pictured below all go to the same school and made our day that much better. They were telling me how their school requires 150 hours of 3 things: 

1). action- i.e. sports/exercise

2). service-i.e. Dance for a Cause/ beach clean up

3). creativity- i.e. arts/music

I thought that was absolutely amazing! Having such requirements encourages students to be more well rounded and connected to their community in a way that doesn't really happen during the high school years. I'm glad we had the opportunity to share experiences and have first hand encounters of internationalism. I spent a greater amount of time with the two guys in the front- Frank and Chris. They were some funny characters and really brought me back to my high school days. Ha, how long ago that actually was!

new friends! [bffl Frank on my right and Chris to my left]

I think it's experiences like this that really make me look for the positives in anything I do. The day was trying, but I met new and wonderful human beings. 

Sights, Smell and Sounds of Greece.

There exists so much in this city it’s hard to write about everything, so I’m going to touch on some of the more interesting sights, smells and sounds of Greece I have experienced. I want to begin first with the constant sounds that surround me. Every morning, I wake up to the pleasant melody of my neighbor upstairs playing the piano. I’m not sure who it is in the building, but it makes me super happy and sets my mood for the rest of the morning, especially when all I can think about is how I can squeeze 5 more minutes of sleep in before I’ll be late for class. Another sound comes from the traffic on the main street of my apartment. I am located right on a busy intersection that is part of bus routes and so many motorcyclists. Our balcony barrier is made of a light metal sheet, so when traffic is booming, so is the metal on our balcony. It’s as if there’s a storm going on outside. At first I was super aware and mildly annoyed, but it has become something I rarely even notice anymore. A final sound that I have come to familiarize myself with is the tone in which locals speak. Back home if people talked this loudly and with such emphasis, people would assume there was an argument. Here, in most cases, people are simply chatting. I find myself starting to raise my voice when I talk and really get into the conversations. I like it.

Smells. Yikes, these smells have been some of the most amazing scents and some of the most disgusting odors. It’s the worst when they’re combined! The one thing that stinks the most is the areas near the trash collections and the trash trucks themselves. I guess being at Bowdoin I’m not ever really aware of where the trash is. Here, it is right outside my apartment building. This area holds the trash of an entire block on my street. I’m not positive about how it works, but I’ve heard some people say the trash is building up because the workers are on strike-go figure. Others have said that there’s only one day for pick-up and days are sometimes skipped. Either way, it is very present in my day to day. Another thing, the millions of dogs around have to use the restroom, right? Yeah, near my apartment there’s a little walk way that is super popular for walking dogs. Yay! Except it’s at the expense of my poor little nose. In  this same walk-way, huge numbers of stray cats get fed by locals. What do cats also do? Yeah, unpleasant. On a happier note, I live close to a wonderful bakery! Yummy smells come from there as well as the smell of fresh coffee. Ah, so wonderful. Another scent that I find to be so great is the smell of olive oil. I realized that I make a huge mess when it comes to using it on my bread with feta, so it has started to seep into my hands and make them smell of olives all day. I absolutely love it and it’s a great way to moisturize on the go! 

Finally, the sights. Now I could write for days on the things I have seen, but I want to give attention to the demonstrations/protests and my time at volleyball. I will begin with saying that the demonstrations are no joke. They involve throwing rocks and other objects, tear gas, shields and a ton of Greek version of SWAT teams. I went into the main center located near my house in order to catch the metro, however, when I got there the ‘peaceful’ demonstration had turned into a more hostile one and had a first hand account. Protestors were throwing stuff at the SWAT to the point where one was bleeding from the nose from being hit in the face with a rock and the lingering tear gas was making my eyes water. That’s one thing I actually didn’t smell, I just felt the effects of it. My eyes were burning and the gum in my mouth tasted disgusting. My nose also started to run a bit and I was afraid I would get a bloody nose like a lot of the people I saw were experiencing. Our program does stress to us not to go there if avoidable, but curiosity got the best of me, so I stayed a bit to see a little more of what was happening. In the pictures below there are people advancing on the steps of the plaza, while the SWAT retreat for a more united front. It’s interesting to see the passion of the Greeks during these demonstrations in comparison with how things happen in America. From the recent events on Wall Street, we can see there are enormous differences to how much people can actually express before police brutality begins to happen. Woes of the world. Also, here's some video I got of the events taking place. 

people moving up the steps.

coming together at the top of the stairs.

A better sight that I’ve recently experienced has been the happiness and joy of the men I play volleyball with. They all come from Afghanistan. Some are married, while others are single. Some have jobs, while a good amount don’t. And even with being away from home, their families and jobless, they all continue to smile. They are constantly poking fun of one another and calling each other “malaka” (Greek for a**hole). I understand this word from spending time with my other Greek friends, so they think it’s great that I find it to be funny. They’ve started to teach me some of the other bad words in Greek as well as how to count in Arabic! It’s awesome. Hopefully I can leave here having learned 2 new languages. Speaking of learning, my friend Ranmat has asked me to teach him English. We’re beginning lessons today. I’m so excited. It’s like India all over again! Whoo hoo.

some of the guys playing while I snag pics.

he crushed this ball.

sunsets never let me down.

All in all, I’ve been exposed to so many incredible (and stinky) things since being in Greece. I’m excited to see, smell and hear more and even more excited to share them with you.

Go for it.

Today brought me so much happiness, it's ridiculous. For starters, I met the family that I was paired with after notifying my director I was interested in being matched with a Greek family. The original cause of the pairing was to get in touch for babysitting gigs. I know this is going to be so much more. After calling Valia in order to let her know I was interested in spending time with her son, Alex, she quickly gave me directions in order to get to her house. Now, I'm pretty comfortable doing things on my own, especially since my experience in India, but this was to be my first solo adventure since being in Greece that required leaving my immediate neighborhood. I actually had no clue that I would have to take a 40 minute commute in order to get to the family's home. However, it wasn't too bad. I caught the right metro (these ones aren't color coated like the ones in Boston or New York in order to differentiate between the green and blue line). I was worried I kept missing the one I needed to get on, but I soon found out that I was indeed waiting for the right one. Whew!


Alas I arrive 10 stops from my original starting station to meet the lovely Valia. She is beautiful and so lively. Her and I immediately clicked and began talking about where each was from, what I was studying and more about my experiences so far in Greece. I loved her the moment she started talking. I've had my fair share of babysitting and meeting new families. I don't always know what to expect and this was no exception. I was so grateful that I was put to ease when we began talking. After a little drive from the metro, we ended at her beautiful apartment flat. It's enormous without being too much. I walked into a goofy little baby named Paul and a super energetic 6 year old Alex. I'm always worried the kids will be super shy or totally against a new person coming into spend time with them, but Alex quickly put that worry to rest. He was fast to show me his school work, drawings and his room. Before Alex and I scampered off, his mom told him, "Alex, we're Macy's Greek family because she doesn't have her family here". My heart melted. It was in that moment that I knew this was going to be more than me just watching Alex or helping him with his English. I felt absolutely comfortable and so happy.


Alex and soon began to vibe one another and it was an instant connection as his mom said. She told me later that she had never seen him get to comfortable so quickly. I got even happier. Ha ha. After about an hour and a half of playing trucks, dinosaurs and reading, it was time for me to go. Alex was sad to see me leave and asked for me to stay or come back tomorrow. We decided on once a week, on Wednesdays. I am so excited. Soon Valia walked with me to show me the buses I will take the next time. I'm happy to be challenged to find my way to and from her house. It also gives me some time to be alone and get away from the same thing day in and day out. I am beyond ecstatic to spend more time with my new Greek family :D


Once I finally got off the metro and started walking home, I came across a game of volleyball. I have been looking so hard for games and people to play with, so I immediately become psyched to see it. I almost walked by, but I decided that I was going to ask to play. One side only had 5 people, so it was perfect. I gathered my courage and went for it. They said yes! I jumped in and got right to settling in. I guess they were pretty impressed because every time I made a move, they cheered and gave me a high five. I guess they underestimated me at the start. My side won :D I was mildly bummed that it had ended so quickly, but my new friend made it better by asking me to pepper. Gah, so much fun. In between our reps we exchanged names and where we were from. His name is Rahmat and he's from Afghanistan. He was super sweet and very good at volleyball. He was excited that I had the fundamentals and could actually maintain consistent peppering. He had no idea how happy I was and how much I had felt in my element. We set up another time to play and I'm seriously so excited.


To finish my awesome day, I made a quick stop at a little market across the street from my apartment to buy some milk. When the cashier told me the total in Greek, I understood! I was so proud of myself and completely content with my day. A shower and bowl of cereal to finish off the greatest day this week. Going on my own adventure today and putting myself out there to the strangers really pushed me to go for the things I wanted. This new family is going to offer me a nice change to my daily life and playing volleyball with the guys allowed me to enjoy something I love to much. I'm grateful that I can take these risks, but also grateful that I have the opportunity to test my gully :D

Not everything's perfect.

including this program. Today I had a conversation with some of the girls in my program, and I'm glad to say I'm not the only one who has been feeling not so great about our program. I don't know if it's the fact that I'm spoiled by a liberal arts school education where classes are based on student-teacher interaction or if I excel in an environment where conversations with the professors are constantly taking place. Either way, I find that my program lacks a lot of this. I find myself struggling to want to go to class because I am so uninspired. On top of that, my Modern Greek class moves in a speed that I think is unreasonable. We cover a chapter in about 2 days without many explanations of what's going on other than here it is, we'll look over it, do enormous amounts of hw on it and keep going. There's SO much vocab that I still have no clue what it means and today we learned a topic that I still don't know when we use it, yet we're moving on. Tonight I have to create an entire dialogue with another person to recite tomorrow in class. I haven't taken a language class in a while, but I know that intro classes don't just tell you to run before you can walk the way this course is commanding us to. Sigh... I enjoy the field trips and hands on aspects of the program, but as soon as we enter the classroom, I'm immediately discouraged and quite frankly, frustrated.