For the past 16 months, home has been a very relative term for me. Although I moved around quite a bit when I was little, I would say that I “grew up” in Austin. From the summer before I was in 4th grade until I graduated from high school I lived in Austin and continued going “home” to Austin during my freshmen year of college. When my parents moved away last April after living there for 10 years, I felt like Austin would still always be my home. After spending last summer doing an internship there, I realized that although there are a lot of people in Austin that still care about me, it’s just not quite the same anymore.
My friends there have changed, and more than anything, I’ve changed. The truth is, I’m just not the same person I was when I graduated from high school. I still love the people that I lived my life with for so many years, but that’s just not where I’m at anymore. I’ve moved on and made new friends, found a new church and really developed a new “family.”
It’s always interesting when right around finals time, or before Thanksgiving or Spring Break, people ask me the question “So when are you going home?”
I’m never quite sure how to answer that question. I usually say something along the lines of “Well…I’m not exactly going ‘home,’ but I’m leaving College Station on the 12th.”
All of my A&M friends live in College Station just like me – except if you ask them where home is, they tell you the place where they went to high school, where their parents live, and where they go during the breaks from school. Unfortunately for me, those are three different places.
The truth is, I don’t really know what to call home anymore. I was thinking about this today since I’m leaving tomorrow to go back to America. It’s so strange to be leaving the country where my parents are, to go back “home.” Austin was my home for so long, but its not really anymore. Greece is where my parents live, and where I’ve spent the last 10 weeks, but it certainly doesn’t feel like home. College Station is where I live, where my friends are and where I spend the majority of my time – but can I really call it my home?
Luckily, by the grace of God, I live 9 months out of the year in a place that I love – where I have friends that care for me, ministries that I’m involved in, an incredible church family, and where I go to the best school in the world. I will be flying into Dallas late on Tuesday night, staying the night with my aunt and then driving back to College Station on Wednesday. Even though Tuesday will be extremely sad saying goodbye to my parents, knowing that I won’t see them for at least 5 more months if not longer; I am so excited to get back to the place that I feel like is truly my home – at least for now.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Paris
Last night my mom and I returned from our 4-day trip to Paris. It was a lot of fun but we were both exhausted. We walked all over the place and by the time we got to our hotel at the end of each day, neither of us wanted to even stand longer than the time it took to brush our teeth and get into bed.
On Wednesday morning (actually a better description would Tuesday night – it was that early) we left Thessaloniki for our connecting flight to Prague. Our flight left at 5:00, which meant that we had to leave the apartment at 3:00. My mom got a couple hours sleep, but I was taking care of some stuff back in Texas and was on the phone so I ended up not sleeping at all – bad choice. When we got to Paris, we checked into our hotel and then met my cousin Mark who is studying for the summer in the law school at the Sorbonne University there. Mark took us up to the Sacré-Cœur, which is at the highest point in the city and took in the view. After eating lunch, we headed down to Notre Dame and then walked around near the Pantheon. My mom and I were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel for a nap before exploring the area in search of dinner. We looked at several French restaurants but couldn’t understand a single thing on the menu – so we settled on pizza.
On Thursday we set out on our on to all the classic tourist spots. We started out on the Champs-Élysées and headed towards the Arc de Triomphe, which is massive and has some very intricate designs. I found during this trip that I am far more impressed with size than actual artistic design. I was more impressed with the artwork in the Louvre that took up the entire wall and had incredible detail in every little part than I was with say, the Mona Lisa.
(the Arc de Triomphe)
From there we walked to the Eiffel Tower. Once again I was incredibly impressed with it’s size. I guess I knew it was big but for some reason, I didn’t know it was that big. We spent a good amount of time looking around but didn’t go up into the tower.
After soaking in all that we wanted of the Eiffel Tower, we headed over to the Louvre. To be honest, we seriously contemplated just looking around and not actually going in, because neither one of us really cares much for or appreciates fine art. We eventually decided to go inside to look around and like the previous two sites we had been to, I was shocked at how big it was. We spent an hour or two in the museum and only went in one of the three major wings. The most famous artworks that we saw were the Venus de Milo, and of course, the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa looks pretty much exactly like it does in the pictures. It’s not a huge painting and you can only get within about 10 feet of it. Maybe if you looked really closely it would be more impressive, I don’t know.
We made a quick trip back to our hotel before setting out again to see the Eiffel Tower when they turn the lights on at night. I have a good friend that strongly suggested it so we decided to check it out. Every hour on the hour starting at 10 pm that turn on the 20,000 flashing lights for about 10 minutes and the whole tower sparkles. It was a very cool sight. After leaving that area, we took an hour-long boat tour on the Seine to see some of the areas we hadn’t seen yet.
On Friday we headed off to none other than Disneyland. They have two parks in Paris: the main Disneyland Park, and Disney Studios. We got a pass for both and had a lot of fun. Disney Studios was very small but had some good rides including the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith’s Rockin’ Roller Coaster (both of which I have ridden at Disneyworld in Florida). We also saw a short High School Musical show which was cute but, well, very Disneyland.
The main park was quite a bit bigger but is nothing compared to Disneyworld. This park also had some familiar rides and was set up similar to the Magic Kingdom, except with Sleeping Beauty’s castle as the centerpiece instead of Cinderella’s castle. We had a lot of fun but once again, we were completely exhausted by the end of the day.
On Saturday, we only had until 5 pm before we had to head to the airport so instead of wearing ourselves out again, we decided to take a bus tour. It was really nice to see some of the same places we had already seen plus a few more, without having to walk anywhere! It was also very nice to have some commentary about each site, because up until this point we had only seen the places and didn’t really know much about them.
We had a lot of fun in Paris, but I know I was ready to come back to Greece. I only have one more day here before I have to head back to Texas. I am excited about going back but I know it will be very difficult to say goodbye to my parents again. I will definitely make one more post tomorrow before I leave.
On Wednesday morning (actually a better description would Tuesday night – it was that early) we left Thessaloniki for our connecting flight to Prague. Our flight left at 5:00, which meant that we had to leave the apartment at 3:00. My mom got a couple hours sleep, but I was taking care of some stuff back in Texas and was on the phone so I ended up not sleeping at all – bad choice. When we got to Paris, we checked into our hotel and then met my cousin Mark who is studying for the summer in the law school at the Sorbonne University there. Mark took us up to the Sacré-Cœur, which is at the highest point in the city and took in the view. After eating lunch, we headed down to Notre Dame and then walked around near the Pantheon. My mom and I were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel for a nap before exploring the area in search of dinner. We looked at several French restaurants but couldn’t understand a single thing on the menu – so we settled on pizza.
(The Sacré-Cœur)
On Thursday we set out on our on to all the classic tourist spots. We started out on the Champs-Élysées and headed towards the Arc de Triomphe, which is massive and has some very intricate designs. I found during this trip that I am far more impressed with size than actual artistic design. I was more impressed with the artwork in the Louvre that took up the entire wall and had incredible detail in every little part than I was with say, the Mona Lisa.
(my mom at Starbucks on the Champs-Élysées)
(the Arc de Triomphe)
From there we walked to the Eiffel Tower. Once again I was incredibly impressed with it’s size. I guess I knew it was big but for some reason, I didn’t know it was that big. We spent a good amount of time looking around but didn’t go up into the tower.
(the Eiffel Tower...obviously)
After soaking in all that we wanted of the Eiffel Tower, we headed over to the Louvre. To be honest, we seriously contemplated just looking around and not actually going in, because neither one of us really cares much for or appreciates fine art. We eventually decided to go inside to look around and like the previous two sites we had been to, I was shocked at how big it was. We spent an hour or two in the museum and only went in one of the three major wings. The most famous artworks that we saw were the Venus de Milo, and of course, the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa looks pretty much exactly like it does in the pictures. It’s not a huge painting and you can only get within about 10 feet of it. Maybe if you looked really closely it would be more impressive, I don’t know.
(Venus de Milo)
(the Mona Lisa)
(the pyramid in front of the Louvre)
On Friday we headed off to none other than Disneyland. They have two parks in Paris: the main Disneyland Park, and Disney Studios. We got a pass for both and had a lot of fun. Disney Studios was very small but had some good rides including the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith’s Rockin’ Roller Coaster (both of which I have ridden at Disneyworld in Florida). We also saw a short High School Musical show which was cute but, well, very Disneyland.
(the main entrance to Disneyland Studios)
(the High School Musical show)
The main park was quite a bit bigger but is nothing compared to Disneyworld. This park also had some familiar rides and was set up similar to the Magic Kingdom, except with Sleeping Beauty’s castle as the centerpiece instead of Cinderella’s castle. We had a lot of fun but once again, we were completely exhausted by the end of the day.
(the main entrance to Disneyland Park)
(Sleeping Beauty's castle)
On Saturday, we only had until 5 pm before we had to head to the airport so instead of wearing ourselves out again, we decided to take a bus tour. It was really nice to see some of the same places we had already seen plus a few more, without having to walk anywhere! It was also very nice to have some commentary about each site, because up until this point we had only seen the places and didn’t really know much about them.
We had a lot of fun in Paris, but I know I was ready to come back to Greece. I only have one more day here before I have to head back to Texas. I am excited about going back but I know it will be very difficult to say goodbye to my parents again. I will definitely make one more post tomorrow before I leave.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Volunteers
Over the past week we've had a few friends from America come to do some volunteer work around the city. And by a few I mean 120 of them. They were from several different churches but almost half of them were from Nashville, Tennessee. They weren't Texans, but it was nice to see some people from the South. Almost my entire study abroad group is from the Midwest and I've been realizing how many cultural differences there are, even within our own country!
The group was split up into teams and they each did a job in the morning, had some free time in the afternoon, and did another job in the evening. I wasn't able to help out in the mornings because I had class, although on Wednesday I was out early so I met my mom in the park where she was helping with the kids from the refugee center. My mom took this picture of me and a sweet little boy named Adi. He has 2 brothers and a sister and they are all adorable.
Also, on Fridays I don't have class so I went out to the Roma Gypsy camp with my dad. The gypsys (gypsies?) in this particular camp live in a very run-down "neighborhood"-type area. In some of the other camps they are just squatters that live on the land until they get kicked out and have only makeshift shacks, if anything at all. Most of them have at least some money but they choose to live in this very different culture. The children are very dirty and don't usually have very many clothes. To put it bluntly, they are very wild. The boys are especially mean to the little girls. It is a great experience to show unconditional love to a group of kids that probably aren't shown a great deal of love on a day to day basis -- at least not the way the we generally show it.
Here are a few pictures of the Americans with the gypsy kids and also a picture of one of the homes near the "field" that we were playing on.
In other news, my mom and I just booked a trip for next week and we're going to PARIS. We are leaving really early on the 23rd (which also happens to be my birthday) and coming back here on the 26th. After that I will only be here for a few more days and my plane leaves on the 29th to come back to Texas. I can't believe my time here is almost over!
The group was split up into teams and they each did a job in the morning, had some free time in the afternoon, and did another job in the evening. I wasn't able to help out in the mornings because I had class, although on Wednesday I was out early so I met my mom in the park where she was helping with the kids from the refugee center. My mom took this picture of me and a sweet little boy named Adi. He has 2 brothers and a sister and they are all adorable.
Also, on Fridays I don't have class so I went out to the Roma Gypsy camp with my dad. The gypsys (gypsies?) in this particular camp live in a very run-down "neighborhood"-type area. In some of the other camps they are just squatters that live on the land until they get kicked out and have only makeshift shacks, if anything at all. Most of them have at least some money but they choose to live in this very different culture. The children are very dirty and don't usually have very many clothes. To put it bluntly, they are very wild. The boys are especially mean to the little girls. It is a great experience to show unconditional love to a group of kids that probably aren't shown a great deal of love on a day to day basis -- at least not the way the we generally show it.
Here are a few pictures of the Americans with the gypsy kids and also a picture of one of the homes near the "field" that we were playing on.
In other news, my mom and I just booked a trip for next week and we're going to PARIS. We are leaving really early on the 23rd (which also happens to be my birthday) and coming back here on the 26th. After that I will only be here for a few more days and my plane leaves on the 29th to come back to Texas. I can't believe my time here is almost over!
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