Well, not really. But I am essentially living in NYC 5+ nights a week for a good portion of this year. A few months ago I was staffed on a project at work that is located in Brooklyn and have been super excited about it ever since. I started out here last week and am scheduled to work here through mid-August - potentially longer if I'm needed and get extended.
I have the option to fly home every weekend and will be doing that often, but I also want to take advantage of being in the greatest city in the world. My other options include staying the weekend with my expenses paid (hotel & food) or flying someone to come visit me here. I plan on taking full advantage of both options!
I hope to be able to write more about my adventures in NYC and also plan on packing my camera next week and will post any good shots that I get. My dad requested that I do a "My Day Yesterday" video in NYC. If I can figure out a way to do that without getting my camera stolen then I definitely will!
I am taking the day off tomorrow to go to a Sage conference (see previous blog posts) in Lubbock, Texas. In order to get there in time for sound check I had to book the 6:55am flight out of La Guardia, which means leaving the hotel at 5:00am! In other words, I'm going to bed! Good night!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sage Redeemed Video -- pt. 2
When we arrived in Tyler, Texas on the Friday of the first conference, I mentioned to the team that I had made the video of Heather and would be happy to make another if anyone else would like to tell their story.
Emily approached me shortly thereafter and said something to the effect of "God told me I have to tell my story." Even though it was short notice, we both thought it would be great if we could show it at the conference the next day. So that night when we got to the hotel around midnight, Emily and I got to work filming her video. We tried a couple different places, including the hotel lobby but ended up deciding that despite the horrible lighting, our hotel room was the best location. So I filmed Emily telling her redemption story and then got to work editing on my iMac set up on the desk in our room. I made it to about 3am before passing out, but luckily I don't have a lot of responsibilities on Saturday mornings during the conferences so I was able to set my computer up in the green room and get back to work. I was able to get everything finished around noon so that we could show it at our last session that day.
Even though it's not perfect, I'm pretty proud of how far it came in just a few hours. Despite the lack of sleep, I count it such a privilege to be able to help these ladies tell their stories. The Lord has been so good to us even through the hard times in our lives and I absolutely love being able to show that to the world in new and creative ways. I hope I never stop creating things that point people to the Lord.
Emily's Redemption Story:
Emily approached me shortly thereafter and said something to the effect of "God told me I have to tell my story." Even though it was short notice, we both thought it would be great if we could show it at the conference the next day. So that night when we got to the hotel around midnight, Emily and I got to work filming her video. We tried a couple different places, including the hotel lobby but ended up deciding that despite the horrible lighting, our hotel room was the best location. So I filmed Emily telling her redemption story and then got to work editing on my iMac set up on the desk in our room. I made it to about 3am before passing out, but luckily I don't have a lot of responsibilities on Saturday mornings during the conferences so I was able to set my computer up in the green room and get back to work. I was able to get everything finished around noon so that we could show it at our last session that day.
Even though it's not perfect, I'm pretty proud of how far it came in just a few hours. Despite the lack of sleep, I count it such a privilege to be able to help these ladies tell their stories. The Lord has been so good to us even through the hard times in our lives and I absolutely love being able to show that to the world in new and creative ways. I hope I never stop creating things that point people to the Lord.
Emily's Redemption Story:
Emily's Redemption Story from Amy Marks on Vimeo.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Sage Redeemed Video -- pt. 1
During my senior year at A&M I got a Facebook message from the Director of an organization called Sage Girls Ministry. I believe she had gotten my name from my friend Donna and asked if I would be interested in playing drums at a few conferences that they put on for middle school and high school girls in the spring.
I immediately said that I would love to, but I think I that the dates only worked out for me to play at 1 or 2 events that year. Even with the limited time I spent with the ladies, I immediately loved them and knew that I would fit right in. Since then I have been able to play at almost all of the conferences and am happy to say that I have been able to continue to work with Sage even now that I have moved and am working full time.
This fall when I got my camera I told Merritt Johnston, the director, that I needed her to help me put my new camera to use, and she happily obliged. The theme of the conferences this year is "Redeemed" and she mentioned doing some interviews of the Sage team explaining how the Lord has redeemed certain areas of their life. The plan was to film several people at a meeting we had a week before the first conference. As it turned out, no one was really interested in being on camera that day except for Heather. So I filmed Heather that day and over the course of the next week I was able to edit it at least to the point where it was good enough to be shown on Friday night.
Much of Heather's story has to do with her mom, who was addicted to drugs and had many struggles while Heather was growing up but later, both Heather and her mom came to know the Lord. The song in the video is a hymn called "Redeemed" which is perfect for the theme in and of itself, but it also happens to be Heather's mom's favorite song, so I knew that we had to use it. Heather is a singer/songwriter and so she recorded the hymn for me that week and I was happy to be able to incorporate it in the video. Even though the girls that we showed the video to had no idea, I love that the music choice had such rich meaning on several different levels.
This story is to be continued, but in the meantime check out the first video that I made with my new camera: Heather's Redemption Story.
I immediately said that I would love to, but I think I that the dates only worked out for me to play at 1 or 2 events that year. Even with the limited time I spent with the ladies, I immediately loved them and knew that I would fit right in. Since then I have been able to play at almost all of the conferences and am happy to say that I have been able to continue to work with Sage even now that I have moved and am working full time.
This fall when I got my camera I told Merritt Johnston, the director, that I needed her to help me put my new camera to use, and she happily obliged. The theme of the conferences this year is "Redeemed" and she mentioned doing some interviews of the Sage team explaining how the Lord has redeemed certain areas of their life. The plan was to film several people at a meeting we had a week before the first conference. As it turned out, no one was really interested in being on camera that day except for Heather. So I filmed Heather that day and over the course of the next week I was able to edit it at least to the point where it was good enough to be shown on Friday night.
Much of Heather's story has to do with her mom, who was addicted to drugs and had many struggles while Heather was growing up but later, both Heather and her mom came to know the Lord. The song in the video is a hymn called "Redeemed" which is perfect for the theme in and of itself, but it also happens to be Heather's mom's favorite song, so I knew that we had to use it. Heather is a singer/songwriter and so she recorded the hymn for me that week and I was happy to be able to incorporate it in the video. Even though the girls that we showed the video to had no idea, I love that the music choice had such rich meaning on several different levels.
This story is to be continued, but in the meantime check out the first video that I made with my new camera: Heather's Redemption Story.
Heather's Redemption Story from Amy Marks on Vimeo
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
New Camera
As I mentioned last week, I got my first DSLR camera about 3 months ago and have really enjoyed it so far. I blame my friends Matt Johnson and Emily Kiel for my new money-sucking hobby. They totally ruined me for lower quality photos and videos. I was perfectly happy with my little point and shoot camera until I saw the magic that Emily made with her camera and her insanely creative mind.
I have been interested in videography since high school but haven't pursued it a whole lot. I had a video camera for awhile and filmed a few things but didn't have very good editing software so I didn't do much with the footage. My 5th year in college I got a better computer and bought some good software (Premiere Pro CS5) to go with it, but all I had was a little Flip video camera at the time.
So fast forward to October 2011 and for the first time I have a stable, full-time job with a steady income, and the more I watched videos online by Matt and others, the more I was itching to start creating them myself. So I finally mentally allowed myself to take the plunge and did a little research on Canon cameras (both Matt and Emily shoot with Canon's so that's what I was most familiar with). After considering my options I finally settled on the Canon T3i. For several weeks I had my mind made up and was just waiting around for the right deal, which finally came on Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving).
I haven't had as many opportunities as I would like to take photos and make videos but I have gotten to play with the camera some and really love it so far. Over the next few days I'll post a couple of videos that I made for a ministry that I work with (and love!) called Sage Girls Ministry.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Somebody That I Used to Know
I was first exposed to a capella music probably around my sophomore year of college. I knew a couple of the guys in A&M’s all-male a capella group Apotheothis and throughout the rest of my time in College Station I made it to every Apotheosis concert that I could.
Not too long ago I discovered a show called The Sing-Off. I haven’t been super dedicated to it but I catch it when I can and this past fall my roommate and I recorded Season 3 and watched it together. From the start I was drawn toward a group called Pentatonix, partly because the 3 original group members are from Arlington, TX, not too far from me, and partly because they are just really good and also really unique. They have a knack for taking pop songs and making them sound just enough like the original that you recognize and enjoy the song but also putting their own spin on it.
All of that to say, I found this video the other day of Pentatonix singing Somebody that I Used to Know by Gotye. I actually hadn’t heard the original song, but I had seen another cover by a group called Walk Off the Earth that is really good. It involves 5 people playing 1 guitar at the same time (video below).
So here’s video of Pentatonix. Enjoy!
And if you like the song, here is the cover by Walk Off the Earth. They have a lot of really good, creative videos you can check out on their YouTube channel.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
My Day Yesterday
I'm not sure what it is, but lately I've been itching to create something. Maybe it's the fact that I work in a cubicle somewhere between 9 and 13 hours a day. Or maybe it's the fact that I got my first DSLR camera about 3 months ago and haven't gotten to really put it to use yet. Either way, I've been dying to create something. Anything.
I got the idea for this video from a guy named Carlos Whittaker. Carlos is a christian singer/songwriter and worship pastor as well as a blogger. Plus, he won a People's Choice award last year for this video. I have to admit that I don't actually listen to Carlos' music, or even read his blog much. But I came across a series of videos that he made called "My Day Yesterday". The premise is that you take a bunch of clips that are just a few seconds long and throw them together to show how you spent your day. No editing, no music, just a bunch short clips thrown together. His rule is only 90 seconds. I broke that one.
I have wanted to do this for awhile but I kept thinking that my day was just too boring to be a good video. Most days I literally drive to work, sit in a cubicle, drive home, and spend the couple hours I have before going to bed watching TV or surfing the internet. That actually ended up being part of the fun. It was challenging coming up with lots of ways to portray my boring and menial tasks throughout the day. Actually, the best part of my day (having dinner with my mom) ended up hardly making it in the video because I was more interested in spending time with her than getting cool shots. Plus, I didn't want to take my camera into Chuy's :-)
So check out my day yesterday and let me know what you think!
I got the idea for this video from a guy named Carlos Whittaker. Carlos is a christian singer/songwriter and worship pastor as well as a blogger. Plus, he won a People's Choice award last year for this video. I have to admit that I don't actually listen to Carlos' music, or even read his blog much. But I came across a series of videos that he made called "My Day Yesterday". The premise is that you take a bunch of clips that are just a few seconds long and throw them together to show how you spent your day. No editing, no music, just a bunch short clips thrown together. His rule is only 90 seconds. I broke that one.
I have wanted to do this for awhile but I kept thinking that my day was just too boring to be a good video. Most days I literally drive to work, sit in a cubicle, drive home, and spend the couple hours I have before going to bed watching TV or surfing the internet. That actually ended up being part of the fun. It was challenging coming up with lots of ways to portray my boring and menial tasks throughout the day. Actually, the best part of my day (having dinner with my mom) ended up hardly making it in the video because I was more interested in spending time with her than getting cool shots. Plus, I didn't want to take my camera into Chuy's :-)
So check out my day yesterday and let me know what you think!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Trusting He is Faithful
I'm not really one to make New Year's Resolutions. It's not that I have something against making them. I think it can be helpful to reflect on your life once in a while and see what needs to be changed. On the other hand, if you're making a change for the sake of changing, I think that more often than not, it's not going to stick.
While I'm joining the many people across the world writing a blog on New Year's, it's not because I'm making a New Year's resolution to begin blogging regularly. In fact, I know I won't be blogging with any kind of regularity this year. 2011 marks a year where I already know that I'm going to be going through some huge changes in my life. Most of those changes will begin in May, when I will graduate from Texas A&M with a bachelor's degree in Accounting (and a minor in Communication), and a Master's degree in Management Information Systems. I'll be spending half of my summer at Sky Ranch Christian Camps in Van, TX working as a lifeguard and will spend the remainder of my summer getting ready for Impact, a Christ-centered retreat for incoming freshmen at A&M in August. After Impact, I'll get settled in my new home (apartment?) in Dallas and begin working as a consultant in the Enterprise Risk Services practice (or maybe it's called Advisory now? I can't keep up) of Deloitte & Touche sometime in mid-September.
See? I told you a lot is changing in 2011.
On top of all of that, I'm about to begin what I anticipate to be some of the busiest months of my life. Today I begin studying for the CPA exam so that, Lord-willing, by May I'll have fulfilled all of the requirements to be a Certified Public Accountant (you also have to have 1 year of work experience so I won't be officially certified until next summer). The exam is actually a series of 4 individuals tests that I will have to pass, and I will study for each test for 3-5 weeks (up to ~40 hrs/week) so really, this is going to consume my entire semester. In addition to the CPA exam, I'm taking 6 hours of classes to finish my degrees, I am the Media Exec for Impact (www.impactretreat.com), and I am the Production Coordinator as well as helping with the accounting/money stuff for a conference called Masterpiece that is coming up in March (www.masterpiececonference.com). Not to mention being involved in my church, FBC Bryan, by being on the worship team and involved in the college ministry. Oh, and I have a job, too.
I didn't need to write that all out to realize that I have a lot going on, and it definitely creeps into my mind that I may have bitten off more than I can chew.
Thinking about all of that, and the consequences of neglecting any one of those responsibilities honestly scares me to death. The comfort I have is that I know the Lord has specifically called me to each one of these things, and even though sometimes I don't see how I can do all of them at once, I'm trusting that He will sustain me and am looking forward to seeing what He'll teach me through it all.
"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it." -- 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 ESV
While I'm joining the many people across the world writing a blog on New Year's, it's not because I'm making a New Year's resolution to begin blogging regularly. In fact, I know I won't be blogging with any kind of regularity this year. 2011 marks a year where I already know that I'm going to be going through some huge changes in my life. Most of those changes will begin in May, when I will graduate from Texas A&M with a bachelor's degree in Accounting (and a minor in Communication), and a Master's degree in Management Information Systems. I'll be spending half of my summer at Sky Ranch Christian Camps in Van, TX working as a lifeguard and will spend the remainder of my summer getting ready for Impact, a Christ-centered retreat for incoming freshmen at A&M in August. After Impact, I'll get settled in my new home (apartment?) in Dallas and begin working as a consultant in the Enterprise Risk Services practice (or maybe it's called Advisory now? I can't keep up) of Deloitte & Touche sometime in mid-September.
See? I told you a lot is changing in 2011.
On top of all of that, I'm about to begin what I anticipate to be some of the busiest months of my life. Today I begin studying for the CPA exam so that, Lord-willing, by May I'll have fulfilled all of the requirements to be a Certified Public Accountant (you also have to have 1 year of work experience so I won't be officially certified until next summer). The exam is actually a series of 4 individuals tests that I will have to pass, and I will study for each test for 3-5 weeks (up to ~40 hrs/week) so really, this is going to consume my entire semester. In addition to the CPA exam, I'm taking 6 hours of classes to finish my degrees, I am the Media Exec for Impact (www.impactretreat.com), and I am the Production Coordinator as well as helping with the accounting/money stuff for a conference called Masterpiece that is coming up in March (www.masterpiececonference.com). Not to mention being involved in my church, FBC Bryan, by being on the worship team and involved in the college ministry. Oh, and I have a job, too.
I didn't need to write that all out to realize that I have a lot going on, and it definitely creeps into my mind that I may have bitten off more than I can chew.
Thinking about all of that, and the consequences of neglecting any one of those responsibilities honestly scares me to death. The comfort I have is that I know the Lord has specifically called me to each one of these things, and even though sometimes I don't see how I can do all of them at once, I'm trusting that He will sustain me and am looking forward to seeing what He'll teach me through it all.
"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it." -- 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 ESV
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Istanbul!
Tara and I left on a bus Tuesday and headed to Istanbul for 3 days! We planned on taking an overnight train, but when we went to buy the tickets we were told that the train wasn't running because of some "big problem with the line". After some internet research, we found out that there had been some flooding that damaged the tracks and the line would be closed for at least a month. We checked into alternatives and found out there was an overnight bus that also ran to Istanbul. We were a little concerned, though, because right around that time, Greece experienced a frog plague that closed the highway for a little while and then slowed traffic once it reopened. Some people were claiming that the frogs were forewarning a massive earthquake. You can't make this stuff up, folks.
We ended up taking the overnight bus (which was quite nice, by the way) and arrived in Istanbul safe and sound. I'll spare you the continuous details of our trip, but we basically did all of the normal tourist things in the city. We visited the Blue Mosque as well as Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia), saw the Basilica Cistern, shopped at the Grand Bazaar, went to the top of Galata Tower, walked around the Taksim district, and took a ferry out Büyükada, which is one of the Prince's Islands. Most of the restaurants and bars around town had waterpipes (or hookah as we usually call it in the US) so both evenings that we were there we hung out and smoked some hookah to wind down our evening. Don't tell my mom.
All in all, it was a great trip. In my opinion we were there for the perfect amount of time. We didn't run out of things to do, but I did just about everything I wanted to do and was tired and ready to come back to Greece.
Tara has about 2 more weeks here and I have about 3 and a half so we still have a little more time to enjoy Europe. We are considering taking another trip to either Berlin and Prague or London and have also talked to my parents about taking a trip to Lefkáda, which is an island (but it's connected by a bridge) on the Ioanian/Italy side of Greece. We are also planning on spending a day or two in Halkidiki, which is a set of 3 gorgeous peninsulas with some awesome beaches on the other side of Thessaloniki. I'm also enjoying just spending time with my parents and am already dreading saying goodbye again in a few weeks!
Oh, and if you know my brother, Andy, you should tell him Happy Birthday because he's turning 25 today. What an old man! He's also about to be a dad (and therefore I'm about to be an aunt) so maybe I'll have something to blog about when I'm back in Texas. We'll see!
We ended up taking the overnight bus (which was quite nice, by the way) and arrived in Istanbul safe and sound. I'll spare you the continuous details of our trip, but we basically did all of the normal tourist things in the city. We visited the Blue Mosque as well as Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia), saw the Basilica Cistern, shopped at the Grand Bazaar, went to the top of Galata Tower, walked around the Taksim district, and took a ferry out Büyükada, which is one of the Prince's Islands. Most of the restaurants and bars around town had waterpipes (or hookah as we usually call it in the US) so both evenings that we were there we hung out and smoked some hookah to wind down our evening. Don't tell my mom.
All in all, it was a great trip. In my opinion we were there for the perfect amount of time. We didn't run out of things to do, but I did just about everything I wanted to do and was tired and ready to come back to Greece.
Tara has about 2 more weeks here and I have about 3 and a half so we still have a little more time to enjoy Europe. We are considering taking another trip to either Berlin and Prague or London and have also talked to my parents about taking a trip to Lefkáda, which is an island (but it's connected by a bridge) on the Ioanian/Italy side of Greece. We are also planning on spending a day or two in Halkidiki, which is a set of 3 gorgeous peninsulas with some awesome beaches on the other side of Thessaloniki. I'm also enjoying just spending time with my parents and am already dreading saying goodbye again in a few weeks!
Oh, and if you know my brother, Andy, you should tell him Happy Birthday because he's turning 25 today. What an old man! He's also about to be a dad (and therefore I'm about to be an aunt) so maybe I'll have something to blog about when I'm back in Texas. We'll see!
Monday, May 31, 2010
the rest of the story...
Although I think the videos mostly speak for themselves, I promised the full story so here it is (sorry for the length, brevity is not a gift that I have):
Tara and I left Texas on Monday, May 17th. As we got closer and closer to our departure date, it started looking less and less likely that we would actually make it to Greece when we were supposed to. Our original plan was to arrive in Athens about 3 hours apart on Tuesday afternoon (Tara first, then me), stay for 2 days in Athens, and then take a train to Katerini on Thursday. About a week before, my parents heard about a 24-hour public and private sector strike coming up. On Thursday. Awesome.
So, with all of Greece more or less shutting down on Thursday, my parents went to the train station and bought tickets for us for the last train out on Wednesday night. That way we still get a day and a half in Athens and make it home before the strike. Crisis averted.
If you remember back to April, the volcano with the ridiculous name that erupted in Iceland caused all kinds of trouble for air travel in Europe, particularly in London. I knew that I had a layover at Heathrow, but that was a full month before, so I assumed it wouldn't be a problem. But then it erupted again. The reports coming in that weekend said that many airports in the UK were already closed and the London airports would likely be closing....oh, on Monday or Tuesday. My flight arrived Tuesday morning. Awesome.
Then I went to church on Sunday. I was telling some of my friends after the service about the strikes in Greece and the volcano and how I was concerned I may not make it. Then it came up that I was flying on British Airways. One of my friends tells me "Oh, I know someone else that is flying British Airways through London, but their flight is canceled because of the strike on Tuesday." Another strike. Fantastic.
So I get online and find out that there is, in fact, a British Airways strike beginning the day of my flight, but they only canceled half of the flights and my flight was not one of them. Ok, crisis #2 averted. As long as the ash cloud holds off and Greece doesn't randomly strike on Tuesday I'll be good to go.
So I get on my flight and turns out that the London airport was closed for a few hours but it wasn't too major and everything was up and running again by the time I got there. I made it to Athens right on time (actually about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, surprisingly enough). So I walk out of the baggage claims/customs area and see my mom, but Tara wasn't with her like we planned. Turns out there was some mechanical problem with Tara's flight out of Newark and she was delayed. For 12 hours.
Here we were all worried that I wouldn't make it for the multitude of reasons mentioned above and it was actually Tara that didn't make it. Irony. Love it.
So Tara's delay actually put her at the airport around 2:30am, but the Metro that we needed to take to get to the airport closes at midnight. After figuring out all our options, we decide to take the Metro from our hotel to Syntagma (the parliament building area) before midnight, and then there was a bus to the airport that takes about 70 min. and runs late at night. So we do that, pick up Tara, take the bus back to Syntagma, and then we had to take a taxi back to the hotel (and my mom got to use her new-found hardcore negotiating skills to force the driver to knock 5 euros off his price. it was awesome).
Ok, so we made it back to our hotel at like 4am, and woke up a few hours later so we could spend the day in Athens before our train leaves at 8:30pm. We went to the Acropolis, the Plaka, Monastiraki, all the normal Athens places, and it was great, but we were super tired and very ready for our train ride home. So we get to the train station with all our bags about a half-hour before our train and my mom went inside to find out which platform to wait on since the signs didn't say anything.
Surprise! They decided to move up the strike. Wow. No trains out the rest of the night. For some unknown reason, even though the strike was still happening on Thursday, they decided to have one train to Thessaloniki. Thankfully, we got on it. We had to find a hotel for the night, which was more craziness, but we ended up back at the same hotel we had been at the night before, right across from the train station.
So after lots of ridiculousness, we finally made it back to Katerini on Thursday afternoon. And just to add a little more random into the mix, my dad (who can strike up a conversation with a brick wall) had made friends with some Greek tobacco farmers earlier in the week and wanted to take us out to meet them. We drove out near their village and found then working in the field so we stopped and "helped" them for awhile and then they invited us back to their house for coffee.
It was a great little re-introduction to Greek life and actually helped me remember the few Greek words that I had picked up from my previous trips.
Tara and I are leaving tomorrow evening and taking a bus to Istanbul (we wanted to take the train, but that's a whole other story that involves flooding and a frog plague. Don't worry about it). I will try to blog about that as soon as we get back. But I'm hoping that this trip won't be quite as "eventful".
Until then, you should check out my dad's blog at tracyandmary.wordpress.com. I promise his posts are much shorter than mine. And he has pictures. And some of them are of me ;-)
Tara and I left Texas on Monday, May 17th. As we got closer and closer to our departure date, it started looking less and less likely that we would actually make it to Greece when we were supposed to. Our original plan was to arrive in Athens about 3 hours apart on Tuesday afternoon (Tara first, then me), stay for 2 days in Athens, and then take a train to Katerini on Thursday. About a week before, my parents heard about a 24-hour public and private sector strike coming up. On Thursday. Awesome.
So, with all of Greece more or less shutting down on Thursday, my parents went to the train station and bought tickets for us for the last train out on Wednesday night. That way we still get a day and a half in Athens and make it home before the strike. Crisis averted.
If you remember back to April, the volcano with the ridiculous name that erupted in Iceland caused all kinds of trouble for air travel in Europe, particularly in London. I knew that I had a layover at Heathrow, but that was a full month before, so I assumed it wouldn't be a problem. But then it erupted again. The reports coming in that weekend said that many airports in the UK were already closed and the London airports would likely be closing....oh, on Monday or Tuesday. My flight arrived Tuesday morning. Awesome.
Then I went to church on Sunday. I was telling some of my friends after the service about the strikes in Greece and the volcano and how I was concerned I may not make it. Then it came up that I was flying on British Airways. One of my friends tells me "Oh, I know someone else that is flying British Airways through London, but their flight is canceled because of the strike on Tuesday." Another strike. Fantastic.
So I get online and find out that there is, in fact, a British Airways strike beginning the day of my flight, but they only canceled half of the flights and my flight was not one of them. Ok, crisis #2 averted. As long as the ash cloud holds off and Greece doesn't randomly strike on Tuesday I'll be good to go.
So I get on my flight and turns out that the London airport was closed for a few hours but it wasn't too major and everything was up and running again by the time I got there. I made it to Athens right on time (actually about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, surprisingly enough). So I walk out of the baggage claims/customs area and see my mom, but Tara wasn't with her like we planned. Turns out there was some mechanical problem with Tara's flight out of Newark and she was delayed. For 12 hours.
Here we were all worried that I wouldn't make it for the multitude of reasons mentioned above and it was actually Tara that didn't make it. Irony. Love it.
So Tara's delay actually put her at the airport around 2:30am, but the Metro that we needed to take to get to the airport closes at midnight. After figuring out all our options, we decide to take the Metro from our hotel to Syntagma (the parliament building area) before midnight, and then there was a bus to the airport that takes about 70 min. and runs late at night. So we do that, pick up Tara, take the bus back to Syntagma, and then we had to take a taxi back to the hotel (and my mom got to use her new-found hardcore negotiating skills to force the driver to knock 5 euros off his price. it was awesome).
Ok, so we made it back to our hotel at like 4am, and woke up a few hours later so we could spend the day in Athens before our train leaves at 8:30pm. We went to the Acropolis, the Plaka, Monastiraki, all the normal Athens places, and it was great, but we were super tired and very ready for our train ride home. So we get to the train station with all our bags about a half-hour before our train and my mom went inside to find out which platform to wait on since the signs didn't say anything.
Surprise! They decided to move up the strike. Wow. No trains out the rest of the night. For some unknown reason, even though the strike was still happening on Thursday, they decided to have one train to Thessaloniki. Thankfully, we got on it. We had to find a hotel for the night, which was more craziness, but we ended up back at the same hotel we had been at the night before, right across from the train station.
So after lots of ridiculousness, we finally made it back to Katerini on Thursday afternoon. And just to add a little more random into the mix, my dad (who can strike up a conversation with a brick wall) had made friends with some Greek tobacco farmers earlier in the week and wanted to take us out to meet them. We drove out near their village and found then working in the field so we stopped and "helped" them for awhile and then they invited us back to their house for coffee.
It was a great little re-introduction to Greek life and actually helped me remember the few Greek words that I had picked up from my previous trips.
Tara and I are leaving tomorrow evening and taking a bus to Istanbul (we wanted to take the train, but that's a whole other story that involves flooding and a frog plague. Don't worry about it). I will try to blog about that as soon as we get back. But I'm hoping that this trip won't be quite as "eventful".
Until then, you should check out my dad's blog at tracyandmary.wordpress.com. I promise his posts are much shorter than mine. And he has pictures. And some of them are of me ;-)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Episode 3!
I totally forgot to put up Episode 3! I put it on Facebook but forgot to throw it up here, so here you go!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
I'm back!!
I know it's been a full year since I've posted on this blog, but since I am currently back in Greece, I thought I would start back up again for a little while. I know hardly anyone read this blog to start with, but if you added it to your Google Reader (which I highly recommend, by the way) or whatever you use and forgot about it, hopefully you'll enjoy seeing a few posts from me this summer.
This year I am staying for about 6 weeks before I have to go back to College Station to take one session (6 hours) of summer school. My friend, future roommate, and fellow accounting/MIS student, Tara, came with me this year (although she took a different flight) and will leave about a week and a half before I do. I'll post the full story and some more videos later, but here is the first video describing some of the problems we encountered in trying to get to Greece.
This year I am staying for about 6 weeks before I have to go back to College Station to take one session (6 hours) of summer school. My friend, future roommate, and fellow accounting/MIS student, Tara, came with me this year (although she took a different flight) and will leave about a week and a half before I do. I'll post the full story and some more videos later, but here is the first video describing some of the problems we encountered in trying to get to Greece.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Finals Time
Well it's almost the end of the semester and I'm in full-fledged final-studying mode. Or, at least I have lots of time devoted to studying...I'm sure how productive I'm being. Exhibit A: I'm sitting with my tax book in front of me but instead of working problems about the taxation of partnerships, I'm typing this blog entry.
Dead week/finals week can be both my favorite and least favorite time of the semester. Usually during dead week I don't study much. So basically, it's just college without the class. It doesn't get much better than that. This semester, though, my grades going in to my finals aren't quite what I'd like them to be so I've been more proactive with my study schedule. Don't get me wrong, my grades aren't bad. But I'm definitely not going to be getting a 4.0 this semester. I don't always achieve it, but an A is always my goal in each class and I'm always a little disappointed when I don't get it.
I took a Management final yesterday and in order to get an A in the class I needed to get a 97 on the final. Yeah, that didn't happen. I have a final in Accounting Information Systems (sounds fun, doesn't it?) on Monday that shouldn't be too bad but then on Tuesday I have a final in Tax (not TAKS, although 99% of the time that's what people think I'm saying when I talk about my tax class). I really am hoping to get an A in tax because that grade will go into my accounting GPA, which in some ways I care more about than my overall GPA. Without a curve, I need to get a 107 on my final. Yes, that's out of 100 points. I'm just hoping that if I study really hard I can get a high A and he will curve it enough to bump me up. I know it's not likely, but I just can't bring myself to give up and settle for a B.
After finals are over on Tuesday I have 2 and a half weeks to kill before summer school starts up again. I will mostly be going back and forth between College Station and Dallas with maybe a visit to Austin or somewhere else in there. I have 3 office visits in Dallas but have things to do in CS between them so unfortunately I can't just stay up there. I'm looking forward to the break and being able to relax a little bit before going straight back into full-time school. I've never done summer school before (besides an online ACC class in'07 and my "study abroad" last year that mostly consisted of me hanging out with my parents) so this will definitely be a new experience for me. I'm looking forward to it. I think I will be equally as busy but just in a different way. School will be faster paced so I'll need to work to keep up but I also won't have nearly as many evening activities as I do during the school year so I will have plenty of time to just hang out with people and have fun in addition to my school work.
Well I've procrastinated enough and it's time to get back to my date with my tax book...
Dead week/finals week can be both my favorite and least favorite time of the semester. Usually during dead week I don't study much. So basically, it's just college without the class. It doesn't get much better than that. This semester, though, my grades going in to my finals aren't quite what I'd like them to be so I've been more proactive with my study schedule. Don't get me wrong, my grades aren't bad. But I'm definitely not going to be getting a 4.0 this semester. I don't always achieve it, but an A is always my goal in each class and I'm always a little disappointed when I don't get it.
I took a Management final yesterday and in order to get an A in the class I needed to get a 97 on the final. Yeah, that didn't happen. I have a final in Accounting Information Systems (sounds fun, doesn't it?) on Monday that shouldn't be too bad but then on Tuesday I have a final in Tax (not TAKS, although 99% of the time that's what people think I'm saying when I talk about my tax class). I really am hoping to get an A in tax because that grade will go into my accounting GPA, which in some ways I care more about than my overall GPA. Without a curve, I need to get a 107 on my final. Yes, that's out of 100 points. I'm just hoping that if I study really hard I can get a high A and he will curve it enough to bump me up. I know it's not likely, but I just can't bring myself to give up and settle for a B.
After finals are over on Tuesday I have 2 and a half weeks to kill before summer school starts up again. I will mostly be going back and forth between College Station and Dallas with maybe a visit to Austin or somewhere else in there. I have 3 office visits in Dallas but have things to do in CS between them so unfortunately I can't just stay up there. I'm looking forward to the break and being able to relax a little bit before going straight back into full-time school. I've never done summer school before (besides an online ACC class in'07 and my "study abroad" last year that mostly consisted of me hanging out with my parents) so this will definitely be a new experience for me. I'm looking forward to it. I think I will be equally as busy but just in a different way. School will be faster paced so I'll need to work to keep up but I also won't have nearly as many evening activities as I do during the school year so I will have plenty of time to just hang out with people and have fun in addition to my school work.
Well I've procrastinated enough and it's time to get back to my date with my tax book...
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Recruiting
I just finished an incredibly exhausting week but I had a ton of fun.
In my last post I mentioned that I interviewed with 5 different accounting firms for internships this coming fall. I interviewed with the “Big 4” (Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG) and a smaller firm called Protiviti. I found out the following week that 3 of these firms (Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC) liked me and wanted to continue recruiting with me.
The PPA program regulates what these firms can and cannot do when they recruit us. This past week was “open week” where all of the firms brought people down and could have as many events as they wanted. Basically the entire week I went from one event to another - all day, everyday. The events were lots of fun but doing all that stuff plus talking to lots of people and trying to impress them and getting to know as many different people as I can and getting to know the personalities of each firm was pretty tiring.
This was my schedule this week:
On Monday, I went to work for a couple hours, had breakfast with Deloitte, played golf with PwC, went to 2 classes, had dinner and played Bingo with KPMG, went to dessert with PwC, and then went to Impact prayer meeting.
On Tuesday, I went to breakfast with PwC, went to 2 classes (w/ quizzes in both), had lunch with KPMG, went bowling with Deloitte and then we had the night off to go to Aggie Muster, which I went to with a couple of my friends.
On Wednesday, I worked for a couple of hours, went to lunch at a restaurant on the lake with Deloitte, went skeet shooting with PwC, went to a baseball tailgate with Deloitte and had dinner at Excell Steakhouse (i.e. one of the nicest restaurants in CS) with a partner from KPMG.
On Thursday, I went to 1 class, went to lunch with PwC, hung out at Research Park with Deloitte, went to another class, went bowling with KPMG, went to a crawfish boil with Deloitte, and then went to another dinner at The Republic (also one of the nicest restaurants in CS) with PwC.
On Friday, I went to breakfast with PwC, lunch with Deloitte, hung out at the Rec with KPMG, then helped set up for Impact retreat and when we found out we didn’t have to stay for the actual retreat, a couple of the Crew girls and I went to a Dave Barnes concert in downtown Bryan.
This coming week is “restricted week” and each firm has 24 hours to do whatever they want, so I just have 2 events with each firm and I won’t have to choose between events.
I have a pretty good idea right now who I want to go with, assuming I get an offer. In May I’ll get to do an office visit with each of the firms and meet more people that I would potentially be working with. If all goes well, I will be doing my internship in the fall and then will get to be back in College Station for 3 more semesters before I graduate.
I can’t even believe that this is really happening. I have friends that are graduating in May and don’t know what they’re going to do because it’s hard to find jobs right now and here I am, not even close to graduating and I have 3 firms wining and dining me – it’s crazy.
As much as I try to ignore it, I really am growing up and it won’t be very long before I have a real job and will be pretty much on my own. Even though I love college, I’m excited to see what this next stage of my life will be like.
In my last post I mentioned that I interviewed with 5 different accounting firms for internships this coming fall. I interviewed with the “Big 4” (Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG) and a smaller firm called Protiviti. I found out the following week that 3 of these firms (Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC) liked me and wanted to continue recruiting with me.
The PPA program regulates what these firms can and cannot do when they recruit us. This past week was “open week” where all of the firms brought people down and could have as many events as they wanted. Basically the entire week I went from one event to another - all day, everyday. The events were lots of fun but doing all that stuff plus talking to lots of people and trying to impress them and getting to know as many different people as I can and getting to know the personalities of each firm was pretty tiring.
This was my schedule this week:
On Monday, I went to work for a couple hours, had breakfast with Deloitte, played golf with PwC, went to 2 classes, had dinner and played Bingo with KPMG, went to dessert with PwC, and then went to Impact prayer meeting.
On Tuesday, I went to breakfast with PwC, went to 2 classes (w/ quizzes in both), had lunch with KPMG, went bowling with Deloitte and then we had the night off to go to Aggie Muster, which I went to with a couple of my friends.
On Wednesday, I worked for a couple of hours, went to lunch at a restaurant on the lake with Deloitte, went skeet shooting with PwC, went to a baseball tailgate with Deloitte and had dinner at Excell Steakhouse (i.e. one of the nicest restaurants in CS) with a partner from KPMG.
On Thursday, I went to 1 class, went to lunch with PwC, hung out at Research Park with Deloitte, went to another class, went bowling with KPMG, went to a crawfish boil with Deloitte, and then went to another dinner at The Republic (also one of the nicest restaurants in CS) with PwC.
On Friday, I went to breakfast with PwC, lunch with Deloitte, hung out at the Rec with KPMG, then helped set up for Impact retreat and when we found out we didn’t have to stay for the actual retreat, a couple of the Crew girls and I went to a Dave Barnes concert in downtown Bryan.
This coming week is “restricted week” and each firm has 24 hours to do whatever they want, so I just have 2 events with each firm and I won’t have to choose between events.
I have a pretty good idea right now who I want to go with, assuming I get an offer. In May I’ll get to do an office visit with each of the firms and meet more people that I would potentially be working with. If all goes well, I will be doing my internship in the fall and then will get to be back in College Station for 3 more semesters before I graduate.
I can’t even believe that this is really happening. I have friends that are graduating in May and don’t know what they’re going to do because it’s hard to find jobs right now and here I am, not even close to graduating and I have 3 firms wining and dining me – it’s crazy.
As much as I try to ignore it, I really am growing up and it won’t be very long before I have a real job and will be pretty much on my own. Even though I love college, I’m excited to see what this next stage of my life will be like.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
6 months later...
Well it's been 6 months since I last posted on this blog. This hiatus was somewhat intentional, but nonetheless I thought I'd give a quick update.
Last time I wrote I had just gone to an informational for the PPA program, the 5-year professional accounting program at A&M. Well, turns out I applied for the program, got accepted and am in the middle of the recruiting process for internships now. I had 1 interview this past week with Protiviti (a risk and business consulting firm) and have 4 interviews coming up this week with all of the "Big 4" public accounting firms. If these firms like me, I'll go through a process of recruiting where they will host lots of events and I'll get to meet their people and get a feel for the culture of each company and hopefully end up with an office visit in May. After office visits they will extend job offers. If all goes according to plan I should be spending the fall semester in Dallas working at one of these firms.
What's cool about having an internship this fall is that I will get a small taste of the real world. I'll have a real job working on real clients doing real accounting work (scary but true) but then I will get to go back and be in college again for another year and a half. I love college and am not in a hurry to get out anytime soon so I'm really glad I don't graduate for another 2 years!
Another cool thing is that I'm in Austin right now hanging out with my parents. They are here just for a week, doing a conference over the weekend, so they will be flying back to Greece on Monday. They actually will be coming back semi-permanently (meaning they don't currently have any plans to go back overseas but things are still up in the air) on June 1 so I'm excited about that! They will be temporarily living in Brenham, TX which is only about a 45 minute drive from College Station. It will definitely be an adjustment to go from being 6000 miles away from them to being 50 miles away but I'm still happy that they'll be close by.
If anyone reads this and wants to keep up with me I wouldn't necessarily suggest relying on this blog since I clearly don't update very often. I recently decided to try out Twitter and although I don't really know if I'll stick with it, I can pretty much guarantee that it will get updated more than this. The twitter updates are short and sweet but it should give you a feel for what's going on in my life. To check out my twitter go to http://www.twitter.com/amylmarks
Last time I wrote I had just gone to an informational for the PPA program, the 5-year professional accounting program at A&M. Well, turns out I applied for the program, got accepted and am in the middle of the recruiting process for internships now. I had 1 interview this past week with Protiviti (a risk and business consulting firm) and have 4 interviews coming up this week with all of the "Big 4" public accounting firms. If these firms like me, I'll go through a process of recruiting where they will host lots of events and I'll get to meet their people and get a feel for the culture of each company and hopefully end up with an office visit in May. After office visits they will extend job offers. If all goes according to plan I should be spending the fall semester in Dallas working at one of these firms.
What's cool about having an internship this fall is that I will get a small taste of the real world. I'll have a real job working on real clients doing real accounting work (scary but true) but then I will get to go back and be in college again for another year and a half. I love college and am not in a hurry to get out anytime soon so I'm really glad I don't graduate for another 2 years!
Another cool thing is that I'm in Austin right now hanging out with my parents. They are here just for a week, doing a conference over the weekend, so they will be flying back to Greece on Monday. They actually will be coming back semi-permanently (meaning they don't currently have any plans to go back overseas but things are still up in the air) on June 1 so I'm excited about that! They will be temporarily living in Brenham, TX which is only about a 45 minute drive from College Station. It will definitely be an adjustment to go from being 6000 miles away from them to being 50 miles away but I'm still happy that they'll be close by.
If anyone reads this and wants to keep up with me I wouldn't necessarily suggest relying on this blog since I clearly don't update very often. I recently decided to try out Twitter and although I don't really know if I'll stick with it, I can pretty much guarantee that it will get updated more than this. The twitter updates are short and sweet but it should give you a feel for what's going on in my life. To check out my twitter go to http://www.twitter.com/amylmarks
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Old
I’m growing up. And that’s scary.
I went to an informational tonight for the Professional Program for Accounting (PPA) here at Mays Business School. The PPA program is a 5-year program where I will get my BBA in Accounting and an MS in some other business degree at the end of my 5th year. Assuming I get into the program I’ll start being recruited for internships this spring. It’s a pretty cool deal. The program has developed a little bit of a prestigious reputation among accounting firms so the “big 4” accounting firms as well as some middle market and industry firms come in and basically pamper you and try to get you to come do an internship at their firm.
I found out a couple things tonight that I didn’t know (or had heard but didn’t know for sure). For one, if I do the track of PPA that I’m currently most interested in (Management Information Systems) I’ll be doing my internship next fall. Yeah, that’s right. Less than a year from now I’ll be employed. At a real job. With real accountants. Doing real accounting stuff. That blows my mind. I feel like I just started college. I’m still a kid. I can’t have a real job yet. Crazy. Also, if I don’t do that track, I’ll be starting graduate classes next fall. If I really want to, I could possibly start them next semester or this summer if I end up taking summer school. What? I shouldn’t even be close to taking grad classes yet! I just started college remember? Dang, I’m old. How did that happen?
As of now my first choice will be to do an internship in Dallas either next fall or next spring (depending on which program track I end up choosing.) Even though it totally blows my mind that I’m even having to think seriously about this right now, I’m really excited about this program and everything that I’ll be doing for the next 2 and a half years. It’s a really cool opportunity and I’m really glad that A&M offers it. But now I’m off to write my resume. Because I hear those are important.
I went to an informational tonight for the Professional Program for Accounting (PPA) here at Mays Business School. The PPA program is a 5-year program where I will get my BBA in Accounting and an MS in some other business degree at the end of my 5th year. Assuming I get into the program I’ll start being recruited for internships this spring. It’s a pretty cool deal. The program has developed a little bit of a prestigious reputation among accounting firms so the “big 4” accounting firms as well as some middle market and industry firms come in and basically pamper you and try to get you to come do an internship at their firm.
I found out a couple things tonight that I didn’t know (or had heard but didn’t know for sure). For one, if I do the track of PPA that I’m currently most interested in (Management Information Systems) I’ll be doing my internship next fall. Yeah, that’s right. Less than a year from now I’ll be employed. At a real job. With real accountants. Doing real accounting stuff. That blows my mind. I feel like I just started college. I’m still a kid. I can’t have a real job yet. Crazy. Also, if I don’t do that track, I’ll be starting graduate classes next fall. If I really want to, I could possibly start them next semester or this summer if I end up taking summer school. What? I shouldn’t even be close to taking grad classes yet! I just started college remember? Dang, I’m old. How did that happen?
As of now my first choice will be to do an internship in Dallas either next fall or next spring (depending on which program track I end up choosing.) Even though it totally blows my mind that I’m even having to think seriously about this right now, I’m really excited about this program and everything that I’ll be doing for the next 2 and a half years. It’s a really cool opportunity and I’m really glad that A&M offers it. But now I’m off to write my resume. Because I hear those are important.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
See you Soon
Anyone that knows me knows that the biggest commitment for the last 9 months of my life has been Impact. Last week, 9 months of preparation came together at a 4 day retreat for incoming freshmen at Texas A&M. I have been on Impact staff for the last 2 years and have experienced a lot of ups and downs in the positions I have been in. Both years, however, I have realized coming away from the retreat that everything that we did to prepare whether I thought it was necessary or totally stupid, all of it was worth it when I saw and spent time with my freshmen. I consider both retreats to be some of the best times of my life. Probably my favorite part about Impact, though, is the fact that the relationships don’t stop at the retreat. The entire next semester (more or less) will be spent pouring into the freshmen in our camp and doing everything we can to make sure that they have an incredible beginning to their experience in college.
I spent the evening Thursday night hanging out with my camp and we had a really great time. ALL of my counselors/prayer teamers came (which is incredible considering their collective attendance record in the spring ☺) and a lot of the freshmen made it out too. Although this was our first and currently only official hangout, I’ve been hanging out with my partner and various other Impact people every night this week and have been having the time of my life with them. (On a side note, school starts next week but the week before school in the fall is one of the best weeks of the year because everyone is in town but no one has school so its always lot of fun.) We were all friends and spent some time together in the spring but spending 4 days together doing what we did at Impact really made us feel like family.
Something that I have been able to say a lot this week, which I really love is to tell people is “I’ll see you soon” and know that it’s true. I’ve had to say a lot of “goodbyes” in the last couple of years but I love being back in College Station with everyone and knowing that I can (and usually will) see them again any time. I love knowing that these people that I’ve grown to love will still be there for me when I need them and they’re just a phone call, text, or facebook message away. I really have come to love living in College Station and spending time with the amazing people here and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what this next semester will bring.
Our entire camp just before we got our freshmen on the 1st day of Impact.
I spent the evening Thursday night hanging out with my camp and we had a really great time. ALL of my counselors/prayer teamers came (which is incredible considering their collective attendance record in the spring ☺) and a lot of the freshmen made it out too. Although this was our first and currently only official hangout, I’ve been hanging out with my partner and various other Impact people every night this week and have been having the time of my life with them. (On a side note, school starts next week but the week before school in the fall is one of the best weeks of the year because everyone is in town but no one has school so its always lot of fun.) We were all friends and spent some time together in the spring but spending 4 days together doing what we did at Impact really made us feel like family.
Something that I have been able to say a lot this week, which I really love is to tell people is “I’ll see you soon” and know that it’s true. I’ve had to say a lot of “goodbyes” in the last couple of years but I love being back in College Station with everyone and knowing that I can (and usually will) see them again any time. I love knowing that these people that I’ve grown to love will still be there for me when I need them and they’re just a phone call, text, or facebook message away. I really have come to love living in College Station and spending time with the amazing people here and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what this next semester will bring.
Our entire camp just before we got our freshmen on the 1st day of Impact.Monday, July 28, 2008
Home
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.
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.
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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