A Note on Showering

It is often said in the U.S. that Europeans bathe less than their American counterparts. It is also known that European women don’t always shave and like to let it grow wild and free. I could never understand this, since I love showers and spend copious amounts of time splashing around in there at home a la Psycho, and prefer silky-smooth to hairy spider legs. If my new bathing situation is typical of all of Europe, I can completely understand how this came to be.

My entire bathroom here in Thessaloniki is about as big as my shower back home, and that’s not exaggerating. The shower is a raised lip in the bathroom floor with a moldy, disgusting curtain that comes around to enclose the little area. The tiny showerhead isn’t mounted but one you hold and aim around. I turn on the boiler, wait a good 18 minutes, and give it a go.

Disastrous. Not only is it tiny, but it doesn’t drain---after 15 seconds of water the shower is filled to the brim and spilling over to the bathroom floor. It’s too cramped to skillfully maneuver the showerhead, and it sprays everywhere. the curtain doesn’t reach the floor and so is useless anyway. After less than a minute I feel claustrophobic and cramped and ready to leap out. After what feels like an eternity I get out, with as much water on the dirty floor as in the area designated shower.

I’ve always been a shower-shaver, but the episode above proved that this was not only improbable, but utterly impossible. However, having not shaved since leaving the US, it had to be done. Armed with only my razor, the sink, and a small can of shaving cream (Katherine, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU, you’re probably the only reason I didn’t bleed out in that bathroom), I began the torturous process.

When I finally emerged from that hellhole, soggy, shivering, and shaven, it was with horribly scraped, cut legs, and I was the least clean I’ve ever been upon exiting a shower. But I was alive.

Given this horrific episode, it’s obvious maintaining the standard of cleanliness to which I’ve become accustomed will be difficult. But I will persevere, my dear Americans, never you fear. I’m just glad my roommate hasn’t arrived yet—the bathroom door doesn't even come close to closing, and such a spectacle would hardly make a good first impression.

Move-in Day, and then Again

Hey, I’m in my new room, everything’s all unpacked, but I can’t connect to the Internet and can’t find anyone who knows how, so I’ll type up this post but won’t be able to publish it to the site until tomorrow, probably.

In an effort to get to the room before my roommate and get the best side (hah), etc, Mom and I set our alarm for 830 and we were all ready to go. Unfortunately, the alarm didn’t go off and we woke up closer to 1030 (still not used to the time!). We hurried out, hauled everything into a cab, and headed on down to the building. A nice English girl RA let us in, showed me to my room, and I meticulously unpacked and put away every last article. Just as I was sitting down to look over the information packet they provided us with, she came in to let us know that not only was I in the wrong room, but the wrong building….through a series of mix-ups I had to pack it all back up and head back across town where I came from.

Now I am successfully settled into my real room. My roommate hasn’t arrived yet, but there are a couple of other girls who are about—I wanted to leave the door open so I could say hey to some of them, but it’s too cold out in the hallway, and I just figured out how to turn the heat up in my room! Mom disagrees, but I like my new room better; there’s less storage space but it’s wider and more comfortable, and has a nicer balcony. And instead of a cool English girl, the RA is a cute Greek boy…

The room itself is actually kind of shabby. The floor is dirty, the closet is cement, and my toaster oven drops an inch when I open the drawer below it and I have to boost it back up to close said drawer. The walls are so thin that the sound of the girl in the next room hanging up clothes echoes through my room.The worst is the bathroom—mildew is everywhere, the showerhead is about as big as my cellphone, and the shower itself is about as big as I am. Plus, you have to turn on the boiler 15ish minutes before you shower to have any hot water. I’m alright though, and excited to have my own place, my own key.

We walked around my new neighborhood—it’s a quiet set of streets, mostly residential but with a pharmacy, a grocery store or two, a café, a restaurant. It’s a two minute walk to a main street, a ten minute walk to the sea, and a twentyish walk to the center of downtown.

I’ve also had fun talking to cabdrivers. Once I force myself to not be shy, they get so excited when they find out I want to learn how to speak Greek, and try to teach me phrases or ask me things to see how much I know. One cab today was explaining Greek/English roots to me today, and I felt like I was in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

That’s pretty much all for today. I didn’t take any pictures, but tomorrow I’ll take some of my room, my building, my street, to let you guys see how it is. I love it!

Off to try the shower….Oh boy.

More Sightseeing

After spending the night awake (I swear the motorbikes were drag racing around our hotel), Mom and I spent today walking far and wide. We saw the church of Agia Demetrius, patron saint of Thessaloniki, the Byzantine museum, and a couple other things too. We just walked the streets, all over. Tired and blistered, but it’s been a fun day. Some pictures:

 

Some of the strays, a whole group sunning themselves in a park.

We came across a market. I’m not sure if it’s there everyday or just today because it’s a Saturday, but they were selling everything; at one end they had clothes, shoes, plants for sale, and as you moved down there was fresh meat to choose from (above), and all types of fish, octopus, seafood, etc (below). I understood more Greek being shouted at me here than anywhere else so far, since it was all nouns I knew, prices, and one teasing comment about a photographer.

4:30

4:30. Lunch hour is around 4:30. Today we waited until a little after 8 to head out for dinner and found a restaurant with actual people in it. By 9:15 when we left, the restaurant was getting busy. Oh God, I don’t know if I can eat like this every day….

Some pictures from today. Both are of me on the White Tower of Thessaloniki (doesn’t that sound like someplace Frodo would have visited?). My apartment should be somewhere to the left of me in the second picture.

   

Also spent some time watching a Greek soap opera. I understood brother, my love, my house, and “but….” “but what?!” Success. Also watching some Greek American Idol—the bald judge is wearing a sparkly smiley-face shirt, and Paula is blonde and wearing a Britney mike.

When do they eat??

We have arrived! Day two of exploring Thessaloniki. It’s a really interesting city, at least the area within walking distance of our hotel. It’s a city, with traffic and graffiti and pigeons flying all around, and the you peek down a side-street and it’s a cobbled street with orange trees and old, charming buildings with cute little cafes or tavernas. Or you’ll be walking down the street and see shoe shop, shoe shop, clothing store, old church, pharmacy, clothing store, all sandwiched together. On the map, it looks like where I’ll be living isn’t too far away, so I think it will be more of the same. I like what I’ve seen so far.

We spent today visiting the White Tower, the symbol of Thessaloniki, and walking along the sea wall. It’s chilly, but warm enough to be comfortable walking (unlike home, where you guys were just hit with 16 more inches?!). We’re going to go back out to buy a comforter, towels, dishes etc since most of those stores will be closed tomorrow, and visit more museums and churches this weekend.

As far as speaking Greek goes, walking down the street I can sound out most of the signs but don’t always know what it means. I have trouble reading crazy fonts, it makes it more confusing. I’ve used a little Greek so far, mainly to ask for the check and the location of the bathroom.

It’s obvious we’re in a foreign country, though. Here are some things I’ve noticed already:

• Everybody smokes. Not only does everyone smoke, but they smoke everywhere all the time. In America, you hardly see anyone smoking, and when they do smoke it’s in designated areas, but here there are no “no smoking” signs. We saw one no smoking table in the middle of a restaurant.
• Motorcycles and scooters don’t follow traffic laws. Pretty much when you see one coming, be careful, they weave in and out of traffic, go on the sidewalks, ignore traffic lights.
• The dogs: Just like in Athens, they have an interesting way of dealing with strays in Thessaloniki: instead of shelters/euthanasia, strays are neutered/spayed, given vaccines, and then pretty much released back to the street. Food is left out for them but mellow mutts just roam the streets, take naps on sidewalks, outside of cafes. If they weren’t so dirty I would probably pet them and get some weird disease. And either we are being stalked by one determined dog, or all the strays look really similar.
• When the heck do these Europeans eat?? Last night we went to dinner at 7ish, even though we know that was early, but we were still the only people there when we left at 830. Then today we went to lunch close to 1, and still no dice. Aren’t you Greeks hungry, ever? I can’t wait that long to scarf down all these delicious dishes.
• The only explanation as to why they’re not hungry is that they just continually fill themselves on coffee and biscotti. Around 1230 we walked into what we thought was a restaurant, as it was full of people, but was in fact a café—everyone was just sitting around drinking coffee, and two hours later it was just as packed. Literally every hour of every day, the Greeks are just chilling drinking coffee and chatting with friends. Also, it seems like people prefer to sit side-by-side at a table than across from one another, which makes me uncomfortable as an American.
• Everywhere we’ve been they’ve provided us with some kind of free, delicious dessert afterwards. I’m torn between thinking this is something we should implement back home and thinking that this is how they plan on killing me.
• Starbucks is literally everywhere. The other “American” things we’ve seen have been Ruby Tuesday’s, Pizza Hut, and Applebee's advertising an “All-American Burger”. Yee-haw!

That’s all for now. Is this ridiculously boring? I don’t know how to blog! Mehhh

En route

Mother nature, despite her best efforts to keep me in America, has failed. I’m currently waiting in Munich for our connecting flight to Thessaloniki, in about two hours. Very tired, couldn’t sleep. Instead, watched two romantic comedies that both followed Katherine’s formula to the letter for prime rom-com fodder, so it was pretty much watching one movie twice. Also watched The Town, which was really good and provided a nice interlude to the stale romance marathon. A bi-lingual baby kept turning around, laughing, and trying to hand me something she had ripped off her seat.

The plane wasn’t very full, so I had two little seats to try and curl up in…nothing like the China trip with Maxiu on the floor. The airline was actually pretty good about food and drinks and little hot towelettes. Had one minor incident with exploding salad dressing, which, as the flight was empty, luckily hit no one, though I’m pretty sure the row of Italians behind me made fun of me for the next hour and referred to me as “1000 Island”. I just hmmmed The Godfather.

That’s all for now. Touchdown in Greece around 730AM Weston-time.

Three Days to Go

Ok, here goes. I'm giving this blogging thing a try. If you'll be patient with me while I try and figure it out, I'll try to be patient and not give up........right away.

Thanks to everyone who came last night, and special thanks to Emma and Emilia for organizing it. I had so much fun and am going to miss you all so much! I'm so glad you all made time to send me off with a bang.

I'm mostly packed, and am surprised to find I can fit everything I'm going to be needing for the next four months into two huge suitcases, with a little room to spare. It's kind of making dressing for the next couple days a challenge--everything is either a couple sizes too small, something I haven't worn in years, or oddly mismatched.

Some things I've packed:
--Company sweatshirts: so comfy, I love and will miss you crazy Company kids!
--bathing suits: even though it's going to be cold the first month or so (but, arguably, still warmer than Weston), it will heat up after that and I'm going to be prepared. There's a weird mix of sweaters and shorts in my suitcases.
--all ten seasons of Friends: for when I get homesick.
--Polamalu jersey: I won't be here for the Superbowl but I am cheering my team on, even if it's at two in the morning. GO STEELERS!

I guess that's all for now. As promised, pretty boring stuff, but hey, nothing's happened yet! Don't forget to sign up for Skype, add me at rachel.mitchell.92

Love you all!