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.
When you take a cab between 5am and midnight make sure you verify that the meter fare rate is 1 (displayed on the meter). That is the standard rate. Between midnight and 5am the fare rates double (should read 2 on the meter). Taxi drivers occasionally forget this!!
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