Wednesday

I couldn’t think of anything better to title this one. It’s pretty much just a Wednesday. A good one, but a Wednesday.

I love my new building! Including myself and the RA, there are 14 people and it’s so quiet. A couple kids went out last night but I never heard them come back in because I’m on the second floor, so the whole super-echo thing doesn’t apply as much here. When I woke up this morning it was so deadly quiet that for a second I thought I overslept and missed the bus, and everyone else already left. Even when I headed to the common room downstairs, I didn’t hear anything, and just sort of knocked on a door that was partially open. There aren’t a lot of people here, but they are all going out of their way to be friendly and include me in the group. It’s kind of clique-y because the building is really isolated from the rest of study abroad, but I seem to have been accepted into the fold as a matter of fact, something I really appreciate. After classes today I went out with the whole building for dinner, and while it was a little weird b/c I don’t really know anyone well yet, it was fun and everyone was really great about it.

Classes were fun. We started getting into the material, and everything seems really interesting; partially because I’m a nerd and partially because it’s all new, but I like the subject matter of all my classes. Every class I’m taking connects in some way, which excites me on a fundamentally geeky level—I love making connections and drawing parallels between different things I’m learning.

There was an activities fair today so we could sign up for various clubs, trips, etc. I went in there with a list of four things I was willing to commit to, and of course signed up for about eleven. Everything just seemed so interesting! It’s not as bad as it sounds though—a couple aren’t clubs as much as e-mail chains that let you know when a bunch of people are heading to a museum, or when there are fun, cheap things going on in the city on a weekend that it would be good to know about. A couple others are one-time events; the cooking class is just that, a cooking class. I was a little disappointed with that one; I thought it would be a weekly-type thing! And then, of course, there was one I was guilt-tripped into signing up for but whose e-mails I’ll probably ignore.

I’m signed up for Flamenco. I really wanted to learn Greek dancing, but all they had was Flamenco. I love that kind of stuff though; shoutout to sophomore year ballroom dancing buds! I think, once my school activities schedule is more cemented, I’m going to check out the local YMCA and see what kind of dance classes/exercise classes they have. I also signed up for a photography class, an outdoor adventure club, and a course to learn to SCUBA dive. As far as volunteering goes, there were a lot of options but I picked two. One I work with disabled kids/incredibly young kids, baby/toddler aged, and apparently it’s really fulfilling. The other one is a soup kitchen in a Greek church where you make food for the homeless, but the people who work there are old Greek women who don’t speak English. This actually sounds so absolutely perfect to me, for two reasons; although it will be a little challenging, there is no better way to learn a language than to be thrust into a situation where you have to use it. Also, little old Greek women? I love it! It just seems so motherly and cozy, and a great way to get to know some other areas/aspects of the culture.