Writing to you from day five of my Rhodes experience! Things have fallen into a nice rhythm and I’m finally on the right sleep cycle. I have Greek class from 11-1, and then have the rest of my day to do whatever. I actually have a lot of alone time during the day and really only see people for dinner and to hang out after. In the afternoons I wonder around Old Town, relax on a beach, or grab a frappe at a café with free wifi and check up on e-mails or study Greek.
Greek class is really fun, albeit mentally exhausting. I study a lot outside of class to nail down these verb tenses and conjugations, but it’s very complicated! My teacher is great, though. He doesn’t speak much English so the class is taught pretty much entirely in Greek, which means I’ve also had to learn the Greek words for “past participle” or “future continuous”. He speaks slowly and clearly though and I understand most of what he says. The only trouble comes when I have a question about something technical but don’t have to words to ask it, but I usually make a note of it and then look it up later. His son teaches the Ancient Greek class before mine, and he’s really nice too. They’re both really friendly and open; they said that some weekend they would have me and the Ancient Greek kids to their summer house in Faliraki for swimming and barbeque.
I’ve been to both of the beaches in Rhodes Town and they’re very different than I expected. The “nice” beach is about 20 minutes away and is different from the one close to us only in that it is on the less windy side of Rhodes so the water is calmer, and there is a giant diving board out in the water you can swim to. The water gets deep pretty fast so there’s no wading but lots of swimming! The sand is also not sand, but smooth stones instead—it’s not actually that uncomfortable to lay on but walking on it can be a pain. Today I went to the beach 50 meters from my hotel, and it was the same except windier; there are actually waves and crashing surf, and when you try to swim you’re bobbing and tossing about but it’s fun in its own way.
As far as the other kids on the program, I don’t see them much during the day but we hang out at night and they all seem pretty nice. There are only 14 of us here; I don’t know why but I expected the program to be much bigger. We’ll go out to dinner or hang out and watch Greek TV in the evenings, or go out to the bars. I’ve been out once already—the street that is full of bars is super euro trashy and full of Scandinavians, actually, but it’s a lot of fun and the kids who have been here a while already know some of the people that work at the bars and got us discounts. We’re going on a pub crawl tonight as well.
I have the most fun with Nick, another student here. He’s staying here the same amount of time I am and is looking for the same types of experiences out of the program as I am. He’s also Greek-American but wasn’t brought up speaking the language, so he’s here to learn. He wants to explore the culture too; last night we went down the side-streets of Old Town off the beaten track and ate at a tiny non-touristy restaurant. The food was delicious, and cheap, and the owner gave us free ouzo for speaking Greek. We also both like to go out but not crazily, so I’ve got a buddy to stick with no matter what.
That’s pretty much it so far. Still trying to get to know the town, having my favorite foods like bougatsa and gyros again. I actually haven’t taken any pictures yet but I’m thinking tomorrow I will bring my camera around and take some pictures to show you all what I’ve been up to.
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