Greece is absolutely beautiful! It is everything I hoped it would be. J Well I guess I will start by telling you the story of getting here.

The airplane ride was…well…an airplane. I had to get on three airplanes and they were long, uncomfortable, and freezing. Haha and the airports were boring—but enough with that part. No one cares about the airports anyway! Point is I got here quite smoothly which was fantastic.

So my last flight into Greece was early this morning…and I will never forget looking out the window and watching the sun rise over the Greek Islands. It has to be one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. I couldn't stop smiling, yet it still didn't feel real that I was here. We stepped off the plane and went inside the airport. (The Airport was very small) There was an adorable young Greek man standing with a sign that read "Brette Fischer-MSU." I had my own sign! Lol I went up to him and we introduced ourselves. To make it even better his name is Kostas—yes Kostas. I could not have been happier about this J I felt like Lena from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! So we got in the car and took off for the hotel. In the car a mixed CD was playing songs like "Forget you" and "Dynamite"—I don't know if that was for my benefit or for his but it made me smile all the same. Also, when I say I don't think there are any traffic laws in Greece…I am so serious. People just fly past each other, motorbikes are everywhere passing you on the left and right, streets are narrow, etc. -it's a thrill for sure.

Anyway, I stared out the window as Kostas drove toward the hotel. We talked about where we are each from and other things, but I was so excited to see everything. The city is adorable, just like the movies. Everything is just like I pictured it—actually it's even better. I'm excited to go into town more tomorrow to explore, and of course take lots of pictures.

When we arrived at our hotel it was still very early morning here, so no one was up yet. Kostas helped me carry my luggage to my room and then showed me around the hotel a bit. After that I went back to my room…I had planned on only taking a quick nap, it was about 7am and I didn't think I could stay awake the whole day. But when I got into my room (after thoroughly checking for geckos lol) I fell in to bed and almost instantly fell asleep. I had probably only slept a total of 3 hours since Friday, so I was exhausted. I woke up what I thought was a while later, only to learn it was actually 4:30pm! I had slept for nine hours. Woops! I desperately needed a shower so I headed that way. Now I am going to attempt to describe the bathroom…it is nice and clean, don't get me wrong. But the shower floor is level with the rest of the bathroom floor…so I was terrified I was going to flood the bathroom. Oh, and the toilet is connected to the shower. Like you could totally do your business while showering at the same time. SO weird. Haha but funny, to me at least.

Well then I attempted to actually shower. But for the life of me I could not figure out how to turn the shower head on…I could only get the faucet at the bottom (which was level with my knees) to turn on. So I crouched under that and tried the best I could. Needless to say it was quite the experience.

After my ridiculous shower I went out to explore. I went to the breakfast area (which overlooks the Sea—breathtaking!) The nice woman who works in the kitchen offered to get me some bread and coffee which I gladly accepted. I was starving. Soon after that a bunch of the other girls in my program arrived. We all went and sat outside by the water, where we were soon approached by two boys from Italy. J Matteo, and I couldn't really understand the pronunciation of the other boys name. However they were very friendly. We all talked about our different countries and were soon joined by a few other people. Two girls from Romania, and a few other boys. Matteo referred to our group as "alcoholics anonymous" because we were all sitting in a circle talking about our feelings! Lol it made us all laugh.

We then had a group dinner-spaghetti, greek salad and some other things that I don't know the name of. But the food was amazing!! The Greek Salad tasted just like I hoped J Everyone called it an early night because of jet lag- however I slept for nine hours today…so hopefully I can still sleep tonight! Well to say the least, my first day in Greece has been absolutely amazing. Can't wait for the many adventures that are to come!

Until then,

Brette