Changes and Feelings

This may sound ignorant or naïve to say, but I personally feel like this place has not changed the way I think since I have been here. There are many differences here from home in New York, but I feel completely comfortable. This may be because I easily adapt to new situations and I am very go with the flow, but I don’t think any of these differences have strongly affected or change the way I think.

This being said, this is not my first time living abroad. The summer after freshmen year at Loyola, I studied in Granada, Spain. lived there with a host family and was completely immersed in the language. Also, I lived as an exchange student in high school in Paris for two weeks. This is a short time, but it was the first time I was basically completely independent while also living in a foreign place where I did not speak the language. I think these two experiences of living abroad have affected me more significantly than my semester abroad so far.

Besides this, I have traveled through Europe on other occasions, like through my high school and Honor’s Choir. With these groups, I went to Italy, the Vatican, Scotland, England, France, Austria, Czech Republic, and then also to Germany with my family. Because I have traveled so much, I feel like this new environment doesn’t affect me as much, even though it was very different from the other places I’ve been too.

I have felt many emotions since being here, and I wouldn’t say I am an extremely emotional person. First of all, I have been happy and excited. The idea of something new and unknown is so exciting to me. So, the fact that I have been given an entire semester to explore Athens and travel all over Europe was a thrilling idea. I love trying new foods, going to new places, and trying to be as adventurous as possible.

I think the best way to experience something new is to make sure you go out of your comfort zone. A small example of breaking our comfort zone was on one of the first days. A bunch of girls in my group and I went out to dinner. The menu was all in Greek, so the waitress kindly translated everything for us. Luckily, it was a rather short menu. We decided to order all appetizers and ordered the octopus, half expecting something similar to calamari to come out. When the dish was brought out, grilled tentacles sat in a pool of lemon with their suction cups staring at us. We all tried it, and some liked it more than others. But, it was one step to getting more immersed in the culture and trying new things.

Another emotion I have felt is a bit of homesickness and loneliness. Even if I am surrounded by a ton of people, when I see my friends at home, or school, or even abroad other places posting on social media, I find myself sad missing them. However, I am also very happy for them because I know they are happy where they are. Also, seeing all the cats and dogs all around Greece definitely makes me miss my dog a lot, even though I would be missing her tons either way.

Besides missing my friends and dog, I miss my family. Luck for me, my parents visited me this past weekend. They flew into Athens and the next day we flew to Crete together. We spent the weekend exploring parts of the huge island and catching up. The first meal I had with them I was so excited. But then during the second meal, I felt very off. I think culture shock may had been hitting me as I was sitting with my parents in Crete because I shouldn’t be seeing them for another two months. However, this overwhelming emotion faced once this meal ended. It was very nice seeing them overall. And next weekend I have the chance to show them around Athens so we haven’t had to say good bye yet.

Something I have noticed is that I feel like I have been a bit jealous. I think it is in my head, especially because I am not a jealous person. However, when I see lots of people in my program, or even other programs, so close with each other I feel like an outside. I know this isn’t true since we are all friends and hang out constantly, but it is a feeling that I cannot completely kick. This is an emotion that I’m not used to and that I’m trying to defeat and ignore.  

I feel like since being here in Athens, I have fallen into a routine. I don’t love this. I think abroad should be one of those times where there is no routine. Yes, I absolutely love the routine of traveling nearly every weekend. However, the weeks feel like the same cycle over and over. I would love if there would be more spontaneity and I will definitely work on this once midterms are over.

I definitely have changed since coming to Greece, even if I don’t exactly see how yet. However, I can admit that I have felt a lot of emotions. I have been happy, excited, sad, lonely, annoyed, and stressed out. Actually, I have been very stressed with school work here, living in Greece, travel plans, expenses, figuring out next semester with registration, housing, and then general social life things. But at the end of the day, they are all very good things that I am stressed out about. So, I revert back to the happy and excited feelings that I should be having while studying in a place as beautiful, fun, and historic as Athens, Greece.