January 21-23

Well hey everybody!

Oh dear, I sure have missed a few days, I'll try and fill in everything that happened though right now!

On Friday we got to sleep in a little bit to try and compensate for how exhausted we were! I woke up around 7 though still because of jet lag and just it's so loud here! There are dogs absolutely everywhere! It's kind of funny because as soon as you leave the hotel they just follow you. They don't get up in your face, they don't bark (except at five in the morning), they just like to follow after you. So after I woke up I went downstairs to get breakfast and they have the most amazing fresh pastries that the breakfast crew gets from a local bakery. Seriously, the food here is just awesome, I should probably start another blog simply to describe it. Then a few people and I went around Porto Rafti to kind of explore. Sean was just dying to go visit this mansion we could see from across the way but Angela Nicole and I simply refused. It would have been another couple of miles and lunch was only about thirty minutes away! Later that night they took us to Athens on the bus and the Metro to show us how to get there and back. It was really cool to see everything, but I am just dying to stop and shop somewhere! We keep walking past all of these great stores and there just isn't anything I can do about it! I think on Tuesday a few of us are going to go back to actually explore and spend some money!

On Saturday we left bright and early at 8 am to go into Athens, but it was well worth it! We went to the Acropolis and saw the PARTHENON! It was absolutely incredible to see all of the history behind that and oh-so many other buildings. I'll have pictures up on facebook and hopefully I'll be able to remember which one is which! It's just so incredible to see these buildings and to hear stories of things that even predate Christ. If you really think of how hard it would have been to build these things it can just blow your mind. Another incredible mind blowing thing is we went on top of Mars Hill. It was so incredible to just think that Paul was there. We sat on top of it and sang a few songs and Dr. James read Acts 17 to us. It was just so surreal and just really almost brought the Bible to life. This trip is just so incredible, and I know that I'm already growing so much from it and it hasn't even been a week yet! We then had lunch, and this should probably go in my food blog (I'm kidding), but we had an incredible salad with FETA cheese on it and amazing chicken and the best ice cream I've ever had in my life. I capitalize feta because I have learned over the past few days that I absolutely love it, but more on that in a second. Afterwards we went to another museum where we saw so many incredible things. Our tour guide is so funny! He keeps talking about how the British Museum stole everything and how they ruined everything. He really is so knowledgable about everything! Saturday night we went to the James' favortie "taverna" aka restaurant. It was so good! Again, I just have to mention that I love the food. Bethany and I got a huge chunck of feta and just ate it on bread and olive oil and pepper (Macaroni Grill thaaaaank you!). We've decided we're going to go there for many feta dates! Also, theres a girl named Christine who's around our age that speaks English so we're really excited about trying to get to know her better!

And today! Today was a pretty chill day! I slept in accidentally but we didn't have anything really. I slept through breakfast but luckily my wonderful roommate is on breakfast crew and she got me a bowl of cereal :). This afternoon we left at three to go to church near Athens. It was an english service but they still translated it over to Greek. They have people from everywhere in the world there! It was really great to be able to meet some more people and I'm really excited to grow some relationships!

Basically I'm having an incredible time. I love it here so much, it's just so incredible! I am struggling a little bit with missing everyone at home, but I know it is incredibly worth it. I just wish I could show everything to all of the people I love.

I love you all!