Its official…Swine Flu has taken over the group. I’m just kidding, but seriously we’re all getting sick and have similar symptoms. At least 5 people (I think it’s actually more like 7, but I’m not positive) have been feeling sick over the last couple of days, prompting a cancelled senior seminar class and some additional siesta time.
Overall, this week has been kind of hectic. More than half the group arrived back at their apartments from Santorini at about 2 AM, so going to Art History on Monday morning was like going to square dancing night at an old person’s home; everyone knows what they should be doing but no one has the energy to actually participate. The cancelled class was a definite help, but we scheduled a meeting that night to address the sickness in the group. Chuck (our director, so actually Professor Rambeck, but we’re all tight so it don’ matta) wanted to put a halt to this as soon as possible, so he ordered all the sickies to skip class so as not to spread their germs. He also bought a bunch of surgical masks for everyone in case we don’t feel protected enough.
On Tuesday we got up REALLY early (7:30) to walk to the Parliament building at the northwest side of the National Gardens. While the Parliament building was interesting, the best part of the morning was the walk to the tour. This was because we gained a new friend in Rufus Scrimgeour (no, not the Minister of Magic, but this description describes our loyal pal as well as the Harry Potter character). Rufus was a stray dog that we met during our stroll through the gardens. As soon as he spotted us, he knew that he was born to be our bodyguard. This dog would circle around our group, walk ahead of us and clear the path, and even run at any oncoming vehicles and scare them away with his sonic bark (It's at the end of the clip). But his best deed of all was getting rid of the countless annoying pigeons that swarm the gardens.
As we were nearing the exit on the far side by Parliament, a particularly large group of pigeons sat in front of us, bobbing their heads and pooping all over the place. It was at our most desperate hour that Rufus split off from us. We were scared, but we knew that Rufus would return to save us when the time was right. Just as we were about to hopelessly fight our way through a hoard of cooing birds, Rufus appeared from the East, like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings, charging at the pigeons and scaring them all away. He even caught one in his mouth for the slightest amount of time, which we all presumed he was hoping to present to us as a trophy. Our group let out a large cheer and praised the dog as he trotted alongside us up to the steps of Parliament. We exchanged heartfelt goodbyes as we entered the building and left Rufus forever, but I’m sure that someday I’ll see Rufus again, traveling on the high road.
After the Parliament tour, we were scheduled to have History, but for the third time in three class periods, our teacher didn’t show up. While the first two were understandable (he has been absent in London because his father died, but we were never told and have waited in the classroom every time), this one was a little ridiculous. It turns out that he was actually waiting for all of us in a different room, and neither he nor we ever thought to check for each other. We attempted to reschedule the class for Wednesday, but had to cancel that also because of a CYA group dinner at the President’s house (of CYA, not Greece).
This dinner was actually kind of a waste of time in my opinion. We all rode on buses for over an hour to a suburb of Athens where the President lives, ate the same thing we would have had here (gyros) and then returned two hours later. The only cool part was we got to go by the 2004 Olympic Stadium, which is huge, and the entire area around it that was built before the Olympics. It was clearly the more expensive part of town (the President’s back yard was the first lawn that I’ve seen since coming to Europe).
While the rest of the group was busy battling whatever disease they have, I started battling a different type of sickness for the first time: home sickness. It’s been a little under a month since we took off from the Humphrey Terminal, and it was about Wednesday that we had an at length discussion about all the things we missed. Our list included videogames, St. John’s, pets, homes with real food (not just cereal, pop, milk, bread, and Nutella), other friends, sports and competition, easy access to internet, and the absence of just about any activity to do while bored. I then started thinking about what I would tell people I’ve learned abroad if I came home now and all I could think of were the card games 500, Euchre, and Hearts.
Later Thursday night, we were sitting in our Greek Language class having a pizza party and discussing the education system in Greece. Somewhere in between hearing about college entrance exams and picking careers, my mind started to wander. I thought about why I went abroad, and why I chose here. Was this the right thing to do? Am I taking too much of a break from the real world? Through emails from St. John’s about LSAT practice tests and internship opportunities, I’ve been constantly reminded about what awaits me when I get back. This is supposed to be the big decision year, and I’ve put it off just one more semester. While kids here in Greece have to choose their career when they apply to college, I’ve sat on my decision, deciding to major in the language I speak and in the study of thought. Though the class period was lost on me, I feel as if I went through an important couple hours of thinking. Maybe it’ll help me in the long run.
On a different note, we have the day off today before we travel to Delphi, the ancient city of the mythological Greek oracle. Maybe some answers still lay there for me about my future, and hopefully I don’t get any real diseases while riding on a bus with all of my sick counterparts. After this weekend, we’ll have reached about the midway part of our time in Athens, so we’ve also started to look at flights to Rome and even back home at the end, just to check for prices (Newsflash: they’re expensive). But that’s a long ways away.
I apologize for waxing poetically about my thoughts and so forth. It’s out of my system now though, so that won’t happen again. Besides, there’s no time to feel bad when I’m in Europe, right?
And there's no pictures today, but I'm sure after this weekend I'll have another large slideshow for you all to look at.
Special Shout-Out of the Day: Sally Twelves. It was her birthday on the 15th so this is a little late, but I didn’t write a blog on that day so I couldn’t really do a shout out then. And yes, I did give her a birthday greeting on the right day, this is just secondary. Happy Birthday Mom!
European Insult Tally:
Bill: 1
Scott: 3
Matt: 1
Ryan: 1
We didn’t insult any foreigners in the last couple days, but Bill, Ryan and I did make Matt kind of mad the other day. He’s been one of the ones feeling sick the last couple days, so we haven’t really seen him. We invited him over to our apartment for some card games, though, and he accepted cause he was feeling a little better. However, we were still skeptical and greeted him by all wearing our surgical masks (which we continued to wear for the entire time he was there).
Ya digg?
Your friend or family member (or random acquaintance)
Scott Twelves
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