The Opening Ceremonies

Kalimera from Athens.  Yea that's right, I know some Greek (and we've only been here for about a day and 4 hours).  The Greeks here are very friendly, so just imagine all that I'll pick up by the end of my time here.

Since I last wrote, we had to wake up early and get to the airport, which is never fun.  It also doesn't help when no one in the room gets any sleep due to a crying baby and paper thin walls.  Sorry, I should rephrase that.  It was a screaming baby that must've kept bumping his head or something, because it seemed that each time I was on the verge of getting into a REM cycle, there was a loud BANG followed by a slowly but exponentially growing whine.  There was no stopping this kid.  This was coupled by me having the same recurring dream that we were supposed to be at a train station for some reason by 3:50, causing me to shoot awake and check the clock at least 5 times.

All in all, by the time the alarm actually did go off (at 3:50 still... at least I'm an intelligent dreamer), I had maybe gotten an hour of sleep.  Awesome.  We all zombied our way out of the hostel and into the street so we could get in our taxi which was supposed to arrive at 4:15.  Before I go into that, however, let me flashback to us trying to get a taxi.

This little interaction went a little like this.  Before we left to go out for our last day in Paris, we decided to book a taxi because we weren't sure whether we could do it when we got back.  The lady behind the front desk was one that we hadn't seen before, but we weren't too worried.  Until...

Bill: Parlez vous Angles? (Do you speak English?)

Lady at Desk: No. (No).

Bill: Uhh...crap (That's a direct translation to English)

While we all sat there dumbfounded, Bill struggled through Frenglish trying to communicate with the desk lady.  Eventually he got through with a few choice words and arm signals, and we got a taxi for 4:15.  However, Bill couldn't remember the word for "morning", so we just hoped that it was for the AM.

Now we leave the flashback and return back at 4:10 the next morning.  As we stood on the curbside, we noticed a parked taxi van on the other side of the street.  It had to be ours. We all ran across the street, eager to get in, only to have the guy tell us that he wasn't waiting for us, but instead was waiting for someone else who somehow had ordered a taxi at the same time going to the same place that wasn't outside.  Hmmm.  Coincidence? I think not...

Depressed and tired, we crossed back over the street to our hostel's curb.  As we were crossing, another taxi van came rumbling up towards us on our side and stopped on the curb.  Hooray! We all moved towards the rear of the taxi and opened the hatch to load our stuff.  But just as we were about to, the taxi driver came running from the driver seat waving his arms.  He told us that he was waiting for four people who had called for him to arrive at 4:15, but he was going to a different airport.  This was getting ridiculous.

So, we trudged back up the curb and started checking our watch again.  It was now 4:17.  We started to question whether we had actually ordered the taxi for the right time, but right as I was about to slap Bill, a third taxi came roaring down the street towards us.  He screeched to a halt in front of us and waved us in.  Finally, a taxi!  He explained how he had just been assigned to give us a ride and made it 10 kilometers in 10 minutes to get here, and was willing to drive fast to get us to the airport too.  Perfect!  We piled in and held on tight.

We made it to the airport in probably record time, going god-only-knows how many kilometers per hour.  Luckily there was no traffic.  And apparently there were no lane lines, speed signs, or road rules either.  Needless to say, he got a deservedly large tip.

We unloaded and made it to the plane on time and headed out for the Grecian capitol.  After a three hour flight and a one hour bus ride, we made it to C.Y.A., where I am writing to you now.  Our day ended uneventfully with some much needed sleep... lots of sleep.

So far all we've done is some orientation stuff, which is boring. But we also got our class schedule... I have three classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and only one class on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Oh, and none of them meet before 10:00.  Feel bad for me, please.  I'm sure there will be plenty more stories to tell in the upcoming semester, but for now, this is all I got.  Cya (Get it? It's C.Y.A.)

Special Shout out of the Day: Ben Jagger. Ben, I see you became a follower, and you get a deserved shout out today because, well, your bigger bwother misses you (read that phonetically).

European Insult Tally:

Bill: 1

Scott: 2

Matt: 0

Ryan: 1

No changes at all in the European Insult Tally today... chalk it up as simply a travel day.

Oh, and I just realized that I went a whole post without mentioning Taylor Swift... oops.

Ya digg?

Your friend or family member (or random acquaintance)

Scott Twelves