The One with the Porto Rafti Introduction

Today. Was. So. Busy.
Classes started at 8:15, and 33 bleary eyes greeted our bible professor, Mr. Baker, in the downstairs classroom after a quick breakfast of baklava, pastries, fruit, cereal, and juice. After that was chapel in the living room at 9:15. It was such a different chapel time than the typical Harding student experiences, sitting around in couches and chairs, with promise of future group discussions instead of staring at a speaker on a podium.
After that was western literature at 10am, a class I'm really looking forward to. It's not going to be too hard, but we're required to take notes on all the trips we go on and do a presentation on a site we go to.
11 o'clock finally came and I ain't even gonna lie--I took a nap. Still tired from jet lag and done with classes for the day (We do an odd/even day system. Today was an odd day and I only had those two classes) it was nice to just rest :)
Now to the good parts.
Lunch was yummmmmmmy. Chicken, potatoes, salad (with olive oil and feta cheese, of course) and bread with some kind of cookie.Getting used to Greek food. After clean up we toured Porto Rafti! Dr. J showed us the main highlights and necessities around town, coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and the gelato shops and bakery!

The sweet gelato lady!

Eating gelato!

Cute old lady pushing her puppy dog around! She was so so sweet.

 Our last stop was everyone's favorite: THE AEGEAN SEA. It was amazing. The water was so clear and although it is too cold to swim in right now it's absolutely beautiful to look at.

The world is MINE :))

 The rest of the day was filled with a complete tour of The Artemis (we have a gym, a library, a computer lab, and a pool. So cool.) Then dinner, a travel meeting covering EVERYWHERE we will be going on our trip - Peloponnese, Israel, Egypt, Northern Greece, and a Mediterranean Cruise including a day in Turkey, in addition to the destination we choose for our long free travel weekend. (I'm thinking Italy right now...not sure.) I'M SO EXCITED!!! It's slowly sinking in that this is real, I'm here. Traveling and seeing these places I'd only seen in pictures before. After this trip is over, I will have visited 3 more continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa) Amazing.

Tomorrow is the Athens tour - super pumped! I need some new adjectives. I have no words right now besides awesome and amazing. Because, well, everything here is awesome and amazing.

PS. Fun fact about Greece. There are dogs. Everywhere. It's just so great. 

Playing with the puppy dogs! Makes me miss my babies at home.

PPS. Sorry if this is super photo heavy. Getting used to the blog thing and I'm really excited about the hundreds of photos I've taken :)) (And yes the title is a tribute to FRIENDS. I'm still mourning that it's over and I will never have another new episode to watch again.)