On Adventures in Greece, Part I

In which we acclimatize ourselves to the Grecian culture.

After exploring a bit of the city of Thessaloniki with some of my students this afternoon I found myself with a bit of free time before our next adventure. So I decided to do two things I've been meaning to since I arrived here in Greece. A) Try a greek beer. And 2) write a blog post. When I finish the post I'll give you my review of the beer¹. So I went up to the patio off my room and got to writing.

Oh, hey, that's my view.

We've been in country for about 24 hours already and while I wouldn't say we feel quite settled in yet we are getting there. Our hotel is in a nice location, not too touristy, but not out of the way either. They are doing all they can to make our students feel welcome. Which is great, so far there hasn't been much homesickness. The group is starting to come together. There were small pockets of students who knew one another previously, but most of them were strangers, I don't expect that to last much longer. Similarly, while I know about 4 students well the rest of them I do not. One of my big personal goals is to really connect with each of them individually and have a good conversation with everyone before we leave. Pretty lofty given how quickly the trip will go by, but what's the point of a goal if it's easy to attain?

This morning we had our first class. It was a guest lecturer who gave us a crash course in simple greek phrases. I thought it was a fantastic idea, whereas last year we had a number of students who spoke Spanish we don't have any greek speakers. So we are all coming from the same place. It was wonderful to watch the students try to apply what they've learned when we went out for lunch today.

Hold on a second I'll be right back...

Okay, sorry about that².

Greek is a very interesting language to try and learn. There are definitely words that are familiar, but over all it is very strange and new. However, we've had some wonderful teachers. Both in our class this morning and through our contacts here in the city. They have been very patient with us as we have muddled through the usage of their native tongue. I think that the coolest moment though was today at lunch. Myself and a few of the students tried a restaurant that one of the hotel employees recommended. When we got there we found that the owner didn't speak very much English. He basically new enough to tell us what the various dishes we were looking at contained. "Fish. Beef. Chicken liver."

We ordered and sat down and he would come by every once and a while to check on us. We utilized the little Greek that we knew/remembered, and he was thrilled at our attempts. When we mispronounced words he would correct us until we got it right then he'd shoot us the double thumbs up. As the meal wrapped up he thanked us and shook some of the students' hands.

After lunch we strolled around the area near our hotel a little before heading back to our rooms. In the midst of writing this I left for a tour of the city and dinner, but that can be saved for another update.

By the way. The beer was pretty much terrible. Though it got better as it went on, I don't know if that's because it was a little warmer, or if it was because I was 2/3rds of the way through 500 mls.

Kalinihta³!

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1) Spoiler alert: My rating was not too good for the beer.
2) For an accurate experience of this break stop reading this and come back 6 hours.
3) "Kali-neéck-tah" mean "good night"

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