Nothing to do but some much to do.

This morning I was supposed to enroll myself into the T.E.I Athens school. On one email that I had received from the school clearly stated that the exchange students must report themselves 10-20 February to the school. It also said that the office would be open from 8.30-14. So today was the last day to register and when I finally found the right building I felt like I was the first ever exchange student there. Before I went inside to the room it said on the door "office hours 10-12".. The woman there had to call different places and it was just messy. She really didn't know anything. I didn't get to know my work placement place or anything else for that matter. I just got a new address to meet some physiotherapy professor tomorrow morning. Weird, well typical greek.

poor photo 'cause it doesn't show how big the campus were

After that I wandered around the school campus which was huge! Then I called to Dora who had yesterday told me that she would come to the campus with her sister around 11.30. So I called her at 11.23 and I finally met her at 12.35 or so. While waiting for her I sat in the school cafeteria just wondering about all the noise going on! There weren't even that many people there but the noise was loud.. :D 

Dora gave me a sim card which has to be activated before using and we couldn't find any place to do that, so I'm gonna do that tomorrow. We also visited the department of Healt and Caring Professions where we asked about the physiotherapy section and we were told that the whole physiotherapy is in a totally different building, not even on a same campus.. When we were walking at the corridors it was just so so different! There were people smoking inside, it was cold in there. There were some jewelry sellers inside in the corridors, sandwich bars in the corridors, the old phones (pay phone?) on the walls, only cold marble penches.. When I told Dora that in our school we have comfortable couches she almost didn't believe me. :D

Then we headed to Evangelismos where we decided to go and have something to eat and I ate this big baguette which in Finland would cost at least 7€, I paid 3 from mine here.. After that we decided to walk to this store named Jumbo which is like a Finnish Tarjoustalo with all kinds of stuff there. In Greece it's a three week carnival celebration going on (I actually don't know much of it) and this is that last week of it. So in the city most of the younger kids are dressed up in different costumes. On a Thurday night we have a carnival party to which we needed something to dress up or accessories at least. I decided to be a butterfly (or my "theme") since I already have one topp with a glitter butterfly on it and then I bought this butterfly bracelet and sunglasses.

Then I walked home without getting lost and without using my map! I'm really starting to learn the biggest streets near my place and also some of the smaller ones which I use. When I went home I replaced the old tenants name to mine to our frontdoor if someone sends me a letter or something. :P Then I head back out again after watching from the internet the nearest Cosmote store where to active my sim card. Unfortunately it was closed already.

Oh, I also learned today that most of the smaller shops are open, for example, from 8-15 and 17/18-21 EXCEPT on Mondays and Wednesdays when they are usually only open in the morning.. Then I decided to go check out the nearest gym which I had spotted from the internet and facebook already in Finland: www.fitnessplus.gr 

I went inside and they let me go to the gym to check it out. Then some of the emplyee came to me introducing himself and we was really annoying. The spinning room was really small with only 11 bikes there but they told me that I can still participate even though it's in greek. I had to sign some papers and that was it. My contract starts on next Monday 27th and I'll pay 122€ for three months. 

mm. What else. Well again my feet are numb for all the walking done today also. In the morning I really only had one plan but I still got the whole day went by just like that. Oh, and I learnt so much new greek words and meanings to day! :)  

τέλειο τέλος = telio telos = perfect ending.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

I feel greeaaat. This morning I faced my fears or at least a situation that makes me nervous. I really hate being in a group from which I don't know that many people. Situations like that usually requires introducing yourself, they just aren't made for me. Anyway, today was the last day of introduction week of ESN Kapa. There are three main Erasmus Student Networks in Athens: Kapa, AUEB and my school TEI. The students can go to any of the events so it doesn't really matter which school you study at. So today it was time to visit the Akropolis and Parthenon and also the Akropolis museum.

The meeting time was at noon and well, when in Athens, do as the Greek do it.. It started almost 40 minutes late. At first it was really difficult to get any contact with anyone since it felt like everyone already knew people. By accident I started talking to a Greek girl, Dora who was just lovely and friendly! :) At Akropolis I mostly hang around with her and an other Greek girl, Mytro. I also shortly spoke to an other Finnish student from Lappeenranta. Also I collided into the Finnish girl and her mother that I'd met on a metro on Friday! :D

The Arch of Hadrian

Lycavittos hill and somewhere on the right there is Pagrati

Flowers are blossoming :)

After exploring the Parthenon and Akropolis hill we (not all) went to the museum. Where we were around 1 hour or so. At the museum I spoke to many other people from Czech, Romania, Italy, Turkey etc. The museum was really clean and nice looking but pretty boring.  All the rocks looked the same to me.. :D The building was worth to admire!

After that there was supposed to be this event where students were supposed to dance the same dance routine at the same time (for ESN 25 years celebration) and it was supposed to be in every ESN country and become a youtube video when all the countries would have done it. So me and Dora started walking to Monastiraki sq. where this was supposed to be filmed. We were over an hour late and still there were only one girl.. So that didn't happen. Dora lives pretty close to my place and we decided to take a metro to Evangelismos and go eat something. First we had to walk through to neighbourhood with a bad reputation, Omonia. It actually looked a bit scary place even in day light!! At the Omonia metro station we heard that all the main metro station were closed because of some riots happening in Syntagma. So the metro station we were at wouldn't go straight to Evangelismos, we should change metros, but that we couldn't do, since the stations were closed.. We decided to go one stop further to Victoria and to eat something. :) 

It was really nice to chat with Dora and compare cultures and learn a lot of new things! After eating we couldn't take a metro nor a bus so we had to take a taxi. It cost only 5€ so it was that bad. We walked past my building and changed numbers and promised to see maybe tomorrow or so. :) 

Walking almost 6 hours, me feet are killing me and I have a headache and I'm sneezing all the time. :D Tomorrow morning I'm gonna visit my school and then I've got no plans. :) Let's see what happens :) 

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Finally the day of arrival had come, 17th of February! I woke up at 4 am and at 5 am we were at the airport with my parents. I told them goodbye and then waited for the first flight to Copenhagen to leave. At the big Copenhagen airport it was easy the find the gate and I was so bored just to wait (less than two hours). The flight to Athens was also boring since I didn't have anything to do but to watch and listen to some swedish boys arguing next to me on a plane. At the Athens airport I got my bag and followed the signs to Metro. At the metro I went to sit at the place where is four seats. There next to me came this young girl and her mother who were from Finland! So the metro trip went really easily when I had company! The mom was really shocked and surprised to see me move to Athens on my own. :) I got off at Evangelismos metro station and went up the stairs where someone was supposed to meet me. Well, no one was there. Thank god I had Alinka's (the woman I rent the room from) number so I called her and also to my flatmate Alice who eventually came to pick me up. The walk to our apartment wasn't long at all. :)

The kitchen table right in front of my room door :)

Small kitchen

Bathroom

My french balcony :)

My homestreet to left

My homestreet to right

My flatmate Alice explained a lot of stuff to me and then I unpacked and tried to make myself feel like home. After that I went out to look for a supermarket which was pretty close to my place. I'm the worst cook ever and Lotta had made me a notebook full of recipes, so I had the notebook with me in the supermarket. Yet, it didn't help me much since it was really difficult to buy anything 'cause everything was in Greek! I couldn't choose bread, butter, cheese, feta or nothing! It took a long time to get something in my shopping basket.. After I survived cooking for myself I didn't know what to do. I went to bed at 7 pm since I was really tired! My room is very cold and I couldn't fall asleep 'cause I kept listening the noices and sounds coming from outside. In the morning my head and throat hurt and my nose was leaking.. Great!

Near Evangelismos metro station, Lycavittos mountain

In the morning Alice left to some student trip to the city of Napflion and I didn't want to go since I've already been there twice. I had the whole apartment and I got to do my morning routines as I wished. :) At 10am I left out to walk around in the neighbourhood to get to know the area. The weather was perfect! Cloudless sky, sunny and +11C! :) I ended up walking 2,5 hours and not getting lost once!

I started my walking to the Evangelismos metro station which I was sure I would get lost on the way but it was really easy. :) It's good that I have a good memory of places and streets even though the small narrow streets look identical! After that I decided to walk to the sightseeing of Panathinaiko Stadium where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896! :) On my way there I almost got an heart attack when this stray cat attacted this pigeon right in front of me. The cat killed the pigeon right in front of my eyes! :D 

Evangelismos metro station park or something :D

On my way to Panathinaiko stadium

The crazy stray cat

The Panathinaiko stadium

Akropolis, taken right in front of the Stadium

After seeing the stadium I decided to go and find and an other supermarket near my place, Lidl. Instead of going the same way back I wanted to take a little detour. On my way I got to see a lot stuff. I spotted some night club, walked past a huge cemetery, wondered about greek life style and little coffee shops and everything.  I found Lidl after walking a while and it was much cheaper than the market I went yesterday. Then I started walking back to my place and I almost thought that I got lost when I saw my house right in front of me. :D

My house and my french balcony is right under the first (from the left) green thing.. 

After getting a little rest to my feet and eating I decided to go out again to Egaleo to search for my school. :) Egaleo or part of it is a familiar place since two summers ago me and Saija stayed at Egaleo on our interrailing trip. When I got of from metro all the memories came up. I remembered the square and to which direction we used to walk. I didn't find to street I was looking for so I ended up asking help from this kiosk at the square. This good looking guy helped me and finally I found the road. My map of Athens consists only the center of Athens so I had a map with me that I had drawn myself.. Anyway the way was supposed to be 2km and since I had'nt got lost in the morning I was really confident this time also. I walked and walked around 30 minutes until I decided to quit. I walked backwards and came to one of the familiar roads and saw this cheap clothes store where I've been two years ago. I remembered the saleswoman and she was really nice to me. I even got to use (or at least tried to) my greek language skills (and Lotta no, I didn't order fanta..). I ended up buying one shirt with 10€..

Mandarin tree. There are lots of those next to the streets! 

After the second trip around I took a short nap and then just hang around in my room and watched some tv from my laptop while being under blanket with tissues near..

The final countdown

Geia sou (=Jassu)!

Friday 10th of Feb

I'm getting nervous and my friend Lotta must be losing her mind with me panicking every hour.. Today it was my last day at school. I returned all the assignments and past the last practical exam (on a second try though..). Wipii! The next time I'm gonna enter our school is on the last days of August! :) In the evening I gave my sister a ride to practise but I couldn't participate myself since I hurt my arm muscle last weekend on a game and the doctor told me to rest with it around three weeks. So my season is already over and I really would have wanted to play the last game. The hockey thing in Athens is still open because no one has contacted me.. I think I'm not gonna do it, as much as I would have wanted to go there and play ice hockey. I've come to conclusion that it's better for me just to be off ice and get some distance from ringette for a while and now it's a good chance! I think that way I'll be even more excited when the season starts again in August. 

The introduction week starts on Monday in Athens for the new students. I keep reading the partys and trips over and over again, getting more and more nervous and excited. In one way I'm totally counting dates to get to Athens but on the other hand I'm counting the days I've still got here in freezing Finland (-26 or so..).

Also the situation in Athens has been really restless what I've seen from the news. Lost of strikes with no public transportation going anywhere and also lots of demonstrations and riots in the center of Athens. Buildings on fire, over 6000 police officers on the streets, people demonstrating against the goverment about why they are the ones that have to pay for the mistakes of the goverment or the people who had made the mistakes. It's said that the salary for young people is around 500€.. I've also heard that in the near future the general strike might start and that would mean no water or electrity..

It's almost a tradition that something happens at the destination country. Two years ago before our interrailing trip the volcano in Island ereptud so we had to wait until last minute to know whether or not our flight would be cancelled. Last year the revolution fights in Egypt happened only 150 from our hostel..

Weekend 11-12th Feb

The weekend went past really fast! We had a game on Saturday which we won and I was really happy for our team even though I couldn't play. On Sunday morning I went to visit my aunt and both of my granmothers and straight to work from 14-21.

I listened a greek radio and greek songs and it's just so relaxing. The rhythm reminds me of hot summer holidays and the real greek athmosphere on Poros island. I also started seeing weird dreams, like me wandering around the streets of Athens with my backpack on and seeing soldiers and getting afraid and getting even more lost..

Monday 13th Feb

In the morning I had a hairdresser and then I went straight to the doctor to get some vaccination which had aged. Then I was off the see my godmother who is also my cousin and to pick up her son and daughter (my godson and his sister) from kindergarten. The evening went fast playing with them and talking with my godmother. :)

Last night the girl from the hockey team emailed to me and suggested that I would only take my skates there with me. That way I wouldn't have to pay any extra for the aircompany and she would have all the equipment for me. Their championships starts soon and I would also be part of their team by being able to play since she is going to announceme to the federation! Difficult one! 

Tuesday 14th Feb

I was at work from 7.30am till 2pm. Then I was trying to figure out some things to take with me to Athens. (I suck at packing!). Then it was time to leave for the last practise with my sister. Since I couldn't do anything I drove to see my friend Saija. We've only seen each other once after our trip together in Egypt! After the practise I told the team good luck for the last two games and see you after the summer. :/ Now I'm really starting to understand that I'm really leaving 'cause I have to say goodbye to every one at school, at work and to my teammates.

Watching my teammates practise on ice and I had only been of the ice for a week or so, I really wanted to get back on the ice!! It was so stupid just to sit on the bench. I decided that since I have such a good chance to get to know the Greece ice hockey, new teammates and play championship games that I really wanna do it! Especially since Georgia from the ice hockey team made it so easy for me! I'm gonna pack my skates with me, go there and win the championship of Greece ice hockey!

ps. Happy Valentine's day!

Wednesday 15th Feb

The day that I had been waiting for two weeks, arrived! Lotta came to my place in the morning to help me pack! And we got almost everything packed! :) Then it was time for Lotta's surprise. She had planned everything. First we went to our classmate Katja where we ate and then left for drinks to the center of Helsinki. They had planned everything! We went to this bar to which our other classmates also came! I had no idea! :D I had such a good night and while walking to home from the bus stop I didn't know wheather to cry tears of excitement, sadness or happiness. Such a weird feeling. I think I'm starting to understand that I'm leaving alone to a foreign country really really soon! It's quite scary at the moment.

Thursday 16th Feb

I did the last packing in the morning. Lotta came to my place to hang around and I borrowed her some of my clothes that I wouldn't be taking with me. Then we helped my sister get ready and in the afternoon we gave my sister a ride to school since she had her prom. On my way home I gave Lotta a ride to the bus stop and hugged her goodbye.. It was the worst feeling and I just couldn't fight the tears. :( Even though I know we'll talk on skype and text and stuff but still I wouldn't see her in so many months and I'm gonna miss her!! :'( In the evening my family and I are gonna go to watch my sister's prom and then I'll do the last packing and get to bed early. Tomorrow my flight to Copenhagen leaves at 6.40am so I have to wake up before 4am.. This is my last text before leaving so when I'll write the next one I'll be in ATHENS! :)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed

by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

–Mark Twain

One month to go before moving to Athens!

Hello you all (four or less) readers of my blog! :D 

When I write this it's less than a month for my exchange period in Athens to start and I'm getting more nervous by the day. I'll try not to talk about it that often since I know that it makes my friend Lotta sad every time I even mention it. The weeks are just flying by and I've got so much to do before leaving like getting all the school things done, booking a hairdresser, ordering more contactlenses, seeing everyone before I go, passing all the exams, earning some money and of course practise hard and win some games. :) 

My friend sometimes calls me Monica from the FRIENDS tv serie since I'm so organized and, well, like Monica in many ways. One day we had psychiatry lessons together at school and we found a personality behaviour that was just like mine. It was called demanding personality.. Typical signs are: conscientiousness, pedantry and perfectionism.. On some levels that is just like me. I want to plan and know things before hand and I'm not such a big fan of surprises. So, being said that I really need to start growing some patience since I've heard and seen that nothing gets done that fast or effectively in Greece..  

After opening up that much I can tell you that I'm a bit nervous about some things (..still..). I haven't heard anything from the T.E.I school even though I emailed to them asking if everything is fine and if my paperwork was done. No tutor has contacted me. Nor I have heard anything for the ice hockey thing which I still don't know what to do.

I've started to think more about the practical training place which I still don't know where to I'm going. On same paper (which my international coordinator had forgotten to show me) said that I've got two days musculoskelatal and one day neurological rehabilition. That leaves four free days a week of which one is probably taken for the language course. Hopefully I'll meet people to get the time go past or otherwise I'm gonna spend all the free time in the gym.

To choose to study overseas takes a great deal of courage and consideration. In my case the consideration part took years.. I had to invest to my finance, time and effort. I've tried to work really hard to get money so I woudn't have to worry about the money in Athens. Effort was a bit bigger piece because of all the school stuff I had to do on my own to get all the credits fullfilled. On the other hand the decision to spent and live a little over three months abroad wasn't that big, I mean it's really only three months. It's gonna be part of my degree and hopefully I'll learn a lot both in profession and in life. It can be a life-changing experience. It will broaden my education on some way at least and it will definitely develop my confidence believing in myself and also my independence. I can never know what doors the experience opens and the new ideas I get for the future. 

 

Things on my mind..

When I write this the new year has just started and I got only 7 weeks to go before moving to Athens! I'm so excited but also really scared! I have no idea what to expect. I've been trying to get myself prepared but I can't totally be prepared for everything. 7 weeks are gonna go so fast that I'm terrified! I got still one week left from my holiday and I'm working everyday and I should also try to do some school stuff. Then I also got practises three times a week and games. 

School: So my school starts on the 9th and it's propably gonna be really tense because we have some days from 8am till 7pm! I have to return some assignments that I've got since I can't participate to all my lesson while I'm in Greece.

Ringette: We had a short break from the games but the next weekend we are already on again! Important games this spring and we need points to get to play offs! I also got an invitation to national team's weekend at the end of Jan! So, I'm looking forward to that anxiously and nervously because of the games we're gonna play there. So January is gonna go really fast!

..Then it's only couple of more weeks to go..

I'm nervous about so many little and mostly stupid things :D My best friend once told me to write down what for I'm nervous and what I'm afraid of etc.. So I'm gonna try that now.. Questions going through my mind:

• What kind of place my practical training will be? Is it only gonna be one place or will I go to different ones? Will I be able to do anything there? Will they speak good English? Will I understand anything? How to speak and communicate with Greek people who don't speak English? Will my English be good enough?

• Will I love my apartment? What if I don't? Will I get myself to feel like home? What if I can't cook for myself or I'm too bored to cook and I'll only eat some takeout food and get fat? :D

• Will I get the energy and drive to go to the nearest gym? What if I don't go there? ..then I'll be disappointed to myself.

•  Will I get new friends soon? Exchange students and local greek people both? I'm conserned that I don't want to or I'm gonna be too tired to go to some partys and places where to meet people?

• What if I'm gonna miss my family and my best friend too much? :( 

A little preinfo before the next dot. I play a sport called ringette and I've played it for 15 years. So ice sports are really close to my heart. I don't even know how I got this idea but I think it comes from many many months ago when I saw men's ice hockey World Championships division 3 games on news and I saw Greece playing there. I went to Greece ice hockey pages: icehockey.gr. I just got curious if I would have an opportunity just to skate in Athens. I ended up emailing to some random person and asking a little about Greece ice hockey in general and the ice rink(s?) in Athens. I got an answer almost immediately from the Greece national team's captain Jimmy who gave me an email address to women's team responsible Georgia. Jimmy also told me that he had told about me to Georgia. She answered to my email and seemed to be really excited and offered me a spot on their team. She told me that they have three ice practises in a week at 10pm on weekdays and 8.30 am on weekends. It would cost 7€/one time on ice. This would be such a great opportunity for me to get to know the local people playing the sport on ice. It would not be as serious as ringette in Finland and it would be a change for ringette. I've played hockey one season when I was 11 and sometimes I think it would be cool to start it again (if I had more than 24 hours a day). BUT..

• Am I crazy to leave to some Mediterranean country with my ice hockey gear? Should I just take a total break from ice and enjoy it? Or should I really go there, meet new people, have fun playing hockey and enjoying the ice time I can have to improve my skills also in ringette?

Oh, and one more thing. The woman renting the apartment let me know then I can move in immediatelly when I arrive. The girls living there now are gonna leave before I arrive. :) Good news! :)


" You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals."

Student exchange in Greece, Athens spring 2012

Written in October-November 2011

Geia sas!

My exchange project started very early. Since I was in junior high I really wanted to go somewhere to have an adventure of being an exchange student. Mostly I thought of going to Canada because that's the country where my hobby ringette got started and I could play it there while being at school. That never happened 'cause I was way too young and shy to be going anywhere at that young age. + it would have been really expensive! The next thing I thought was going to Canada in high school for a year. Again, I was too shy to leave and I didn't want to graduate a year after my peers. During the last year of high school I thought of going to somewere to be an au pair for a year. I had already made a profile to one page online and contacted couple of families. Ringette was the biggest minus thing. I wouldn't have been able to play. And that was too important for me at the time (and still is). I searched for families that needed an au pair only for summer months. That never happened.

Then on my second try to study physiotherapy (on the first try I was left out for one point) to Metropolia Applied Sciences I heard about the chance to go abroad to study. It would be a work placement through Erasmus program and I wouldn't be left behind and I would graduate at the same time as the rest of my class! That was it, I really wanted to do it! This was my time, now or never! I thought it from every point of view I could think of. It would a spring 2012 and the work placement would be from March untill the end of May. It would be the best time considering my ringette season. The choise which country to go to wasn't difficult to me at all since I saw Greece, Athens on the list.

Even though I had really looked into the exchange I was still not sure. Could I really do it? Could I live alone or with some other student in a city of million people? Could I understand anything at the work placement? What about my training, would I excersice there at all? Or can I really make food for myself? What if our ringette team makes it to playoffs and I would miss them? Millions of questions ran through my mind. Finally my friend Lotta got me into my senses and really gave me the courage! I had filled the applications online but I couldn't push the sent button. I was there thinking it again and again and asking what if what if when Lotta said you can and you will do it and pushed the sent button for me! And I was really happy and also really nervous! 

The first applications I sent was in January 2011. I had meetings with my teacher to think everything through like how I would manage the lectures I'm gonna miss when I'm in Athens. We had meetings about the exchange and what it requires. First I got accecpted from my home instution the same spring. Then I just had to wait for the acceptance from Athens! And it took a while before they answered! I had to wait until fourth of October 2011! Then I really got nervous! First months passed and I thought of Athens almost every day! 

I had emailed to couple of Finnish students who had been in Athens before me and I got nice tips from them. I'm also an exchange tutor in my school and we had two boys from Athens to do their exchange in Finland in fall 2010 and I became friends with them. They have also helped me a lot! 

In Athens the school doesn't help you much to get a place to stay and there are no student houses in Athens like we have HOAS in Finland. I started looking for a place to stay and I had couple of internet pages I looked from. The only problem I had was that Athens is so big that I wasn't that eager to travel hours in the morning to my work placement (I don't know the work placement place..). One of the first notifications online, was sounding really promising! I started emailing to this woman and the more I talked with her the more I fell in love with the apartment she was renting. It had a great location, near the metro station, near the gym (only 700 metres!), near the center of Athens and within walking distance from the main sights of Athens. I wanted it! 

During chasing a place to stay I filled many papers that had to be sent to my host institution of Technological Educational Institute of Athens (T.E.I.). The papers weren't that difficult to be filled but it was difficult to know what needed to be filled! I also had to order an European travel insurance card, get a travel insurance from Metropolia and fill all the papers to KELA (where the students get student and housing allowance).
 

I got the apartment even though there was a little misunderstanding. The woman renting the place had thought that the girl living there before me would live in the beginning of February but she is leaving in March. I was planning to arrive to Athens somewhere around 13th of Feb. We solved the problem that I would try to stay at that woman's place (try because she has cats and dogs and I'm allergic..) If I can't stay there I'm gonna live in a youth hostel for maybe couple of weeks. 

I bought my plane ticket on 15th of November, paying 120€ and I'm leaving for Athens on 17th of February 2012! τώρα ή ποτέ!

Me in Athens in summer 2010