4 Midterms Worth the 8 Days of BREAK! (Part I)

What exciting thing can I say about midterm examination week? Oh I know! When it was over, I went on SPRING BREAK! But let me not get too ahead of myself…

My first midterm was on Monday (3/5) at noon. This exam was sort of a preview for the rest of my midterms because I pleasantly surprised that the Exam Book (better known to American students as “Blue Book”) is *provided* by the professors. That was the “good” part, I guess. The other part is that my hand already started to cramp up after writing 2 essays in 80 minutes. There would be no break for my hand because my next two midterms (back-to-back) on Wednesday (3/7) afternoon was 160 minutes of writing 2 essays, 16 definitions, and 8 “short” answer paragraphs! It all finally ended when I wrote my last 2 essays for my last midterm on Thursday (3/8) morning. Needless to say, my brain was FRIED and Rasa will attest to me being “off” for the beginning of our spring break…

Spring Break 2007 officially started (for me at least) on Thursday (3/8) at 10:10 am. How did I start it? I took a very-much deserved NAP as I waited for the other girls to finish class. By noon, Rasa, Cloud, Becca, and I gathered to have lunch because Becca and Cloud were headed to Berlin for the weekend and Paris until Friday. Rasa and I, on the other hand, were packed and ready to go to Heathrow for our flight to Athens, Greece! We probably should have slept for the 3.5 hours (instead of intently watching Casino Royale), because by the time we arrived in the Athens airport at 2:00 am local time on Friday (3/9), we were definitely beat and bed-less. So what did we do? Instead of dragging our luggage around in a new city, we decided to stay (and try to sleep) in the airport until the public transportation services started. By 5:30 am, we jumped on X95 bus, which took us to Syntagma, the heart of Athens. Our hotel was just one metro stop away, but unfortunately our room was not yet ready. It was back to sleeping for us…this time in the hotel lobby until 9:00 am when we were nicely informed that our room was ready. We plopped our stuff down and went straight into bed! So our first 10 hours in Athens was pretty…boring, but just wait, it gets better! Rasa and I conquered our first tourist spot: the Parthenon! That’s right, we hiked all the way to the top of the Acropolis and saw the various temples, including the Temple of Dionysus. We enjoyed the gorgeous view of the city for several hours before hiking down the other side of the mountain and ending up in (so appropriate) an area for…SHOPPING. Road after road of shops and carts full of Greeks warmly inviting us in. Rasa and I both made some souvenir purchases, but I think our favorite purchases were our very tasty gyros (our first meal of the day, mind you, at 6:00 pm!). Rasa and I were so tired and possibly jet-lagged that we were in bed by 8:30 pm that night. Before our REM sleep can kick in, however, we were both up, awake, and DEHYDRATED. We were so thirsty that we put on some sweatshirts and made our way down to reception to buy some bottled water. Back in our room, we channel surfed and found an old Christian Bale movie playing. This kept us entertained until we fell asleep again…

On Saturday (3/10), we visited some more monuments like Zeus’s Temple, the Olympic Stadium (where the first modern Olympics were held), and the Congress building. I was also send off my postcards after being some confusion with a local that I was indeed next in line. All I could do was point to my number (64) and that she was 66! Sending out those post cards was worth it…Rasa and I were determined to have an authentic Greek lunch so we decided to eat at a restaurant at the foot of the Acropolis. The waiter was very helpful in helping us select our dishes; Rasa ordered pasticcio while I had a selection of gyros. Great choices!

So a random thing about Athens that you will not find in any post card of tourist book (or maybe you would…), but there are dogs…everywhere! We must have counted over a dozen on Saturday. The one dog that sticks out the most was a mixed lab that we spotted first at the crosswalk across from Zeus’ Temple. Yes, I said crosswalk! He indeed waited in front of the human pedestrians and basically led the way when the light turned green. Rasa and I thought it was cute until we were walking back from the Temple and there he was again! This time, we walked alongside us. We only made it to the middle divider, which wasn’t that big so when the dog was in the way of the car about to rev up because his light turned green, the car honked. What did the dog do? Get on the middle divider? NO, he strolled right up to the driver’s window and barked like mad! Not only at the car passing by, but all the rest of the following cars! A car was coming by so fast that Rasa and I squealed and turned the other way, covering our eyes and ears hoping that the dog didn’t get run over! This dog, I’m telling you, had AT-TI-TUDE! That light took forever because he just kept barking away while Rasa and I were impatiently waiting for the little green man to light up. (By the way, in Athens there are 3 pedestrian lights: green, yellow, and red—like car lights!) Finally, we (including the dog) made it across the street. So you’d think that the dog was done crossing, but no—he just looked around and walked right back to the same crosswalk and sat down, waiting to cross…again! We made it to the Metro station all right and we made our way to the Monastraki stop where we did some flea market shopping. We picked up our last of Athens souvenirs and some more gyros to-go before sunset. Back in the hotel room, we had to prepare to wish Athens goodbye. We set up for a taxi to pick us up at 4:00 am the next morning (if you could call that morning!)…

On Sunday (3/10), our taxi (for 10 euro) dropped us off at the X95 bus stop. We were just in time to catch the bus back to the airport. We were checked in for our Alitalia flight and had time to spare to sit back and relax at our gate. When it came to boarding, we were apparently flying in a very small plane because we had to be shuttled to our plane that we boarded as the engines were blowing us near off the stairs! We squeezed through the aisles and found our seats. We were not sitting for more than one minute until Rasa (with earphones muddling her ability to hear herself) said “I HATE small planes!” and then followed it with “And someone has bad B.O!” All I could do was stare at her with terror and think to myself “Did she really say that?” She was obviously not fazed as she merely looked at me with a blank face and then proceeded to listen to her music.

Finally, in Rome, we may have been the only Americans (or at least the only ones whose final destination was Rome) in that flight because we definitely felt targeted (and not helped) when we arrived in Italy. We were approached (without any signs as a warning) by several guards in very intimidating uniforms for our passports. Then, we ended up in what felt like the middle of nowhere because no one else seemed to be picking up their luggage. Finally, we found our luggage and now our next obstacle was getting to our hotel. Multiple taxi drivers tried to get our business but our best bet was a shuttle that took us wherever we wanted to be dropped off for 15 euro each. This was definitely the right choice because even our driver had a difficult time finding out hotel; so imagine Rasa and me (with our luggage) looking for it!

Yet again, our room was not ready so we reluctantly left our luggage with reception in order to catch the 40 express bus to the Vatican. Why did we rush to the Vatican on a Sunday morning? To hear the pope address the people! We arrived at St. Peter’s Basilica early so we had time to go through security and enter the papal crypt where I took the moment in front of Pope John Paul II’s tomb. By 11:30 am, I was sitting in the square trying to get a hold of Laura, an MSMC schoolmate studying abroad in Rome. I was writing all over my hand trying to figure out what code(s) to use in order to call her. I even pulled out my laptop and tried to connect to the internet. Unfortunately, I was still unable to reach her. Finally, I used my mobile to connect to the internet. I don’t know how much it’s going to cost my uncle, but I was desperate! I left her a short message on Facebook, begging her to try and reach me. My troubles briefly left when at exactly noon, the crowds roared because Pope Benedict XVI was standing outside his papal apartment and waving hello. Yes, we heard the pope speak! Live! Right in front of us! (Well, ok, he was like 50 feet up and like 25 yards away), but STILL! We heard the pope speak! We did some window-shopping along the Vatican before heading back to the hotel and unpacking. Once we were settled in, we headed back out to the Termini station where we bought Eurostar roundtrip tickets for Florence. We picked up our first dinner in Rome (pizza and panini) to-go because we were tired and just wanted to head back to our hotel.

What a week! And I’m not even halfway through my spring break adventure…More to come soon!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe break!

XOXO,
Danielle