And So it Begins!

Καλημέρα! (Kalimera = good morning/good day)

Ok, so I'm not actually in Athens yet...give me 12 days or so. I'm just really excited! I fly out from Boston the 20th, arrive in London the morning of the 21st, then have a nice l-o-n-g layover before my afternoon flight from London to Athens. The worst part is that my layover is long enough to be annoying but not long enough to do anything fun. I love London, but I've only been once - for a week with my aunt when I was 16 - and would love to spend time there (especially since I can get into pubs this time!) But alas, I fear that will have to wait for another time.

As I await my departure date, I'm completely OBSESSING about anything and everything having to do with Greece. I did it a bit during the semester, but now that I'm on break, I have endless hours to devote to reading about Greece, watching movies about Greeks, practicing Greek with my Teach Yourself Greek book & CDs (hah!), watching travel specials on the country, and, my latest obsession, lurking around on Greek travel blogs, student blogs, and the blogs of Greek expats. (My fave is Bollybutton's My Big Fat Greek Experiment. Love her style!) I've come to the conclusion that most of the travel memoirs and essay anthologies that have been published are crap, and one can generally find better reading in blogs. There are, of course, exceptions. I myself really enjoyed Sofka Zinovieff's Eurydice Street, which taught me a lot about modern-day Athens, and Greece: A Love Story was mostly a good collection. As far as guidebooks go, many include the same information, but I like Let's Go: Greece because it is geared toward young people with limited budgets (i.e., yours truly) and are actually researched and written by college students.

Anyway, since some of you may have randomly wandered here, I'll tell you a bit about myself:

• I'm a 20-year-old student from the USA
• American by nationality, Puerto Rican by ethnicity
• In 2009 I'll graduate with a B.A. in History (lord knows what I plan on doing with that...)
• I will be in Athens from January to May on a study abroad program
• I unfortunately do not speak Greek (but am required to take Modern Greek class, which I am quite nervous about.)
  

Basically, I'm starting this blog so that my family and friends can keep up with how I'm doing, read about my exploits, check out my photos, that sort of deal. But I welcome anyone from the blogosphere to drop on in any time! :-)