Guys Lunch

The time here if flying by quickly, this coming weekend we will be going to Egypt and in most of our minds this marks the final leg of the semester abroad. Recently one of the students was in the hospital for about one week. During that time many of the students visited the student, over the time period I visited the student every day. During one of the visits he and I discussed getting all of the guys together and heading out to grab lunch at a familiar restaurant. When we left the apartment it was empowering as we all walked together on our way to eat lunch together. The whole group of us moving through the streets felt like we were locals heading out to enjoy out city. The lunch went well, and I think everyone enjoyed each others company, we really should do that more often.

Electric Lessons

It's been a little over two weeks now and we have blown the main power supply fuse five times! The first day we arrived we blew the fuse within one hour. This has come to show us that we have some lessons to learn about how myself and 7 students will use our computer, do our laundry (washer and dryer), have lights on, and enjoy air conditioning all without knocking out our power. Thankfully I have learned how to change the fuse and short the fuse. Having the knowledge about changing the fuse has proven to be vey helpful in the respect that we don't need to bother HAU after 3:00pm which is when it seems everyone leaves the office for the day.

The loss of electricity can be inconvenient for us, but in some sense I feel it reminds us of home on the FPU Rindge campus where the rural area presents us with frequent power outages in the winter months. The resourcefulness and a Uluru of the students to make fun out of a power outrage has shown in one occasion where I retuned from fixing the fuse and found everyone enjoying a "light show" in the dark to the beat of some electronic music. Everyone was enjoying he show so much that we kept the circuit breakers off for a few more shows.

The Start and Arrival

View from the deck outside my bedroom window

Its finally here, we are in full swing for starting the study abroad trip in Athens Greece! Monday at 10am the whole group met at the FPU campus to discuss last minute details and prepare for the trip. We had discussion groups about skills that will be used while traveling, and asked the students to come up with thoughts about what to expect in introvert and extrovert situations (i.e. how will they interact while abroad, and what will their internal dialog be like). Notes of the discussions were taken so the students can look back and see if their expectations meet what they really experienced. At the end of the study abroad we will ask them to fill out a survey asking them to reflect on their experience and share their thoughts.

The bus ride into Boston went well, though we did have a brief moment of panic when we hit traffic on I90 and had a little less than 2 hours from our 9:40pm flight time. Moving through check in and security at the airport was quicker than I have ever experienced which was a relief since it left us enough time to grab a bite to eat, relax for a bit, and make some last minute phone calls to say see you latter, Ill call your from Greece.

We had a connecting flight in Zurich the airport was very nice and modern; it was quite large too. At one point we had to take an underground automated train from our arrival terminal to our departure terminal where we passed through security again and customs as we officially entered Europe. Our flight from Zurich to Athens was slightly delayed since the mechanics were installing new tires on the plane. We had boarded the plane and could see the tire being changed, after sitting on the plane for a bit the pilot came over the intercom and said the pit crew needed to change the tire on the right side of the plane too since the one on the left had been changed. Oh well at least it was just a minor delay and we would be on our way.

The landing in Athens was a little tense as the plane had a sensation of being pushed sideways; there was a fair amount of left to right correction going on as the pilot was lining us up for the landing. Once we touched down there was a round of applause from the passengers and a sigh of relief (maybe they were just clapping since they were happy to be in Greece).

Upon arriving at the Sina apartment (the one I am staying in with the students), we were given a brief tour of the apartment by our driver who had picked us up at the airport (he works for the school we are partnered with). The place is nice and has plenty of room for all eight of us. The furniture looks like it’s from the 70's but is still adequate for what we need, and everyone is very pleased with it. Within the first 45minutes of being in the apartment we had our first power issue, we had overloaded the circuit and ended up blowing the main fuse located on the power meter of our apartment. I called the Hellenic American University and had them send a person over to help resolve the power issue. The man who drove us from the airport to the apartment showed up and worked on the issue for about one hour, then we were back in business (with a bit more of a power conservation mentality). Turns out the electric water heater combined with the air conditioning units will draw too much power and put us in the dark. Now we know and we will be conscious of what we turn on.

I am off now to explore more of this wonderful apartment!

Preparing for the start

Providing myself with a week off between my old job and my new job has proven to be very useful. I have had time to move out of my apartment in Quincy MA, and situate everything in Portland ME. During this past week I was fishing the "Management Information Systems" course I was taking, and enjoyed very much. It was challenging trying to keep focused on the course between the moving, meeting up with good friends I have not seen in a while, and preparing everything for my new job as a graduate assistant leading students who are studying abroad in Athens, Greece.

On Tuesday I drove 2.5 hours down to Franklin Pierce University to meet up for a discussion about how I would be tracking the budget for the Athens program. All the steps for tracking the budget are well planned and made simple through using an excel spreadsheet with formulas built into it. After the budget meeting I meet up with Stella to discuss some final details about the trip and made sure we were all on the same page. After this visit I am feeling very good about all of the processes in place for making this trip successful for the students involved and everyone else who is assisting with it.

Emails about plans for the groups first day in Athens have been tossed around and I am feeling very good about the plans Professor Nevious has in place for the group. She has setup a wonderful first meal for the students and is following it up with group walks around the neighborhood so the students will familiarize themselves with the area very quickly. She has also planned that every Tuesday night we will have a meze night at her apartment where a selected host for the night will bring a meze for the whole group. Prof Nevious also plans to have guests join the group for many of the meze nights, which I think is a great idea. I am really looking forward to participating in the meze nights with the group, I feel like it will be a great time for everyone to bond.