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.
