Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Transcontinental Awkwardness and Paparazzi

So yesterday was the first day of orientation for all of the freshman, international and study abroad students.  When we first walked up as a group, you could feel the eyes focus in on us.  That was the first time that I have ever been in the minority and it was truly a bizarre feeling to know that everyone was looking at you as you came up as a group.  Most of the looks we got were skeptical at best and Marios (the Greek American in our group) said that we should probably expect alot of that at first.  Our orientation leader, however, said that the upperclassmen are more accustomed to American students and we would expect a warmer reception when classes started.  Orientation was as boring as anticipated and was EXACTLY what you would expect from a freshman orientation session.  So that didn't change.  The other thing that didn't change is how comically/pathetically awkward the freshman were around each other.  It was exactly like orientation at BC and basically what everyone else in my group said theirs were like.  So clearly newcomer awkwardness reaches all cultures and continents.  Sean and I passed most of the day laughing as we watched doe-eyed newcomers stand around and engage in forced conversation to try and meet people.

Quick side story: everyone, with the exception of the Americans, thinks that I am a weirdo now, probably.  I was really really bored during some downtime and I saw a tree that I wanted to climb.  So I swung up on it and made my way up a few branches, probably no more than 20 feet off the ground and I looked around, and sure enough, all eyes were on me and their faces said "what in god's name is this kid doing?"  All the kids in my group found it amusing and I didn't think it was weird, so I guess tree climbing isn't a big activity here.

Today was an interesting experience and I have now had my 15 minutes of fame in Athens.  We got a tour of the Aghia Paraskevi area and were personally greeted and shown around by the mayor.  He knew we were coming so he talked about how Athens needs to go after more American students to help boost their economy.  So when the press got wind of this, they wanted to follow us around on our tour and get our thoughts on Athens.  Two television stations and three newspapers followed our group through 3 hours of our tour.  When they asked for a television interview and nobody volunteered, I went ahead and said that I would do it.  The one I interviewed with, our dean who is originally from England said, is also televised in England as well so there is a good chance I will be on both Greek and English television tonight for that little segment.  I also gave two different interviews for newspapers and they asked alot about what I was studying, where I was from, what I thought of Greece so far and then a million questions on the economic crisis.  I found this to be funny because I could tell from the get-go that they were itching to ask the question but they did not want to spring it on us right off the bat.  I stayed very vague and made conservative statements that basically said I didn't know a whole lot about it except for what was reported on the news.  Overall it was cool to do the interviews and share my thoughts, but damn annoying to have photographers following us down the street and taking pictures of us as we looked in stores and spoke with the owners of the stores.  I was looking at a book in the bookstore and a guy literally swooped underneath my face and snapped three pictures.  No wonder celebrities snap after all of that.

Phew, I need to learn brevity clearly.  I just always have a lot to say.  We're about to go up to the pool which is BREATHTAKING and chill there for a few hours.  I will snap a few more pictures of the campus and then upload those to Facebook tonight.  Classes start tomorrow, lame.  But my history class got canceled so now I am taking Greek I with basically everyone in our class.  It should be a blast.  Hope everyone is doing well in the states.

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