How do you say thank you again??

Today was a long but really good day in Athens. We are still epic failing at learning greek and had to look up how to say thank you anytime we attempted to say it. We woke up early this morning and headed to the Acropolis. The Parthenon is incredible and we were glad we got there before the mass crowds.

Other side of the Parthenon

After the Acropolis we headed to the New Acropolis Museum and ate lunch there which was really cool to see all the old sculptures and remains from the Acroplis. It is also built over a lot of ruins so it has a lot of glass flooring so you can see the ruins under the museum. Athens is really neat in the fact that you will be walking somewhere and look over see some random ruins. Crazy!

Sorry I haven't figured out how to turn the pictures but Mom remember when I had one of these shirts??? I saw two of them today. The other was a sweet stretchy tank top.

After lunch we walked a lot and saw the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Roman Stadium (which sadly we didn't get to go in because they were setting up for the Special Olympics), Syntagma Square where we all had frappes, and went to the Parliament building to see the changing of the guard.

Temple of Olympian Zeus

At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier right after the changing of the guards. I didn't even attempt to try to blend in today. I look like a straight up tourist but my tennis shoes were amazing.

Lady about to be escorted out by the police. We think she was drunk. Then the police yelled at me because apparently you have to ask permission before you take a picture of the police. Oops my bad.

Getting shoes made by my new friend! Beth and I both got a pair. Melissinos Art is famous and lots of celebrities have shoes from this store. The shoes I got were also made for John Lennon.

Sardines...yum. I had the meatballs instead.

View from the hostel at night.

Athens Observations

1. They play American music everywhere. All in English. Nothing like hearing Justin Bieber as you eat your gelato in Greece.

2. There are stray dogs and cats everywhere.

3. All the men carry purses (murses you might say)

Too bad you aren't with us Dad. We could have bought you one to fit in.

4. Pay attention. Cars drive everywhere. You think you are on a sidewalk or a pedestrian walkway and then you see a car or scooter come flying by. Basically you just drive where ever and park where ever. Very unlike Auburn...bummer.

5.Things stay open really late. We got gelato tonight and saw people eating dinner at 11 o'clock at night. Also people stay at the bars until the morning.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! We have one more day in Athens before we head to Santorini tomorrow night!

It's All Greek to Me...seriously

We made it! After an 11 hour flight and some serious jet lag we finally made it to Athens, Greece this morning. After making it into town from the airport and regrouping at the hostel, Matt, Andrew, Beth, and I went out exploring. We walked through a flea market and attemped to find Plaka (we are still skeptical as to what we found) and ended up eating a late lunch. I had stuffed peppers and they were really good (especially compared to the gross airplane food). After lunch a girl came up to Beth and I and was like are you...Beth?? Long story short the girl came on one of Beth's tours and is coming to Auburn next year! She was with her family traveling around Greece for Vacation. We also met an LSU family from New Orleans that now lives in The Netherlands on the Metro and got another War Eagle from a guy in a Wake Forrest shirt as we were leaving the metro station.

Late afternoon we didn't do much, as it took a lot for us to stay awake. It took us quite a while to figure out where things were and how to figure out where we were since reading things in greek is extremely hard. The only greek letters we can read are ones covered by the sororities and fraternities at Auburn...pitiful we know. So the saying is definetly true, it's all greek to me. We have really know idea whats going on half the time but we are all good going with the flow.

We did figure out what we are doing tomorrow and are going to bed early since we are going to the Acropolis first thing tomorrow morning. Befire we came back to the hostel we did find a nice park that we sat in and all drank a beer from the street vendor. Our hostel is really nice, except for the fact that we are staying next door to the main building were there is no elevator. 4 flights later, we got my bag upstairs and are hoping it will tone our legs for Santorini.

The biggest perk to our hostel is that it is central location and has a rooftop bar with a great view of the Acropolis. I am currently using the hostel's computer so when mine picks up wifi I will be sure to add some pictures! I cannot believe our journey is finally beginning!

Peace, Love, Greece

Domestic Day

Two blogs in one day?? I know I know it's a crazy world.

When I was a senior in high school I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Ever since then, I have been on a gluten free diet. This past year for Christmas, my parents got me some GF cookbooks. I haven't had a chance to bake since I have been home so today was my domestic day. I decided to try some recipes out of the cookbook from the famous Babycakes bakery in NYC.

I made chocolate chip cookies and banana bread.

Somehow my cookies turned out a little flat but they were still delicious!

Yummy banana bread. 

I may not be as good as the bakers at Babycakes but hopefully I will have a trip to New York in the near future where I can experience the real thing. As for right now, hopefully I will be able to experiment with more gluten free recipes and keep getting better! One of my roommates for next year has the nickname of Martha Stewart so hopefully she will teach me all her cooking and baking knowledge.

I also made oreo balls. All you need is a package of oreos, a package of cream cheese, and some dipping chocolate. I use gluten free oreos instead of the real ones (2 packs of glutinos or k-toos is equivalent to one package of oreos). They also turn out great and people don't even know they are eating a gluten-free dessert!

Tomorrow I am going to try the vanilla cupcakes so you will have to check back to see how those turned out! As for the next few days, I will be running around doing last minute errands and making sure everything is ready to leave! I cannot believe I am about to leave for Europe!

roll on big mama

This past week, I spent in Buena Vista, Colorado at the Young Life camp Frontier Ranch.

Here are some recaps:

We were suppose to leave at midnight on Friday night, but one of the buses didn't end up showing up until 2 hours later so we ended up leaving at 2 a.m....typical. The bus ride was about 30 hours and Eric played the song "Roll on Big Mama" every time we got back on the bus from a stop. By the time we were in Colorado the whole bus knew all the words and clapped and danced along. We took about 70 high school kids and 12 leaders.

After sleeping at a hotel in Denver, we made our way to camp on Sunday afternoon.

So happy to be in Colorado!!

MONDAY

Tin Cup ready for volleyball games at cabin challenge. We did awesome....

It flurried in the afternoon! The rest of the week we had beautiful mid 70s weather.

Morgan got a new hat before we left. So cute. 

Ridge Runners

TUESDAY

Highlights from High Ropes:

-Rachel survived and can now be a Young Life leader

-Caitlin and I caught the bar

-FUN!

I am 99.9% sure this is way higher than Camp T's double leap

WEDNESDAY

Since it was midweek, all the cabins were told to go and clean and they would be judged by the tawashies (work crew girls that wash the bathrooms. they are awesome.) We could also bribe them with candy, nice notes, etc. Good thing Morgan and I bought an obnoxious about of candy and snacks before we left. 

 Our room in Tin Cup. The cool thing about Young Life camp is that everything is extremely nice. It makes it so that kids can see Jesus through even the smallest things (the hospital corners, the way the towels and blankets are all facing the same direction, the beds are identical!) You can also see our love note to the tawashies and our candy trail.

 

WE WON!!!

Hey Elizabeth, this is your new best friend Rachel. Isn't she cool????

Horses

Morgan got the tiny anorexic one, Clara and I got lovers, Rachel got an enormous horse that pooped the entire time, Mary Margaret got the horse for experts cause shes a baller, and Kathleen's love taps wouldn't make her horse go. We love horses.

On Wednesday night, we had the night that never ends. It started with dressing up Western for dinner, a carnival, and a square dance.

With Ellie, one of our new YL leaders that is working summer staff. She is the bomb. Excuse the glasses. Pink eye....

Murl and Clyde (hog hunters), Gordy, Crazy Bobo, and Doralee - some of this week's characters at the Opera 

Rachel and I at the carnival getting cotton candy. The high schoolers played games to earn money and then used their money to either pie their leaders in the face or shoot them with water guns. Morgan and I ended up soaked with pie all over our faces.

THURSDAY

Thursday was hike day. We didn't get to hike up to Mt. Princeton as planned because of the snow but we still got to take an afternoon hike up to the crosses.

Some of Auburn High

They say God can move the mountains. Hey God can you move them to Auburn? I would really appreciate it.

FRIDAY

We got the opportunity to go rappelling. It was incredible!

The Screamer

Ellie, Morgan, and I at the banquet

Saturday night we left Colorado and headed back the heat in Alabama. What a wonderful week of God's love and beauty!

Erasing Hell

Francis Chan's new book comes out July 5. If you haven't watched the video take a few minutes from your day and watch it.

Happy Tuesday!

Solo Roadtrip

I must start out by apologizing for being so slow with blog updates. Hopefully I will be better by the time I leave for my trip and once I am in Europe I will be posting all the time! So to catch everyone up, I finished classes for the semester (hooray!!) and have been having some time at home unpacking from Auburn and repacking to either go back to Auburn, use for my few weeks at home, or take with me to Europe.

The past few days I have been at my grandparents in West Virginia spending some time with them. First of all, I sympathize with anyone who goes to college far away from home and completely understand why you never go home. My grandparents live 10 hours away so I feel you. But, the good news is that I found the best entertainment on the way and on the way back, books on cds (I will always refer to them as books on tape but whatever). I always thought I would fall asleep if I tried to listen to a book on a long car trip, but if you find the right book, it is great entertainment. I listened to Nicholas Sparks books (The Last Song on the way there and Dear John on the way back). I know you probably think these books are sappy and girly but hey they got me from Alabama to West Virginia and back. So my advice for long car trips, find a good book you have been wanting to read, one that will keep you interested and AWAKE (very important, don’t want to fall asleep at the wheel), and something easy to read, I refer to them as beach books.

On the way back I did pass the most interesting car I have ever seen. Its license plate said "ANT CAR" and when I googled it, I found a picture so you can all be amazed at what I passed on I81. 

As much of a hassle as it is to drive up there, my trip really was great. It is amazing to see how simple it is to entertain old people. Seriously, all my grandfather wanted to do was take a drive. He loved it. I also helped my grandmother make a pie and watched Jeopardy with them. As sad as getting old can be, finding those simple moments of joy and knowing that my visit means the world to them makes my whole trip worth it.

While I have been home I have been reading friends’ blogs and stalking pictures of friends that are already studying abroad. I am so jealous and everyone seems to be having so much fun! It makes me even that more excited for my trip.

7 days until Frontier Ranch! 21 days until Europe!

Beach, beach, and more beach

If you read about me, I say that I love to be spontaneous and am always up for an adventure. Well, after being out of town the last several weekends, Charleston for my first 10k, Augusta for the Masters, then the beach with friends and with my roommate for Easter, I thought I would spend a weekend studying in Auburn for finals. But after the recent tornados in Alabama, my family didn't have power in Huntsville and decided to take a trip to the beach until they got power again. So of course they called me to go along to Gulf Shores and since I love the beach I decided to go.

The weekend was so fun and I'm glad I went. I not only got to experience the Mullet Toss at the FloraBama where I threw a fish across the state line and eat fried shrimp and oysters at Sea n' Suds, we went to The Hangout where our my family and our family friends got an obnoxious about of seafood. The gulf keeps advertising for us to come eat their seafood...so we did.

Emily, me, and Sarah Grace with our dinner

As for the rest of the week, no more spontaneous trips. It's finals week in Auburn so my life is being consumed with long hours of studying and study breaks spending time with friends before we all leave for the summer. 37 days until Europe!