I am studying abroad in Thessaloniki, Greece.  Thessaloniki is Greece’s second largest city, but it is not a major tourist site, as compared to Athens.  The first day when I arrived, the hostel I was staying in was experiencing a black out (I was pretty nervous because my flight came in at around 1:30 AM and I didn’t arrive to the hostel until probably 2 AM) so I thought it might have been closed and I had no idea where I would live; but turns out it was fine, just out of electricity at the moment.  The next stress inducing incident was that in the darkness, I did not see that I did not completely put the key into the lock and I accidentally broke the key.  Oops!  Luckily the hostel-keeper was able to open the door for me (-_-” a little embarrassed).  Jetlagged, I didn’t wake up until late, but awoke to rain and demonstrators/protesters outside marching about.  I waited until both disappeared before venturing out.  I was able to find the water easily:

The greyness of the evening made the water silvery rather than blue.

I have since moved from the hostel into an apartment in a slightly different part of Thessaloniki.  I like the location of the hostel better unfortunately.   The street I now live on is not as well known, so I’ve had a taxi driver take advantage of that (from my perspective, I think he was genuinely unsure where it was at first, but he asked for directions from another driver and then after being on the main road next to where my small road intersects, he started looping around…a LOT).  Not to mention, it is further away from the living situation of half of the other study abroad students, and further from the area I enjoyed exploring earlier in this trip.

Class for me starts Thursday, and I’m excited…honestly, I am ready to have a schedule and some regularity in my life.  As fun as being adventurous and free can be, it is exhausting.  I’ve been on the road so long that right now I am reaching a point in which I would like to be settled for a while and curl up somewhere cozy.  Should I leave (i like going on adventures)?

Unfortunately, my study abroad program JUST began, so right now is that awkward social period when I need to meet people and figure out who I will be hanging out with during the rest of my stay…and once those friend-groups form, it’s just hard to integrate oneself…So I want some peace and alone time, but now is not really the best time; otherwise I might be taken as being withdrawn or uninterested, aloof, etc.  I feel so stressed out…for me, being so social is draining; and I am terrified–terrified that I won’t find my niche on time, terrified that will feel so isolated like I have allowed myself to be in the past, terrified that I might not adjust as well as I will need to be [and even more terrified thinking that in less than 2 months med school will start and I will be in a similar situation all over again with so many new people, new things, new situations ><!  AHHHH...>< >< ><].  I know in a few days I should be a lot happier, I just need to survive and get there.  I just need to bite the bullet.  But honestly, right now I’m pretty unhappy because I feel like I am doing things I don’t want to being doing, but  need to be doing (being social despite being in a slightly anti-social slump; it’s just I’ve been surrounded by so much foreign that I just want to retreat to the comforts of familiarity, which I can’t seem to find here).  There’s a beach day tomorrow, and I am wary of being in the sun too much, given that I will be learning to sail this summer, so I’ll be in the sun quite a bit soon…I’m afraid to be exposed too much.  Plus, I just recently visited a beach:

I should be more positive, really.  After all, it was a lot of fun.  Cece and I found a dock by the water from which many [local?] boys dove…it was nice until the nice boys left and some creepy boys surrounded us and harassed us: 

(Cece & me on the dock before the creepy boys hence the happiness )

Cece recognized that they were probably up to no good before I did, so she started walking away thinking I was following behind, but I was slightly inattentive due to being overwhelmed by attempting to be polite by trying to inch away and explaining that I didn’t understand Greek.  I guess for future events I should worry less about manners and be concerned for safety first. ><

Beyond that, we were able to enjoy the lovely blue/clear waters and chill with a nice strawberry-lemon smoothy in the warm sun and journey back to our apt later.   The sun was rather draining, and the journey to the beach rather exhausting (we took the wrong bus on the way there, so we ended up sitting on the bus for an extra hour or so…scenic tour of the city?), so the thought of the transport and the sun makes me a little anxious to be overexposed.  But there are a bunch of water sports available here because the water is so nice…it is tempting but I want to exercise moderation; but I also need to bond with my peers…debate debate.

Today my program took us to Vergina where Philip II (pop of Alexander the Great) was buried.  No cameras were permitted in the museum, so I wasn’t able to snap any shots of the tombs or things excavated with the tombs.  On the way back to our bus though I was able to get a quick shot of the countryside (so beautiful):

and the flowers:

As a side note, in transit to the beach I think I saw some poppies in the fields (!!!)…I haven’t seen them except in photos, so I was pretty excited; except I was sad that we were so far from them.  I think poppies are so beautiful…

That’s about all I have been up to lately (oh, besides trying to scrub the shit out of my bathroom!!!  Upon arrival I noticed the curtain was moldy, so me and Cece removed it; but upon closer inspection there is mold all over our bathroom…so gross. ).  So I guess I’ll debate beach day in my head tomorrow/today…sigh.

Positive, positive, positive!  That is what I need to be…maybe it’s been my deprivation from music?  In an effort to be social, I haven’t had my earbuds plugged in…[also, I forgot my beloved headphones in California ...I think my parents brought it home?].

Summer birthdays are so frequently forgotten…it’s just so easy to lose track of the date with no solid schedule.  But that’s no excuse for good friends.

Dear Morgie,

Happy Birthday! 

With much Xanga-love.

Saw in person my first Xangan today, Nick! (besides people I knew before finding them on Xanga).

I forgot to snap a picture, and I realized shamefully that if I don’t write or don’t take pictures, my memory is often faulty (regardless if I care or not, it just seems deficient when it comes to events -_-”…I am not sure why I fail so…).  So here’s a little tribute to today’s lovely adventures + recap of my day.

So my day started off being very pathetic…I awoke and grumbled about the time while answering a call from my dad needing my mom’s flight information (groggy and slightly grouchy some mornings…today was one of them).  Yesterday, I had visited a bakery, Tartines, with my sister and a park, Dolores.  I bought her a pastry with pepper and Gruyere cheese, which is her fav and a buttermilk currant scone (it had sugar crystals on it…and I basically love most sweets with sugar crystals…couldn’t help it!).  So since she ate her pastry, she wheedled for me to buy her one to replace it for our upcoming trip.  So today my plan was to revisit Tartines and buy one and then visit the park again.  Well, it was close to noon, so I did not want to leave for fear that Tartines would be super crowded since it was lunch time, and not wanting to hangout in the noon sun…so I decided to delay my trip for a few hours.

How did I spend that time?  I had already finished catching up with Big Bang Theory and HIMYM, so I was kind of stumped.  Then I saw this ridiculous video with dancing gnome looking people and ended up watching YouTube video upon YouTube video of America Got Talent.  The pathetic part is that I saw some incredible videos that caused me to tear up–some because of the performance, and some because of the sheer happiness of the contestants at being accepted.  Then suddenly I got a call from Nick saying he wasn’t too far/if I still wanted to hangout.  Yay!  I was pretty excited, probably the most happy I have been since being in SF besides when I first saw my sister. 

I’m not really too familiar with the area, so when he arrived we stopped by Tartines since I needed to grab a pastry for my sis; and I grabbed a scone for Nick because I thought it was pretty fantastic the day before (nom nom!) and we swung by the park briefly too since I knew at least it’d be pretty.  After returning we chatted a bit more before going to visit my sister working at Facebook!  The traffic was horrific on the way there (ugh…o_o), horrible in a small-town-person-wouldn’t-understand-way, though visiting large cities had prepped me for it (but that doesn’t take away from the aversion towards traffic…meh).  After we arrived, we found my sis and got a little introduction to some of her co-workers and then toured the two campuses briefly.  I was excited about all the Magritte references found around Facebook since he was one of my favorite artists (!).  Got a glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg from afar too.  :O  I was pretty excited about being in such a nerdy environment as a whole. :3  Yay…but unfortunately my sis said since they’re relocating a lot of the cool stuff has already been removed.  :.  We then ate dinner which was quite scrumptious (I guess Indonesian food?).  I was particularly excited about my sparking apple juice and the fried tofu they had and some of their rice (with coconut stuff in it??  Reminded me of Thai food, nom nom!). [wait...did my sister just chuckle in her sleep?...updating in the dark >_>]  Then we bounced back to San Fran, but took a different and much prettier (and faster) route.   It was gorgeous…so many hills…it’s nice seeing topography, especially coming from Florida where it is flat as a pancake.  D:!  We hardly even have hills, it seems; though we should since we should have some karst topography with our groundwater/aquifer/sinkhole/limestone/etc…(?)..or maybe it’s just flat where I’m from (well, in Marion County, apparently our highest landmark was our landfill…fail -__-”).

(:

I chatted briefly with my sis’s roommates after getting home again; two of which are doctors :3 (!).  But then I got tired and went to hide out in her room, doing a combination of packing and laying plastered to the floor.  (Yes, pathetic -_-”)…I guess sleep calls now, since we need to catch Caltrain [?] and BART to find our aunt tomorrow to hitchhike to LA. …zzz.

P.S. Xanga rearranged my tags alphabetically when I hit edit !  And it removed my exclamation marks …

It’s been a long time since I have updated–I didn’t realize how much time had elapsed since my last post. o_________o

Taiwan = land of the good food, whether it is Asian or non-Asian food… 

I had this marshmallow-y delight while grabbing dessert + juice with my aunt, cousin Aileen, and mom.  It was sort of chewy with fruits embedded…if only I remembered the name of the coffee shop or the dessert. -___-.  I have more pics to share of scrumptious and beautiful food, but most are on my mom’s camera, still in Taiwan.  I left a little earlier so I could visit my sister in San Francisco before heading to LA for a wedding.  I’m a little anxious about jetlag because I had just finally fully adjusted to Taiwan time…so first I had to change to 12 hours different from eastern time to get to Taiwan; then now I’m in California, so I’m 3 hours behind eastern time.  Soon, I will be going to Greece which is maybe 7 hours ahead of eastern time?  My circadian rhythm = amok.

{This is what I always think about when I think of jetlag…thank you Randall Munroe <3}

Random thing I noticed: In Taiwan, instead of giving people jobs waving flags for construction areas, they created moving mannequins that wave the flags:

I guess in the long run this would save them money (over having to hire someone to wave it), and possibly be safer too.  Though I guess the dummy can’t direct traffic, only create awareness…so no worries, robots haven’t taken over yet !

During one of our excursions from Taipei, I visited Tainan with my mom, where an “aunt” hosted us.  One of the notable sites she brought us to was of this abandoned house that got swallowed by trees:

It was an awesome place, though apparently kids generally love it (in the old days there weren’t boardwalks or stairs so kids were allowed to run around anywhere and climb everything), but adults find it either boring or creepy.  Guess I’m still somewhat of a kid at heart. 

*  *  *  *  *

So, overall it was a nice trip.  It was basically a mom-and-daughter outing to Taiwan so we could visit my grandma and other relatives; also my mom has a 30-year  :3 reunion to attend.  Right now my grandma is not doing well; basically, she had a series of strokes a couple of years ago that went unnoticed and therefore untreated–the people caring for her simply thought her memory was just deteriorating quickly; they didn’t think much of it assuming she was just getting old… ><, and I guess she wasn’t able to say what was going on either.  So now she is actually in a coma-like state.    We were wondering if she recognized my mom’s voice though…because whenever my mother spoke to her, tears welled up and dripped.  But we were wondering if that was just coincidence an her eyes needed to be moisturized, or if it was a sign of recognition.  I sat and accompanied her for maybe 30 minutes and there were no tears until my mom returned from visiting her brother next door…so I kind of suspect slight recognition, on a very basic level.  She is largely paralyzed though, so it is hard to really know anything. ><…it is a very sad state to see her in.  She is tube fed too…no living-will was established though, so we do not know what she would have wanted done with her in this state.  Though apparently she has been largely paralyzed and coma-like for over 1.5 years at this point…Personally, I would not like for my “life” to be perpetrated by a tube as such.  And even if she could awake and she wouldn’t return to her old self (which, I heard she had a brain scan that showed many many areas no longer work)…but no agreement can be come to in the family as to what to do.  I guess some of them want to take away the tube, and others want it to persist, arguing that they can’t stand to starve their mother.  {But it’s not like they visit her much in this state either…so even if she was just paralyzed and thus unable to speak, she is probably bored and lonely with just an aid and a radio…}.

On a brighter note, I felt happy because I was able to see other sides of my mom–her interaction with some of her siblings and friends.  One of the things I love doing is just listening to conversations, esp. of my parents because they’re pretty interesting people, and so are their friends.  Plus, my parents didn’t really tell us a lot about their lives growing up, though we have asked.  So this was a good way to get some insight on that.  (Wish they would have told me more!  I felt like I learned a lot on this trip).  I found that my uncle (mom’s younger bro) is quite funny in many ways, one of which is how thrifty/cheap he can be (hard to describe, or rather hard to explain how it’s funny).    And then I found out one of my aunts is just like my grandma (dad’s side) in one way: whenever she has to exercise she complains about things like headaches…but when brought to a mall she is as lively as ever (good way to sneak some exercise/movement in?).  Hehe. …ahh, family.

More on Taiwan later, when I get access to mom’s camera. (~1 week?)

I think I might go hit up a concert…Free concert Amoeba music of Architecture in Helsinki!  Not sure what the protocol for free shows is, i.e. if I need a ticket/voucher or anything or if I just go?  Also, not sure how to get there, so I’ll need some time to figure that up.