the halfway mark!

YES!!! I'm halfway done with college! That is ABSOLUTELY insane to me. I feel like I just started elementary school and my mom cut my hair to match her "do" :)

That being said, it is not officially summer!

Tomorrow we start our trek back to Athens, but we are stopping in many places on the way. I honestly have no idea where we are going, but I will definitely keep you updated on my travels.

Love you all! See you in 9 days!

Rochelle

Smile & See What Happens :)

I saw that quote this weekend, and I thought it was great!! So on Wednesday we went to the Ioannina Archaeological Museum and it was pretty interesting. It's always a lot of fun to see the different artifacts and coins from so many centuries ago. America just doesn't have that kind of history available to see.

perfectly intact inscriptions

ancient pottery

Then on Friday, we headed up to Albania for interviews. We stopped at a university first in Gjirokaster, then headed to Saranda near the sea.

right when we entered the boarder

high school students on their graduation day

at the sea in Saranda.

Albania turned out a lot better than I had expected! I loved it!

Then Saturday we headed to Corfu for a little miniature vacation at the craziest hostel in all of Europe, this I'm sure of.

the Pink Palace bus... they also had a van

Every Saturday they have Pink Toga Parties, so we definitely attended that! It was a lot of fun with great friends! Sunday night I just relaxed and went out for dessert with a few others.

Overall a great week/weekend. 17 days until I'm home! Can hardly believe it :)

Love you all,

Rochelle

Pictures don't do it justice..

Today we went on an all day field trip to one of the most breathtaking places I've ever been. Imagine monasteries basically being "suspended in the air", meaning they are built on top of giant pillars of rock. Also imagine that these were built beginning in the 13th century, and people once had to be hoisted up by nets in order to reach the top... Okay, stop imagining. Obviously that's the reality of what I witnessed today. They are called the Meteora Monasteries, and they are visited every year by thousands upon thousands of tourists. The photos can speak for themselves, although I do mean it when I say you'd have to be there to understand just how phenomenal they truly were..

The Holy Monastery of Varlaam. All of them were constructed atop large rocks such as the one pictured here.

Skulls of past residents of the monastery... kind of creepy?

The Holy Monastery of St. Stephen

The Holy Monastery of Meteoron. This was the first one constructed, and also the largest. To the left of the flag pole is a tower that they used to hoist materials up the side of using a net. This place was incredible, to say the least.

beautiful botany.

You can't wear short length dresses or have your shoulders showing. Enough said?

view of the rocks from the town we visited afterwards

A monk, and a nun! It was actually really great to see them, I found it fascinating.

There are ten monasteries total, I believe. All of them except for one are filled with male monks, while the last is filled with female nuns. It was hands down one of the biggest highlights of my trip!

I'll be posting again next week... until then I love you and miss you all :)

Rochelle

Shorts + Monasteries = A No Go

You are getting two posts in one week! How lucky do you feel?! :)

Well we started this week with the usual dose of classes. I must say, I actually am looking forward to getting back into accounting this summer, enough said. Then Tuesday night we did our last ethnography study. Nobody was in the mood for them from what I could see, but we all pushed through and got a few more interviews in. After we were finished, we headed out to an ASIAN RESTAURANT for dinner called Bonzai. It was pretty good, but nothing compared to the states. Still a great time. Plus fried bananas for dessert, drizzled in chocolate, need I say more?

Tina being crazy with the chopsticks! Love Shailee's reaction.. This was after me and her made walrus faces with them as well :)

Unique lights @ Bonzai. I want these for my bedroom..

Wednesday was our typical field trip day. This week we headed out to the Island of Ioannina, which is only about a fifteen minute ferry ride from downtown. It was a cute place, with only five hundred citizens, a whole lot of monasteries, and Ali Passa's House.

Ali Passa's house where he was decapitated. Those stairs to the right are where the scene of the crime happened. How lovely!

beautiful flowers.. I was so proud of myself for taking this picture!

Monasteries galore, and this island was so small too!

Houses on the lake... definitely not Lake Tapps or Mason Lake. You can't swim in this one.

I would've taken pictures of the monastery, but that's not allowed. Also, wearing shorts is not allowed in certain rooms (such as the sanctuary) but somehow Shailee and I snuck by the lady in charge of the monastery. It was beautifully adorned with pictures from floor to ceiling that depicted many different aspects of Jesus Christ, the saints, and other religious figures.

Tomorrow we are going to the Meteora Monasteries, I cannot wait! They're beautiful!

Post again this saturday or sunday!

Love you and miss you all,

Rochelle

P.S. 27 days for those of you keeping track :) I no longer care too much, but it's still kind of cool to know!

Sunshine Spoils Me.

It's so true! This week nothing too exciting happened, until today of course. Our Wednesday field trip was to the wax museum, which was slightly frightening because there were recreations of Ali Pascha being beheaded. Not exactly what I want to see :) However, today we went to Lefkada, which is a island in the Ioanian Sea, about two hours from our university. It was absolutely beautiful and we got to spend all day in the sun. The only bummer part was that all of the shops were closed when we got to town because of siesta, which was probably good because I ended up spending money on souvenirs. They're just so cute!

Here's some pictures from the beautiful day at the beach...

it was actually pretty cold at first. after i got in it was a LOT warmer, we even swam out quite of ways, which was weird because i'm not used to salt water unless it's in hawaii

just laying out under the sun with my music... all you need in life

some of the many sailboats we saw today

probably my favorite picture of the day

cute downtown area!

Well I'm wiped out from being in the sun all day, so I'm going to go shower and figure out what adventures are planned for tonight!

Love you and miss you all,

Rochelle

Greece has stolen my heart.

Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, we are just always so busy and it's hard to find time to sit down and write. This past week was the absolute best way to end April, and also bring a close to my first of two months abroad. I cannot believe we are basically halfway done with this trip, and so far it has been the best thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Other than the same old routine of classes, we also had two great field trips this week. The first was a trip to the Theater of Dodoni, which is ancient theater, located about fifteen minutes away from the University. I think a lot of us are getting a little burnt out on ruins, but I definitely don’t want to take for granted the fact that we are in one of the most historically rich places in the entire world. Here are some pictures from this trip, which happened on Wednesday of this week:

Shailee, Marissa, and I underneath a beautiful tree. I still can’t get over how lucky I am to have two girls from my sorority here with me otherwise I’d probably be a homesick mess!

A picture of Shailee and myself in front of the stage area. Off to the sides are the wings where all of the violence and costume changes occurred. We learned a lot about Ancient Greek Theater in my Drama 101 class fall quarter, so it has been interesting to see all of the theaters in person!

Here is a view of the theater seating. Many of the seats are still in tact, but they don’t let you climb up them because they want to keep it that way.

The best part of the week, by far, was our trip to Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, and it is a bit “younger” and “trendier” than Athens was. It is also located right on the water, which meant that we had to visit the beaches on Saturday to get the full experience. Friday we went out for the night on a random adventure, and Saturday was spent laying out all day enjoying the sunshine. Then Saturday night we went out on a Reggae Inspired cruise on the bay, which was a lot of fun. I’ve really enjoyed spending time with our group because they are all a lot of fun and we all get along fabulously! This weekend was a much-needed getaway that turned out great, but of course I spent more money that I probably should have, but oh well… life goes on! Here are some pictures from this fantastic weekend!

On the way to Thessaloniki we stopped in Vergina where the tomb of Phillip the Second is. He is Alexander the Great's father, and located under this hill is a great museum and four tombs that held members of the royal family. Including Alexander the Great's son.

Shailee and I on a children's toy at the park, we got some glares and were laughing hysterically if you couldn't already tell from her facial expression!

our "cozy" hotel room. The shower was literally two inches away from the toilet.. lucky us!

Walking along the pier

We had to visit Starbucks, naturally!
Beautiful view from our dinner table right on the beach!
Happy place :)
Some of the girls on the Reggae Cruise!

The view from the balcony of one of our rooms at the Atlantis Hotel

Well I better get going, because I definitely didn’t do any of my homework this weekend. Oops! I love you and miss you all!

Love,

Rochelle

P.S. I come home 39 days from today, mark your calendars for June 10^th!

Parga is a small slice of heaven..

Minus the overcast weather, our visit to Parga today was beautiful, and SO much fun! We stopped at a lot of ruins on the way there, go figure, and of course another fascinating museum. Parga is located on the sea, so it was my first time dipping my feet into the Grecian waters that I've heard about all my life. Although it wasn't exactly warm (I wore jeans and a light sweater), it was still a fantastic experience near the ocean. The people of the town all spoke English that we came into contact with, which was VERY helpful for the short time we were there. I think a group of us would love to go back when it's more touristy and sunny! Here are the pictures :) :)

LOOOOOOOOVE!! view of the town

Michelle & I at the castle overlooking one of the bays

toes in the (rocky) sand!

me at the beach, soo happy!

in the ancient grounds where they made animal sacrifices to the gods of the underworld, how pleasant!

What a fantastic way to spend a Friday!

Love,

Rochelle