I'm here!

Okay, so this is my first blog post ever.  Hopefully I don't ramble on too much, obviously I won't post every little detail, but I have a feeling my voice will be clearly heard in my writing :)  After a very long and exhausting 14 hours of traveling, I have finally arrived in GREECE!  It still hasn't hit me that I'm actually here.  Side note, I'm sorry this post is a little late; today has been busy!
A little about my trip in general:  I am in Thessaloniki, Greece to study abroad at the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT).  A lot of people, specifically my nutty and sometimes overprotective family, asked me why I was going halfway across the world to take a class that I could just as easily take at Texas Tech and get the same amount of credit...  In my life, I have never had much opportunity to travel, especially out of the country.  So when the opportunity arose for me to study abroad, why not take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity seems to be a more fitting question.  Also, as much as I love the great state of Texas, I know that there is so much more to the world than my little world in Lubbock and Cedar Park.  I know that this experience will be life changing, both personally and professionally.  It will give me the upper hand in furthering my career in the business world, and will also force me to be more open-minded and outgoing on a social level.  Another benefit is that the timing worked out well; I have some time to find myself as an individual before I graduate and start my life in the adult world.  To say that I feel blessed beyond belief to be on this journey would be a tremendous understatement.  I could not be more grateful to my friends and family who encouraged me to go, and will support me throughout the process.
Just a little about my travels:  Because I'm so used to flying Southwest for the hour long trek between Lubbock and Austin, things were obviously different on other airlines and especially different on the international flights.  Meals were provided and there were television screens on the back of the headrests, so I watched two movies on my insanely long flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Munich, Germany.  "This Means War" and "We Bought a Zoo" were both so cute, and I had to hold in my laughter and tears (big surprise there) as to avoid stares from strangers.  No matter which airport I was in, everyone was super nice, and thankfully most people spoke English.  This was very helpful because this rookie had a lot of questions!
A little bit of what happened today:  I was met at the airport by some ACT faculty members who gave me some quick instructions and helped me into a cab, who was a crazy driver, by the way; I have a feeling everyone drives like a mad person over here.  He took me to the apartment where I was met by my adorable RA, Tanya, and some other study abroad students who helped me up the stairs with my luggage.  I took a quick nap before we took short tour around our neighborhood to start getting acquainted with things.  This is a picture of the boardwalk by the harbor.  We are in a more residential area, and you can see downtown (also called the center) in the distance.  As usual, the picture does not do it justice.  I unpacked everything, then took a quick shower before we got ready for dinner.  We were supposed to head to dinner around 8 or 8:30, but didn't get to dinner until 9:30.  Apparently late late dinners are the norm.  It was really delicious though, so at least it was worth the wait.  While most of the group went out after, a few other students and I headed back for the night.  And now here we are.  As expected, I am experiencing major culture shock.  Nearly everything is different.  It will definitely take some getting used to, but I'm excited to immerse myself into this beautiful culture and soak up every moment I can.
I hope to post on a fairly regular basis.  Hope this gives a little insight into what my daily life will be like for the next 5 weeks :)