Today I took the metro.
Yes, it may seem like a simple accomplishment, and surely something I shouldn’t just now be doing for the first time after a whole 6 weeks of living here in Athens. But, it is a daunting task, no matter how seemingly ordinary…
Whenever I start to think about how our minds work, I always seem to imagine an organized and efficient system of spinning gears in my head. Which is funny, because if there were, in fact, gears in my head, they would most definitely need to be oiled.
Friday morning, I was on my way to the grocery store to pick up some fresh steaks, when I stumbled upon one of the greatest things I have found thus far in Athens: The Pangrati Farmers Market! It was around 3:30 in the afternoon and the market was approaching closing time, so as I walked through the street, admiring the rainbow or fruits and vegetables spread out across crates and tables, my ears were bombarded with the auctioneer-like shouting of discounted prices and playful vendors grabbing the attention of any and every passerby. For only 7 euros, I as able walk away from the market with a full bag of fresh green beans, a head of lettuce, two cucumbers, an overflowing container of cherry tomatoes, four peaches, and two bags of grapes. And to think, I was afraid of grocery shopping when I first arrived! Ha! A month into this endeavor, and I’ve already mastered the farmers...
What does it mean for an experience to be authentic?
When we travel to other countries, we tend to enter our foreign endeavors with romanticized ideas of the ‘authentic study-abroad experience.’
If you don’t already know this, it’s been about four months since I joined Weight Watchers. I rejoined the program after seeing my father have such great success with it in the last 8 months. My first experiences with the program were when I was about 15 years old, and Dad and I did it together back then too, but we didn’t follow the “guidelines” as well as we should have. This time has been different…
At the beginning of every summer, I tell myself there are certain activities I want to do or goals I want achieve in the course of the subsequent months. In the past, this list has included seeing a baseball game, reading 25 books, losing weight, going to Cedar Point, writing new music, and really becoming dedicated to photography as a hobby. Yet, year after year, this list seems to reappear and even increase, while I continue to spend my summers laying around, playing video games, binging Netflix shows (not even the good ones) and coming up with excuses not to pursue my passions…