Greece, everything we dreamed and more

Steph and i arrived in Greece and immediately had to try the gyros, they were SO good! we had a lot of them (and i mean a lot) in our 4 days there. we stayed in the only pretty part of Athens called the plaka (most of Athens is just dirty city) but the Plaka was beautiful.

friday night alyssa and martha joined us and saturday morning we got coffee and baklava to accompany us on our walk up to the Acropolis

right when we got to the Parthenon it started raining. we stayed up there in the rain for 45 minutes. we thought we were pretty tough.

the temple of Athena was my favorite building/ruins we saw in Athens

after we climbed the Acropolis, we went to the national city gardens and then had a nice dinner near our hostel. we met two really nice guys who walked around the plaka with us that night to see all the ruins at night. i liked the ruins by night better than by day, they were so pretty the way they were lit up. Sunday morning we got up and went to the Port (a ride that should have been 40 minutes but instead took us 5 hours.. lesson learned - never ask a Greek for directions). we took a ferry to the island of ihdra.

ihdra was so beautiful, definitely 1 of the top 5 most beautiful places i've ever been. ihdra is a tiny little island with only 2,500 people living there. the only modes of transportation are walking and riding donkeys. the bay has several restaurants with outdoor seating and there are lots of little shops, cafe's, and bakerys all over the island. there are no hostels so we stayed in a "hotel" which was really a little old greek woman named Dina's house with lots of extra rooms. Dina was the cutest little thing i've ever met, she spoke very little english and made the funniest faces. we spend Sunday afternoon exploring the island. we met 2 other girls (sam and shannon) and a guy (rob) and the 7 of us stayed in Dina's hotel and spent our 2 days together. they were really great to hang out with. Sunday night, we bought some bread, cheese, and wine and sat up on Dina's rooftop and talked and laughed while looking down on the whole island.

Monday morning, we woke up at 5:45 and climbed one of the mountains on Ihdra to watch the sun rise. we were really tired but it was totally worth it.

donkey rides were offered for 10 euros for 10 minutes. the price was a bit steep but it was SO worth it! we had such a good time. Rob didn't want to ride at first but we six girls wore him down. all 7 of us went together and i've never been so entertained. we were all so happy to be riding donkeys on a Grecian island, because how many people get to say that?!? i'm pretty sure the men leading the donkeys thought we were nuts, but then again i think they were just happy to be making money in the off season

monday afternoon we went to the other side of the island and found the beach. it wasn't like a normal beach, it was really small and the "beach" was made of little rocks. but it was beautiful. the Mediterranean sea is so blue and clear. Monday was our only day of sunshine so we took advantage of it by laying out on the rocks and chatting.

the four of us had been talking about Greece for so long and how we were like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (fondly renamed as the sisterhood of the traveling zetas) and all we wanted was a picture of us in our dresses in Greece. well, unfortunately the weather wasn't really great, it was actually pretty cold most of the time. but we decided we still wanted our picture so about an hour before we left we went back to our hotel and threw on our dresses and made rob take some pictures for us. thankfully, he was really patient and indulged us.
when we took the ferry back to the mainland, this was what was greeting us, a beautiful sunset.

tuesday morning we got up early and went to the olympic stadium. we had to take a picture of us racing.

after the olympic stadium, we went to the temple of olympian zeus, somewhere we had tried to go on saturday but no one told us that everything closes on 3 on saturdays. so we had only gotten to peak through the bars at it. luckily it was open on our second try and we got to see it close up. the temple used to have 100 pillars and now has 16 with 1 fallen one. it was sweet.

at this point, steph and i said goodbye to martha and alyssa who had an earlier flight out of athens. as we walked back to the plaka we realized there was a parade going on right near our hostel. the parade was made up of children of all ages dressed in traditional Greek garb. some little boys stopped and talked to us about Disney shows which we found pretty amusing. it was so cute to see all the kids because even the ones who weren't in the parade were dressed up. like this little boy. there were ropes up blocking the people from getting onto the street the parade was on but the police let him slip by and sit where he could see. for a parade made up of all kids, there sure were a lot of police there and the bomb squad which i still don't understand. although i'm not complaining because one member of the bomb squad was extremely attractive and i had a good view of both the parade and him =)


i think the owners of this bakery knew us by name by the time we left.. okay maybe not by name but they certainly recognized us. we spent A LOT of time there. they had the best baklava i've ever tasted. plus lots of other yummy treats but their baklava was to die for.

steph and i headed to the airport a little early because after 2 days in Athens there is really not much to do. it's a good thing we did too because the bus ride ended up taking us about an hour and a half because of all the parade traffic. once we got to the airport we tried to study for our midterm. unfortunately (very unfortunately) i had a midterm at 9 a.m. on wednesday and we wouldn't be getting home until 4:30 a.m. AND i had another midterm in my 3:20 class. that is the midterm steph and i tried (note.. tried) to study for. our efforts didn't last very long but we both feel like we did well on the midterm.









I'm positive that this trip will end up being my favorite trip of the semester. it was everything i could have hoped for and so much more. i LOVED traveling with my 3 sorority sisters, there is no one else i enjoy spending time with more. everything was perfect, there is not 1 thing i would change about this trip. Greece was beautiful, the food was amazing, the people were friendly, and the island was absolutely incredible. i hope i get to go back someday but if i don't i'll always have amazing memories of the perfect trip to Greece.

(and bonus: i went to a movie yesterday with a couple girls from my program and when i came out of the theater i heard "hey ashley!" and it was Sam and Shannon, the girls we met on Ihdra! Sevilla had been their next stop in their travels and i happened to run into them, it was great!)

disapointment, his appointment

that's a song my dad sent me once last year when i was really upset about something and it's coming in handy for my again now. i was supposed to be going to Barcelona this weekend with 2 of my roommates and another girl, but somehow my flight got canceled. there was a lot of confusion when we booked the flight and steph's was canceled. she found a different flight a week or so later. when that happened we all checked our email and no one else got a notice saying their flight was canceled. tonight, as i was getting ready to leave for the bus station, i saw that i had an email from the airline and it said my flight was canceled.

so i'm no longer going to Barcelona. the other girls still get to go though. i'm really bummed, i've heard from a lot of people that Barcelona is really amazing. And i've always thought that you can't go to Spain without going to Madrid and Barcelona. at least i got half of that though right?

i'm positive that God has a reason for me not to go. if for nothing else, it's for me to slow down on the traveling and get better (i've been sick for a few days). i'm sure that some opportunity will come up for me to glorify Him through being here in Sevilla this weekend. and maybe some other trip will come up later in the semester that i will now get to go on that i wouldn't have if i went to Barcelona this weekend. who knows, i sure don't know what God is up to but i know He's up to something.

now that i don't have very much to do this weekend i will be puting up pictures from my trip to Greece last weekend, be on the lookout for them, they are beautiful! Greece is an incredible country.

thank you again for all of those who are praying for me, pray that i find something to do this weekend! =)

who goes to class on friday anyway?

Since there is no class on Fridays, we decided to take a day trip out to the beach! it was beautiful! i went with the 2 other girls from Grove City, Martha and Alyssa. The beach itself was gorgeous minus all the sand pummeling us all day because of the wind.

we layed out (we got burned in March!), walked on the beach, ate chocolate ice cream out on some rocks that jutted into the ocean, and built a pretty spectacular sand castle (connecting bridge with horses included).

it was a really incredible day and i loved sitting on a warm beach knowing that all my friends at school are sitting inside a classroom with snow outside!

i haven't been feeling well this past week. i have a bit of a cold/headache/dizzy/nauseous concoction of feelings going on. hopefully i will get better soon because i have 2 midterms this week and next weekend i will be going to GREECE with steph, martha, and alyssa! this is our one trip we are taking by ourselves, just the 4 zetas, it's going to be just like the sisterhood of the traveling pants, ha!

A day in the life

in response to the viewers back home who have asked the question "what is a typical day in Sevlla like?" i carried my camera around with me yesterday and documented everything i did. so here you go sportsfans, you get a first hand look at a day in the life ..of me

Thursday - May 5, 2009

Every morning i wake up, shower, and get ready in my room.



Then i make breakfast and eat it while listening to worship music



Now i'm ready to go to school. every day on my walk there, i listen to reliant K.


This is what i see every morning while i'm walking to class


Every Thursday morning i come here before class for cafe con leche and tostada and to write in my journal


Then i go to class (this is the front of the CEA global campus)


Somedays, like today, i get to go on a field trip in one of my classes. Today, in Art and Architecture, we went to the Cathedral.

This is how we do school here in Spain. it's pretty great. instead of sitting in a classroom i get to look at this



Most days after my morning classes i come home and make lunch at my apartment with steph, but today we decided to go to a little cafe for the menu del dia (menu of the day)


then at 3:20 i go back to CEA for my afternoon class. this is the patio when you first walk into CEA (spanish houses and buildings have patios in the middle of them)


This is one of my classrooms. the other ones look pretty much the same as this one. - yes, all of my classrooms have big chandeliers in them.


After classes were over for the day, 4 girls from my last class and i decided to go get ice cream and chat.


when i got home i found this little note from my wonderful roommate and a yummy surprise for me in the fridge (fresh squeezed orange juice!). she had already left me a note on my cereal box this morning. she's so great.


in the afternoons i like to go for a run. i go for my runs down near the river because it's so beautiful.

most thursday nights are travel nights, but this weekend we are staying here in Sevilla, so tonight was Zeta night =) we asked Martha and Alyssa to come over for dinner. They brought desser (2 rounds of it) and we made dinner (chicken parmasean that steph and i hand breaded) we also bought some fruit and dipped it onto dark chocolate as a little surprise for the girls when they got here.



dinner was great and so yummy! we spent the night talking and laughing. we all wore our zeta sweatpants and a zeta shirt. it was great to spend so much time together!


So there you go! that's a pretty typical day here in Sevilla. every day is a little bit different, on tuesday afternoons after class, a big group of girls from CEA go get coffee together and then steph and i go to a bible study. this wednesday night i played soccer with some other CEA students. some thursday nights we go out to a bar or club to see friends. some nights (like this one) we stay in and relax. each day is different but they are all amazing! i've loved every minute so far here in Seville and i can't wait for more days like today!

"Hey, did you know your surname is German?"

Hello wonderful people in the great U.S of A =) i hope you had as fantastic of a weekend as i did! i hear you are in a lot of snow right now (i am not jealous at all..) actually, i'm pretty happy to be missing Grove City winter this year! i hope everyone is warm and dry and sitting at your computers with a cup of cocoa in your hands. i'm sitting inside my apartment attempting to get dry which is very hard to do here when it's raining. it's supposed to rain all week.. boo.

this weekend i went to Germany with 2 of my apartment mates. it was incredible! i found out very quickly that i LOVE German food! (good thing i can't eat it a lot because it's really heavy) and the language might be my favorite language to listen to.

We stayed in Frankfurt, which is just a city, nothing super special about it. i'm glad we went there but i don't know if i'd go back because there wasn't a whole lot to do. we did get to eat Frankfurt hot dogs in Frankfurt which was pretty cool. the old part of the city was really pretty too. We went to a Jewish museum and walked around the old city near the river. on our way to lunch on friday (which was incredible) we passed by this sign




i was pretty excited that NC was repped in Germany! =) i had to bust out the southern pride because both of my apartment mates are from Pennsylvania. on this walk we were headed toward a restaurant the girl in our hostel recomended. we got schnitzel and fish and potatoes. it was So good! and we tried apple wine (which is very famous in all of Germany but particularly in Frankfurt) it was good, it was sour which was surprising but pretty yummy. this is the restuarant and the food (looks good huh?)


we strolled around the old city friday night. it was really pretty!


Saturday we took a train out to Heidelburg. Steph and Erica laughed at me when i found out that our train was exactly in between platforms 9 and 10. I had to take a picture because i kept telling them i was on platform 9 and 3/4 from Harry Potter. they thought i was ridiculous but it totally made my day! the only thing that could have made it even more perfect was if we could have sat in a compartment, but unfortuntely the compartments are for 1st class and we are clearly 2nd class people. but my Harry Potter dreams were still very happily fulfilled on that platform.

when we got to Heidelburg, we took an incline up to the Heidleburg Castle which is situated on a hill. it was Beautiful! even though it was a little clowdy the view was incredible! we explored the castle and walked around the town which was very quaint and adorable. the food was again amazing and we got to watch the sunset on the trainride back to Frankfurt.



inside the castle i found my knight in shining armor =)



the town of Heidelburg is so gorgeous, i wish i could explain it better than i am. this picture shows it pretty well. there is an incredible bridge (which we are standing on) over a river with the castle on the mountain behind it.


Saturday night we tried to go out but there really isn't anything to do in Frankfurt at night, so instead, we went back to our hostel and hung out in the common/dining/reception area. 2 of the guys who worked in the hostel joined us in a little corner we were sitting in and we talked and hung out for a couple hours. they made us schnitzel and mashed potatoes (there was cucumber in the mashed potatoes and it was actually pretty good!) and just as we were getting ready to go up to bed i got the offer by one of the guys (who was very intoxicated and not at all attractive) if i would like to go make out with him because he was "the best kisser in Germany." After turning bright red i used my jedi mind tricks on him by alternately repeated what he said back to him and asking him "what?" every couple seconds until he got so confused he forgot what we were even talking about and i could say goodnight and leave before he had worked out what had just happened. this was a trick Kirsten Ward played on me a few times back in the day and i found that i can use it too (thanks kirsten!!). i've never seen steph laugh so hard!

we woke up late Sunday morning and walked into the old part of the city to have Frankfurters. we really wanted to be able to say we had a Frankfurter in Frankfurt, haha! they were excellent. then we got on a train, a plane, a metro, and a bus, and arrived back home at 4:30 a.m. i got to sleep for about 4 hours before i had to wake up and go to class. needless to say i'm pretty tired and while i'm writing this my bed is looking really good. i can't wait to go to bed early tonight!

i will be staying in Sevilla for the next 2 weeks. i'm really happy to get a break from traveling. i love it but it is very tiring. and i haven't spent a weekend here since i first got here so it will be nice to explore Sevilla during these next couple weeks. Steph (my roommate)'s boyfriend will be coming this weekend. i'm really pumped for him to get here because i really like him a lot and love hanging out with him and steph. i'm really looking forward to getting to do all the Sevilla tourist stuff i haven't done yet because i haven't been here! hopefully it won't rain all week like it's supposed to. it's been raining all day and it seems very hard to get dry after getting wet here. My real hope is that our washing machine gets fixed this week because i'm almost out of clothes!

a few people have asked me to let them know what a typical day in Sevilla is like. so i will be posting another blog this week documenting (with pictures) =) what a typical day for me here in Sevilla is. so be on the lookout for it!

i hope you all enjoy the snow (and a little extra for me!) and stay warm! -ash