Day 1 - Athens, Greece

Before I tell you about my first day, I have to say this first....Eric Sullivan, Nick Tsinoukas, and Mark Siemsen, you guys would be proud of me. As soon as I got off the plane, I went to one of those computer kiosks at the airport just to see if the Sox won and they did! Congrats to Sox fans!

OK, I just spent my first day in Athens! It was definitely an interesting 12 hours of learning and having one of those good ol' "aha" moments.....

-My backpack is way TOO heavy. My dear friends Jill Grove, Amy Ford, and Caroline Forster are probably thinking, "I told you so." I am a very heavy packer in general so when I knew I had to pack 4 months of clothes into 0ne large backpack, I crammed as much as I could, even though Jill, Amy, and Caroline advised me not to. Since Brad Cohen and Steve Popp took me to the airport, they saw my backpack and they didn't think it was heavy. At that time, I didn't think it was heavy either. WELL, it becomes really heavy when you have to walk around the city for over 2 miles because you can't find your hotel. SURE, I could've taken a cab when I got off the train but the directions said it was only one block from the train stop. Well, I went 1 block in the opposite direction. I figured the directions were a bit off so I continued to walk a little further thinking that I would run into it. Nope. Stubborn me was determined to find it on my own so I eventually found it...2 miles later in the other direction! Fortunately, I only have to drag the backpack around when I move to different countries.

-The Euro...It's been 10 years since I've been in Europe so it's nice to see the same currency in every country. This will definitely be convenient for me. I observed the exchange rate before I came so I was very familiar with doing the conversions in my head. Today I noticed that my wallet was getting really heavy because I had a bunch of Euro coins that I got in change after I went shopping. I looked through the coins and I threw out all the coins with the 2 on it thinking that they were the equivalent of 3 cents. I probably had 15 of them so I threw them all out. Afterwards, my wallet was noticibally lighter so I was happy. I went to another store and after I gave them cash, they gave me change in the coin format again. I realized THEN that the 2 coin is really 2 euros, equivalent to $3. So basically I threw out about $45 dollars earlier. Leave it to me to throw out coins to make my load lighter versus throwing out a few extra outfits and shoes that could really lighten up my luggage.

I don't mind sharing my mistakes with you guys because I don't want you to make the same mistakes as me. However, these two mistakes are probably something I would only do. Hopefully I'll share something in the future that is more valuable to you.

Aside from my mishaps, Athens is amazing! It's so neat to see a bustling city nestled in between ancient architecture. The Acropolis is incredible. I'm going on a formal tour tomorrow morning but I had to go see it tonight because Caroline insisted that it was worth seeing at night. She was right. As I walked up the hill, I saw this massive structure glowing in the dark. As I got closer to it, I was fascinated by the details and the history of the building since it traces back to mid 5th Century BC. This is just a sliver of the info that I gathered from the postings around the monument. I am excited to learn more about the history tomorrow.

After I took pics of the Acropolis, I started walking towards the Rock of Aeropagos which is a bunch of old rocks all mashed together. I started climbing up the rocks and when I reached the top I was speechless. To my right was the Acropolis and to my left was the entire city of Athens. It was the most amazing view and I just sat there for 45 mins and took it all in. I would look back at the Acropolis and then look back at the city over and over again. I was sitting in between Athens' past and Athens' present which made me start thinking about the next 4 months of my life. These next 4 months of traveling is the middle stage between my past and my future. I'm looking forward to learning more about the world and more about myself. I want to reevaluate my past and find valuable things about myself that I could apply to my future. I also want to look back on my mistakes and find valuable lessons that I learned from them. I want to look towards my future with passion and eagerness. So many people have been asking me what my plans are when I get back. I wish I had an answer for you and for myself. The only thing I know right now is that I'm definitely moving back to Chicago. As for my next career....I'm going to leave it open. The only thing you and I can expect from my future is that I will be applying an even greater level of passion, energy, and heart towards life, my family and friends, and my career. I can't wait! BTW...I had the best chicken souvlaki for dinner tonight!