First Day: IKEA

The first thing we did this morning was to go get pay as you go phones from Cosmote! I got one too but i haven’t really had time to activate it and make sure it works….And i can’t do it on my own because Greek is still foreign to me and hearing it and deciphering what they are saying is not happening anytime soon.

Afterwards we went to IKEA!!!! I was so excited for this because my roommate from the Thalia had introduced me to the world of shopping on IKEA online and I'd already looked through the online catalog for Greece. I mean i didn’t understand one word of what the catalog said or what the prices meant but pictures really do say a thousand words.

We finally got there and my excited started waning a little. i spent the first 30 minutes lost in the show room area!!!! it was great seeing the set ups for kitchens, bedrooms, office and all sorts of things but  i just wanted to find a pillow, a towel and things for my kitchenette so i could leave. So first we walk and walk and walk some more and then you get to the merchandise. Now, discounting the first part of this trip where i felt like I'd just journeyed to get to merchandise, now i had to look for what i actually came there for. This is were the language barrier really was bad because no one could read Greek and no one could speak enough Greek to ask  people what we were looking for……that is if we even knew the Greek words for it. So again thank God for pictures that lead the way.

I brought out my list so i wouldn’t buy any unnecessary thing that would waste money and that i wouldn’t be able to bring back. We hit the bathroom area first where i bought a towel, a bath mat and a really fuzzy blanket because i had to leave my blanket behind when my luggage got to be too heavy =(.

Then we got to the kitchen area. I got a a couple of bowls and plates and then Diana and i decided to get a whole set of utensils and split it amongst ourselves because they didn’t have individuals. Thank God i didn’t have to get cups (because there were some left behind in my room) because I'd have had to get a set a four. Then i got my pots and pans because i definitely planned on cooking. There was only so much feta cheese and salad i could eat. And I'd brought my pepper, curry, thyme, maggi and other seasonings with me for food.

Finally i got a drying rack because we didn’t have a dryer, only a washing machine, so everything had to be dried outside. I was done!!! yay!!! But i couldn’t figure out how to leave merchandise to go pay. Some students were tagging along with me to figure out where to go but we just kept going around and around and around. Until we just followed another path and then bam!!!! registers. At the end total payment 100 Euros….in dollars $134. for like not that much stuff. Thank God i was going to be reimbursed 40 Euros out of that. But i am never going back there again unless i have a guide, a backpack, trail mix, and a map.

We were back on the buses and got back to the rooms. One thing i noticed around Thessaloniki was that there were stray cats and dogs everywhere. And it was all different types of dogs and cats and they were all so cute. Some were noticeably injured and some malnourished. Its a little hard to look at them because you can’t help but feel bad. I’m not even a pet person and i wanted to do something. But we have strict rules not to feed them or bring them back to our buildings.

Later that evening I had another informal staff meeting in which our Site Director (SD) took us all downtown to Aristotle square for dinner. It was absolutely beautiful there and there were so many things to look at. I can see myself spending a lot of my time in that area and just people watching. For dinner we ate at this restaurant that had a wooden menu..at least the front and back covers were wooden  had another round of Greek salad, Bougiourdi (i got the spelling this time) and a meat dish but this time we all got a little dry white wine called Retsina…absolutely delicious. We also got bread, a plate of different dips, fried zucchini (which reminded me of Katie and it was really good) and desert. The desert was absolutely heavenly, just the right amount of chocolate and ice cream.

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After dinner, Diana and i went grocery shopping for essentials like toilet paper, water, cereal and i know i still don’t understand Euros and my conversion is off but things still seemed expensive!!!!