So we all arrived here safely in Porto Rafti, Greece, but let me say that flying to Europe is not fun. We woke up around 6am on Wednesday to leave by 7:15 so we could eat breakfast with Katelyn’s brother, Brandon, in Murfreesboro. After breakfast, we headed to the airport and arrived 3 hours early, which was about an hour and a half too soon. We met up with a couple other guys from our group at the airport and finally let Nashville around 12:55pm. We got to Detroit around 3:45 (eastern time), and boarded the next flight close to 5:00. From Detroit, we flew to Amsterdam. I had never flown over the ocean nor overnight before and I did them both on this flight.

It was only about a six hour flight, but we jumped ahead 7 hours, which by this time I was way to tired to figure that one out. During the flight we were served dinner and breakfast. It was strange. I only got about an hour or two of sleep at the most. Then we arrived in Amsterdam around 6:30am local time, and we got to see the sunrise from the plane – it was beautiful. Then we had another 3 hour flight from Amsterdam to Athens at 9:25am, gaining another hour and eating a second breakfast. We arrived in Athens around 1ish pm, and my stomach was arguing with my mind about which meal should be next.

When all was said and done, we pulled in to Porto Rafti around 2:30, and unloaded the bus. In order to find our rooms, they had our names posted with the room number beside them, but our names were all transliterated into Greek. Having had 3 semesters of Greek already, Katelyn and I were the second people to get our room. I felt bad for the others, but hey, this is a learning experience.

The facilities are beautiful. We are surrounded by hill and palm trees. We’re a 10 minute walk from the beach. Katelyn and I have an apartment-style room with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room with TV and DVD player. The view from our balcony overlooks the pool area. The weather is beautiful – sunny, warm, breezy, with very low humidity, almost like being in San Diego. In fact, the landscape reminds me very much of southern California and the Baja Peninsula in Mexico.

Please keep one of our group members in your prayers. Christine will be flying over to meet up with us in a couple days. Her dad had a heart attack this past week, so she stayed in the US for a little while longer to be with him. I think he’s ok, but it will be hard for her to be away from him right now.

So, I’ve been neglecting this blog pretty severely this summer. Life just got in the way. But I should begin to start posting more often in lieu of my trip to Greece for the semester. This will be a way of keeping people up to date (as best I can) on how things are going and where we are.

Katelyn and I are leaving tomorrow, September 10, with the rest of our group from Harding to make our way to Porto Rafti, Greece, about 30 minutes outside of Athens. During our time there we will be touring the rest of Greece, Egypt, Israel, and we will be taking a Mediterranean cruise, stopping in Ephesus. It’s going to be the trip of a lifetime, and I will try and keep you updated with pictures and summaries of our trips.

Keep us in your prayers that we may be kept safe everywhere we go, and especially pray for a peaceful situation in Israel and Egypt.

The semester officially ends December 5, but we will be flying out of London on the 18th after 13 days of backpacking through Italy, France, Ireland, and the UK.