I have been home a week now (it seems like so much longer), and I have spent my days rather busily.  Christmas lept up on me unexpectedly and kind of drove all of my actions (wrap gifts, bake cookies, after-Xmas sale shopping) but that did not prevent me from mulling over Greece and falling in and out of small depressions.

The first few days here were terrible. Not because I don’t love my family or like home, but because I was still missing everyone and missing my routine and life in Athens.  It’s sad to think that I will probably never see most of the people I met there ever again, you know?  I know I’ll see Jay-Z again (we’re both committed to it), and I might see Mari or Kaitlyn up in Northern California sometime.  Ryan, Jessie and Joe are other matters, but miracles can happen!

A part of me still wants to go back – that’s the emotional heart-ruled side. The more logical part that’s run by my head tells me to move on, stop browsing through pictures, stop emailing all the Arcadians.  Look forward to CMC and next semester.  I’m trying to do both.  I’m trying not to totally “compartmentalize” Greece in my mind and rather incorporate everything I learned and experienced into my present life and situation.  It will be an ongoing challenge, I think, at least until I make peace with the past and stop resenting time for moving forward so quickly.

Brendan asked me on the phone the other night how I have changed.  How have I changed?  Even a week after I’m not sure I entirely know how I’ve changed.  I’ve become more globally-minded… I am more aware about world conflicts and international news.  I have certainly learned to be more spontaneous, more flexible… you kind of have to be to survive in Greece where time is fluid and things never go as planned.  I certainly have way more confidence in myself and in my abilities to navigate a “real-world setting” (rather than the books and scholarly journals of academia) and I must have developed more independence somewhere along the way.  And sure, our Eftichidou 16 dinners probably made me a better cook!  Every experience counts and every witty conversation with Jay-Z, every night talking on the Eftichidou balcony, every travel clash with Joe and every life views debate with Ryan likely taught me more about how to handle relationships with others, even.  But I think those are lessons learned that will reveal themselves as time goes on rather than in one fell swoop right now.

I can’t believe I’ve broken 3,000 hits on this blog.  I certainly wasn’t expecting to have so many people reading my adventures (if you write it they will read, apparently), but it was certainly a pleasant surprise to see so many people interested.

This is all for now.  Perhaps in a month or two… or six months… or a year I’ll write again to compare the post-one week musings with later insights, but we’ll see.  One day I will make it back to Greece to see everything I missed.  Until then, I will have to be content with memories and trying to replicate all the delicious Greek food I tasted here in my American abode.