Phew!

Hello friends!

First off-I miss you guys and America so much!!!!!!   But at the same time I love my new friends here and I am enjoying living in a different part of the world.  But I still miss my life back in Utah and Hawaii.

Alright, moving on...so the past couple of weeks have been busy with school work.  School over here is not quite as organized as what I am used to, coming from Copper Canyon and my coworkers (who were all VERY organized) and I miss that.  I have settled down to my daily classroom routine and so have my kids.  Which has been a sigh of relief and a stress reducer.  At the beginning it was a little hard because I didn't know what I was doing and I was in a new place that I wasn't comfortable in and the kids could sense that and they didn't know what was going on...and you could see how it could get hard.  But, now it is so much better!!!

I am still planning day-to-day, which is something I usually find my self always doing--maybe sometime soon I will be able to have everything ready by the beginning of the week...maybe one day in the future.  But, yea, so school is settling down. I love my new 4th grade team, but I really really really really really miss my old 3rd grade team. Man, we were great.  I really miss our lunch time talks and conversations.  Lunch time here is so rushed and the teachers don't eat together and I miss that time to talk to adults instead of students.

This next week is going to be a busy one.  Parent-teacher conferences, but each conference is just supposed to last 10 minutes each..I am a little anxious about how it is going to work, but I am sure they will be fine.  We also celebrate Halloween here-well kind of, we are celebrating it on Friday, Oct 25-not the usual day October 31.  The school has a parade and a Halloween Carnival that night too.  Also this week, is the UN festival and also the Oxi Day performance.  It is going to be a BUSY week!!!!  But it will be a three day weekend because of Oxi (No) day.  Oxi Day celebrates when the Italians tried to take over Greece during World War II and the Greek soliders said NO (Oxi)!!  It wasn't quite as simple as that, but the Italians didn't succeed so they had to call for back up, so the Germans came and eventually they were able to beat the Greeks-but having to do this was not in their plan and this set them back 5 weeks, which meant that they were 5 more weeks into the Russian winter than they had planned.  So, who knows what would have happen if the Germans weren't staled by 5 weeks...So October 28 is a Greek Holiday!  Some of the American teachers and I will be going to Thessaloniki, Greece.  I am excited to explore the country!

Then early November, I will be joining the cross country team to a meet in London for the weekend.  This trip falls during the Athens Classic Marathon, which I was signed up to run, but I will be in London, which I think will be amazing!  I am sad that I won't be able to experience the Marathon and it's environment, but I am excited about going to London.  I have ALWAYS wanted to go to London!

Then for Thanksgiving, some of the American teachers and I will be heading over to Vienna to celebrate.  I am also looking forward to that trip and going to all the Christmas Markets.  It'll be a busy couple of months.  And then for Christmas my mom is coming!  I am SOOO excited for her to come and show her my new home.  Although, there is no place like Hawaii, Greece does have some sites to see and I am excited to see them with my mom.  We will also venture out to Germany or another country in Europe, we haven't fully decided yet.

Phew...lots going on.  Oh and I am starting to get into a schedule with my triathlons.  I think my first A race is going to be a half ironman in Spain, the second week of May.  I haven't fully committed to that yet, but my first A race won't be before that.  But I now have joined a gym, I have a pool, I can run, I found a track, I found a couple of bike routes that I can do on my own, the only thing I am missing is an indoor trainer which I hope to be getting soon.  Also, I wanted to find a coach--but I haven't found one yet.  I have met some here in Greece, but none that seemed really interested or excited about coaching me.  Anyways, it'll come.

Okay-I have to go and prepare for the week.  And also decide what I am going to be for Halloween on Friday!!  Thanks guys for reading and I'd love to hear about what's going on in your lives!!!  Also my phone numbers here is 30-698-735-7999, so find me on Whatsapp so we can stay in touch!!!

Aloha,

Carly

 Last night we went out to the local Irish Pub-James Joyce.  It was a good time, but my party days are over.  I haven't fully "become Greek"--staying out till 5am...I don't know how the Greeks--and some Americans do it!!!!

A cute picture from Hydra-a Greek island we visited before school started.  Fun times in bathing suits!!!!

I am still here :)

Hey all,

So it has been a while since my last update.  The reason for that being I don’t have internet at home anymore!  When I first moved in to my apartment, the previous people never canceled their internet so I was using theirs, until one day it shut off L  Sad story, but after one and a half weeks of playing phone tag (they would only call during school hours and I couldn’t call them back) and then talking in English when the other person spoke in Greek (luckily a co-worker came to the rescue) I should have it tomorrow-although I am a little doubtful.  So we will see.

Okay, now to more exciting things!!!  Um, lets see…I did my first triathlon in Greece and it went well. Again, there aren’t many girls that compete here in Greece.  Last weekend I just did a sprint triathlon and there were 120 competitors and only maybe like 20 girls-at the most…so not too many girls at all…however I did beat a lot of the guys so that was good. J  But all went well in the triathlon.  I am still not on a proper training schedule, but I am still training when I can.  I am coaching cross country after school so that has been taking up a lot of my free time. 

Oh, so that brings me to share another new part of my life-being a coach!  I have always wanted to be a coach…a teacher and then a coach after school (like Mr. Link, Mr. Tuttle and Senora but now that I am doing it is exhausting!  During the first week (we are in week 3 now) I had a couple of break downs…but all is well now.  The hardest part was leaving school right at 3:50 (it ends at 3:45) and then going to practice. Those that know me as a teacher know that I am not one to be 100% organized all the time.  I am organized, but it takes me a while and I like to take my time in planning my lessons and figuring out what we will do the next day, but with coaching I don’t have time to do that until 5:30 and by that time I am so exhausted!  However, like I said it is getting way better and I am getting better with my time management skills. J

Anyways, we have our first meet this weekend!  Our schedule is different than what I am used to because we only have 2 meets-and coach was excited about having 2!  So hopefully all goes well and the kids have a good time!  It is fun working with older kids and having conversations and talking to them about running. 

School is going well.  I am getting used to things now and how things run and what I can control and what I can’t control.  I am really enjoying my class!!  Although they are really talkative they are fun kids! 

My friends here in Athens are great!  Just like usual I have my workout friends and then my social friends.  I seem to always find myself with different groups of friends and not much mixing happens-but that’s okay. I am really lucky that I have met the people that I have.  They are making my experience here so much fun! 

So this was a long one!  Thanks guys for reading my blog and keeping up with me in my life journey.  On my ride today I was thinking about how I really am here-teaching abroad.  I have wanted to do this for so long and I actually did it!  That made me excited.  It is fun to see your dreams come true!  I miss you guys so much but please keep in touch and let me know how you are doing!!

Aloha,

Carly

Picture from my race last weekend.  

The olympic stadium-view from The Mall (that's what it's called).

The view from my bike ride Mt. Imatos (spelling).  It is about a 15k climb..(I will clock it next time) and it's about an 1:45 round trip ride from my house-if I don't get lost :)

A turtle just hanging out in the middle of the city.  Weird!

Syntagma Square, Athens, Greece

Karla, Aryn, and I at the Internations Social this weekend.  Two of my teacher friends at school!-Sorry it's so dark!

Post 1st day of school and 1st Greece race

So, a lot has taken place in the last week.  I survived my first day of school as well as my first open half marathon!  I'll start with the first day of school.  I am the type of person who is never really ready.  By that I mean being able to sit down and breathe before the chaos.  I always have five minutes to do ten more things before I can take a breathe and find myself bored.   So, of course, on the first day of school I wasn't ready for the kids to come.  But they came and went and all was well!  They are a bit more talkative than I expected but they seem to be a fun bunch of kids.  There are kids from a variety of different backgrounds, Greek, American, Finnish, Australian, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Norwegian, Pakistani,  and I am sure a couple of other nationalities.  It is pretty cool to be around so many different nationalities!

I am not quite in the rhythm of this school yet, but it will come with time.  When I was in Salt Lake everything was new at first too...my school...teaching...my friends...my environment and that turned out great!  Now, I get to do it again but where the language is also new.  It will come, I just like routines so I am excited to get into a good one. :)

So, I did my first race here in Greece.  It was a little spur of the moment race that my friend Eddy signed me up for.  He has been such a great help and I can't even imagine what life in Greece would be like if I hadn't met him!!  He was doing the half marathon of Marathon, Greece and so he signed me up too.  Since I got here I haven't really gotten into a workout routine yet either.  I have been running consistently and swimming twice a week in the Mediterranean Sea, so I wouldn't lose all of my fitness but I wasn't doing proper half marathon training, which I do want to do someday to see how fast I could run.

Anyways, the race was pretty cool.  There were around 1,500 people there running, which was really fun to see.  The race course is the same as the first 6 miles in the Athens Classic Marathon and then it turned around and went around the Tomb of the Athenians, where all the soldiers were buried, including the solider that died carrying the news from Marathon to Athens.  My plan for the race was to just see how I feel and run.  However, once the gun goes off, of course the competitive juices start to get the best of me!  I decided that I wanted to run at roughly a 7:00 min/mile pace, which would in turn get me to the finish line around 1:30, which I decided I wanted to be my goal time.  I felt good the first half and really mostly the whole race, except the last 1km, I was totally wishing that the race would end soon.  Other than that little part I felt pretty good and had a good time during the race too.  My final average turned out to be 7:10 min/miles with my final time being 1:35.  So now I have a starting point and with some proper half marathon training I know I can get my time down.

This up coming week I hope to start getting into a routine and figuring out how school works and how workouts work.  I am going to try a spin class later this week, which I hope will work out.  I haven't been on a my bike in about three weeks!  I really need to get some spinning in!  It'll come.  I just need to be patient. :)

I hope all is going well with everyone.  I miss you all soo much!

Sorry Aryn...your eyes were closed on this one.

Eddy and I at the race. 

What I won at the race this morning.  3rd place.

Week number 2

Hello friends!!

I hope you are all well and that school started smoothly for all of you!  I miss Copper Canyon and all the students, teachers, the familiar surroundings, and knowing exactly how things work!  Last week the new teachers started orientation and setting up classrooms here at ACS.  I miss my old classroom :(  It was hard to ship things here so I feel as though my classroom is so bare.  Instead of a huge classroom library that I am used to, I am limited to only a few books...okay enough with the negative attitude...I am excited for the first day of school and also for it to be over so I can know how things run and I can get used to the routines here.  I got my class schedule today and it is nice to have some free time during the day while the kids will be in art, music, PE, library, and computers.

Besides school, things are well.  I just got back from a weekend vacation with some of the other American teachers.  We visited two of the Greek Islands: Poros and Hydra.  It was fun to be on the beach again.  Although they are no Hawaiian beach, it was fun to be in a different part of the world on the beach.  The Greek islands are pretty cool and there are so many!  We didn't do too much exploring but I did get to see lots while I was out on my runs.  It was also nice to be able to relax and read my book and not have too much to worry about.  Also I am getting to know my fellow American colleagues better and they are a pretty cool bunch of kids!

Besides school and traveling, I am still trying to find a routine for my workouts.  I can run no problem and I have found a track that is near by my house, swimming doesn't seem like it will be a problem either.  I have been swimming in the ocean with my triathlon friend and I will also start swimming before school once school starts with some of the American teachers, but biking...I haven't quite got that one figured out yet.  My bike is still in pieces and it is my goal to get that put together this week/weekend.  Also, I will visit a spin class this week and see if that will be a good option during the week.  The roads here are crazy and the drivers are crazy..so I am a bit hesitant to go outside for a ride...I have seen a few riders...but not too many.  Hopefully I will start my training soon because that is one thing that I am stressing out about. I really don't want to lose my base and all the hard work that I have already done the past couple of years.  I know it is good to take a break from training since I have been training hard since last November, so I am not too worried, but in a couple of weeks I should have a plan!

Alright, I am off to the grocery store to figure out what to eat here.  Back in Salt Lake I just wrapped everything into a tortilla but I can't really do that here, so I am still figuring out what I will be eating. So far a lot of spaghetti when I am cooking.  The food in the restaurants are great!  I really enjoy the Greek Salads and I have learned to like feta.  I think it is a little different than the feta in the states..maybe not such a strong taste.  Anyways I like it.

Miss you all!

4 days into the adventure!

My bags and I made it here!!  It was a bit of a journey and the adventure had even begun before I left Salt Lake!  Our plane in Salt Lake turned out to have a minor mechanical issue and before we could take off we had to get that taken care of.  Of course you never know how long that will actually take (any moment-right Caitlin?) and in this case it took a little over two hours-which was the exact amount of time my lay over was going to be in Philadelphia...  So I missed the flight from Philly to Athens so they put me on a flight from Philly to Frankfurt and then from Frankfurt to Athens.  It wasn't too bad (it did bring back some memories from the last time I was in the Frankfurt airport...) it just took some extra time, which meant I went a full 24 hours without proper sleep!  But this actually helped with the time change because I was so exhausted when night time came around.

But alas I made it!  It turned out that the person I just randomly sat next to in the Frankfurt airport was also an incoming ACS teacher and the person that I sat next to on the Frankfurt flight was another incoming ACS teacher!  Funny how those things happen!

My experience so far has been great and I am learning a lot!  The grocery stores are a bit different-but of course you get used to it.  Everyone here is really nice; both the American teachers as well as the Greek people.  The Greek's all seem to speak a good amount of English which helps me since I have yet to learn Greek.  However, I do want to learn to speak and understand the language-so this may hinder that process.

So far I have been trying to get adjusted to the culture and the fact that I have no idea what people are saying here.  I have been hanging out with the other American teachers, which has been a lot of fun, but at the same time I do want to learn the language and be able to use it.  Today, I met with a guy who is on the Athen's Triathlon team, which was so awesome.  Last night I went out with some of the other teachers at ACS and it reminded me of back-in-the-day when I used to go out more.  I didn't get home till 2..way past my bed time!!!  Although I do want to experience the culture, I would really really like to stay in good shape and be able to wake up early and get my workouts done.  So I was really pleased to be able to meet up with my triathlon friend and have him tell me about the stuff that they do, which got me so excited about racing over here.  

I have yet to go down and explore Athens-although I did see the Parthenon last night because we went out in downtown Athens-which let me tell you is a little different than the Salt Lake night life!!!  Apparently it was "empty" because a lot of people are still on holiday.  I can't imagine what it will look like when everyone comes back!   I live in a suburb of Athens called Halandri, which is a nice place to live.  I was a little worried at first, but I think it will be just fine.  I have made the walk to school and it is about a mile, which will be a good way to wake up in the morning.  I do want to get a commuter bike to ride to and from school-to make the trip a little quicker :)

I just finished setting up my apartment and I love it!  I added a little local touch to it.  I haven't gotten any picture frames, so that is the only thing that it is lacking.  I also need to figure out if I can get pictures developed over here for cheap...hopefully!

So, I often have been forgetting why it is I came over here...for work!  I met with one of the other fourth grade teachers yesterday and she was so nice and it seems like it will be a good year.  I am a little worried about school, just because I haven't done anything to prepare for it because I don't really know what I need to prepare.  I know that it will be just fine once I get into the swing of things, so I am not TOO worried, just a little :).

I hope you are all doing well!!  Miss you guys and thanks for reading!

So I have attached a link to a video of my apartment. I hope that you can see it okay.  Other pictures are to come..very soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciCfwY1BQy8

Carly

Last night in America

So, the time has finally come.  I have my boarding pass printed out, my bags are packed (all 6), my bike, and my wheels are packed...I am ready to go.  I remember back in February when I got this job and thinking about how far off August was.  But, slowly and slowly it starts to creep up.

I have had such a wonderful time in Salt Lake and I am so thankful for all the relationships and friendships that I have made here.  I love my life here.  I love my life in Hawaii.  I hope I will love my life in Athens.  It is scary leaving such good things!!!

I hope that my dream of teaching at an American school is all I hoped and dreamed that it was!!

Until Greece my friends.  I love you all and thanks for helping me out and making me feeling loved!

Me packing up my bags.  I ended up having 8 total-6 bags, 1 wheel box, and 1 bike box.    (This isn't a very good picture)

11 days to go

So, just as I had suspected, the closer I get to actually leaving the more I don't want to go!  I leave Hawaii on Monday (2 days!) and then I am in Seattle for a day and a half (Yah Ben!) and then Salt Lake for a week.  I don't really know why I like to travel and leave places, because I hate goodbyes!!!  I have ALWAYS hated them...so I am not sure why I put my self through sad goodbyes all the time!  Well, I guess if they weren't sad goodbyes then that would mean I didn't develop meaningful and life lasting relationships...so I guess that is a good thing-they are just so sad!

Although I am sad to leave Hawaii and all my friends here, I am looking forward to going back to Salt Lake for a little bit.  In June I didn't really get to say goodbye-I just left.  Now, I am looking forward to spending time with all the people that made Salt Lake home for the past five years.  I can't believe it was really that long!

Okay, I am off to enjoy the beach, my friends, and the blue sky (thanks for coming out!!!!)