Athens and the Start of My Internship

Sorry it's taken me so long to post. Basically, I was in Athens a total of 4 hours. It was just enough time to travel from the airport to the city center and the Acropolis. After much convincing, I got Genna to climb up to the top and see the Parthenon. The view was incredible. I remembered all the stuff I was told about Athens and how it was surrounded by mountains, which made their culture very unique to the rest of Ancient Greece.

PARTHENON!

We got obsessed with taking jumping pictures

View from the top=)

After scurrying up to the top, we had to go back down in order to make our flight to London. We were conveniently seated on the very last row of the plane in the middle where we got no view of the outside. The one perk? There was a cabinet with a handle that was too small to be a bathroom, but at least 5 people tried opening it and we got quite a few laughs from watching determined people attempting to open the door.


The week went by pretty quickly and the main highlight was MY INTERNSHIP STARTED.


I shouldn't call it a highlight, more like a lowlight. On Wednesday I got the riveting task of opening the mail for the accounts payable department and organizing it for all of the people who process the invoices. For people who don't speak "Accounting," the accounts payable department is where all of the expenses are process and paid. Invoices are basically the letters the company gets informing them of what the bill is, when it needs to be paid and how much each product costs.

Because HCA controls 6 hospitals with thousands of vendors and clients, there is a lot of mail. Thursday and Friday I was staring at excel spreadsheets updating databases. Worst of all, I thought I was only working 20 hours a week because that's what my VISA said, but I found out its only 20 hours a week if I'm being paid. So, I'm stuck working 9 - 5:30 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I hate being given menial tasks because I've already had two internships where I was given actual responsibility and did parts of audits.

I only wish FIE had explained how much I'd actually be working and that I wouldn't be learning about the industry, but instead be doing bitch work for the department that they don't assign to people who are actually on the payroll. I have heard other horror stories that aren't as bad as mine- one girl has to make tea for all of the people she works for and has to remember who likes 2 teaspoons of sugar, who likes a pinch of milk, and who likes it plain. If she gets it wrong, they tell her to do it over again.

If my boss told me to make tea- fuck that I quit.

The upside is that some of the people I work with are quite funny. The entire department, minus my australian boss, are dudes in their 20's who like to crack jokes and are actually interested in getting to know me and the other two interns I work with.

On top of the internships, we have an internship class thats an hour and a half long where we talk about our feelings. We have an essay and a presentation (such bullshit) but at least it's an easy A.

This weekend was quite fun. I went to Greenwich market in the east end of London which is basically a mini Camden Market. Dave and I had a lot of fun walking around and getting cute trinkets. We then saw the movie Due Date which was actually quite hysterical.

FUN FACT !

Cinemas in the UK serve American sized popcorn and drinks! All of their food sizes are much smaller, so I was super excited to be watching an American movie with American sized movie going snacks. Of course I stuffed my face full of popcorn.

Later that night Genna, Cierra, and I went to a club called "The Rocket" in Euston which is in the northern part of London to meet Emily (our friend who is going to UCL) and some of her friends from AU. We ended up running into more AU students who are going to LSE. We all got cheap drinks and danced our butts off to some sexy jams. It was a lot of fun to be with 10 other American University students in London just having a good time. London may be a big city, but somehow I keep running into AU students...

Sunday I just went grocery shopping at Sainsbury's for the first time in over a month and cooked a full dinner. Yay for home cooked meals!

To leave on a positive note - I get a tour of Parliament tomorrow for my British Life and Cultures class! yay!

Cheers!

Miriam

The BEAUTIFUL Island of Mykonos, Greece

Alright, I have time to post about Mykonos and not much happened so it'll be quick.

I already talked about Tuesday, the worst day of my life while traveling to Mykonos. When we got there, it was absolutely stunning. I can't describe to you how cute the island was. We were so unbelievably exhausted that we just fell asleep and decided we'd go exploring the next day.

We woke up Wednesday to sunshine and WARM WEATHER! I got to wear a tube top and shorts and couldn't have been happier about it. Before we had left London I was wearing a heavy winter jacket, a scarf, and gloves. To feel the sun on my skin was worth the trip.

At breakfast, I decided to try Greek coffee- I definitely prefer american drip coffee. Our waiter told me not to order it but I wanted to try it. The waiter kept checking to see my reaction while drinking it, but I couldn't give him the pleasure of being right so I pretended it was delicious.

After walking about 50 feet, I saw a place that rented 4 wheelers. At that moment I just knew. Genna kept refusing to rent it, but at a price of 10 euros for the whole day, HOW COULD WE SAY NO!?

This is the video we took while on the 4 wheeler. It's hysterical.

The beach!

View from our hotel room

Picture I took while on the ATV (4 Wheeler)

Thursday we were going to go to Delos, and island right next to Mykonos with ancient Greek ruins, but it was pouring rain, cold, and windy so we slept in. We decided to spend the day walking around the tiny, twisting roads and spent a lot of money.

Friday gave us more bad weather so we just walked around, hung out, napped, and started packing. It was frustrating for us to not be able to explore as much as we wanted but in all honesty we were exhausted from Rome. We literally walked around the ENTIRE city, so sleeping in and hanging out was perfect. The whole island was empty because tourist season was over, so there wasn't much partying going on. Drinks were WAY over priced too. We went to one bar were a beer was 6 euros and a mixed drink was 8 euros. Instead, we bought a LOT of wine from a grocery store and spent the night laughing hysterically and swapping stories from high school and college.

Our hotel room!

Near the port, where a lot of the bars are

What all of the streets in Mykonostown looked like. Somehow we didn't get lost.

The people in Greece were just as nice as the Italians. The hotel staff was super nice and so were the people we met. Overall, the vacation was amazing- but it wasn't over yet. Saturday we spent a few hours in Athens which was AWESOME!

(see next post)

=)

ROME

Okay, instead of leaving a really long explanation of what I did in Rome which would take you about 5.4 years to read, I'm going to post pictures and explain them. This way I can finish the post quickly and you can peruse until you get bored :)

Day 1. We went to the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, and the Piazza Novana for dinner. We got an awesome tour of the Colosseum and Roman ruins for about 15 euros which was great because I really had no idea what I was staring at

In front of the Roman Ruins!

Spanish Steps! We met up with one of Genna's friends from AU and she showed us around. We went to the Trevi Fountain and then to the Spanish steps. Apparently the steps are supposed to be Romantic but instead it was touristy, hot, and really crowded. Across from the steps was a road with a bunch of designer boutiques and we strolled around while pretending to have thousands of euros to dispose for fun (although we didn't buy anything, obviously).

After the Spanish steps we somehow ended up at the Parthenon, which was SO COOL. I remembered learning about it in art history freshman year of high school, so seeing it in person was surreal. Seeing the Colosseum was kind of the same, but because I saw it in pictures all of the time it felt like I had already been there.

That night we ate dinner in the Piazza Novana and ate PIZZA. It was delicious, and our waiter was SUPER nice.

DAY TWO

We started out south of the Colloseum and walked all the way up and it turned out there was this large street fair for no reason at all and we got to see some cool stuff. People were singing on the sidewalks and there were tons of souvineer stands but the coolest part were these guys competing at tug of war. I got this awesome picture of them with the Colosseum in the background.

Afterwards we went to a museum with a Van Gogh exhibit which was boring, saw a bunch of other monuments that were pretty but I'm too lazy to upload pictures, and ended up getting lost across the river in Trastevere for a few hours. I got really angry at Genna, but we eventually figured out where we were and got gelato.

We then proceeded to take a TON of pictures for no reason. This is one of my favorites!

Later, we went to Campo Di Fiori, a huge bar scene, and then ended up back at the Pantheon where we got dinner. I literally ate pizza while staring at it. Super awesome.

DAY THREE

We met up with CIERRA!!! It was great to be able to talk to someone other than Genna because we had been together nonstop. We waited on line to get in for literally 3 hours and were so hungry we had to eat in the Vatican which cost a ton of money and the food wasn't that good. The museum was amazing and I took over 100 pictures.

The Sistine Chapel was literally the most stunning place I have ever been. I was so excited to see all of the famous paintings. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I like to live on the wild side so I snuck a few. You can see the famous painting at the bottom of this picture.

At the Vatican. Genna was taking too many pictures of me.

Most importantly, I GOT TO SEE GIACOMO!! We met at my hippie camp, Omega Teen Camp, in 2005 and I hadn't seen him since. We met at the Vatican and we finally got a tour with a true Roman. It was so great seeing him again, and Genna and I fell in love with his accent! He took us to a famous lookout in Roma called Pinchio which was beautiful and then took us to dinner! 

Us at dinner. Notice his hand gesture.

We had PHENOMENAL food and after much wine decided to go back to Travastere to go bar hopping. Ended up drinking WAY too much and Giacomo offered to drive us back to our hotel which was waaay outside of the city center.

Overall, ROME WAS PERFECT!! 

I'll post about Mykonos and Athens soon. I also started my internship yesterday, so I need to discuss that as well. Sorry it's taken me so long I've been nonstop since getting back!

Cheers!

Miriam

Article from The Eagle

I just read this article regarding studying abroad. The writer is currently in London, and I found the article to say everything I can't. It's a great read. Check it out!


Studying Abroad in England


I am trying to organize all 700 of my pictures in to albums I can post and the later write about. I promise they will be up soon!

4 Wheelers in Mykonos

This morning, after getting 12 hours of much needed sleep, Genna and I decided to go exploring. We walked for a total of about 3 minutes before I saw a place that rented vespas, mopeds, motorcycles, and 4 wheelers. I immediately knew that I wanted to rent one.

Apparently, you can drive a 4 wheeler here if you're over the age of 12, and after much convicing I got Genna to agree to get it. It literally cost 10 euros to get it for the entire day. If for some unknown reason, you find yourself in Mykonos, you absolutely HAVE to rent one. I have never been so happy in my entire life.

We have been driving around all day enjoying the scenery in our tank tops and shorts, getting some sun and eating greek food and thanking ourselves for choosing to vacation here. I know that I'll be back, someday, when I'm rich and can afford to vacation here.

After talking to the guy who rented us the 4 wheeler, I decided on what we're doing tomorrow. Apparently the island of Delos is a half hour ferry ride away and we can conquer the island in a few hours so that's what we'll be doing tomorrow. There are supposed to be some great ancient ruins and it'll be a good time and I can say that I went island hopping in Greece. HOW COOL IS THAT???

I don't have the time to post about Rome right now, because we are going to go back out and explore, but I promise I will. The only problem is I think I love Mykonos more than Roma and I would rather go on and on about the cute houses and churches and people on motorcycles and all the fun I'm having here :)

I'll post soon!

Love,

Miriam

The Longest and Craziest Day of My Life- Mykonos Bound

I was extremely excited to post in my blog and describe everything that has been going on in my life since I left for my epic holiday adventure in Roma and Mykonos. Instead, I want to intertwine the death of an accounting professor at my university, Professor Sue Marcum.

Professor Marcum was the head of the accounting department at American University, and was murdered yesterday in her home. I never had her as a professor and never had the opportunity to have a full conversation with her, but I always respected her. She is a faculty brother of Alpha Kappi Psi, and through my fraternity and my friends in the business school, I came to regard her as the best professor in Kogod and one of the most loved.

In life, there are people that do not play dominant roles in your day to day activities. They are on the sidelines, figures that you come to expect will always be there, that you expect to come in contact with every once in a while. The only times I came in contact with Professor Marcum was when she went to AKPsi events and whens he substituted for one of my professors last semester. Because I am abroad, I am unable to take accounting classes so I will have to take 4 my senior year. In the back of my mind, I always figured I would sign up for her classes because she is such an amazing teacher. To find out that she has not only passed away, but is suspected of being murdered has stunned me and has wrenched my insides. I can't describe how I feel, I just feel a huge loss, an emptiness in the pit of my stomach.

I am in one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been in my entire life. I have a hotel room with a balcony overlooking the beaches of Mykonos, Greece. This morning I was in Rome, had a layover in Athens, and am now in Mykonos. My life is already crazy and unreal and has been changing my perspectives on everything and to have this happen so unexpectedly has left me utterly and completely lost. It has made me realize how short life really is and makes me thankful that I am having these experiences this semester, traveling the world and seeing life outside of the states. I would like to one day impact people the way Professor Marcum has impacted me, and I will always remember her.

A few minutes ago, I was outside on the balcony with Genna and we were talking about the days events, and the passing of Professor Marcum. Through that conversation, I have decided to make a bucket list of everything I would like to do in my life. Genna rambled off a statistic that says the people who write down bucket lists are more likely to achieve their goals. Although some of the list is personal, I would like to share some that I would like to accomplish.

1) Learn another language and be able to effectively communicate with native speakers. I would love to fluently speak Spanish and French.
2) Skydive
3) Own a house in another country
4) Perform or speak in front of at least 1000 people
5) See the 7 Wonders of the World

Tomorrow I will post about my crazy adventures in Rome. To give you a taste:
- I ate gelato twice a day
- I had a traditional Roman dinner in a restaurant with an old friend from Italy, Giacomo
- Rome wasn't built in a day, but Genna and I conquered it in 3
- Got lost in Travastere
- Our hotel was conveniently located close to a prison
- I ate dinner overlooking the Pantheon
- Genna and I got a bus driver who spoke absolutely no English to somehow find our hotel and drive us to the very front of it at night
- Ran into 2 different groups of people from the FIE London program at the Vatican and in Campo Di Fiori.
- Saw the Sistine Chapel

After literally walking around the entire city center of Rome, our plan for Mykonos is to simply enjoy the scenery, wander the streets, and appreciate that we are in one of the most beautiful places on the face of the planet.

Love,

Miriam

Heres to pizza bigger than our heads, but smaller than our hearts!

CIAO BELLA!

I am in Roma, and I have a little over 7 minutes left on my internet time so I can briefly write whats been going down. I cant find the apostrophe so forgive my grammar.

We got to Roma at midnight after a 38,975 hour delay at the airport and our taxi driver repeatedly told us our hotel was far. The entire country of France is on strike because the retirement age increased from 62 to 67, so we couldnt use their airspace. Suck it up France. You get 8 weeks of vacation a year. Anyway, our hotel is kind of in the ghetto, but hey, Ive been to Russia so I can handle it. Plus we have a four star hotel room with a jacuzzi bath. Who could ask for more?

Yesterday we literally conquered Rome. We went to the Colloseum, The Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, The 5th Avenue of Roma, and the Piazza Navona. The food is incredible and I am thankful I didnt choose to study here or else I would come home 50 pounds heavier.

The sights are amazing. I mean, Ive seen Rome in the movies so it kind of feels like Ive already been here, but at the same time it really makes me feel like Im in Europe. London doesnt compare to Rome in historial value. Rome literally throws it in your face on every street that it is an ancient city and London is much more modernized.

Today we walked around, got pretty lost and then ended up where we wanted. The streets are adorable and the entire city SCREAMS romance.

Okay I have 60 seconds before I am kicked off of this computer.

I will hopefully post when Im in Greece.

SALUTE! (Cheers in Italian)

Miriam

p.s. I have already taken over 200 pictures and I have only been in Rome 2 days. Get ready for a picture overload when Im back in London!