We’ve been in Greece for almost a week now, which is insane. We landed last Friday, and spent the first several days laying around and adjusting to the new time and place. For the first couple nights, I was waking up at 11:30 and couldn’t fall asleep till 4:00, but after I started going to bed at 1:30, things got better. It’s beautiful here. We are in Thessaloniki, which is the second biggest city in Greece, and we’re about a 15 to 20 minute walk from the ocean. The food and drinks are really good here too, and rather cheap as well, though I think I may be spending a bit too much on them. I mean, come on, how am I supposed to resist 0.50€ chocolate filled croissants.

Anyways, on Monday we went to a beach about an hour away, and it was breathtaking. It was fun to jump into the sea, and I even attempted a couple backflips (which weren’t all too great). The only thing you had to look out for were the sea urchins, who would jump out of the water at you screeching “I’m gonna get you! Just wait till I get you! Oh I’m so gonna get you!” Before anticlimactically plummeting back to their cozy sea beds. We had Sabbath on Tuesday then, since everyone was still exhausted, and I went thrifting with my friends! I got a new shirt for 3€ and a messenger bag for 29€. The bag was a bit expensive, but I did truly miss having a messenger bag, and it is waterproof, very difficult to pickpocket, and has a lot of space, so I think it’s worth it. It also makes me happy. We then got pizza, and it was quite tasty, but very different from American pizza, and watched the Odyssey movie from 9:30 to 12:00. I loved it, though it was very different from the epic.

Yesterday was our first day of ministry. It went well and we talked to a lot of people, but it was also exhausting. Hopefully it won’t all be this tiring. It’s good work though. I am looking forward to the events we have coming up! We have an event for the locals in a couple days at the ministry host’s coffee shop, a trip to Philippi on Saturday, and a meridian duel behind the laundromat at an undisclosed and secretive time. Well, there’s not much else to report. I cooked dinner a couple nights that we were here, making sausage and rice and chicken linguine in a cream sauce (though the sauce was not much of a sauce). All together things are going great, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

I’m planning on writing the next weather report tomorrow, so hopefully those will be back to the regular schedule!