Thessaloniki Day 1

We woke up and got ready to go to church. We debated whether or not we should come back to George's apartment to change after church, but figured it was best to bring a change of clothes since the church was closer to the main part of town, so we packed a back pack with a change of clothes. We had the church's address, but no idea where the church was from George's apartment. Our plan was to start walking and hoped we would find a taxi, but we weren't near the main part of town, so the chances of randomly seeing a taxi seemed slim. I started off walking in heels, which, looking back seems silly. I guess I thought we would find a taxi quicker. Luckily I had shoes in my backpack to change into because it was rainy and muddy and we had no idea if we were even walking in the right direction.

We asked a guy passing by which direction to the church's address and he said to go back to a street we had already passed and walk up the hill. After about 20 minutes, we saw a taxi at a stop light on the opposite side of the street! We waved him down, ran across the street, and gave him the address.

We had finally made it to church- wet and a little frazzled, but we made it! It was much different than I expected. I mean, I know that not every LDS church building looks the same, but I pictured it much different. The church was set in the middle of a large apartment building. The front of the church was  a large glass window and by large I mean the whole wall was glass, so as I got out of the taxi, I could see all the men in Priesthood...I could just picture people walking down the street window shopping, moving from one cute holiday display to the next and then bam- Elder's Quorum haha. The only sign letting people know it was an LDS church was white Greek writing placed in the corner of the glass wall. When we got inside, a Greek lady, who was the stake president's wife, came and greeted us. She didn't speak much English, but she was super friendly. She showed me where to hang my coat and place our backpacks and rubbed the mud off of the back of my legs, which I had no idea was even there.

The meeting schedule was reversed, so Sacrament was the third hour, which I was grateful for since we were about 30 minutes late. Since this was my first time attending church outside of the US, it was such a cool experience. It was interesting to see how diverse it was. There were only about 20 people total, including three sets of missionaries. I imagined mostly Greek people being there, but only about half of the people there were Greek. There were a few people from Nigeria and all of the missionaries, except for one who was from Germany, were from the UK. Fortunately for us, half of church was in English and then translated to Greek. The missionary from Germany would translate either to English or to Greek. I was so impressed considering English is his second language! Rusty was asked to bless the Sacrament, which was exciting because it was only his second time blessing it.

After church was over, we got changed into our casual clothes and called Vicky. We had the missionary from Germany give her directions. She happened to live right up the street from the church, and said she would meet us there and take us back to her apartment.  

When we got back to her apartment she fed us bread with butter, honey and jam. It was the best honey ever. Rebo, Rusty's teammate, lives with Vickie, so we all went to meet Stratos for coffee and hot chocolate. We went to a restaurant at the top of a nice hotel that overlooks the center. After, we walked along the pier, down to the White Tower, a popular tourist attraction, that used to be a prison. 

Rebo, Vicky, Rusty and I rode a bus back to the apartment. Rebo left to go out and Vicky prepared a delicious dinner for us- chicken and potatoes, vegetable soup, Greek salad, and bread. Although she did not accept our offers to help with dinner, we did help set the table complete with tea light candles. 

I am so grateful for our friends out here. It seems wherever we go, we are taken care of. We finished up the night by watching a movie and then caught a taxi back to George's.

Alexandropolis

Lately I have been getting to travel to away games with Rusty, which has been great! The one downside to Rusty playing volleyball- traveling- has been eliminated!... Well not completely, but at least for now. A couple weeks ago the team played in Alexandropolis, which is right near the border of Turkey. It's about 8 hours from us and we took a bus there, so needless to say, we got good use out of our iPads. We got caught up on some of our TV shows- Modern Family, The Mindy Project, and followed that by watching a couple movies. We arrived at the Thraki Palace Hotel late at night, but they had prepared salad, pasta, and chicken for us, which was set up in a large dining room. I wasn't planning to eat meals with the team because it would cost 70 euro, but luckily for me, the meals at the hotel were included. After we finished dinner, Rusty and I walked down to the beach. It was chilly and I forgot to pack a coat, but that didn't stop me from enjoying being by the beach!

I'm pretty sure Rusty doesn't love it when I travel with him to games
and I'm not sure why...

I roomed with Vicki, the team statistician. I'm glad I got to know Vickie better on this trip. I now consider her my best girl friend here in Greece. Not that I have very many haha. We stayed up chatting then woke up to go eat breakfast. We went to the same dining room we had dinner in the previous night, but it wasn't until I walked in for breakfast that I noticed windows made up the entire left side of the room, providing a great view of the ocean. After breakfast, I met up with Rusty. He had just come from practice and he had a few hours off, so we walked around outside. The hotel had an infinity pool, which overlooked the ocean...if only it was warm out! I would have spent my entire day lounging by the pool! Although it was too cold out for swimming, we did have the place to ourselves- not one person was outside or down at the beach. Rusty had to go watch video, so I decided to spend my time wisely by doing some Pinteresting and painting my nails ;) When Rusty was done we ate lunch and then went back to my room. We chatted with Vickie and watched Top Gear, Rusty's latest show addiction...I actually like it too. If you haven't heard of it, it's a British show about cars. I think I just like it for their accents. If they didn't have English accents, it wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. 

Soon it was game time! We packed up, and hopped on the bus. The gym was really small, like the size of a high school gym. The stands slowly filled up. I noticed that people would yell specifically at Rebo, Lamia's outside hitter. A few fans would stand up, lean over the railing in front of the stands, point and yell cuss words right at him. Vickie told me they were yelling at him because he played for Alexandropolis five years ago and the team wasn't paying him, so he left in the middle of the season. I can't believe the fans would yell at him about that, especially after five years! But at the same time, it doesn't surprise me with the crazy fans here. Alexandropolis is ranked number one and unfortunately we weren't able to beat them...maybe next time, when we play them at home! We did however, beat them in appearance...they had ads placed across the backside and the front side of their shorts, awkward!

When Rusty asked his coach, George, if I could come on this trip, he not only said yes, but he told us on our way back, the bus would stop in Thessaloniki (since George, Vickie and about half of the guys on the team are from there) and we could stay at his apartment because he would be staying with his girlfriend. He also told us that Vickie could be our tour guide the following day. How nice is that?! I feel so lucky that Rusty ended up on a team that is so accommodating. I get excited about any chance we get to visit new places and Thessaloniki is a big city, so there would be lots to do! Plus one of the two LDS churches in Greece is in Thessaloniki, so we would finally be able to attend church!

The bus finally made it to Thessaloniki. We got off at the second stop with George and Nikitas, the libero. Nikitas' dad picked us all up and dropped George, Rusty and I off at George's car, which was parked about 10 minutes away from his home. George brought us to his apartment, showed us around, gave us the key, and left to his girlfriends. It was about 3am by the time we got  there, so we got ready for bed and prepared for church, which was at 11am the next morning!...

Thanksgiving Times Three

 Thanksgiving #1

Living out of the country has been great, but when the holiday season began, I got a little worried how Thanksgiving would be without any family. I have never had Thanksgiving without them. Would it be sad seeing pictures of everyone with family while Rusty and I ate alone in our apartment? I was even more worried about Christmas, but Rusty and I just booked a trip to Rome over Christmas, so I am not too worried anymore! I actually could not be more excited! But back to Thanksgiving...as I am sure most of you saw on Facebook or Instagram, I thought Thanksgiving was a week before it actually was! I can't believe I didn't realize I was off by a week...I just looked at a calendar and assumed it was on November 21st and not the 28th. I didn't even find out I had the date wrong until I was factimeing with my sister Kirsten the night before what I thought was Thanksgiving. If it weren't for that call, I probably would have posted a picture of our dinner with the caption "Happy Thanksgiving" and really made a fool of myself! haha But, it does make for a good story in the future. 

So, the night before the Thursday I thought was Thanksgiving, Rusty and I chopped onion and celery, diced bread, made mashed potatoes, and put the turkey breast in a brine. We searched for a whole turkey at two different grocery stores, a butcher shop, and asked some of our friends where we could find one, but after having no luck, we settled on just a turkey breast.

Since we had already prepared so much food, we decided to continue with our Thanksgiving dinner one week early. Volleyball practice went from about 5-8pm and we planned to do dinner after, so we didn't end up eating until about 9:30pm! I am not much of a cook, plus I am spoiled because Rusty enjoys cooking, but now that I have so much free time, I am starting to learn! Usually for Thanksgiving I make one dessert to add to my parents full table. This Thanksgiving I made mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing from scratch. I also cooked the turkey and made apple crisp. Everything came out great and I was so proud of myself! Just ignore the fact that it wasn't very decorative and we served the food in silver disposable tins, we just worked with what we had! 

I set up our little table with an orange checkered table cloth that they gave us when we moved in. We had invited Jay for Thanksgiving dinner, so he came down once the food was ready and we all ate, pretending it was Thanksgiving haha. Actually, it really did feel like Thanksgiving, I mean how could it not when you are eating turkey and stuffing?!

And after dinner we...

Reenacting the first Thanksgiving dinner 

Too  much turkey causes Rusty to turn into "Igoooorr"...

Thankful for this great hubby of mine

Thanksgiving #2

When actual Thanksgiving came around, we couldn't not celebrate! So we made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,  and gravy again! I didn't make a dessert the first time, so I made an apple crisp. We skyped with my family and chatted with Rusty's. Surprisingly, I wasn't too sad. I mean of course I wished we could all be together for the holidays, but I got through Thanksgiving without shedding one tear, which is surprising for me- I recently cried when I saw a giant lizard getting snatched up and killed by a bird on a show Rusty was watching. But anyways, I felt happy that we were able to have such a traditional Thanksgiving, twice! 

Thanksgiving #3

Last weekend I got to travel with Rusty to a game again! The game was in Thessaloniki. The president of the volleyball team said I could travel on the bus, but that I could not stay at the hotel. Fortunately, my friend Melanie from elementary school and high school, lives in Thessaloniki because her husband is playing basketball there. They were nice enough to let me stay the night and even fed me a Thanksgiving dinner! They hadn't had theirs yet, so I lucked out. 

This Thanksgiving time turned out great! It's nice that Rusty and I have each other because it makes it a lot easier to be away from home. I am so thankful for everything and everyone in my life. I am grateful for the opportunity we have to live here in Greece. I am thankful that Greek people are so friendly and willing to help. Living abroad has given me a greater appreciation for things back at home, so I am thankful for things I normally take for granted. In particular, clothes dryers. I miss warm clothes that have come straight out of the dryer, they smell good and feel soft. I also miss automatic cars and houses with yards, but all the things I miss is a whole different story, so back to what I am thankful for...I am especially thankful for my family, the Whittaker's and the Lavaja's, they are there for me whenever I need them. And of course, I am grateful for Rusty, my best friend and the sweetest husband ever. There is never a dull moment with him!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed cooking full turkeys! Bring on Christmas!!