After all the anxiousness I felt about getting to the office the other day, it seems to all have been over nothing! To start, I took the metro over from Akropoli to Syntagma Square, despite my fear of the metro being very confusing (in actuality, the Athens metro is easier than even Boston's metro... there are only three lines!). I then walked to Licavitou street, and looked for "1C." When I couldn't find it, I asked a nice store owner who pointed me to a large gray building with lots of plaques on the door. And there was one for MEDASSET! So, I buzzed up for MEDASSET and started up the stairs.

After climbing up four stories, I found the MEDASSET door. After being let in, I was given a short tour and met the people in the office at that time. I then had to go back to my hotel to get the other half of my bags, so off I went on the metro (metro tickets are good for an hour and a half) back-tracking my steps. When I finally got to the office with all of my luggage, Konstantina, the woman who I had been in correspondence with regarding my internship, gave me a more complete tour and told me all the rules. At that point in time we went to the kitchen where Konstantina, Giannis (the IT guy) and I talked for a while. They showed me the few areas (on one of my many maps) where I shouldn't walk through during my adventures. I was very grateful for that! My official start day for work was November 1, so Konstantina told me that I could go out and do what I wanted, so off I went for more exploring! I walked down to Syntagma Square, where I saw the small changing-of-the-guard that happens every hour (the big ceremony happens on Sundays at 11am). These guardians are stationed in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

After that, I caught the "Hop On Hop Off" bus again. I didn't know where I was going, I was just going to get off whenever I felt like it. But, everyone had to get off the bus at Ermou Street, as there was a bus change, so I just got off the bus and started walking. I walked down Ermou Street and down to Monastiraki Square, like I did the other day, going towards the flea market.

In Monastiraki square I decided that I would look at my map and decide where to go next. But, after I sat down, I looked over to my right and saw two Greek men talking to a caucasian girl (in English) who looked very uncomfortable. So, I sidled over to sit next to her and started to talk to her. I soon found out that she's a Swedish student who is in Greece for one month, studying at one of the institutions. After we sat in the square and talked for a little, she asked if I wanted to go for a coffee, so we went to a close-by Starbucks and got some coffee. Her name is Elina.

We talked for a little bit of time, and then walked through the flea market and back around to Syntagma Square (she's staying in Plaka), where we exchanged information and parted ways. We said we would meet again soon! I then returned to the office and turned off the alarm system. Or at least I thought I did. But two seconds later... All hell broke loose and the alarm started going off, nonstop. I eventually put in my code and the alarm stopped. But, then the phone started ringing off the hook. So, off to find the phone. But, little did I know, only two phones are outside lines. That was fun. After that all got sorted out, I went out again to go grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping was interesting, as everything was in Greek and there were no aisle signs, so I had to go through every aisle systematically figuring out what I wanted to buy! Then, when I got back, the alarm went back off again and the phone rang again!!! Eventually, I figured out the phones and how to turn the alarm off, so it didn't go off again for the rest of the evening. I was able to put my groceries away, eat some dinner, make my bed and have a relaxing evening after that.

The next day was my first day of work. So, I wanted to get up early! I woke up in plenty of time to make my breakfast, look presentable and be ready for my first day at work! My first day of work went great! I did a lot of organizing and counting (Konstantina and a fellow coworker were both doing a beach clean-up on Crete, so they weren't in the office) and I had a lot of fun getting to know the people in the office. After work, Liza (one of my coworkers) and I went to Lily's house, so that I could drop off some stuff for Lily and so I could know where she lives in case or an emergency. Lily is the head of MEDASSET for Greece (or something like that). I then went back to the office, so I could call Elina on Skype (I need wifi for that) and see if she wanted to do something today. We decided to meet in an hour's time.

In one hour we met at Syntagma Square and went out to a little taverna for dinner. And time just flew. We were there for about 3 hours, just eating and talking. It was great. But, we did have to each go to our respective homes for showers and sleep. So, we walked back to Syntagma Square and parted company again.

The next day, I woke up early again, made my breakfast of Greek yogurt and a pomegranate and started my next day of work. I did more organizing, but this time there were more people in the office (Konstantina came in late) and I had a fun day between the mountains of papers. Jokes abounded in our small office. The normal work day is 10am till 6pm. But yesterday, 6:30pm is really when people started to leave. But, Konstantina, Giannis and I left later still. Giannis left at around 7:15pm while Konstantina and I didn't leave till 8:45pm. One of our coworkers (the director) had sent Konstantina a document for me to proofread, and some of the translation was very bad, so in the end, we just translated it from the original Greek document together! :)

Afterwards I went for a walk and found a cute bakery where I bought a croissant for tomorrow's breakfast!

Here's a picture of my room and the kitchen in the office:

P.S. The time posted on here is not correct by the way. I'm not sure why, but if you're ever looking at it and wondering why I'm up at 4am, I'm actually not, but my computer is set for US time! :)