The Life and Times of Jorge E. Casalins IV

Dark Times

September 24th came and went like nothing but it was so much….

This week, as a matter of fact these next few weeks, last year was a very impactful time for me.

I went through some life changing events and learned much of myself but everything ended badly on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 at around 3am.

Details will be omitted but for those who don’t know what happened, I changed, a lot, I think for the better but for some reason, today, a year later, I still feel the sting I felt for a while after October 3, 2010 at 5:42PM.

It sucks that my mind is still traumatized and there is nothing I can do about it, I wish I could correct it but I don’t think it would be good for me to do so.

My mind is all over the place and I find myself walking through the city out of it, in an otherwise weird way. I hate this somber mood I have had the last few days specially since sometimes I think it isn’t important. And well, really it isn’t but it meant a whole lot to me, too much if you ask anyone.

I do however think that I learned a valuable lesson, and not just the “I read about it and know I learned it” type of learning but the hard way, the real way of learning- through experience. I learned that not everything we want for ourselves is good for us. Sounds simple to the simple mind but mine has long left that state of being.

This post is more for me to vent as I have no one here to whom I entrust said occurrences with so I’ve you’ve taken time to read this post and are as confused as you should be, I am sorry I wasted your time but thank you for your interest. 

Getting Lost on Purpose

So today I was in desperate need of a haircut, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was told that around Navarino Square there were a few places where I could get my hair cut. I had no idea where it was but I had a map! haha, I took the bus straight from school to the center of town where I got off and took a look at some stores before making my way to “Splendid Travel Center” the travel agency that works with our university.

I made it there about 2 minutes before they closed but luckily the lady was nice enough to attend me and gave me plenty of information about Rhodes, where I wanted to go but due to prices, no longer do “/.

Anyway, once I left the agency located by Aristotelous square, I walked up towards where the map showed Navarino Square to be and on my way throw Aristotelous square I saw the most gorgeous view of the sea one could hope for. I am now determined to return there at some point for a quick coffee and to admire the view.

I finally got to the area where I was supposed to be and to my amazement I arrived at the ruins of King Galerius’ Castle and it turns out that that is where Navarino Square is located. It was an awesome placed filled with cafes and tavernas filled with hundreds of young college students at around 5pm eating, drinking, playing cards and overall having a good time. Add another place to the list haha.

I walked around the square and went up every side street to be able to see everything and I found some pretty awesome stores, restaurants and many street vendors. The one thing I couldn’t find was a barber shop although I did see many salons. 

I was close to not getting a haircut because I didn’t want to go into a salon but like I said before, I NEEDED the cut. I went into the salon and the typical hair stylist man greeted me and I asked if he spoke English to which he replied “Well of course honey.” As funny as I found the fact that gay hair stylists all over the world are all the same I decided to get my cut there although I knew it would be different from what I’m used to.

The treatment was good, they shampooed my hair and massaged my scalp before and after the cut and I must say, he did a good job. It might not be what I’m used to but I do look more European now.

Here’s the fun part, after everything was said and done I went to the closest bus stop, hopped on the first bus that came, rode it for about 20 minutes although I had no idea where it was going and got off to see if I could make it back on foot. Seems a little crazy but it was an evaluation of my independence and ability to manage and I passed with flying colors. Found my way back with no problem and successfully completed an awesome solo adventure  =]

The Weekend

My weekend trip was incredible!! I loved the beach, and weather and everything about this weekend. We stayed at a very nice hotel literally on the edge of the beach and they even threw a beach party for us saturday night and I danced the night away. We got to go on a boat tour of the Mt. Athos monasteries which were quite breath-taking and seemed like majestic castles, definitely an experience I wont soon forget. 

Sunday we rented a yellow paddle boat with a slide on its back and took it into the middle of the Aegean sea for about an hour, it was incredible relaxing and only 10 Euro and since it was 4 of us it was 2.5 Euro. The overall experience was relaxing and very nice =]

First Weekend Trip

Tomorrow morning I will be going on my first weekend trip with my school. It is a trip to the beautiful beaches of Chalkidiki,

a tour of the ancient Mt. Athos Monasteries (A mountain which does not allow entrance to any females, not even female animals lol)

and then the Petralona cave which is estimated to be 700,000 years old =X

It is a 2 day trip with plenty of beach time allotted and I hear the nightlife there is wonderful =] Cannot wait, pictures will be up next week.

Week 2

So yesterday was my one week anniversary in Thessaloniki, I’m liking this one =] lol I celebrated by getting a phone (694-088-2161) and by shopping woooh! Lol I’ll put some pics up later but I got some pretty cool European sneakers, a shirt, belt, wallet and cologne. I had fun and I’m really feeling good about getting around in the city. Afterwards me, Amy, Catherine, Ally and Amanda played a few drinking games but I called it a night early since I had to be at the hospital at 10:30am -___-

This morning when we got to the hospital I had to get a TB test (picture) is on the other post. So here’s the highlight of my day. After our shots we had to get chest xrays done so I went in first, obviously its a Greek guy and he takes me into a super sketchy room and says “Take the clothes off” I kinda laughed at the way this would sound if heard out of context. So I took my shirt off and he made me press my chest on a very cold metal block and took the xray. Now, when I went back out it was Catherines turn, she took a little longer than I did and when she comes out she said that she was embarrassed, turns out that when the doctor told her to take her clothes off she got completely naked and when the doctor came back in he says “No! No! No! Only top” Lmfaooooo

Oh man, the things that happen in Greece lol

School

First day of classes…. 

I woke up at 9 am today because the school shuttle comes at 10:15am. I had 3 classes today, one from 1-2, another from 2-3, and the last from 4-5:30 (supposed to be 3 days a week from 4-5 but today she changed it to be from 4-5:30 mondays and wednesdays and not meet fridays =D) I’m really excited to be on campus and see hundreds of new people, print my flight information for fall break (Athens, Milan, Amsterdam and Berlin =D) 

My first class was Politics and Media which seems like a pretty cool class, the teacher was cool and really posed some interesting questions which I am excited to look into. After that I had Greek 101 which I was very excited for since I am really trying to learn the language but it turns out that Im a class with all but 4 of us being Freshmen. Northeastern does this program here where they send 140 students to study with us but they are all incoming freshmen so a bunch of immature-straight-from high school brats. It was annoying but whatever, I’m not here for them. Afterwards I had a class called Civil Society which is only like 9 of us and it is, so far, my favorite. The professor is well-educated, has a lot of practical experience and has some really good insight to the subject.

This is really a different educational experience for me since I am used to Rutgers Lecture halls of 300 people and sections of 35-50 people and today I had classes of 9-25 people.

Other than that, the campus isn’t huge so we have wi-fi in every corner and I am currently sitting outside the cafeteria in a reclined bench soaking in the sun, looking out at a mountain range to my left and the city of Thessaloniki to my right with the purest summer breeze blowing as students have conversations in Greek over some lunch behind me….. Life is beautiful =]

The Arrival

Sorry I’ve taken long to publish my next blog, as you can see I’m not the greatest blogger in the world lol. 

Greece is AWESOME!!!!

Today is Friday but I’ll be posting about everything that has happened this week to make up for lost blogs so be warned!

Monday:

I woke up at around 6 am with little sleep and to be honest I wasn’t the least bit nervous, emotionally it didn’t hit me until the night I arrived. Everything went well at the airport, got through with no issues, the first flight was Newark - Munich:

The flight was incredibly good, I mean the seats were comfortable, had tvs in the backs of the headrests, had awesome food, blanket and pillow, free news papers of the day, the whole nine.

When we got to Munich, we didn’t have to claim baggage or anything just kinda explored the beautiful airport, got some food which was a great experience because it was my first transaction in Euros and walked/shopped around until the next flight.

We then boarded the flight to Thessaloniki and upon boarding, Shivani was greeted by a simply “hello” while I was greeted the same way the locals were, and enthusiastic “Kalimera!” which is Greek for good morning/afternoon. I of course gloated about the fact that I could pass off as Greek lol.

FINALLY, we arrived in Thessaloniki and my expectations were high, had no problem with luggage and immediately ran into the people from ACT.

We were being grouped together with other students from the states to get on a private bus because the city’s Taxis and public buses were on strike! It turned out for the better because we got to know others right at the beginning and instantly we knew it would be a great semester.

On the bus ride in I started to see some really unexpected things on the way to our apartments. I wont go into details but it was much more urban than I expected it to be, it looks sooooo much like Cali, Colombia, its crazy. Any way, the first day wasn’t too good at first. I got the smallest studio in the building, the place was not as I expected it to be and I was dead tired. By the time I settled in and unpacked it was 8PM and we were being picked up at 8:30 to go out. I took a 10 minute power nap which felt like 3 days and when my roommate woke me up it was time to go. 

Talk about a mind-changing experience, we took a bus downtown and saw some AMAZING sights, had many laughs with some great people and here’s the kicker, we got on a Reggae boat. It was a bar in the second floor and a lounge on the first floor. We sailed along the Aegean sea drinking wine, bumping reggae and getting to know these awesome people.

It might have been that I was jetlagged, it might have been a bad first impression, whatever it was, I went from wanting to go back home eagerly to wanting to stay here forever in 1 day.