Part One of One Amazing Summer Study Abroad Experience
Full throttles and focused eyes ahead lifted a massive Delta A330 Airbus into the air at 3:15 p.m. on May 25th, destined for Athens. Athens, as in Athens, Greece. Honestly, who I am to deserve such an opportunity?
I couldn’t figure it out and I still don’t know, so I decided to begin absorbing as much of this amazing experience as possible, starting with the flight.
Sitting next to an elderly Greek woman, I feared that communication would be nonexistent, at the very least, incredibly awkward or uncomfortable. Back when I went to Portugal five years ago, it wasn’t that difficult to communicate with others considering the language’s significant similarity to Spanish. I understood what people were saying and could hold a simple conversation. Greek, however, was completely past me and “Opa!” was about the extent of the vocabulary I had mastered. (And TBH…Do the Greeks even really, actually know what “Opa!” means?)
I felt super strange smiling and nodding continuously to this woman as she pointed at random things in the airplane. Funnily enough, though, I found myself actually understanding her. When she touched my blanket provided by Delta, I at first assumed she didn’t have one of her own. I was gearing up to find a flight attendant to retrieve one for her, before she took my hand and had me feel her blanket. Mine was definitely softer, hers a lot more paper towel-like. Ohhh, I thought, she wants a blanket like mine! Now I get it.
Well, there was not flight attendant anywhere to be found and the cabin was completely pitch black so I just traded with her, which resulted in her shaking her head aggressively and refusing to take it, as she was saying something under her breath that sounded like an angry recipe for baklava. I continued about my business of doing whatever one does on a 10-hour flight: AKA: eating peanuts and watching the Devil Wears Prada a couple hundred times.Â
At about hour 7, when I was at my wit’s end of having it with Meryl Streep being a witch to poor, little intern Anne Hathaway, I began to stare at the flight map. Which actually is quite entertaining, I mean, here I am hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic Ocean, heading over Ireland. Like I AM that little person in a tube you see flying over the Cliffs of Moher on a clear day. Amazing really.
As I was watching our little tube near Europe, my friend poked me. I turned to her, and she was pointing at my screen, pointing at her screen, and then staring at me, mumbling all the while. Without hesitation, I situated her screen so that the flight map would appear. Her face lit up as if the Greek soccer team had just won the World Cup.Â
As the plane neared Italy, I figured now was a good time to start some of the required reading. I took out my Greece travel book, and I thought my friend was going to jump out the window. Her face lit up even brighter than a World Cup Championship Win and put her finger on the map on the inside front cover of the book. I took my pen and circled Athens, (“Athina she beamed”), Thessaloniki, Mycenae, Itea, Corinth, Nauplion (“ohhh Nafplio she grinned…beautiful”) (WOW! English!) and Olympia…all of the places I was headed that week.
We spent the rest of the flight talking about all the beautiful places I was going to visit, and we weren’t even talking. If that makes sense. As we flew over Greece, she pointed out some islands and when we reached Athens, she pointed to herself and said, “me, Athina”. “Oh you live in Athens? Beautiful!” I said, as she nodded and beamed. I could almost feel my understanding smile making her day.
We landed and of course, everyone frantically stood up and grabbed their bags. Honestly I have never understood this, but…to each his own, I guess. Well, suddenly, I was guilty of judging everyone else and found myself unprepared when it was time to move. I was deeply occupied with getting my things together when my friend caught me by surprise.
She grabbed my arm, looked me in the eye, and said, in perfect English, “Have a beautiful trip, beautiful girl. God is with you.”
Â
I feel bad for never having the chance to say goodbye.
Â
Photos provided by the author