Hi all. It’s January 7^th at 2:38pm and I’m sitting on my couch in my apartment in Thessaloniki, Greece. Traveling always gives me a reason to write. Traveling always gives me a need to write. My favorite thing to do when at an airport [not this time but I’ll get to that in a minute] or in a hotel or at a café is to write. We all knew that. Just wanted to give everyone an update about my current life, what I’m currently doing and another promise that I won’t have time to write a lot this semester with 12 weeks of student teaching, the edTPA, living in a foreign country by myself for the first time, etc. However, on my first and only free day that I have while in Greece, I wanted to take a bit of time out of my hectic day of grocery shopping, unpacking, turning an Airbnb into a home, and figuring out this new city that I live in to write a little bit.

This semester I have the amazing opportunity to participate in the COST program teaching Spanish and ESL at the Pinewood American International School in Thermi Greece, a suburb of Thessaloniki. I will be working with 4 [yes 4] teachers teaching grades K-12 in Spanish and English. I will also be completing the edTPA [basically a huge 3-part project that I need to do well on in order to graduate and become a certified instructor] during my time here which will take up a huge chunk of my time.

Finally, I will be exploring and living in Thessaloniki. I speak absolutely no Greek so with the help of Duolingo, my students, and the people I meet I’m hoping to at least learn enough to get by in my day to day life.

I’m absolutely exhausted from the past 24 hours of travel, middle seats, layovers, delays, and 8-hour time differences. I

I don’t know much of what this semester holds for me, but I do know one thing, I’m the happiest at 11:30pm when I first get to a new country.

Now, I’m off to have coffee and a walk along the sea with the coordinating instructor here in Greece. Here’s to writing at least a smidge more this year, ❤

Alicia