Introduction to a new world...

 Wednesday 1st October marks the day where my life at the University of Ioannina truly began. 

I collected my key from the Erasmus office at 9am, unlocked the door to my new room and waved goodbye to my parents (after many hours of thorough cleaning and decorating). Company now came in the form of many unfamiliar faces speaking unfamiliar languages and I would have to overcome my fear in order to survive. It was supposedly like Fresher's Week again, yet a million times worse: I could no longer fall back on finding similarities in what we study or where we live, we were all completely different individuals united by the shared aim of trying to make Greece feel like home. 

Embracing the uncomfortable, I turned to my neighbours for company, neighbours who, conveniently for them, all spoke Spanish. Anticipating these were the friends I had to make to avoid loneliness, I was roped into an unnecessary supermarket trip which began with standing in a huge circle in the lobby, waiting for more to arrive. Like tennis, bouncing my vision back and forth to different speakers, I tried desperately to channel my hearing into their language to extract any familiar word (not that I could answer if I did recognise anything). Completely overwhelmed, I searched frantically for an escape route, an excuse to bail and luckily, this German guy who I had met in my Greek class called my name from the bottom of the stairs. Thank goodness. An English speaker who I might be able to articulate myself to. 

The evening that followed was practically a Greek class reunion involving 12 rounds of Wizard (a German card game that I am now an expert at) and long conversations over dinner in the canteen.