First Impressions...

What are your first impressions? Initial thoughts? Primary reactions? However you want to phrase it doesn’t matter because no matter how you cut it, it’s still hard to decipher/take in/encompass/a-whole-nother-list-of-synonyms just everything and all that this experience in Greece is. 

There’s so many thoughts, emotions, reactions, ideas, ideals, expectations,  (shall we continue the trend? ;))—so much to take in, so much swirling around inside, so much trying to get out…

But it’s AMAZING.  If amazing can even come close to adequately representing these first impressions of Greece.  It doesn’t seem quite sufficient but it is doing a pretty darn admirable job of trying to fill the shoes of the elusive word that could possibly encompass all that is Greece.

Since I posted the last blog from a new wifi connection you can probably surmise we made it off the runway in Rome.  As the minutes of that flight clicked by, I was brought closer and closer to my new home.  Anticipation bunched in my stomach.  There was nothing I could do to speed up the trip nor slow the time before we landed.  I was literally moving ever closer to this new opportunity. 

I watched as mountains and islands and hills began to break up the blue waters with increasing frequency.  The mountains and hills looked almost freckled as if by the sun from sitting in her wake day after day, spotted but not covered as they were with trees and brush.  The coast of the islands were a sandy skin tone with a blush of aqua blue jetting out into the deep blue beyond.  We were getting closer.  A block of houses and buildings here, a cluster there, two separate communities on that island.  Then….Athens—a big bunch of white-ish rectangles concentrated and jutting back in toward the mainland from the coast.  The plane dipped and turned as we made our approach and soon we were landing. 

Then stepping off into the airport, finding luggage, trying to find a Euro for a cart because according to the machine my card was “not ok”, stepping into the taxi that brought us home.  Wide-eyed staring out the window at the buildings and trees and signs and people and everything we passed.  Driving down the street that led up to the school, driving through the gate then up the drive to Darbyshire—the building to make home this coming year, walking up the path lugging bags, meeting more of the people who will help make this home.

And suddenly it wasn’t just Greece who was seeking to make a good first impression.

Settling in, exploring, just seeing and experiencing everything we can…

Awe at the splendor and the beauty that surrounds, intimidated and exhilarated at navigating this new place, marveling at the sounds and smells and tastes that are familiar to those you meet here—that you want to become familiar to you—, sheer intimidation at trying to swim through the sea of letters and tones of a language that is foreign, thankfulness for those in the same boat so you don’t have to swim alone (and especially those few who have swum these waters before), utter determination that it won’t all stay foreign forever.  Because you’re not just visiting.  You’re living.  You’re making this a new home.  Seeking to create and share new experiences with new friends and also connect and share this experience—this new home—with your old heart and home.  Catching up on sleep while wanting to keep your eyes open to take in absolutely everything…

And so much more.  More than can fit on this post, than can be described with words.  How did they find the words before?  The words, they must be hidden in the Earth here, waiting to be found and discovered—waiting to share the beauty and purpose and wonder of Greece.  Search them out.  Discover.  Make this home.