The Beauty of Challenge

Happy Tuesday friends!

Time for a weekly update.  This past weekend, we spent our time in Meteora.  Meteora is an Eastern Orthodox complex filled with 6 monasteries sitting on top of giant natural sandstone pillars.  The word 'Meteora' in Greek means "suspended rocks," "suspended in the air," or, "in the heavens above."  A very fitting description for a place like this I think.  But before I describe to you our wonderful experience there, I will tell you about our transportation mishaps that occurred beforehand :).  We were instructed by the travel agent that works with our school to go to Terminal B to get to the bus we needed to get to Meteora.  So, we got on the metro, found out that we had to pay extra to get on the one that goes all the way to the airport, and we made it with plenty of time to spare.  Well, after talking to the ticket office we found out that we were not in the right place for the bus we needed.  We hopped on a bus that was supposed to take us to the appropriate bus station.  After going past our stop, getting on another bus, and going back to our appropriate station, naturally we had missed the 9:30 bus we had intended to get on but luckily we got on an 11:30 bus.  Once we finally got there after a 5 hour bus ride, we were so happy to be in one of the most beautiful places we had ever seen.  We stayed in a family-owned hotel run by the most helpful and kind Greek people.  The room that I stayed in was like an apartment style cabin - it was awesome!  They even made us breakfast in the morning.  Since we got there in the evening, we went over to the rocks to do some climbing and exploring.  We got up pretty high, climbing up pretty steep hills and getting incredible views.  We then went to dinner at a place the hotel recommended for us and had some pretty tasty food and good conversation.  Walking around outside at night reminded me of home.  The air was cool and crisp like the fall weather at home, and we could smell bonfires and see the stars.  The next morning was when we visited the monasteries.  I saw three of them, and each one was very beautiful.  They had certain things on display, like texts written in the 11th century and even earlier, which blows my mind.  Coming back, we also had some travel issues, finding out the bus we wanted to take was full and getting back later than intended but oh well - we had an Art History quiz the next day and gave us plenty of time to study and quiz each other.

Kate and I :)

One of the monasteries

People still don't know how they were able to build these

The city we stayed in

True beauty 

Heaven!

A couple highlights from this week so far have been going to a karaoke bar on Monday night and eating dinner with our Theology professor earlier this evening.  Monday was Andrew's birthday, and so our entire program group went to this karaoke bar called Mike's, an Irish pub.  It was so much fun - pretty much everyone in our group went up and sang in groups which was really cool.  Pretty great entertainment and an enjoyable night!  Then tonight, a small group of us had dinner with our Theology professor just to ask him questions.  After hearing him lecture during class, we really had the desire to talk to him more, and we are so glad we did it.  He is a very wise man.  Even though he is a Greek Orthodox priest, different from my own faith, we learned so many things from him.  This religion is very, very similar to my own and a lot of the beliefs are the same.  I had been pretty ignorant of this before, so I recommend taking classes to learn about other religions.  You'd be surprised what you can learn from them.  One of the big topics we discussed with him is being challenged.  A lot of times, it is easy for us to stay in our comfort zones.  We like being around what is familiar, especially when it comes to beliefs.  But as we discussed with this professor, how can your own faith take root and grow, or be strengthened if we never are challenged?  I've decided that having people similar to me in my faith is a beautiful gift, but having people different from you in your life is also a wonderful gift to have, one that makes you grow so much.  Relationships with people are so important.  Having a vertical relationship between you and God is so important, but having a horizontal relationship with Him is just as important. Never forget to look for God around the world and the people you see...He is everywhere!  Don't be afraid to be challenged sometimes...it can be a good thing!

More to come eventually!  Take care!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura