Goodbye Athens...

My home as I want to remember it...

This is going to be a longer post than usual... It's a mix of the introduction I previously omitted and the narration of the huge changes that are going on right now... I apologize in advance for my occasionally poetic style - it's just the way I express myself when I'm emotional (and this "goodbye" was indeed emotional).

So, I think it has been quite weird for me not to have introduced myself until now - I would say that it's due to my starting my story in medias res, but it's in fact mostly because I don't have a lot of spare time to write these days. The reason? I had basically mentioned it some time previously - we're moving!

I'll start from the beginning... My name is Natalia, as you might have inferred, and this is pretty much what everyone calls me. I'm sometimes frustrated since, because of the way my name is spelled, non-Greeks who've only seen its written form usually stress on the second "a" (Nataalia). No, no, my name is actually stressed on the "i" (something like Nata-Leah)... Now, sometimes people might call me "Spark", although, unlike my Blogger profile and Facebook name seemingly indicate, that's not my family name. My actual surname is "Spitha", which is the Greek word for "spark" so... yeah. I guess "Natalia Spark" my artistic nickname or something...!

Yes, I know it's weird to start an introduction with the pronunciation and quirks of one's name, so let's get moving to more basic details... I'm actually not very good at introductions, as I don't know what exactly to say or not to say about me. I'm generally of the opinion that a person can't be described through words alone. I'll stick to the convention for now and say what normally people introduce themselves with:

I was born in Athens, Greece in May 1994, and my permanent residence had since then remained unchanged until yesterday. Since I was born, my family had moved house three times, but always within the city and its suburbs. Now, mainly due to financial reasons, we ultimately moved out to Crete, the most southern (is there really such an expression?) island in the country (there's more about our new house later on). My only relationship with the English language has been through school, and particularly through being a full IB student in -as you call it in the US- my junior and senior years, so excuse me if my writing style is unusual or occasionally bad... I've travelled to a few European countries from time to time, but this is actually as far as I've gotten. My upcoming trip to Davidson in August will be my first ever to the Sates, and this is pretty scary for me, as I'll be doing it alone. I'm not worried about travelling/flying on my own (that is something I find very exciting, actually), but I wonder how easily I will be able to adapt to an American lifestyle and customs. It's a one-way road, from which it will be extremely difficult to come back, should something go wrong.

I wasn't always planning to go to the US to study; I actually didn't know anything at all about how to apply and what difference there was from European universities until about Christmas of my junior year. I entered the IB planning to earn a place at a good UK institution to study Chemistry or Materials Science. Yet, I was always broad in my activities (I love to play the piano, play the guitar, sing, train for the hurdles, do waterski, draw, photograph insects and I enjoy a lot of different school subjects beside science), and having to specialize in just one thing and give up on most of the above stuff so early in my life, which was the case in UK universities, was a silent but depressing burden. One day, a Yale alumnus came to our school for a presentation and - naturally because of the huge reputation Yale has around the world - I was curious about what was so great about it and decided to listen to what he had to say... and then it hit me. Not only how great Yale was, but how the whole US educational system fitted me so much better than what I was planning to do. It's not so much that I don't know if becoming a scientific researcher is all I want to do with my life, it is that, by coming to the States to study I could develop so many other aspects of myself, let alone meet people from all kinds of backgrounds and with all kinds of objectives. This is why, even if going away will mean leaving a lot behind and maybe changing parts of my own lifestyle, and even if a couple of things "go wrong" from time to time, I believe I won't regret making the decision to come to Davidson. Needless to say, my excitement has overcome the worries and fears for now...

Now, about our recent move-out... I thought of myself as a tough person, almost insensitive. I don't remember shedding a tear when my grandmother passed away last summer, although I'd known her for more than 15 years and I still miss her a lot. This past week was different, though, and, surprisingly, filled with emotion. We waited until my high school graduation on Friday and, while our whole house was being packed for over two weeks, we ourselves finally took the plane to Crete on Saturday. Leaving my neighborhood and school didn't seem such a big deal until I found myself crying in the car seat, and in the arms of my fellow music club members (respectively). I've been to Crete and parted with my friends for the summer numerous times, but this time I knew I wasn't coming back anytime soon.

Enough with the emotional stuff, though! I said I'm a tough person, hey -ho! I'm more than anything happy for what lies ahead and grateful for there are so many warm memories from what I leave behind. So, here are some pictures from yesterday:

Me, at the airport, trying out the "drink of the Gods",

 as Liv called it. (Not too excited about the
tropical blast's taste- do you suggest any other flavour ?)

Saturday evening - just arrived at our new home...

...just to find quite a bit of work waiting for us:

Naturally, one of the first things I did was to SET THE MUSIC FREE!