90% of Life is Just Being Confident

Yes, I am still a little behind, but we are getting there.  Friday was another big day for the students.  They were allowed to sleep in, but we advised them to get up by about 9 or 10 so they could start adjusting to the different time zone here.  Many were awake at 8:40 when I came down to show breakfast crew how to do their job and to go with them to the bakery where we buy the breakfast pastries.

The day carried on and it began to rain.  I checked the weather and it looked like it was going to rain much of the afternoon.  This posed a dilemma.  We were going to take the students to Cape Sounion, a cape  where a temple to Poseidon sits that is known for its sunsets (it also has an interesting mythological tale linked to it, pertaining to the Minotaur).  However, there won’t be much of a sunset if it’s raining all day.  So at lunch, about 1:40, we decided to postpone the trip to Sounion for later and do something we were planning to do a few days later.  We decided to take the students into Athens via public transit so they would know how to do it on their own.  This made me nervous because I only did it 3 or 4 times when I was here and that was 2 years ago.  And now they wanted to teach the students a different way into Athens, a way that I had not done before. 

I had literally about 15 minutes to change, get ready, get the directions, get the money from Dr. James and get half of the group to go with me to begin the odyssey (see what I did there) into Athens.  Dr. James and Mrs. Beth were going to take the other half of students.  The visiting professor, Phil Thompson, and his wife went with my group.

We began our journey by walking about 50 yards up the street from the Artemis to the bus stop.  We all got on the bus and bought our ticket to the Koropi metro station.  The bus from Porto Rafti took us to Markopoulo.  There, we waited for about 20-30 minutes for the next bus to pick us up and take us to the Koropi metro station.  By the way, the place we waited wasn’t the town square like we used to when I went to HUG.  The town square is having a nice big fountain installed so I guess buses can’t wait there.  So, they had us wait on the edge of town beside a building and an empty lot. 

A short bus finally came to take us to the Koropi metro station.  Once again, when I was at HUG it was a full-sized bus.  This bus could only carry like 20 people, or less.  I had 13 of the 31 students with me, as well as the professor and his wife.  So a few of our group had to double up, while myself and another guy or two just stood since some local Greeks were taking up the other seats. 

We got to the Koropi metro station where we got tickets and finally got on the blue metro line.  This is a different way that what I was used to.  We used to get on the suburban rail (yellow line), ride to the Athens Mall that overlooks the 2004 Olympic Stadium, switch to the green line and then ride all the way into the Plaka.  We taught the students to take the blue line all the way in from the Koropi metro.  I had to make sure we were on the correct platform and on the correct end of it.  (Yes, even though it was the same track, different metros pull up to it on different ends.  You have to make sure you are on the correct end for your metro, otherwise it eventually splits to a different track.)  Here we got on and rode it all the way to Syntagma Square at the base of the Greek parliament building.

Athens Metro Map

After two hours of public transit we finally made it.  Did it take us this long when we were here (this is to my fellow summer 09 HUGer’s)?  I didn’t remember it taking this long.  We took a different route and since it’s winter the buses and metros may not run as often.  Anyway, I took my group around the Plaka and positioned them so they could see a little of the Parthenon, since it was right above us on the Acropolis.  I let my group roam around and told them to meet back at the three-story Starbucks at a certain time.  I then had to run back up to Syntagma Square an hour later to pick up Dr. James and his group and show them how to walk to the Plaka from there. 

After a while, it was time for my group to begin our journey back.  I don’t think it took quite as long because we took a different railway out.  We rode the blue line for a while and then switched onto the yellow line since it came sooner.  Either one would get us back to our original metro station, the Koropi metro station.  From there we had to do the bus thing again, including one transfer.  We finally made it back to the Artemis at 8 where we pulled out the dinner that Fofi, our wonderful chef, had left in the warmers for us.  Dr. James group stayed an hour longer since they were an hour later getting to Athens.

What I learned from this is that confidence is everything.  I never felt super confident about understanding the transit system when I took it in as a HUG student.  Now, I had to lead a group of 15 others on a route that was almost completely different than what I was even shakily use to and I had no time to prepare; I just had to lead.  I figured the best thing to do was to look confident, ask the right questions of the transit workers and use all of that to lead with at least the appearance of confidence.  Afterwards, I told the students that all that was pretty new to me.  I didn’t have much more knowledge or experience about this than they did.  However, if you do things with confidence then it usually turns out alright.  Usually.  This time it did.  We got on all the correct buses and metros (a quick shout out to my Rafina crew).  

Lesson of the day: 90% of Life is Just Being Confident.  I’ll let you decide on the other 10%.