The most horrifying realization for every American college student studying in Greece is that everyone wakes up early — very, very early in the morning — 6 or 7 a.m. For the first time in my college career, I am taking an 8:30 class. While at Cornell, any class before 10:10 is obviously a class I would never take. But unlike in other major world cities, the people of Athens wake up early out of necessity; the morning race to work is only possible because of the cool morning air — going to work anytime later in the day would mean arriving at work sweating and smelling as if you had spent the past three weeks searching for the source of a long African river.

When I finally left the 5 degree Fahrenheit weather in Ithaca behind to study abroad in Greece, I believed that I would spend my time enjoying the sun during the day and drinking ouzo at night. I could not have been more wrong.

First of all, it’s colder here in the winter so Greeks tend to bundle up and complain about the weather instead of lounging on some beach. Anyone living in Ithaca would consider Greece’s winter temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit to be springtime weather, but Greeks believe that this is Antartica.