España!!!

For Thanksgiving the gang decided to go to Madrid.  It was wonderful.  Not only was it clean, but I understood the language, finally able to put the 6 years of Spanish to use.  It was a lot colder than Athens, with the highs only in the 50's, but perfect because they were decorating for Christmas, and when I think of Christmas, I think of cold and snow.

The Palace

Chocolate and Churros

 Our Thanksgiving meal.  Becca and I really wanted mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.  TGIFridays had a full meal, but it didn't look very good so we asked for just the pie, which they would not give us.  So we went to KFC.  It was epic.

Fake snow and Christmas Decorations

Soccer Game: Athletico vs Espanola, two clubs in Spain

The Temple of Debod, donated to Spain by the Egyptians

Paella, the one food I knew I had to eat while in Spain

Strike

Athens is starting to smell.  The garbage men have gone on strike and the dumpsters are overflowing with trash.  It is quite disgusting as you can smell the garbage wherever you go.

<-----Here is one of the several dumpsters that I walk past on my way to school.  They are all as overflowing as this, if not more so.


The one thing about strikes in Greece is that they are generally announced ahead of time.  We get an email from CYA a day or two before the strike so we can be prepared.  Generally it is the transportation people who are striking, so we hear that the metro won't run to the airport all day on the 24 or that from 11-4 the buses won't be running.  Fortunately this does not affect us much as we walk everywhere.  But when the garbage men strike, then there are problems.

These strikes are happening quite frequently.  The reason for the garbage man strike is that Athens is considering raising the retirement age for them, which they don't like as the job is labor intensive and they get to retire early.

Agora

So today was my last on site class at the Agora.  Here at DIKEMES you can take archaeology classes where you actually visit the sites that are talked about in class.  The Athenian Agora was the public gathering place back in the day.  There were temples, statues, stoas and a notice board.  This place was one of the most important places in Ancient Athens, which is why my class spent so much time there.  The Sacred Way went right through here, which the Panathenaic festival of Athens that celebrated their patron goddess Athena followed on their way to the Acropolis.

While at the Agora, my class discussed the various stages of the Agora, from the Golden Age of Perikles to the Romans taking over and building a new "agora" which was far closer to a forum.  Every single time we were at the Agora, one of the wild dogs of the site decide to hang out with us.  He even followed us to the Roman Agora which was a distance away form the Greek one.  We did nothing to encourage him, but every time we entered the site, there he was.

One of the things about Diamant, my professor, is that he makes us sit down when he talks to us.  Not only is this resting, but helps when seeing the plans of various buildings that were at one time in the Agora.  The only problem with this is that the Greeks are very touchy about their heritage and so do not like us very much, and sometimes someone sits on an important piece of marble, that looks like all the other pieces that everyone else is sitting on.  I have no idea how they distinguish which stones are important but they manage to and yell at us.  Fortunately Diamant can handle the guards pretty well, even taking us to places that have "do not enter" signs.

This is a view of the ruined Roman gymnasium.  Previously it was the Odeium of Agrippa.  In the back is the Stoa of Attalos, donated by King Attalos of Pergaman, it was rebuilt in the '50s.  Right in front of it is the Sacred Way.

Uprising

On November 17, 1973 Students from the Polytechnic School in Athens rose up and overthrew the military junta that had been ruling since 1967.  This day is celebrated every year with a march from the school up to the US Embassy.  The US supported the military dictatorship, which is why Americans need to b weary on this day.  The march itself is peaceful, but the anarchists at the end of the line are the ones who stir up trouble and start the riot that happens.  My ethnography professor says as long as we stay away from the end of the line and the people who keep their faces covered (as well as the police) then we would be golden.

Winter

So apparently winter is upon us here in Athens.  It has been a miserable day today, with on and off rain and thunder and lightening, and indication of the change in season.  Fortunately, I had no where to go except Starbucks, which was the biggest indicator that it is winter here in Greece.  They now have all the Christmas displays, cups, and music in the store to get you in the holiday mood.  Which is strange because Christmas is not nearly as big a deal here as it is in the states.  They still celebrate it, but Easter is the big one here.

Another way to tell that it is winter is the attire of the natives.  Since space is limited in a typical Greek apartment, they have ways to store everything just so.  High above the closet are cabinets.  These cabinets are high enough that you only want to get into them once or twice a year.  So what goes into them?  Off season clothing.  Winter clothes are stored in here and as soon as it hits a certain point in temperature the summer clothes go up and the winter ones come down.

This does not make much sense to me because I am seeing a bunch of people wearing down coats and it's 70 degrees.  However, I must not make much sense to them because since it is 70 degrees I am wearing shorts.  Which is why I get a lot of stares of people while walking down the street.  But by now I'm used to it because you get a lot of stares here anyway as I guess we are so obviously American.

Here is the storage space (notice the height of the doorway in relation to the cabinets):

      <----- Cabinets

When in Rome...

Over fall break I met up with my parents in Rome, the capital of the once great empire.  It was really fun, but you get "antiquitied out" by the end.  The Vatican, Pompeii, Coliseum, Forum, and catacombs of San Callisto are great, but looking at them in only 3 days is exhausting.  The food was good, but living in the US makes you used to eating Italian (or pseudo Italian in some cases).  There were so many tourists it was crazy!  It seemed like the Brits made up a lot of the tourists.  The problem with the numerous tourists was the lack of control the security guards had over the people.  In the Sistine Chapel the rules are no photos and no talking.  However, they let in so many people that everyone was talking and taking photos.  So they would shush people and then shout "No Pictures!" Not the way the Greeks do it at all.

St. Peter's Basilica 

Outside of the Coliseum.  There was an hour wait in line for tickets, but fortunately we had a Roma Pass that allowed us to walk past the line and go right in. 

Inside the Coliseum, where the cheap seats are.

The Roman Forum

The Terracotta Army that was in the Forum for some reason

The Forum of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background.

The mosaic in the front hall of one of the homes in Pompeii.  It says "Cave Canem" (Beware of Dog)

Field Trip!

The past two weeks have been crazy.  Dikemes organized the field trip for all students to visit some important sites in the Peloponnese as well as Delphi.  We saw Mycenae, Epidaurs, Frankthi Cave, Mystra, Sparta, and Olympia. The sites were amazing and very hard to describe.  It was nice seeing real things growing as the Peloponnese is quite a fertile area. The weather was perfect for this trip and I learned so much.  Here are some pics:

My Professor lecturing on the megalomania of the Mycenaeans in front of their bridge. 

The view from Mycenae 

The ruins of the healing center Epidaurus that was centered around the healing god Asklepius, son of Apollo.

The theatre at Epidaurus, with perfect acoustics and if you drop a coin in the center of the theatre you can hear it all the way up at the top.

Frankthi Cave, where the early inhabitants of Greece lived up until around 3000 BCE and Professor Diamant worked on the site in the 60's when it was first discovered.  Quite the important discovery.

The view of fortified Mystra, a site from the Byzantine era near Sparta, which I did not include a picture as the ancient site is no more and the only thing now is the modern city built in the 1800's. 

The Olympic Stadium (the fourth one) at the site of Olympia where the Olympic Games started in 776 BCE.

The most important site at Delphi, the temple of Apollo.

Apple Pie

On Sunday I decided to make an apple pie.  Now there were several difficulties in getting this accomplished.  I needed a recipe, ingredients, and kitchen supplies as CYA lied about having a fully stocked kitchen.  So I went to the market on Friday and got apples, a sharp knife, and some aluminum pie plates.  I then went to the grocery store and found cinnamon by smelling all the spices and a version of crisco.  Bekah looked up the word for nutmeg and tried to find it at the store, to no avail.

We also had no measuring cups.  So we used my water bottle as a starting point and measured out 8 ml into one of the drinking cups. Kathy then converted the ml into cups and tablespoons.  She also converted the baking temp into celsius.  We managed to get by, though I had to use a wine bottle as a rolling pin.

Another problem with the kitchen was the size.  It is too short for me, so rolling things out and preparing things did not work well as I was hunched over for most of the time.  But in the end the pie turned out fine and according to everyone, it was delicious.

Sounion

Sounion--beautiful Temple of Poseidon and great beaches.  I went there for my birthday celebration, and it was amazing.  Here are some pics of the place:

Kpiti!

Last week Dikemes did a school wide field trip to Crete.  We saw many Minoan sites, which was fun, but if you've seen one, you've seen them all.  On one of the days, we had the afternoon in a town called Matala which had man-made caves containing Roman Sarcophagi.

Queen's room at Knossos 

 

Climb every mountain

So on Saturday my roommates and the Jenns and I decided to climb the little hill near our apartment.  We had talked to a guy who said it only took about 20 minutes, so we figured it wouldn't be so bad.  It isn't bad, if you go before noon.  Alas, we did not and so were hiking up a mountain at 2:00 on a hot Athenian day.  The actual mountain climbing is not as bad, it's the getting there that is the problem.  We climbed so many steps just to get to the base, as you can see below.  There is a pretty Byzantine church on the top of it, and the view is spectacular so it was worth it.  Plus we can now say we did it.

A "candid" shot of us all (minus Marti)

Oh those soccer fans

While walking out of my Greek myth and religion class, I heard loud singing.  To the left of the academic center, right next to the Olympic Stadium, were a bunch of shirtless men.  Apparently, these were Croatians who were quite drunk.  We were told that we should stay away from them and that the police were coming.  From the third floor on the balcony we could see everything that was going on.  Right next to us is the Olympic Stadium where a mob of men decided to congregate, with more coming all the time.  We couldn't figure out why they decided to go there.  These men were gathering there to go to a soccer game that was 20 minutes away and started at 10--5 hours from the time they started to come.    

Eventually the police came, as well as the riot squad with their shields.  Then something happened and beer bottles and chairs were thrown and there were even some arrests. A pretty exciting day.

Photos taken by Becca Lafoy

Mykonooss!!

Last weekend my apartment decided to go and stay at Mykonos, an island east of Athens.  It is a very touristy place with a picturesque downtown and beautiful scenery.  It is also where the final scene of the Bourne Identity is filmed.  The nightlife is especially crazy, with many clubs and bars open until early morning.  Here are some pictures:

A Spaniard, a Frenchman, and a Palestinian walk into a bar...

This past weekend my roommates and I wanted to experience the beaches of Athens.  So we put our suits on and headed to the tram--a ten minute walk to Syntagma Square.  After arriving on the beach, the first thing we noticed were the cigarette butts littering the sand.  Quite gross when you want to lay out your brand new towel (bought from one of the many men walking up and down the beach selling everything from sunglasses to jewelry to floaties).  However, it was a beautiful day and very sunny so we didn't mind too much.  This is the beach we were at:

What you don't see, that is quite clear once you enter the water, is all the trash floating in the lovely sea.  It is disgusting.  Everything is there:  plastic bags, cups and much more.  Once you get out past the waves it gets slightly better, but only slightly.  However, the temperature of the water is very pleasant.  Another thing you don't see is all the rocks on the bottom of the sea floor.  It is quite painful to be on, especially when you have a bum foot.

We did manage to meet some people at the beach.  Our neighbors were quite interesting.  They were from all over (Spain, France, and Palestine) and only just met when they came to the city.  The Spaniard played the guitar very well, and was taught by his dad who was in a mariachi band.  They also had a hookah in their little campsite.  We managed to talk a little bit to them, though they understood very little English.  Marti and Kathy even tried to teach one to swim.

At one point, we buried the Palestinian in the sand, and everyone stopped and stared at what we were doing.  Apparently, they don't do that here.












And now for something completely different:
I got my TB and Chest X-Ray today!  I need to go back to the hospital on Thursday so they can read my results.  The hospital we went to was not nearly as anal about sterilization as the US.  They didn't wear gloves for anything, which upset some of the other students from CYA.  There wasn't any soap in the bathroom and apparently cats were wondering around inside.  The last thing is very common here.  You see stray animals all the time, both cats and dogs.  People feed them so they don't ever starve, and if you are traveling in a bigger group, the dogs will follow you and try to protect you.  We found this out when we went out in a very large group and had dogs following us and barking at cars for us.

διαμέρισμα

Some pics of my super nice διαμέρισμα (diamerisma) or apartment.  Apparently Kolonaki is the rich neighborhood and only recently have middle-class people been moving in.

Cathy and Hannah's room

The living room with a balcony to the right

The view of the street from the balcony 

Cathy(left) and Hannah (right) with their desks

Our tiny kitchen

The bathroom--where you have to throw
out the toilet paper instead of flushing it.
Very gross

The hallway to my room in the back
Bathroom door on the left

My room (bed on the right) with a balcony
overlooking a courtyard

Part of what you see on the balcony