lesvos the fabulous.... kinda.

as i write, i am sitting in the main "lodge" in Vostala hotel in Thermi, Lesvos in Greece. It is amazingly beautiful here. The hotel is right on the beach and the weather had been great, warm but with enough wind to make the heat and sun very livable.

Since I last updated a lot of stuff has been happening. the old new first:

We visited the Acropolis before mom arrived. The picture to the left is Clariece overlooking onto the theater of Dionysus which is on the south slope of the Acropolis. we were all really excited about getting to "perform" i.e. read Lysistrata on the steps of the theater where Aristophanes plays were originally performed. Clariece geeked out over reading there for at least two days prior to actually even being there. She was unbearable to be around...

The Parthenon was amazing. Ever since I was little, I've wanted to come and see the Erectheon and Parthenon. To the far left, there is the Erectheon, in particular the women pillars. And even though we could not get up close, they were amazing. You can see a lot of detail even in my photos. The Parthenon was a spectacular as I'd hoped , partially because I'm pretty sure I built it up in my mind- just like my experience with Stonehenge. However, after hearing a presentation on it by some girls in my class, it became much more interesting. Apparently, there are no straight lines in the vertical construction because otherwise it would be a monstrosity of hugeness.

We also went to the Agora, both the ancient Greek and Roman versions. However the only real piece of architecture left whole and standing was the Temple of Hephaestus which was located near the metal working workshops in the ancient times. Kinda obvious but yeah, there it was. Anyways, some of the objects/artifacts found there are really cool. There was a water clock, a lottery mechanism, and foundations of the (kinda) only temple that is dedicated to more than one god called the temple of the 12 gods and is dedicated to all the gods of the Parthenon.

After taking two finals, one being a push over and the being karavas-ish, everyone rushed home to pack and then, 2 hours later, we hopped the metro to Piraeus and then took a 12 hours ferry (horrible and yet immensely entertaining and enlightening b/c most people were super trashed) and then arrived in Lesbos at 7 AM, only to be ushered without sleep to breakfast and then for a four hour walking tour of Thermi and then a huge barbeque dinner with everyone in all of Thermi invited. this was only our saturday.

Sunday, our professors had planned to make us go on this long 13 ours tour of the entire island, however we convinced them to let us have our first day off in a month. Yesterday was spent, for everyone else, swimming and reading and hanging out. I watched some TV on my computer with a couple other people and then deleted my entire itunes library so i spent a goodly amount of time trying to restore a semblance of order to my music library. 13 hours later i went to bed.

Our classes this month are actually just one. Modern Aegean Culture with excursions to the local towns and Turkey as well. We also are experiencing archaeological digs which although we had high expectations for them, the first day was a real bust, in which Kugler received many complaints. What bothered me the most was when we tried to sit there and talk to him and voice our concerns with the program, we felt like we were being brushed off. He even had the gall to say to us "you can't experience the Greek experience by yourselves." Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's exactly what is supposed to happen. If he honestly felt that way then WHY DID WE NOT SPEND LAST SEMESTER LEARNING ABOUT MODERN GREEK CULTURE! but no- instead we took ancient Greek religions which has been no help at all by the way. All we need here is a cursory knowledge of Greek myths.

anyways, sorry for the rant and long period of no posts. hopefully there'll be another one up soon. but honestly they keep us running around all the time.

update on lesvos and finals

so apparently i do have internet access on lesvos, in the rooms in fact and wireless.

finished one of my finals, the art and archaeology one. easy. forgot two things. oops. oh well. A here i come.

and i'm back

sorry for the prolonged period of absence. however, i was productive during my absence. I finished the paper that had been looming aver my head for the past week. and i got my grade back from my midterm-- an A- thank you very much.

mom and alex were here this weekend and they took me and my friends out for two meals and we had a bunch of fun. they even brought me presents. i got a couple of things that i asked mom to bring me, a few movies, a pair of shorts, a shirt, messenger bag, and then she gave me a new dragon charm ( i am a sucker for a dragon). Alex gave me a copy of a cycladic figuring. a very cool gift even for re-gifting.

I was sick yesterday for no particular reason. i tried to get up and go to class but i just couldn't another girl, Consuello, is sick today. something must be going around. i hope no one else gets sick.

finals are tomorrow, which just blows my mind. and i hate it when teachers teach up until the day of the final with no time to go over things, review, or answer questions except in her office. and then not everyone gets the same information, arg- it makes me mad.

after finishing finals i have to go buy a pair of sandals and then pack for lesbos b/c WE LEAVE TOMORROW! but, i don't know what my Internet situation is going to be on lesbos so calling me is going to be the best way to keep in contact. (see contact info link on the right for the number)

hopefully, there'll be some sort of Internet in lesbos, however if there isn't- FEAR NOT- for i shall take many pictures.

midterm done, presentation done... but the paper still remains

I took Karavas' midterm on Monday and it wasn't too bad. he said he wanted us to have a gist of what the main themes and events were and I dare say that I have a very frim grasp of these topics. For his midterm he gave us six questions and then gave us 2 hours to answer them. I chose to write about why Constantine espoused Christianity and why did it spread so fast as well as answering what made the western roman empire fall and what kept the eastern roman empire from falling.

I just gave my presentation on Women and Deomcracy in class with Emma and I'm really gald to have it done. with the test and presentation done all I have left to focus on is my paper due monday and washing my clothes.

today is Gussi's (my room mate's) 21st birthday, so Carolyn and I bought her one of her favorite pastries and woke her up singing "happy birthday" and presented it to her on a plate with a candle in it.

making dinner for people has been a lot of fun. they also don't pressure em to cook which is a good thing because somedays i don't have time. but tonight I am making Shepard's (retarded little brother) pie. why the retarded little brother? well, it's just the ingredients and i'm not twice baking it. oh well.

a week ago i made hamburgers but could n't find buns so we put them on pita and my room mates had feta with it. then we listened to the "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. we decided that this was the perfect combination of Greek and American cultures. we're nerds at my house.

new links and pictures

there are new links up in the right side tool-bar. just click on the photo button and it'll take you to another site. from there you can click on the subheadings in the left hand tool-bar.

a link to Carolyn's blog is up.

and also a link to schedules and itineraries. from there you can see where i'll be for the day as well as where I am going. click on the subheadings in the left hand tool-bar to find the month you're looking for.

cap-stone project & problems with free travel

yesterday Kugler was passing around a sign up sheet so he could talk to us about our cap-stone projects and I, being the intelligent and clever individual that I am, took the first stop so that I could have my choice out of the way because I figured a bunch of people would want this topic. I have been really fascinated with the Greek Orthodox Church here because of all the weird little rituals and traditions that they have. like i mentioned in my post about Delphi, all these weird traditions are still around that have roots in the Greek pantheon as well as other polytheistic religions. for example people don't like it when you pose next to ancient artifacts because it angers the gods.... I thought Greeks were monotheistic? there are lots of little instances like this though and I want to know if they are aware of the origins and why these traditions are perpetuated.

recently, an email was forwarded to us by the college putting a stop to many of the destinations that people were going to be traveling to for their week of free travel. initially, I was planning to spend the week in Santerini, but decided that it was too expensive and would be better served as a weekend trip. Clariece, Chris and I were then planning to make a tour of a few cities in Eastern Europe- namely: Istanbul, Bucharest, and Budapest. we are still peeved about this, especially because we had just talked to Kugler that day and he gave us the go ahead. apparently their logic is that this is a general culture trip and that travel should be limited to Greece and Turkey. however, if this is true why is travel to Italy limited? some of the best archaeological evidence of ancient civilizations is found in Rome and its surrounding areas.

now we have to figure out where we'll be going. poor larry (the head of the overseas department). he's going to be receiving many emails with complaints.

p.s. if anyone has any recipes WITH NO CHEESE please email them to me. i need a new menu.

photos that aren't so important

hiya all!!! thanks for the comments I love reading them and they keep me pumped to update. And so, in thanks, here's a little treat.

I've started post the pictures I've taken of museum trips I've been atteneding for classes up onto this site: click me! So far, only some photos from the Cycladic Museum are up, but soon more fill follow. I just need to finish my midterm, my paper, and my presentation.

a semester's worth of two classes within a month

arg. I am kinda burned out from my classes.

I have Art and Archaeology from 8:30AM - 12:00PM and then Power and Religion: History of the Byzantine Empire from 2:00PM - 5:00PM, with lunch somewhere inbetween. Although neither on of these classes are particularly hard it's the time spent walking to and from the school as well as the time spent in transit to the many museums and sites within the city on top of all the reading assigned, making our own food, studying for our midterm and writing and researching for our papers.

By the way, our midterm exam is on Monday and our paper due a week after that. Then there are two more papers due when we get back from Lesbos... the question is: how do we write these papers while we're in Lesbos with no computers, internet access, or library access? ... I have no idea either.

The worst part about the classes is that they are supposed to be air conditioned- but I don't feel a thing. It's too hot here.

Niccola Wardle teches Art and Archaeology. She is a portly English woman with a quirky sense of humor, often delighting in the most random of archaelogical finds, in which she credits its creation for the amusement of children (toys or dollhouses). Not surprising seeing as she has two small children, five and 16 months. I was in her group for the taverna dinner and found myself laughing for the majority of the evening. Her eldest is going to be trouble, especially because Niccola keeps positively reinforcing her for interrupting lectures at the museum, often stopping to pick her up or give her something to play with. She was married to an Arab muslim and is recently divorced because of his midlife crisis of faith. Her parents and god-mother are all prominent archaeologists themselves and she was raised on digs (often bored out of her skull).

John Karavas is a completely different story. A greek man schooled at Oxford in England, his accent is very difficult to place. He specialized in knowledge of the Early Roman Emprie's Army, but is teaching Byzantine history- no idea why. He is very good looking, but insecure I think as shown by his nervous pacing before evey class. According to the gossip around here he's either recently divorced (again) or recently married. Probably divorced since there is no ring on his finger nor any tan line suggesting one. He wears tight pants and shirts, smoke cigarettes and is damn sexy. A few days ago he came back form the weekned with a couple of days worth of facial hair- the joke has been he was either coming down from a heroin high or was binge drinking and bar hopping all weekend. He finally shaved yesterday. He looks much better clean shaven.

Funny thing is the Kugler also shaved off his beard. I don't really know what to make of him without the beard...

**EDIT*** It turns out Karavas is married (he takes off his ring before class- odd) and his wife was out of town this past weekend so he was out having fun. Apparently she got two days ago and now he's in the dog house. ***END EDIT***

apartment photos courtesy of Clariece:

This is the view from our balcony off of our common room. Kolonaki is a beautiful neighborhood. and if you look very carefully you can see the monastery that wakes us up every morning at seven just to the the left of the tree.















our common room- with the curtains drawn.
















our closet- complete with Christmas tree




















and our very small kitchen.

delphic friday

Last Friday was amazing. Prof. Kugler had scheduled a trip to Delphi for all day Friday, but first we stopped at this amazing Byzantine church (circa 10th century CE). The structure itself was amazing although a portion of it was under construction and so scaffolding was scattered around some of the walls. There were actually two churches and between the two was the tomb of St. Lucas who apparently heals people who spend the night at the church. I think the Orthodox Greek church is so weird.







Legends like this one hark back to the pantheon of ancient Greek gods, where the god Aesculapius healed those who spent the night in his temple and left an offering. Apparently there are many of these little connections within the Orthodox Greek Church.




After spending an hour or so playing in the courtyards, terraces, and monastery halls we piled back onto the bus for another hour to Delphi.


On the way it began to rain. It continued to rain through our tour of the museum at Delphi and through the Agora and the Temple of Apollo all the way up to the top of our climb to the stadium.




Where we took a couple of group photos. As you can see the rain had cleared up but everything was still wet and slippery.

Finally, at the stadium we climbed down all the marble steps to reach the temple of Athena and abled around down there until it was time to go.

I can see why the ancient Greeks and Romans had an Oracle at Delphi because, especially with the rain, it becomes a mysterious place.

the greek life for american students

All CYA students are living in apartments spread across central Athens. L&C students were given apartments in the fabulous district of Kolonaki, which is where many of the embassies (including our own) are located along with the more trendy shops and little parks full of trees, statues, and non-working fountains.

I live with Carolyn, Gussi, Clariece, and Amanada. Gussi and I are rooming together, while Clariece and Carolyn share and room and Amanda has a room to herself. Besides the three bedrooms, our apartment comes equipped with a small but serviceable kitchen (complete with pots, pans, utensils, and plates), a small living room (two chairs, a couch, and a coffee table) with veranda doors that open onto a fabulous balcony which is always in constant use, a decent sized bathroom for five girls, and a few miscellaneous closets, one of which contains a fake Christmas tree.

The flooring is either fabulous wood planks or awful 60's orange-ish laminate. The walls are stark white, but all that does is give us room to decorate. The ceilings are very high, probably 10-12 feet with crown-molding. The stairwell floor and steps are composed completely of marble, as is most of Greece's stairs.

Besides the inside space, the outside is what truly makes our apartment the best of the bunch. The balcony opens up to a fabulous view of a small cathedral, who's bells woke us up Sunday morning at a very ungodly hour, as well as the many trees that line our street. There is a little garden/yard area before the gate to out apartment in which three cats reside. We've named them εφαρσςτη, παρακαλο, and τιροπιτα- "Thank-you" (the papa- all grey with black stripes), "Please" (the momma- grey and black stripes with a cream belly and paws), and "Cheese-pie" (who is the kitten- fluffy and all grey with black stripes).

There is also a great little market and grocery about a black away which has almost everything that we'll need. There are also tons of restaurants, bars, kiosks, miscellaneous stores, and cafes. The only problem, which really isn't a problem considering that we receive a per-diem, is that they can be a very expensive compared to the remainder of Athens.

However, the neighborhood is beautiful, the apartment is beautiful, the city is amazing and I have everything I need (if not everything I desire- namely wireless Internet access in our apartment) and this is going to be an experience that I will never forget.

contact information

should you care to contact me, here is a page with all the necessary information you might need.

http://abroadinathens.wetpaint.com/page/Contact+Info

a now a word from our correspondent in Athens, Greece

hi *waves*

i am alive and fine in Athens!!!! sorry there has been no communication since i left on Thursday, but i can't call out on my phone without incurring huge charges and i have only had access to the Internet as of yesterday with not much time available to utilize it.

my first day in Greece was awful. we finally landed after almost 24 hours of travel and found our luggage without too much trouble after hearing many skeptical comments about our bags actually arriving in Greece with us. After hailing a taxi to the Kugler's (our professor from L&C) Carolyn and I found out where we lived and who we lived with. Then came the long, hot walk to our apartment. Normally the walk isn't that bad. However, we had to drag our bags up hill about 12 blocks in the worst heat of the day. Upon arrival we promptly sat our selves down, gulped down water, and didn't move for a half an hour. Then we tried and failed to unpack and instead turned up the air conditioning and fell asleep for an hour. I then woke up and was sick, but had to force myself to get ready to walk to CYA (College Year in Athens). When we returned home we fell asleep.

Over the next couple of days everyone arrived and settled into their apartments. Hopefully I'll put pictures of mine up here soon, i.e. whenever I feel like bringing my computer down to CYA so I can get wireless Internet access.

As it stands, I'm having a blast. I've been making dinner for me and the other residents of my apartment almost every night and tonight we're going out for our first Greek meal.

Yesterday signaled the start of our school year. I have Art and Archeology from 8:30-12:00 and Religion and Power: Byzantine History 2:00-5:00 Monday through Friday. Our teachers are very funny with quirky senses of humor and a lot of enthusiasm for their respective areas of expertise. It looks like this month is going to be jam packed but immensely entertaining.