The day the camera died :(

There we were, in Arahova. It started raining very hard, so the four brothers who owned the hotel we were staying at offered to keep us entertained by giving us free wine in the bar/lobby area. We were all hanging out, playing cards, and eating... and then it happened. I asked Lyndsi to take a picture with my camera, and my finger got caught in the arm band of the camera when I was handing it to her, and it fell. This wasn't the first time I've dropped it, but the lens was open, and shifted when it fell on the floor. This was by far the worst moment of the trip for me. I had a beautiful Canon Powershot that took awesome pictures. Who would've thought, the part of the camera that was supposed to keep it safe would play a part in it's ultimate demise?

This is the picture that Lyndsi was asked to take:

I love these guys, but breaking my camera for a picture = NOT worth it.

The camera worked for about a day after it broke, but then wouldn't even stay on after that.

I completely blame myself for this mishap. I was probably just being careless. But it cannot be taken back. I was camera-less for three days before I got a new camera. Here's just a taste of all the missed picture-taking opportunities that resulted: Treasury of Atreus, Acropolis of Mycenae, trip to a workshop (with a presentation on pottery-making), learning traditional Greek dancing, night of dancing in Nafplion, the ancient city of Epidaurus (including it's asklepieion, stadium, abaton, and theatre), archaeological site and museum of ancient Nemea, wine tasting in Corinth :(, overnight ferry to Crete, archaeologicial museum of Heraklion, venetian lion fountain, ancient palace of Knossos, olive oil factory, ouzo hour.

Thankfully, after ouzo hour, Karey, Joe, and I went on a mission and got me a camera! Just in time for our day-trip to Santorini :)

Dancing and Drinking as the Greeks Do

One of the ways in which our group was able to capture the Greek cultural experience was through dancing and drinking as the Greeks do. At one point during our trip, we were able to go watch a group of traditional Greek dancers:

This inspired us all to learn simple versions of some of these dances! One night in Nafplion, at one of our pre-arranged fancy, multiple-course meals, we got to try it out for ourselves:

Greek Dancing! (that's me between Dan and Kyle)

After learning some sweet moves, a lot of the people in our group were inspired to break out into dance at random moments in the trip :) here's a taste of what that was like:

Kristine and Kimi dancing (in their Greece National Soccer Team jerseys) in the middle of a restaurant in Crete

Robyn, Spencer, Andrew, and Karey dancing on the ferry
... Why yes, this was just after Ouzo Hour, why do you ask?

Kat and Molly showing off their skills on the ferry

Besides learning some traditional Greek dancing, we also wanted to try our hands at some traditional Greek drinking! Wine, ouzo, metaxa, raki, and mythos beer, among others, helped make some lasting memories on this trip (for some of the students, these memories are a bit blurry lol):

Drinking and playing cards in the hotel in Arahova
It was POURING rain outside, so they let us hang out in the lobby all night
and drink free wine
Good or bad idea that they gave us endless amounts of wine...
The world may never know.

Our resident Greek girl, Danielle, posing with her Greek beer, Mythos in Santorini

At a wine tasting in Greece :)
Just making sure you can't see through the red wine!
(my camera was broken at this point, so I don't have any cooler pictures,
but you'll get that sad story in the next post)

Joe giving a toast at dinner on the last night of the trip- YAMASSS!!!

  At one point in the trip, a great tradition was started: OUZO HOUR. Although it almost always went on longer than initially intended, this time brought several of the students closer, and gave everyone a chance to hang out with Joe and listen to his stories (the more appropriate topics include the time he spent in Greece in 1986 as a graduate student, things he's noticed on our trip, the myths behind the ancient sites we visited that day). My camera was broken for the first few days that I attended Ouzo Hour, but here are some pictures from some that I was able to capture:

Dan and Brandon at the last Ouzo Hour of the trip

Dan secretly pouring ouzo on the ferry...
(we weren't always allowed to bring our own
ouzo to some places, so this is how we got around that)

...SUCCESS!
(side-note: those blue containers on the table contain THE MOST DELICIOUS juice I've ever had.
And that wasn't just the ouzo talking)

I admit this wasn't the MOST academic part of the trip, but I definitely learned a lot because of these moments. The Greek culture isn't all ancient ruins and artifacts. Some of their traditions are alive and well today. Taking part in their traditional dancing, and having a few sips of their famous assortment of alcohol is just one small part of the traditions they keep today, but it definitely had significance for our group during this trip.

And after all, part of our assignment was to emerse ourselves in their culture, so I definitely think it was logical to dance and drink as the Greeks do ;)

Syntagma Square & the Changing of the Guards

Our hotel in Athens, Hotel Astor, was just a couple blocks away from Syntagma Square, the building of Parliament. Before the start of the trip, this was a bit unsettling, considering the constant discussion of protests going on there on the nightly news in the States. Luckily, as the news often does, this was quite a bit of an exaggeration. On our second day of the trip, Roula took us to Syntagma Square:

Syntagma (or Constitution) Square

Her timing was impeccable, because just as we arrived, we were able to witness the changing of the guards! The guards at Syntagma Square, who wear very interesting traditional garb, take their job very seriously! A man in military uniform even stood by to keep watch and make sure they kept focused (I was unsure of whether or not the military man would appreciate me taking a picture of him, but here's a picture of the Parliamentary Guard!):

Parliamentary Guard- with the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the background

As the intimidating military man kept watch, we witnessed the Parliamentary Guard do an interesting, traditional drill routine of sorts. I'm tempted to call it a fancy dance, but I'd rather not disrespect this tradition (and MAYBE I'm a little scared of the military man... just a little).

After the Guard finished their routine, we were allowed to take pictures with them. The military man walked up, and explained that if we are to opt into taking a picture with the guard, that this is serious business.

NO TOUCHING THE GUARD
NO MAKING FUNNY FACES
NO SALUTING
this is some serious business!!!

The rules we were told to obey made some of us unsure... Were we allowed to smile? How close is too close to the Guard? Do we say thank you, or are we not allowed to speak to them either? If we ask the military man these questions, will he just see as disrespectful Americans who take this all as a joke?

Clearly I didn't get into trouble, so I guess in the end it wasn't that dramatic of a situation lol. Either way, this interaction (if I can even call it that) definitely stood out in my mind, so I thought it deserved a nice little post :)

Trips to the Acropolis

The Acropolis in Athens is one of the only things about Athens that I have learned about in classes before going on this trip. Being a psychology major, learning about such things isn't exactly a priority to my professors, so this makes sense (they don't even explain the history behind the naming of Freud's theory of the oedipus complex!). So, because I felt like I maybe knew A LITTLE about the Acropolis, I was very excited to see it, especially since we weren't able to figure out how to get close to it on the first day of the trip!

I was constantly teased before going to the Acropolis by passing it on bus rides with Yanis the bus driver and Roula Skoula and seeing it behind buildings in Central Athens, but the biggest tease was the fact that the roof of Hotel Astor, where we ate breakfast every morning, came with a view:

After the third amazing day in Greece, we finally went to the Acropolis!!! Once we arrived, Roula first took us to the Theatre of Dionysus. This would be the first of many theatres we'd see on the trip, and would eventually be among the subjects of my paper written at the close of this study abroad trip.

Everyone really badly wanted to sit in what was historically the VIP section of the Theatre (the lower, bigger seats in the front) and go into the area where ancient Athenian actors ran through scenes of beautiful tragedies and hilarious comedies, but neither of these were allowed. Instead, we sat near the front of the acting space, where Roula taught us about the history of this amazing piece of history.

As we entered the Acropolis through the Propylaea, or monumental entrance, we saw something that cannot be missed anywhere in Athens, or most of Greece for that matter- stray dogs (notice how the dogs are unfairly allowed to step into areas that humans are not!).

One of the things we noticed throughout our whole trip in Greece was how precious ruins were to the Greeks- why else would there be scaffolding on so many things?? When we visited the Acropolis, the Temple of Nike was under construction, but luckily for us, a large amount of the scaffolding on the Parthenon had been removed a little over a week before we visited it!

Me and the Parthenon! (Notice the cranes in the background)

One part of the Acropolis that I have never learned about prior to this trip that greatly intrigued me was the Caryatids of the Erechtheion. The Caryatids on the Acropolis are actually copies- the real surviving ones are in the Acropolis Museum, with the exception of one. This one particular Caryatid which is missing just happens to be in the British Museum, and just happens to be the best preserved Caryatid. When I learned of this, I immediately made plans to visit the British Museum, as I had planned on visiting my cousins in England subsequent to the trip. Here is the Caryatid in the British Museum:

Interestingly, the Greeks and the Brits seem to take different perspectives on matters regarding things of the Ancient Greek assortment. I recall Roula not sounding too happy about the British Museum taking items like the best preserved Caryatid, but the Brits take a slightly different perspective. My cousin, as one example, suggested that maybe, JUST MAYBE, the Caryatid in the British Museum was the best preserved BECAUSE the British took it under their wing. I also took a picture in the British Museum of a placard that stated the British Museum's view of their relationship with the Greeks.

When I posted this on Facebook, Kelly commented saying
"Roula would have a FIT if she saw this!"
I'm pretty sure she's right!

Anyways, back to Greece! Two days after our first trip to the Acropolis, Dan, Brandon, Katie, Kristine, and myself joined Joe for a second trip. Before going, we had some delicious €2 gyros for lunch with some of the other SDSU students who were on the trip:

Two Euro Gyros- Found thanks to Hermes, or Ermu! ;)

We thought we could get back into the gates of the Acropolis using our passes from two days before, but apparently this was not the case. So, the first gate we tried to get through didn't let us in. We were very sad:

We did not want to give up. So, we just went around to another gate, and used some elaborate lie that Joe made up about being a group of archaeology students who were there at 11am that day, and were told to come back later because the Acropolis looks so beautiful at sunset.

IT WORKED!!!

This day was definitely one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Hurriedly following Joe around as he wandered around the Acropolis and listening to him tell ancient stories that related to the ground we stood upon was truly amazing. This would be many of the times during the trip that I would think, "Dude. We are in frickin GREECE."

ROULA SKOULA and the Greek Perspective

One of our main goals of this trip (both in the academic and personal sense) was to understand the way the Greeks view their own history and culture. Roula Skoula (pictured in her nifty visor), an intelligent Cretan woman who served as our tour guide, played a big part in this goal.

It was very interesting to get some insight into the way Greeks are taught their history, and how that differs from how other schools of thought view it (Dr. Joseph Smith, or Joe as I know him, as leader of our group and most knowledgable on these matters, helped to fill in gaps in this area).

I'm sure there were plenty of times when there was a curious difference in the way Roula explained some things to us, but a couple stand out in my head:

• Greek coffee tastes curiously similar to Turkish coffee...

(Pictured: Andrew sipping on some "Greek" coffee in Nafplion, with a view of the 999 Steps)

• Also interesting: Roula mentioned several times that the Romans did not alter anything when they went to Greece, but Joe later mentioned that there used to be a statue of Antony and Cleopatra (in a carriage, if I recall correctly, but don't cite me on that!) on the Propylaea, or monumental entrance, of the Acropolis in Athens (pictured)

• And, Roula once mentioned something about the architectural style for mosques being taken from Greek architecture, as if mosques never existed until Muslims came to Greece (I admit, I have some personal bias in this situation, but this blog is from my perspective, so there! lol).

(Pictured: me inside an ancient mosque in Crete)

I hope that whoever reads this won't take it as me saying that the Greeks are different from other cultures in that they may see some their history differently than people outside of their culture. This is NOT the case! I'm sure most, if not all, cultures do this in some way. In fact, there are whole areas of research in communication that study this clashing of histories. And I'm sure some parts of their history align with the way other cultures outside of theirs see it, but to be frank, that's not that interesting!

Learning about the Greek perspective taught me a lot about how everything is seen differently from each culture's (or even each individual's) perspective. I think the best thing to do in this situation is try to understand things from several points of view, like we did this summer.

Maybe one day I'll get the Turkish perspective on coffee! :P

Hello Hellas!

On May 25, 2010, I embarked on a journey that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Upon arriving at Athens Airport in Greece, a group of 8 other students and I took the Metro to Astor Hotel in Athens (our new home for the time being), quickly freshened up, and went on our first adventure through the city. The first place we went to was Syntagma Square, where we watched some protestors!

After, we found a nice cafe to go into so we could have our first authentic Greek lunch and escape from the heat for a while. Then we continued our journey through the city, allowing ourselves to get lost in beauty of the city. I was so excited when we had our first siting of THE ACROPOLIS!

There it was, off in the distance, hidden behind tall buildings and other signs of modern Athenian life. At this moment, we made it our goal to make it there that day... This is as close as we could get LOL:

Even though, for the most part, the 9 of us (Kristine, Dan, Maurice, Katie, Robyn, Alexis, Liz, Kimi, and myself) didn't really know each other, we already started to feel like good friends! It's amazing how people bond so quickly in situations like ours. Dan the MAN even felt comfortable enough to allow us to do this to him!

Once the rest of our study abroad group arrived in Athens, we all made our way through Plaka, the prime shopping area for souvenirs, to a quaint little restaurant, where we would share our first meal. To put things simply, IT WAS DELICIOUSSSS. After we all stuffed ourselves, we took the first group picture of the trip :)

JUST A NOTE: After this post, rather than going through the trip in chronological order, I will go through different aspects of the trip that helped make these three weeks of my life so memorable. This is how things are seen from my perspective, so I've decided this is the best way to approach this whole "blog" thingy :) If this bothers you, I suggest you take the advice of my good friend and fellow lover of Greece, Brandon Braun- "Shut up and read!" :P

Just kidding... kinda. ENJOY!