A random and interesting day in Athens

Today started with waking up to the sound of drywall being ripped out and smashing into the floor, or should I say ceiling above me. Even though most of the workforce in Athens is on strike today, This one carpenter was diligent in his work; waking us up at 7 AM. I was lying in my bed listening to the sound of the hammer hit a chisel followed by a smashing  and crumbling of what I can assume was drywall. It honestly sounded like the ceiling was crumbling and all the pieces were smashing into my bedroom floor.

Once I decided to get up I want out onto my balcony like I do every morning and saw one street down from mine there was a sea of people marching in protest on route to Syntagma Square. The crowd of protesters is moving slow and steady with banners and flags, some even had bullhorns and lead chants in unison. The protest was meant to have peaceful intentions as the people want their government to know that the working class shouldn't have to pay for the mistakes of others. The protesters reached Syntagma square and shortly after some people began taking advantage of a large crowd and decide to start throwing fire bombs at police officers along with rocks and other debris. The police retaliate by throwing tear gas grades into the crowd, quickly dispersing the protesters who have no intentions of clashing with the Police.

Leader of the Pack

Walking around Athens one will quickly realize there are many stray dogs, and if here long enough one will notice the dogs seem to have their own regular locations. In my opinion its nice to see the dogs around, especially when they are friendly. I have noticed the dogs particularly do not like motorbikes, they take any chance they can to bark at a motorbike causing the driver to slow down and sometimes shut off the bike. A late night walk home past some stray dogs can easily result in having a pack of dogs accompanying you all the way to your final destination.

Last night when I was walking back to my apartment there was a pack of four dogs that followed us all the way back to our place. They would trot along infront of us and would show agression against any person or vehicle that came within our range. This was interesting to see since all we did was show a little attention to the dogs by petting them when we first saw them; then from that point on they were protective of us. At one point on the walk back there was a man coming down the sidewalk towards us, the dogs began barking at him and running toward him. The man was startled by this sight and ran the oposite direction, swatting at the dogs as he tried to get away. Unfortunately one of the dogs jumped up and bit the  man in the arm. After he was bit the dogs backed off and the man walked away holding his arm and checking to see the damage. The dogs had barked at many other people prior to coming across this man, but they did not bite the people since they had just kept walking at a normal pace. I guess if one is looking for their own security escort while walking in Athens then take a moment to befriend a stray dog.

The stray dogs here are taken care of well, most have a colar with a tag on it indicating the dog has been vaccinated and documented. It is common to walk around and find bowls of dog food and water left out for the dogs to eat. At one point along our walk we came across a spot where food and water was left out; we paused for a bit so our pack could enjoy the sidewalk meal. I know in the future when I am walking home I will take a moment to befriend a stray dog and have it walk me back to my place.

First View on the Ground

I found this photo the other day. It was the first photo I took once we arrived in Athens. The weather has been getting better from that day forward :)

Party at the Taverna

Last night I had a great evening out with Robin, Eileen, George, Oxana, Ioanna, and Robins Greek friends at a small taverna. The taverna is owned by Robins friend Stravos, its a nice little place tucked away on a side street. The evening began with all of us gathered around the table having conversations about various topics some of which were discussing an attempted merger by Aegean Airlines and OlympicAir, another was about programing of control systems used for automated loading of fuel trucks.
Since it was Robins birthday he received some gifts from friends. One of the gifts was from Ioanna and it was a copy of a book she had translated called Bead by Bead. The book goes in depth about Greek Komboloi beads ("worry beads"). The book is beautifully illustrated and reads well as it gives the history of these beads that seem to be used by a majority of the Greeks.

The meal we had at Stravose was an assortment of many home made style Greek dishes. The presentation of the food is basic but the uniqueness of each dish reminds me that I am in a whole new culture. One of the dishes that stands out in my mind was the small fish that were fried and piled up on a serving dish. One eats the fish whole, the bones are so small that there isn't a need to worry about eating them. Along with the food we had some good drinks, mostly wine but we also enjoyed some Geek Tsipouro.

The celebration of Robins birthday along with the company of his friends from the area, and some delicious Greek food was very enjoyable. Our evening ended in the early morning hours, and Stravose was nice enough to offer us a ride back to the apartment. Robin and I climbed into Stravose's small car along with Stravose's daughter and wife as he set out to drop us at our apartments.

Classes Start

Today students had their first "Athens Across the Ages"  class with Ioanna (pronounced Yoaana). The class focuses on significant historical events in Greece with a focus on politics, art, philosophy, and religion bron in the city of Athens. Education of this course will be gained in the classroom, archeological sites, musesums, and trips sights in Delphi, Mycenae, Meteora, Epidauros, Nauplio, and others to be determined later. For the first day of class the students were brought to the Benaki Museum where Ioanna discussed the significance of some of the pieces that were on display. Going into a museum with Ioanna as a guide is always a pleasure, she picks out the most important pieces in the collection and gives us more information about the piece beyond what the plaque below the piece has to say. I am looking forward to seeing more exhibits with Ioanna this semester since I was not able to attend many of the trips during the last semester.

Our whole group also had its first Greek language lessons today. This is a first for our program and even with just one day past I can already see it is going to be very rewarding for everyone. If only we weren't so tired from staying up until 5:00am to watch the Super Bowl the night before. I personally have started using Rosetta Stone in an effort to learn more of the language. My goal is to have some basic conversations in Greek with some of the people I have met from this country. Learning the Greek language is especially interesting because the alphabet they use is so different from English. It will be rewarding to look at these foreign characters and be able to decipher what they mean. We are going to have two hours of Greek language lessons every day for our first two weeks. Wish us luck with the Greek lessons, maybe I will share some words in the future.

Day One in Athens Greece for Spring 2011 Group

A new semester is upon us, with our flight from Boston to Athens behind us now the adventures and need to quickly think on our feet has already put to the test. The stop over in London kept us on our toes with a a slight mixup that found two and myself scrambling to get their suitcases that were accidentally not checked all the way through to Athens. Turns out the person who entered their information at the Boston counter thought they were just going to London. I have to give some thanks to one of the London customs assistance who was empathetic after I told him about our situation and recognized our risk of missing a flight and quickly bumped us to the front of a line that would have otherwise taken 30-40 minutes to get through. Another helpful person we encountered in London was the women at British Airways luggage check in. She too was considerate of our situation and though she would have had to charge one of the students again for luggage that was too heavy, she instead urged us to move items from the luggage into other bags in order to get the weight down effectively avoiding an extra charge.


Arriving in Athens was glorious, the students though tired seemed to have a shot of energy as the idea of living in Athens suddenly became real life. The cab ride from the airport to the apartment was fast a filled with sights of motor bikes dodging in and out of the traffic, squeezing between cars. Though they seem almost invincible we did see the results of the risk taken on a motor bike as we passed by a recent accident scene where a girl on a moped had been hit by a car. She was laid out on the ground and seemed to be moving as she received attention from others at the scene.


Walking into the apartment everyone moved from one room to the next in our four bedroom two bathroom apartment, the moment of awe came when we walked through the french doors out to our balcony and took in the view of central down town Athens and the terra-cotta roof tiles on the building adjacent to us. Ideas of how to best use the balcony were excitedly brought up by everyone. The one idea that seemed most appealing was to place a table on the balcony so we can enjoy breakfast outside when the temperature warms up.


After taking a much needed nap, the five (soon to be six) of us who live in the Sina street apartment walked over to the Zoodochou Pigis apartment so we could meet up for dinner at a near by Greek restaurant. We ordered a bunch of small appetizers and a few of the main dishes and shared everything on the table. All of the food was delicious, the one dish that got the most attention and questions asked about was the Saganaki (fried kasseri cheese) appetizer. The cheese was salty and had a sharp cheese flavor. I personally squeezed some of the lemon juice onto the cheese and found it citrus taste paired with the cheese to be very good. Other dishes we had included Tzatziki (another favorite on the table), Pork  and Chicken Souvlaki, Fried Zucchini, "Greek Meatballs" (Kaftethes), Sausage (like Kielbasa), and Fava Bean spread. Needless to say not one person went home hungary, and we even had a little left over to get a second taste latter.

Guys Lunch

The time here if flying by quickly, this coming weekend we will be going to Egypt and in most of our minds this marks the final leg of the semester abroad. Recently one of the students was in the hospital for about one week. During that time many of the students visited the student, over the time period I visited the student every day. During one of the visits he and I discussed getting all of the guys together and heading out to grab lunch at a familiar restaurant. When we left the apartment it was empowering as we all walked together on our way to eat lunch together. The whole group of us moving through the streets felt like we were locals heading out to enjoy out city. The lunch went well, and I think everyone enjoyed each others company, we really should do that more often.