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 :)
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, February 7, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, February 4, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, November 8, 2010
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.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Electric Lessons
It's been a little over two weeks now and we have blown the main power supply fuse five times! The first day we arrived we blew the fuse within one hour. This has come to show us that we have some lessons to learn about how myself and 7 students will use our computer, do our laundry (washer and dryer), have lights on, and enjoy air conditioning all without knocking out our power. Thankfully I have learned how to change the fuse and short the fuse. Having the knowledge about changing the fuse has proven to be vey helpful in the respect that we don't need to bother HAU after 3:00pm which is when it seems everyone leaves the office for the day.
The loss of electricity can be inconvenient for us, but in some sense I feel it reminds us of home on the FPU Rindge campus where the rural area presents us with frequent power outages in the winter months. The resourcefulness and a Uluru of the students to make fun out of a power outrage has shown in one occasion where I retuned from fixing the fuse and found everyone enjoying a "light show" in the dark to the beat of some electronic music. Everyone was enjoying he show so much that we kept the circuit breakers off for a few more shows.
The loss of electricity can be inconvenient for us, but in some sense I feel it reminds us of home on the FPU Rindge campus where the rural area presents us with frequent power outages in the winter months. The resourcefulness and a Uluru of the students to make fun out of a power outrage has shown in one occasion where I retuned from fixing the fuse and found everyone enjoying a "light show" in the dark to the beat of some electronic music. Everyone was enjoying he show so much that we kept the circuit breakers off for a few more shows.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The Start and Arrival
 |
| View from the deck outside my bedroom window |
Its finally here, we are in full swing for starting the study abroad trip in Athens Greece! Monday at 10am the whole group met at the FPU campus to discuss last minute details and prepare for the trip. We had discussion groups about skills that will be used while traveling, and asked the students to come up with thoughts about what to expect in introvert and extrovert situations (i.e. how will they interact while abroad, and what will their internal dialog be like). Notes of the discussions were taken so the students can look back and see if their expectations meet what they really experienced. At the end of the study abroad we will ask them to fill out a survey asking them to reflect on their experience and share their thoughts.
The bus ride into Boston went well, though we did have a brief moment of panic when we hit traffic on I90 and had a little less than 2 hours from our 9:40pm flight time. Moving through check in and security at the airport was quicker than I have ever experienced which was a relief since it left us enough time to grab a bite to eat, relax for a bit, and make some last minute phone calls to say see you latter, Ill call your from Greece.
We had a connecting flight in Zurich the airport was very nice and modern; it was quite large too. At one point we had to take an underground automated train from our arrival terminal to our departure terminal where we passed through security again and customs as we officially entered Europe. Our flight from Zurich to Athens was slightly delayed since the mechanics were installing new tires on the plane. We had boarded the plane and could see the tire being changed, after sitting on the plane for a bit the pilot came over the intercom and said the pit crew needed to change the tire on the right side of the plane too since the one on the left had been changed. Oh well at least it was just a minor delay and we would be on our way.
The landing in Athens was a little tense as the plane had a sensation of being pushed sideways; there was a fair amount of left to right correction going on as the pilot was lining us up for the landing. Once we touched down there was a round of applause from the passengers and a sigh of relief (maybe they were just clapping since they were happy to be in Greece).
Upon arriving at the Sina apartment (the one I am staying in with the students), we were given a brief tour of the apartment by our driver who had picked us up at the airport (he works for the school we are partnered with). The place is nice and has plenty of room for all eight of us. The furniture looks like it’s from the 70's but is still adequate for what we need, and everyone is very pleased with it. Within the first 45minutes of being in the apartment we had our first power issue, we had overloaded the circuit and ended up blowing the main fuse located on the power meter of our apartment. I called the Hellenic American University and had them send a person over to help resolve the power issue. The man who drove us from the airport to the apartment showed up and worked on the issue for about one hour, then we were back in business (with a bit more of a power conservation mentality). Turns out the electric water heater combined with the air conditioning units will draw too much power and put us in the dark. Now we know and we will be conscious of what we turn on.
I am off now to explore more of this wonderful apartment!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)