It's been a while!

Well it's been a while since I last wrote on here. I've been pretty busy. Let's see well I got a new computer (my parents brought it when they visited). So both my brothers also visited. It was great to see everybody and to show them around and then to also go to Rome. I took hundreds of pictures haha I'm going to try to post some in this blog if it works. 

Lets see what else? Well I then had a field trip to Olympia and Delphi which was pretty cool. It was basically for my athletics class because those are sites of the Ancient Athletics so it was pretty cool to see that. I really enjoyed Delphi because it was gorgeous situated in the mountains. Then the next weekend I went to Thessaloniki with my Byzantine Art class. I really enjoyed Thessaloniki it was smaller then athens and it was more of a student age city. If that makes any sense? Also it is situated right on the water and has a lot of beautiful churches and places to visit and walk around. In Thessaloniki I discovered my love for crepes. haha. I ate a crepe a day while I was there. I actually ate a whole lot in Thessaloniki. One night a friend and I went to a taverna dinner (I ate basically a whole chicken), then we got a crepe (nutella and banana) and then we got gelado haha but it was all delicious.

Anyway the weather here has been warming up and ive actually worn shorts a couple times. Its very sunny and hot out. Allison is flying in tonight and then we are going to Santorini for the weekend. Next week we will go back to Spain and I am excited to meet everybody where she has been living. 

Well I've been starting to have some work too actually. haha. So I have been busy with writing a couple of papers. I only have like 6 weeks left here which is hard to believe because it seems that it has gone by so fast! 

My computer Died!

Well I have written anything because my computer crashed so thats why its been a while. Hmmm I have really just been up to classes and stuff and still getting use to living in Athens. Last week I went on field trip with my one class to Osios Lukas its basically a monastery in the mountains. Its was very pretty and I took some pictures but I cant upload them because I dont have my own computer.
This past weekend a lot of people went away but I ve been hanging out with a couple of people. Today we went to the beach. It was about 60 and sunny so it wasnt to bad and we just wanted to check it out. It was basically a 40 min ride on the tram and I'm sure I will go back especially when it starts getting warmer.
So my family is coming to visit in less then a week! I'm pretty excited to show them around and all and to see them (and to get a computer that works!). Well I just wanted to write a quick little something to inform everyone why I hadnt written in a while and when I get a computer I will try to post some pics of the past couple weeks.

Argolid Trip!

Alright so its been a couple of busy days since I last posted. Last weekend we went on a class trip to the Argolid. It was awesome. We stayed in Nauplion for the two nights and then took bus trips to different sites.

The first group of pictures is from Nauplion and views from around the town. Nauplion is one of the most beautiful cities/more of town (besides islands in Greece, at leasts thats what I've heard). It was a really nice small town type place. Now the pictures are a lil out of order but the first one is in the castle that is on the mountain behind Nauplion. The second picture is the castle from below and the third picture is the scene of Nauplion from the Castle. The castle is very high above the city and there is a set of stairs one can take to reach up to it. There are exactly 999 stairs. I didnt climb them up but we did climb down them and let me tell you that was a lot of stairs.

The next picture is a picture of the Corinth Canal.

The next group of pictures is from Mycenae. First there is a picture of the famous Lion Gate which I was very excited to see in person after seeing it so many times in a classroom. This was the main gate to the site of Mycenae. The next picture is of the Treasury of Atreus (actually a tomb) and another thing I was pretty excited to see in person. The lintel block above the door weights about 120 tons so have fun trying to figure out how they moved that thing into place haha. The next picture is a view off of the actual site of Mycenae back towards the Argolid plain.

Another cool thing we did at Mycenae was we went into a cistern (which was dug the believe to be a source and hold water for the city) The cistern is about a hundred feet under the ground at a pretty sharpe angle and we had the oppurtunity to go down in it. It was absolutly pitch black and extremely cool. I have pictures which I will have to show later.

Next are pictures from Francthi Cave. The first is a picture of the view around the cave, if you look on the left of the picture you see land that sticks out into water, this is where we had to walk around to get to the actual site of the cave. This is a site where my professor was one of the major archeaologists during the 1970's? Here they were able to dig three trenches with one even getting down to the water table into which they were digging into layers from 30,000 BCE! My professor is a really awesome guy and it was great to be able to visit this site because he spent a large amount of his life here so he basically knows everything haha.

The next group of pictures is from Epidarous. This is where the famous Theatre of Epidarous is. This place is absolutly amazing. The proportions are based off the golden ratio (wikipedia it) and the building is built absolutly flawless which is very impressive. Not only are the proportions/ building aspects perfect but the acoustics in the theatre are absolutly amazing. From every seat (even the furthest back seat - i know cause we tried) you can hear a person on the stage whispering. And you can hear it perfectly - it is amazing. The landscape around it is absolutly beautiful and peaceful as the theatre is basically built into the landscape.

Overall the trip to the Argolid was awesome and it was great to see things in person that I had only seen in classes before and these places are extremely amazing to witness in person. Overall it was a great trip and I was also glad that I was able to watch a lot of the NBA allstar even stuff when i got back on sunday. haha

Busy Couple of Days

So I know its been a while since I have last posted but I have had a couple of busy days.

Well lets see so last Wed. Allison came to visit. I went to classes and then after class went to the airport on the Metro to meet Allison. It was a pretty simple task just to get on Metro and then ride to airport. I met allison at the arrivals gate and it was great to see her. We spend the Metro ride back talking about her previous trips throughout spain and looking at pictures. I was/am really grateful that she came to visit me. I think the first night I took her to get her first taste the the greek gyros haha. We of course made a couple more trips to the gyro place throughout her visit. On thursday I had a couple classes but after classes with a couple of my friend we tried to go to the Acropolis. Although the Acropolis was closed we were able to climb the Aeropagus and had a great view of the whole city as well as a beautiful sunset. (The last two pictures above are the view and picture of the sunset. That evening allison and I went out to a nice dinner place and then hung out with some of my friends.

Friday we rested a lot mainly because the weather was pretty yucky and we were planning on going to an island on sat. But when we went to go to island the Metro was closed so Allison and I decided to just go back to the Acropolis. This time we were able to get up closer and climb up to the builidings. Its really awesome to see the stuff in person. We saw the Propaylia, the Parthenon, and the Erectheion. Its really crazy and interesting to see things that I have only seen in textbooks on projectors in dark rooms for the past couple years, in person. I have taken a bunch of pictures but cant post them all here put some of the ones I have taken i posted above of the acropolis. the dog picture is classic athens... stray dog sleeping everywhere even at the foot of the Parthenon. haha

On Sunday Allison and I then decided to embark on the climb of Lycabettus Hill, which is right behind Kolonaki. This is the highest point in the city of Athens (i think) so it is probably the most beautiful view and best view of the entire city. You can ever see the water and the port of Piraeus from up this high. (I posted a couple pics above of allison and i and from the top. There is a church on top of the mountain as well as a restaurant. For dinner that night Allison had seen a flyer for a simply burgers place (its basically a fuddruckers) and since I love hamburgers I talked allison into going. Haha it had pretty good burgers and I really enjoyed going there.

On monday morning allison had to fly back so we woke up pretty early and i rode the metro back with her. We hit a lil bad luck cause we had to switch trains a couple times due to some difficulties or something but we survived and were able to make it to airport ontime. haha. it was sad seeing allison leave cause it seemed like time just flew by with her here but i really appreciate how she came and really enjoyed the time we had together. I am very excited for her to visit again (for longer in April) and to then go visit Granada with her for my spring break!

So this week has been a pretty normal week. For one of my classes we went to the National Archeaological Museum and once again it was great seeing things I had seen in previous classes in person. Tomorrow we are leaving for the Argolid and I am pretty excited because I will get to see more stuff in person that I have learned about such as the Treasury of Atreus and the Lion's Gate. We are going until Sat. so its an over night trip. Hopefully the weather will be alright but I have heard it might rain or even snow? I dont know.

Well I will probably post and have more pictures after the trip to the Argolid this weekend.

Overall I am really enjoying myself here. All the it can be a little difficult/frustrating with the language barrier (although most ppl do speak english- its mainly like signs/packages in grocery store) I actually have come to kind of enjoy it and not mind it. I feel like I am continuing to get more independent and able to survive on my own haha (like buying groceries and cooking dinner). Overall Athens is beautiful and I enjoy exploring and seeing more things everyday.

Second Weekend in Athens

So its been a pretty busy couple of days. The pictures above are in backwards order kind of but I ll explain them in a little bit. First on Friday me and a couple of my friends explored Syntagma a little bit and then decided to try the metro out a little more and once we got on we kind of decided to just go to Piraeus (the main port). We thought we should just go check it out and see the water. So we arrived in Piraeus and then walked around a little there by the water which is full of a large number of huge ferry boats. Then something exciting/scary (not necessarily scary) haha but i dont know how to explain it happened. It was me my friend ryan and another friend whitney and we were stopped at like a crosswalk to cross the street. And these two guys walked up behind us and got aweful close... and being the street smart/observant people we are both ryan and I knew these two guys were a lil suspicious. So we put our hands in our pockets and kept an eye on them as we were standing there. (Ryan says he saw them look at whitneys arm to see if she had a purse... which she didnt). But anyway so we crossed the street and one guy went in front of us while the other stayed behind us and a extremely close/suspicious distance. We could obviously tell that they seemed like they were trying to pickpocket us so after walking a lil bit we decided to stop at a kiosk to act like we were going to buy something and then the guys just kept walking and that was the end of it. I mean its nothing to exciting I guess but i know mom is prob freaking out reading this haha but I mean we easily caught on and have been aware every time we go somewhere.

Well anyway Pireaus was a pretty cool place and it was nice to just see the water and the ferries. So then on Saturday me and three of my friends (Ryan, Whitney, and Greg) decided to go hiking on some random mountain that one of the teachers told us about. So we boarded a bus and went to the town below the mountain. It only was about a 10 min bus ride. This is where the pictures are from. At first we didnt quite know how to get to the mountain so we had to ask a couple people to figure it out but eventually we made it. Along the way we found a soccer stadium (the last picture). It wasnt a huge stadium but it was pretty cool. The next two pictures are from about the middle of the mountain. We went up pretty high but are planning on going back to climb to the summit. It was pouring rain so we decided to save the summit for later (haha). The first pic is just the three guys on the mountain and the next is a view towards athens. Along our hike we met a couple greek people and didnt talk much with them but then we met this lady who spoke english (YES English! haha). So we talked to her and she told us how she lived in New York for seven years and how she was a psychologist or something and thats why she was in the united states. She then proceeded to give us her telephone number in case we ever had questions about Athens or other places to hike or something. (People here are extremely nice and very willing to help and even give out there phone numbers... which seemed a lil weird at first but not as crazy as one would think.)

Well last night the superbowl was on and it started at 1:30 am here so a bunch of people wanted to watch it so we went to an Irish Pub. It was very enjoyable because all english is spoken there (haha) and we were able to watch the game on a huge screen/projector. I'm glad it was a good game otherwise I would have felt like it was a huge waste to stay up till 5:30 am to watch it haha. I've been able to take a nap today so I'm not that tired and plan on going to bed early tonight.

Well Allison is coming in two days so I'm meeting her at the airport and ill try to update this in a couple days.

Getting settled...

I reposted the above picture thinking now you might be able to click on it and it will fill the screen?

Anyway so it's been almost a week of classes in Athens so far and so far so good. I switched a couple of my classes and now am taking a Basic History of Aegean Art/Archaeology, a History of Greek Athletics, Byzantine Art and Architecture and Modern Greek. Modern Greek as stated before has proven to be very intense and I find my self concentrating on everything going on in the class. It may be the most I have ever paid attention in a class in my life (yet it still doesnt seem to help haha). I mean its def. a struggle but I do find myself learning so I think it will be alright. My Athletics class is very straight forward basically just proving to be a normal history class. The Aegean Art class is similar to that and the proffessor is very cool/ interesting. Lastly the Byzantine Art is also good. It's a little different then I'm use to and it may be due to the teaching style. My professor is an extremely interesting person. I cant say its really a lecture type class, my professors loves to include random things at times but it I really like it cause he has a personality and is not just strictly listing facts. He also has us do this journal type thing in which he encourages us to sketch out the pictures/buildings haha (and has said that it will be something we need to keep in order to show our kids eventually). Since I missed the first class due to switching courses he offered to meet me outside to class to discuss which I missed (which is prob. not much ahah) but I am supose to call him tomorrow and possibly meet him somewhere or at his house for coffee or something. So I think that will be extremely cool/interesting to do.

Hmmm what else is knew... so i've found a couple of great/cheap gyro places. They are so good and you can find them basically anywhere. So far I have only had the chicken ones. Here a gyro consists of the meat (beef? or chicken), tomato, onions (but not for me), lettuce, Tzatziki (its basically a mix of yogurt, cucumber and garlic) and then french fries. Its very good!

Although I am thousands of miles away from home things dont seem that different. haha. I mean of course seeing the Parthenon everyday is a little bit of a shock haha but overall it seems pretty normal... I can go to store, get food, etc pretty easily and its not much different then living in a city in the USA (except maybe the insanse driving/traffic conditions). Although the main things are pretty much the same I have begin to notice some small things such as the lack of huge stores (at least in my area) and things seem to be a little more simple? Its very hard to explain and its def. not a bad thing at all and I actually do really enjoy this characteristic. (if that makes any sense)

One thing is a basketball cost 45 euro! haha and that was 20 percent off! So I am highly awaiting the arrival of a basketball shipped by my mom and dad. haha so hopefully soon I will be able to play since there are basketball courts right across the street.

I have not yet gone to Syntagma or Plaka but hope to venture over that way this weekend. I'm also highly excited for next week because Allison has decided to come visit! I'm excited to show her around the city of Athens and then am excited to visit Granada for her to show me there later in the semester.

Well I will keep writing when I get a chance.

First weekend in Athens

Well its been a couple days since I wrote and a lot has happened. A couple days ago a group of people including me went to bumper cars haha. We took the tram to this place which was quite interesting. It was a restuarant/bar attached to a type of arcade/ bumper car place. It was a lot of fun and a group of about 12 of us were the only people on the bumper cars.

We had our first two days of classes on thur. and fri (we normally wont have classes on friday). My classes are so far so good and I decided to switch one of them cause i thought the one would be pretty boring. Modern Greek class is very interesting. It's a little frustrating cause the alphabet is a lot different but I'm beginning to be able to somewhat read signs haha and I guess being immersed in the language will help me move along. Although the people speak greek a whole lot of them speak english. I would say almost every young person (people 30 and below) speak english and a lot of older people do too. It's a lot different then learning spanish but I think eventually i'll get use to it.

So I know I promised some pictures so I'll post some of my room and the views from my balcony.

This is the view from the academic center. It extremely weird to be so close to the Parthenon something I have only see in a dark room on slides. But now I am so close and seeing it in person which seems almost unreal (as write now I am looking out the window at the Parthenon while typing this). I havent yet gone up to the Acropolis but am planning on it soon and will definitly visit in my classes.

So Friday night I went out with a couple friends to a restaurant/bar place. Athens is pretty crazy in the sense that a normal night of people going out consists of going out at midnight with some people staying out to as last as 6 or 7 am. haha I cant say I plan on doing that but its extremely crazy. I guess Athens is known for this crazy nightlife haha (I guess thats why they have siesta).

Yesterday (Sat.) I decided to sign up for a hike with other students from the college. I wouldnt say it was a hike hike but we took a bus for about an hour to a mountain. We hiked up a path to the top area. The mountain looked down upon the town(?) of Marathon and the water and the view was extremely beautiful as you will see in the pictures below. We walked for about half an hour and then stopped for lunch. Here are some of the pictures. The first is an overall view of the water and Marathon. The second is a picture of me and a friend, Ryan, from gburg (who I didnt know before coming here) and Athens is somewhere behind our backs and the next is also a friend, Kelsey, from gburg (who I didnt also know before coming).

Well thats it for now I will post more as I continue taking pictures and adventuring.