Study Abroad: Greece!

Do any of you parents or professors out there have students who are looking for study abroad opportunities? Why not have them check out our program here through Georgia College?

Here are the courses we'll be offering:

• Sociological Perspectives (SOCI 1121)
• Humanities 1 (IDST 2305)
• Theatre History 1 (THEA 3100)
• Ancient Myth & Meaning (ARTS 4950/ENGL 4950/HIST 4950/IDST 4950)
• Society & Mythology (SOCI 4950)
• Classical Performance (THEA 4950)

Here are several links to places with more info about the program:

• Facebook group
• blog
• GC Study Abroad page
• website (under construction)

Greek Travelogue: Epilogue

My trip home was rather uneventful. I had brief layovers in Zurich and Philadelphia. Lauren picked me up at the Atlanta airport, and we stopped for some Buffalo Wild Wings on the drive back to Milledgeville. We didn't end up getting home until around 10:00 PM. Without exaggeration, I don't think I have ever been more tired than that night. The jet lag and the activity of the previous week finally caught up with me. My ankles and feet oddly swelled up when we got back. I felt like an old lady. Luckily, it had mostly subsided by the following morning. It was great to get a full night's sleep and then to get back on my bike for some exercise. Believe me, I got daily workouts from hiking around Athens, climbing among ruins, and generally being on the move (which really gives one a perspective on what life must have been like in the ancient world), but I was fiening for some aerobic work.

I ended up taking nearly 500 photographs over the week. I spent some time yesterday winnowing those down to just 142. Here is a link to pictures on Facebook.

Here is a really helpful map of the Acropolis that Rob and Pam used in class. If the pictures of that site are a little confusing, you can cross reference them here.

I realized that I had forgotten to mention that we had also stopped in Rhamnus during our bus tour on Friday. Rhamnus is an amazingly well-preserved community of a Greek seafaring village. It was a very cool site and, aside from Sounio, offered some of the best panoramic views we encountered.

I also neglected to write about the animals in Athens and Greece. There are countless cats and dogs that simply wander around and live on the streets. They were all rounded up before the 2004 Olympic Games, fixed, tagged, and released back into the city. People leave food and water out for them, and they are surprisingly docile.

I noticed an interesting historical parallel between September 11th and the Persian's second invasion of Greece and their subsequent destruction of the Pre-Parthenon. The peoples' reactions were very similar. Both the ancient Athenians and we modern Americans had become very complacent in our militaristic dominance, and with the destruction of the Pre-Parthenon and the Twin Towers respectively, both societies were thrown into existential crises. They also both responded with a military buildup, although the funding of this in both societies was a serious point of contention. I think this might make for a cool paper project for a class with the program in the future.

I mentioned before that one of our hosts at the CYA surprised us when he said that this was a wonderful time to be a Greek and that he'd want his children to be a part of these historic events, particularly the regular protests against the forced austerity measures at the hands of the IMF, EU, and other VSP's. Most parents in the States would not respond as such, and I doubt that the administration at Georgia College would be excited about our students "endangering" themselves by observing. It's refreshing to hear such a perspective in this day.

George the Wine Merchant kind of epitomized a kind of caricatured Greek for me. He was gruff, blunt, animated, and emotional. We weren't quite sure what to make of him, but he did have some good Nemean wine.

Unlike in traditional classrooms where the roles of teacher and student are fairly well defined, there is some ambiguity in this respect with study abroad programs. What is the proper/appropriate role of faculty vis-à-vis students in these situations? I don't think there is one answer to this, but Rob did a superb job of toeing this line. He generally got out of the students way, except when they were obviously lost or when he was formally teaching. He was a great role model.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way this travelogue came together. The one major pitfall was that since we spent so much time doing stuff, I had little in the way of time to write and organize--which, I know, is a good problem to have. I wish that I'd been able to do a little better job of fully documenting everything, and it certainly would have helped if I'd been able to post pictures on a daily basis.

Thank you all for following along in my travels and indulging my vanity. I hope you gleaned some from what I had to write. Please continue to follow me here as I blog more in the future about sociology, religion, education, my pet peeves, and whatever else might be floating around in my cranium. Aντίο!

Greek Travelogue: Saturday

Today, Kostas drove us to Corinth. It was a harrowing trip. Kostas is a kind and generous man, but we are certainly not used to Greek driving. It was a white-knuckle experience for sure. We first climbed up to Acrocorinth, the high part of the ancient city. Unlike Athens' Acropolis, Corinth's acropolis had much less in the way of religiously significant ruins. There was a cool Byzantine (now Orthodox) church on the site along with the ruins of an Ottoman mosque, though. We then spent some time at the ruins of Ancient Corinth, which is an absolute mess, but I did get to see another bema where the Apostle Paul made an appearance in the New Testament. Next, we had an amazing seafood lunch (including great octopus) overlooking the Bay of Corinth during which we heard traditional songs sung accompanied by accordion and saw traditional (spontaneous) Greek dancing. Outside the historic/archeological stuff, that might have been the highlight of the trip. Then, we saw Vouliagmeni Lake and the ruins of the Temple of Hera, which is off the tourist trail. On our way back, Kostas stopped at a mountaintop cantina where we had spring water and a beer. It occurred to me that the entire countryside reminded me of Napa, with its rolling hills and spotty vegetation. I also learned America is not alone in its roadside sacramental memorials to vehicular deaths. Greece has little basilicas--about the size of large birdhouses--along their roads. This is a new phenomenon in the U.S., and I'm wondering how long it's been going on in Europe. Part of what piqued my interest in the States is that I would assume that many, if not most, of the shrines are not Catholic; however, Protestants have historically been very anti-sacramental. It makes a little more sense in Greece given the dominance of Orthodox Christianity, but comparatively, I'm hooked.

Anyway, I'm off to the airport at 3:00 AM. I won't be getting back to Milledgeville until after 9:00 PM, which (if I'm lucky) will be a travel time of about 25 hours. Ugh. See you all stateside!

Greek Travelogue: Friday

Today, we made our bus tour of Attica. We visited Marathon, where we saw the plain where the Athenians defeated the Persians and the tumulus where the cremains of the soldiers are interred; Thorikos, where we saw a Greek theater and silver mine; and finally, Sounio, where we saw the Temple of Poseidon, the spot where King Aegeus committed suicide by jumping into the sea (giving it its name, the Aegean Sea), and some of the most breathtaking views imaginable. I had to say goodbye to the students as they are all off on their own adventures for the weekend, and I'll be leaving in less than 36 hours. Pam, Rob, and I had dinner at another taverna tonight. We were there earlier than when most locals show up, evidently. Once they did, though, the place was packed. The table(s) next to us belonged to a class reunion from 1959. No one looked a day older than 50. From there, we got some espresso and are now calling it a night.

Tomorrow, I'm off for Corinth and Acrocorinth with Rob and Pam! We've been offered a ride with wine merchant George's friend, Caustos. It may be a little sketch, but it's free so we'll see how it goes.

Greek Travelogue: Thursday

Two nights ago, the smoke alarm in my room went off conveniently just as I was falling asleep. My hosts and I were a little unsure how to handle the situation. Should we call the fire brigade, as they call it here, or just remove the battery and call it a night? We debated for a good while about whether we saw a thin, smoky haze in the room or not, but in the end, we got frustrated and simply removed the 9v. Luckily, we all awoke unsinged yesterday morning. (I couldn't convince the students that I hadn't been smoking in the room.)

At dinner last night, one of our students made a comment to the effect that he hadn't tasted wine until that very moment. Later, he told us that in fact that had been his very first sip of alcohol. My immediate emotional response was an unexplainable mixture of pride and horror. That could only happen in a foreign country with a liberal arts institution!

As predicted, today was another stimulating, exhausting, and fulfilling day! Two students gave their site presentations for the class. We climbed the Areopagus, the "Hill of Mars" just to the east of the Acropolis. We visited the Agora from there. I was thrilled to see the spot from where the Apostle Paul (likely) preached to the Athenians. After that, I set off on my own to do lunch in the Plaka, where I had my first taste of an authentic gyro, and then to wander around to do some shopping. After that, I visited a historic Anglican church and then made my way to Parliament to see the protesters where I serendipitously happened on the Changing of the Guards. On my way back to the apartment from there, I stopped by the Temple of Zeus. After a brief respite, I went with my colleagues, Rob and Pam, to visit one of their local friends and wine merchant, George. To say that George is a character would be an understatement. More on him later, but just to bait you, I can recount that he pulled a knife out at one point to demonstrate to one of our students what to do to those who bad-mouth him. After that, we climbed Mount Lycabettus, the highest point in Athens. It was a workout but well worth it given the beautiful 19th century Chapel of St. George at the summit and the breathtaking vistas of the surrounding city. Rob, Pam, and I made our way to a cafe owned by one of wine merchant George's friends where I had ouzo for the first time--and love it. Finally, we grabbed a couple gyros on our way back for a (very) late dinner.  Tomorrow, we leave early on a bus tour of Marathon, Brauron, Thorikos, and Sounio. Like a broken record, I can safely say again that tomorrow will be another long, exhausting, but incredible day.

I'm hoping to be able to blog soon about my revelations over--or at least wrestlings with--my role as faculty among students abroad. My inclination is to be more "buddy Brad," but I think I can best serve them by getting out of their way to let them learn about and from each other.

I think I've decided that I probably won't be able to find the time to organize and post photographs until after I return to the States. Consider this your teaser.

Greek Travelogue: Wednesday

Completely wiped tonight. We had fun with our smoke alarm last night. We had fun at the Acropolis Museum this afternoon. I contributed to one of our student's firsts sips of alcohol this evening. We're heading to the Agora tomorrow morning. I can already tell you that I'll be exhausted again tomorrow, but as Martha used to say, "It's a good thing."

Sorrry, no pictures uploaded, yet.

Greek Travelogue: Tuesday

The taverna dinner last night was excellent. It came replete with guitar player and great conversation. It was my first chance to meet with students, and they seem like an excellent bunch. I'm anxious to get to know many of them better over the coming week. I really enjoyed the taverna model. It is very similar to what Americans are learning to appreciate in tapas. We had some Greek wines, both red and white. The red was like a sharp, diluted chianti while the white was like a pleasantly acrid sauvignon blanc. I particularly enjoyed the red. I had my first two Greek beers today, Alfa and Fix. Both were lagers akin to Pilsner Urquell though slightly less bold. They were nothing to write home about (even though I am literally writing home about them here).

This afternoon, we saw the Theater of Dionysus (among other ruins) and climbed the Acropolis. It was beautiful and surreal. It was also exhausting. I took tons of pictures but have no energy at the moment so I will do my best to post those tomorrow when I can find some spare time.

I spotted posters rallying the Athenians for a protest on Sunday. I'm sad that I won't be here to observe. One of our hosts at the CYA surprised us when he said that this was a wonderful time to be a Greek and that he'd want his children to be a part of these historic events. More on this later.

Fact o' the Day: Did you know that public restrooms are often unisex here in Greece with marked male and female stalls? It's interesting. (Why am I obsessed with the cultural differences in scatology?)

Greek Travelogue: Monday

I've arrived! The trip wasn't terrible. Someone sitting near me on the plane was having some gas issues (repeatedly); otherwise, it wasn't so bad. I got some sleep, although not as much as I'd wanted. I got to see 27 Dresses, which was about what I expected; most of Unstoppable, which was not good; and part of one of the Narnia franchise, which was horrible.

I met up with one of the students here for the program at the airport, and we took the municipal light rail to where we're staying. He speaks fluent Greek and has visited the country countless times. I'm confident I would have gotten lost without him, especially since we got lost anyway. The folks who are in charge of the apartments (and who run a larger, independent study abroad program) are very laid back, so much so that it was initially off-putting--especially after being on planes and in airports for more than 12 hours. I'm chalking that up to Greek culture.

I had some issues finding the apartment where I'll be staying for the week. It's not a bad place, very Spartan [sic]. We're just a couple blocks from the stadium that was build for the first modern Olympic Games, and I got my first distant peak at the Acropolis, but I didn't have my camera handy to snap a picture of either. I promise I'll be more diligent about taking and posting those.

I caught some pizza with loukaniko (i.e. Greek sausage) for lunch and am chilling here in the apartment before the rest of the folks show up and we do a traditional taverna dinner together.

Fact o' the Day: Did you know that you're not supposed to flush your toilet paper here? How is that supposed to work? Greece, that kinda seems like a deal breaker to me. ;)

Greek Travelogue: Prologue

Gents and Ladies, tomorrow, I leave for Greece. I'll be there for a week, care of Georgia College's International Education Center. I'll be tagging along for the first of four weeks of one of our Study Abroad programs. I'm going to do my best to post a blog entry here every night, interwebs access pending. I'll do my best to report on hoi polloi as I've been reading that they are less than happy with the recent forced-austerity from the European Union. I expect to see several strikes and protests--although, as a socialist and a tourist, I am a bit conflicted about how undoubtedly those will hinder my travels. Regardless, I'm excited to see several sites of prehistoric and New Testament religious significance. I'll let this simultaneously serve as a location for friends and family to keep up with me and as a place for me to muse about my experiences and how I might use them in the future as a potential leader of this experience. Yamas!