My Birthday :)

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So yesterday morning we had class for a while and discussed the book "The Last of the Wine." The book is a historical fiction one that we had to read before the trip and it takes place in the 5th century BC. The main characters are fictional, but then the characters interact with Socrates and are in real battles that really occurred in that time. So it was a pretty neat book... It was nice reading that one too instead of just another historical book that was just based on facts and stuff. We didn't have that much time to discuss the book because then we went to an Anglican church service for Ash Wednesday in the morning. That was ok... There wasn't any music in the service, and that's always my favorite part. And the pastor was kind of boring, so it was long. But it was kinda neat going to a western Christian church for our Ash Wednesday. Then we had the afternoon to ourselves, so I went out shopping with some of my friends. There are so many neat things around here! Some really pretty jewelry along with a bunch of other neat stuff. Then we had our second session of Greek lessons yesterday afternoon. That was cool. It's almost like being in Kindergarten all over again because not only do we have to learn what the words mean, but we also have to learn how to read a new alphabet and sound out words and then decipher their meanings. But we are actually learning a lot so far. We know how to say the basic stuff when you introduce yourself and then we talked a lot about food and numbers yesterday, so that will be very useful. Then we just had dinner at the hotel, which was actually really good. It was Tuρόπιτα (tou-ro-pita... cheese pie) then we had a lasagna type thing for the entee. And dessert was flan. So it was a very good meal. One of the few meals that I have liked all three courses. Then everyone sang to me for my birthday and I got some chocolate from the professors. Then later last night, almost our whole group (like 15 out of 20) went to this little cafe/bar and that was really fun because they gave us a whole section of it to ourselves (the whole 2nd floor) because there were so many of us. So that was really fun. Then this morning we had class again and we discussed the play "Medea." That was a lot of fun because instead of discussing it, we had a debate. The two main characters in it are a little crazy. It takes place in the 5th century BC and this guy, Jason, decides he wants another wife, so he marries this princess and then his first wife, Medea, gets really jealous and goes crazy and for revenge on Jason, kills her and his kids. So the debate was who was more in the wrong, Jason or Medea? It was a really good debate and the class was pretty much divided. And then after that we went to the Acropolis Museum. That was really cool because the new museum is built on top of part of Ancient Athens that they are excavating, so they put in glass floors, so we could see the ancient city underneath us being excavated. Plus, they have a lot of cool artifacts from about 500 BC to 1100 AD. So that was really cool. Then this afternoon we just went out and explored more of the city, and now I have to write a paper for tomorrow, so I'm just back at the hotel.

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Photos

Me and Ingrid
It was both of our birthdays in the first two weeks, so these were presents from the professors... They are very traditional Greek symbols... The "evil eye." They are supposed to ward of evilness and bring good luck.

The Streets of the Plaka
This is about a 5 minute walk from the hotel... It's in a kinda tourist-y section of Athens called the Plaka. This is just one of the small, narrow roads there.