Theresa in Athens-2018

As the final post of my Athens journey, I thought I would share my day of serendipitous experiences which turned into the most perfect day of my time there. On Sunday I had no plans other than to walk around Athens some more.  When Karina came in and said she had missed her bus to the beach that morning and was going to hike around Philopappou Park which has monuments to saints scattered throughout the very large area, Brittney and I decided to join her.   On our way, Brittney got coffee so that we could use the bathroom.  It was the most disgusting toilet ever!!  I didn't take a picture because I could only hold my nose for a moment in there.  We continued walking to the park, strolling through the shops on the way.  Karina and I both bought paintings.  We arrived at the park and saw one of the monuments and then down an overgrown path, we saw a sign for a dance theater.  We assumed it was another ruin, but went down to check it out. After...

Here I am at the end of 2 months in Athens putting my thoughts in order regarding the experience of living there.  Some things (noise, light pollution, etc.) I haven’t included because they are common to cities everywhere.  Some seem to be part of Latin or Mediterranean culture, but are ones I haven’t really encountered that often in other cities in which I have lived.  A few were just so fantastic that I thought I should share them. The good:    There are so many dance clubs in Athens playing all kinds of music open every day of the week.  Unfortunately for those who prefer to start their evening before 11,  Athenians (like other Mediterraneans) are just starting drinks at 10.  Wine is so cheap here that they serve the house wine by the 1/2 liter or liter.   While there is sometimes a cover in the clubs, it entitles you to 2 drinks.  And, speaking of drinks,  We were given free shots so often...

One of the great things about teaching a language is that there can be a wonderful exchange of cultures; teaching should never be a one-way street.  Some examples of the interesting, and often hilarious, exchanges in my classes are the inadvertent miscommunications of my students. For example, while teaching my beginning class of students, I walked around looking at the sentences which they had written using new vocabulary of colors and objects in the classroom.  Trying hard not to laugh, I pointed out the missing "r" in one woman's sentence, "My shit is black."  Near the end of the lesson I had to correct my student's spelling of pencil in the sentence, "My penis is yellow."  These types of errors are common in English language classes everywhere. There are also the new vocabulary words I have learned:  “styggi” -- Somali for “calm down,” “tamaam” which in Farsi means “finished” and in Somali means “exactly” and, best of all, “barf” whi...

The sunshine did return.  However, so many students (and some of the teachers) got sick, that last week was filled with coughing and sneezing.  Unless they are extremely ill, the students come to class sick and thus spread the cold to others.  Friday two of the teachers were so sick that one (Karina) stayed in bed all day and the other just managed to get up for her 3 o'clock class.  Karina and I had bought tickets to go to Meteora on Saturday and I really didn't think she would be up for it.  However, she was ready to leave at 7:30 and we walked to the train station for the 5 hour train ride.  It was an interesting trip through fields of cotton and other crops.  After we arrived at 1:15, we dropped off our bags at the hotel and started hiking up to the monastery.  We reached it after 3, sweaty and hot, but happy to be in the clean air.  Since it was a lesser known monastery of the 6, there were few people and after checking out the exhi...

Boy with dog known as "The Little Refugee" Well, after the crazy week we had and the pouring rain which started on Thursday, we decided to focus on indoor tourist attractions this weekend.  Karina, Brittney, and I started by going to the wine tasting at Grande Bretagne Hotel in Syntagma Square.  It is a very fancy hotel right in the heart of downtown; we had to dress up to go there and there were 5 other people, all American and all staying at the hotel.  The sommelier was very informative.  We didn't mind spending the 20 Euros for the tasting after he left the 3 of us with the rest of the wine in the bottles to go up to his job at the restaurant.  The other tasters had dinner reservations. wine tasting at the Grand Bretagne with Brittney and Karina Then we stopped at a Greek restaurant to listen to a live band playing traditional Greek music.  We danced. traditional music with some traditional instruments After enjoying the band...

Sunday was a great day of recharging before everything got a lot crazier at the language center this week.  We all got up and planned lessons for the week and did other chores.  Then 4 of the teachers headed down to the beach with a picnic: cheese, fruit, veggies, dolmas, hummus, pita, and wine.  We got there around 3 and hung out until sunset.  It was hot, but we had shade and it was so relaxing!  It was a send-off for Roberta, the American teacher who had been here for 7 weeks. It was also a good way to chill before this week when we opened new classes and enrolled a lot more students.  We added extra English classes and Greek and computer classes.  The noise and activity level has increased drastically, which is great, but which makes me appreciate my prep hour in the middle of the day even more.  I need the time to clear my head.  Here are a few pictures.  Roberta is the blond woman.