Monday was our first day of classes at The Athens Centre. Our morning started off with a 9:00 am orientation with our Penn State professor, who had gotten delayed by one day on her journey to Athens. We also heard a brief, jam-packed lecture about the history of ancient and modern Greece, epistemological questioning of information we've gathered through our classes over the years, and former capitals of Greece before Athens (including Aegina [pronounced "egg-in-a"] and Nafplio).
Then we had our first real class of the trip: Ancient Greek Sport and Competition. The class studies the origins of the Olympic Games, social structures around competition, gender dynamics that existed with regards to sport, and even ideas of democracy and meritocracy. I'm very excited about this course. Fun fact: The Games of Hera, an all-female version of the original Olympics, existed and were practiced at the same time as every Olympic Games since their start. This is a little known and often overlooked aspect of history - perhaps due to threats to the idea of male dominance in athletics, culture, and society in both antiquity and modernity. After class, we all went on another walking tour of the nearby area. We visited a natural reserve, the Zappeion, and Parliament (where we saw the guards on duty that looked similar to the British royal guard). We also ventured around Syntagma Square, the Plaka, and Monastiraki Square, some of the biggest and most popular squares in Athens. Ketti then took us to a very traditionally Greek souvlaki place where we ate lunch. I ordered insanely delicious beef-lamb kebaps that came wrapped in a pita with tomato, onion, cucumber, tzatziki, and fries. Another great aspect of this meal: it cost less than 2.5 euros. You can't beat that. With full stomachs and happy faces, we later made our way to an authentic leather shop. Ketti knew the artisan, so we got to have a full tour of the workshop. The artist showed us pictures of the tanning process where hides of raw animals are cleaned, worn down, and painted a variety of different colors. He also explained some different types of leather (very stiff for soles versus soft for belts) as well as pointed out how to tell real leather from fake. If there are wrinkles, bug bites, scars, or other marks that make the leather slightly flawed or give them patterns, that's a fairly good guarantee that the leather is authentic. Before we left, a few of us bought some handmade leather products. Personally, I chose a really soft, metal-studded leather bracelet (that I haven't taken off since). Since we were all pretty tired from our first real day of school, we headed back to our apartments to get some sleep before our welcome dinner later in the evening. Around 8:15 pm, we went to a very nice little restaurant near The Athens Centre for a 3-course meal shared with students, professors, and faculty. I had roasted lamb with frites as my entree, which was practically like eating butter. The meat was so well done that it fell off the bone. For dessert, the waiters brought out a very simple plate of peeled, sliced apples with honey and cinnamon. It was super tasty - and I will definitely be making it in my apartment a lot this semester. Until next time, Hannah
1 Comment
Richard Bisbing
1/31/2017 05:42:29 pm
Keep writing!
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Hannah BisbingStudent @ Penn State. Figure skater. Writer. Traveler. Coffee fanatic. Foodie. Semi-professional people watcher who recently returned home from backpacking around Europe. All photos taken by me, unless otherwise noted.
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