Observations

one: How I would characterize modern Athenian architecture: loud. I mean that literally. Every kind of acoustically reflecting surface you could think of is present, from marble to hardwood to tile to flat walls. Likewise, most acoustically deadening surfaces like carpets or acoustic tiling or soft furnishings are not to be found. So, sound travels a lot and reflects of everything. For someone who doesn't hear the greatest, like me, this can be frustrating as what I want to hear gets drowned out in the general uproar.

two: Sidewalks here tend not to be paved, but instead to be tiled. Not anything fancy, just little red tiles about two inches a side set into square configurations tessellated to form sidewalks. They're slipperier than concrete even in dry weather, and I have a feeling that it's only going to get worse once Zeus Cloudgatherer finally sends us some rain.

three: I wandered around an Athenian cemetery yesterday. It was quite pretty, and very different from American cemeteries. No one is buried in the ground in Athens, it seems. Instead, families build above the ground tombs that apparently serve whole branches of families. Some of the tombs were quite elaborate, while others were simple monuments. All were made of white marble. It was interesting to observe the throwbacks to classical themes combined with the Greek Orthodox religion of most of the people buried there. I saw some mosaics in the Byzantine style, and some imitation grave steles. Most interesting in this vein, however, were the grave steles that had been updated to include Christian themes, such as the inclusion of an angel, or having a chi-rho on the vase that the maiden was holding.

four: I have never seen so much marble in my life as I have here. It seems to be everywhere, not just in the cemetery. And that's even discounting the fact that CYA is right next to the Kallimarmaro.

five: I am not normally one for coffee, but I enjoyed the frappe I had in a cafe in the National Gardens. Likewise, I am not normally one for alcohol, but I enjoyed the retsina I shared with one of the girls who live downstairs.

six: Modern Greek is rapidly approaching the frustrating point where I can understand about a quarter to an eighth of what someone is saying to me, and I can think of the words for how to respond to a quarter of that.

seven: Many of the other students in the program lapse into Spanish when they're trying to speak Greek, so it's not just me. I think that the shortcut to non-English language just tends to jump to Spanish since most of us know it better.

eight: Crossing streets in Athens is a continual adventure, since the drivers are crazy and don't yield to pedestrians, and many of the streets I have to cross to get to school and back are so big that they are divided highways, with two crosswalks per street crossing instead of one. There are also a lot of people who ride motorbikes or mopeds (I'm not sure what the technical distinction is, but they're the light two-wheeled motorized conveyance, not the heavy motorcycle), mostly without any kind of helmet. It's mostly men who ride the motorbikes, with womenfolk if any riding behind them, but I have seen a few women riding motorbikes on their own.

nine: I spent about ten minutes this morning observing a turtle that was wandering around the bench in the National Gardens where I had been reading my Ancient Greek portion.

ten: There are times, like when I'm reading Pliny's letter to his friend who is being sent to be the governor of Achaia, when I can't believe that I'm actually where all the things that I'm learning about in classes happened. At the same time, I really miss everyone.