athenian living

Last night was a great time. We made it to the james joyce and it was nothing short of an American oasis (not that any of us needed such a thing after a mere four days in Greece) complete with acoustic guitarist strumming Gaga’s ‘poker face’ and…even…American beer. If you didn’t know any better, you might just think James Joyce was a good ol’ Amerrrikan, for the only clue suggesting that this establishment celebrates the life of an Irishman was the green clover script above the front window. There was an enormous bookshelf along the rear wall upon which Joyce’s name did not appear. Hmmm. We all loved it…anyway.

The nights in Athens have been incredibly fun. It’s a great group of students. There are seventeen of us (two of which are the standard lame(zor) girls who don’t go out with the crowd) so as a group of fifteen we most often wine and dine together.

Greek is so hard. I wish we had the morning to explore Athens or go places and write because I don’t think I am going to be able to pick this language up in a month. The books we brought were (apparently) too advanced (although this had been quite obvious to all the students from the get-go). So, today they gave us a new text and workbook. Honestly, I can’t tell a difference in the texts. It’s all Greek to me!

This afternoon we were planning to explore the national archaeological museum (boing boing boing) as part of our seminar. Unfortunately, however, it started pooring. So we stayed around Μοναστηράκi. *Hopefully, we will go to the museum tomorrow, because it’s one of those ‘must see’ places in Athens, AND I would just eat all that archaeology right up! Not to mention, Baron Gregory Areshian would be terribly disappointed if he knew I was in Athens and bypassed that museum, and I am ALL ABOUT keeping ‘big daddy G’ happy…wherever he may be.

Tonight we are going to a nonfiction reading at which Nick Papandreou’s will read his work. This guy just so happens to be the prime minister’s brother. So maybe I will meet some ‘big dogs’...and…join the revolution?

Speaking of dogs, there is a guy who plays the trumpet on the plaka near our hotel. His dog howls at the moon when he pauses…making quite the little duet…and spectacle. In these financially trying times, I think Mark Haseltine needs to learn this trick. Step 1: learnt to play the trumpet. Step 2: teach Eddie to bark/howl/and or growl on cue. It would be his first. Trick. Ever. And I really think it would be well received in downtown Springfield.