LANDFALL

Our night at the American Hellenic Union was fancy-schmancy. Papandreou described himself as a “finance guy” who started writing after leaving his position at the World Bank (economics/political science at Yale, Ph.D in economics at Princeton). There was a reception after the lecture and the prime minister’s son was there. Post lecture we all just grabbed dinner at one of the literally thousands of cafes in the Palka. We are always treated so well when we go to dinner in large groups because we are the equivalent of like four regular-sized families. They always bring us free food, such as plates of fruit or disgusting honey shots’ after dinner.

On Thursday my seminar ventured to the ‘new’ acropolis museum. It’s incredible. It’s a state of the art museum (truly one of the nicest I have ever visited). It was finished in 2009 and it put Greece (further) into debt. The push for building this museum was a ploy to reclaim the Elgin marbles from the British Museum (these are the statues that Lord Elgin removed from the pediment of the Parthenon in the 19th century). For decades the British Museum (and government) has argued that they should posses the marbles because Greece doesn’t have a museum with the technology necessary (ie correct moisture and temperature control). This is a fascinating dispute (and one of many that has stemmed from the 18th and 19th century British aristocrats and antiquity gurus who toured old world snagging whatever they could get their hands on) and is further complicated by the fact that the Ottoman Empire was in control of Greece at the time. As a result, England argues that at the time the Empire ‘gave’ the statues over to Elgin. On the third floor of the museum there is a pediment on each wing and between each pediment they have displayed the processional friezes. It’s basically as if you are walking the perimeter of the Parthenon at eye-level. Brilliant. The new acropolis museum is great for people who have studied the basic progression of Greek sculpture, vessels, and architecture and know the characteristics of the various periods and the progression from the geometric, archaic, and classical. But there aren’t as many placards as we expect in American museums, so it might leave the inquisitive visitor yearning for more details. But, having studied this stuff in both art history and archeology classes I found it absolutely perfect.

Thursday night we had a wine tasting at the Athens Center. Markus Stolz is a Greek German who is basically (re?)Pioneering the Greek wine industry. I originally typed ‘pioneering’ but I think we all have to give credit to the ancient Greeks for that. He described Greek’s wine’s struggle to be recognized internationally as an exportable delicacy. I’m a 20 year old ‘non-wino’ so I won’t even pretend to understand the flavors, essences, blah blah blah.

After Greek on Friday we packed up and headed to the port to catch our ferry to Serifos. On the train 4 people got pick pocketed. Three of the girls had their wallets completely stolen (although their passports were in their luggage) and one girl had the money stolen and her wallet was dropped back into her purse. These guys (or women or children…) are PRO. My little money pouch is seemingly theft proof (thanks, mom).

After a three hour ferry ride, we arrived on Serifos. And since, I have been in disbelieve that we are actually here. This place is AMAZINGLY beautiful. June is “pre-season” European vacation time, so we are virtually the only guests on the island. I am living in a little bungalow right on the beach. UHHH it’s so cool. I will post some pictures soon. Last night we ate a huge group dinner at a beachfront taverna. We spent the rest of the night chilling on the beach- attempting to come to grips with the fact that we are on a little gorgeous island in the middle of the Aegean Sea. I can do three weeks here.

As for now, it's time to hit. the. beach.