Today was our first day of classes and I had two; Modern Greek and Ancient Greek: Homer. They cancelled my accelerated Modern Greek for Classical Greek students so I was randomly placed into a 101 class. I think the basic class is going to be much more simple but it is nice having a larger class to make friends with. Already the teacher is moving quite slowly and talking about how hard conjugating and declining is going to be for us. I will just try to use that extra time to study my vocab because at least that will mostly be something new for me. I think I want to try to find a place to continue with my modern greek when I return to Oregon because it is so fun speaking a new language! My Ancient Greek class seems really interesting as well. The professor is this crazy British man dressed in tweed with a gold pocket watch and matching ballpoint pen. He made us read aloud in dactylic hexameter the first class and gave us a goal of 39 lines translated of the Iliad by Wednesday. I'm really glad I bought a special Homeric Lexicon to help me through the first few classes! Tomorrow morning I have Modern History and Culture of Athens and Ancient Architecture as well as Modern Greek again. I'm really excited for Ancient Architecture, although on the syllabus it says we will have to freehand draw once in awhile which will be an interesting experience for me!
Besides my first day of classes, I also went grocery shopping. It's definitely not looking like I'm going to become a master chef while I'm here (I know, big surprise). So far my big ticket items are: feta, salami, cucumbers, olive paste, bread, and yogurt. Not a bad diet if I do say so myself. There is also a killer bakery down the street that my roommate and I have already hit up a couple times for these amazing fudge-y chocolate cake bars. Enough about food, let me talk about my location for a minute. My school, called Dikemes in Greek or College Year in Athens in English, is located literally on the street of the Panathenaiko Stadium, or Καλλιμάρμαρο Stadiou which is this huge stadium that was the site of the first Modern Olympic games in 1896. My favorite spot in the CYA building is on the third floor where there is a floor to ceiling window with a gorgeous view of the parthenon and the national gardens. It's been bitter cold here since I got here and we're supposed to have a cold snap this week (we actually got a warning e-mail that temperatures are supposed to get down to 35). My poor flatmate from Florida is freezing all the time but luckily the heater in my room works beautifully and we have kept it at a toasty 27 degrees Celsius. I'm now going to try to post some pictures on here since I finally figured out how to make all the headings in English instead of Greek!
ΚΑΛΗ ΕΒΔΟΜΑΔΑ (have a nice week!)
Besides my first day of classes, I also went grocery shopping. It's definitely not looking like I'm going to become a master chef while I'm here (I know, big surprise). So far my big ticket items are: feta, salami, cucumbers, olive paste, bread, and yogurt. Not a bad diet if I do say so myself. There is also a killer bakery down the street that my roommate and I have already hit up a couple times for these amazing fudge-y chocolate cake bars. Enough about food, let me talk about my location for a minute. My school, called Dikemes in Greek or College Year in Athens in English, is located literally on the street of the Panathenaiko Stadium, or Καλλιμάρμαρο Stadiou which is this huge stadium that was the site of the first Modern Olympic games in 1896. My favorite spot in the CYA building is on the third floor where there is a floor to ceiling window with a gorgeous view of the parthenon and the national gardens. It's been bitter cold here since I got here and we're supposed to have a cold snap this week (we actually got a warning e-mail that temperatures are supposed to get down to 35). My poor flatmate from Florida is freezing all the time but luckily the heater in my room works beautifully and we have kept it at a toasty 27 degrees Celsius. I'm now going to try to post some pictures on here since I finally figured out how to make all the headings in English instead of Greek!
ΚΑΛΗ ΕΒΔΟΜΑΔΑ (have a nice week!)
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