Ελλάδα-Italia 2012: Winding Down in Athens

Officially it's been 57 days since I left the United States. Wow. I know it always sounds cliche, but time really does fly. This Friday, we will all depart Athens and continue our journey onto Rome. The whole group is in a bit of shock that we already have to leave. The good news: this means our trip isn't even half over!

This past week was a fairly normal week in Athens. This was our first weekend where we didn't travel outside of the city, and it was nice just to relax and see the sites we haven't got around to yet.

Here's some little tidbits from the week:

Monday, Tuesday
-Carl and I continue to do the Insanity Workout everyday. It still hasn't gotten easy, but it feels great after we're done. We have to mop our floor every night due to the many puddles of sweat.
-In Theology, we were assigned to interview a Greek about religion and then write a paper about it. The project was a little intimidating at first. I walked around our neighborhood asking if anyone would be willing to sit down for an interview. I went 0-5 on my first attempts. The Greeks either were busy or didn't want to talk about religion. I finally found a willing participant in a shopkeeper named Maria. We discussed the Greek Orthodox Church and her faith.
-Tuesday was Angela Merkel day in Greece. The German Chancellor made her first appearance in Athens since the debt crisis. Naturally, the city went on pretty much full lockdown, which meant no classes for us! The Athens police prohibited protests and any form of gatherings in certain sections of the city. Here's the map:

The red area is where the police lockdown took place. Our apartment is right in the middle of that. It was a very quiet day and evening. We really didn't leave the apartment except to get food.

Wednesday
-We had our last class at the National Sculpture Museum for Art History. Art has definitely been my hardest class. Lots and lots of sculptures and artists to memorize.
-Went shopping for some souvenirs at Monastriaki.
-We had a guys night at our apartment. We played Celebrity for about three hours and had a great time.

Thursday
-Volunteered again at the elementary school. Had a good time teaching the kids how to play recorders.
-A busy day for classes. We started with our seminar on music. We then walked about three miles to the Keirameikos, an Ancient Athenian graveyard with our History class.
-After getting back from the cemetery, we met Father Stefanos, our Theology professor, and went on a tour of the churches of Athens. We looked at all sorts of churches, dating from the 4th Century to the modern day.
-We went out that night and found a nice, quiet, courtyard bar.

Friday
-Went shopping around Syntagma and Monastriaki again. After trying a homemade "Mojo" at a local cafe, we (Aaron, Miles, Josh, Kayla, and I) decided to climb Mount Lycabettus. Lycabettus is large mountain in the middle of the city, visible from pretty much everywhere and much taller than the Acropolis. The hike wasn't too bad, and the view from the top was great. See pictures below.

Saturday
-Spent most of Saturday afternoon studying for our upcoming finals in Art History and History.
-We celebrated Nikki and Kaeley's birthdays Saturday night.

This week we have finals on Wednesday and Thursday. Then it's off to Munich, Salzburg, and Prague! I'm also gonna try to update my Youtube channel sometime this week with videos from Greece. Anyways, here's a few pics from the week:

Dan