I have been waiting for today. It's the day I got to be involved in interviewing Greek students applying for Fulbrights to do graduate study in the US. It was a full day of meetings, and I've never been fond of meetings, but this was different: the opportunity to meet some of the best and brightest Greek students. I was psyched.

This gentleman is Nicholas Tourides, the American Program Coordinator for the Fulbright Commission in Athens. He's the guy who provided me all the pre-departure info while I was still in Muncie.

The other members of the committee who serve with me are, from L to R, Thomas Miller, Counselor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy and Chair of the Fulbright Board of Directors, Antigone Lyberaki, Professor of Economics at Panteion University and Dimitris Sotiropoulos, Political Science Porfessor at University of Athens.

We interviewed 22 today - 20 more tomorrow. The vast majority are in either architecture or law (the hard sciences are interviewed by a different panel). Most of them are applying to

graduate school at Harvard and Columbia. A FEW have applied to Michigan, Northwestern, etc., but for the most part they are Ivy League applications. If not, they are mostly east or west coast instutitions. No one applied to Ball State, although one was wanting to do a degree in Human Development focusing on Digital Storytelling.

On the left is Artemis Zenetou, the Fulbright Foundation Executive Director. On the right is Sophie Cousoula, Senior Program Officer (who organized the whole application/interview process).

So since I worked all day, there's no other new stuff, so here are random pictures and random observations:

I forgot to mention yesterday in my post about TV channels that Star has an incredibly unqiue weathercast. A buxom woman comes out and delivers the 5 minute weatercast, almost as a parody. The weather is real, but she always delivers it in a provocative way. One evening she was dressed as a sultry nurse. Another evening she had on a short cocktail dress and when she talked about the wind, air would blow her dress, which she would hold down and act embarrassed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbGDEHCl0cc

Our landloards, Mark and Martha

Speaking of weather - when we arrived two weeks ago, temps were in the 60s. Lately the highs have only been in the 50s. Still better than Muncie's weather, but we were definitely spoiled the first few days we were here. I know it will warm up again. Then I'll likely complain about the heat.

50s feels pretty good, especially when the sun's out. Yet if you're Greek and used to warm weather, this is frigid. Most people are wearing their winter coats. Martha insisted Kim buy a scarf at the market and is insisting she get a hat, too.

One other random thought: Athens is service-oriented. Just about every food place delivers, not just Domino's (yes, we have one). In downtown you will even see coffee and tea being delivered on trays to local shop workers (I'll try to get a picture). If you spend 70 Euros or more at the grocery store, they will deliver your groceries at no charge.