People who are looking to see lots of tourist pictures from the Acropolis and other sights will just have to wait a few days, until our guests begin to arrive. In the meantime, Kim and I really do enjoy going to local open-air markets. We missed the one in our neighborhood yesterday, so we hopped the tram and went to a neighborhood north of us where Saturday is market day.

The Yahoo forecast called for clear skies and a high temperature of 60, but it wasn't the case (looking at it now, they changed today's high to 53). We left the house in sunshine but we weren't there very long before it turned overcast and we even felt a few drops. We decided not to make a day of it.

It's easy to spend a ton of time in the market. Of course if you just want to get in, get your stuff and get out, you can do that. But how do you know if you got a good deal? You have to go to at least 3 or 4 different people selling tomatoes before you know what a good price is, and have to see for yourself the differences in quality.

People are used to seeing pick-your-own tomatoes, lettuce, etc. for sale, but Americans might be surprised to see pick-your-own eggs for sale. They're priced by size and you can buy one or 10 (or more). Most people don't buy eggs a dozen at a time. As you can see, the smalls are 10 cents, so a dozen smalls would be 1.20 Euro, or about $1.52 a dozen - twice that for extra large.

Most of the vendors in the market speak English, so as soon as one of us opens our mouths they are quick to respond in English (sometimes even before we speak). Once or twice it doesn't work out that way, but we get things figured out. Kim is especially good about that. She is far more brave than I ever am when it comes to trying to communicate.

One of the differences I note between here and Italy is the bags in stores. In Italy, it was not unusual to be charged $0.05 for each plastic bag you used when you checked out. It was common for people to bring bags with them to the grocery store, both to save money and to be environmentally conscious. We've been to at least 4 different grocery stores (4 I can remember) and none of them charges for bags, nor do I see many people bringing cloth bags. I admit I have seen one or two.

OK, another item: gasoline. It may just be my perception, but in Italy it seemed all the gas stations sold gas at the same price. I just may not be very observant, but any variation I saw was maybe a cent or two per liter. Here I see 14 cents per liter differences. Gas here runs about $3.92 to $4.11 per gallon (assuming my dollars to Euros and liters to gallons conversion is correct).

Today's news story. Like the rest of the world, Greece's economy is struggling. The EU puts a limit on national debt, and Greece exceeds it. They're not alone right now, but they've been that way since before the economic crisis, and the EU continues to grumble about it. The PM is off to Brussels to try to mollify the Union.

Today was a day for bureaucracy. Kim and I took the tram down to Fulbright this morning. We were to go with Nicholas (the American Program Coordinator) to get our residence permits. I'm not quite sure I understand why we needed to have such a thing, but I just do as I'm told. We already have a visa that says we can be in the country beyond the 90 day limit (Americans can go to any EU country without a visa for less than 90 days), which required us to go to Chicago and submit a lot of paperwork. Not that any of you care, but in order to get a residence permit, we needed to provide:

• photocopies of our passports, including the pages with the visa stamp, our passport numbers and the stamp from our entry to the EU (when we flew into Frankfurt);
  
• Two passport-size photos of each of us;
  
• An official welcome letter from the Fulbright director (explains why we're here longer than 90 days);
  
• Our marriage certificate, and;
  
• A notarized letter stating what my BSU health insurance will and won't cover.

The final two items required that I get an Apostille from the requisite states (Indiana for insurance, Missouri for marriage certificate) and have the documents translated into Greek.

Let me further digress by explaining that while Greek bureaucracy can be blamed for some of this, U.S. bureaucracy has been just as tedious. In getting the apostille for the insurance letter, my colleague Nancy graciously offered to take my letter to the Secretary of State's office on a trip to Indianapolis. When she arrived at the office, they told her they could not put the seal on it because the notary at Ball State had neglected to include two lines in her notarization. I informed the BSU benefits office, which provided another letter, had the notary do it a second time, then I drove the letter down to Indy.

In any event, Kim and I met Wilf and Mary Jo, oceanography professors from Texas A&M. Wilf is officially the Fulbrighter: Mary Jo is here also doing research but on her sabbatical. They arrived only a week ago. Along with Nicholas, the 5 of us went to the office for residence permits. There was a line outside the building. Fortunately Nicholas had spoken in advance with people and we were able to bypass everyone and go right in.

Thank goodness he handled everything. There's no way we could have done it on our own. The office had about a dozen people at various desks and people went from one desk to another having items stamped and checked. He had us all sit and wait while he did the running around, getting the requisite stamps and signatures. I really wanted to shoot video in this place but was afraid to do so. Wilf and I sat in front of a chain-smoking woman who appeared to be the last check. She had two rubber stamps that she used on almost every page of people's documents (each person had the same sorts of documents I bulleted above) and initialed each one. She had to deal with passports from lots of different countries. I have no idea how she knew if they were authentic.

The residence permit we received is temporary. In two weeks we have to go back to get the premanent one. Fortunately we only have to pick it up, which is supposed to be significantly easier (good thing, as Nicholas won't go with us the next time).

Afterward Kim and I wandered back home walking through Omonia, a wonderfully eclectic area. We bought "street food" from several shops, admired the uniqueness of the people and places and looked in a lot of store windows. Without question the souvlaki we got was the highlight. Eventually she needed a restroom so we decided to stop at Starbucks. Ironically, my coffee there was the least expensive I've had in Greece!

This was Kim's first day out since her concussion. We got back home about 6 hours after we left and she was starting to feel a headache come on so we made it back at just about the right time. Fortunately today's weather was nice so that wasn't an issue.

Today's editorial addresses the issue of universities as asylum. Years ago a law was passed to prevent police from stepping onto campuses because they abused it before and tried to quell dissent that way. In the December riots, rioters used the university as a safe place, going out to cause trouble then taking refuge on campus (and trashing the place in the process). The paper had opinion pieces pro and con explaining the need for asylum. This opinion piece says the system is broken.

The big news today was my visit to class.

I met Stelios at his office and together we walked over to the law college to meet the Comparative Media class. First a word about him. He's the department chair and a very productive scholar (if you click on the above link you'll see more about him). In spite of his administrative duties he still teaches a full-time load (sounds like my BSU chair). The plan was to talk with the students about the class structure. They can either do a paper for me in English or take a final from him in Greek.

(Graffiti on the classroom wall behind him)

He had already advised me that there would likely be few students in attendance today. Greek students use the first week to "shop" for elective classes. Comparative is an elective. In addition, Greek students only enroll for the exam. There is no compulsory attendance. Some only do the exam and never show up for anything else. Stelios told me that at exams he has had to ask students to show their ID cards so he would know that they were, in fact, students, since he had never seen them. We were both surprised when the Portuguese student told us that attendance is compulsory at her school, and that if a student has three absences, s/he is not allowed to sit for the exam.

True to his word, there were 4 students in the class when we arrived. Three of the four are Erasmus students (from other European universities) and although the fourth is technically a Greek student, she's actually Ukraine-Greek. The other three were from Portugal, Poland and Austria (she was born Bosnian but her family evacuated during the war). We discussed the plan for the class, I told them a little about myself and my desire to talk with them outside of class (something not traditionally done).

Graffiti in the stairwell

Stelios also advised me of the state we might find the classroom. The room is in the law college, which was taken over by protesters in the December riots. Graffiti is everywhere. Here's a protest poster on one of the walls. As he predicted, the classroom projector was missing. I'll provide more pictures next week when I go early for class. Stelios will be in London next week doing presentations so it will be all me. He told me that next week I may have the same four, or twice as many, or three times that.

We walked back to the department offices, making a brief stop at his bank so he could conduct some business. At his office he ordered coffee. I was able to get a picture of the delivery guy and his nifty delivery tray. As you can see, it's closed when in transit to keep the contents' temperature. When I took the picture he asked me if I would e-mail it to him, which I did.

I left his office at 12:30 when he had a meeting scheduled. He certainly appears to have a full plate. I will try my best not to impose on his time.

Today must've been the day for work. E-mails arrived today asking for me to update my Community of Scholars profile, order my textbooks for next fall, review revisions for two chapters in the media law text, approve a final draft for a paper on cable TV that the Digital Policy Institute produced for a client, provide a report on my professional activities of the last year, and write a letter of recommendation for an award nomination. In addition Stelios asked me to proof a book proposal he's written - which I was happy to do. I'm not complaining about a little work - it's just amazing that all of these tasks showed up in one day. (I'd probably be able to get more done if I didn't blog so often).

Kim was doing a little better today from her concussion. We ventured out of the apartment for a short walk this afternoon. Just about the time we were coming in the front door of the building she said she was starting to feel poorly. I'm concerned because tomorrow we have to go to the Fulbright office, then to get our official residence permit, and I know that is going to involve some walking.

Today's news item: Greek Orthodox lent begins Monday. There was a news story about the drop in the price of bread, including the special Lenten bread.

The biggest significance about today is that it marks the first time since our arrival that the temperature in Muncie is actually HIGHER than the temperature here in Athens. According to Yahoo today's high in Athens was 49 while Muncie's was 53. Things don't get any better tomorrow when our high is predicted at 47 and Muncie's reads 54. Shame on me, but I'm glad to see Muncie's high on Friday is only supposed to be 38 while ours will be 54. I'm sorry, but I feel like our temperature here should be higher.



But here in the southern suburbs, we have it far better than those people in the north. Sophie, the senior program officer at Fulbright here in Athens, lives in the suburbs north of the city (in the hills) and provided this picture of her street yesterday (she didn't make it in to work). They got 7 inches of snow! But here, we got nothing. It's really amazing how much difference in the weather in just a few miles.



Kim's head is still bothering her and she can't move too well. She's pretty certain she has a concussion. She went online to see what should be done, and the advice was pretty much to take it easy and there's nothing else that can be done. Needless to say, today was not one of the more exciting since we arrived. It's a shame, but better it happened now than when we have guests.

Today's news item deals with the aftermath of the prison escape I mentioned a couple of days ago (scroll down if you didn't read it). Prepaid phone cards are big in Europe - much more than in the US, I think. Kim and I are both using cell phones with prepaid cards. Anyway, one of the issues with Sunday's jail break was the fact that the perpetrators used prepaid cell phone cards. When you buy them (available from any kiosk on just about every street) they don't any personal information so there's no way to trace calls back to the user. A few people are proposing that people buying the cards ought to have to provide identification information. I think it's just talk; I don't think it will ever fly.

I meet the Comparative Media class tomorrow. Professor Papathanasopoulos and I will team teach the class, although he's really letting me take the class over after the first session. He expects it to be a small class but we really don't know. In most of the European system, students sign up for the exams for a class, not the class itself (attendance is not compulsory) so we could start with 10 or 20, then go up or down from there. I'm looking forward to it. In addition to the Greek students we should also have 4-6 Erasmus students, i.e. students from other European universities spending a semester or a year in Greece. I'll give a full report tomorrow.

Today is day 24 of the trip. That means we are exactly 20 percent of the way in. That explains why today will be a pictureless blog entry. We've pretty much settled into routine life here. I remind my friends and family that we're not tourists: we're living here for four months. That means some pretty routine days.

I went to a lecture tonight (more on that in the next paragraph). Kim wasn't doing well and didn't go. Last night as she was preparing dinner, she stumbled and hit her head rather hard on a metal shelf in the kitchen. In addition to the headache. she's suffering from the sort of extremity pain that jerking her spinal column would cause. She put a lidocaine patch on and took pain medicine but still is not well. I hope she improves by taking it easy, but we may find out how the Greek healthcare system treats aliens.

The lecture at the Hellenic American Union was delivered by Evelyn C. White, biographer of The Color Purple author Alice Walker. Her talk was uplifting. She seemed almost spiritual. The 75 minutes passed quickly - she was very easy to listen to. The audience of about 60 people included a mix of Greek and American university students.

I was introduced to Yvette Jarvis. I didn't know what a celebrity she is when I met her. It wasn't until I got home and saw her Wikipedia entry and website that I realized what an Athens legend she is. I hope I get to meet her again - I want to talk women's basketball.

That provides the segue for me to mention that the English-language newspaper did a feature on former Purdue women's basketball standout Katie Gearlds. Katie plays for Seattle in the WNBA but she's over here playing for the Athens women's team in her off-season. If we can find the arena we'll go to a game.

Today's English-language paper ran a story about The Pain of Autumn, a film about the 1955 attack on Greeks living in Istanbul. It wasn't a movie review for Greeks but rather an explanation how it is the first time Turks are seeing any discussion about the events of that time: something that was simply not discussed for decades. Relations between Greece and Turkey are good for the most part (if you don't mention Crete) but people here still worry about their bigger, stronger neighbor.

Finally, a random fact (did I mention this already?): the majority of Greeks wear wedding bands on their right hand rather than their left.

Sorry - no pictures today. It's after midnight and I'm ready for bed. I'll just write some info about the day and turn in.

I had two meetings downtown. First I met with the Fulbright director about the possibility of my involvement in some projects outside of just the teaching assignment at U of A. She told me about a few other professors at some other universities with whom I could meet and perhaps deliver a guest lecture. We discussed prospects for a video workshop with an eclectic group of different people who might benefit. It was a nice visit and I'm very excited about the possibility of getting involved in some other activities.

Afterward I headed to the university to meet with the chair of the department. We're going to team-teach the comparative media class. We'll meet with the class on Thursday to go over the course outline and expectations.

It turns out it will be my only daytime class. The documentary class meets Wednesdays 6-8 p.m. and the video production class meets Fridays 6-8 p.m. In addition there is a production lab that meets Mondays 5-7. Since the students work on projects and there are no grades, we don't meet with that class each week. We just meet periodically to check their progress, critique their work and provide suggestions.

We had Mark and Martha over for dinner this evening. Of course Kim did all the hard work. Any of you who have been fortunate enough to have one of Kim's special meals know how spectacular they can be. I think Mark and Martha was impressed. We had a nice evening - the time flew (one of the reasons I'm so late getting to this entry).

Greece's big news story today was about a prison escape. A helicopter lowered a rope and two prisoners climbed out - just as they did two years ago. They were captured and the episode got repeated yesterday.

One more thing. As you well know, a lot of Greece's antiquities are scattered around the globe. Greece would say they've been pillaged. They've built a new Acropolis museum, but the pillars are in London at the British museum. There was a great quote in a little tourist brochure: "A British paper had once written, rather tongue in cheek, that if all the London museums allowed other countries to get back the things taken from them, then all that was left would be two oil paintings featuring cocker spaniels."

Carnival is in full swing. It's the pre-lent season. Kim and I went all the way from our southern suburb apartment to Kifissia, the northernmost suburb that can be reached on the Metro. We were going to try one of the other few Roman Catholic churches that have mass in English. On the way back we had some revelers on our train. Kim wanted to be sure to get a picture, little knowing that we would have other opportunities.





Mass was at 11 a.m. but it took more than an hour to get to the church (it really is a long way). Along the way we passed the 2004 main Olympic Complex. As with most cities that host the games, venues are scattered all around, but the main complex is north of downtown, and it was our first time to see it.






After church we went back to the center of town. We got some take-out food from a Turkish place and ate in the square, while the pigeons waited for us to drop stuff. We were then off for a second visit to the wine festival: our last chance.














Outside the exhibition hall Carnival was all around. There were kiddie rides set up, food vendors of all kinds (typical carnival stuff - popcorn, candied apples, roaster chestnuts - you know)












There isn't a lot new to report from the wine festival - the same wines and distributors as before. We tried different things, though there were a couple of people who recognized us and said hello. We bumped into a tour group of Americans. They were from a winery in eastern Ohio that does annual wine tours. Not only were we excited to talk with some American wine lovers, but we were able to talk with their Slovene bus driver. The group was headed off to Turkey tomorrow.








I did want to add one new item from the wine festival. I saw this "Blink" sparkling wine. I didn't have any, but I thought someone needs to let Malcolm Gladwell know this exists. Maybe he can do a cross-promotional event with the winery. The bottles look pretty funky, too.

I'll leave you with a video of some dancers who were on a stage outside the exhibition hall: part of the Carnival festivities.

Today was a real tourism day.

Last night Mark and Martha called to say that today's weather ought to be nice, and we ought to take advantage of it to go on a little excursion. They picked us up around 10 this morning and we drove out of Athens. If you take a look at this map (click on it to enlarge) you can see our path. We drove northwest from Athens on to the Peleponnese Peninsula, then south along the coast. You'll see "Epidavros" twice. The one further north is Nea (New) Epidavros. We went to the village south of that, Archaia (Ancient) Epidavros.

The first hour was motorway - fast and broad.

The last hour was winding two-lane through the rough landscape - still fast to my way of thinking. Before driving down to the coast we stopped for coffee at a very scenic cafe in the hills above the town. This is a drive Mark and Martha make regularly and they almost always stop at this place. It was definitely spectacular to sit out on the back terrace and look out while having espresso.

After our little break we drove down to the waterline. We stopped at a hotel (closed until Easter) to walk along the shore. Kim picked up some rocks (there's no way our luggage will make the weight limit going home). We drove some more around the little village. The streets were so narrow that if we encountered anyone coming the other way, one of us would have to back up to an intersection or driveway so there was enough room to pass.

We went down one very narrow street to reach a secluded vacation house of Melina Mercouri,

the famous Greek actress who died in 1994. It was a modernistic home in the 1950s.

We had "lunch" in the village. Once again, understand that lunch was after 2 p.m. Mark and Martha worried that the place they wanted to eat might not be open (too early) but fortunately it was. They had menus, but rather than give them to us, they took us behind the counter to show us what was prepared. I was quite happy to let Mark choose a selection of appetizers including cheese pie, eggplant with feta, pickled red pepper, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) and black-eyed peas with onions. For main course, Kim and I both had octopus in a tomato and olive oil sauce.

The restaurant's website, complete with menu, is here. They also have a slide show of the town in summer.

We walked a little after lunch to get some air before the drive back. Along the shore you could see hundreds of sea urchins just under the water. Anthony Bourdain would have a feast!

Then it was time to head back to Athens. We made it back shortly before 6 p.m. Got to enjoy good food, good company and some spectacular views.

First, a correction to yesterday's Blog: Pork Thursday (Tsiknopempti) is not the end of Carnival as WikiPedia says it is, but rather the beginning of the end. Carnival lasts until Clean Monday (a national holiday) on March 2. I always advise my students not to rely on WikiPedia, and I violated my own advice.

A chilly day today in Athens. The high was only 49 degrees. We went to the market in the morning, but it was not a leisurely stroll. We got the things we needed and headed back. Two quick photos. The first shows the beans you can purchase. There are similar bins for spices - just weigh out whatever quantity you want.

The second picture shows the vast variety of olives. Please note that they're all different. Of course you can sample them all to decide which ones to buy.

The big event for the day, though, was the trip to the 2009 Athens Wine Festival. If you're a wine fan I hope you'll click the link. There were hundreds of wines to sample.

All the exhibitors had someone who spoke English. I even got to speak Italian with a couple.

This video is just ONE of the rooms where you could sample. There were more than 150 wineries with more than 1200 wines to sample! No, we didn't make it through all of them. It is by far the best value for a wine festival I have ever attended. For 15 Euros you received a tasting glass (with the festival logo), a spiral-bound catalog of the wines with space for tasting notes (very well organized) and admission to the festival for all three days if you want.

Not only were there wines, but they also had ouzo, grappa and other liqueurs. I did cross over at one point to try Ouzo and something made from Mastiha, a sap found only on the island of Chios. Kim sampled most of the red wines from my glass as well as her whites. Quite uncharacteristicly, I believe she actually had more wine that I did.

The festival is held at Zappion, a large exhibition hall at the edge of the national gardens. It's not just some cold rectangular box, though. The columned front is nice, but inside the exhibition space is organized around a central rotunda. It never feels like you're in an extremely large space because you never see the whole hall. It definitely had a more intimate feel.

Kim's camera will again provide the visuals for today's posting.

I e-mailed Professor Sorogas early this morning to ask whether he could tell me the class schedule yet. He called a little later to tell me that it was still not final. One of the classrooms we use ("we" meaning the U of Athens Dept. of Communication and Media Studies) at the law school is not going to be ready for another couple of weeks.

He also told me that a university professor had been attacked while delivering a lecture. It seems he had been critical of rioters so a gang of young people entered the lecture hall and attacked him. The department was having a meeting today and this was among items to discuss. Any of you who know my mother PLEASE do not say anything to her about this. Today's news account was mostly about a car bomb in Athens with the professor's attack the last paragraph of the story. Please don't be overly concerned about us. Yes, there are still some angry factions but this is not a city in anarchy. It's still safer to be here than to own a home on a runway approach in a snowy city.

Kim and I were going to head out this afternoon but the wind was so strong we decided to just do some grocery shopping at the local store and go back home. Kim was able to spend some time on the phone this afternoon with a couple of her sisters. Thank goodness for international phone cards!

In the Greek Orthodox calendar, today is Barbeque Thursday. People eat grilled food (mostly pork) today. We didn't want to go to a restuarant so we got pork steaks at the grocery store.

It's also the unofficial end of Carnival season. It's the days preceding lent. In Roman Catholic tradition, most people are familiar with Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the day preceding lent. Greeks celebrate for weeks, staring in January. Lots of halloween-type costumes all around.

This is a solar-powered water heater. You see them on the roof of just about every apartment building.

Today was another day of interviewing Fulbright candidates, so I don't have any new pictures. Once again, I'll provide pictures from Kim's camera. She was out and about.

The 42 applicants we met over the two days all came from the humanities, broadly defined. 17 (40 percent) were from architecture. Another 8 (19 percent) were in law. The remainder included a variety of fields such as anthropology, fine arts and economics.

The Fulbright administration loves it when we come up with a diverse group, and our rankings resulted in just what they wanted. The 15 candidates we selected represented seven different universities. In spite of the overwhelming percentage from architecture and law, our final choices included eight different academic fields.

I learned a little about Greek universities as well. Like the U.S., grade point averages from one university are not necessarily comparable to another.

One of my frustrations as Fulbright Program Adviser at Ball State has been the lack of strong recommendations some students have received from professors, and it's no different in Greece. The professor might state that a student was outstanding but then provide no evidence, or write some brief letter that implies the professor doesn't really know the student at all.

I was tremendously impressed with the wealth of international experience some of these students have already had. They've all done some traveling, and almost all of them have spent a semester studying in another country, in another language. Obviously to apply for a Fulbright they must have strong English skills, but many spent a semester in Austria, Germany, France, Italy or Spain (England, too, but that didn't involve a third language). I know what a challenge it is to get U.S. students to spend a semester in another country - and that's when we offer them classes in English. I think these young people are very brave (I never studied overseas as a student).

I really believe in what Fulbright does, and not just because they're paying my rent right now. I think Senator Fulbright had it right all those years ago when he established the program. I know that I still have friends in Slovenia 14 years after I did my first Fulbright there, and I believe there may be a few Slovenes who believe that Americans are good people because of our interactions - OK, because of their interactions with KIM, but nonetheless, the point is the same. I believe the Greek students who get the opportunity to study in the US are the future leaders of Greece, and our investment in them is worth a lot. For what it costs us to bring them to study for a year, we couldn't maintain a military base here for a week. Soft diplomacy is a very effective form of international relations.

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.