Once again, today's pictures bear no relationship to the commentary. I didn't take any pictures today but have a bunch from our Delphi trip, so the pix are a continuation from yesterday.

We had a leisurely morning, then Kim and Nicole hopped the tram to go to the Acropolis. Before going they called to make sure it was open. Workers there have been very upset and have staged strikes over the past few weeks, shutting down the site to tourists. When Kim called they told her it was open today, but that there would be a strike tomorrow. I stayed home and worked some before heading down to the Fulbright office.

Unfortunately, our maintenance check was not available. There is some issue with switching banks, so it's going to be delayed. It's fortunate we're not broke or we'd have a problem. Actually, the financial officer said that if we had a hardship situation she'd work something out. Thank goodness, it hasn't come to that.

I met up with Kim and Nicole and we looked for a place to eat (about 2 p.m.). Even without anyone else, we're still eating a late lunch. They then sought out the tourist bus (you know, the open-air ones that drive around town and provide commentary) while I headed back to the apartment. I had documentary class at 6 p.m. I soloed - it was just me and the students for the whole two hours. We started with 10 and finished with 8 (two left again at the break). I sure have a good time in class. The class is all seniors and they participate pretty well, though about half of them do most of the talking - typical. I also noticed one other bit of typical behavior: I saw someone roll his eyes when one of the more vocal students volunteered some bit of information. It's a behavior I've seen many times before with American students. We're all a lot alike.

Today's news item: It's news here that Obama will go to Turkey but not to Greece. It's more than just jealousy: it's concern about status of one country versus another.

When I got home from class Kim and Nicole were already back - now watching The Mask on TV.

This is in the Delphi Archaeological museum - looks Egyptian, doesn't it?

Kim, Nicole and I have returned from our excursion to Delphi. I have a bunch of pictures and will probably spread them out over the next few posts.

Mark and Martha picked us up about 6:45 a.m. on Sunday. We all drove out of Athens (easy to do early on a Sunday morning). Delphi is located NW of Athens. It's flat land for most of the way, but the last bit of it is through some mountains. Fortunately it was good weather and a good road. We stopped after a couple of hours driving, only about 30 minutes away, at a Swiss-chalet looking cafe/restaurant. If I haven't said it before, this is a coffee culture. After our break, we drove on to Delphi. Mark and Martha had reserved room at a great economical hotel. There was nothing extravagant about the place, but we had a spectacular view from our window. After the requisite time to drop our bags, take pictures, potty, etc. we walked toward the archaeological site.

Delphi is best known for the Oracle. It was believed that, because of the location of Delphi at the "navel" of the world, being closer to the center of the earth and all, had mystical properties. Sibyls sat on a rock "tripod" and offered prophecies, which were interpreted by the priests. The temple of Apollo was there, but nearby city-states all kept "treasuries" nearby: buildings containing treasures that they offered to Apollo. We walked all around the ancient site, which incidentally was only discovered in the 19th Century. There had been a village built on the ancient site. They relocated the entire village a few hundred yards away (the site of the current town of Delphi) and excavated the ruins. A lot of what they uncovered is in the adjacent museum, which we also visited. We spent a few hours wandering the ruins (built into the steep side of the hill) and visiting the museum. After, it was time to walk back to the village to get lunch (again, about 3 p.m.). We found a very nice place, of course with another spectacular view and had a massive lunch. Following lunch, Mark and Martha went for a nap, Kim went back to the hotel to do some stretches, etc., and Nicole and I walked around the village, window shopping and stopping in a number of souvenir shops.

We passed the evening hours leisurely. We walked around the town, stopped for coffee, and even went into a local hotel while we sat in their lobby area. We ordered drinks and taught Mark and Martha both Euchre and Scopa. We played cards and backgammon for a while, walked some more, then stopped in another cafe. There we bumped into this huge group (30?) of students from the University of Dallas. They are studying in Rome. They had their ancient Greece midterm and were now traveling to see what they had learned. None of us really wanted to have a 10 p.m. dinner so we had a little snack before heading back to the hotel.

Monday morning we had breakfast then headed off for a walk past the archaeological site and down the road a bit. It really was just to enjoy the wonderful weather. The day before had been mostly cloudy but this was sunny and spectacular. We got out of Delphi just before noon and made a stop in Arachova, a town at the foot of Mt. Parnassos, a very popular Greek ski area. The town also has some very nice views. Once again, we wandered around town. Not going in the shops with Kim cost me money, as she found something she liked in one of them. Back in the car, we again stopped at the Swiss-chalet-looking place for a snack before the drive back to Athens. Mark and Martha decided that since we would make it back to Athens early (before 4), we really didn't need a stop for lunch. We got caught in some nasty Athens traffic getting back into town but still made it back early. Nicole and I made a grocery store run and Kim prepared dinner.

Today's BIG news is that Nicole arrived for her spring break. Yay!!! Thank you Jim for getting her safely to the airport.

Kim and I decided we'd take the city bus out to the airport. I was worried about getting there before Nicole got off the plane, and never having taken the bus I wasn't sure how long it would be, so of course I kept rushing Kim whn we had plenty of time. The worst part was standing out on the street waiting for the bus. They come every 20-25 minutes. We must've just missed one: we waited 20 minutes.

We got to the airport with plenty of time. We asked "our" driver to meet us there. We didn't want Nicole to have to ride the bus back to the apartment after a 10 hour flight, so we splurged and paid for a car/driver. It's about the same price as a cab. We hired him with Beth and Trish. He' someone Mark and Martha know and use. Very nice guy.

We dropped off Nicole's stuff, had a little breakfast (her plane got in at 9 a.m.) then headed downtown on the tram. We were going to walk around. We visited the Plaka, snacked on various foods, stopped in shops (Nicole tried on Greek sandals) and watched the changing of the guard. The picture is just some random souveneir shop. They sell everything. It's easy to kill a few hours just wandering.

We caught the tram back to our neighboorhood to sit out at the shore and have appetizer "lunch" (about 3 p.m.) as we had twice before (that's become the "special meal"). Just as we were finishing up it started to get cloudy and the wind picked up. Nicole was in short sleeves so I told them to head back to the apartment to get a coat while I waited to pay the bill, then we could walk to another coastal establishment for coffee and dessert, which we did.

It was nearly 6 by the time we made it back to the apartment. Nicole slept only a very short time on the NY to Athens flight, so we decided to just stay in this evening. We all plan to turn in early tonight. Mark and Martha have generously offered to drive the three of us tomorrow to Delphi on an overnight trip. That means there will definitely be NO blog entry tomorrow.

I wanted to let you know what I read in the paper yesterday. They had a story about home prices. According to Global Property Guide, housing prices in Athens are the 14th highest in a list of 112 cities worldwide. The numbers are based on "average prices of used apartments in good condition in the center of each city and in areas where foreigners would consider buying." Athens average is 6,125 Euros per square meter. Our apartment is not in the center, but it is in an area where foreigners would buy. If the numbers hold for us, the apartment we're renting would sell for more than a half-million Euros. Top Ratings:

Monte Carlo: 37,000 Euros/sq. meter

Moscow: 16,000

London

Tokyo

Hong Kong

New York

I'll just close with a few seconds of guard changing. Maybe by the time we leave I'll have an entire video.

We begin today with a musical interlude. This group was performing on Ermou Street, a pedestrian shopping street.

Today Professor Sorogas and I were to meet at 5:50 p.m. for our 6:00 Television Production class. This is the first time in more than two decades of college teaching that I have taught a class on a Friday evening. We met in front of the main university building (because he knew I would be able to find it) and we walked to our building. At some point in the future, the building will become the home of the Communication and Media Department: offices, labs and everything. Right now it just has a few lecture halls.

This is the exterior of the Law College, where I have a class

I should mention that all three buildings in which I have taught have had attendants at desks in the lobby. The attendant makes sure only people who are supposed to be in the building are (keep out the homeless, I guess). They also lock and unlock rooms. The one tonight also helped me get my laptop set up, lowered the screen, etc.

The lecture hall tonight (no picture - next time maybe) was large and, unlike the picture from one of the law school classrooms on the left, was without graffiti.

Below is the main university building.

Class began at 6:15, and there were probably about half of the 65 students in attendance. The rest trickled in over the next half hour. It was really noisy in there. If I weren't careful I would characterize Greek students as rude (some talked constantly) but that was not the case in my other two classes. Of course those were small classes, and this one was large and they were in a much more anonymous setting. Professor Sorogas spent the first portion of class encouraging them to apply for the Erasmus program (study in another European country). They are 2nd year students, and that would be something they would do next year. He also told them about their required group project and gave them a little time to meet in their groups. After the break, I got to take over. I was forced to lecture from the stage in order to be able to advance the slides. Prof. Sorogas had talked casually from the front row of the hall, which I would have preferred to do. When he introduced me, they all applauded. I told them not to, but they did anyway. Then, when I finished, they applauded again! I wonder if I can get my American students to consider that.

About this photo: I took it at the Acropolis. There's all kind of restoration work going on. "New" pieces are purposely different from the color of the original so visitors can know what the original structure looked like but realize which pieces are authentic and which are replicas. I learned about that first when I visited the Colosseum in Rome, where they did the same. Anyway, note the guys on the right just standing around as one worked (three were there, I didn't get them all in the picture).

This was an attempt at an artistic picture of our meal on Wednesday. That's Moussaka in the foreground, grilled squid immediately behind - although it was so large we all decided it was cuttlefish rather than squid.

I took this picture of a picture in the window of a bakery in Piraeus. I get the idea: they make their stuff the old-fashioned way. But I have to say I don't think the picture of the old woman would make me want to get my bread there. She looks a little scary to me.

The pictures today bear no relevance to what I'm writing. We just have so many pictures from the last few days that I'm catching up, and today wasn't a picture day. These are all from Kim's camera.

Beth and Trish left this morning. The driver arrived for them at about 8:10 a.m., and I said goodbye then took the tram downtown.

I was "flying solo" in the Comparative Media class today. Stelios is in London delivering some lectures, so I had all three students to myself today. We had four last week, but I suspected one was going to drop. I think she was intimidated by the idea that the class would be in English, even though she could take an oral exam in Greek with Stelios. So we had one student each from Portugal, Austria and Poland. It was a fun session. As I commented about Tuesday's class, these students were participatory. It blows my whole stereotype about European students and university dynamics.

I loved the fact that the students wanted me to provide them with reading material. There isn't a textbook for the class. They want to have something to read to help them absorb the material.

A new data projector had been installed in the ceiling, so I suspect things are getting back to normal, although graffiti is still everywhere.

After class it was raining, so I got pretty wet walking to the Fulbright offices. I passed a dozen immigrants on the street selling umbrellas, but I refuse to buy a "plain" umbrella that I can buy in the US. I want some tacky tourist umbrella that says "Greece" or "Athens" or even "Cosmote" (local phone company) on it. I was pretty wet by the time I got to the office. Sophie insisted I take an umbrella from the office that I can return when I find one I want. She said she thought I should still be able to find an Athens 2004 umbrella somewhere.

Several people have asked about Kim's health. Thanks for your concern. I just want all to know that she is well and seems to show no lasting impact from the concussion. She still has her normal aches and of course walking up and down to the Acropolis yesterday was a bit of a strain, but she had today without any major obligations (though she still did wash, made dinner and we walked to pay our Internet bill).

In news of the day, the national airline, Olympic, is up for sale. An investment firm has long been considered the likely buyer but recently, private competitor Aegean Airlines has emerged as a possible buyer.

For those of you who have been bored by my "daily life" entries, this one is pretty much all tourism. In fact, it will be mostly pictures. We made our first trip up to the Acropolis today.

It was a fantastic day. The only complaint is about the flock of tour guides that descend on you like vultures as you approach the front gate. They all want you to hire them to take you through the site. They're not cheap either. When Nicole, Kim and I visited Pompeii in 20002, we paid for a tour so I'm not completely opposed to the idea. We just weren't interested. Some of the people continued to ask after you already declined their offer. One said, "Without a guide, you're just looking at rocks." I wanted to say something pithy like "I'm a geologist, what's wrong with rocks?" or maybe "have you heard of guidebooks? We have more information in a book than you will ever know" but nothing came quickly enough. It even continued once you were past the entry point. If someone had declined that many times, do guides really have success asking them again?

We heard lots of languages being spoken, including a high school group from Italy. It was fun listening in on their conversations.

If you need information about the Acropolis, read this or read Wikipedia.

The Acropolis Museum is currently closed. There was a small museum up at the summit, and Greece has built a HUGE museum at the base of the hill - somewhat controversial in its size and design. The museum is the large building at the top of this photo, across from Dionysus's Theatre. The museum has also been beset with construction delays and problems. The opening has been delayed several times. A glass floor is said to undulate more than its tolerance will allow. Here's a CNN piece from last year about it.

Of course after walking around the grounds for a few hours you work up an appetite. After coming down we wandered around a little and took a shopkeeper's advice on a place to eat. We figured it must be her uncle's restaurant or something but nonetheless we went there and had a nice "lunch" (again, after 2 p.m.).

After a little more walking, Kim started feeling a little sick. I was worried she might be getting what I got Monday. We decided to head home so she could rest. She thought maybe just the heat from being in the sun for hours, a big meal and the wine was just catching up with her and a rest would be all she needed. Fortunately she was right. We took the tram back, left Kim at the apartment and Beth, Trish and I headed off for coffee and dessert.

Kim and I know we'll be back at the Acropolis. We have other guests coming, so we didn't feel compelled to see everything and study every rock closely.

Missing an entry or two is really tough. It means I have a lot more I want to say, if I can remember it all.

Monday afternoon my old Circle K friend Beth (center) and her friend Trish came to visit. They had spent a week in Italy on vacation and stopped in Athens on their way back home.

Unfortunately for me, I was ill Monday. It may be related to something I did that morning. A pigeon likes to roost on our air conditioner and we can hear it there in the early morning hours. Since we're not using the AC, I was taping a cut plastic bag around the AC to lock out the pigeon. I carefully washed my hands after, but I know you can get sick from the fumes. Anyway I didn't have any breathing trouble, just sickness. By the time they arrived (just after 3) I was well enough to walk around a little with them. Kim and I took them down to the sea, then we took a tram and went down to the center of Athens. Monday was a holiday (Clean Monday) so a lot of places were closed. A Clean Monday tradition is kite flying and we saw plenty. Tried getting a sky picture with 10 kites in the shot, but even Kim's good camera couldn't do it.

It's kind of funny - after one month, we're the ones watching the tourists taking all their pictures. It was funny to watch Beth and Trish taking so many pictures. But, if I had less than three days in Athens, I know I would be doing the same thing.

Once we got going Tuesday morning, the first stop had to be the university where I had to drop off a copy of a book proposal. I was correcting the English for a non-native speaker. After that few minutes of business we wandered around. We showed them the Agora (the big market with all the meats, seafood, etc., watched the changing of the guard in front of the Parliament building, and stopped in several shops. We hopped a tram back to our coastal suburb for our "lunch" reservation at 2 p.m.

We wanted to do a meal just like the one we had when we arrived in Greece, and we did. We ate mezedes at the same restaurant on the shore. It was a perfect, sunny day. Kim, Beth and Trish returned to the apartment. I jumped on the tram and headed downtown to meet Professor Sorogas at his office. We was going to walk me to our documentary class. It was in a building I had not yet been to.

This Olympic monument is on the shore not far from our apartment.

The classroom building was also a building that had been occupied during the riots. Some of the students were waiting in the building lobby when we arrived. We went up to our third floor classroom. It was clean and well-equipped (I am guessing it's been worked on. The graffiti in much of the rest of the building was not in this classroom, and a projector, tv, flat screen monitor were all there). For the first hour of the class, Professor Sorogas and I sat and the desk in the front. He spoke some extemporaneously, some from notes. He asked me occasionally for input. We took a "halftime" break and he showed me an extensive collection of world cinema they have on tape. After the break, I was to teach the class solo. Professor Sorogas went to the office and I took over. I started by asking them what they hoped to do after graduation. Similar to the US in that some don't know and some have a very definite idea.

We had 10 students in class when we started and only 6 after the break. I could speculate that they knew I was going to take over so they left, but that wasn't the case. It's not unusual for students to attend part of the class. The six who stayed, though, were great. They participated. In my limited teaching experience in Europe, it has been difficult to get students to talk in class. That was not at all the case here. They were actively engaged, and I am hopeful about the class. When we ended they asked if I was going to be back next week. I told them that if I wasn't thrown out of the country, I'd be back. I hope they asked because they wanted me back and not because they will stay away if I return. I guess we'll find out next week.

I got back to the apartment about 9 p.m. Kim had prepared a "light" dinner (not). Afterwards we played a couple of games of euchre for the first time in months. We haven't yet found any Greek euchre players.

Today we're off to the acropolis for the first time since arriving in Greece.

We had a nice day of weather today. We got out of the house just before noon and hopped the tram to Piraeus, the Athens port town. As I've said before, the tram is tremendously convenient, but it's slow. A 10 minute drive takes about 30 minutes.

From the tram stop we walked to a church that had an English-language Catholic mass. It was about a 20 minute walk. We could have taken the Metro (subway) but it was a nice day, and we haven't walked around Piraeus, so that's what we did. It's a hilly town - much like I imagine San Francisco to be. We walked some steep roads, but we had lots of time so we took it easy.

The church has a noon Spanish-language mass and a 1 p.m. English mass. Our mas was attended mostly by people who looked like they were of Asian or Pacific Island heritage. Again, if you're Roman Catholic and looking for an English-language mass in this city, chances are you're not from the U.S.

After mass we walked toward the port. We had no idea that there would be a street market. This was not the produce/housewares stuff - this was purses, sunglasses, clothes, watches, etc. All stuff that had undoubtedly fallen off the back of a truck, and all sold by immigrants who spoke English and Greek and probably 2 or 3 other languages. Kim made the mistake of looking over a towel. After she put it down the guy followed after her offering to lower the price. We had a shady guy come up to us and pull a gold chain out of his pocket - a real caricature. He said "Only 125 Euros." I laughed and said "If I had 125 Euros do you think I'd be walking around this market?" He replied "How much." I told him no thanks.

We actually did make a purchase. I bought a pair of "designer" sunglasses for 1.50 Euros (about $1.90). After that we decided to stop for Souvlaki. We sat at this place and ate. You can see where we sat on the bridge going from the square in front of the train station over the road (Poseidon Blvd) . We each got a souvlaki, but as we started to make our way back to the tram, we took the opportunity to stop at other stands where we would get one and share it. Kim wimped out on me after just a couple of more stands (each one is under 2 Euros) and opted instead to get something sweet.

We decided the day wasn't quite done. It's 9 tram stops (I think) between our apartment and Piraeus. We decided to get off the tram a couple of stops before we got to our apartment and walk along the coast as the sun was setting. Sorry, there were some clouds, so there aren't any spectacular sunset pictures.

We did see one guy doing warm-up exercises to go into the water. He was obviously preparing himself for the cold. He stripped down to his "underwear" - Kim said it looked like paper (it was definitely translucent) - and made his way into the water. We weren't the only ones staring at this guy. One Greek guy went down to the water's edge to take a picture. We exercised a little more restraint.

We thought this was very cool - a large chess set on the boardwalk. It obviously gets used. These two guys appeared pretty serious.

Kim decided to walk out on one of the jetties to get a better look. She wanted to see if she could see any sea urchins. I lovingly called out to her that if she fell in, I wasn't going to go in after her.

Today's news item relates to Carnival, ending today. We saw festivals from all over Greece on TV (just enter "Greece Carnival" in YouTube and you'll see festivals from earlier years). A news story tells how church officials are upset over a particular float. In Greece (I know it was true in Italy, too) a number of the floats and costumes are satirical and provide social commentary.

Finally, this picture is actually of Piraeus as seen from the beach near our house (with Kim's long lens). It can give you an idea of what I meant about the up-and-down hills we walked.

Our first set of guests arrive tomorrow. I hope to blog, but don't be surprised if I miss a day. Tomorrow is a legal holiday in Greece - Clean Monday. More on that next time.