Greek Orthodox Easter is April 19 this year. Some years it matches the western calendar and other years it doesn't. You can buy all sorts of things in the stores: chocolate eggs, bunnies, etc. You can either buy egg coloring kits or buy them already colored, like these.

This may be the last blog entry for quite some time. Friday's classes are the last for two weeks - we have Easter break. Saturday morning, Kim and I are taking the train to Istanbul. We'll return to Athens Thursday evening - just long enough to empty the suitcase and re-pack for a trip to Nafplio with Mark and Martha Friday for Greek Easter.

Sunset is getting later and the weather is nicer. Kim and I have said that we'd walk along the boardwalk once the weather improved, so we did that this evening. You can tell the weather is nicer because the number of people walking, sitting, biking, etc. has increased. This pavilion is one I've shown before, where the chess players gather. There was quite a crowd this evening. A couple of guys were playing on a "normal" board while two others were playing with the three-foot-high pieces. As one game concluded, another guy got up to challenge the winner. Must be a regular schedule. In addition to the men (yes, all men) inside the pavilion, all sorts of other people stopped to watch: some for just a few moments, others for much longer. Maybe you can see in the background that there's even a dog just sitting, watching the game.

There were things along the walk that I didn't photograph. We saw several couples sitting along the beach who looked like they needed a room (this is a G-rated blog, if you know what I mean). There was a guy fishing who had 5 poles set up using tripods. He had the poles in holders - a really elaborate set-up. I was really confused. He obviously had quite a bit invested in his gear, but he couldn't be doing it for commercial purposes (didn't see him catch anything in over 10 minutes). I know people spend a lot on hobbies, but once his rigs were all up, all he did was sit and wait for one of his lines to hit. I can sit on the beach and drink a beer without spending all that money on poles.

It was next to impossible to shoot toward the sea with the sun setting, as this photo clearly shows. I would love to have gotten pictures of the boats on the water, but the glare just made it impossible.

Tomorrow night I have the TV production class for the last time before the break, but realized it will be a lot longer than that before I see them again. We're on break Apr. 17 and 24. May 1 is a national holiday. On May 8, I'll be at the Media 2009 Conference here in Athens, so Professor Sorogas will teach the class for me that evening. That means I see them April 10, then not again until May 15. They won't even remember who I am.

These guys are in a different pavilion on the beach, playing backgammon. Clearly women do not sit with other women and play games. Saw plenty walking, jogging, etc., but none involved in any of the games.

Our beach is OK, but it is clearly not the high rollers' beach. We have seen stretches south of us that have very nice hotels, bar/cafes on the beach, etc. Still, every so often you come across a beautiful patch of flowers like these.

I forgot to include a news item yesterday, so I'm going to include two today. First there was a story in the Intl Herald Tribune about Greek tourism, and the fear that it would be a rough year. When the British economy is down, they don't travel as much, so all the tourist-related businesses suffer, which means government revenues are down (less tax revenue), which means less money for assistance for all those struggling because of lost jobs, meaning more lost jobs.... Everyone needs to get out there and stimulate the economy!

I wish the technology allowed me to provide smell. This lilac tree is in front of a house in our neighborhood. I have never seen one this large.

The other news story is Greece's desire to increase its role as regional mediator. This is clearly a response to Obama's visit to Turkey. Greece does not want to be seen as irrelevant, and this is a move to demonstrate its strategic importance in the region.

I taught my documentary class Tuesday evening, and then taught the comparative class this morning. These are the three international students taking the Comparative Media class. From the left, Rita is from Portugal, Joanna is from Poland and Maja is from Austria. We are supposed to have another student from Greece, but she has showed up only once. I think she's a little intimidated to have class in English, even though Stelios told her she could take an exam in Greek. Stelios and I are doing a research project comparing Greek and US TV newscasts and the students are going to do the coding.

Today's highlight was a gathering of most of the Fulbrighters. We met at the Fulbright office and went around the table with introductions. The picture on the left shows the director, Artemis, speaking. Jessica (from Chicago) is a grad student doing genetic research at the Fleming Lab south of Athens. In the background, Nikos (who works most closely with us grantees) is taking the pictures.

It's quite an impressive group. We had faculty in oceanography and music and a theatre professional. The grad students were in genetics, anthropology and archeology. We even had a visiting Fulbright from Germany doing seminars this week on American studies.

Cort (Buffalo) is in music and Catherine (NY) is the theatre professional.

It was great to hear what all of them are doing. Our Fulbrights are all so different. After each one of us spoke, Artemis would add something that the speaker had not mentioned.

Speaking of Artemis, she had been in the US recently and was part of a program at the Woodrow Wilson Center on the impact of education and culture on US/Greece relations. You've heard me say it before, but I truly believe in what Fulbright does and think the sorts of bonds they create are critical to international relations.

Afterwards we walked to a local restaurant for lunch. Phillipou is a restaurant that has served traditional Greek food since 1923. The meal was very nice, but as usual it's the conversation that really enhances the meal. Meals are so much more than just eating. I regret that many times a meal is just nourishment. It's the special occasions that people gather around a table that make the food all the more special. I think it's why some people think their Thanksgiving meal is the best: the food may be mediocre - it's the company and the special feeling that make it unique.

We were joined at lunch by the head of the Greek Ministry of Education. In the U.S. his title would be Secretary but Artemis introduced him as Ambassador Economou (sp?). What a contrast from my 1995 Fulbright in Slovenia. At the time there was no Fulbright commission in SLO, so we were pretty much left to fend for ourselves. Here in Greece, the Fulbright Commission is a respected entity and as such, we Fulbrighters actually feel valued.

As we left the restaurant, some of the others familiar with the neighborhood pointed out the Wine Garage, a unique shop just up the block. Usually I'm more interested in what's in the bottle than the building, but this place was as unique as I've ever seen. We spent way too long in there talking with the woman in the shop to walk out with only one bottle of wine (I wonder if she expected us to buy more).

I offered to try to get us all together after the Easter break, even if it's just to go out for coffee. I think it's wrong to spend all your time with Americans, but comparing notes every few weeks can be useful. If somebody finds a spectacular coffee shop or bookstore or restaurant, I want to hear about it.

I'll close with this delivery truck Kim and I saw outside a grocery store. As loyal Ball State fans, we just couldn't resist taking a picture.

Today, April 7, is my magnificent daughter Nicole's birthday. My "baby" is no longer a teenager. All of today's pictures are of her when she was here last month.

I'm sure most of you heard yesterday's news about the terrible earthquake in central Italy. The town where we were in 2002 and 2008, Macerata, is located less than 100 miles away from the epicenter. When traveling from Macerata to Rome, it's just about the halfway point on the drive. In checking the Macerata newspaper, there didn't seem to be any major damage in our little town. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of central Italy.

Last night Kim and I went over to Mark and Martha's. They wanted to be sure we saw a movie before we left for our trip to Turkey. In English the film is called "A Touch of Spice" but in Greek it's "Politiki Kouzina," which roughly translates as "The cuisine of 'the city.'" As M&M explained to us, many Greeks still refer to Istanbul not as Istanbul or even Constantinople, but just "the city." I won't ruin the film for anyone who might rent it, but it has lots of references to food and analogies with life.

It was a pleasant evening. Martha had made sandwiches and we snacked and talked along as we watched. Pause buttons can be wonderful things. Unfortunately as we were leaving, Kim misstepped on the stairs and hurt her hand and knee. She put some ice on it and she was fine to walk the few blocks home (M&M offered to drive us but Kim said she was OK).

Today's news item is about the brief meeting that Barack Obama had with the Greek PM Costas Karamanlis on Saturday. When I'm in the US I always hear the stories about which foreign dignitaries have visited the US, or who the Secretary of State has met with overseas, etc. I listen, but never vest the kind of importance in the meeting that people here obviously do. Obama's visit to Turkey was met with some degree of uneasiness here. Greece and Turkey are currently on good terms but there is always a little underlying fear, and the president's visit there without any nod to Greece was a cause of concern (he wasn't even going to have a meeting with the archbishop of the Orthodox church). The brief meeting between Obama and Karamanlis went a long way in making Greeks feel less slighted.

There's not a whole lot to report from yesterday. Kim and I headed to the port area in Piraeus to attend English-language mass at a church we went to a month ago. We've found 3 churches with English-language Catholic masses. The one we attend most often has English mass on Sunday evening and we had plans. The other in the northern suburbs has Sunday morning mass, but a portion of the Metro line was being worked on and we would have had to change to a bus part of the way. We opted for 1 p.m. mass in Piraeus.

The Piraeus metro - the end point. I regret that I don't have a collection of photos of the train stations in Italy.

All around the port/metro station are vendors. It's so thick in some spots that you can hardly walk. We looked at stuff as we made our way to church. Being in the port area it caters to travelers/transients. They have noon mass in Spanish. As we waited for that to end we didn't see many people waiting to go in for 1 p.m. As it turns out, this week there was no English mass. No sign was posted. I suspect they announced it last week, but that didn't help us any. Had we known we could have gone to the northern suburbs earlier - too late now. I was upset for a moment and reminded myself not to sweat the small stuff. We took the metro and the tram and headed home.

Of course it was Sunday so I talked with my mom.

The evening event was a jazz concert featuring Fulbrighter Armen Donelian. Most of the Fulbrighters in Greece attended as well as some others. Mark and Martha went with us. It was a pleasant evening.

After the concert, we all wanted to stop in a cafe before heading home. We came upon a small gallery that was wall-to-wall with coffee places to sit and eat or drink, including a Starbucks and Pizza Hut. We opted for a British chain that was a wanna-be Italian coffee shop, Costa Coffee. It was a very nice way to cap off the evening.

Nothing more to say. Here are a few of Kim's old pictures.

A Corinthian column from the agora.

This is Kerameikos - the remains of the ancient cemetery of Athens (pun intended).

The objects in the lower part of the shop window are amulets for warding off evil eye. These are for hanging in one's car or home. There are ring-sized, pendant-sized and just about every other way you can imagine. You can buy factory-made glass versions for next to nothing or hand-made jewelry with gold and silver ornamentation in the hundreds of dollars.

Kim and I began our Saturday with a brief walk around our neighborhood. She had passed a couple of houses she wanted me to see. One, under renovation, was quite a place: a sort of castle/mansion. Rumor going around is that it will be occupied by members of the former Royal family. Like Italy, the Royals were sent packing when the country went democratic. Greece's royalty was imported from Germany.

The houses were pretty obstructed to photograph, so I took this big Bird of Paradise.

Most of the day was spent walking on and around Philopappou Hill, or the Hill of the Muses. In ancient times it had strategic value (rises even higher than the acropolis) and the old city walls extended along it. In modern times it's a great place for a quiet walk, or to have a great view. Keep in mind that this broad (mostly) pedestrian road is just minutes walk from major traffic and city life. It's lined with olive and pine trees and there are benches all around. It's really a lovely piece of greenery: something not very common in Athens. There was a news story recently about a neighborhood group that "took over" a parking lot one weekend, turning it into a park. The city has since purchased the land from the owner so the park can be permanent.

As you can see the place is not crawling with tourists like the acropolis. Still, there are plenty of interesting things to see. This cave here served as Socrates's cell. We looked around, took some pictures, then sat on a bench. There were no kiosks selling plaster busts of Socrates, no immigrants walking past trying to sell parasols (now that the weather has turned nice, those who sold umbrellas for the rain now sell paper parasols). In the approximately 10 minutes we sat, we only saw one other couple, and they were Americans. Turns out they are military from Germany on a 4-day weekend. I only know all of this because Kim struck up a conversation with them. We traded taking pictures of each other. I teased Kim about having conversations with people she would never befriend in the US just because of a common language, when just a few minutes later I did exactly the same thing. We met some Italian-speaking Swiss near the summit and exchanged taking pictures of each other. Kim's camera battery died at that point, so the guy offered to take it with his camera and e-mail me the picture next week. Of course we had to talk after that ;)

We happened upon a video production crew that appeared to be shooting a commercial. The entourage of people must have been about 15. The mini-DV camera they were using looked a little too consumer quality for a professional, but they were recording separate audio and slating it, so there was some money involved. Kim and I politely waited for a take to end before walking past. Someone said "hello" in English. I'm sure they never heard us speak but were able to tell we were English speakers.

After some hours of wandering, Kim asked what I wanted to do, and that was easy to answer: I wanted to sit somewhere and drink a large beer. We descended the hill and found a whole strip of coffee shop/bars all along a pedestrian area. We stopped at one that looked especially inviting. I was attracted by the sign that said "Heineken served extra cold" and Kim was attracted by the backgammon board on a vacant table. I managed a come-from-behind victory the first game (I had no business winning) so we played another. Kim soundly beat me, as she pointed out (when I won she only had one tile on the board, but I had several remaining the second game). I thought it best to quit with a tie rather than get beaten twice in a row, and opted to watch the people passing by.

While taking the long walk back around the acropolis hill to the tram, Kim was struck by a motorcyclist. I didn't even know it had happened. I was holding her left hand and as he past, his handlebar him Kim's right hand, knocking the water bottle out of it. He stopped a few yards in front of us and turned to see if she was OK. Kim's wrist hurt, and it caused her to jerk her shoulder, but she was more shocked than anything. She just repeated "you hit me."

We managed to make it back to the tram without further incident - which reminds me. When we started out toward the center in the morning, our tram had an accident. It seems a car was making an illegal left turn and ran into the tram. We were stopped for about 10 minutes while our driver and the car's driver sorted things out.

I'm using old pictures of Kim's today because I have none.

Yesterday Stelios and I spent an hour discussing all the different research projects he wants to collaborate on. At this moment, we're up to 4 different articles. Fortunately neither of us expects that they will all be completed in the next 8 weeks. He doesn't want to burden me by asking me to do too many guest lectures, but he's all about research projects. I think that just demonstrates his strong publication emphasis.

I was thrilled yesterday to find the tram air conditioning was on (it doesn't take a lot to excite me). I know that in some of the other places we've been, they wait until it is much warmer before turning on any AC. We haven't had to turn it on in the apartment yet, but we have had the balcony doors open and the ceiling fan on.

Since I don't have much to report from yesterday (as evidenced by the previous paragraph), I will reflect about the language.

We've learned a little Greek but both of us wish it were more. One of the reasons we haven't learned more is because we haven't had to. The vast majority of people here speak English. Even if you tell a beggar "I don't speak Greek," he will quickly switch and ask you in English. All of my conversations at the university have been in English, obviously everyone at Fulbright is at least bilingual (many speak 3 or 4 languages) and our landlords/friends speak English. We haven't been pushed.

This relief is the wall behind the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Kim wants to pick up rocks. I tell her taking their pictures is a better way to "collect" them (and makes for lighter suitcases, too).

Of course there are a lot of lot of words that resemble English, since a number of English words came from the Greek. We got democracy from the Greeks (both the word and the concept), just about any "ology" word, asthma and hundreds of others. Greeks have adopted some English words, such as computer and OK. Greek for OK is "doxi" (that's phonetic - another Greek word) but they use both terms. It's interesting to hear a Greek on the phone speaking Greek and then all of a sudden an English word or two - maybe a whole sentence - drops in.

There are also Greek words that are identical to Italian. The words for beer and park are just birra and parco (although Greeks use k instead of c). They use "bravo" and lots of food words: provolone, mozzarella. The word for strawberry in Italian is fragola (accent on the first syllable): in Greek it's fra-oo-la. Apple in Italian is mela, in Greek melo. Not bad, right? To read these things is a whole different challenge. The Greek word for apple looks like this: μήλο.

One thing that throws me is when the Greek word is like another language but with a different meaning. In Italian, "posso" means "may I?" It would be a word you use before picking up an item in a shop or clearing someone's plate after dinner. In Greek, it means "how much," as in what does it cost? The word "kai" in Slovene means "what" but in Greek it means "and." But the biggest difficulty is with the simple word "yes": it's "ne" in Greek, but "ne" means "no" in Slovene. I can't tell you the number of times I've meant to say no but said yes (that is a straight line waiting for a punchline, but I'll leave that to you).

Watching US TV shows that have been subtitled is a little helpful. As we hear the English being spoken, we see the Greek subtitles below. It moves a little faster than I'd like, but I can catch a word every so often. In spite of my problems saying yes, I've pretty much got reading yes and no.

Of course some words don't have any relation to their counterparts. For example, "good" is completely different in Italian (buono), Slovene (dobro) and Greek (kalos).

Our trip is officially half over. Today is Day 61 of 120. I guess that means it's all downhill from here.

Here you can see (sort of) the note posted on the door of the office I share. I've NEVER had office hours 4-6 p.m. before, but since that bumps up against two of my classes, and the office is vacant at that time., it works out that way. This also serves to reinforce the fact that a lot of things are written in both Greek and English.

This is the interior of the office. Somewhat spartan, but has what I need: a computer with high speed connection - much better than the 3G wireless I use at the apartment. It also has a printer, which I lack at home.

With the strike yesterday, I had a couple of options to get downtown: I could take a cab. My guess it would have cost 5-10 Euros. I came to the revelation that it isn't the expense but the fear that I will be cheated that keeps me from doing some things. For example, I don't buy in shops that don't post their prices. I figure as soon as they hear me speak, the price will go up.

I didn't try taking the bus either. It was a nice enough day that I walked an hour to reach the nearest Metro stop, then took that downtown. When I arrived, I discovered what striking workers do with their day off.

There were hundreds (thousands?) of people marching downtown. It wasn't just transportation workers involved in the strike. Interestingly, journalists were also on strike yesterday. There was no radio or TV news yesterday and there are no newspapers today. It was extremely well oirganized, with flags, matching T-shirts, chants, etc.

I didn't have classes yesterday. I normally don't have a Thursday class, but no one did due to the strike. My whole reason for heading downtown was to meet up with Professor Tsevas Athanasios, a law professor. He teaches in Communication and Media, but also teaches in the Law School. We were meeting up for lunch and a long conversation about Greek media law, and what I may be able to do if I guest lectured in the law college class. We met at the department offices and he asked me if I had been to the faculty club. I told him I hadn't and I said it would be fine. He told me they door would be locked but we would call to be admitted. With the potential for the protests to get out of control (I never saw any trouble), they were keepin g the building locked to prevent assylum-seekers from taking refuge in the faculty club - and smashing up the place.

I told Professor A. that many US universities have faculty clubs but that mine does not. In the current climate we would never get one unless it came from a private donor. He said that is preceisely the case with this one. It was an old mansion that was donated by a shipping tycoon. It spite of its small size, Greece has the world's 3rd largest shipping industry. As you might expect of such a place, it was quite elegant. When we arrived we were the only ones in the dining room: both because of the strike and our early arrival (1:30) for lunch. There were a few others by the time we left.

As I write this I am stepping out onto the balcony every few minutes to scare off pigeons. Several like to sit on our air conditioner. It's a mess, and if they do it early in the morning we hear them (right outside our bedroom). Kim spent a considerable amount of time cleaning the balcony yesterday and we would very much like to keep these flying rats away. I've seen the spiked strips that you can buy to keep birds from landing places, but I can't imagine trying to get that home on the tram. I have been humming Tom Lehr's "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" all morning.

I tried posting this last night (Wed) but the video wouldn't upload. Finally worked this morning. Maybe it was that April Fool's worm ;)

I had class yesterday and today - nothing unusual. In light of the opening of the G-20 Summit, I'll use today's blog to muse about protests. This picture is of a protest that took place in front of Parliament on Monday. I have no idea why.

I know that protests are a lot more common here for lots of reasons. We're in a capital city. The economy is in the tank. People are frustrated. Sometimes the protests are organized and peaceful, and other times they get out of control and there are confrontations between the police and the protesters.

This is a picture of a protest outside the Ministry of Finance. It's gone on for a couple of days. It's protesting the loss of so many jobs as a result of the economy and the government's lack of action to help. The tents are set up on a major thoroughfare to block traffic, but only at specified hours. The rest of the time they're on the sidewalk not obstructing traffic. They have loudspeakers set up on utility poles, sometimes piping music, other times speeches.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to meet a professor from the law college for lunch. Unfortunately, there is a transportation strike tomorrow. The tram will be shut down for 24 hours. The Metro (subway) will run 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but my nearest metro stop is more than a half-hour walk from here.

This protest was going on outside a branch of Citibank - not even the main office. You may be able to read the banners complain of giant profits while people are being laid off.

• Up north at the university in Thessaloniki, there have been protests going on for two weeks, and they don't know what to do. Greece has an asylum law, so universities are usually off limits to law enforcement. The university can invite in police but they fear it may make the situation worse.


• Hospital workers are protesting, saying they are owed money.


• Farmers are protesting claiming food prices are too low.

As one of the professors said to me today, people have no hope, and there's no one on the horizon to bring them hope. In addition to organized, peaceful protests, there are some "protests" that are nothing more than mass acts of vandalism - running down a street with crowbars, smashing cars and shop windows. An editorial today lamented the fact that there is so much lawlessness and that the government has done nothing to stop it.



So, I guess I'll close on a happy note. As I walked to class Tuesday evening, I came across this band seated outside this 1,000-year-old Orthodox church, playing "Rock Around the Clock." I have no idea why. Seemed a little surreal.