It's all Greek to me!

(Other possible titles for this post: "I sweat like a gorilla: the ballad of 'i broke my deodorant today'" and "ohhhhhh we're half-way there....ohhhh-hooo*sobs*")

Let me first start off by quoting the great American poets Jason Derulo and 2Chainz: 

"Been around the world, don't speak the language, but your booty don't need explaining"

while its true that most body parts don't need to be explained...I do find that speaking the language would really come in handy for a variety of reasons. Regardless, I'm doing my best to pick up a few words of Greek here or there and always try to say "efharisto" (thank you) to everyone that very patiently has to come to English for my sake. 

Well, here I am. Athens. A place where Greek yogurt is just called yogurt. The place that brought about the beginning of democracy as we know it. The rich history of people who figured out so much so that we didn't have to and a culture that reflects it. and..the half way point of my trip (what?!?!).  

This is the view from the roof of my hostel--yeah, I didn't even have to work for this picture. 

I arrived late at night from Barcelona (getting onto the metro at about 10pm). I was a little nervous, as I usually am about what the public transportation is going to look like, especially later in the night on a Monday. The metro was PACKED. While I was trying to figure out how the hell to get to my hostel because the metro stop they said to get off at didn't seem to exist tons of everyday Greeks were hoping onto the train to join the airport crowd*

*I ended up using common sense to find the hostel, it was a breeze, but sometimes that one moment of uncertainty can be a little unsettling. Don't worry, like I said, common sense kicked in just in time. 

I was wondering why there were so many people going on the metro at this time of night (closing in on about 11pm) and today I came across an article/interview that I think gave a pretty good answer. The caption was "I work 18 hours a day and can hardley provide for my family." (BBC) But I will get back to that article a little later on because, it's apparent, these are hard working people and the system is failing them. 

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Before I started my trek here I was a little pushed back on my day because my phone battery died in the night and my alarm didn't go off...not that I think that would have changed anything because the five Brazilians I was sharing a room with had a flight to catch and were in and out of the bathroom for two hours...so it was for the best that I just laid in bed and let them get their lives together. They left and this was probably the only time I had a whole hostel room to myself AND this is a nice hostel room (it's like a hotel room that has three bunk beds thrown in it). and BONUS! the Brazilians left a big bottle of body wash and conditioner which mean that I am finally super clean and have conditioned hair for the first time in over three weeks. Unfortunately I sweat like a gorilla on my way to the University so that feeling left pretty fast but good try...my hair still feels great.  

So, first stop, right out of the gates, I am at one of the apparently many University of Athens Campuses. Wow for starters this was a hike and a half to get here...I don't even think I'm on the campus I intended to be on I think I'm on the one thats like a half mile closer. The man at the hostel who helped give me directions here said that the "local one" was close but that it was mostly for seeing things. I think I'm still going to try that one out tomorrow because this one was a journey through a desert. 

 

Center square of campus

Now I've only seen one campus so far but oh my god is this different. Small things like, smoking inside and having board games at cafe tables are striking me as hugely different. I'm in a building that is joint student center and lecture room space. One of the first thing I noticed was that the walls outside the buildings are all covered in graffiti...when I first got here and didn't see any people I was like, hmm, is this place deserted? That would suck but then one of the doors was open and I heard voices so I walked in...the inside of this building is COVERED in flyers on a variety of topics and more graffiti. There were three tables of people talking about their flyers, which seemed to range from not allowing children to be soldiers to solidarity movements. There are also signs banning graffiti...its working well. Either way this space and these people seem very, very socially active. ...but noticeably (but I can't guarantee this because I don't speak/read Greek) there were no signs about the Greek economy, Charlie Hebdo, ISIS or anything that can be considered "western" or a threat to western countries.  

(there were actual people walking around the campus--which was why I knew it wasn't deserted...it actually had a a very pleasant spirit in areas where there were a lot of people and social interaction...just had to look for it a little bit)

When I walked in the room with the cafe (I got a huge ass sandwich and a large iced coffee thing for 3 euro...this is great), I noticed that everyone at the tables were very involved in things. Like three tables of people were super into their backgammon game and another table of six was playing cards. I am in a new world. I can't think of one place of America that does this at noon on a Tuesday.    

I was honestly really thrown off when I got to this campus. The buildings looked like the windows had been smashed in and the amount of graffiti made it seem like this place wasn't monitored. I turned around and walked to the edge of campus before I made myself turn around. I'm glad I did! The two people I managed to get to talk with me for a while had a lot to say and were interested in what brought a big bad New Yorker to this campus and were really nice to me.

Kickin it back with this cat 

#1 

Talking to Diminka was fun. She seemed very intimidated to be talking to someone from New York (what is still always a mystery how most people don't know it is alsoa state) but she was really helpful. 

I asked about the posters everywhere in the school and she said, yes its very politically active but that is because the political parties pay for everything. At this university we voted to have all of the posters taken down, but they are still up everywhere. Interesting. 

She said that social progress in Greece is going well but she thinks that the recession is holding everyone back and it is very hard to do anything without any money or support. 

the European Union is really good at creating opportunities for good social progress but because of the economy they can't really act on it the way that they want to..its not the same as it is in the northern countries. and it could work better, but because of the democracy (democratic system of the EU) it isn't really working to help us.

--the people in the southern countries more readily identify themselves as regionally different than western countries who usually identify the problem by the country it is in. I think there is a sense of unity within some of these southern countries.

Dimitris

If I had a dollar for every time someone apologized for their english for no reason I could fix the Greek economy 

Anyway, Dimitris is an engineering student here and he felt very disconnected with the politicians in Greece. A lot of the minorities are getting very frustrated. He doesn't think the Greece is progressing socially because there is more violence, more crime and no money! --fun thing to here while I'm sitting on a college campus that looks like it was bombed out during World War Two-- anyway. He said that there is hope for the European Union, it just needs the right people. He feels like Greece and Greeks are not really being represented because those in charge for Greece are so out of touch with people and don't see the problem. A lot of people just think the politicians are just stealing. I asked more about specific social legislation going on in the EU and he said that they aren't really focused on that because they don't really have the opportunity. 

But he likes being in the EU and wants to stay in it, he sounds like, and I'm extrapolating, if that wasn't obvious, the change needs to come from inside the country in order to better progress on the continental scale. 

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Sorry this post is a little scattered, I feel like I'm going at a million miles an hour. With how much culture I'm trying to absorb and new schools to find and oh my god still can't wrap my head around being halfway done!!

It would be cruel if I didn't share some of my food with you though...here is a gyro (with french fries in it!! 2 euro!)

mmmm chicken solvaki

frozen yogurt with pineapples is acceptable for breakfast when its 8am and already upwards of 85 degrees. 

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Okay, now back to the Greek crisis. The news I have been following has been following the Greeks and the PMs descisions for awhile now, but it is really starting to pick up. As I mentioned before, June 30th is the deadline for paying back the debt of 1.6 billion euros and up until this point they have paid back about 300 million (btw all of this has been up on BBC news which is primarily what I've been using). While the Greek PM (who seems a little out of touch, according to the students I talked to) has not been too willing to comproise, the Greek central bank today said that this could be a painful to the Greek economy (and therefore the Greek people--who are already struggling). 

I'm still trying to get a feel for how tensions in the city. I've seen professors, priests, students, shop keepers, and chefs everyone is just doing their thing...and their thing seems like a whole lot of work already (and in terribly hot weather I might add).

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I went to the Acropolis today because its supposed to rain tomorrow (sending thanks up to you guys in Mount Olympius) and I think that will be a great day to talk to people...you have no where to go, it's raining. 

I was just floored with the beauty of climbing the Acropolis and seeing the Parthenon...absolutely amazing how people did that like THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO!

Here are some pictures of me losing my mind because I'm so excited by #history

Humor me.

*Warning: selfies ahead* 

Dionysis Theater