Αντίο Athens!

These days, when I’m not busy recalibrating my circadian rhythm, I’ve been spending my time missing Athens in every way. I miss my dear friends, the weather, the Acropolis, and the Greek people. I have spent time thinking about how the semester has shaped my views and my temperament, and what characteristics I adopted there …

“Fast Friends” and Other Idioms

On Good Friday several weeks ago, there was a beautiful procession around the block of the church. Every parishioner was holding a candle and walking in a mob behind the priests who were singing hymns. On any given Sunday, I am often the tallest in my pew. Aside from blocking everyone’s view, this height difference …

Birth, Quarantine, and Death: My Trip to Crete

Last weekend, CYA whisked us away to the island of Crete. We took an overnight ferry from the port at 9:00PM on Thursday and arrived in Crete at 6:30AM Friday. I spent the entire night in my cabin feeling like a pirate/trying to forget the excessive amount of Greek meatballs I had just eaten (συγγνώμη …

Xronia Polla

Hello everyone! Despite what you might believe about my health/safety on account of my prolonged and unexplained absence, I am happy and healthy and not overly stressed (the ‘elusive three’ in undergraduate life). I’ve been out of the game for so long because we took a wonderful field trip to Northern Greece, had a week …

A Double Holiday

Today, March 25, is a double holiday for the Greeks; Greek Independence Day, as well as the feast day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary are celebrated on this day. Greece began to become independent from the Ottoman Turks in 1829. The exact date of the liberation was not March 25, but since …

Historical Pilgrimages: Delphi and Hosios Loukas

Last weekend we took a trip to upper central Greece to visit Delphi. If you have read The Odyssey (or other classical texts) you know Delphi is the place to consult the oracle. If a person was facing a tough choice, let’s say to attack a city or not, they would make the trek to …

Peloponnese Field Trip

So much time has elapsed since I last wrote, and for good reason: I spent the last 4 days in the Peloponnese, the large peninsula of southern Greece. It is good for me to review the itinerary, since I learned so much information in just a few days. Overall, the field trip was equally thrilling …

Birthday Weekend & Clean Monday

When you are quite young, it is not unusual to imagine what your milestone birthdays might be like. Will I get a car when I turn 16? (Definitely not.) Will I have newfound freedom when I turn 18? (No.) Will I party til the sun comes up when I turn 21? (Ha! Still no.) When …

Meteora: understanding beauty in the middle of the sky

Hello readers! If you have ever seen a tourism brochure of Greece, the cover was probably a picture of stunning rock formations, like the ones you will see in the photos below. On Thursday evening my roommates and I decided we would like to see this place for ourselves, so we planned our visit to …

The Week of Heavy Things

If you have been following this blog faithfully (hi mom!) you are probably hoping to see stunning panoramics of the Acropolis by now; I regret to inform you the Acropolis was closed by the time my group got there, so those photos will have to wait for another day. Instead of a panoramic photograph, allow …