Classes and the Athens Centre
Believe it or not, while I'm here I will actually be doing some schoolwork! I'll be taking five classes: Contemporary Greek Culture, Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece, Athletics and Competition of Ancient Greece, Honoring the Gods: Festivals and Rituals of Ancient Greek Religion, and City-States of Ancient Greece.
I've been to all of the classes now, and I'm thoroughly impressed. I'm actually kind of shocked about how much I didn't know about Ancient Greece and how much I've already learned. Obviously since it's only been a few days, I can't go into too much detail about everything I'm learning since I'm not particularly sure about what that is yet. For several classes, we're actually starting before Ancient Greece became the major power of the ancient world. For Honoring the Gods and Arts and Archaeology, we're starting in the Bronze Age, about 3000-1200 BCE. For our Athletics Class, we're actually starting in Mesopotamia and Egypt. This is long before the city-states of Greece you probably know (Sparta, Athens, etc.) came to power. For most of our classes, we're learning from this time until the Roman occupation of ancient Greece (~146 BCE).
In the City-State class, we are learning about five Greek city-states: Athens, Sparta (or Lacedaemon, as it was known then [Sparta was the main hub of the Lacedaemonian city-state]), Argos, Corinth, and Thebes. The class is split into groups and each group represents one of the city-states. I am representing Lacedaemon. We will be visiting each of the city-states on our various field trips, and when we are in each city-state, representatives from the corresponding groups will have to sing praises to their city-state.
Along with the Contemporary Greek Culture class, we are participating in three 90-minute sessions of Greek language lessons. We had our first lesson on Wednesday (February 6), in which we learned the Greek alphabet and how to say "My name is _____".
All of our classes are going to be enhanced with field trips to various sites that coincide with what we're learning. For example, for the Athletics and Competition class, we're visiting Marathon and Olympia to see ancient athletic sites. We are visiting Delphi, a site of oracles in many Greek stories, which will coincide with the Honoring the Gods class. There are a couple of sites, such as Mycenae, that will coincide with several classes at once, such as Mycenae, which coincides with both Archaeology and Honoring the Gods. I will, of course, be making posts for each field trip and site we visit.
All of these classes take place in the Athens Centre. This quaint little building is located around two and a half blocks from our apartments (don't be fooled, though—the hills make it feel like it's about a mile away). It really does feel very cozy and homey.
The Athens Centre has a kitchen that is always fully stocked with coffee and tea and we are free to go take as much as we want whenever we want. Additionally, we can stay and work at the Athens Centre until 8:30 each night should we so choose.
Just down the street is the best little bakery in the entire world I'm pretty sure. It's called Kallimarmaro (named after the famed Panathenaic Stadium just down the road).
It has every type of pastry you can imagine, both savory and sweet, and an assortment of sandwiches and breads, as well as snacks and drinks. It's become a fast favorite of mine and Anelia's (we love the tiropita, or cheese pies!). We're determined to eat our way through the bakery by the time we come home.
The nicest part about our classes is that we don't have any on Fridays! Our Fridays are free except the first one since we lost a day to the orientation tour. Many Fridays are reserved for field trips that are either a full day or a weekend or more. However, some Fridays we just have time off to explore the city!
I've been to all of the classes now, and I'm thoroughly impressed. I'm actually kind of shocked about how much I didn't know about Ancient Greece and how much I've already learned. Obviously since it's only been a few days, I can't go into too much detail about everything I'm learning since I'm not particularly sure about what that is yet. For several classes, we're actually starting before Ancient Greece became the major power of the ancient world. For Honoring the Gods and Arts and Archaeology, we're starting in the Bronze Age, about 3000-1200 BCE. For our Athletics Class, we're actually starting in Mesopotamia and Egypt. This is long before the city-states of Greece you probably know (Sparta, Athens, etc.) came to power. For most of our classes, we're learning from this time until the Roman occupation of ancient Greece (~146 BCE).
In the City-State class, we are learning about five Greek city-states: Athens, Sparta (or Lacedaemon, as it was known then [Sparta was the main hub of the Lacedaemonian city-state]), Argos, Corinth, and Thebes. The class is split into groups and each group represents one of the city-states. I am representing Lacedaemon. We will be visiting each of the city-states on our various field trips, and when we are in each city-state, representatives from the corresponding groups will have to sing praises to their city-state.
Along with the Contemporary Greek Culture class, we are participating in three 90-minute sessions of Greek language lessons. We had our first lesson on Wednesday (February 6), in which we learned the Greek alphabet and how to say "My name is _____".
 |
| My notes on the Greek alphabet |
All of our classes are going to be enhanced with field trips to various sites that coincide with what we're learning. For example, for the Athletics and Competition class, we're visiting Marathon and Olympia to see ancient athletic sites. We are visiting Delphi, a site of oracles in many Greek stories, which will coincide with the Honoring the Gods class. There are a couple of sites, such as Mycenae, that will coincide with several classes at once, such as Mycenae, which coincides with both Archaeology and Honoring the Gods. I will, of course, be making posts for each field trip and site we visit.
All of these classes take place in the Athens Centre. This quaint little building is located around two and a half blocks from our apartments (don't be fooled, though—the hills make it feel like it's about a mile away). It really does feel very cozy and homey.
 |
| Athens Centre courtyard |
 |
| View from the top of the Athens Centre |
The courtyard in the Athens Centre is my favorite part of the building. It's absolutely gorgeous and a fantastic meeting place to do work or just hang out between classes. The view from the top of the building isn't too bad either.
The Athens Centre has a kitchen that is always fully stocked with coffee and tea and we are free to go take as much as we want whenever we want. Additionally, we can stay and work at the Athens Centre until 8:30 each night should we so choose.
Just down the street is the best little bakery in the entire world I'm pretty sure. It's called Kallimarmaro (named after the famed Panathenaic Stadium just down the road).
It has every type of pastry you can imagine, both savory and sweet, and an assortment of sandwiches and breads, as well as snacks and drinks. It's become a fast favorite of mine and Anelia's (we love the tiropita, or cheese pies!). We're determined to eat our way through the bakery by the time we come home.
The nicest part about our classes is that we don't have any on Fridays! Our Fridays are free except the first one since we lost a day to the orientation tour. Many Fridays are reserved for field trips that are either a full day or a weekend or more. However, some Fridays we just have time off to explore the city!
Comments
Post a Comment