Περιπέτεια

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 Mesop...

My first day and a half in Athens was full of adventuring and exploring. We arrived in the city at around 4:00 pm on Sunday, February 4, and after checking in to the hotel, we set off to eat dinner at a local souvlaki  (typically pieces of meat and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer) restaurant in downtown Athens.  I got a souvlaki skewer of pork, Anelia got grilled eggplant in tomato sauce with feta cheese, and we both got a plate of kalamari to share (props to Anelia the vegetarian for sharing squid with me).  Everything was extremely good and extremely satisfying.  I was very happy with our first meal choice! Our first meal in Athens As Keti told us, one of the ways restaurants decorate is by framing old flyers and posters and hanging them on the walls.  They also have dry spices hanging around the restaurants. Spices on the walls as decoration Old posters as decoration After dinner, Anelia and I found a little crepe place on the way bac...

I'v writing this from my apartment desk after having been in Athens for about five days now.  It's been a whirlwind of a week, but I'm finally settled in enough to be able to write some blog posts! Well, Athens is about as breathtaking as I thought it'd be.  But more on that later. Travelling was...interesting.  My professors found an Emirates Air red-eye flight out of Newark International Airport that only cost around $650, and then I found another online coupon for $50 off, so all in all I paid $600 for my round trip flight.  Pretty good.  The only problem was the flight was red-eye, meaning it left late at night (11:55 pm to be exact).  My parents weren't too jazzed on driving four hours home in winter in the dark, so they dropped me off fairly early at Newark.  We arrived at around 2:30 pm, and after a quick bite to eat at Mediterranean Bistro, we said our goodbyes and parted for three months. Mom, dad and I at Newark International Airport ...

Περιπέτεια (peripéteia) is the Greek word for "adventure".  And that's just what this spring will be: an adventure. First thing's first, I'll introduce myself.  I'm Allison.  I'm currently a junior at Penn State University, and I'm majoring in German and Political Science and minoring in Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies.  When I'm not doing work for the College of Liberal Arts, you can probably find me playing my trumpet in the Penn State Blue Band. This spring, I'll be studying abroad in Athens, Greece to complete my Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies (CAMS) minor.  This experience is the manifestation of a crazy idea I had back on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, while sitting at my intern desk at the Department of Human Services in Harrisburg, PA.  I finished working on whatever my assignment was and was listening to the Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again  soundtrack (anyone who knows me will tell you I'm the world's biggest...