My Big Fat Greek History Class

It is more work than a semester of Great Con.  But it is so cool too!

Our professors here, Dr. Angelou Papadoupolis, and Dr. Romolo Gandolfo (lets just take a minute to appreciate these names), have decided to attempt to fit over 4,000 years of Greek history in two and a half weeks.   This is not an easy feat, and I am very glad that I remember some stuff from Con.  We have daily readings, two essays, a 10 minute speech due in that time, and frequent field trips.  I don’t mind the workload, I just wish I had more time.  I already feel burnt out, and it has only been a week total

Angelou, who is teaching the first part of our class, was called by Marty the Greek Indian Jones.  28 with a PhD in archeology from Oxford, a fair amount of field experience, and an earring, he has been leading us through the Greek countryside this past weekend.  We visited the Hoikos Loukas Monastery (Greek orthodox church from 10^th century) and Delphi, both in the mountains.  The places were amazing, and the views unrivalled.  It is easy to see why these were considered holy cites.  As we have become a little more bold, some of our group (me included) have taken to wandering through cites on our own during free moments.  Through this, Angelou, David, and I found a cute little chapel next to the monastery, which rivaled it in age.  We also found bullet holes in the metal doors.  Apparently that is from the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire.  The Church has, apparently throughout Greece’s history, been a universal rallying point for the Greeks.  It is about the only thing that the Greeks all agree on.  I mean, this is the country that started a civil war while trying to fight off the Nazi’s also.

Last Friday’s class was at an archeology museum in Athens.  Again, I am happy for my great con and art history classes to provide a bit more background as to what I am seeing.  But at the same time, I am becoming increasingly aware of how Eurocentric Great con was.  Before coming here, I didn’t think much about Turkey’s relationship to Greece.  But the more I learn, the more inseparable the two countries appear to be.  It is not so much Europe and Asia, much more two rival countries (like Germany and France).  I think I am understanding better Amanda Steimle’s rant about Asia being an artificial construct.

Anyways, the museum had many Greek artifacts, and a temporary exhibit about a shipwreck found off the coast of Greece.  In this ship were coins from what is now Turkey, Greece and Italy.  There were also art pieces from all these places.  It is amazing how much the cities of the classical world depended on each other.  There is evidence of trading ships dating back to the Neolithic times (read end of stone age)!

In other news, Greek life has been, for the most part, very enjoyable.  The Greeks are love to go out, love their food, and love their alcohol.  But they are much better at handling it than Americans.  Apparently it is really, really looked down upon to be drunk, so the Greeks have a drink or two a night, but very slowly and usually with food.

One of the surprising things about the concert was that there were a lot of little kids there, despite the fact that it was considered a beach bar.  Which brings up the question of whether children seeing adults drink responsibly and even being allowed some alcohol is more healthy than the American no tolerance policy.  It is a question for the ages.  But at least in Greece, this system seems to give way to more responsible drinking.

I guess I should mention that the band was really, really good.  I am starting to appreciate Greek pop music.

And for those of you who are curious, the Greeks love the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” but think that “My Life in Ruins” was a bit over the top.