A Party, a Tour, and a Report

An Associate Member of the American School (someone who's here for the year for specific research and who can join us on the trips but doesn't have to) and his wife invited the Regular and Associate Members to their top floor apartment on Saturday night for a party. I debated about going because it was a long walk and I didn't know how dark (or safe) it would be coming home afterward. A couple of the women from my floor and I decided to go and to find some place to eat along the way. I'm so glad we went!  We ate at a place that serves Greek food, burgers, and pizza for very cheap. I had half a Margarita pizza left over to eat this weekend!

The balcony of the apartment was so lovely--lots of plants, a cool breeze, plenty of space for sitting, and a view of the hills and surrounding apartments. The rooftop, however, was the really amazing spot. No rails or edges, so a little scary, and getting up there by ladder was enough to release adrenaline into my bloodstream, but so worth it. We could see the surrounding mountains and the cityscape and best of all, the Parthenon! Walking back home was no trouble at all as it was well-lit the whole way and I was with people who remembered how to get back. Some of us on the rooftop:

Yesterday late afternoon we went on a walking tour of Athens to look at "modern" architecture. The newest building we stopped to look at and talk about was an apartment building built in the 1950s and we looked at a school which was built in the 1930s but most of the rest was 12th-19th century. Here's a 12th century church which had a bell tower added much later.

And the dome-side.

I've spent a fair amount of time at the library working on my report which I'll give at the site of Olynthus. Being a philologist and not an archaeologist, I'm a little worried I'm not doing it right. I asked a guy who was a Regular Member last year and he said to think of it like teaching a 20 minute class and instead of using Powerpoint, you have the actual ruins to point to. That bit of advice has helped a lot. I need to finish my handout today so I can photocopy it before we leave in the morning at 7!