Zach's 1st Post

Zach Wasielewski

Day 2 Journal Greece

During the second day in Greece we had our first day of Athens across the ages at the University.  The university is a short walk from our apartment and is a beautiful building that has a great view of the Acropolis.  When walking to the university we passed a Greek orthodox church that had big beautiful stairs leading up to the front door of the church.  Also when walking to the university you notices that the university is hidden with trees blocking the entrance.  You don’t see the door until you walk by the building and can see the big glass doors leading into the university.   When walking into the university the first floor had an information desk and to the right had an exhibition room where they were hosting a tribute to a famous photographer based off of his own collection of portrait photography.   The second floor had a two floor café were we could get coffee and food.  The third floor is where our Athens across the age’s class is held in room 308.  In the Athens across the age’s class we are mostly traveling to museums and other historical parts of Greece so we won’t be sitting in the classroom very often.  The fourth floor is where the library is at.  The library is very nice and there selection of books seems to be vase.  The fifth floor is where our Greek language class is held.  The sixth seventh and eighth floors all have different types of offices for the university staff.  The eighth floor has a banquet hall that has an amazing view of the acropolis and as well as Athens entirely.   Our professor Ioanna Kopsiafti seems like a very smart woman that has a lot of knowledge about Greek and other places around the world and I believe that I will learn a lot from her class and am very excited about it.  I noticed while walking around in Athens that the people are very friendly and helpful to Americans and in general.  Also there is a lot of graffiti around Athens but the graffiti is well done and looks amazing.  We got lost a couple of times and had to stop and ask for directions and the people we asked would help us out by either walking us to the place that we needed to go or showing us on a map where to go.  They understand that we are new here and don’t know where to go.  So if they understand us they will help us out by giving us directions.  The nightlife is absolutely beautiful with all the buildings lit up with lights.  Their customs are much different than we are use to with that they eat around 1030 at night and stay out much later then us. They also are social drinkers in that they will have a glass of wine with dinner, or a couple and then keep drinking after but never to try to get drunk.  Everything that we have to go to is within walking distance so I have a feeling that we are going to be walking a lot which is fine because you get to see a lot more little things around the city when you walk.  While walking around you get to see the beauty of Athens and feel like you are a part of the cultural experience.  The food is also very good we went out to a tavern last night and enjoyed some Greek food as a group and everything was delicious and very rich in flavor.  The different types of sauces we tried were a garlic sauce, eggplant sauce, and yogurt and cucumber sauce which were very delicious and rich in flavor. I am very excited about studying at the university and to meet with the students that study at the university and see if there customs and culture are much different than an American that is in college.  We meet one student named Maria who is a part of student affairs for the university and she seemed that she was very nice and into the same things as we are so we should be able to mix well with the other college kids from Greece.  I am also very excited to be studying in Greece and can’t wait to see all the beauty that the city has to offer.

Zach Wasielewski