Why are we in a ghetto hospital?

γειά σου όλοι!

It is currently 4pm here on Saturday. The weather has been normal for Athens in January. Meaning it's cold and rainy all the time. So, that is why I don't have any pictures to post right now since nothing has been pretty enough to be photographed these past several days. I think the rain and the cold is supposed to continue for the next week. I already miss the days of sun and warmth.

Before we went to any of our classes on Tuesday, we first made a trip to the most ghetto hospital in the city. We had to get tb tests, which hurt a lot, and chest x-rays. Unfortunately, one of the guys passed out after receiving the test because of dehydration. He had to stay in the hospital for a few hours, but we later retrieved him in time for class. The x-rays were very awkward because everything above the waist had to come off. Some of the girls had a guy take their x-rays. Very awkward. Luckily for me, I had a lady.

On Tuesday we had two new classes. Our first class was Archaeology or it might have been renamed Aegean Civilization. Not really sure. Then we had our other class: Byzantine History. Our professor's name is John and that is the only name we can call him. He's an outgoing man who constantly entertained us in class with all his swearing. John says the class might be the most boring class we have ever taken because the Bzyantine era is not fun at all. Joy. But hopefully his personality will make the class a bit more exciting.

We had our final new class on Wednesday morning with Dr Killebrew. It is the Trojan War in myth and literature. We have to read The Iliad in its entirety in one week. There are 24 books, and I am only a 1/4th of the way done. Oh, boy. We continued with our Greek language class a few hours later and I am beginning to understand pronunciation. In fact, our teacher, Yanna, is quite impressed with my pronunciation of the language. That one semester of ancient Greek nearly three years ago certainly paid off!

We had to return to the ghetto hospital to check on our tb tests on Thursday. I and the rest of the gang passed our tb tests. Yay. After the hospital we took a tour of a polytechnic school in the city. The only college remaining at that certain campus is architecture. The campus could be a lot nicer if there was less graffiti and someone actually took care of the grounds. We learned that there the students at the school have a significant influence over the actual school itself. They can decide whenever they want to close the school and they are very aware of government policies. There is a law in Greece that protects any person who enters school grounds from the police. The tour was long and interesting and we barely made it back to the Athens Centre in time for our class.

We only had archaeology on Thursday and it was more interesting that day. Although, the centre is not very technology advanced so we had to use old-school slides for class.

Friday, as always, has the Λαϊκή (street market). All of my suitemates attended the market with me and we all bought tons of delicious fruits and veggies. I bought green peppers, carrots, spinach, apples, and clementines. There are a lot of orange trees in this city and thus oranges are everywhere. Honestly, when I thought of Athens, oranges did not cross my mind.

We only have one class on Fridays and that is Greek at 4pm. We had our first quiz and I know that I aced that quiz. It was super easy. I really like our teacher and I feel that I have learned a lot of Greek already in three days of learning.

All of us except for two decided to go dancing at some of the clubs in the city. We had nine people and filled the cabs with 3 persons each. We left some time after midnight since clubs usually don't begin until 2 or 3 in the morning. I was in a cab with Kadi and Kyle. We left first and "arrived" at the location of this club called Envy. However, we learned from many Greeks (some helpful, some not) that the location and name changed. We walked around for a long time before we made our way to the main clubbing section of the city. We got separated from the others and we had an adventure of our own. Unfortunately, the experience wasn't fun for me especially since Greeks smoke a lot and I began to get sick, so I decide to head back home. As I neared my building, I ran into two of my suitemates and we got back to the apartment together. I fell asleep around 4am and everyone made it back some time later than that.

I did not wake up until 11:30am and I was the first one up. Today is the perfect day to stay inside and make real progress with The Iliad. This weekend will be rather subdued since we have several things to read for the coming week.

That's all for now folks.

γειά σου όλοι (means goodbye and hello)