My Inner History Nerd is Giddy with Excitement!!

Today I officially moved into Loring Hall, the dorm I’ll be staying in while I’m studying at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.  This also means no air-conditioning…luckily summers living with no AC in Spain and working outside in the summer in New Orleans has more than prepared me for this.

After I moved in I went to the Fulbright office where I got to meet 3 teachers from Greece who did exchange programs in the US (2 studied at GMU and did observations at Thomas Jefferson and Woodson).  It was a great chance to learn about the Greek education system and one of the teachers even created a document that explains how certain aspects the Greek school system are different from ours.  Here are some examples:  Their PUBLIC high school population is about 250, They have national testing at the high school level (as opposed to state testing, curriculum is nationwide as well), students stay in the same classroom all day and instead the teachers move from class to class (I’d have to take down the towns on my wall L  ), in high school if a teacher is absent there is no substitute (they have study hall or can leave if it’s last period), no art or music classrooms, 1-2 laptops in EACH SCHOOL, not as much of sense of community (no Homecoming, Back to School Nights, little parent involvement), no social works or psychologists, very little knowledge of learning disabilities at the high school level, and now the kicker…. Before the current economic crisis beginning teachers were getting paid around 23,000.  After the crisis (now)  1-6 years of teaching… $14,000!!!!

After that meeting/lunch I headed back to Loring Hall where we had tea at 5:30 and I got to meet some of the other students at the school.  Our professor then walked us up to the top of Mt. Lykavittos (photo included – but taken from the Acropolis when I was here 4 years ago) where you can see all of Athens… and here is where the history dork in me got all giddy!  The view of the Acropolis was AMAZING!  We also saw the island of Salamis and the hill where King Xerxes had his throne put so he could watch the ships fight in the straight of Salamis during the Persian Wars.  For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about (although students… we learned this) the Persians had one of the greatest fleets in the world and the Athenians had primarily fishing vessels.  Well, Salamis creates a narrow straight and the large Persian boats were unable to navigate effectively and the Athenians won.  We also saw where Athens used to have acres upon acres of olive trees (which the Spartans of course wanted to burn down during the Peloponnesian War).

Now Mt. Lykavittos has a myth behind its creation and I included a link for that story.  http://www.greek-gods.info/greek-gods/athena/myths/athena-lycabettus-hill/

View of Acropolis from hill:

At dinner we got to eat/meet with some of the other people who are doing work in various areas through the school.  I meet a woman whose background is in forensic anthropology and now she does paleoanthropology.  I learned some really cool information about the burial process in ancient Greece that has continued through today (I’ll explain later is anyone is curious).

Alright, time for bed!