a study in Greek ethnography

Today, we mixed up the typical Tuesday by having culture class first. True to the concept of "Greek Time," I was probably the only student in the classroom at 9am, and the lecture didn't even start until about 9:15. Because the professor only spoke Greek, we had the class in a huge lecture hall with a sound system and had a translator radio. Unfortunately the person translating wasn't too great so following what was going on was a bit of a challenge. Then, we watched a 30 minute movie about Greek holiday celebrations which showed footage of men wearing poofy white skirts and dancing, and other men singing deep, emotional Greek music while standing on the edge of epic cliffs. It was interesting.

In Greek class, my teacher decided that Thursday was too soon for the final and we wouldn't have enough time to study, so fortunately it's now next Wednesday. We also went over the idea of who/whom (but in Greek, where there are 12 words instead of two) and responding to questions using accusative nouns, for the third time. I'm pretty sure I understand it.

I spent the afternoon going over all of my group's ethnographic results from our interviews. We did about 25 total, so there was a lot of information to review. Overall, we think the major themes were, for politics: The political and economic situation is getting worse and Greece needs foreign help, Greeks are disappointed and angry and do not trust the government, and in gender relations:Relations are becoming more equal as compared to the past, but there is still plenty of inequality, and both men and women manipulate the other gender. Then Taso met with the whole class and we talked some about the presentation we'll be doing on said findings. However, we don't just share those findings on politics and gender relations; instead, we have to "define modern Greek identity" based on those and all other observations we've made.

After, we had our Tuesday dinner at La Strada, the (mostly)Italian restaurant just down the street. It was delicious. The pesto penne was absolutely phenomenal. Mmmmm.

Sorry nothing too exciting is going on; I've just been up to lots of school lately, and it will probably stay that way for a while. Tomorrow is a field trip, but we're going to a museum so the photograph status is iffy...

Love Alex