Unplugging?

Today we had a quiet morning of packing and museum-going before heading to the airport. It's the beginning of the dig -- we met the other professor and two students at the airport. One other student will join us tomorrow at the ferry and then we're off to Samothrace, a remote island, for six weeks. I'm not sure if I'll love it, or if I'll simply feel like a caged animal. However, similar to my decision to learn to love fish this summer, I have decided that I will love it. I also purchased some pool toys today so that, between writing dissertations and digging up artifacts, a bunch of art history and archeology nerds can blow off steam playing 'chicken' at the beach.

The group seems very fun. We just shared a delicious meal together on the shore. I love the way you order and eat in Greece -- the waiter gives you a vague idea of what's available, you give him a vague idea of your preferences, and over the next two hours delicious little plates of food and bottles of wine arrive. It's great. I'll have to seek this out in New York more often.

It seems, however, that I will only have email access every other day. I know how this will affect your procrastination at work and at home. My apologies. We will apparently have a phone and I will post the number soon.

I am a little nervous about being 'unplugged' in this very plugged in world, but it is probably healthy to step away from the screen. Stay tuned!

Athens Attacks: Killer Heat Wave Wilts 3 Young Women

Photos: Cindy and Genevieve enjoying an evening cocktail; crazy crowds at the Propylaia; off-center caryatids; the Parthenon; and the Parthenon at night.

We managed to spend three days in Athens during the most unusual heat wave in recent memory. It was 116 the day we arrived, apparently, and temperatures have topped 100 degrees ever since. Leave it to me to find the least comfortable places to visit! Cindy, Genevieve and I are staying in an un-air-conditioned hostel. They have been very good sports about the heat, and I 'borrowed' an extra fan from the common area, so we're surviving. Yesterday we trekked through the National Archeological Museum and the Islamic museum before meeting Eliza, another Samothrace-bound IFA student, and her mother for a delicious dinner. Eliza and Mrs. Lee were our informants about the heat, and I think we were all relieved to know that we weren't wimps -- it really WAS very hot. So hot, actually, that the government closed access to the Parthenon and the Agora!

Today, despite continuing warm weather, we hiked to the top of the hill to inspect the ruins. The route is called the Panathenian way -- a winding path that devotees would follow during the great festivals honoring the goddess Athena. Worshippers would enter through the Propylaia, an impressive entryway that conceals your view of the Parthenon before dramatically exposing it as you pass through the arch. My favorite part of the Parthenon complex, however, is the Erechtheion -- the sacred space where the goddess Athena was actually kept. I love the graceful, solid caryatids (the woman serving as pillars). It was a great morning; completely exhilarating despite the heat, the crowds, and the smog-obscured views of modern Athens. After such incredible heat, we found a rooftop pool and spent the day there before wandering around the monuments at night (bad photo here). For a perfect end to the evening, Cindy and I raced to the Benaki Museum, an extraordinary house museum compiled by a Greek collector. They are open until midnight on Thursdays, and so we had an hour to wander through the collection after dinner. It was no where near enough time -- but it is a real joy to travel with people who think midnight expeditions to museums counts as 'fun.'

So much has changed since my last trip to Athens -- the subway is larger, cleaner and has digital information about the next trains; the drachma has been replaced by the Euro; the streets are cleaner; everything is labeled; simply stated, it is much friendlier to foreign tourists. Cindy imagines that this is the result of the Olympics. Probably true.

Tomorrow, we depart for Alexandropoulos. From there, we will take a ferry to Samothrace on Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to meeting the three non-IFA students and to eventually unpacking all my things! What a relief it will be to stop digging through my bag!

Academics in Athens

The world is very small. This morning, I enjoyed a coffee with Emilia and the bambine at their home in Caserta, and then I had a nice coffee and cornetto a crema with Frederick at the airport. By lunchtime, I met my friend Cindy, a fellow IFA student, in Athens. Air travel is amazing. It's 100 degrees here (wow, flashbacks to India!) but we enjoyed wandering the city and seeing new sights. Few people will ask (or indulge) questions about the style of scrolls on an early Byzantine church, so it's fun to be in the company of other art nerds. Last time I visited Athens, I was busy spending time with an attractive man that I met on the plane -- this time, I only had eyes for the Acropolis. Here is a pretty bad photo of the Temple of Hephaestus. Cindy and I wandered the agora, and then around the bottom of the hill where we found a fun concert. A few young women pinned 'I love life!' stickers on us, but who knows what that was about! After some more wandering, we found a delicious little Greek bistro with super-garlicky tsatziki and delicious stuffed grape leaves. This is a fabulous welcome to my home for two months! I'm settling in to the hotel with another fellow student, Genevieve, and preparing to take on the city tomorrow. yay!

Euro-kids

This is my last day with the three belle bambine. We went to the pool at 9 this morning. It turns out that we 1.) were not supposed to be there until after 11; 2) aren't supposed to eat or drink on the pool deck; 3) should have paid an entry charge and 4) needed to show our IDs to half of the pool so that they would know we weren't terrorists. Basically, on our first trip to the pool, we broke 5 of the 6 published rules. Oh well!

In the afternoon we took a walk, all five of us in nice dresses. As a group, we really turned heads -- sometimes because of how cute the girls are, and sometimes due to the unholy wailing coming from indignant little people in the stroller who preferred to walk. We meant to play in the park after finishing our errands, but the pool made the girls a little tired, so instead we stopped into a cafe. I have never heard three girls under five squeal with such delight 'Cafe!' I think they assume that 'cafe' is a synonym for 'gelato.' This was fine by me -- Emilia and I enjoyed a delicious Sicilian pastry with cream in the center (almost like a cornetto a crema, my favorite breakfast ever) and a cappuccino while the girls stuffed their faces full of mini cakes and strawberry gelato. It was another fun, long day. My hat is off to any and all parents reading this blog -- kids are a blast, but they sure do take a lot of energy! Here are some last photos of the fabulous Woods kids: Olivia and Isabella eating gelato fragola; Emilia and Sophia, like mother, like daughter; Isabella and Sophia playing along a fence.

Gelato with the bambine!

Today we were very good in church and so we had some gelato -- here are the photos of our delicious outing. Olivia waits expectantly for her ice cream; Olivia devours gelato; Emilia demonstrates proper gelato-eating technique to Isabella; birds-eye view of Sophia taking a sip of water. For the rest of the day, we decided to hang out at home (it was too hot for the park, really) and to play with finger paints and these markers that let you draw on the window. It was lots of fun. It was a bit surprising, though, to suddenly realize that I'm entering a new era. Now that many of my friends have kids, there's no avoiding the fact that we're the adults. Olivia came up to talk to Emilia today, wiggling around to try to get our attention. We were sitting on a lounge chair, in sundresses, with our hair pulled back in a more utilitarian than fashionable manner. As Emilia reminded Olivia not to interrupt and I inspected the finger paint on my knees, I suddenly realized that this was a familiar scene -- but now, instead of being the antsy four-year-old, I was the 'adult' chatting! Luckily, I then got to splash around in the kiddie pool and play with play-doh and laugh with my friends about silly things, and I remembered that I'm still under 30. Whew.

Lazy Saturday, Caserta style

I have completely enjoyed and appreciated the amazing art and sites and cities I've been able to visit in the past month. But relaxing with friends is still my idea of the perfect vacation. Today was wonderful -- good friends, delicious summer food, sultry weather and three funny children. Here are the promised photos of the belle bambine -- Olivia after her first swim lesson, looking like a small orange burrito in front of her mom, Emilia; and the twins Isabella and Sophia engrossed with playdoh on the porch. After Olivia's swim lesson at the American base, we went grocery shopping in what seemed like a small slice of the US -- prices in dollars, American brands, the ability to return items. It was surreal. I wonder how they get everything here. Are we really using our tax dollars to airlift fruit loops and Oscar Meyer wieners to American families stationed overseas? I wonder whose job it is to take care of the Ore Ida french fries shipment each month...

In the afternoon we had a delicious lunch and joined the girls for their siesta (yay!) because Mom, Dad and Kate had all stayed up too late the night before. For the rest of the afternoon we played on the swings, enjoyed dripping sparkles all over the house from some bangles I brought from India, played with Play-doh, and otherwise relaxed and had fun. It was so great to unwind and chat with friends big and small. Tomorrow, it's off to church and then the park -- a stunning expanse in front of an 18th century castle. If we are good in Church, there might even be a trip to the gelateria. (I plan to be perfectly well-behaved.) I can already tell it will be a great day.

In lovely Caserta, a Casa Woods

The Italian train service staff were on strike today, but they graciously scheduled the strike in advance so that you knew which trains were running before you bought your ticket. Thanks to this clever and thoughtful approach, I made it to Caserta today only 15 minutes behind schedule. It is so nice to be among friends, and not only because I feel safe walking around barefoot for the first time in 15 days or so. Emilia and Frederick live about 40 minutes from Naples. They are both FANTASTIC cooks and they have three charming daughters -- Olivia, who is 4 and much taller than last year, and the twins Isabella and Sophia, who now have a mop of black hair and a significantly larger vocabulary. I have yet to spring the finger paints and play-doh on them, mainly because I was afraid to be tossed out of the house before nightfall, but I hope we can get into messy fun things tomorrow. I will also take some photos to share how adorable they are. I almost fell over laughing today -- Isabella and Sophia use the (clean) bidet as a mini-sink to wash up before dinnertime. There is nothing funnier than seeing this brilliant American approach to European plumbing, especially by such small citizens. I think the soap they were using was bigger than their heads! I'll try to catch them with a photo tomorrow,