Thursday, 7.29: Where the anarchists hang out

My days this week have consisted of rushing to finish my project, and...rushing to finish my project. Whereas I once had a lot of leeway on what to do in the afternoons, I have recently been spending eight hours a day glued to a computer screen, exhausted at the end and tired of looking at this video that I am not even sure I like anymore. But on Thursday, at last, I completed my final render and finished. And it was a great feeling. Actually, it was quite bittersweet, because the end of this project marks the beginning of the end my time here in Athens. Would it be a lie to say I wasn't looking forward to going home? Not entirely. I do miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss sleeping. I miss not feeling out of place when walking on the street. And I miss having lots of fruit in the house all the time. I have found that I'm not cut out for a job that'll put me behind a screen for 8 hours a day (exhausts my brain) and that I can't keep up with the Greek party system of "relaxing" until 2 AM every night. But I will miss Athens. I will miss walking down Eratothenous St. and seeing the Stadium right there. I'll miss the random ruins and the Acropolis on the skyline. And I'll miss the people from work, who were really great people. The islands were great and seeing all this culture really opened my eyes to why some people want to be history majors or Classics majors. But after two months of tanning and burning and sleep deprivation, I'm ready to get back to school and life and home.

Because we all leave at different times and the first people left on Friday, Dionysis took us all out to dinner on Thursday, as a goodbye dinner. It was very disappointing that the archaeology people decided to go hang out with their archaeology friends instead of joining us for our last group dinner in Athens, but I suppose they had gotten closer to those people than they did to us. Regardless, with or without them, I had a great time.

The night began with a trip around Omonia where Dionysis showed us his hang outs, "where the anarchists and the artists hang out." And where most of the city is in the ancient columnal style or pretty modern buildings with random graffiti on them, this was nothing I had seen before in Greece. Some examples of the art that covered the walls of this area of town:

We also saw this car:

What's so special about this car? Well, it's an original Greek car, made in Greece and everything. It's orange, which is awesome. And oh yeah, it only has 3 wheels.

WHAT?

So we walk to have dinner and dinner and conversations are awesome. We talk about inane things like "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" or some show like that, and about our trips and our classes and going home. And we ate and ate and ate. And I know that when I get home, there's going to be nothing close to the Greek food I've had here. Sigh.

We walked back to our apartments together, under a waning moon. And though my legs hurt and my stomach was overstuffed, as I felt the breeze cool on my skin and saw the lights light up the Stadium, I took a breath. It was a good feeling.

Thursday, 6.17: Standing Up or Lying Down?

Metro Strike Day 2:

I had not yet encountered a multi-day Metro strike, but this was officially the second day in what would appear to be a 2 day Metro strike, with a part day complete transportation strike. Luckily, as per usual on Thursdays, I did not have to go to work, so I decided to complete more of the List and go visit Liz at the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, where she was giving tours of the Cycladic collection. "Cycladic" refers not the art of cycles but rather of the Cyclades islands, a circle of islands surrounding the holy island of Delos, and the culture associated with its inhabitants from 2800 - 2000 BCE. Most of the collection consisted of canonical or slightly deviated-from canonical figurines made of marble, which pretty much all looked like this -->

Head slightly tilted up, arms crossed left over right, knees slightly bent, and toes pointed, with few defined features except for the nose, breasts, and pubic triangle (95% of the figurines were women), features that remained unchanged for 500 years. Many theories abound to why this was, ranging from the religious (depictions of the holy goddess) to practical (mens' legs had to be carved apart, which made them more likely to break).

Of course,  there were variations on this form as well.

One pregnant (left), one with stretch marks (middle):

Even the rare dude:

There are also theories that the figures were once painted with bright colors, as evidenced by the different decay times of painted and unpainted marble (w00t science) as well as whether the figurines were meant to be displayed standing up (as they usually are in museums), or lying down (a more natural position).

As I moved through the exhibit, I found myself becoming rather attached to the elegance of the figures and it inspired a bit of the contemporary art lover in me. While I love the classics, I find myself becoming more and more interested in the quirks of modernism and post modernism. Not the single dot on a white canvas type things, but pieces like

Yeah, I'm into colors, layers, and textures. Must be why I like chemistry. :)

~~

Eventually, the heat of the day got to me and I fell asleep for 3 hours after returning to the apartment. The answer to the title then, is obviously, Lying Down. Must remember to continuously drink water next time I go out.

But another item crossed off:

17. Find another intern at work.

which means I have officially completed 25% of the List. Yay numbers. :)

Artsy in Athens,

Angela