Athena Blogs

Ok, so this whirlwind class has come to a close, and this blog entry will probably be pretty short. The photo students had their final workday on Thursday to prepare for final critiques on Friday. After we all turned our work in, it seemed like everyone was out enjoying their last few hours on Paros by getting last minute souvenirs, etc.

On Friday night, we had our "farewell" cookout dinner at Jimmy's. Everyone snapped photos of each other and talked about going home or where they would be traveling to next. Even though the class did seem to fly by, I have been in Greece for a month now and it does feel like I've been here a long time. Even though we've mostly visited touristy areas, I've gotten used to being away from my American way of life. I'm looking forward to getting back to some things back at home, but I'm also going to miss the easy life here on Paros. The constant sun, the beach, the relaxed schedule, the open air theater, cheap gyros ...

Many of the students left on Saturday morning, so it was kind of sad to see everyone waiting in the lobby area of Jimmy's with their luggage all piled up just like when we arrived in Parikia three weeks ago. I am leaving on Monday, so I have just a couple more days to enjoy the beauty of this island. Then, it's back to my real life...

I really enjoyed having the break over the weekend to relax, hit the beach, and explore some other parts of the island on my own time. Monday, it was back to class for one final week. The digital photography class had a critique of the images from our first photo project while the black and white class took a walking field trip. I think the black and white photography students had already had their critique on Friday of last week.

We were finally able to take the boat ride to Delos & Mykonos on Tuesday. The sea was very rough and choppy on the way over to the islands, so I can't imagine what it would have been like on Sunday when our trip was canceled due to the high winds! Several of us arrived on Delos feeling a bit sick, but the archeological site was pretty amazing and worth the rough ride! We were on Delos just a couple of hours, but I think it would have been easy to spend more time since there were so many ruins. At one time, the island was the center of commerce, so many wealthy merchants made Delos their home. After visiting Delos, we took a short boat ride over to Mykonos where we ate lunch and had a little time to wander the streets of "Little Venice" before getting back on the boat to head back to Paros (the ride "home" was much calmer!).

We had our final "official" photography class on Wednesday. For the photography students, all that remains now is to finish our final photo projects and to have our individual critiques with the photography teachers.

Hot! So hot! I suppose the fact that I live in Montana has made it feel exceptionally hot to me…I'm guess I'm not used to this kind of heat. It was still pretty chilly in Bozeman when I left at the beginning of June. I think I could get used to the idea of a "siesta time" that many Greeks seem to follow. Many shops just shut down between the hours of 2-6 pm (or 14:00-18:00 as the Greek clock would say). It's just too hot so they all just go inside to hibernate until the cooler evening temperatures arrive.

On Thursday this week, we visited the extremely close island of Antiparos. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot on this island, but we were able to see the cave on the island (apparently the main attraction). They seem to be trying to protect the cave now, but I think the protection efforts must not have existed in the past. The cave was interesting, but damage from past vandalism was evident. I even saw some graffiti from as far back as the 1800s. Previous explorers also "harvested" some of the stalactites and stalagmites.

After lunch on Antiparos, we took a boat ride to an archeological dig site on the tiny island of Despotiko. None of the archeologists seemed to be working that day, but it was still an interesting site. On the boat ride back over to Antiparos, the drivers of the boat took us over to see a couple of small sea caves. The water looked so inviting that we wanted to jump out and swim, but we had to make it back for the 3:00 bus back to the Antiparos port (the last one of the day!)

Monday morning was back to the classroom after the Santorini field trip. Wow! It was hot! The days seem to be getting hotter and more people are arriving on the island everyday. I think we'll only see more and more tourists as June progresses. I can understand why they are coming here, but I wish things could stay as quiet as they were when we arrived, although I'm sure there were already a lot of tourists here at that time.

As part of a car trip to visit other parts of the island, we were able to see the ancient marble quarry Monday afternoon. This is the site that the marble came from for great works of art such as the Venus de Milo. After the quarry stop, we piled back into the cars, made a short stop at Kolymbithres beach for a quick swim, and then headed to the town of Naoussa.

We visited my favorite island thus far on Tuesday: Naxos! Although it neighbors Paros and you can even see the island from some parts of Paros, it's about a 45 minute ferry ride from Parikia to the Naxos port. I loved this island because much of it seemed less touristy. When we visited an archaeological site, I could almost forget I was on an island since I could only see a tiny strip of water in one direction.

Thursday morning was an early one for the HISA photography students! We had a choice of a 7:30 am or a 10:00 am bus to Lefkes, but being photographers, we decided that the light would be much better the earlier we could get ourselves up. Also, we didn't want to experience the mid-afternoon heat on the Byzantine trail hike on the way back. When we broke up into smaller groups to wander around to photograph Lefkes, the faculty members encouraged us to continue to push ourselves to develop a deep sense of space in our images, and to try to consider spatial relationships in every shot.

Upon returning to Parikia, we had the afternoon free until our next class meeting at 4 pm. This was the perfect opportunity to rest...or hit the beach! As if I hadn't already been in the sun enough today, I chose the beach!

We had the chance to experience the Renbetiko style of Greek folk music at a local restaurant on Thursday evening. As we dined on Greek appetizers, we sat in the cool night air, chatting, and listening to the folk band with their lead female singer.

Our study abroad program with HISA began on Monday morning, June 9, when most of us took the Blue Star ferry from the port in Piraeus to Parikia, which is on the island of Paros. The ferry ride was about 4.5 hours. It seemed as if many had just arrived in Athens, so some took the opportunity to catch up on sleep while others took in the passing islands. As we approached the island, we got our first glimpse of the beautiful island life we would live for the next three weeks. Everything shimmered in the sun: the traditional white Greek buildings, the beach, and even the ocean before us.

As we filed off the boat, Barry and Jimmy were there to meet us and take us to our rooms. We were grateful that Jimmy took our luggage while we made the short walk to the apartments. As we stood in the open-air main lounge, it was hard to believe we had finally made it! We were individually shown our rooms, so everyone headed off to settle into what would be their new homes for the next three weeks. I think there was already a feeling that these three weeks would pass much too quickly.

After a relaxing afternoon during which some napped, some went to the beach (just down the street!), and some just took time settling in, we met two of the HISA teachers (Cameron and Sarah) back in the main lounge at Jimmy's for an orientation. They took us on a short walk to the school where Barry gave us some background information on the teachers and his passion for HISA.