Well, what a semester! We're back home in Pennsylvania now, but I wanted to get one last post in about our fantastic study abroad experience with the Bucknell/Penn State in Athens program. Our final archaeology field trip with Prof. David Scahill took us back to central Athens and the Roman agora and Hadrian's library. As had been the case for much of the term, we experienced not only the sights/sites of ancient Greece, but also the smells.

This past weekend was Easter weekend, as I'm sure you know, but you may or may not have known that this year is one of those rare years when the Gregorian and Julian calendars align, meaning that all christians celebrate Easter on the same Sunday. Easter is big in Greece and is often focused (beyond the religious significance) on a family gathering featuring a roasted lamb or goat.

So, yeah, you're a film professor who gets the chance to live and work in Greece for three months. Are you going to make a film? Obviously. At least one. I am not here for the filmmaking--technically, I am here to teach a course on mythology and the films of Yorgos Lanthimos and other Weird Wave filmmakers--but I am not going to pass up such a singular opportunity.

At the end of last week, we took the circus to Crete, which is officially the only Greek island the program gets to during the semester (though folks are free to go to others when they have time). We began our trip in Heraklion with a visit to the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, which has amassed a wonderful collection of artifacts, most of which focus on the Minoan civilization.

Our group at the Thetis Authentics workshop This week our group made a visit to Thetis Authentics Ltd in Athens for a marvelous hands-on workshop. Thetis Authentics is a company of artists and experts who specialize in authenticating ancient pottery. They also have the capacity to create bespoke pottery in the ancient styles.

This past week was so full! It wasn't just that we did a lot (we did); it was that there was such a variety of things. Bring it on! Last weekend, Christina and I met up with our friend Maria (see below for more on Maria!) for a hike in Kaisariani, a gorgeous wooded mountain region on the eastern edge of the city of Athens.

This past week has been spring break for the program, and that meant no classes (except for the Modern Greek course that I am taking as a student) and no student activities. Most of them have gone off to see other parts of Europe and will reconvene here in Athens over the next couple of days.

This is a longer post, but it has great pictures! Our first stop on the Peloponnese trip was to the new archaeological museum in Kalamata (yes, the olives!) which was built to house the finds from the Griffin Warrior Tomb recently uncovered outside of Pylos, as well as other finds from the surrounding area. One of the more fascinating parts of our semester is being able to compare and contrast so many different museum exhibitions and give serious thought to hows and whys of exhibition design and execution.

It's easy to imagine that Athens might be a good place for running, what with its historical associations with Marathon, etc. But that's all that they are in my admittedly limited experience: mere associations. Modern Athens is not particularly friendly to runners, at least in terms of infrastructure. Sidewalks are of wildly varying widths, uneven, and surrounded by highly unpredictable and therefore dangerous traffic.

A one-shot, RPG, adventure- Ian Fleming's classic James Bond, as if written by Robert W. Chambers, with a touch of Italian horror.

"I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens." (Image from Dogtooth, 2009) The Lion Gate at Mycenae I didn't go on the weekend trip to the Argolid region (Nemea, Mycenae, with ouzo and wine tastings, etc.) this past weekend, because Nibbler has been in decline. She seems to be doing better, but she is approaching her eighteenth birthday, so we're realistic about her health and her prospects.

Until this morning, and aside from a standard couple of days of jet lag, I have been sleeping very well here in Athens. I don't generally, so it has been a welcome change, and part of that change was doubtless due to the fact that Nibbler was not waking me up sometime in the three o'clock hour, as is her wont.

Some of you know already, but for those who aren't aware, Christina and I are in our first week of leading our first study abroad program: Bucknell/Penn State in Athens! Christina is the official faculty-in-residence leader of the trip, but as her partner and the instructor of one course this term, I am obviously helping her with the formal and informal duties and obligations related to shepherding ten undergraduates on an 89-day adventure into Greeces both modern and ancient.