Athens Roun' II !

So here we are in Athens once again, this time for the long haul. Tomorrow Rebecca and I begin our jobs at the British School of Archaeology located in downtown Athens. I will be acting as a photographer in the school’s museum and Rebecca will be with the archivist working on various projects concerning the history of British led archaeological projects in Greece. If all goes well we hope to be here until through the spring!

Moving into our apartment this time has necessitated a bit more patience, imagination, and renovation skills than our last go around two years ago. This is mostly because the apartment has not been touched since the onset and fall of Greece’s Military Junta in the 1970’s. Thus, we have been quite busy performing numerous small spells and enchantments in order to make the apartment a little more livable. First and foremost is repairing the electrical system, which has managed to moderately-severely electrocute me every time I’ve handled an object plugged into a wall socket.  Next is to purchase a new oven/stove-top and somehow and in some way get the old one down and new one up five stories by using an elevator big enough to hold, and with a weight limit for about two people. Stay tuned….

Beyond developing new moving-in tactics, Greece remains the same place we left in the spring of 2010. Two gigantic outdoor markets occur two days a week and are filled to the brim with fresh fruits, veggies, meats, and fish. We bought enough food for a week and spent less than 10 euros. Oh the joy of living in a country with a plummeting economy!

Last night I experienced ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ but for real. We were invited by friends of Rebecca’s family to attend a wedding and double baptism for twins. Everybody there was somehow related to our friends but seeing Athens is like a big village I have no idea the details. Anywho, round one began in a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church and was followed by a night of eating, drinking, and dancing at a mountainside restaurant overlooking the city. The host family from Kalamata roasted an entire pig that I’m afraid to say, beat any NC bbq I’ve had out of the water. Smoking with olive wood is incredible! And by some miracle we ended up with about 8 pounds of it in our fridge.

Well, that’s about it for now. We start work on Monday, have a protest and riot to survive on Wednesday, and are off to Istanbul on Friday. Huzzah!