Pre-Departure Information
The information provided here is intended to supplement the orientation materials you will receive from the University Education Abroad office in the fall. It will not answer all your questions, but it should allow you to start thinking about how to get ready for the journey. We will discuss these and other matters during our orientation meetings this fall.
Recommended general-background reading about Greece and Greek culture
(Available from Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, your local bookstore, or library)You aren't expected you to read all these books between now and January 2005. Rather, these titles are provided in order to give you some suggestions. You can read as many or as few of these books as your time and inclinations allow, or you can read other books that aren’t on this list. One piece of advice is this: the more extensive your background knowledge when you arrive in Greece, the fuller and richer will be your experience while there. To be able to visit a site and already to know something of its history, its role in Greek myth, its topography, its monuments, etc. is to be able to bring these things to one’s understanding and appreciation of the site.
Aeschylus. Agamemnon, Persians.
Aristophanes. Birds, Clouds, Lysistrata, Wasps.
Borza, Eugene N. In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon (1990).
Bradley, Marion Z. The Firebrand (1987). A novel set in the royal house of Troy in the years leading up to and during the Trojan War, told from the women’s perspective.
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion (1985). A comprehensive survey of the origins, development, and practice of religion in ancient Greece.
Cahill, Thomas. Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: why the Greeks Matter (2003)
Camp, John M. The Archaeology of Athens (2001)
Camp, John M,. and Elizabeth Fisher. The World of the Ancient Greeks (2002)
Campbell, John K. Modern Greece (1969).
Clogg, Richard. A Short History of Modern Greece (1986).
Cottrell, Leonard. The Bull of Minos (1958). An historical exploration of the remote beginnings of the Mediterranean civilizations that became Classical Greece.
Cox, G. And J. Solman (trans.). Greece: A Portrait (1979).
Durrell, Gerald. Birds, Beasts, and Relatives (1969). Personal reminiscences about growing up on Corfu in an eccentric English family.
Durrell, Lawrence. The Greek Islands (1976).
Enos, Richard L. Greek Rhetoric Before Aristotle (1993).
Euripides. Trojan Women, Andromache, Electra, Medea.
Finley, M. I. The Ancient Greeks (1963).
_________. Early Greece: The Bronze and Archaic Ages (1970).
_________. The World of Odysseus (1978). History of the late Bronze and Dark Ages as distilled from Homer’s writings.
Fowler, Barbara H. (trans.). Archaic Greek Poetry (1992).
Gage, Nicholas. Eleni (1983). An autobiographical account of how a mother saved her children from the Communists during the Greek Civil War.
___________. Hellas: A Portrait of Greece (1987). Observations and impressions of modern Greece.
Hendricks, Rhoda A. Classical Gods and Heros (1974). Greek myths as told by the ancient authors.
Homer. Iliad, Odyssey.
Hooper, Finley. Greek Realities: Life and Thought in Ancient Greece (1978). A very readable and comprehensive account of the intellectual and cultural development of ancient Greece.
Johnstone, Christopher Lyle, ed. Theory, Text, Context: Issues in Greek Rhetoric and Oratory (1996). A collection of essays covering topics ranging from the Sophists and early theorizing about rhetoric, to the physical settings for Greek oratory, to issues in Aristotle’s treatment of rhetoric.
Kazantzakis, Nikos. Zorba the Greek (1952).
Kennedy, George A. The Art of Persuasion in Greece (1963).
Kitto, H. D. F. The Greeks (1957).
Kourvetaris, George. A Profile of Modern Greece: In Search of Identity (1987).
MacKendrick, Paul. The Greek Stones Speak: The Story of Archaeology in Greek Lands (1981).
Miller, Henry. The Colossus of Maroussi (1941). Descriptions based on personal travels in Greece.
Pausanias. Guide to Greece. The original tourist’s guidebook, written in the 2nd century c.e.
Powell, Dilys. The Villa Ariadne (1966). A personal history of the excavation of the Palace of Knossos and of the Resistance on Crete during WW II, by the wife of the excavation director.
Rayor, Diane J. (trans.). Sappho’s Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece (1991).
Renault, Mary. The Last of the Wine (1956). A novel about the trials and fortunes, including friendship with Socrates, of some young Athenians during the Peloponnesian War.
__________. The Mask of Apollo (1966). A novel about the life of an Athenian actor, friend of Plato, in the 4th century b.c.e.
__________. Fire from Heaven (1969). A story of the young Alexander.
__________. Funeral Games (1981). A novel about conflict and intrigue in the Macedonian Empire after the death of Alexander.
Sophocles. Antigone, Electra, Oedipus at Colonos, Oedipus Tyrannus.
Stoneman, Richard (ed.). A Literary Companion to Travel in Greece (1984). Impressions of Greece in the words of travellers from this and earlier centuries.
Taylour, L. M. The Mycenaeans (1983).
Thucydides. A History of the Peloponnesian War.
Van Dyke, Karen (ed.). Insight Guide to Greece (1996). A thoughtful and comprehensive guide to contemporary Greek culture, traditions, and ways of living for the true traveller.
Vernant, Jean-Pierre. Myth and Society in Ancient Greece (1980).
_______________. The Origins of Greek Thought (1982).
_______________. Myth and Thought Among the Greeks (1983).
Wycherley, R. E. How the Greeks Built Cities (1962).
____________. The Stones of Athens (1978).
Recommended guidebooks
· Blue Guide: Greece --Absolutely the best guide to archaeological and historical sites, indispensable for the studious traveler (but little or no info on hotels, restaurants, etc., for which you need one of the guides below); there is a Blue Guide Istanbul as well (and a Blue Guide Turkey), if you're planning a side-trip.
· Greece: The Rough Guide --Maybe the best general tourist guidebook.
· Lonely Planet Guide to Greece --Another top contender (& produced by the folks who sponsor those cool programs on the Travel Channel), oriented toward the student traveler & the adventurous; good info on off-the-beaten-track places to see.
· Fodor's Greece --A very useable, informative, well-established, full-service standard guidebook.
· Let's Go Greece/2003 --Long the most popular guidebook for student travelers; useful travel info (especially regarding low-budget lodgings & food), but short on cultural/historical background & the maps aren't very good. There is also a Let's Go Greece & Turkey, if you're contemplating a side-trip to Istanbul.
· Guide Michelin, Greece--Really oriented toward the motor-tourist, but provides serviceable background info, maps, & walking-tours for most sites of interest (and, like the Blue Guide, needs to be supplemented with a general guidebook for hotel/restaurant/etc. info).
· Culture Shock! Greece: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette --Practical information on Greek culture, and on how to live in Greece and get around.
Some Important Details
· Important documents: be sure to make two copies of all important papers, including passport, plane tickets, insurance papers, etc. Leave one with your family/trusted friend, and take the other with you to use in the event that you lose something.
· ATM cards: ATMs are present throughout Athens and in most Greek towns and cities (those large enough to have a bank). You can use your ATM card to get cash as you need it. However, be sure that your card will work overseas. First, the Greek ATMs will take Cirrus and Plus (at last report). Second, your ATM card should be one that accesses your checking account, not merely a savings account. Some students have found, to their inconvenience, that their savings-account ATM didn’t work at the ATMs in Greece, so they had no way to access their funds. You can also use an American Express card to get cash advances from AMEX offices (there is one in Athens). However, they charge a high interest rate on cash advances, so you won’t want to use that except in emergencies.
· Credit cards: most hotels, ferry offices, travel agencies, shops, etc. take VISA, MC, and American Express. Generally speaking, you will get a better exchange rate by charging a purchase than by paying for it with dollars or travelers cheques. If your ATM card is a VISA or other major credit card company, you can charge such purchases just as you would use your ATM card here as a debit card.
Life in Athens -- a few reminders: Again, this information is meant only as a supplement to what is provided in the "Living in Greece" section of the Predeparture Guide -- or to what is provided in such guidebooks as Greece: The Rough Guide, Lonely Planet Greece, or Fodor's Greece.
· Temperatures and weather conditions: The weather in Athens is usually very sunny--and sometimes windy (especially in winter) --though you can expect to see some clouds and rain from January-March. Be prepared for cool, even cold temperatures in the winter months--even indoors (see the temperature chart below). By world standards, American buildings are grossly overheated, and your apartment may seem surprisingly cold at night, or even during the day. You might see the occasional snowflake in the middle of a January day in Athens, and even more likely in the countryside. At night in the cold months the temperature can (and often does) drop below freezing. Wind-chill can make the temperature feel even colder. However, April will probably be mild, and very nice!
January February March April May June July August September October November December · Smog: Athens is a large, industrial/commercial city, with a population in the millions and heavy traffic. Like most such cities it has a smog problem. Athenians complain about the nephos (smog), and on bad days there may be smog alerts (though these usually occur only during the warm summer months). Traffic into the city center is generally restricted (odd/even license-plate numbers on alternate days), though many people cheat (by having two license plates). Fortunately, Athens' windy weather often "sweeps" the smog out to sea, and you will see many clear and beautiful days, especially during the winter months. On the whole, your day-to-day activities are unlikely to be affected. If you are a jogger, you should be careful about exercising strenuously outdoors during heavy smog periods; and if you have a condition (such as asthma) that may be affected by bad smog days, you should exercise caution (and let me know, too).
· What to bring: Clearly, you should bring adequate cold-weather and wet-weather clothing, as well as clothing suitable for the springlike temperatures of April. Likewise, because of the smog, dust, and general urban dirt, you will probably do better with dark-colored clothes, which are easier to wash--don't expect your sparkling whites to stay that way for long. Because we will do a lot of walking/hiking in and outside of Athens, you'll need comfortable, sturdy walking shoes and/or comfortable hiking boots. You need not bring things like bedding, linens, towels, and household implements, as you will be housed in (modestly) furnished apartments. If you want to supplement what's already provided in your apartment, cheap household gear can easily be purchased in Athens (for example, in the Monastiraki flea-market district, a half-hour's walk away from the Athens Centre).
· Computers and Appliances: The Athens Centre maintains modest computer facilities that are available to students who study at the Centre. These facilities include four workstations with Internet connections and printers, and are equipped with WiFi internet access for students whose personal laptops are similarly equipped. Though you will not be required to type or word-process your papers, these facilities may be used to do so. Sometimes students bring their own laptops and small printers, which can be used in the apartments. Alternatively, you may bring a laptop and then print your papers at the Athens Centre. There is no Internet access available in the apartments. Besides the Athens Centre's computer facility, Internet access is available through neighborhood Internet cafes, for about $7/hour. The International Sheraton Hotel, which is near the Athens Centre, provides facilities for a small monthly fee. (If you want to access your email from Penn State or other home institution, you should set up a Hotmail.com free-email account and arrange to have mail to your home account forwarded to it.) If you bring your own laptop, remember that you will need an adapter for Greek electrical current (240 volts/50Hz, compared to U.S. 110 volts/60Hz), or your computer will be toast. Likewise, if you bring small electrical appliances that need to be plugged in (such as hair-dryers), you will need adapters for Greek electricity; or you can buy such appliances cheaply in Athens. Things like batteries for a disc-man, of course, can be purchased in Athens, too, but are considerably more expensive and of a lower quality than we are accustomed to here at home. The best plan for batteries (including for cameras) is to bring enough with you to get you through the semester.
· The Greek people: Greeks are emotional, expressive, proud, energetic, inquisitive, inventive, competitive people, with a deep sense of personal honor (often connected to family and home-community), a strong sense of tradition (including folk-tradition and superstition), and a flair for disputation, law, politics, and intrigue. One important tradition is philoxenia, hospitality/ friendliness to strangers/foreigners (observed perhaps more in the countryside than in the big city or the jaded tourist-trap). At the same time, Greek society tends to form in relatively small, close-knit groups (or factions or cliques), which then compete against each other, or form complex networks of alliances and oppositions: the Greeks, after all, invented politics and athletics as we know them, as well as the adversarial system of our courts. The idea of a “contest” (agon) is a Greek invention. A Greek will seldom make a major purchase (such as a TV) by just walking into a store and paying the sticker price (the outsider's price): if possible, he or she will buy from friends and friends of friends, who give their friends special deals (or gouge their non-friends, depending on how you look at it). Philoxenia's one thing and business is another. Greece in its recent history (since the devastation of World War II) has passed through desperate poverty, civil war (in the late 1940s), dictatorship (in the 1960s), restored democracy (in the mid-1970s), and economic revitalization and development, becoming a part of modern Europe. Many Greeks still seek their fortune abroad and send money home (and hope to come back wealthy someday, from America, Canada, Australia, or somewhere). Greek identity is closely bound up with an acute and justifiably proud awareness of the achievements, struggles, tragedies and persistence of Greek civilization from antiquity to the present--and with the Greek Orthodox religion, the chief mainstay of Greek culture and identity through four centuries of subjugation to the Ottoman empire and a living link between the present and the ancient past, the days of Byzantine splendor. Greek character and Greek culture are complex and even contradictory, blending elements of both east and west--historically, Greece has been a crossroad and meeting-point between Europe and Asia--as well as the modern and traditional. Nothing I can say can really sum it all up, or take the place of much reading and experience. The Greeks will expect you to appreciate, value, and respect their culture and history--and they will want to know about you and your opinions, too.
· Alcohol consumption: One aspect of the Greek sense of personal honor is sobriety, or temperance--keeping things in balance, exercising self-control (the ancient word for it is sophrosyne). There is no "drinking age" in Greece, and you'll be able to buy a drink anywhere you go; for some of you, this may be the first time you can legally do that. Greece is the land of wine, and the Greeks have always enjoyed convivial eating/drinking. But if you get drunk--or even appear to be drunk--you will dishonor yourself and offend your hosts, the Greeks, who frown on public drunkenness and will be quick to judge you as a third-rate person worthy of no respect (even if they keep smiling to your face). Men are not manly, and women are not womanly, when they lack self-control.
· Drugs: Illegal drugs are available on the street in Athens—not widely, but there are areas of the city where you can buy. Greek laws are significantly more stringent than are American laws regarding possession and sale. The Greek constitution does not afford the same rights to defendants that the U. S. Constitution does. Finally, Greek prisons are not good places to spend time. You may have heard about the recent case of a young American man in Russia, visiting on a Fulbright Fellowship, who was arrested, tried, and convicted of possessing marijuana. He was sentenced to 3 years in a Russian prison, and there appears to be little that his family or the U. S. government can do to help him. You don’t want anything remotely like that to happen to you in Greece. Be smart, and leave your vices at home.
· Personal security: While Greek sources report a recent rise in crime rates, it is probably true that Athens is much safer than any American city of comparable size--or any large American city. This probably has something to do with the Greek sense of honor, and with the related desire not to shame one's family, friends, or community. Nevertheless, Athens is a city of millions, and has its share of petty crime, con-men and con-women, violence, and unsavory neighborhoods, as well as the occasional murder (though random killings, unlike in the USA, are almost unheard of). You should, for example, completely avoid the neighborhood of Omonia Square after dark (you probably won't need to go there anyway); and the Monastiraki flea-market district, while generally safe and often quite interesting (in the daytime, that is), has pickpockets and purse-snatchers. As in Italy or Spain, unaccompanied young women may be subject to unwanted advances, pestering, or sexual harrassment, especially if dressed "immodestly" by Greek standards. A general rule, as the Predeparture Guide puts it, is: DO NOT TRAVEL ALONE LATE AT NIGHT; if you go out late, go in groups, or at least with a buddy. If you are sexually active while in Greece, practice safe sex. In general, you should exercise prudence regarding your personal security, as you would anywhere.
· Culture shock: As some of the remarks above suggest, Greece both is and is not a familiar, Western culture; this is a major part of what makes it so interesting. At the same time, you can expect that Greece will feel more "foreign" than, say, England or France. A part of experiencing any foreign culture is what psychologists call "culture shock"--a sort of mental fatigue that sets in, after the touristy "newness" of everything wears off (after a month or so), and the feeling of difference begins to wear on you (and you begin to wish you were back home, where everything is easy & familiar). This can happen even in France or England! So much moreso, then, in Greece. You may find yourself sometimes feeling irritated, frustrated, put off by Greekness and the Greek way of doing things, or by a particularly infuriating encounter. It's important to remember that this feeling is normal, not let it dominate your thinking, and get through it to the good parts of your time in Greece. Otherwise, you may talk yourself into having a bad time, become alienated, and go home at semester's end having missed a lot. It may sound like a cliche, but “Think Positive and Be Patient.” Don't expect things to happen the way they do in Good Old Hometown. Let yourself settle into the Greek rhythm of life, at least part way. When you begin to get used to it, and begin to inhabit it "from the inside," it begins to make more sense--and is rather nice. But this takes time.
CONCLUSION
The key to a positive, fruitful study-abroad experience in Greece is to be flexible, to want to learn all you can about the land, its people, its culture, and its history. Remember that we are all in this together, and together we can make next spring an outstanding semester. I’m looking forward to it, as I’m sure you are. In the meantime, enjoy getting ready for an adventure.
Mount Olympus
Homer
Thucydides
Olympieion
Kore
Olympia