Well, that was a rare burst of rainfall. More like a sprinkle of rain, but still...it's rained less than five times total since I've been in Athens. Tonight, we got a nice little treat.
Actually, the day we came back to Athens from Naxos was quite stormy as well--at least when we were on the ferry. The sky was all dark and gray with heavy winds threatening to tip any of us over. Every wave crashed into the side of the ferry, splashing white mist across the deck and windows. It was quite the adventure. Everyone just slept on the six and a half hour ferry ride though.
That night, Taso and I actually met up with a few educators in Athens for a small focus group on education in Greece today. Since I have had an interest in education globally, Taso arranged for this special focus group so we could do a bit of a pre-test with some questions about issues of access to higher education and the relationship between educational attainment and social mobility/job market accessibility.
We met up with three teachers over dinner, and I was honestly quite humbled to be with such an accomplished group of educators. Each of them teach in a private secondary school, and all of them have both a Master's and Ph.D. degrees. Unfortunately though, none of them have secure jobs because it is difficult to find job security in Greece, even with the highest academic credentials.
What I found from our discussion was that Greece emphasizes memorization and quantity of knowledge retained. Students are pressured to study obsessively for the Panhellenic Examinations for university entrance, and often, these students attend special tutoring schools in the afternoon for five to six hours after they've finished their normal school day. This happens each day of the week--hence, the enormous pressure the students face to do well on the tests take away from their actual amount of academic development and their ability to think critically about their academics.
Sound familiar at all? Not yet included in this conversation though is the status of students who may not have the time nor financial resources to attend the special tutoring classes (which if normal schools were doing their jobs, you probably wouldn't have these schools, would you?), as well as students who may come from backgrounds that have little experience or familiarity with the Greek education system.
These are not just my personal sentiments though; these are a sampling of the comments I heard as I facilitated our focus group. In response to my question of "what, if anything, would you change about Greece's education system," the main themes I heard were developing a greater sense of organization and accountability in the education system so that teachers aren't just showing up whenever they want and teaching whatever they feel like. Additionally, ensure that students not only learn the knowledge expected of them but also develop the skills to present/showcase themselves and their skills, learn to network, and learn to be entrepreneurial and think outside the box.
I could write a whole lot more, but just that snippet of our conversation is quite intriguing, isn't it?
The past day and a half, I've mainly just spent working on our final paper for this program (as well as my essays for my Fulbright application...). Our program, sadly, is coming to an end quickly. Tomorrow evening, we have our final presentations where we will share our research findings with our colleagues, program supporters, and several of our new friends we met during our research.
Our papers are rather short (only four to five pages), but they have to summarize what we discovered in our interviews over the past four weeks. Jordan has already written a first draft, and I am reading over and adding to it to complete our assignment. We'll definitely be working on it more tomorrow.
Last night (more like early this morning), I accompanied Maggie to the airport to pick up her mother, who was flying in at 2:30 am to spend the next two weeks or so traveling around Greece with Maggie.
I was the designated photographer so I could capture the happy moment of reunion between Maggie and her mom. I did a pretty good job, I'd say.
The trip was an enjoyable one, and we ended up stopping at McDonald's in Syntagma Square at 3:30 am. I was hungry...haha.
Then we walked all the way through Monastiraki and Thissio to get to Maggie's mom's hotel, and then finally made it back to our guesthouse at 4:30 am. I worked a bit more on my Fulbright essays, and finally went to bed after that.
This morning, I woke up around 11:20 am and took a quick shower, before I heard my phone go off. Turns out, Taso was at the soccer stadium trying to get us tickets to Saturday's Olympiakos game, which had been postponed before. Poor Taso. He'd already tried four times to get tickets at the ticket office (which is not close by any means), and each time, the office was closed.
This time, it was open. However, they said they needed four passports in order for him to buy the tickets. Are you kidding?! Who needs passports to buy soccer tickets? Seriously!
So, I had to gather four of our passports quickly and book it to the Metro station to get down to the stadium before the ticket office closed again just because they felt like it. There's no use posting hours. They don't follow them. I swear they have the worst customer and fan relations I have ever seen in a professional sports team. Their website is horrendous!
Anyway, I'm just glad we have soccer tickets now. I spent the afternoon working more on my essays and chatting with Taso for his advice on my Fulbright proposal. Very helpful indeed, since his Master's and Ph.D. research was using ethnography, which is what I'm aiming to do in Berlin.
We went together to the Benaki Museum today, since no one else in our group wanted to go. The admissions today was free (every Thursday, plus they're open till midnight), so we just roamed around the four-story museum. It's not one of those exciting museums like the New Acropolis Museum or the National Archaeological Museum, but it's certainly got some classic ancient Greek art pieces. A few of my favorite pieces...and some pictures of Syntagma Square at night.
After that, I headed to dinner with Maggie and her mom at the Irish Pub that we'd been eyeing during our four weeks here. It's called the James Joyce Irish Pub and Restaurant. It was pretty good actually. I had fish and chips, buffalo wings, and a caesar salad for the first time in a long while. Plus a nice tall glass of beer.
It's been fun hanging out with Maggie and her mom. Our trip to Crete should be a blast. We finally bought our tickets on Tuesday, and I'm pumped that I'll get to go now. Can't wait!
Tomorrow morning, I'm going shopping for an Olympiakos soccer jersey (a cheap one...not the actual 70 Euro jersey) and perhaps a few other souvenir items to take home. I also need to find another postcard.
Ok, time to hit the sack. Need to wake up early tomorrow to work more on our paper. Oh, and it's still raining outside. : )
Ciao,
Sam
P.S. Our internet connection is absolutely atrocious. It drives me nuts.
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