Feverishly doing homework....

Me on the 3rd floor, the Parthenon Gallery.

So I realized that I have been M.I.A. for a couple weeks on here so I decided to update you guys on what I have been doing. Last week I went to 3 beaches (Yabanaki, Kalamaki, and Voulameni), all about 1 to 2 hrs away from Athens by bus. It was sooo worth the long bus ride and I had so much fun swimming. I was like a fish taking in the waves and then cooling off on my nice sunbed. The view of the mountains in the background was fantastic and the soft sand beneath my feet was so pleasing.

After a week of that, I came to the realization that my time here was drawing to an end!!!! I have only a month left before I head back home. The internship part is great, I have catalogued so many boxes and boxes of slides, but it's my research that I needed to really focus on. Part of me coming here to Greece, was to do research on the New Acropolis Museum, which opened on June 21, for my MRP (major research paper). Before I had left, I had promised my supervisor that this experience would be vital in my research, for I had unlimited access to the museum, the Acropolis itself, and the libraries here. I also told them that I would interview key figures on staff that were responsible for the construction of the museum. It was in fact a promising proposal that I submitted to my department and I suddenly panicked thinking I hadn't done much really.

So that's when I decided to feverishly start doing research. For the last couple of weeks, I have made it to the American School Library here in Athens which is said to have been the best resource centre worldwide for the study of Ancient Greece Antiquities. Indeed, it was tough to get in - I had to get a Letter of Introduction, passport pics, and proof of my grad student status, in order to gain a library card. In the last week, I have upped the ante by visiting the library more often and alternating days with visits to the museum. To compensate for me not doing interviews with the museum staff, I have drawn endless diagrams, made observations, and sat in the galleries at the museum. I am quite please to say that I have written 20 pages in the last 2 weeks. Today, I dropped off the Letters of Introduction at the front desk of the museum, each addressed to the curators, archaeologists, and president of the museum. I hope before I leave in a month's time, I would have had the chance to speak to one of them....My professors back on campus are rooting for me to get published so this is a big pressure on me to do well in my MRP.

Attached are a few pics, I didn't want to add too many pics as I will be using them for my paper.