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I can't believe that after this weekend, I only have 2 weeks left in Greece!  Time has gone by so quickly.  I have to say that I am going to be glad to be done with classes and go to Poland.
On Wednesday, we took a trip to Corinth, which was an important city during ancient times.  We got shown around by the archeologist who excavated the site, which was great because our current professor does not know too much about ancient Greece (he's an English professor).  We climbed to the top of Acrocorinth.  The view was amazing!

Yesterday, we had a free morning and wanted to play volleyball, but as there was another general strike yesterday, the courts at the National Gardens were closed.  We played at a park nearby for a while but got kicked out by the mothers there.  Then we tried to play at the Stadium, but again we got kicked out.  Not a very successful morning for volleyball...
This morning, we had a walking tour of modern Athens.  We saw the Zappeion, Parliament, the National Library, the Academy, the National Museum, and the cathedral.  Most of us are very familiar with these sites since we pass them a lot when we walk around Athens.  Our professor didn't know very much about the sites, so it was a tiring morning.  Tonight there's a talk about the economic crisis in Greece that I think will be very interesting.  I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

J'aime beaucoup Paris!!
Yesterday morning, we had our petit dejeuner of croissant with butter and jam, orange juice, cereal, and coffee at the hostel and went for a free walking tour of Paris.  It was 3 1/2 hours long, but we saw a lot of the important sites in Paris. 

We saw the Notre Dame cathedral, the Palais de Justice, the Pont Neuf, the Pont des Arts (where couples place locks on the bridge then throw the key into the water to symbolize their eternal love- so cute!), l'Academie, the Louvre, the Palais Royal, the Jardin de Tulieres, and the Obelisque.  Our tour guide as very good.  After the tour ended, I walked down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe (the traffic around it is CRAZY) and then to the Eiffel Tower.  After that, I walked to the Ecole Militaire and then to Les Invalides, where Napoleon's tomb is and where there is still a hospital.
I walked across the Pont de Alexandre on my way to the Grand Palais and Petit Palais and then wandered around some touristy shops where I bought a beret (!) among other things.  I also saw the Madeleine, the Opera, and In the evening, I went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the inverted pyramid on the way out.  That museum is huge, and I didn't have very much time there, but I saw the most famous pieces.  Sarah and I grabbed a sandwich for dinner before we saw Date Night (translated Crazy Night in French) at a theatre on the Camps Elysees.  There was a special at the theatre so we only paid 3.50 euro for the movie.  It was in English with French subtitles and very funny!  I enjoyed it a lot!!  After the movie ended, we walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night.  It glitters at certain times, which was very cool!  We took the metro back to our hostel, and I got a crepe on the way.

This morning, we went by the Panthon and went back to the Notre Dame and went inside.  The stained glass windows are amazing, as are the statues on the outside of the building by the doors.  The Fait du Pain (Party of Bread) was going on outside the cathedral, so we got to see how baguettes are made.  They roll the dough with their hands then put it in a cloth which they bunch up between the loaves.  It's very simple.  After leaving the cathedral, we walked around and explored the area, stopping in Shakespeare and Company, and English bookstore where famous authors like Ernest Hemingway spent their time while they were living in Paris.  We had crepes and espresso for lunch, and we are going to go to the markets along the street where our hostel is and buy baguettes, meat, cheese, vegetables, and wine for dinner.  Our flight to London is at 10pm tonight. I am sad to leave Paris- I like it a lot here.  I'll have to come back and visit again!
Au revoir!

On Saturday morning, we flew from Athens to Paris using Easyjet.  This is my first experience flying with Easyjet, and I have to say that I don't have the best opinion of them after this one flight.  The flight was delayed 40 minutes when we got to the airport, and boarding was SO SLOW that the flight took off an hour later than scheduled.  I sat next to a very annoying group of people.  Thank goodness the flight was only about 3 1/2 hours.  The flight attendants are very non-chalant and somewhat professional.
I'm traveling with my friend Sarah, whio is studying in Athens in the same program as me, this entire week, but we flew with another friend that was going to spend the week in Paris.  Her boyfriend met us at the airport and gave us an intro to the metro and RER system.

Our hostel for Saturday night was in Montmarte, on a very busy street.  For my first hostel experience, it wasn't too bad.  The area was a bit iffy, but we had an early train to catch so we weren't out late.  That afternoon, we went to see the Sacre Coeur church, but we got lost on the way.  A very nice, older Parisian man saw that we were lost and led us to the base of the hill where the church is located.  French people are nice!  The Sacre Coeur has beautiful architecture and on the inside has a lot of shrines to different saints aroudn the peri,eter of the church.  We happened to be walking around inside when a service began, and the acoustics of the church made the nuns voices sound so pure.  It was beautiful.  When we left, it started to rain, and I hadn't brought my umbrella, so Sarah bought one, and we continued our exploration of Paris.  We walked to the Place de le Republique, saw the Marie du 10eme, then stopped by a supermarket to buy sandwiches for dinner.  I noticed that in Greece, everyone sits outside at the cafes drinking coffee, but here people sit at the cafes and bratisseries drinking beer or wine.

Sunday morning we took the train to Marseille.  Our hostel was much nicer there, and I met Christen and her friends there.  They were coming from Nice.  Marseille is the second largest city in France and was originally a Greek colony, but you can't tell.  There we saw the Vieux Port, which is just the main port, the Notre Dame du Gard, which is a church dedicated to the fishermen of the area, so it has a nautical theme, the Ville Charite, which was an orphanage and is now a museum, and the Nuveau Catedral, which was stunning.  I had a crepe with Nutella for dinner. :) I probably won't have another one while I'm here- it was way too sweet.
Monday morning, we took a ferry to see the Chateau d'If, which used to house a prison and was made famous by being the prison in Count of Monte Cristo. 

After that we walked along the shore- the weather was beautiful, warm and sunny.  Next we went to the Palace de Longchamps, which is a fountain/park/museum.  This was my favorite part of the trip to Marseille.  I'll post pictures later, since I don't have my laptop with me to get the pictures off my camera.  For dinner, I wanted to get the boulebaise, the fish soup that Marseille is known for, but the restaurant we went to was out of mussels so I had just the fish broth instead.  Close enough.  It was very salty, but I'm glad I tried it.  Earlier that day, we had also bought navettes, which are cookies that are only made in Marseille.  I think they are flavored with lavendar.  I like them, and even bought a chocolate version the next day.  In the evening, we went to a pub and got some French beer, 1664.

This morning, we visited some more palaces: Palais de le Bourse and Palais d'les Artes.  They were not as impressive as Longchamps, but still nice.  Then we saw the Fontaine Castellene and bought some shoes. :)
We caught our train back to Paris, found our hostel, which is in the Latin Quarter, and now we will do some more exploring.  It is very cold, about 50°, and raining.  Hopefully it'll warm up some tomorrow!

There is a general strike in Athens today with protests in Syndagma Square.  I live about a 15 minute walk from Syndagma but sitting here at the Athens Centre, there is no indication in this neighborhood that anything out of the ordinary is going on.  It's too dangerous to go to Syndagma to see what's going on, so I'm getting all my info from online news sources.  It's been reported that a fire bomb was thrown at a bank in Syndagma, and that three people died and four were trapped because of it.  As I was walking back from the National Archeological Museum yesterday, we came across a protest march and as we walked through Syndagma, there were riot police starting to line up and streets were being roped off.  I was glad to be walking away from the square, not towards it.  The general strike today caused us to alter our class schedule, since we were supposed to go to Eleusis today, but it is closed because of the strike.  The plan is to go tomorrow, so hopefully things die down a little by then.  
It frustrates me that we are so isolated from the current situation here.  We are so focused on our study of the ancient Greek world, that we really can't relate to the modern Greek one.  I have not met a single Greek person my age so far.  How am I supposed to get a real sense of what is going on if I don't even know any "real" Greeks? 
Here's some more info about today's events:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/05/greece.strikes/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703961104575225472577513414.html?mod=WSJEUROPE_hpp_LEFTTopStories