Ιστορία της Αθήνας

One of the nice things about this program is that we get a rental phone, with a Greek phone number. I had gotten a global phone in the US over Christmas, because at the time I didn't know I would have a phone to use. However, the rates to call from a US phone in a different country are absurd, so there was no complaint when I found out. Still, my family activated my personal cell phone for use here in Greece, just in case.

Of course, technology being what it is, I turned on my phone when I landed in Athens... no signal. To this point, I still haven't gotten it to work. Apparently, despite following all the instructions, Verizon failed at activating my SIM card, meaning I have a very expensive calculator and alarm clock. But, hey, I've still at least got a phone for calling within Greece, right?

For the first day, yes. Turned on the phone, used it, programmed in all the phone numbers, everything was fine. The battery got low, so I charged it. Turned it on the next morning, and entered the PIN for my SIM card. "SIM Card Locked. SOS Only". Now, I'd only entered the password once. It was supposed to give me three attempts before it locked the card. So, I shut it down and tried again. "SIM Card Locked. SOS Only." So, knowing what I do about mobile phones, I shut it down, took out the battery and the SIM card, blew on the contact points, put it back together, and tried a third time. "SIM Card Locked. SOS only."

By this point, I decided that phones hate me. So, I went to talk to my TA, to let him know that my phone was out of commission, and see if he knew who I should talk to. He referred me to Isabel, of the Athens Centre staff. She played with it for a bit, and came to the same conclusion: she had no idea what its issue was. The PIN number I was using was correct. All I'd done was charge the phone. There was no good reason why it was acting up. It was time to ask an expert. She send me down to Germanos, the cell phone dealership nearest to the Athens Centre, and I met a nice employee there who a) spoke decent English and b) had the resources to experiment and figure out what the problem was. It turned out that my SIM card was perfectly fine: put it in a phone, and it worked, no issue at all. When you put any SIM card into my phone, however, it came up with the same dialogue: "SIM Card Locked. SOS only." After determining this, the man in the store gave it back, saying that the phone body was a piece of junk. There was a software issue, and they couldn't fix it. I thanked him, and said I'd talk to my program about buying a new phone. I reported back to Rosemary and Isabel, and they agreed that they would have to buy a new phone body; after all, I'd already been walking around for 2 days with no means of communication. If I were to get lost on an excursion or get hurt or something, I couldn't get a hold of anyone, and they couldn't get a hold of me.

Finally, on the afternoon of Wednesday of the first week, after having two useless phones since Saturday, I got a new phone body, one of the same style but much nicer than my initial one. I've got it all charged up and re-entered the phone numbers of my professors, TA, and classmates. Now I just need to add some more money to my SIM card, and the technical difficulties will be over. For now.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus. The Agora. The Areopagus. The Hill of the Muses. These were some of the highlights of Ancient Athens, and the places that we explored today on our walking tour. It was a very interesting walk, and I will share some of the stories I learned, about the history and mythology associated with the area, in one of my short posts. The areas we went to weren't really new, though; I'd passed them all before, on the walking tour last Saturday. So, not as many photographs to take. But here's one, to keep this update from being too boring:

Hadrian's Gate, outside the Temple of Olympian Zeus. There's a funny story about this...

I'm also into my second day of classes, which is nice. I've missed having a schedule, even if just for one week. Greek class, in particular, is going to be a lot of fun. We've only covered the alphabet so far, but I think that's a major first step in understanding this language. For instance, when I set up this blog a few months ago, I transliterated "Ιστορία" as "Iotopia", as you can see in my URL. Unfortunately, though, that's totally wrong. I should have written it, in English, as "Istoria". If you can't tell what it means from that pronounciation, Ιστορία is the Greek word for History. Thus, Ιστορία της Αθήνας is Istoria tis Athinas, or History of Athens. Things you learn when you actually study the language. I've also learned a lot of the greetings: καλή νύχτα, or "kalinichta", is goodnight, and Γειά σου is the singular informal "Hello" or "Health to you". It's very helpful, being able to say and write and understand these words, rather than just using Google Translate all the time. I doubt I'll become fluent in Greek by the time I leave, but I hope to be able to maintain at least a simple conversation at the end of these ten weeks. We'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow is a free morning, so I'll have some time to write up the short posts I've been meaning to get to, which will hopefully serve as a better insight into some of the details of my experiences here. Some will be my own stories; others will be things from class. All are things I've found interesting or funny during my week here so far. I'm sure there will be more as the time goes on.

 καλή νύχτα!