Greece!

Delphi. Awesome. Walked the sacred-way, saw where Socrates learned he was crazy-wise, amazing.amazing.amazing.

Rain in Delphi

Days blurring together....

Mycenae was INCREDIBLE. Saw the Lion's gate, beehive tombs, Treasury of Atreus...The sun was shining, everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

Nicole and I doing our signature piggy-back pose under the Lion's gate

Athens was spectacular. There were riots the day before we arrived and flooding the day after, but when we were there things were marvelous. Walked up the acropolis and saw the Parthenon. It took the Greeks 9 years to build the Parthenon, and it is taking modern architects 20 to reconstruct the ruins. My favorite building was definitely this temple dedicated 1/2 to Athena, 1/2 to Poseidon. You may be familiar with the myth of how Athena became Athens protector (she and Poseidon each gave the city a gift, and the better gift-giver won patronage of the city), well this building was meant to assuage some of Poseidon's anger at not being chosen. SO cool. We learned all about these buildings in Fine Arts, and we've learned all about the Greek Philosophers in Metaphysics. Educational.joy.

Flea markets in Athens, ruins, museum, joy.

The museums we went in were spectacular. Our tour guide, Nikki, was a rockstar--her enthusiasm was really contagious and I enjoyed all her tours so much.

Temple on the Acropolis. Notice the recreated karyatids (4 of which are preserved in the Athenian museum), my FAVORITE.

So much more to say...

Greece

Ferry from Acona, Italy (where some of us hiked up to a cool church-thing overlooking the bay) to Meteora, Greece. Monasteries perched precariously on these sheer cliffs as a defense from invaders. Stunning. pictures not doing justice (wack Greek keyboard, forgive any and all spelling/grammatical issues) 

Kelsey's Instagram of the Meteora Monasteries

Ignore my face

SO SCENIC

Next day: One more monastery then off to Itea for lunch...which means I may have instigated a skinny-dipping party

Itea was lovely/sun was a delightful change from Autrian snow.

You may be familiar with the dance move The Jerk. Well, Hanna and I decided to have a Jerk Off to see who could jerk the best. Puns abound. I won by a landslide, despite falling in front of a very disturbed Greek. Video later. 

I have to go, but today we explored Delphi/turns out I'm an oracle/More later

General Update...

Midterms are next week...

ugh

But I guess it's alright since afterward we have a 25 day break, 3 weeks of which will be spent in Greece and Italy...

yeah, I guess midterms are quite alright.

Michelle and I downloaded The Wild Thornberry's grabbed some Frosted Flakes/soy milk and spent a morning elementary school style:

Then Michelle fell asleep, spooning her Frosted Flakes box.

Michelle and I walked around the Altstadt, past a wall of seagulls....

Things around the center are cozy and calm, except Beyonce's halftime performance is still played daily

Alright, back to the books

Meditation

Our tour of Greece and Italy is in 2 weeks!!1!1! and you know what that means…

OVER 10 HOURS SITTING ON A BUS WITH 40 OTHER PEOPLE! Sweet.

In preparation for our tour, I am reading The Agony and The Ecstasy, keeping up with the protests throughout Greece, specifically in Athens, and downloading Ted Talks by the bushel for a semi-stimulating bus ride. Unable to deny my piqued curiosity, though, I’ve already listened to the talks with the most spectacular titles: Meryl Streep’s Columbia commencement speech, Your elusive creative genius, and How meditation can reshape our brains.

The most interesting speech was the talk on meditation and neuroplasticity. You may stop reading this blog and watch the video now, or continue reading for an amateur recount of the brilliant lecture.

Basically this neurologist/researcher, Sara Lazar, started doing yoga and meditation and loved it, except for the unfounded benefits the yogi would talk about during the session. Lazar did feel better both physically and mentally after continued yoga and meditating sessions, and wanted to investigate if this was just a placebo effect, or if the practice was actually affecting her brain.

Insert science jargon here: MRIs, control groups, animal testing (boo), and statistics.

What Lazar found was those who meditated regularly (30 minutes a day) had more grey matter in the cortex (memory, decision making) than participants who did not. 50-year-old meditators had the same amount of cortex as 25-year-old non-meditators, suggesting meditation may slow down or prevent natural age-decline in the cortex structure. More studies, more tests…meditation and yoga help with depression, stress and empathy. Meditation also reduces the brain’s amygdala (fight or flight complex), explaining why those who meditate are generally calmer. Basically meditation can literally change your brain, and that’s pretty cool.

Methinks next month I'll lead a weekly meditation class. Meditation March. 

Ping-Pong

Hanna and I have drawn out the brackets for the Salzburg Ping-Pong Doubles Tournament, and things around the center are growing tense. Assuredly, I say unto you, this game is not for the faint of heart. The first round will conclude by Wednesday, with those who lost joining the loser’s bracket. Students are practicing between classes; trash talk can be heard during dinner, things are getting real. It’s not only students feeling the heat; Father Mark and our program director René have signed up, and rumor has it they have a private table set up for covert practices. Hanna and I have already won the first pre-Pong competition with the most creative team name: BLAZING PADDLES. Matches begin this evening…there will be blood.

First match: Nicole & Cassie vs. Father Mark and René...the students were CRUSHED

Sass

Saturday Lunch

Hanna, Michelle and I met with my friend Elisa for lunch Saturday afternoon. Elisa comes from Augsburg, Germany and is here in Austria studying psychology at the University of Salzburg.

Our conversation constantly oscillated from English to German as we compared American and European stereotypes. The German word for stereotype ‘stereotyp’ is adopted from the English word. In fact, Germany has had a huge influx of 'Denglish' words every year for a decade now, resulting in some heated debate amongst language purists. Verbs like 'relaxen' and 'shoppen' are replacing there much more German equivalents 'einkaufen' and 'entspannen'. Elisa noted, though, that the English language has borrowed German's ‘Kindergarten’ and ‘Doppelgänger' (not to mention 'eisberg', 'zeitgeist', 'angst' and 'apfelstrudel'). She recalled 'doppelgänger' specifically because she had read it in an English copy of Harry Potter. We then had to discuss what houses we’d be sorted into if we were at Hogwarts, which book was our favorite (Half-Blood Prince, duh!) and who our celebrity Doppelgängers were. I can’t remember which language any of us were speaking in the end, I just felt overwhelmingly pleased that Elisa didn’t fit the cold, reserved German stereotype we had had in mind back in August, and that she didn’t see us as fitting the superficial, uneducated American mold. Mittagessen macht viel spaß, und wir haben viel gelernt. 

On a side-note, I was told I have a little Meryl Streep in my countenance. I must now preserve my face to retain any possible shadow of The Goddess.

…IT PUTS THE LOTION ON ITS SKIN

27 January

Hanna and I walked to Hellbrunn

It was a ridiculously scenic walk.

RIDICULOUSLY SCENIC
Probably should've taken more pictures of the mountains...and fortress...and tree-lined lanes...but this is what you get

You know I'm bad--I'm bad!

Oh HEJ Salzburg open library. Take a limited number for a limited time,
no questions asked. yeah.

On the road again

Hellbrunn. 

Sun dial on ze palace

I MEAN YOU CAN JUST TAKE BOOKS

Salzburg Kuh

Milkin' it...

 So there you have it! Hanna and I walked and talked for almost 2 hours on our way to a palace. Then we took a bus to Mirabell and walked home. Then homework and more Aristotle and how am I  gonna make my paper ridiculously cool? and my Philosophy professor told me University of Salzburg classes are free to sit in on so you know what I'll be doing in my "spare time" next week.

K bye

P.S. 2500 page views? yay