The National Archaeological Museum, Part 2

Or, things Caroline liked that aren't quite so famous. This is part of a wall painting from Thera (modern day Santorini). This one is of two antelopes, and is part of the Acrotiri room, where all the items from Thera are displayed. It's from the 16th century BC, and it's so well preserved because Arotiri is essentially the Pompeii of the Bronze Age- there was an enormous volcanic eruption, and the resulting fall of ash blanketed much of the Cyclades and may have been responsible for the collapse of several bronze age civilizations. It also caused modern Santorini to be the shape it is- the funny bowl shaped depression is in fact the caldera.
Acrotiri was excavated after Pompeii, and the archaeologists learned their lessons well- when they found hollow spaces in the volcanic ash, they filled them with plaster so they could get impressions. Oddly enough, there have been no bodies and very few metal items of value found at the site- there must have been warning signs, because it appears that the island was successfully evacuated. This is one of the casts, and it is not a person but a bed- you can still see where ropes would have been tied to the frame to hold up whatever they were sleeping on. This is how we know as much as we know about bronze age furniture in the Aegean.
This is not from Acrotiri, but is from another Bronze Age culture. It is a figurine from the Cyclades and it was created by the same people who made the FAFs, but there are a few key differences. This figure is male, not female, and instead of a standing figure with crossed arms, he is a seated musician, playing some sort of lute or harp. It's the same age as the FAF in the last post, give or take- from between 2800 and 2300 BC.
These mysterious objects are known as "frying pan vessels", mostly because they look like frying pans. A bit. They're also from EC II, and they are found in graves. We have no idea what they were for. Mirrors has been a suggestion. Drums. Possibly idols. Or vessels for libation. You decide. They're really cool- they are covered with incised lines, and some are quite elaborate.
And this is another wall painting from Acrotiri. I included it mostly because it's really pretty.

More to come in another post! I'm limited to five photographs per post, which is why I've had to split this mega post of doom up into three parts.

The National Archaeological Museum, Part 1

Or, the pictures that everyone who goes to the museum has to take, because the item in question is really really famous and amazing to see in person.

Warnings for pictures of statues of naked people and extreme classics geekery.
This is, of course, the mask of Agamemnon. It is one of the gold masks found in the shaft graves of Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann, and it is very famous. It also is erroneously named- it's probably not the mask of Agamemnon, who we think probably lived about 300 years after this mask was made.
This is a FAF, or folded arm figure, and I'm sure you've seen pictures of them somewhere before. This one was found at Amorgos and is from the Early Cycladic II period (abbreviated ECII), which was from about 2800-2300 BC. It's made from Parian marble, and it's unique in that it's 1.5 meters tall. This is the Artemision Bronze. It was found off of the coast of Cape Artemision, and it's a statue of either Zeus or Poseidon. Why don't we know? The statue is incomplete- he would have been throwing something, and if we knew what that was, we would know who this statue was supposed to be. If it was a thunderbolt, Zeus. A trident, Poseidon.
This very large piece of pottery is a grave amphora that was found in the Kerameikos. It is very large and very well preserved, and is a good example of late Geometric period pottery. (760-750 BC). The figures near the handles are mourning the dead man- the rest of the designs are geometric.
And this is a very famous bronze statue of a jockey on a horse. I'm sure it has a lovely history, but I neglected to take notes on it, and so I'll have to look it up before I can tell you any more.

Coming up- the really cool things that aren't quite so famous.

Today in Pangrati...

Gina and I had lunch and then decided to have an adventure. Specifically, we walked through Pangrati and found the First Cemetery of Athens, which is a really cool place and contains the tomb of Heinrich Schleimann, who was of course the man who found Troy and Mycenae, the tomb of Vassilis Tsitsanis, a rembetiko composer, and Andreas Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece.

Of course, we went off with a map of Athens, my guidebook, which said when it was open, and a vague desire to see the grave of the great Mr. Schleimann. The first thing that we realized was that the cemetery is beautiful. The next thing that we realized was that it was huge. Many, many impressive monuments. No map of where everything was. It was going to be a challenge to find the tomb before we had to get back to Greek class.
The great problem was that many of the grave monuments are beautiful and impressive. It's not like you can look around, find the big monument, and go, "oh. That must be the grave of someone famous." The cemetery is very different from the ones that I am used to in Massachusetts. It is a green place, but not in a rolling-grassy-hills sort of way. There are a lot of cypress and olive trees. The monuments are mostly made of white marble.
It's actually very hard to tell how old some of the graves are. It isn't like in Boston, where you can tell by the condition of the headstone and the decorations on it the age it must be. The problem is further compounded by the fact that many of the monuments are not individual tombs, but family plots.
There also are three churches in the cemetery- two are Greek Orthodox, one is Catholic. They are beautiful, as most churches here seem to be.
And finally we found it! Ironically, the tomb of Heinrich Schleimann is one of the buildings that you can see as you enter- it's the little building shaped like a Doric temple in the first picture. It actually has very cool friezes- they depict Schleimann excavating archaeological sites as well as the usual images of gods and heroes fighting. If ever you find yourself in Athens, I would suggest a trip to the cemetery- it was very quiet, free from most of the tourists you see everywhere else, and since it is free, it is definitely good value.

And yes, we did get back in time for Greek class.

George is Probably Jealous...

These are pictures of three of the cats in my apartment. (There are five in total- one other one is all black and one is grey and stripey, but they always manage to appear when I don't have my camera or when it is too dark to take a picture.)
This cat reminds me of my cat Al, in that he likes to sit in random places. Also in that he looks a bit like Al. If he looks familiar, it's because he is- he's box cat from several days ago. (It does not feel like that picture was taken several days ago. It feels like it was at least a month.) He likes to sit on cars and in boxes, but I also have seen him trying to fit himself into other enclosed spaces, like the corner formed by the wall, the edge of the stairs, and the stair railing outside.
This cat is often in this tree, which is a good thing, because this is bitey cat, who does that thing cats do where they act like they want to be petted and then grab your hand and bite it. Not seriously, thank goodness. Bitey also likes to lurk next to the doorway and attack your ankles as you rummage through your purse for your keys. One has to be quite careful. And get the keys out before reaching Bitey's lair.
And this is the baby of the bunch, who is either three or four months old, depending on who you talk to. She is very shy and usually doesn't have demonic glowing eyes. She looks a wee bit like Cleo, who is about the same size and coloring, though this cat eats a lot more than Cleo does and will most likely still get bigger.

As you can probably tell, these cats either don't have names or I just don't know them. I'm not sure which it is. In general, people here treat animals a lot differently than we treat them in the U.S.- they're not unkind to them (I mean, you go by dishes of food and water that people put out for them all the time) but they also don't talk to them and treat them like they are people. These ones live quite the posh life- they get fed by everyone who lives at #9, they get petted all the time, and they pretty much enter and leave the apartment building at will. The black one snuck inside the other day and yowled until someone came down and let him out.

Athenian Staircases

are nearly as terrifying as Athenian drivers. Wet marble is really slippery. Uneven wet marble spiral staircases are life threatening.


Things are going well- I officially added a fifth class to my schedule today, and I'm now taking Latin again. I'm glad- I was really nervous about taking a semester off, and we're reading Pliny the Younger's Epistulae, which are cool. I like Pliny. I also like my other classes. We are reading the most disgusting description of the plague in Thucydides book 2. It's nifty. I now know the word for bile. And fever. And hiccups.

Turtle Pile! And More Random Thoughts On Athens

Actually, this post has nothing to do with turtles, I really just liked this picture from the National Gardens yesterday and couldn't think of another way to use it. Though I actually have seen a rather large number of turtles and tortoises around since I got to Athens- we saw these ones yesterday, and there are some in the church (or possibly monastery, we can't really tell) across the street from my apartment. And there was a tortoise wandering around in another part of the National Gardens yesterday.

I think I've been here long enough that I have started to notice some things that I really miss about home- friends and family, obviously, but also little things, like chai tea and microwaves. Fast internet connections. Being able to read posted signs. I also have realized that actually getting myself to work is a bit of a struggle here, in a way that it usually isn't at school- I don't like shutting myself up in my room and reading Thucydides when I could be wandering around Athens!

On the other hand, my classes continue to get more and more amazing. I had my second Democracy of Athens class today, and we talked about tyrannies in the archaic period and hoplite warfare. It was so cool! We talked about what we know and how we know it and since it's an upper level course we didn't have to do the introductory stuff about when the Bronze Age was or what Linear B is or who Herodotus is and why we can't always trust him. And it was cool, because before class started and the professor came in we were talking about the Great Rhetra, and I said something about the two accounts that Herodotus gives for its origin, and everyone knew the relevant passage and then we talked about whether or not Lycurgus was actually a real historical figure. It was so cool.

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well. I certainly am.

America May Run On Dunkin' Donuts, But Greece Runs on Frappe

Which is not to be confused with a frappe of New England origin, which is what the rest of the country calls a milkshake. A Greek frappe is a coffee drink made, I believe, with instant coffee, probably NesCafe, which does appear to be the official coffee of Greece, cold water, and milk and sugar, if you so order it. It's special. You order one and it comes with a glass of water and a table which you get for an infinite amount of time- nobody rushes you to leave, and everyone here drinks their coffee extremely slowly.

I went to the National Gardens this morning and had a frappe there with a group of people from my apartment. Reactions were mixed- some people were enchanted, some people not so much. I was in the not so much camp. I'm also still jittery now, multiple hours later.

For those of you interested in the technical aspects of the frappe, I am directing you to the wikipedia article on the subject, which I just attempted to read and found to be extremely technical. I'm going to go back to my extremely technical article that I should be reading about the concept of citizenship in ancient Athens.

Plaka, Byron, Tourists

This is the promised picture of the temple of Olympian Zeus, which I walked past on the way to Plaka yesterday. This is only part of it- there are a few more columns which are a bit farther away, and a fallen column that collapsed during a storm in the 1800s. The temple is particularly noted for its Corinthian columns- the really ornate bits at the top are a prime example of that sort of column. Ionic and Doric columns are generally much simpler. This is the sort of thing that I am going to learn to talk about in an intelligent and informed manner in my Archaeology of Athens. (I'm so excited! Our first field trip to the Acropolis is on Thursday!)
The Greeks have a mysterious obsession with Byron. You notice it particularly on the walk over to Plaka- you go past a statue of him, and the "Byron Hotel," and this street, Vyronos. (Athenian streets are often named after writers, usually Greeks. In Kolonaki, there is a Loukianou, an Irodotou, and an Isiodou. Street names are also always in the genitive- it's the street of someone. "Odos Vyronos" is "the street of Byron".) (In modern Greek, beta is pronounced as a v- one of the many differences in pronunciation between modern and ancient Greek. My modern Greek class, which is composed entirely of classics majors who know ancient Greek, is hysterical- we spend most of the time correcting our pronunciantions. There's a lot of "ay-m-eye e-toy-may- I mean, no! not that! ee-may e-tee-mee- is that how you say it? Really?" whenever we have to read out loud.) (Actually, the obsession isn't really that mysterious- Byron was one of the many philhellenes who supported the Greeks during the War of Independence, and he was instrumental in organizing supplies and funding. His death in Greece also attracted a lot of European attention, as did his poetry.)
Plaka is the land of tourists. It's the area right below the Acropolis, and most of the streets, which are charmingly narrow and winding, are filled with souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants. It's a lot of fun to go to, though- I have no idea why you would want to buy half the things they're selling, but it's cool to look. If you leave the main streets and wander a bit, you see a lot of roads like this- very quiet and narrow, and full of stairs. You couldn't have a car here.

It's actually very funny. I've only been here for seven days, and already the tourists stop me for directions all the time. It's particularly funny when they stop me and ask me in very badly pronounced Greek if I speak English, since I am American and make no effort to hide this fact when dressing of a day. I think they stop me because I look like I know where I'm going and don't carry a map around- in their minds, this clearly means that I am an expert in Athenian geography and therefore Athenian. What it really means is that I have realized that maps are useless in this context and find my way around by guestimating how close I am to the various landmarks. Which is effective, but not useful for giving directions.
And this is one of the very nice churches that I saw while wandering around. According to the plaque, it's a chapel of St. Catherine, and was built in the 11th century. My guess is that the 11th century is probably the date when the foundations were made- the rest of the building is in very good condition and looks considerably newer.

Into the Wild Blue Yonder...

Today, Maddie and I decided to climb Lycavitos. Since the weather report was predicting temperatures in the mid-90s, we decided to head off early in the morning. Here is Maddie in from of some lovely trees that we thought looked like something out of Doctor Seuss. Actually, the vegetation was pretty strange all the way up- a lot of these trees, a lot of the spiky plants in the foreground of the picture, and a lot of cacti. (More on that later.)
This is the chapel at the top of the hill. It's to St. George, and from the inside it was absolutely beatiful- the walls and the ceilings are all painted with images, mostly from the life of Christ, and there are lots of icons. Really, it looked like something out of a book about Greek Orthodox churches. I used my rudimentary modern Greek with the man who takes care of it- said good morning, that the church was beautiful, and that yes, I was American, no, I was not a tourist. I would have taken pictures of the inside, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to, and it was dark and I'm not sure they would have come out.
The nice thing about Lycavitos is the beautiful view from the top! This picture has the acropolis, and behind it you can see out to Piraeus. Basically, you can see the entire city- Lycavitos gives you a 360 degree view, and with my map and my guidebook, we could pick out all the major landmarks. Did you know that Athens, like Rome, has 7 hills? Lycavitos is, of course, the biggest- you can see how high above the Acropolis we were here.
Here are the stairs that we climbed- pretty much the only unfortunate part about the experience was the stairs, which are uneven and so hard to walk up comfortably. You really have to watch your step.
And, of course, you have to watch out for the cacti. I read this in my guidebook, and was a bit confused, since I wasn't aware that there were a lot of cacti growing in Athens. Shortly into the trip, we realized that the guide was right to warn us. There are a lot of them, and they are very sharp. They also encroach on the path- and on the benches, in this case. Watch out. So, other than the cacti and the stairs, it was a really nice trip, and I would advise anyone coming to Athens to do it.

I hope everyone is well. I'm off to do some more exploring- I think we're going up the Acropolis this afternoon. I'm excited.

In Which Caroline Finally Goes Near the Acropolis!

After my first full day of classes (which were fabulous, by the way) a bunch of girls from my Ancient Greek class headed out to Varnava Square in Pangrati to get gyros. They were tasty- we all got chicken (or kotopoulo, if you want the Greek word) and the place that we went to also made very good tzatziki. A question, for people who have had Greek gyros before- do they always have French fries in them? We were curious.
Afterwards, we headed back to the academic center, where three of us met up to walk over to the Herodion, where we had tickets to a flamenco show. The walk to the Herodion is very nice, and you get to walk by several monuments of interest- this is Hadrian's arch. Also on the way was the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which I actually did not get a picture of. Don't worry, I'll get one at some point. We walked past some partially excavated Roman baths on the way back as well. This is a picture of Athens taken from the outside of the Herodion Theater (or the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, if you prefer), which is located at the southern side of the Acropolis. It was actually not this dark when I took the picture- I think it was around 8 pm, and at that time of night it's still pretty light out) and the view of Athens was very nice.
Here is a picture of the theatre from the inside- as you can see, it's an open air theater. The front is, I believe, original- it was built some time in the second century A.D., though at moment I can't be bothered to look up an exact date. 160-ish, I think. The seats inside are not original- they were restored somewhat recently. The show was very good, but I think the really cool part was the atmosphere. I mean, where else can you sit in an outdoor theater watching a show and be within sight of the Parthenon?
(Which is, by the way, the blurry triangular thing that is above the lights in this picture. I'm sorry, it was dark.)

This is the closest that I've gotten to the Acropolis since I have gotten here, and it was the first time that I got to see ancient things up close. It's funny- since I'm here for four months, I'm not in such a rush to see all of the archaeological sites and museums as I would be if I was only here for a week or so. Before I left, I would have told you that I was going to see the Acropolis the first day. Not so much.

Athens, Day Four

The good news is that so far, I'm having a really great time. I've met a ton of really nice people, I've wandered around a lot of Athens, and I had my first class this morning, which was both terrifying and really, really interesting. It's nice to finally be some place where I am not only among fellow classics/history/archaeology majors all the time, but where I am actually in the majority. (Biology majors, I now know what it must be like for you all the time. It's neat, you should appreciate it.)

It is really different here. Here are some of the things I have noticed so far.

1. Lots of animals running around. We have five cats that live around my apartment. They don't seem to belong to anyone, but they live in the garden and everyone who lives there feeds them and pets them on the way out the door. In my case, it's actually been really cool- a lot of the people in my building congregate outside in the early evening to feed the cats, and I've met a bunch of my neighbors that way. In the rest of the city, you see a lot of half-tame dogs and cats. This buddy I met while I was walking in Pangrati, and I'm pretty sure he was very used to people, since he definitely wanted a belly rub. It is pretty strange to see them, and a bit scary- a dog darted into a busy street, and I thought he was a goner. (He wasn't. The cars all swerved.) Thankfully, Athens does not have a rabies problem, and they do seem mostly pretty well fed and cared for.

2. The traffic. People say that Boston drivers are scary and that Boston pedestrians are really pushy. You do not know what scary or pushy is until you have seen Athenians. Seriously. They drive really fast, they pay no attention to traffic lights, they turn in places that are probably illegal, they park on sidewalks. My walk to school should probably be a twenty minute walk or so, but it has been taking me half an hour, since I don't have a death wish and actually wait for walk lights. Especially scary- the millions of people on motorbikes. We are forbidden to ride, rent, drive, or think particularly hard about the motorbikes, on pain of expulsion from CYA. This is probably a good thing.
3. The mixture of really old and really new. From what I've seen so far, buildings in Athens are one of four ages. They're really old- you know, from Antiquity- churches from the Byzantine period, museums and government buildings from the late 19th or early 20th century, or modern. There is very little to indicate that Athens was populated for centuries between the fall of the Byzantine Empire and the late 1800s. It's very different from Massachusetts, where nothing is very old but there are buildings from the last four hundred years, or other European cities, where there are a lot of buildings from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. As the president of the program pointed out, in Greece, there was no Renaissance. That was during the period of Ottoman occupation.

4. Social Unrest and a Visible Armed Police Force: There are a ton of demonstrations here. When we went a few streets to far one time and ended up near the Parliament building, we almost ended up as part of one. They protest many things all the time, from pension problems and low pay to the war in Iraq. Most protests start over by Parliament and end up in front of the American Embassy, regardless of what the protest is actually about. Going along with this is the armed police force. There are a lot more police officers here than in the US- walking to school today I think I counted about 20, if your discount all the people in ceremonial uniform- and unlike in the US, they are clearly armed. Some of them have smallish guns in holsters, but there are just as many who are standing around, holding larger gun items. It's a bit unnerving, though I know I am doing nothing wrong.

5. The fact that this is a very religious country. You see a lot of beautiful Orthodox Churches here- at some point, there will probably be a post consisting entirely of pictures of Orthodox churches. I pass by at least three on the way back to my apartment- one of my friends, who lives a five minute walk away, walks past another two. Greek people cross themselves when they walk by churches, which I find interesting. There also are more nuns and monks around than you would see in the US. (This picture, by the way, is of Lykavittos, the hill behind my apartment. Contrary to popular belief, Lykavittos, not Athens, is the highest point in the city, and apparently affords a beautiful view. If it isn't too hot this weekend, some friends and I are going to climb it.)

I'm so glad that I'm here, and I'm pretty sure that this trip is definitely going to go under the category of "life-changing experiences." I hope that everyone is doing well.

I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore...

This is what happens when you type in gmail.com on the computers in the lab.

Yeah. Clearly, we are no longer in the United States.

Apparently, Some Things Are Universal

And one of these things is that cats like to sit in boxes. We have a bunch of cats that live in the garden at my apartment building- they're not really pets, but people feed them and on the whole they're pretty tame. I met one of the girls who feeds them last night. We had a pretty entertaining conversation- she didn't speak great English, and my Greek is even worse- but we both bonded over how cute one of the kittens is. I hope everyone is well.

In Which Caroline is in Athens, Finally

I trust that everyone recongizes this picture- it is, in fact, a picture of the Acropolis. This is lovely. You have probably seen it about a million times. You have probably seen better pictures of it a million times. What is the exciting bit is that I took this picture ten minutes ago, from the balcony of DIKEMES. That's right, everyone. I'm finally here.
This is the view from my apartment, which is in the area of Athens known as Kolonaki. (I'll try to produce a map at some point.) It is a very cute apartment. I am sharing it with one other girl, but we each get our own rooms. My room has a balcony. We also have a charming and quaint (read: small and filled with bizarre machinery) kitchen, an equally tiny bathroom, and a hallway. My door has multiple locks and something which looks vaguely like an ornate ash tray on it. I only got in after half an hour of wiggling various metal items around.
This is the same view, only with the camera angled downwards instead of up. Note the tree item. I am going to assume it is some exotic species native to the region, although in fact I have no clue what it is. I'm still quite charmed. (But then, I was charmed by the Greek graffiti this morning. It was vandalism. In Greek.)And this is the marble stadium, which is, as its name would suggest, a large marble stadium. (It was the site of the 1896 Athens Olympics. It's pretty.) It also is right next door to the academic building, and I have never been so happy to see a marble stadium in my life as when I finally got here after wandering alone and vaguely lost in Athens trying to get here to check in. It was an adventure. I used the approximately 7 phrases of Greek that I know, and my rusty French, and my map reading skills, which are usually good but decrease greatly when I haven't slept for 30+ hours. Essentially, I am having a fabulous time.

Good luck to all my friends and family who have class tomorrow. I hope everyone is well!

The Wait is Over!

I'm leaving to go to Greece tomorrow morning. I'll reach Greece on Monday morning, Greek time, which will also probably be Monday morning, your time, if you are somewhere in the U.S. Just... significantly earlier on Monday morning.

There probably won't be any updates for a few days- I'll be getting settled in before I log on to the internet and post. Hopefully there will be photos and such.

The Ordeal of Waugh Watch

It's back! When I checked the fiction shelf at approximately 4:30 this afternoon, there were copies of Scoop, Vile Bodies, Put Out More Flags, Unconditional Surrender, and three copies of Brideshead Revisited. I guess the patrons, probably acting according to the hive mind, decided to go Waugh-crazy again. Note the three copies of Brideshead Revisited. Three. This is what leads me to believe that it was multiple patrons, not just one.

And, since this subject doesn't appear to be as obvious as I had always thought it was...

A Library Page's Guide to What Does Not Constitute Proper ID

1. Your cell phone
2. Your iPod
3. Your mp3 player
4. Any electronics of any sort
5. Expired library cards that no longer are connected to an actual record in the system
6. Library cards from out of state that don't have your name on them
7. Your name written on a piece of paper
8. Your name written on your hand
9. Your name written on someone else's hand
10. Monogrammed pens and pencils
11. Your library card number written on a piece of paper
12. Your promise that you are who you say you are
13. Your friend's promise that you are who you say you are
14. Your promise that you are who your friend says you are
15. Your friend's promise that you are who your friend says you are
16. Pieces of mail addressed not to you but to "current resident"

Got it?

Feel free to print this out and carry it with you at all times, if necessary.

Packing 1, 2, 3...

So, I've realized that I'm really bad at packing. Not in a "I can't fold things neatly so they take up a minimum amount of space" way, and not in a "I bring wildly useless things but forget socks and toothpaste" way, but in a panicky, guilt stricken, worried way. For example, the morning went something like this.

Panicked Bit of Caroline's Mind: Should I bring these pants?

Rational Bit of Caroline's Mind: Yes.

PBoCM: But they take up space! I'm worried about how much I'm bringing.

RBoCM: Caroline, they're your favorite pants.

PBoCM: True. They are. But are they versatile? Comfortable? Useful?

RBoCM: Yes, yes, and yes? Caroline, you like those pants a lot.

PBoCM: Ok, then. (Pause.) But should I really bring them?

RBoCM: Ok, let's take a break and fiddle around with our Greek travel guide for a bit. Look, pretty islands.

PBoCM: I'm so looking forward to fall break.

George does not help matters. George does not like packing, suitcases, or people not paying attention to him. He lurks around a lot and occasionally bites people (me).

On the bright side, I'm leaving a week from tomorrow!

There Is a Patron Named Amenhoteph Smith. Discuss.

A Question of Geography
Patron: I lost a book and I want to pay for it.
Caroline: Ok.
Patron: The book was from Andover.
Caroline: I'm sorry. I can't take care of that here. Andover isn't in our network.
Patron: Well, I'm sure as hell not driving to Andover to give them money there.
Caroline: Alright. Let me look at your record- I'll see what I can do.
Patron: Here it is.
Caroline: Err. Your book is actually from the Farms branch- we can take care of that.
Patron: You just said you couldn't.
Caroline: That was when I thought the book was from Andover.
Patron: It is from Andover. The Farms branch is in Andover.
Caroline: Actually, it's in Beverly. On Vine Street. In the Farms.
Patron: No, it isn't.
Caroline: No, you see, it's our branch. You know, us, the Beverly Public Library. We don't have a branch in Andover.
Patron: Clearly, you haven't worked here very long.

I (Don't) Love Lucy
Patron: Can I look at those DVDs behind you?
Caroline: The ones in the return bin?
Patron: Yes, those.
Caroline: Sure. Though they're all I Love Lucy, I think.
Patron: Can I see them anyway?
Caroline: Ok.
Patron: Aww. These are all I Love Lucy.

A Phone Conversation
Patron: Hi. I'm the patron who left their license at the library this morning.
Caroline: Right.
Patron: I need my license number.
Caroline: I'm sorry?
Patron: For reasons. Important reasons.
Caroline: What reasons?
Patron: I can't tell you that.
Caroline: I'm sorry, but I can't give out personal information over the phone. It's library policy.
Patron: Are you kidding me?
Caroline: No.
Patron: But I can't come in and pick it up.
Caroline: Why not?
Patron: (hangs up.)
Caroline: Well, then.

Clearly, This Person Doesn't Understand Multiplication
Patron: I want to reserve four passes to the Museum of Science.
Caroline: I'm sorry, we only have one pass. It admits four people, though.
Patron: But I want four passes that admit one person!
Caroline: I'm sorry, but that's just not possible.
Patron: That's it. I'm calling the Farms branch.

Architecture
Patron: I think you have such a beautiful library.
Caroline: Thanks! I like it too.
Patron: I haven't been in here for a couple years.
Caroline: Well, not much has really changed. We moved the Large Print section and added a CD section.
Patron: You added some stairs.
Caroline: Come again?
Patron: Those stairs over there. The marble ones. They're new.
Caroline: I think they're original, actually. That whole side of the building is.
Patron: You mean like that door? I thought that was a nice door you added there.
Caroline: Oh, no. Not this again.
Patron: What was that?
Caroline: Nothing.
Patron: So, when did you add the stairs?
Caroline: Err. 1913-ish?

Knitting, With Pictures

I've just finished (whereby finished I mean "cast off and am now blocking") the " Lace Ribbon Scarf" over at knitty. This here is a photograph. It was my first foray into lace in recent memory, and I think that, other than some unfortunate mishaps, it came out rather well. (For example, some of you extremely observant people will probably notice that I did six eyelets on each side instead of five. Oops.) I also knit it with thicker yarn and on bigger needles than were called for, but all in all I think it turned out quite well. Also, to my surprise, I enjoyed it quite a lot. My memories of lace knitting mostly were unpleasant and involved a lot of staring at charts, muttering unpleasantly. This was a really easy repeat to memorize, so it ended up being pretty mindless. Now, I'm just waiting for it to dry...

Adventures with Wildlife

The good news: no-one was actually hurt.

The bad news: there's a skunk outside, the entire house reeks of skunk and mango-papaya air freshener, and George is still covered with tomato juice.

Fun times. Fun times.

On Speaking Like People in Literature

So, my sister and I recently went to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, which is something that I would not suggest you do, since the movie was rather horrible, and left me with a variety of pressing questions, such as, was I actually supposed to dislike everyone involved by the end of the film? Also, was Tibby's boyfriend supposed to be a total creeper?

However, these questions are really neither here nor there. They also might not be entirely fair, since I have not read any of the books or seen the first movie.

What I really am interested in is a quote by Carmen, when she says that she wishes that we still talked like the people in Shakespeare plays. I have been thinking about this, and the conclusion that I have come up with is that this would be horrid. What really would be fabulous, in my humble opinion, would be if we all spoke like characters out of P.G. Wodehouse's novels. Wouldn't it be great? Our conversations would be composed of inane observations and half-forgotten poems and misinterpreted Biblical allusions. We'd say "bally" and "tinkerty-tonk" and "with knobs on". We would give each other ridiculous nicknames, and refer to people as "the efficient so-and-so" or "Comrade so-and-so" or "la Last-Name-of-So-and-So". We would always be quoting Jeeves. Or quoting quotes formerly quoted by Jeeves. Essentially, the world would be a lovely happy place and everyone would think that we were mentally negligible. But with hearts of gold.

Ok, so my secret plan is to subtly get people to start talking like Bertie Wooster. I will do it sneakily, to the point when everyone is quoting Wodehouse all the time without actually knowing. Plan number two is to get everyone to read the books, already. You may take your pick.

I Have a Visa!

As of this morning, I officially have my Greek visa. It has been glued into my passport, which is in my purse, which is on my desk chair in my room. I have triumphed over the forces of bureaucracy. I return triumphant, like a knight questing in times of old, from the dread land of 86 Beacon Street. Catching the 10:20 out of North Station provided no difficulty. My months of toil have now brought forth fruit from the fallow fields. Etc.

Waugh Watch, Revisited

Caroline, intrepid library page, is pleased to report that the crisis has been averted. After an adventure filled three weeks, the Evelyn Waugh craze appears to be over. Yay! Only one copy of Brideshead Revisited appeared today, and a quick shelf check in the stacks shows that the shelf housing Mr. Waugh's collection is once more reasonably full. It has been an interesting three weeks or so. Chief among the interesting facts that have been learned in the midst of the mayhem is that Evelyn Waugh's first wife was also, apparently, named Evelyn. Their friends called them "He-Evelyn" and "She-Evelyn." I don't know whether this is cute or scary. I guess the moral of the story is "Don't name your male child Evelyn if you can help it."

In other exciting library news, a very exciting landmark in my countdown to Greece has been reached- today is the first day when three-week books are due back after I have left. That's right! If you checked a book out of the library today, and your library has a three week loan period, it is due back on September 2nd. The time truly grows short, my friends.

You Know You've Read Too Much P.G. Wodehouse When...

Today at the library, I saw a copy of the book Spindrift, by Phyllis A. Whitney. And my first thought was, "Wow. That's really cool. Somebody wrote the book that Florence Craye wrote in P.G. Wodehouse! It's too bad that the cover doesn't have a woman with a green face smelling a purple flower." Sadly, this was not the case.


Though if I was going to write one of the fictional books in P.G. Wodehouse, I think that I would rather write the Gridley Quayle detective stories. Or possibly the collected works of Rosie M. Banks.

This Week on Waugh Watch...

A patron is mysteriously excited to read a classic novel. Caroline helps them to track down a book. Conveniently, three copies have just been sent down from Tech Services, and are sitting on the new fiction shelf at the circulation desk.



A mystery is discovered (rediscovered? thought about again?) when Caroline, intrepid library page, goes to shelve the fiction section, authors' last names K-W.



And Caroline, our heroine, tries in vain to piece together what is going on.


In all seriousness, though, what is up with the sudden popularity of Evelyn Waugh? Honestly, we can't keep the man's books on the shelves, which is pretty unusual for an author who wrote years ago and hasn't been shown on Oprah and doesn't write thrillers or romances or mystery novels. Also suddenly popular are Kurt Vonnegut and Dorothy L. Sayers. Go figure.

One Step Closer to a Greek Visa!

Today I spent an exciting morning at the Greek Consulate General in Boston, and I am happy to report that I am a week away from having my visa! This was very exciting. Even more exciting was the bit where I realized that if I didn't want to miss the 10:20 and have to wait around for the 11:15 train, I was going to need to get to North Station at a bit of a run. Let me tell you, those brick sidewalks on Beacon Hill are absolutely treacherous when they're wet. Which they were, since it was raining. Mother informs me that this is good practice for the marble sidewalks in Athens.

26 days,my friends!

The Countdown Continues

In exactly one month, I will be in Athens. Yay! To celebrate, here is a picture of Mount Lykavittos, which is the big hill in Athens which is not the Acropolis. I am very excited.

In other exciting news, I have solved something of a personal mystery. You know how I listened to one of P.G. Wodehouse's books on tape in 8th grade, and could never remember the title, and could only remember that the plot involved meddlesome aunts, unwanted fiances, and disapproving elders, stealing things, and Jeeves' schemes, which, let's face it, describes 95% of the Jeeves books? And how I was pretty sure it wasn't Code of the Woosters, which seemed like the closest match everyone could come up with?

Ha ha, I have found it out! And I was right, it wasn't Code of the Woosters. It was, in fact, Aunts Aren't Gentlemen, which I think most people can agree is a funny place to start reading Wodehouse. But, err, mystery solved?