Kerameikos

Today started off quite interestingly and only increased as the day progressed. We intended to visit Kerameikos, but there was a nation-wide strike protesting the government, so the site was closed. John, however, worked his magic, and we were able to visit exclusively the site of Kerameikos, which sat on the boundary of ancient Athens and housed a tremendous cemetery. In fact, this is the location where Perikles gave his famous funeral oration during the Peloponnesian War. The cemetery, as expected, was lined with many tombs, but they had some very impressive funerary reliefs, kind of like a gravestone but instead an image on stone displayed propaganda of their best deed. We strolled through the site, looking at the many tombs and the houses which were built on the one end. Then, we saw the road which led to Plato's famous philosophical school, the Academy. Afterwards, we tried to see the museum, but that was completely off limits due to the strike. Bummer! John said it was pretty impressive, so I'm going to try and make it back before we leave Athens on Friday. The group then separated and a few of us decided to go shopping in Pagrati. I found out later that the protests turned violent as the demonstrators blocked the government officials from leaving the Parliament building and teargas was even fired, with a few of my fellow students breathing in the residue. Thankfully, they are all okay. This has been a very important day for Greek politics. Apparently, their prime minister is either stepping down or re-opening his post for re-election, which means either way that he probably won't have his job when it's all said and done. Anyway, we then went to our last lecture in Athens. John prepped us for the final exam, and as we were about to leave and everyone was feeling overwhelmed, he passed out a take-home exam. John is one sly professor! I had no clue at all. So I spent the evening completing my exam, anticipating my trip to Rome!