I love Athens. This is a fact I can state. Sometimes I am a bit cruel and compare my three beloved countries: Spain, Greece and Ethiopia as in a timeline where each one reminds me to the other some years ago or ahead. I do it with nostalgia, remembering the Spain of my childhood, my village (probably the place I like most in this world) and all the happy things that happened back then. Still, this does not change the fact that I enjoy this city a lot. Good friends and colleagues, lots of things to do and now… an intensive Greek course. But let’s start from the beginning, because this month has been busy.
Do you like graffiti? I certainly do. Not only the nice ones, but also the stories that all of them tell us. A couple of weeks ago a very interesting event took place in Athens: Αρχαιολογικοί Διάλογοι (Dialogues in archaeology). As part of it, Elena Papagiannopoulou and me conducted a pilot experimet mapping tags in the streets of Athens. It was quite a fun activity, although participation was low. However, we managed to map 14 streets (around 3 Km of walls) with interesting outcomes. The idea was using this sort of contemporary archaeology as a methodology to show how archaeology works and at the same time understand better a fenomena that is hitting our streets all around the world. But, of course, this is not part of the project so let’s see it as a guilty pleasure for my spare time.
Meanwhile, I have been preparing for the first interviews and the planning of the fieldwork this autumn. It’s going to be exhausting and exciting at the same time, so really looking forward to it. For the moment, I have started a Greek course that is driving me crazy. I hope by the end of the month I can articulate some sentences with sense, and understand more, as it will be helpful for the fieldwork in Greece.
I am sorry I am keeping these updates short, but cannot really say more nor have much more time to do it. Soon, further news!
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