At least I won't have to deal with burglars.

The locks in the apartments are good. Very good. So good that I've been helping my next door neighbor try to open his door for about thirty minutes. There are now a total of four of us working on this problem.

Shortest night of my life

I wanted to double check this after I'd slept, so I slept, and now I've double checked it. The night before I arrived in Greece was literally the shortest of my life. Sunset occured shortly after we left Boston (since we were delayed for oh-so-long on the runway) and sunrise occured just over Scotland. With the change in time zones, that shaved off about five hours of my night, making it last just over five hours. Time flies when you're flying. I also got to see the sunrise, which from the altitude I was at made the horizon look like one big rainbow with the purest colors imaginable. Alas, no pictures. I'll get some of the apartment in the next few days, though.

Where all the trees at?

I'm seriously having some color adjustment issues in this city. New England? Is green. Athens? Something like salmon, what with all the houses and rock. There are bascially no trees for shade. No wonder everyone is so tanned.
Anyways, I've survived the hours of flying, the two+ hours in JFK checking in, the nearly 10 hour flight, and the overlong checking in process at the school. The next two days are orientation, and classes start Thursday.
And, for the record, I did not get lost on the way home from the grocery store to get milk, cereal and toilet paper. I had a mytho-poetic encounter with the Labrynth myth.

...and we're off!

In the airport. I was mistaken for an unaccompanied minor while checking in my bags.

Visa and pre-departure preparations

I have on my desk a student visa, and now the final hurdle for traveling to far off lands has been hurdled!
Honestly, all I can do right now is look at my bookshelves and think "I won't be able to read any of these for months!" I am a born and bred bookworm.

The Annals of Decimus

 I will not be going to Greece alone. Accompanying me will be my faithful Roman companion, Decimus Porcius Bostonus.




Decimus has led an interesting life. He has traveled far and wide, to strange and exotic lands,

slaying beasts unheard of even in the gladiator arena.

Decimus is eager to survey the Greek part of Rome's territories with me, although I've refrained from mentioned the fact that the Roman Empire has declined and fallen. He is very attached to his homeland, and deals with grief the old fashioned way.

 Expect to hear more from us. Assuming I receive my student visa this week as I'm told I will (Decimus needs no visa, apparently, since he is willing to "slay the customs officials like I slew your kinsmen at the Antonine Wall"), I will be flying out of the country this coming Sunday.

The blog title

The blog title is taken from Aristophanes' The Frogs, in which the titular frogs only appear as Dionysus is crossing the river Styx with Charon. They appear to annoy Dionysus, then leave. The greeks apparently thought that frogs went brekekekex koax koax instead of ribbit ribbit. Oh how far we moderns have advanced our understanding of the world! And, in keeping with our theme from last post, did you know that it was customary for Greek actors to wear oversized phalluses (phalli?) as part of their costumes when performing comedies? This isn't to deflate the sense of grandeur in the ancient Greek's writings, but to hint that maybe grandeur doesn't have to be desexualized, like it was during the Enlightenment. But, I won't bore you with lectures on antiquity.
As a side note, there's a dreadful musical version of Aristophanes play, written by Stephen Sondheim.

Things that should not and will not appear here

I am travelling to study the classics, and in writing about this, I may be tempted to make a number of unfortunate connections between my life an the classics in lieu of actual content, so I'll just head myself off right here. For example, you will not see me compare my journies with those of Odysseus, because
1) I am not manly and noble enough to be held captive by an unnaturally attractive nymph who just wants to have sex with me forever.
2) Should this occur, I am also not stupid enough to do everything within my powers to leave said nymph.
3) Odysseus was clever, and figured out how to get past the gates of Troy to sack the city. I, however, lock myself OUT of my dorm room.
4) Odysseus needed no visas or passports.

There are, of course, other mythological figures whom I won't compare myself with. If I choose to stay in studying while my classmates are out drinking and having a good time, I won't say that I am like Pentheus, because, despite how much she loves a good party, my mom and aunts won't tear my body apart with their bare hands and scatter the pieces over the forest as a result of this. Should I choose to not write a stupid paper and go out to a bar and to listen to music, I won't compare myself with a satyr.

I'm not that well endowed.
Also... let us take a moment to reflect on the fact that I am going off to study a culture that put THAT wonder of the world onto a piece of pottery.

A chorus of frogs

In Aristophanes' The Frogs, the titular chorus of frogs annoys the god Dionysus while he is on an epic quest into the underworld to bring back one of the two great and recently deceased tragedians because all of the living ones suck so badly. While I am not going on an epic quest to revive good literature, and I am also not a god of wine, I am going to Athens, the city which Aristophanes put on his bawdy and hilarious plays and where I can legally drink wine and have a Bacchan good time.
And by that I mean Athens, the city of Socrates and Plato, the city of philosophy, of the great and noble civic leaders like Pericles, of democracy! The city where I shall be studiously studying my studies for a semester, enriching myself intellectually, dining on the nourishing academic studies--
Did I say dining? Falafels. Stuffed grape leaves. Freshly squeezed orange juice. I can almost taste all of the delicious, mouth-watering--
brain food, of course, all designed to aid me in my intellectual quest!
But, seriously, I need a way to keep people updated, otherwise you all might start worrying that the Spartans invaded again and kidnapped me, which could lead to all sorts of Menander-like comic circumstances. The last thing I need is to fall in love with a slave girl my father disapproves of while being reunited with a long-lost twin.
So, for as long as I remain a free and noble-born citizen, I shall (try to) regularly update this blog about my goings-ons, and I shall fill it with copious references to old Greek things.