Last Day for the students!



The city spread out at our feet.  5 million people live here.

The students had their finals today.  I went to see Katie and Dana's final art exhibition, which was a lot of fun.  I'd heard about some of the others in the class and got to see some of them and their work.  I also made 3 batches of chocolate chip cookies and gave them as thank you gifts to the people who gave us the most help, including some of the shopkeepers who were particularly kind to us.  It is my favorite thing to give:  it is American, it is homemade, and not so easy, either as some ingredients are different here.  They are also sweet in every way, and people seem to appreciate the gesture.  It is always difficult to find a way to acknowledge hospitality without causing obligation or violating etiquette by suggesting repayment of any sort, but I think the cookies do it.

In the evening we had our final in-person class (though the course is a summer C hybrid, so there are final papers due the first week in August).  We worked on our guide for next year and heard some final presentations.  Then we hiked up Lykavitos for sunset, and down to a restaurant for our final group meal.  The sunset was at 8:50, our dinner reservations at 9:30, and the metro closes around midnight, so it was tricky managing the time, but we made it. 

This morning, four of the ten left for the airport.  The rest are doing some last minute sight-seeing or shopping.  We are all cleaning up and packing.  We (the Kaplan family) are getting ready to go to Thessaloniki to stay with Eurydice and George until Tuesday, then we fly out next week.  Not sure how much time we'll have to post while we are up there, but we'll catch up with pictures by mid-week next week when we are back in Connecticut.

The whole group

We love you, too.

The belltower at sunset.

Swoop!

The Parthenon lit up.