Now that the first two days of classes have come and gone, I can describe what they're like.

I can easily tell that Greece is the birthplace of philosophy, even if philosophy is not the subject of all of my classes. I also detect the subject of history sliding its way through the classrooms. My teacher for classical Greek literature maintains that history cannot exist without literature, that there would be no way to understand what happened before us if it were not written down. My question with that is: what about religion and mythology? Just take a look at a Greek history record. How do you separate the myth from the history without ruining the story? Things happened at Mycenae or Troy that we'd think obviously are not possible, but we have archaeological evidence to show that the events in the myths took place where they said they did.

So we'll see how that class goes. Another class I have, called "Great Thinkers and Their Ideas," I suspect I will definitely enjoy, as it seems very philosophically oriented, more so than I thought it would (basically, I'm taking another philosophy class without even meaning to!). The only thing I have with this class, and fortunately no other ones, is that the students will ask a question in Greek, and the teacher will go off on a tangent in Greek. Come on! I know I should be learning the language, but please, give us a break!

As for my actual philosophy classes, I don't have much to report yet, because the one philosophy teacher at this itty bitty school is very lax and didn't teach us anything the first day. However, I already feel at home there. I'm taking an upper level philosophy class and before it started yesterday one of my classmates told me that in the entire American College of Greece, there are only seven philosophy majors and they were all in this class. When the teacher arrived he introduced me to everyone in the room. He and they all seemed pleased to have me there representing them!

I marvel how philosophy can be so unpopular here. Don't we need philosophy? Didn't all scientific studies that are more common to get a degree in stem from philosophical concepts? I personally suspect I am a Cartesian, and I would say yes to this question.

Other than the high level of intelligence at this school, I almost feel like I'm in high school. Physically. It's a small, small campus, and all the classes are at the same times, so everyone has breaks at the same times (and EVERYONE smokes cigarettes during the breaks). A very different feel, but something I know will be an easy adjustment.