Defining America

This past Friday I had the opportunity to interview six Greek teachers for a scholarship to study at an American university for six weeks next summer to learn about the American educational system as well as educational strategies and techniques.  This is part of the 2011 Study of United States Institutes Program.  One my colleagues on the panel asked each candidate to suggest a Greek book, song, or poem that could give an American an idea of what it means to be Greek.  As each candidate answered this question, I wondered what American book, song, or poem I would recommend to someone from Greece that would give him or her an idea of what it means to be American.  Today on the bus ride from Athens to Ioannina, I had a lot of time to ponder that question.  The following is my somewhat traditional, but also somewhat eclectic baker's dozen of what I believe would give someone from Greece an idea of what it means to be an American:

1.  Gettysburg Address (1863)-President Lincoln succinctly described what America was and what it hoped to become.
2.  The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence (1776)-If anything defines what it is to be American, it is the first two sentences of the Preamble.
3.  America (1968)-When I return from Greece, I bet when the wheels of the plane touch down on the runway of the Philadelphia Airport that the voices of Simon & Garfunkel will be wafting through my  mind as they sing how "they've all gone to look for America."
4.  My Country Tis of Thee-The video of Marian Anderson singing this song at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday of 1939 is iconic.
5.  Adagio for Strings (1936)-Whenever I hear this piece by American composer Samuel Barber, it stops me dead in my tracks.  I have always had a strong streak of melancholy and this piece resonates like no other with that pensive gene I have.
6.  As I Lay Dying (1930)-There are other books by Faulkner that just of easily could have been on this list, but a person from Greece would have to appreciate that the title was derived from Homer's "Odyssey".
7.  To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)-Whether it is the book or the film, it is a powerful American story.
8.  The Grapes of Wrath (1939)-  Although this story took place in the 30's, it is still relevant.  Although Greeks may not be familiar with John Steinbeck, they can relate to his story of hard times and the will to survive.
9.  Ansel Adams-Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1941)-Because I lived in Santa Fe, I am partial to New Mexico.  This is a great photograph.
10.  Our Town (1938)-Thornton Wilder created the quintessential play about small town America.
11.  West Side Story (1957)-Immigration is an issue in Greece as it is in America.  In this musical, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerome Robbins remind us that diversity is the spice of life.
12.  It's a Wonderful Life (1946)-Frank Capra reminded us that no man is an island and that we do make a difference in each others lives.  It took place in America, but it could just as easily have been filmed in Greece.
13.  Just Kids (2010)-I am reaching on this one.  Patti Smith wrote a memoir of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.  I haven't read it, but it just won the National Book Award.  It is not your typical relationship, but it is a uniquely American story.

If I did this list over, I would have 13 different entries.  What would you have included?

Metsovo

On Friday, I had the opportunity to visit a middle school and an elementary school in Metsovo.  Another Fulbright grantee, Stephanie, was asked by the U.S. Embassy in Athens to give some presentations to students learning English in schools in the area of Ioannina.  She asked if I would like to participate and I jumped at the opportunity.  Stephanie's typical Fulbright assignment is teaching English at an elementary school in Athens.  Stephanie is from Massachusetts and recently graduated from Seton Hall University.

Metsovo is a mountain village about a half hour from Ioannina.  The village has an elementary school and a middle/high school.  It is built on the slopes of Mount Pindos at an altitude of 1200 meters. 

Chryssa, an administrator for the Ioannina Schools, was our host and driver.  She oversees curricular issues related to environmental studies and gives presentations to students in the Ioannina area on this topic.

We began our day at the Metsovo Middle/High School.  Stephanie gave a presentation on recycling to a group of middle school students.  Chryssa informed us that her husband designed the school.  It was beautiful.  After finishing at the middle school, Stephanie gave a presentation on Thanksgiving to four classes of students at the elementary school.  At both schools I became the unofficial photographer.

The most memorable moment for me came when Stephanie presented on Thanksgiving to the elementary students.  She showed a slide of typical foods related to the holiday.  As she named them in English, the students spontaneously and as a group responded with the correlate in Greek.  For most of the students, Stephanie was the first native speaker of English that they had ever encountered.  When it came time for Q & A, some students were not confident to ask questions in English so they would ask in Greek and Chryssa would translate into English.  However, some of the students displayed excellent English skills although they sometimes mixed up wh-questions (e.g., using "What" when they meant "Who").  Some of the questions that they asked Stephanie included: What is your favorite color?  What is your favorite animal?  Do you have a pet?  Do you know Kobe Bryant?  Do you like Michael Jackson?  Do you like Lady Gaga?  Are you famous?  Are you married?  Do you have a brother or sister?  Where do you live in America?  What is your favorite Greek dish?

The photos below feature Stephanie presenting at the Metsovo Middle/High School (the screen didn't work very well so Stephanie showed the slides on the wall).  You will notice above the slide a depiction of Jesus.  Religious pictures and symbols were common in school classrooms and offices.  Chryssa is featured in the second photo.  The third photo features middle school students.  Stephanie and I are standing in front of the school library in the fourth photo and in front of the middle/high school in the fifth photo.

Thessaloniki

Last Wednesday, I was invited to be part of a panel discussion sponsored by the Fulbright office in Thessaloniki to talk with Greek students interested in studying at American colleges and universities.  Over a hundred students showed up.  I kept my comments fairly brief for a couple of reasons:  first, by the time we got to the panel part of the evening, the audience already had been sitting for about an hour and a half and the former professor in me knew that their attention span was getting to its upper limit; second, the other two Fulbrighters presenting with me, John and Kate, had just graduated from college and, therefore, could speak with more credibility what it is like to attend college in the States at this moment.  Furthermore, they were close in age to those in the audience.  I am glad that I didn't speak for long, because John and Kate did a great job and the audience applauded enthusiastically when they finished.  The highlight of the evening for me was being able to meet Argyroula, who is deaf.  She received a Fulbright in 2001 and studied at National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York.  She can speak in Greek or English and she can use Greek Sign Language or American Sign Language.  She is in the middle in the first photo; her Greek Sign Language interpreter is on the left.

The next day I walked from the Hotel Luxembourg (featured in the second photo) to the University of Macedonia, which took about twenty minutes.  I planned to meet with a professor in speech pathology, Dr. Areti Okalidou.  When I got to the university I was examining a map of the school trying to figure out where the Education Department was located.  A young man approached me and in English thanked me for my lecture.  For a moment, I thought he was confusing me with another American professor.  For all I knew, Americans might look all the same to a student from Greece.  However, he mentioned Fulbright and then I recognized him from the night before.  Although I had kept my comments brief that night, it was nice to know that someone remembered what I had said.  He made my day.  Still, I was dumbfounded our paths crossed and that he recognized me.  He kindly walked me to the Education Department where I met with Dr. Okalidou.  She studied and lived in the U.S. for over ten years.  Over lunch, we discussed deaf education  in Greece and the impact of cochlear implants.  In December, I will return to University of Macedonia and guest lecture for one of her classes.

The Hotel Luxembourg was only a block from the Fulbright office and only a block from the Aegean Sea.  You will notice that I frequented a Starbucks that was only two blocks from the hotel.  Ordinarily, I stay away from businesses that I can find in the U.S., but this Starbucks had a great view of the Aegean Sea.  The Starbucks that I frequent in Doylestown has a view of the Acme Grocery Store, but no major bodies of water.  On Friday morning just before I left for Ioannina, I stopped at the Starbucks to have a Chai Tea Latte (ironically I don't like coffee).  As I sat outside gazing out on the Aegean Sea, some young men rowed by in their scull.

The bus from Thessaloniki to Ioannina takes about three hours.  Apparently, it used to take over six hours, but recently Greece completed a new road through the mountains with numerous tunnels that makes the trip much quicker.  On the bus, I usually just read.  However, on this day I sat by a student named Yannis.  He was going home to Ioannina to vote (Greece has elections on Sunday).  We ended up talking for the whole trip.  We discussed Iraq, Afghanistan, global warming, architecture, engineering, the construction of bridges (there is a beautiful bridge in Patras, Greece), universities in England (he plans to study engineering there), and Pan-Hellenic exams (these are exams that all high school students in Greece have to take).  His father is a chemistry professor at the University of Ioannina.  I got to meet him at the bus station in Ioannina and he gave me lift home.  Yannis thanked me for giving him the opportunity to practice his English skills and his father took my phone number so we could meet again for dinner.

As I have mentioned previously, one of the important facets of the Fulbright experience is to promote cultural awareness.  I believe that this occurred on this trip, but in an unusual way.  I never expected that a Greek student would pick me out of a crowd at a huge university and thank me for a presentation that only lasted one to two minutes.  Furthermore, I never expected that I would have a three hour conversation with a student on the bus.  That is what makes the Fulbright experience so interesting: you never know when you are going to have an impact and you never know who you might meet.

Eighth Wonder of the World??

Around almost any corner in Greece you will come upon an archaeological site or an antiquity.  Ioannina has several of these.  However, there is one site in Ioannina I cannot get enough of although it is admittedly more modern: Carrefour.  If you have traveled in Europe or even Asia, then you have probably encountered Carrefour.  It is the French version of Wal-Mart and there happens to be one about a mile from the campus of the University of Ioannina.  I must admit that I eagerly look forward to my biweekly trips to Carrefour so I can stock up the tiny refrigerator in my dorm room with all kinds of delicacies that are not good for me.  There is no greater joy for me than to have breakfast cereal, milk, and sliced bananas on top and never have to leave my room.  Now, that is heaven. 

The trip to Carrefour is not without its challenges.  There is a two-lane road leading from the university to Carrefour.  It is a busy road and there are no sidewalks.  If you live in Bucks County, it is somewhat akin to walking along Route 413, which I have rarely seen anyone do during my 15 years of living there.  I find the experience unnerving at times, but I invoke the Satchel Paige maxim and I refrain from looking back to see what may be gaining on me!  My hearing is good enough that I can hear or "feel" a bus or dump truck coming and then I take evasive action.  When I get to Carrefour it is an exhilarating experience knowing that I am still alive, but also knowing that I will soon be filling my basket with all kinds of goodies.  I take great delight in going up and down the aisles and marveling at the small sizes of the containers (Everything in Greece is small from cars to milk cartons).  Of course, if I need clothing, hardware, notebooks, or anything else I can find it there, too.  Best of all, they have an ATM for Alpha Bank, where I have an account.  Well, I better stop.  I think it is time for milk and cookies.

A Guest Lecture

On Tuesday evening, I gave a guest lecture to about fifty Greek general education and special education teachers from Ioaninna.  My topic was the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  I picked this topic for a couple of reasons.  First, this is the 35th anniversary of President Ford signing into law the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975, now known as IDEA.  Second, all three branches of American government were involved in its passage.  I started off by focusing on the Brown v. the Board of Education case of 1954 (i.e., judiciary branch), which was about school desegregation, but would prove to be the impetus for IDEA about 20 years later, especially the famous line from this case stating that "separate but equal is inherently unequal."  Next, I discussed two court cases involving students with disabilities in the early 1970's that helped shaped the basic tenets of IDEA as well as advocacy efforts of various groups for the disabled with Congress (i.e., legislative branch).  Finally, President Ford signed this Act into law (i.e., executive branch).

I put a lot of time and effort into this presentation and I was rather pleased with my key points as well as the catchy graphics and photographs that I included.  However, as is so often the case when I give a lecture, the audience became animated in reaction to a minor point to which I only made a passing reference.  I happened to mention teacher accountability and, in particular merit pay, that all of the sudden resulted in a cacophony of voices being raised.  The teachers were extremely interested to know if merit pay was widespread.  They seemed apprehensive that Greece may adopt a similar strategy in determining teacher salaries.

Just in case you were wondering, I lectured in English.  My colleague, Dr. Eleni Morfidi, summarized my points every couple of minutes in Greek.  She also included Greek translations just below my English text on my PowerPoint slides.  I could only imagine how tired she must have been listening to me in English and then interpreting that into Greek and then listening to the teachers' comments and interpreting that into English so I knew what they were talking about.  However, it was evident to me that the teachers for the most part could follow me in English, but they were hesitant to respond in English.

After the presentation, I stopped for dinner at the student cafeteria nearby.  Unwittingly, I sat down at a table next to two of the teachers who were at the presentation.  They invited me to sit with them.  They had many questions about American education.  To my surprise they had more questions about the Brown case.  They wanted to know more about Linda Brown, who was the central figure in the case and was ten years old at the time.  They were some awkward moments while they tried to find the English words needed for the questions that they wanted to ask.  They kept apologizing for their English skills.  At the conclusion of our discussion, one teacher asked me for the time; she was impressed that I was able to tell her in Greek.  With that they were off to catch their bus home, which was about an hour away.

The Pickpocket

Last weekend, I was in Athens visiting my Fulbright colleagues.  We decided to have dinner at a restaurant called "Keyoopee".  My friend, Alan, frequented this restaurant often, and he knew the owner well.  Upon finding the restaurant, we descended down the stairs and were immediately greeted by the owner.  Besides liking the food, Alan was interested to hear the chef perform on the bouzouki, which he did in the evenings.  On this particular night, there was a party.  It appeared that it was related to a christening, because there was a little girl in a white dress who was the center of attention.  Alan and I grabbed a table for four and awaited the arrival of Stephanie and Kate.  My back was to the entrance. 

To put this story in context I need to return to my initial flight into Athens.  Once I landed, I caught a taxi to the Fulbright office.  The first thing the taxi driver told me was to be careful of pickpockets.  When I travel, I am typically vigilant about who is around me and always put my wallet in my front pocket.  If I get in a crowd, I place my right hand in my pocket and wrap my fingers around my wallet.

As I was sitting in this restaurant I felt comfortable with the surroundings.  The owner was attentive to our every need and the family and relatives of the little girl were welcoming of us.  Because no one was sitting behind me, I decided to move my wallet from my front pocket to my back pocket.  Once we left the restaurant, then I planned to return my wallet to my front pocket.  Eventually, Stephanie and Kate showed up and I became engaged in conversation with them.  After a few minutes, the owner came over to Alan and discreetly leaned down and whispered something in his ear.  Alan then leaned over to me and said that the owner wanted to warn me to be careful, because there was a man sitting behind me that he believed to be a pickpocket.  I calmly placed my right hand on my back pocket and breathed a sigh of relief, because my wallet was there.  Immediately, I moved it back to my front pocket.  Next, I turned around and discovered, indeed, there was a man sitting at the table behind me, not more than a foot or two away.  He was alone.  Not more than a minute after the owner warned Alan of my predicament, another man approached Alan and asked him to warn me to about the man sitting behind me, because he also believed he was a pickpocket.  Shortly thereafter, the man sitting behind me departed without ordering anything.

There are two reasons why I tell this story.  First, even when you are vigilant, sometimes you let down your guard.  Even in the benign setting of a child's christening party, I allowed myself to become complacent.  I will not do that again.  Second, this is not the first time that people in a foreign country have displayed concern for my well-being.  If you get to know people well enough, they will take care of you even if you do not speak the same language.  I am always thankful for these "angels" that seem to watch over me wherever I am.