Aikido and Ancient Greece

I finally started aikido yesterday. I stayed for both classes, 2 hours. It was rough. I was absolutely exhausted upon return to my apartment. There was a bit of a language barrier, but that was the least of my problems. They stand and fall differently than we do in hapkido. The stance is a little bigger forward and back, and the front knee is more bent. The hands are held only waist high. Falling was the hardest thing for me to grasp. Rolling was exactly the same, except that they have another even simpler form of rolling that they made me do over and over where it emphasizes control of your body. You go over very slowly. But then they had me working with people who have been doing it for awhile while the other new person was still getting trained in rolling. Hapkido and Aikido are similar enough that I do not look like a beginner in many things, but different enough to greatly confuse me (like with falling). A lot of the locks are the same. I spent two hours yesterday getting thrown into a roll or a fall. Or doing the throwing. The only bad part was that they treat me like I am made of glass. They don't put any pressure on me so that I have to fall or roll or go around in a circle. They just expect me to do it. Whereas I watch them working together, and they are definitely using some force on each other. I wish they would take off the kid gloves and just do it.

I went to the National Archaeological Museum today. It was so cool. It was awe inspiring to be standing there among things that were formed ten thousand years ago. Some of the oldest man-made things we have today were there. I didn't see everything in the museum, because I got tired, but I can always go back. As a student I can get in free. I saw the really big kouros, which was much bigger than I expected, and many mansized ones. There were a lot more than I expected. I also saw artifacts from the neolithic period, the mask of Agammenmon, sone red figure pottery, and quite a bit else. I saw gold, bronze, clay, marble, and stone which had been worked throughout much of Greece's history. Some of the things I saw, I just stood and stared at, practically gaping. I saw things that most of us have only seen in pictures, and I didn't even see it all.

At about 1:40 I got on a trolley for my 20 minute ride back. 30 minutes later we had been stuck in traffic for 20 minutes. I was getting really annoyed, so I just got off and walked back. It took me 45 minutes to get back, but that was with stopping to buy a pastry and some more bus tickets. I figured out what was wrong with the traffic. There was a demonstration blocking one of the major roads. Quite annoying. Demonstrations are legal here, even at the expense of traffic, as long as they do not become violent. They were surrounded by police directing traffic elsewhere. This was the first demonstration I have seen. Now, I know where it is, so I just have to stay clear of it in case it becomes a riot. Sometimes that happens at the tail end of peaceful demonstrations. I have no idea what this one was about.

Next week, we have our first field trip. It is to Argolid/Mycenae/Nauplion and a few other places close by. One of the things we will see is the Lion's gate, which should be fascinating.

Kalispera!!