The Cold ‘Ruined’ Everything, Get It?

Hello people! It’s been a few days since my last post because I’ve been pretty busy so I’ll do my best to catch you up to speed on everything I’ve been up to! We had a free day on Sunday and our professor invited us to join him on an

If you look at the remaining pieces of the band you can see the Amazons!

excursion to Athens’ harbor, to go to the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus and to see the ancient ship-sheds the Athenians used. I, of course, decided to join and had a great time walking through the museum and along the coast, despite the fact that it was only around 30 degrees. The museum we went to was full of things found in the harbor, which I thought was pretty cool. My personal favorite monument was one that depicted the Amazons because that is what my mother always called me growing up and it also happened to be one of the biggest and most impressive in the building. My only complaint is that wish the outdoor part of the museum was open so that I could check out the Theater of Zea.

We spent around an hour at the museum  and then started the very long walk all the way around the coast to follow the wall that used to protect the harbor and take a peek at the ship-sheds.

Those big blocks under me are whats left of this portion of the wall.

The strange thing about the sheds is that there are buildings built on top of them, so in order to see them, we had to peek through dirty windows into a basement. I did my best to take a picture, but all I could really get was a reflection of myself, so I had to give up on that endeavor. (I know it can’t only be me that has trouble wrapping my head around the way new things are just built on top of or right next to the old, but in a way that you’re able to use or admire both… it really is crazy to me.) I say this, not only because of the ship-shed situation (try saying that three times fast), but also because of how the ancient wall we followed along the coastline was incorporated into whatever it happened to run into apartment buildings, around restaurants…literally just anything. We walked about 10 miles on this little trip to the coast, which is a lot for someone who complains about a 3 minute walk to the caf, but I had a great time so I guess it was worth it.

These past 2 days have been spent exploring the Acropolis area. We spent a lot of our time huddled together with numb hands and runny noses listening to lectures about each of the building’s histories. It was very interesting, but also very, very cold. I was most excited to see the Erechtheion which is one of the temples up on the hill. It’s impressive because it used to house the sacred wooden statue of Athena, it is apparently where the salt water spring was given to the Athenians by Poseidon, the olive tree that was given by Athena grew right outside AND the Caryatids stand holding up the roof and eternally pouring libations over the grave of the mythical king of Athens, Cecrops. So much in one building, that’s why I love it! The Parthenon is magnificent as well, but I had much more fun exploring the caves on the North Slope and climbing all over the Areopagus. That could just be that it was slightly windy and I was able to move around and stay warm. As I mentioned earlier though, I really enjoy the myths about the Amazons and it just so happens that the Areopagus is where they set up base to fight the Athenians in order to rescue their queen. Pretty cool right?! In later times, the Athenians used the hill as a court for intentional homicide and if you’re familiar with the bible, Paul also delivered a Sermon while standing on top. That’s a lot of history for it just being a giant rock. I ended my day with a glass of 7 star Brandy from Brettos, the oldest distillery in Athens. It was a very small, cozy bar. Two of the walls were  covered with different  colored bottles from floor to ceiling, while the other had barrels of brandy sitting in front, it really was something else. Oh and the brandy…that was something else too. I can’t even begin to describe the taste, all I can say is to come try it yourself one day. I was intrigued when he said they make it right there but he caught me when he said there were hints of chocolate. And just to let you know, I’m a pretty big girl who’s done her fair share of drinking, and that one glass had me sitting at a perfect level. I can only imagine what would’ve happened if I had drank anymore, but I’m a responsible human so I decided to call it a night and raced through the cold back to the apartment.

The Caryatids I spoke of? That’s these ladies. (They’re actually casts, the real ones are in museums for protection.)

A “cave” on the North Slope.

Pondering what happened to those who commint unintentional homocide.

This morning I arose to a beautiful surprise of a snowy city! Being from Texas, I’m required to be amazed by snow and as we were struggling to walk to the Acropolis Museum, I couldn’t have been any happier! As it turns out, even the natives were somewhat intrigued by the snow and they kept stopping and taking pictures too. Which made me feel like I looked much less like a tourist than before.

If you look in some of the trees to the left, you’ll see those oranges I’ve mentioned!

We spent a few hours ambling around the museum, looking at the amazing artifacts all found on the Acropolis. Not only were the items in the museum breathtaking but the architecture of the museum itself was incredible. The floors were see-through so that you could stand directly on top of a dig site and look at all the ruins. The top floor of the museum, which contained the Parthenon’s metopes, pediments and frieze was oriented exactly like the Parthenon, with the sculpture work wrapping around the room so that you could see exactly how it sat on the building. The design of the building was so helpful in picturing how things once were. To see the size of many of the sculptures was really surprising to me. Deep down I knew they were big, but you don’t really feel it until it’s sitting right in front of you. The time and effort it took to make everything is just astonishing and there was so much detail and artistry in every single one, I honestly can’t even comprehend it.

Aside from constantly being amazed, I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, grocery shopping and writing this. So congratulations you are now all caught up with my adventures thus far! As a little side note, mostly for me to remember this later. The top three things I’ve brought with me on this trip have been my hiking boots, scarf and selfie stick (cringe worthy I know, but they are handy.) So shout out to them..I would not have survived the Greece snowpocalypse without them and been able to take a selfie to prove it! We’re about to spend three days visiting various archeological sites, so stay tuned!

A lioness from the pediment of Hekatompedon.

A lego model of the Acropolis which even included the many cats and dogs that roam freely roam the city.

A quote that was written in the museum in Piraeus that I think sums up the entire reason the Athenians gifted us with the likes of the Parthenon:

“The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments.

Whats left of kisses?

Wounds, however, leave scars.”      -Bertolt Brecht

Cats, Coffee & Pottery

Have I mentioned just how close we are to Kallimarmaro?!

Well, it’s evening here on my second day in Athens and I have already seen and experienced so many things! What I’d really like to dive into first are just the little things I’ve noticed while walking around the city that are pretty different from home. There are four that have really caught my attention. The first is that there are orange trees that line the streets. Before you get too excited, I asked someone what they were called and if you were allowed to eat them and the answer was a really long Greek word that started with an ‘n’ and that they were very bitter and I probably wouldn’t want to…Not quite the answer I was hoping for, but hey, they’re still very pretty and smell really good!

As we started to explore more of the city (and by exploring, I mean getting lost and walking around for a very, very long time) I noticed that there is graffiti literally everywhere. Some of it’s good, some, not so much, but it really is all over the place! I just don’t know what to think when I see these huge, old, marble buildings covered in spray paint but, overall, I really think this mix of old and new is what makes Athens the city that it is. The last thing that caught me off guard and honestly, even after day or two still makes me uncomfortable has got to be the staring. At first I thought I was being paranoid, until an American lady told our group that that’s just how the Greeks do it. I found it a little unsettling to have complete strangers making prolonged eye contact with me but since it’s apparently the norm, I try to push through the awkwardness. Sometimes I even try to see if I can stare at them longer than they stare at me… I usually lose.

With those three out of the way, we’ve come to my favorite one and that is that there is coffee everywhere! There are at least three coffee shops on every block and it’s honestly the best thing ever. The man working at the shop next to my apartment is already able to recognize me when I come in. So far I have tried Nes Cafe, Greek Coffee and their cappuccino. While I do like all of them, the strangest tasting one is definitely the Greek Coffee, I can’t even really describe it’s flavor, but it’s very strong. My professor also thought it would be funnier if I learned the hard way not to drink it all the way down because it gets very gritty and kind of feels like your drinking mud… he got a kick out of watching my face when I finally made that discovery.

So now that you know some random things about what it’s like over here, at least, from my perspective. I’ll give you a run down on some of the things the class has been up to. The main thing we’ve been doing is spending a lot of time at The National Archeological Museum. While it is very interesting and there are a lot of cool things to look at and read about, it’s kind of difficult for me to write about because there is just so much that goes into it. I will say though, that if you like pottery….there is an endless amount in that museum and believe me when I say, that I’ve seen all of it. While in the museum, I only took a couple of pictures, that are all of sculptures, just because I was very busy trying to listen and take notes. Also there are just so many pictures you can take of a bunch of pots and vases, no matter how interesting or beautiful.We have one more day at the museum tomorrow to see the sculptures and whatever else we’d like, so I’ll try to get some shots and add them to the next post. I spent most of the rest of the day roaming around the city (that was when we got a little lost) but we found some pretty cool things. We stumbled upon the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, something that was on my Athens bucket list to see, so that was a pleasant surprise. I was even able to take a very uncomfortable and awkward looking picture with one of the guards. Later we were able to watch the changing of the guards which was interesting albeit not super exciting.

I struggled with the thought of taking such a cheesy picture but the threat of regret ultimately won me over.

We strolled through the National Garden of Athens behind the Parliamentary building, hoping it was a shortcut back to where we’re staying (which thankfully it was) and ate dinner at a place called Poco Poco which, believe it or not, had hotdogs, waffles, burgers and crepes. It was a little disappointing because I really didn’t want to eat “American food” but it was still really good and the food in general is much cheaper here. Then we turned in, ending our night at a decent hour (still recovering from jetlag). My favorite part so far, other than meeting the cutest, friendliest cat ever, was climbing up to see the Philopappos Monument. We had a short class up there and then we were set free to explore. The view from the hill was AMAZING! You could see the Acropolis, the harbor and the entire city. It was a little cold and breezy, but I spent so much time trekking around to see every possible view that I was actually pretty sweaty by the time we made our way down. Fun fact, my professor told us that Philopappos was actually such a philanthropist, that he was allowed to be buried within the city limits of Athens…which is very uncommon. We walked back to the area we’re staying at and I spent a couple of hours doing mundane things like grocery shopping and going to the pharmacy to find some sort of medicine for my knee. After eating a dinner that wasn’t really all that impressive, we spent a few hours at the bar across the street drinking and talking. We’ve been told that, unlike Americans, the Greeks, even the young ones don’t really drink like we do. They’ll nurse maybe one or two drinks over the entire night. I’ll probably do that, not because I want to, but because drinks are not cheap. Which, if we’re being honest, is probably for the best anyways. Even though you won’t really see a drunk Greek stumbling around, there is a really great night life around here. The bars and clubs are open much later and are always full of people. I know for sure the one across the street is because I hear the noise from it all night long. (I don’t really mind it though because it makes my dreams really interesting.) There are also plenty of food places open 24 hours. One of these is Poco Poco, which also happens to be very near the apartment.

All in all, I’m having a great time, in a great place, with great people. I couldn’t be more excited about what’s in store. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something or didn’t quite fully explain some of the things I did write about. (I know I’m not the most experienced writer.) So if I did and you’re confused or have any other questions, please feel free to comment!

View of the city from Mouseion Hill.

The Philopappos Monument

He thought the sights were pretty, but I thought he was prettier.

I took this in the garden as we were strolling through.

Bronze Statue of what is assumed to be Zeus in the National Archeological Museum. .

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta

A Little Reintroduction

Hi guys, I’m sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight, so I thought now would be the time to just write a short introduction of what I have going on here! For anyone who’s seen my blog before, you know that it was done for a Psychology class which ended quite a while ago. I’ve decided to continue using it by turning it into a place to write about my trip to Greece throughout January. This is for an abroad Janterm class for Austin College called A Walk Among the Ruins. I’m doing this mostly so that my friends and family can keep up with everything going on and to try to get a little more writing experience, but if you happen to have stumbled upon this while surfing the web, welcome stranger! To catch you up to speed a little, I will be staying in apartments in Athens for most of my trip, we’ll be spending several days at the National Archeological Museum and many other sites around Athens. We’re also taking trips to other cities as well like, Nauplio, Tiryns and Corinth to check out all of the interesting archeological sites. Again, just to remind you, this blog is just the rambling thoughts of a small town East Texas girl who’s (hopefully) having the time of her life running around the beautiful country of Greece. It may not be much, but I hope you guys enjoy and feel free to comment if you have any questions. Thanks for reading!

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin

Schizophrenia in the Media

I chose to do the first option and watched the video simulating what it’s like to be a person with schizophrenia.  Watching that video was a very surreal experience for me. I don’t know how I would be able to deal with those complications in my everyday life.  From the negative voices in my head telling me that I’m worthless and that they hate me to the paranoia with normal things such as the pizza guy or my coffee, I honestly don’t think I would be able to function whatsoever. There are a number of movies that are centered around characters with schizophrenia and they are portrayed usually as tragically sad with some characters being redeemed in the end by their “gift”. Many movies and TV shows portray schizophrenia in a comedic way though. These characters usually deal with voices in their heads too but instead of being hateful like the ones in the video, they tend to cause the character to do something hilarious and crazy. Or other times they are seen walking around and talking to themselves or inanimate objects causing comedic  discomfort to the other characters of the show. These portrayals, in my opinion, take a lot of the seriousness of schizophrenia away. I know that until I took this class, I had never really given much thought to what it would be like to be schizophrenic. After reading more about it in the book and watching this video, I have a much clearer understanding of schizophrenia and the effects it has on people’s lives. I think the media really needs to work on how they depict people with schizophrenia. By downplaying the symptoms and making them seem humorous and harmless, many people never even realize the gravity of what people with schizophrenia go through every day.

Finals are coming up, learn how to study without being distracted here!

Does multitasking affect academic performance? A study done in California has answered this and more! The leading question was how differently do  younger generations task-switch in comparison to older generations and how does this difference play in to student’s performance in school. To figure this question out, a study was created to watch around 300 students from  junior high to college age study in their homes or usual environments and see how often they switched between tasks. There are three things that impact task switching, primary task completion, secondary task completion and resumption lag. A separate study found that if the primary task and secondary task are very similar, you will perform worse on the primary and the more concentration you put into the second task, the longer your resumption lag to the first task is as well.

These were the results of the experiment. First, it was established that each age group had their own different kinds of distractions. For the kids in junior high it was video games, high school students were mostly likely to be distracted by texting, and the college students applied more study strategies. The students who were similar in on-task percentage and run length, tended to use technology in the same ways and their preferences for multitasking were akin. The study pointed out that those who preferred to multi-task had much shorter on-task runs than those who didn’t. As for how this affects students academically, the students who used Facebook at least one time during class or study sessions, had lower grades than the students who applied study strategies. Surprisingly, every student of the study was able to only remain on-task for an average of about 6 minutes before switching to another task.

How do we resolve this generations issues with multitasking? We are given three suggestions to help deal with multitasking while studying. The first is an oldie but goodie, teachers and parents are advised to allow students to listen to music while studying. The more familiar the music, the more minor the impact on resumption lag and task-switching there is. Our second piece of advice is to let students use their phones or other technological devices for a 1 minute “technology break,” then follow that up with 15 minutes of uninterrupted study or lesson time. Because they know that they will be allowed to use their devices in 15 minutes, this will allow the students to remain focused on the task at hand instead of constantly thinking internally about checking their phones. The third and final option mentioned in the study is to sharpen your metacognitive skills. By choosing a time, say during a lecture that you believe less important information is being given, to take a break and check your device, you are less likely to be distracted during something important. Much unlike students who allow themselves to be distracted every time they receive a notification. By applying one or a combination of these tricks to your study sessions or classroom, you can improve learning.

Reflection:

Writing a news piece over a scientific study is quite difficult. Doing this project has made me want to take back everything I said in my news article critique. The hardest part for me was trying to write for an audience that hasn’t read the journal. I really had to think, “Would I understand this if I had not already read about the study?” I’m sure I didn’t catch everything, but I tried to make my piece as accessible as I could without sounding condescending. As you can probably guess, the second hardest part was picking out what information to include and what information to discard without changing the results or fibbing about the study. Although I told myself that I wouldn’t, I decided to leave out the limitations of the study. They take quite a bit away from the results and, in my opinion and like we hear in class, it just makes the news article much less “sexy.” My article is a bit shorter than the original one because I didn’t write about the second study in which psychology students had to answer text messages while watching a video and were tested on the material afterward. That is because the journal, although suggesting that we use our metacognitive skills, barely mentioned this experiment and I felt like I didn’t have enough information about it to put it in my piece. This project has definitely taught me that I should be more cautious about what I read in the news, but I should also give authors a break because their job is not as easy as it seems.

Link to the news article:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rewired-the-psychology-technology/201204/attention-alert-study-distraction-reveals-some

Link to the journal:

Click to access facebook_and_texting_made_me_do_it-media-induced_task-switching_while_studying-compuers_in_human_behavior-2013-rosen_carrier_cheever.pdf

The search for happiness has ended!

I really think Gilbert is on to something here. This TED talk gives me a lot of hope because the idea that we create our own happiness is kind of awesome. I’m not going to lie, until watching this video, I was one of the skeptics who believed that synthetic happiness isn’t the same as natural happiness. I’m only 19 but I feel like I’ve already spent a large portion of my life searching for that true happiness and, unfortunately, it seems like I could never quite achieve it. From the evidence he gave us though, I’m starting to see it from a different perspective. I always just assumed that when we don’t get what we want, we just settle and lie to ourselves that we’re happy with the end result and eventually just start to believe the lie, but it’s never really real. That’s why the studies Gilbert spoke of with the Monet prints were so surprising to me, especially the one with the amnesia patients. They literally believed that the print they didn’t know they owned was better than the one they first picked out of the set. Showing that their synthesized happiness of having a certain thing, turned into a real preference for it. The real lesson I took from this talk was, be happy with what you have even if at first you’re pretending to be…eventually, it will become real happiness. The fact that this is scientifically proven also makes it much easier for me to believe. Now that I have this little gem of knowledge, I’m going to start applying to my life anytime things don’t quite go my way by just telling myself that eventually I will be happy about this, I just need to give it time. I think Gilbert is pretty credible, not only does he have the endorsement of being on a TED talk, but he uses multiple studies and graphs to prove his point. We aren’t just relying on his word.  In his bio, it also says that he is a Harvard Psychologist researching happiness. To be frank, even if he wasn’t a very credible source, I would still like to believe what he has to say, because I think it will definitely help me in my life long search for happiness.

Getting to Know Myself

For the first two tests, I was labeled as an INTJ which is the same score I got doing the roommate selection thing. I’ve always been very interested in personality tests and scores so I have read a lot about INTJs and how they relate to the other personality types. I think it’s a pretty good description of who I am. What’s funny to me about it is that INTJs are described to be super confident but at the same time extremely self-conscience. I found a post once that portrayed it perfectly saying, “INTJ: I am perfect!… also INTJ: Everyone hates me and I also hate myself.” This was one of the most honest depictions I have ever seen, it captures the paradox that is the INTJ perfectly. Since I have received the same results on these two online tests as I have the real version, I think that they are pretty credible.

The third test I took was pretty accurate as well. I scored low on Extroversion and Agreeableness, very high on Conscientiousness and in the middle on Emotional Stability and Intellect/ Imagination.  In my opinion, I think I’m a little more agreeable than the test makes me out to be but other than that it seems to have described me pretty well. As for credibility, I’m not quite sure where this test falls. It’s obviously not the real 5 factor test, but since it seemed to mostly describe me I would say that it is a partially credible source.

The last test, in my opinion, didn’t describe me well at all. I could be biased though because this test mostly said negative things about my personality and no-one ever really wants to hear about all of their flaws. The parts about failure, being distant and fear of commitment were kind of spot on though. This test doesn’t feel very credible to me at all. I don’t really see how the order of colors I chose can give that much insight to my personality and the results seemed a bit like they could be generalized to many people kind of like horoscopes are. But again, I could just be viewing this test in a negative way because it rubbed me wrong.

Why do we sleep?

The most convincing theory to me was that we sleep in order for our brain to consolidate  memories, problem solve and “clean itself up,” although I definitely agree with Russell Foster when he says that there are most likely many different reasons we sleep. I found an article online titled Sleep and Learning that begins by talking about the widely known fact that people who are well rested perform much better in a multitude of tasks than those who are sleep deprived. It then illustrates that sleep not only helps you while you’re learning something new, but also locks the information in afterwards by turning it into a long term memory. This transfer of short term memory to long term, the article explains, could even be the cause of the ever so mysterious sleep spindles that are present in the second stage of sleep. We then learn from the article that the first two stages of sleep are important for brain plasticity for learning new material which could explain why taking a nap during the day can assist you in remembering  what you have learned. Sleep also plays a hand in learning abstract concepts and deep sleep assists with episodic declarative memory consolidation which is more useful for school. Because older people spend less time in deep sleep, or really sleep at all, the article says that this is why it’s harder for older people to learn new things. REM sleep is important for the assimilation of new memories with older ones, the article mentions that REM updates our comprehension of the world with the information from our most recent memories. The article concludes by briefly mentioning sleep disorders in people with learning abilities and how they are treated. I think this article is a decent source, but may not be the greatest. It is on a .org website, but I could not find who the author is. So while I believe that it is okay to use for this post, I would prefer to use a more scholarly for something like a research paper.

“Sleep and Learning.” The Relationship Between Sleep and Learning. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

Autism and Magic

I was really intrigued by the first video I watched. I’ve always been curious about magic and how exactly magicians are able to pull off the tricks they do. I’m definitely one of those people that try extremely hard to figure out how the tricks are done, but usually to no avail. It seems like no matter how hard I pay attention, I still can’t figure them out. So it was interesting to me to learn that our brains can be tricked by something seemingly as simple as curving your hand upwards and that even a person’s face can be distracting enough for a trick to be pulled on you. While I was watching the video, I literally had to fight every instinct in me to watch the magician’s other hand in order to see through the trick. The second video made perfect sense. After watching the first one and seeing how they deceive us, I used what little knowledge I had about autism to sort of guess why they are able to see through the illusions. I found the article interesting as well. It seemed to follow along with the second video in the way that it talks about impaired prediction leading to anxiety. If you are unable follow social cues like the video mentions, then it could be hard to predict when something is about to happen which can create anxiety. For example, when you’re talking to someone and they look behind you at another person walking up, you can turn and see that they are coming but if the person you are speaking to does nothing, the person walking up could give you a scare. This obviously doesn’t cover all of the issues people with autism deal with, but it could definitely be a small portion of it. In my opinion though, I think it would be difficult to use magic to help people with autism. Just like I was going against my nature to look at the magicians other hand, I think you would have to ask people with autism to go against themselves in a way to pay close attention to the cues of the magician. So while I do think it would be hard, I wouldn’t say that it is necessarily impossible and if it could help people with autism, it’s definitely worth a try.

TED Talk: How we read each other’s minds

I chose to watch Rebecca Saxe’s talk because the title just caught my attention. I assumed her lecture would be about how we as people can assume how other people are feeling just by looking at their body language. My assumption wasn’t completely wrong, but it wasn’t quite right either.
Saxe’s lecture begins with the question of how are we able to think of other peoples’ thoughts. She introduces a module of the brain named the right tempero-parietal junction, which is what allows us to think about what others are thinking about. She explains that just like most other parts of the brain, this one is no different when it comes to how long it takes to develop. Saxe presents us videos of children ranging from ages three to seven doing a false belief test, showing that it takes time for children to develop the ability of children to recognize that other people can have false beliefs. She moves on to explain that adults are not equal in this ability either. She points this out by giving an experiment similar to the one she gave the kids. And showing that people disagree about how much a person should be blamed for doing something wrong on purpose or by accident. Saxe even found out that you can change the way this part of your brain functions by using a magnetic pulse to confuse the neurons in charge of this type of thinking. When applied to someone making a moral judgment, people decided that accidents are not as blameless and something done with harmful intentions is more blameless. In a short Q&A after her talk, Rebecca speaks about how there is no danger with this technology yet and hopefully this research will impact education further down the road.
The most interesting part of this talk was that we have a specific part of the brain just for thinking about other peoples’ thoughts. I think it shows just how much of social creatures we are and how important it is for us to understand what’s happening inside someone else’s mind.
After reading Saxe’s profile, I think she is trustworthy. She’s a Cognitive Neuroscientist and made these discoveries while she was in graduate school and continues to do research at MIT.
If I were to do research on this information, I would like to set up a cross-cultural analysis in order to see how this part of the brain functions in cultures all over the world and how they would place blame on accidental and intentional harm. I would basically come up with tests similar to the ones shown in the video, except I would work very hard to make them relevant to the society in which I am testing. I would then compare my results with the one’s that Saxe has produced.