Modern Greek Questions

I am sitting in the library at the Archaeological house called Hill House and listening to the Orthodox liturgy which is being chanted and broadcast by speakers over the village. I am also listening to the sound of the wind. It is windy and cooler today. I promised you that I would answer the questions about modern Greece next, so here are the answers:

What do people wear now?

I had a talk with my guide about the modern clothing. She said that they dress about the same as in the United States. Some kids wear skinny jeans and shirts with glittery things if their Mothers let them. They also wear new jeans with holes in the knee. The funniest thing is that they like to wear shirts with sayings on them in English even though they don't know what it means. Sometimes my guide will tell her friends what their shirts mean and they are surprised!

What do people eat now?

Kids like to eat many of the same things that ancient Greeks ate. They eat lots of olives and seafood (including octopus and squid). People also use lots of olive oil in cooking and on salads. At almost every meal they have salad made with big chunks of tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese. She said that kids really like hamburgers from McDonalds and another place called Goodys. This is sort of new food for Greeks so the kids especially like it. They also like "toast". After our guide described what she meant by toast I realized it is what we call a sandwich. So, don't order toast in Greece if you want a piece of bread!

I was also told that some of the Greek restaurants in the United States are really good and authentic.

Here are some foods I have eaten here and like!

 Tzatziki-you dip bread in it. It is yummy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dukejeffrie/






 Horiatiki-Greek Salad

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robwallace/

Ancient Greece Questions

The students at Whitefish Bay in Wisconsin sent me some good questions. Today I will answer the questions that the archaeologists helped me with and tomorrow I will write out the information from my guide.
Thanks for your questions!! I love how it helps me to talk to specialists here and they really liked the questions.

HOW OLD IS THE ACROPOLIS?
First-the age of the Acropolis. Acropolis actually means city on a hill. What you want to know about I think is the building on top called the Parthenon. They said that it is about 2458 years old. That means it is more than 2000 years older than the United States! Do you know the poem about Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492? Well that means that even when Columbus discovered America it was OLD already! Can you figure out how old?

HOW OLD IS ANCIENT?

The Archaeologists here thought your question about what ancient means was really good. They did not all agree on what it means and we all realized that it can mean different things in different situations. Like someone can say, "My couch is ancient" and mean 20 years old. And a paleontologist might find a bone and call it ancient and mean millions of years old.

The first thing that they said is that it was before the Middle Ages, so I asked them what that meant. They said you needed to figure that out! You can write me back and tell me what you think and I can find out what they say.


WHAT KIND OF CLOTHES DID PEOPLE WEAR IN ANCIENT GREECE?
I also asked about ancient clothes and they said that they wore tunics. A tunic is a big piece of cloth that they draped around themselves. They know this because of statues and painted pots that they have found. They did not sew, but sometimes used buttons and pins. I am putting in some pictures so that you can see what clues Archaeologists can get from pots and statues. They also said that they never wore pants and they were not sure about underwear or sox.

WHAT FOODS DID PEOPLE EAT IN ANCIENT GREECE?
Ancient Greeks ate a lot of the same foods that we do. They had LOTS of olives, olive oil and wine. They also ate bread, lentils, chickpeas, honey, fruit, cheese, and lots of seafood. They probably only ate meat (beef, pork, chicken, goat) on special occasions. They did NOT have tomatoes, squash, or coffee because those thing were brought from other countries later. The picture is a wine jug that was used to mix water with the wine so it was not too strong. It also has pictures of people and animals. The Archaeologists can learn a lot from this

In the next post I will answer the modern questions with the help of my guide.

Thanks to Eustaquio Santimago for the image of the Parthenon-from Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eustaquio

Foods Kids Like

Today I interviewed our guide and she told me all about foods in Greece. We picked out a few things that you might want to know about. I hope you find it interesting. Please ask questions and send me your videos and pictures of foods you like!