My #SUSI first week: Part III

Have I mentioned that time flies here? Well, it does! We are entering our third week here and I am still blogging about the first. Sorry guys and gals but things have been so intense. I promise to update you more often. Remember about the building storytelling I mentioned in my first blog post? During the Boston trip we experienced a pretty cool and informative tour led by Professor Max Grinnell aka The Urbanologist.

Professor Grinnell walked as through the historical and cultural secrets of Boston following some of the stops of the famous Freedom Trail and of the Walk of the Sea. We begun our tour by visiting the harbour, as "the sea is Boston's front door". I was really impressed by the old customs buildings and by the marvellous maps that accompanied our walk. Those maps were created in collaboration with Norman B. Leventhal Map Center hosted at Boston Public Library. Norman Leventhal, businessman, philanthropist and collector of historical maps partnered with Boston Public Library creating the aforementioned Map Center enabling access to 250.000 maps and atlases. Next time I will be in Boston I will make sure to visit!

Another thing that impressed me in Boston was the beautiful architecture. You can find really interesting buildings, ranging from different styles mixing modern ones with more colonial and historical. But it surprised me also the fact that some of the most historical buildings have now been turned into commercial stores, like Old Corner Bookstore. 

Continuing our tour, we had the chance to see the first public school in America, home of the Old City Hall where 38 Boston mayors served their terms of office and where one can find The Democratic Donkey and the Republican Elephant (it can't be more relevant thinking of the upcoming presidential elections).

Cemeteries are also cool places to visit in Boston as you will discover apart from historical information and more exciting information such as trivia about Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. Can you see the letter A below?

I am sure I've mentioned a million times how historical Boston is, and I have used this word over 10 times in this post. Let me add political as well. One of the most influential families in the US and global history, the Kennendys, routed from the heart of Massachusetts. We had the chance to enter the lobby of the- I will repeat the word again- historical Omni Parker House, where JFK announced his bid for Congress in 1946, as well as where he proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier and had his bachelor party in 1953.

Speaking of politics I am really enjoying the way public spaces are used in the US and I will come back to this topic in my future posts. In Boston, Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall are still the main public spaces for Bostonians to meet, discuss, perform, eat, read, play, shop.

Filled with all that food for thought, some food before departing was also necessary!

So bye-bye Boston and thanks- and literally- for all the fish :)

My #SUSI first week: Part II

So, where are we? Oh, yes! To the train to Boston, in the heart of Massachusetts and one of the oldest and most historical cities of the US.

We arrived at the prestigious South Station, named after the former Governor Michael S.Dukakis, only the second Greek American Governor in the US history (and a really charming guy when he was younger), so I immediately felt connected with the city! We checked in Hilton and the adventure begun. The fun thing is that we had to roommate with one of our colleagues, but we didn't know who that person would be until we arrived at the hotel.

This day I had an appointment at the Science Museum and as I was heading to it, I really didn't know what to expect. Well, of course I had checked the website, but when I got there I was totally amazed. If you ever go to Boston, please add it to your checklist. As I entered the lobby, I saw all the names of the great Greek ancient scientists (did I mention that the current president of the Museum is Greek? Something serious is going on between Boston and Greek people).

There, I had a lovely and inspiring tour led by Larry Ralph, Director, Education Enterprises and Temporary Exhibits that explained to me the whole philosophy of the museum, which is based on exploration, interaction and the relation between technology and nature. I was overwhelmed by the amount of exhibit items and the intelligence behind the curation. If there is a model for science communication and education, Science Museum is with no doubt the leader. The most exciting part  of my tour was the opportunity I had to have a sneak peek of the upcoming exhibition (opens in June 28th), The Science Behind Pixar. So, Larry I truly appreciate it :)

This whole science thing made me feel like a Bing Bang Theory character, so what was next in the schedule was absolutely perfect: FOOD! We ended up in a very cosy restaurant by the harbour where I shared with my partner in crime Dina (thanks Dina!) this gigantic plate of mussels and pasta seafood (I know that somewhere there is a much more funnier pic of my trying to eat all the mussels).

The next morning and having our stomach still full, we decided to feed our minds. Off to Harvard, one of the most famous Universities in the world. On our way there, I discovered the certificate I would love to have from Harvard.

I am not sure, if you can see it clearly, but yes it is a Certificate on Bartending from Harvard, isn't that cool? After wandering around in Harvard Square, the tour begun. Our guide gave us an extended tour of the University facilities sharing with us anecdotes about the school.

Did you know that there are three misleading information in George Harvard's statue sign? Or that the Harvard Library is related to the Titanic? Or that some of the main study rooms resemble the halls of Harry Potter's Hogwarts School? Maybe that's why JK Rowling addressed a magical speech on 2008's graduation ceremony on failure and imagination.

Later on and getting back to Boston, we had a chance to experience the city. I really loved the statues (there are tons of them) capturing historical moments and persons.

The following day was absolutely magic, as we sailed to Salem (note to self: remember to make the connection between Salem and entrepreneurship in the next blog post). There, we visited the Witch Trials Memorial

but what captured my imagination was the guided visit to the House of the Seven Gables. If you haven't read the book, please do. The house and its history- and especially the story of Caroline Emmerton, founder of the present day museum, were really interesting, under the scope of their relation to the modern american history.

Off to our brooms back to Boston!

After an extremely long day and really sore feet

we had a lovely dinner at Mitelene (Greece again... not my fault guys) Fletcher's house. Mitelene is Director of Pre K-12 International Programs at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and alumna of NYU Education doctoral program. You can see how shinny that evening was!

I think I am going to stop here and leave the rest of the Boston trip for the next blog post... So, Cheers!

My #SUSI first week: Part I

It all started some months ago when I received a phone call from the Public Affairs Department of the US Embassy in Athens informing me and encouraging me towards a great opportunity: to apply for this year's fellowship in Studies of United States Institute on U.S. Culture and Society. So, I filled the application and waited...

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait much, as couple of months later my phone rang again. The news were fantastic- otherwise I assume you wouldn't have been reading this blogpost-! I was selected along with 17 more fellows from around the world to participate :)

So, when the day came my wonderful friends threw me a farewell party where they made sure to provide me with all the essentials (Miss u guys!).

And there I was on my way to New York! Did I mention that the fellowship is hosted by NYU (the excitement keeps growing)?? Having as my motto, "If I can make it to New York, I can make it everywhere" I flew to JFK ready to face this adventure.

After 10 hours in the plane (thank God Delta Airlines have launched again their direct flights to NYC) I got to the Big Apple and checked in at Palladium, my new home for the following 6 weeks in  Union Square.

My first week passed really quick- time flies and when you are in NYC flies faster I think- and it had a bit of everything: excitement, new friends, sun, rain, witches, Larry Bird, great tours, lots of walking, interesting lectures, libraries, sore feet, jet lag, rooftop cocktails.

The first day we experienced an amazing tour of midtown Manhattan led by Carol Krinsky, Professor of Art History in NYU. As she stated, this isn't going to be a tour-lecture about architecture, art and aesthetics, but a story of money, engineering and law. Carol is a great storyteller and did what I love to call "building storytelling". Every building is a kind of medium, narrating not only its own story, but as well as the story of cities, people and different eras.

The following days we had the chance to visit and explore a bit the Bobst NYU Library, a treasure house of research. Designed as a "donut" and after Manhattan, having an uptown part, where it is more quiet, and an downtown part, where it is more noisy, this library is going to host me tooooooooo many hours during this trip.

Of course, I couldn't help visiting Forbidden Planet (next door literally), Barnes and Noble as well as The Strand where I spotted The Woods, a comic series co-created by my dearest friend and work partner Mike Dialynas.

Although we were exhausted we couldn't say no to the famous Manhattan rooftops where we enjoyed famous cocktails with a stunning view.

If you think that my first week is over, you are wrong as on Thursday we all boarded to the train to New England. But more about this trip in my following post. I am leaving you with the sweetest flavour of the traditional New York cheesecake.