My #SUSI Second Week: Part III

 The week ended with a free weekend, so we decided to explore NYC and to visit the Greek community in Astoria, seeking desperately for a freddo cappuccino. Friday was cocktails and Saturday was brunch and shopping, as true Manhattan girls. Saturday was back to the roots!

That Friday, me, Dina, Dominika and Natalia walked the famous High Line for the first time, a 2.33 km long linear park built on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad, called the West Side Line.  High Line park is an excellent example not only of urban design, but also of place branding. The area (Chelsea) was totally revitalised with many shops, bars, restaurants, cultural organisations etc to have moved there creating a whole new atmosphere. The park is a real beauty with great views of the city and the Hudson River and it's a must if you are visiting. After our walk we had some drinks on a nice rooftop just underneath the famous Standard Hotel.

The next morning the scenery was kind of Gorillas in the Mist, but this tiny detail made our NYC exploration more atmospheric.

After a rich brunch we decided to do what New Yorkers do: shopping! This is a tough sport in Manhattan especially during mid-season sales. So, if you think it was easy, trust me... it wasn't. But we had so much fun and for sure we got some nice pieces for our wardrobes. Isn't that dress a cutie, or what?

Sunday was Astoria day. We took the subway and visited one of the most famous neighbourhoods in NY. A good beginning makes for sure a good ending and that Sunday begun with a delicious coffee at Avenue Cafe! Look how happy I am! And look how delicious the coffee is!

When I was planning my trip to NY, I tried to make a list with the things and places I wanted to do and visit. The Museum of Moving Image in Astoria was in that list, so after our coffee we headed there. The Museum is located next to Kauffman Studios, home of many famous movies.

If you ever visit New York please, please, please don't miss that Museum. The architecture is beautiful, a minimal, clean line building, resembling something both Scandinavian and Japanese. And the exhibitions mind blowing. By the time we visited, the Museum hosted an exhibition about storytelling in the digital era and an exhibition, wait for it....... about Mad Men.

In addition the ongoing exhibition, Behind the Screen, is a piece of art, as it guides you step by step to the whole process of producing, promoting and presenting films, television shows and digital entertainment, through interesting and rare artifacts. Just, a sneak peek...

Full of cultural experiences we were thirsty for food and lemonade. And we found the perfect spot: Monikas Cafe Bar. Manolis served us the best lemonade ever!

Before saying goodbye to Astoria we visited Astoria Park and waved hello to Manhattan. 

I've mentioned before how much I enjoyed the use of public spaces in the US and how communities act creatively in producing several projects. This particular captured my mind. Isn't it an exciting idea?

Heading back to the subway, we couldn't resist having another coffee and tasting the epitome of the Greek-American fusion: baklavas cheesecake at Omonia Cafe. This is certainly my new favorite dessert.

Free weekend was over and we were ready for the week number three! Stay tuned!

My #SUSI Second Week: Part II

This blog post is dedicated to the wonderful meetings I had during my second week in New York, to a theater play we attended in Broadway and to a revelation I had regarding the lyrics of a famous song from West Side Story.

Two years ago I was emailing back and forth with Jessica Milestone, working back then at Cooney Center , an amazing research hub on digital media and gaming as a learning tool. Jessica had developed a research on how teachers use gaming in their classrooms and what I did was to translate and disseminate this research to the Greek audience. Unfortunately, the results were never published (might do that some day in the future) but it really helped me understand better how the greek educational system stands towards gaming and digital literacy. Now Jessica works for a fabulous company, called BrainPop . Remember me talking about science communication? Well, BrainPop produces audiovisual educational material, plus games in order to help educators and students understand better and interact more creatively with a variety of topics. Jessica was kind enough to give me a tour guide in BrainPop and to discuss with me possible ventures and collaborations. So, stay tuned because something might be on the way!

My week continued with meeting another super creative person, Cassandra Pelham, Senior Editor at Graphix Books, an imprint of Scholastic Press (special thanks to Jeff Smith and Kathleen Glosan for making this happen). Graphix Books is one of the top publishing houses for young audiences, and a model for me regarding the educational use of comic books. You can check their great books here. So, I enter Scholastic and guess who welcomes me...

Yes, it's Harry Potter!

So, Cassandra and I had a really nice chat on how she works with different creators, what fascinates and what challenges her most in her job. Being an editor is a very tough, but rewarding task, especially because you are able to see all the progress and the development of an idea to an actual book.

And now, let's move to Broadway. As I mentioned earlier, we had the opportunity to attend a play. When someone thinks of Broadway, musicals are the first thing to come in mind. But the play we attended was unexpected.  Hand to God, a new American play, as characterised, "it's a dark comedy that explores the startlingly fragile nature of faith, morality and the ties that bind us". Provocative and with brilliant acting "it makes you laugh, and laugh and laugh. And then makes you think".

Some of my new great friends posing in front of the theater.  

Staying in Broadway, later on this week we had an interesting panel on poverty in America where one of the panelists talked about the lyrics of the famous West Side Story song "Gee Officer Krupke" and how by analysing it one can understands how social identities were constructed and stereotyped with a special focus on juvenile delinquency. Listen again to the lyrics:

and then read this enlightening analysis. Any thoughts?

My #SUSI Second Week: Part I

I am pretty sure I have lost all of my blog followers as I had failed the number one rule for engaging audiences in social media: feed the content monster (quoting Gay Kawasaki). But I have a really good excuse. Actually two. Or maybe three. I got sick and then we traveled for six days to Colorado and then I had to survive (I still have) the Greek crisis. Soooooo, am I excused?

That week begun with an interesting lecture by Rene Arcilla, Professor, Philosophy and Humanities Education in NYU entitled: The search of Community in the American Imagination where we tried to explore how communities were build in the US- and how communities are build in general- and what is the role of imagination in this process. From my point of view, and trying to think also of virtual communities, people tend to collaborate and form groups in order to create and share stories and experiences. As Professor Arcilla stated, during his analysis of Richard Rorty's book "Achieving Our Country"  "community is searching for something together" incorporating the elements of imagination, adventure, experimentation and mistakes (elements that I can certainly experience the past week facing the crisis in my country). And I will be back with the community building thing as our third week was mainly focused on diverse communities that formed the US nation.

This very night we continued exploring our new neighbourhood and I can assure you that all this exploration (and the rest to come) is for academic reasons and part of our research here, as we want to understand as much as we can the US culture and society :)

We ended to a very nice jazz bar close to Washington Square that made me feel I was part of the Mad Men cast (please keep that) so I was even more excited!

The lectures continued throughout the week, but I also had the chance to meet with two interesting people and experience theatre plays on Broadway and in the park.

So, we discussed media and censorship and for me it's super intriguing to witness how the whole Greek situation has been covered the past weeks form international and local media (maybe this is a book idea!), entrepreneurship and the rise of middle class.

I had to consume lots of coffee in order to connect the dots between my notes and make the accordingly co-relations with current political, economical and social issues. For example, I really liked the approach of Professor Brian Murphy on studying entrepreneurship via history and politics, and during his lecture I couldn't help thinking that the first period of entrepreneurial growth in the US where one bank existed and lots of limitations reminds of Greece current situation.

He also mentioned that Salem (remember what I told you? I always keep my promises) and other cities in New England during the pre-bank era, due to heavy winter had to come up with other ideas than farming in order to generate money. This concept is close to the startup concept: the best entrepreneurial ideas are the ones that solve or try to solve an everyday problem with an innovative way. So, I will definitely read more history in order to understand better the entrepreneurial wave. Did you know that George Washington was one of the first and best entrepreneurs?

And on that note, I am gonna kiss you goodnight and I promise, promise, promise that I will continue with parts II and III as soon as I can!

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!