Master List of Museums with Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and/or Near Eastern Antiquities in the United States of America

This post was originally posted on Tumblr, October 16, 2018, at this URL: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/179105816745/master-list-of-museums-with-greek-roman 

These collections may not be extensive or on display (and may contain only one culture from the above list), and I am including museums with minimal collections as well; please check with the museum before you visit or check their collections search online if the object(s) you wish to see is/are on view.

Feel free to message me if I’ve missed a museum! I’ll be constantly updating this post. (Initial Post: October 16, 2018; First Update: October 16, 2018, 2:18 p.m. Pacific; Second Update: October 16, 2018, 7:15 p.m. Pacific; Third Update: October 17, 2018, 6:29 p.m.; Fourth Update: October 21, 2018, 10:36 p.m.; Fifth Update: November 4, 2018, 9:06 a.m.)





Alabama:

• Anniston Museum of Natural History (Anniston, AL) 
• Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL) 

California:

• Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology (Berkeley, CA) 
• Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University (Stanford, CA) 
• J. Paul Getty Museum (“the Getty” which includes the Getty Center and the Getty Villa) (Los Angeles, CA) 
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA) 
• Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) 
• Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA) at the California State University, San Bernardino (San Bernardino, CA) 
• Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (REM) (San José, CA) 
• San Diego Museum of Man (San Diego, CA) 
• Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara, CA) (Collection for Greek and Roman Art not on view, but can be found in Collections Search) 

Colorado:

• Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Denver, CO) 
• University of Colorado Boulder Art Museum (Boulder, CO) 

Florida:

• The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art at Florida State University (Sarasota, FL) 
• Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL) 
• Museum of Dinosaurs and Ancient Cultures (Cocoa Beach, FL) 
• Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, FL) 
• Tampa Museum of Art (Tampa, FL) 

Georgia:

• Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University (Atlanta, GA) 

Illinois:

• The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL) 
• The Field Museum (Chicago, IL) 
• The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL) 
• Spurlock Museum of World Cultures at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Urbana, IL) 
• Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, IL) 

Indiana:

• Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) 
• Gustav Jeeninga Museum of Bible & Near Eastern Studies at Anderson University (Anderson, IN) 

Kansas:

• Museum of World Treasures (Wichita, KS) 

Maryland:

• Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD) 
• John Hopkins Archaeological Museum (Baltimore, MD) 
• Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, MD) 

Massachusetts:

• Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) 
• Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield, MA) 
• Fitchburg Art Museum (Fitchburg, MA) 
• The Harvard Semitic Museum (Cambridge, MA) 
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA) 
• The New Bedford Museum of Glass (New Bedford, MA) 
• Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) 
• Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, MA) 

Michigan:

• Institute of Archaeology & Siegfried H. Horn Museum at Andrews University (Berrien Springs, MI) 
• Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, MI) 
• Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) 

Minnesota:

• Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, MN) 

Mississippi:

• The Lois Dowdle Cobb Museum of Archaeology at Mississippi State University (Mississippi State, MS) 
• The University of Mississippi Museum (Oxford, MS) 

Missouri:

• Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri (Columbia, MO) 
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO) 
• Saint Louis Art Museum (St. Louis, MO) 

Nevada:

• Las Vegas Natural History Museum (Las Vegas, NV) (Note: the artifacts are replicas of the tomb of Tutankhamun and other Egyptian antiquities and are one of only two sets that were authorized by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities) 

New Hampshire:

• Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) 

New Jersey:

• Newark Museum (Newark, NJ) 
• Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ) 

New York:

• The Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY) 
• Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY) 
• The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, NY) 
• Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art in the William D. Walsh Family Library at Fordham University (New York, NY) 
• Onassis Cultural Center (New York, NY) (Note: exhibitions vary but may contain art from Ancient Greece) 
• Steinberg Museum of Art at Long Island University (Brookville, NY) 

North Carolina:

• Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) 
• Gregg Museum of Art & Design at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC) 
• Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (Durham, NC) 
• North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC) 

Ohio:

• Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati, OH) 
• Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH) 
• Museum of Classical Archaeology at Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) 
• Museum of Natural History & Science (Cincinnati, OH) 
• Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, OH) 

Oklahoma:

• Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art (Shawnee, OK) 

Oregon:

• Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University (Salem, OR) 
• Prewitt–Allen Archaeological Museum at Corban University (Salem, OR) 

Pennsylvania:

• Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia, PA) 
• Carnegie Museum of Natural History (Pittsburgh, PA) 
• Kelso Museum of Near Eastern Archaeology at the Pittsburg Theological Seminary (Pittsburgh, PA) 
• Reading Public Museum (West Reading, PA) 
• University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Philadelphia, PA) 

Rhode Island:

• Rhode Island School of Design Museum (Providence, RI) 

Tennessee:

• Art Museum of the University of Memphis (Memphis, TN) 
• Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum at Southern Adventist University (Collegedale, TN) 
• McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN) 
• The Parthenon (Nashville, TN) (Note: the Parthenon is more like a building of art itself as it’s a replica and the art in its galleries are not from the ancient world) 

Texas:

• Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX) 
• The Houston Museum of Natural Science (Houston, TX) 
• Kimbell Art Museum (Forth Worth, TX) 
• The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX) 
• San Antonio Museum of Art (San Antonio, TX) 

Utah:

• Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Salt Lake City, UT) 
• Utah State University Museum of Anthropology (Logan, UT) 

Vermont:

• Fleming Museum of Art at the University of Vermont (Burlington, VT) 
• Middlebury College Museum of Art (Middlebury, VT) 

Virginia:

• Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, VA) 
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, VA) 

Washington:

• Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA) 

Washington, D.C.:

• Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) 

West Virginia:

• Huntington Museum of Art (Huntington, WV) 

Wisconsin:

• Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit College (St. Beloit, WI) 
• Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI)

A "Useless" Degree

This post was originally published on Tumblr, November 20, 2018, at this URL: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/180334541050/a-useless-degree 

It’s something that a lot of us hear - or dread hearing - when we’re starting off in university. “What are you going to do with a useless degree like that?” Some variation of this question will be said, whether it’s by a friend, a family member, or even a perfect stranger who decided that they knew better about your future than you do.

Here’s the thing about academia - all degrees have value, but the amount it’s worth is always going to be up to you. Did you go into your university career with a different major than you have now? I did. This degree was less lucrative, less “useful” than my previous major would have been. But I excelled in the classes, and I enjoyed them, which was not what I was doing in my previous program.

The experience you have while you’re studying at the undergraduate, or even graduate, level does not just have to extend to coursework, but to other things as well. Did you make new friends? Did you uncover an interest you might have not otherwise known about had you not taken that class? Did you overcome a fear? Did you read more books than you ever thought possible? Did you learn something new about yourself? Did you have fun? Did you laugh? Do you have a professor who will stand out in your mind forever because of their literal catchphrase? (Mine was a Medieval professor who started every first day of class with: “There is no use of the F-word in my class! You can fuck all you want, but noooooooooooo feudalism!” - I had him for three different Medieval courses and looked forward to the reactions every single time.)

Your program is there to help you learn and become a better scholar, but it is also to help you grow as a person. To me, there is no such thing as a useless degree - I get more out of my degrees than most people would expect. Do I need to indicate that I have a Creative Writing degree on my CV for my museum work? No, but I claimed it as a double major because I wanted to do it for my own enrichment, my own enjoyment, and if you’re doing something that makes you feel good, then it’s not useless.

If you have fun, your degree is worthwhile.

If you’ve made friends, your degree is worthwhile.

If you have memories you’ll never forget, your degree is worthwhile.

If you learned anything during your program, your degree is worthwhile.

If you found yourself during your program, your degree is worthwhile.

Remember, there is no such thing as a “useless” degree. If you’re enjoying it, if you love it, and you’re studying it because you want to, that’s more than enough for your degree to be worthwhile. Let no one stop you from doing what you love.

Academic Advice Given on Tumblr - Backup

This ask was originally posted on Tumblr, November 6, 2018, at this URL: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/179847323830/hi-im-a-high-schooler-who-wants-to-pursue-a

Original Ask: hi! i'm a high-schooler who wants to pursue a career in classics and ancient history and you're a massive inspiration to me, I was wondering if you have any advice for an aspiring classicist

My Answer:
Hey! I’m glad to be an inspiration :3

So, the first thing I would suggest is to read, read, read. I know it’s expensive to get a lot of books, but remember that public libraries (and check your high school library, too!) might have many of the books you might want to read before you head into a Classics program.

If you would prefer to have these things online so you can access a lot of different things, here are my favorite websites to refer to:

• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
• https://www.gutenberg.org/
• http://www.sacred-texts.com/search.htm

The next thing to remember is that if you’re an undergraduate student, you’re not going to know everything in every class. Be open to exploring - take courses that have a focus on the ancient world, but don’t be afraid to stray into other courses (I took enough Medieval courses (history, literature, art history) that I was one course away from a minor). One of the things that I would recommend is searching for schools that have a program you think you’ll enjoy and e-mail the professors! I e-mailed the director of the Classical Studies department at Villanova University back and forth for a long time before I applied to the graduate program and she was quite supportive and explained things well to me. This was a big reason I decided that I decided that Villanova was right for me. The professors and how they interact with potential students will tell you a lot about the faculty as well as the program. Look through the potential courses at the universities you’re interested in, and whether they have all the courses, you would be interested in, including courses for other aspects of the field.

Classics courses can be under Anthropology or Archaeology, Art History, English/Literature, Greek/Latin, Library Sciences, Law, Museum Studies, Theatre, etc. If you’re interested in exploring any of these areas of Classics, I would suggest exploring these courses if the university offers them as well. This would also help you hone in on what area of the field you might be most interested in pursuing - a lot of people who go into Classics either end up teaching or working in a museum, from my experience. However, those aren’t your only choices, and we’ll get back to that more towards the end :3

If you’re not sure if you’d like archaeology, if you can afford an archaeological field school, I would say try to participate in one when you’re an undergraduate student, or if you can’t, see if your local state parks have any need for archaeological volunteers. That’s something that I’ve been investigating in Las Vegas (where I live); this isn’t Classics specifically, but much of the work will be similar so you can gauge whether you like digging enough to do it for a living. This past summer I did my first archaeological field school (three years after I completed my B.A. in History/Classics), so if you wait a little longer, that’s okay, too. But, I loved it, and I definitely want to dig again, so I think that it’s important to find a way to pursue those opportunities when you can (I was lucky to get a full-time job a year before I went and was able to save up - I didn’t take any vacation time in the year and a half from when I was hired until after the field school). There are field school scholarships that you can apply to, like the Jane C. Waldbaum Archaeological Field School Scholarship (https://www.archaeological.org/grants/708), that are for students pursuing their first field school, amongst other funding, so make sure you look everywhere and ask your university if they have a database for field school funding. A lot of your anthropology and archaeology professors will be helpful in asking about this. Your university might also have archaeology opportunities on campus as well; my alma mater, the University of Delaware, had an Archaeology Laboratory that I volunteered in for extra credit and continued to do so once my course was over because I enjoyed it so much. See what’s around and how you can help out!

In the same vein, if you’re interested in museum work, look to see if you can volunteer over the summer, or once you’re a university student, see if you can enroll in an internship for credit. Sometimes your university galleries and museums might have a program, so look into that, too! I did a Curatorial Apprenticeship Program at the University of Delaware and was able to conduct an Independent Study for credit through the museum program (now the University of Delaware has a Museum Studies minor). I’ve always known that my end goal was to be a curator, but there’s plenty of other aspects of museums you can explore: education, administration, museum libraries, and a lot of other departments, depending on the size of the institution. If you’re in the U.S., you can check my museum post to see if your state has ancient art (https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/179105816745/master-list-of-museums-with-greek-roman), and if you’re in another country, don’t worry, I’m working on master lists for other countries, too.

Many courses may be taught in translation (especially if you’re taking it as an English Literature or Foreign Language in Translation course), so see if you can find the best or most highly recommended translations by professors. See what the book lists are for the courses at the universities you’re looking at and try to find your favorite translation. I just bought the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey, which I have a feeling will be my favorite translation. This is The Iliad translation I have (http://www.librarything.com/work/3426497/book/161094444), The Aeneid (http://www.librarything.com/work/11862/book/161072440), Metamorphoses (http://www.librarything.com/work/3439/book/161072432), and The Love Songs of Sappho (http://www.librarything.com/work/237534/book/161093187). All of these were assigned textbooks for my Biblical and Classical Literature and Mythology courses at the University of Delaware between 2007-2015 (those links take you to my LibraryThing, which will tell you most of the books that I own or I have on my wishlist, if you want to check them out; I haven’t finished organizing their categories yet, though, so it’s a WIP).

If you haven’t been exposed to Ancient Greek or Latin at the high school level and university will be the first time you encounter these languages (as was true for me), you don’t necessarily have to know anything by the first day of class. However, if you would like a head start, here are some lessons on Ancient Greek in YouTube format (http://www.openculture.com/2016/08/learn-ancient-greek-in-64-free-lessons-from-brandeis-harvard.html) and in text format (https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/grkol). Latin, unsurprisingly, has a lot more resources for free online learning (I even bought a Udemy course to review my Latin): The University of Texas at Austin: https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/latol, http://learn101.org/latin.php, and this list is good to consult: https://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/latinapps.htm. I haven’t used all of these myself, so explore and see which ones would be best for you and works best for how you learn.

If you decide to continue with Classics into the graduate level, keep in mind that you’ll need German AND French or Italian. I took both French and Italian as an undergraduate and I can read French pretty well because I took it for four years in high school and studied abroad in Caen for five weeks as an undergraduate. Italian I can kind of read alright, but I know no German, which I need to work on. So, if you have a language requirement and your Latin or Greek does not count, keep those languages in mind. (Sometimes you have to take a certain amount of Latin or Ancient Greek for it to count, and your program may not require as many ancient language courses for your major as the language requirement for the university, etc. I only needed to take Ancient Greek or Latin, but I decided I wanted to do both.)

Classics is an extremely interdisciplinary field, so you have a lot of options, both as an undergraduate and a graduate student. You don’t necessarily need to go straight into graduate school, either. You can teach at the high school level, you can go into archaeology fieldwork or museum work, or do a variety of other things. It’s up to you. I took a year off, got a different Master of Arts degree before I applied to my M.A. in Classical Studies. It’s different for everyone. I’ll be 30 when I get my M.A. in Classical Studies, so take your time and explore things that call to you. Don’t rush things and have fun!

Of course, I’m sure you want to know “What can I do with a Classics degree?” Luckily, many places have already made lists like this! Here they are:

• https://www.angelo.edu/services/career/majors/classics.php
• https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/careers/subjects/classics/
• https://classicalstudies.org/education/careers-for-classicists/an-undergraduate-degree-in-the-classics
• https://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/careersandemployability/subjectfactsheets/subjectfacsheets/2016ese030_Classics_st1.pdf
• http://loveofhistory.com/what-jobs-can-you-get-with-an-ancient-history-and-classics-degree/
• https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/classics

And I made a post with different places that post Classics positions as well, for when you’re ready to look for those (I check them regularly to see the requirements people want for these positions to either match up or if I need further training or credentials): https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/178955792555/since-im-still-in-my-ma-program-for-classical

TLDR & recap:

• Read, read, read 
• Research your potential schools 
• Volunteer 
• Explore aspects of the field 
• Have fun! 

Additionally, I found this list of people that have Classics degrees :3 https://rogueclassicism.com/folks-you-didnt-know-maybe-had-classics-degrees/

I hope you found this helpful and I apologize for the length, but feel free to drop me a line whenever you like if you need more advice or would like me to expand on any of my experiences!

All the best,
The Ancient Geeko-Roman

P.S. Folklore Fiancé wanted to make sure I didn’t overwhelm you and wanted to encourage you to make sure you take your time and take breaks when studying. Don’t overwhelm yourself with your research; take your time to explore different areas and don’t tackle too many things at once. *takes off parent hat*





This ask was originally posted on Tumblr, November 8, 2018, at this URL: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/179914532575/hi-so-im-a-high-school-freshman-rn-lol-but-i-want 

Original Ask: Hi so I'm a high school freshman rn lol but I want to study archaeology, and in my country they don't teach that, like it's not a career, there's only anthropology. So I've been researching a lot and I found out that La Sapienza in Rome teaches it. But idk do you think that it would be fine to go and study it abroad? Also, should I learn latin or ancient greek?

My Answer:
Hello!
Anthropology is a good way to start and get to archaeology - the University of Delaware (my alma mater in the U.S.A.) just has Anthropology, but under that department, there are archaeology courses. One of my courses was Prehistoric Archaeology (which was one of my favorite classes!) listed as an Anthropology class. Also, remember that if you study a related program as an undergraduate, getting a graduate degree in Archaeology is possible. My undergraduate degree was in History with a concentration in Classics, so it was relevant for my Classical Studies MA, and then my Ph.D. is going to be specific to ancient art and archaeology (once I get in, that is!) A lot of different subjects are relevant to archaeology, so you don’t necessarily need to study it as an undergraduate. You can major in a relevant but different program, and go to archaeological field schools to gain archaeology experience. One of the most important things to remember about archaeology is that, from what I have been told, is that the most important aspect of archaeology is the experience. The more you dig, the better! Potential employers, at least in the United States, look more at how much you have dug in the past - it’s great to have the education - but finding digs you can participate in (and if you decide to go to Italy, there will be no shortage of digs you might be able to participate in). But there’s nothing wrong with wanting to major in Archaeology specifically before you start digging.

However, if you really want to do a program abroad, do some research on the program. If you’re proficient in Italian, then I don’t think that would be an issue - but remember, studying abroad for a long period of time or for a full program is much different than short-term studying abroad. If your country does not have archaeology as a career, you should assess where you might want to go if that’s your career goal. It does make it easier when you’ve studied in that country to get a position as a professional there once you’ve completed the program. I’ve studied abroad four times, but it was always between two and five weeks, so I can’t speak too much on doing a full program abroad (anyone who is doing their program abroad and wants to add some specific advice to this, please do!)

The other thing you really should consider with studying abroad is funding; make sure you look into the funding available for foreign/EU students (depending on where you live). See what the university offers and search to see if there are any exchange programs between your country and Italy that might provide you with a fellowship/scholarship. Outside scholarships for exchange students are out there as well, so make sure you look everywhere for them! Unfortunately, since I’m U.S.-based, I’m not sure if your country does things quite the same way, but see if you can find scholarship search engines. I use things like FastWeb on a regular basis, but also Unigo, Cappex, and ScholarshipDetective. Smaller scholarships are always good to look for (I was awarded a $600 scholarship from Mensa in my last program, and all I was able to do was buy my books for two semesters, so it wasn’t a lot, but every little bit helps!) Look locally and at the university you’re applying to, and you can always e-mail the person listed on the funding page of the university and ask them questions about your concerns. I did this with the University of Wales Trinity St. David when I considered going there for Ancient Religions (and honestly I might take some of the classes for fun when I have the time and money because I don’t have enough courses about Ancient Religion), but the amount of funding that would be available for a distance student from the U.S.A. wasn’t enough for me to even take one course, so I looked for different options.

I would advise looking into other schools as well! If you’re proficient in Italian, you can look into other schools, too. You don’t necessarily have to stick to just La Sapienza, but I would suggest researching all possible options and perhaps compare them in terms of the specializations of the professors (if you want to study something that’s a research interest of a professor, you can e-mail them and discuss your desire to apply to the program), compare the weather for the university with the weather to what you’re used to and make sure you can handle the change or are at least prepared for it! I’m a beach baby who ended up in the desert, and I was not prepared. If you’re able to, I would visit the university as well, because I think visiting and getting to see the campus facilities (classrooms, dorms, library (libraries, if there’s more than one), dining halls, etc.) is important. This is where you’re going to study for a couple of years, it would be good to visit to get familiar with the campus and gauge if you feel that it’s a right fit for you.

So, in sum, I do think it’s totally fine to go abroad for your degree. I think studying abroad is really beneficial to people who do it, but the main concern for that is usually funding. If you would be comfortable living in a different country, I think you should do it, absolutely. As I said, I’ve only done short-term study abroad courses, so I can’t speak to semester/year/degree-length study abroad experiences, but if I had the chance myself, I would take it. Just do your research, e-mail potential professors, and consider whether you would like to stay at the university for a graduate program or to find archaeology as a career.

As for whether you should take Latin or Ancient Greek, that depends on a couple of things: your potential research interests, where you want to dig, and finally, what you think you will enjoy the most! My program only required me to take either Latin up to the 600 level (6 semesters for a new student), Ancient Greek up to the 600 level (6 semesters for a new student), or a combination of both Latin and Ancient Greek (a total of 8 classes). Since I didn’t know which one I would like better, I took both, so I could only take 4 semesters to complete the requirement because I took Ancient Greek and Latin at the same time. So, if you’re going to school for archaeology in Italy and you want to dig in the same place, Latin would make more sense. If you’re interested in digging in any of the ancient Greek areas (I dug in an ancient Greek and Thracian area of Bulgaria this past summer), then ancient Greek would be good to study. Part of the areas I visited in Bulgaria was inscribed with Latin, too, so it is prominent in a lot of places. Part of the reason I took both was because part of my research interest includes ancient religions and how they evolved, so I needed Ancient Greek and Latin and languages I haven’t even started looking at yet.

If you’re still not sure about whether to take Ancient Greek or Latin, I would read some of the Classical texts that are on reading lists in your native language, decide which texts you liked the best and decide from there whether you want to read those texts in their original language! For reference of what texts you should read in translation to decide, here is the link to the Yale list of reading for Classics: https://classics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/downloads/YaleUndergraduateReadingList.pdf and here is one from Balliol College, University of Oxford: https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/classics-reading-lists. These would be a great place to start, and if you’ve already read a lot of or a decent amount of them, think of which ones you liked more.

Finally, if you want to study both and are able to, study both! If you think you’ll like Ancient Greek more, then go for that one. I’m personally better at Latin, but I like Ancient Greek more. This might also depend on your program as well, how much they offer, and how far they expect you to go for your program. This would be another thing to add to your research list when looking into potential programs.

I wish you all the best, and I hope this helps! If you would like me to clarify or expand on anything I’ve said here, don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

-The Ancient Geeko-Roman





This ask was originally posted on Tumblr, November 10, 2018, at this URL: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/179972282550/hey-sorry-to-bother-you-but-i-recently-went-to-a

Original Ask: Hey sorry to bother you but I recently went to a classics uni taster course and sat there completely overwhelmed because whilst the actual lessons given were tailored to potential students who have never studied classics before (me), nearly everyone else there had and were engaging with the material in a way I simply couldn’t understand. Do you have a recommended reading list I could use over summer so that I don’t completely go in the deep end? :) thanks so much!

My Answer:
You’re not a bother at all, friend!

It is really overwhelming when you’re not used to it - and don’t worry, I have a whole degree in Classics, and I still get overwhelmed! It’s perfectly normal. There’s a lot of information and the Classical world spans so many locations and time periods, it’s a lot to take in. Everyone is going to be at different levels and remember - you can always learn. Your point of view and your voice is important, so if you have trouble engaging in the material how others are presenting it, think of how you engage with the material and how you would present it to others. You might be giving a lot of people another aspect of the material that they themselves had not considered.

Anyway!

So, before I went into my Classics degree, I had only read The Iliad and The Odyssey, and I didn’t even read them all the way through, but that’s where I would begin!

The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid are the “big 3″ that I had to keep reading over and over again, no matter what level of Classics I was in. However, there is a lot more reading!

The recommended reading list for Classics undergraduates from Yale University is found here (https://classics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/downloads/YaleUndergraduateReadingList.pdf) and is as follows (and please remember that this is for the whole of your undergraduate career, not what you should have done before you start):

Ancient Greek:

• Homer’s The Iliad: 1, 6, 9 (Ancient Greek), all of it in English 
• Homer’s The Odyssey: 4, 9 (Ancient Greek), all of it in English 
• Homeric Hymns: Demeter in Ancient Greek; Aphrodite, Apollo, and Hermes in English 
• Hesiod’s Works and Days 1-247 (Ancient Greek), all of it in English 
• Hesiod’s Theogony 1-232 (Ancient Greek), all of it in English 
• Archilochus 1, 2, 3, 6, 22, 74 (Ancient Greek), the English recommended is A. Miller’s Greek Lyric (I have never read this author at all, myself) 
• Sappho 1, 16, 31, 44 (Ancient Greek), English: A. Miller’s Greek Lyric is listed here again, and I would also recommend The Love Songs of Sappho, which is what I used in my course and enjoyed (https://www.amazon.com/Love-Songs-Sappho-Literary-Classics/dp/157392251X/) 
• Solon 1, 24 (Ancient Greek), A. Miller’s Greek Lyric selections in English (I have never read this author, either) 
• Simonides 542, 121D, 92D (Ancient Greek), A. Miller’s Greek Lyric selections in English (I have never read this author, either) 
• Bacchylides 3, 18 (Ancient Greek), A. Miller’s Greek Lyric selections in English 
• Pindar Ol. 1: In English: selections of Odes in A. Miller, Greek Lyric: Olympian 2, 12, 13, 14, Pythian 1, 3, 8, 10, Nemean 5, 10, Isthmian 5, 6, 7 
• Aeschylus’s Eumenides (Ancient Greek) 
• Aeschylus’s Oresteia (English) 
• Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex (Ancient Greek) 
• Sophocles in English: Ajax, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus 
• Euripides’s Medea (Ancient Greek) - one of my favorites 
• Euripides in English: Hippolytus and Bacchae 
• Aristophanes’s Clouds (Ancient Greek) 
• Aristophanes in English: Frogs, Birds, and Lysistrata (I performed Lysistrata when I was an undergraduate and played Kinesias. It was amazing and one of my favorite plays.) 
• Herodotus 1.192 (Ancient Greek), 6-9 in English 
• Thucydides 2.1-65 (Ancient Greek), 1, the rest of 2, 6, and 7 in English 
• Plato’s Republic I, Ion, Crito (Ancient Greek), Republic, Apology, and Symposium in English 
• Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics 1 (Ancient Greek), all of Poetics in English 
• Lysias 1 (Ancient Greek), Lysias 12 in English 
• Demosthenes’s First Philippic (Ancient Greek) 
• Apollonius’s Argonautica selections in N. Hopkinson, A Hellenistic Anthology: 1.536-58, 1.1153-71, 3.744-824, 4.1629-88 (Ancient Greek); all of the Argonautica in English 
• Callimachus: selections in N. Hopkinson, A Hellenistic Anthology: Reply to the Telchines (fr. 1), Acontius and Cydippe (frr. 67+75), The Bath of Pallas (Hymn 5), The Hymn to Zeus (Hymn 1) (Ancient Greek) 
• Theocritus 1, 15 (Ancient Greek), 7 and 11 in English 
• Plutarch’s Alcibiades (Ancient Greek) and in English: Alexander, Coriolanus & Comparison of Coriolanus and Alcibiades 

Additional English Readings:

• Lyric poetry, selections of Alcman, Alcaeus, Anacreon, and Theognis from A. Miller, Greek Lyric 
• Tetralogies by Antiphon 
• Dyscolus by Menander 
• Lucian: selected Dialogues of the Gods in L. Casson, Selected Satires of Lucian, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 20, 24; The Dream or Lucian’s Career, The Death of Peregrinus 
• Daphnis and Chloe by Longus 

That sure is a lot! But, again, remember, this is the reading list from which most undergraduates would be working off of for their final and comprehensive examinations, if your university conducts those types of requirements. This isn’t a list of things you should know before you’re in your program, but moreso what you should know at the end of it. So, here’s my recommendations from that list that I would suggest for you to read before you begin your program (in English, but if you have some knowledge of Ancient Greek, it would be good to give it a go for the recommendations listed here! But don’t worry, you don’t need to know everything before the first day of class).

Ancient Greek Readings (My Recommendations from the List Above):

• The Iliad 
• The Odyssey 
• Homeric Hymns 
• Theogony 
• Sappho (all) 
• Oresteia 
• Oedipus Rex 
• Antigone 
• Medea 
• Clouds and Lysistrata 
• Argonautica 

These are the ones I would start with; it’ll get you familiar with the type of readings you will have, it’s a little less overwhelming than the first list, and I’m going to be perfectly honest with you that I’ve not read a good chunk of the people on the list myself. But, I think that my recommendations are a little easier to digest and easier to get through than trying to read the whole list recommended for undergraduates. Onward we go!

Latin:

• Plautus’s Menaechmi (Latin), Aulularia and Amphitryo in English (the first time I read Amphitryo was as a graduate student) 
• Terence’s Adelphoe (Latin) (another one I didn’t read until I was a graduate student) 
• Ennius's Annales 34-50, 72-91, 96, 268-286 (as numbered in O. Skutsch’s Annals of Quintus Ennius) (Latin) 
• Catullus 1-16, 22, 28, 30-36, 44-46, 49-51, 58, 62-64, 68, 70, 72, 75, 76, 82-87, 92, 93, 95, 96, 99, 101, 109 (Latin), (I love his poetry ngl) 
• Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura I.1-448 (Latin) 
• Caesar’s Bellum Civile I (Latin) 
• Sallust’s Bellum Catilinae (Latin) 
• Cicero’s In Catilinam 1, Somnium Scipionis, Letters 1, 3, 6, 15, 18, 19, 20, 24, 27, 33, 34, 38, 52, 63, 67-69 (ed. Shackleton Bailey) (Latin), Brutus, Penguin Classics On the Good Life (Trans. Grant) in English 
• Horace’s Satires 1, Odes 1, Epistles 1 (Latin), Ars Poetica in English 
• Virgil’s Eclogues, Aeneid I, IV, VI, XII (Latin), Georgics and Aeneid (all) in English 
• Tibullus I.1, 3, 5 (Latin) 
• Propertius I.1, 3,5, 6, 11, 18-20; IV. 7-11 (Latin) 
• Nepos’s Atticus (Latin) 
• Ovid’s Amores 1, Metamorphoses 1 (Latin), Ars I and Metamorphoses (all) in English 
• Livy praef., I.1-16 (Latin), Books I and XXI in English 
• Res Gestae Divi Augusti 
• Seneca’s Phaedra, Letters 7, 47, 56 (Latin), Apocolocyntosis, Octavia in English 
• Lucan’s Bellum Civile I.1-182 (Latin); Books I and VII in English 
• Persius’s Satire 1 (Latin) 
• Petronius’s Satyricon chapters 26-78 in Latin, the rest in English 
• Martial’s De Spec. 31 and 34; Book I.1-4, 13, 16, 29, 32, 38 (Latin) 
• Pliny’s letters I.9, VI.16, VII.33, X.96-97 (Latin) 
• Tacitus’s Agricola 1-4, 42-46 and Annales I (Latin), Annales (all) in English (I’m literally reading these right now lol) 
• Juvenal’s Satires 1, 3 (Latin), 6, 10 (English) 
• Suetonius (in English): Augustus, Nero, Domitian 
• Apuleius Metamorphoses 1 (Latin), Metamorphoses (all) in English 
• Ammianus XVI.1, 5, 10; XXXI.16.7 (Latin), XIV.5.6-XV.8.16, XVI (all) in English 
• Augustine’s Confessions I.VIII(13)-XIV(23) (Latin), Confessions I (all) in English 
• Claudian’s In Eutropium I (English) 
• Boethius Consolatio Philosphiae 1 (English) (I never read this for a Classics course, but did have it in a Medieval Literature course in English) 
• Quintilian Instit. X.1.85-131 (English) 

Quite a lot here, too! From what I had to read in school as an undergraduate, I will give you a few recommendations for the Latin readings you might want to explore in English before you dive in to the works in Latin (again, if you are familiar with Latin, feel free to try and work through some of the recommendations above!)

Latin Readings (My Recommendations from the List Above):

• Ennius’s Annales 
• Catullus (all) 
• De Rerum Natura 
• Bellum Civile 
• Bellum Catilinae 
• In Catilinam 
• The Aeneid 
• Ovid’s Metamorphoses 
• Pliny’s letters 

Remember, these are all to start you off, and if you complete all of the readings I recommended, you can explore the expanded list and see what’s interesting to you. The recommendations I’ve made on what to read before you go into your program is based on what I read as an undergraduate and whether I had read it at all before I began graduate school. If anyone wants to specifically recommend anything I didn’t list as a must before beginning a program, please add it!

Here are the best places to find translations of these works, in case you cannot find them in your local library or don’t have the money to invest in all of them:

• http://classics.mit.edu/index.html
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
• https://www.sacred-texts.com/

I hope this helps and please let me know if you would like me to expand on anything else for you. Happy reading!

All the best,
The Ancient Geeko-Roman





Note:
All of the writing has been copied from the original post and is presented as it first appeared. No editing has been or will be made to these posts and are being copied here in the event that The Ancient Geeko-Roman Tumblr is deleted.

Graduate School #2: Midterms and Fall Break

     One thing that has never changed for me between undergraduate and graduate school is that realizing that it's time for midterms never fails to shock me. Where did the time go? Didn't time used to go slower than this? I know I've been studying and doing my other assignments, but...it can't be time for midterms already, can it?
     Oh, it can. And it is.
     I'm still flabbergasted. Ever. Single. Time.
     I've finished one of my midterms already, and my other midterm was just released on Sunday, but because I have a full-time job, I was working on Sunday (luckily, during the slow hours I was able to work on a quiz that was due that night and then stayed after work to finish it). Since this "weekend" (this Monday and Tuesday) was Fall Break, I decided I definitely needed a break to step back and let myself breathe for a moment. Folklore Fiancé encouraged me to do so, too, because they indicated that I've been overstressing and overworking myself lately (get yourself an S.O. who's both supportive and not afraid to call you out).
     Since my work schedule is Wednesday-Sunday, going to class on Monday and Tuesday worked perfectly for me, even though I'm in a different time zone. However, Folklore Fiancé reminded me that with this schedule, I really don't have a day off. I'm going, going, going for seven days a week without a break in between. Now, as much as I would like to just focus on my degree and nothing else, I, unfortunately, have a lot of bills to pay and with the position I have now, I'm learning a lot of valuable skills which will be helpful to me both for my Ph.D. program and my professional goals.
     So, I decided that I might look over or perhaps outline some of my midterm this weekend, but I wasn't going to let myself overstress about it. Part of the reason I'm so stressed out is that I'm used to being in programs where I could obsessively check my scores on my assignments, but there's no way for me to see my grades in the system we're currently using, and it's not doing my anxiety any favors. My last program used Canvas, so I was able to see my grades all semester as soon as my professor entered them in and we would see our averages.
     We don't have anything like that in my current program because we're doing everything through OneNote.
     Honestly, I don't mind using OneNote for the courses and assignments. It's a skill I didn't have before and can now say I've mastered, but the lack of access to grades has shot my anxiety through the roof. So, I definitely needed a break, especially after a full week of panicking about my History of Latin Literature exam.
     The last two days have been great. Yesterday, Folklore Fiancé and I got up, went to Starbucks, grabbed some croissants from Albertson's (neither of us is overly fond of the Starbucks food), and had our breakfast in the park. We came home and watched a movie, ate lunch, and I just generally got to spend some time with them without having to worry about work, homework, or class. Today, we got up, and I drove them to an appointment, and then we went on a small adventure. Folklore Fiancé had been craving sushi a lot, so we ventured to Japan Creek (a small Japanese store near us) to get them some good sushi, and we picked up some snacks as well. They ended up getting onigiri with salmon instead and a red bean bun for dessert. I'm allergic to fish, so I didn't get any of that, but I got a chocolate dessert bun, and then we headed to Albertson's (again) to get cases of water, some food for dinner, and then left to get me Capriotti's. (I had begun to get extra cranky by this point because it was past one o'clock and I was hungry). We had Ichiban ramen for dinner with stir-fry beef, Green Tea flavored Hello Panda cookies for dessert, and have been watching YouTube for a few hours.
     Thank the gods for Folklore Fiancé, who reminds me that I need to take a breather every once in a while. I'm recharged and feel more ready to go to work and dive back into my schoolwork tomorrow.

Graduate School #1: The Search, Acceptance, and Impostor Syndrome

     One of the most challenging things for me was finding a graduate program in the Classics. Due to my limited resources and because I currently hold a full-time permanent job in a museum, I was not able to move out of the state for a two-year program. I didn't want to risk not finding another job in my field or trying to figure out where I was going to live once I had completed the program (Folklore Fiancé and I are currently staying with their family). Since I had attended my first Master of Arts program online, I figured that attending a Classics/Classical Studies degree online would be doable as well.

     There was just one issue - I had never heard of any university offer Classics or Classical-related (e.g., Ancient History) graduate degrees online. Sure, some for-profit universities had programs, but I wanted to go to a not-for-profit and well-respected university if I was going to spend all that money for a second degree. There were some schools I considered in the United Kingdom, but I wanted to try and find a school in the United States if I could because international tuition can be brutal. The amount of research I put in to find a degree program that fit my criteria may make some peoples' head spin; one method was opening the Wikipedia lists of universities and colleges in each individual state. Another was going through the list from the Department of Education.

     It was quite time-consuming.

     However, once I had found a few options, I began to e-mail a lot of the department heads and other professors who were in the department. Most of the schools had a graduate program in History, with only a few offerings for ancient courses. All of those programs were general Master of Arts degrees. The University of Georgia offers a Post-Baccalaureate in Classical Languages, so that was one of my options as well, but I was aiming for a full Master's program, so this became my backup plan. I reasoned that if I did not get accepted to any programs, I could enroll in the Post-Bacc to keep up with my field and the next round of applications might go better.

     The discovery of the program at Villanova University felt like a sign from the gods - this was the only non-profit university I found that offered Classical Studies as a distance program. Some of the courses are taught solely online, but others are a mix of in-person students and online students. This sounded like a well-fitted program since the History programs had perhaps two or three courses focusing on ancient historical subject matter, Villanova moved to the top of my list.

     The e-mails I exchanged with Dr. DeNardis about the program made me even more eager to attend the school. I decided that I would apply to both Villanova and the University of Georgia for the Post-Bacc program. I spent the better half of two months going back and forth with two friends who were helping me with my Statement of Purpose for Villanova. Of course, if you follow me here or on any other platform, you know that I've gotten into Villanova. However, there are some interesting in-betweens I haven't elaborated on yet. During my exchange with Dr. DeNardis, I asked if the online students were eligible for the Tuition Scholarship, and she said yes, and I just had to attach a writing sample, so I did (my particular paper was an interdisciplinary paper on Percy Jackson, more on that later).
     Once I had gotten accepted into Villanova, I canceled my application for the University of Georgia Post-Bacc and refocused my energy on the current program I was in and continued to prepare for the archaeological field school I would be attending in the summer. Due to the number of people who applied to the program, I did not receive the Tuition Scholarship. I had other options, which I decided to tackle later (but would have rather not had to resort to loans again). The rest of the semester flew by, and I received my first Master of Arts degree in May. Then, Folklore Fiancé and I had to move during the beginning of the summer, and we got rather busy.
     One fateful day, I was checking my e-mail and saw that during the second round, I had been offered the Tuition Scholarship! I was ecstatic! However, I had missed the e-mail by a week or so, and it was past the deadline that she indicated I should respond. I freaked out, I e-mailed her back, indicated that, yes, please, I would be absolutely ecstatic to receive the scholarship. The next day, I called her office and repeated my plea. Another call and e-mail later, I found that I had still received the scholarship. It was one of the best feelings, knowing I would be able to afford my degree. It was one of the issues I knew I would face if I didn't get the scholarship since Master of Arts degrees aren't usually funded, so I was lucky.
     Before I knew it, I was about to have my first class.
     And I had a violent panic attack about it.
     The longer I was in class, the more I panicked right before my class time started. The people in my courses knew a lot. A lot of them are already Latin teachers and have been for some time; this made me feel like I was really out of my element. (Even though I know there is a lot more of Latin to explore, and the Roman empire was quite a long period of time, I do know more about Greek history and literature than I do for Roman...) My classmates are quite intelligent, which makes sense, but I felt extremely odd being in class with them. I felt like I couldn't contribute anything. I felt like I didn't know enough.
     I felt like an impostor.
     It had been quite a while since the last time I felt impostor syndrome. Apparently, there are different types of "impostors," and according to the way I am, I'm something called "The Expert." Once I started opening up about it, though, a lot of my friends (especially one who is in Scotland for her Paleontology Ph.D.!) were reassuring. So, remember, if you're a student at any level and feel like you don't deserve what you've been given (me, with my Tuition Scholarship when I heard my classmates in discussion) or that you feel like you should know more:

• You're a student for a reason, you're not supposed to know everything yet! Just study hard and do your best.
• You deserve your scholarship/funding/internship - you were given it for a reason. Keep up the good work!

     It's taken me a little time, and I'm working on it, but I know I belong there. There's a reason I was accepted into the university. There's a reason why I received the scholarship, even if it was in the second round. I just have to remind myself of my goals and why I'm there. I'm a student. I'm not supposed to know everything yet. This is a chance for me to learn, grow, better myself, and possibly discover new parts of the ancient world that interest me that I didn't get exposed to as an undergrad. Things can only improve from here!

     

Women Try Ancient Hairstyles

     This is something that has always interested me, so I love that I got to see a video where this was done! Something I plan to do on my channel once it launches is to recreate different parts of daily life for ancient people, so it'll range from anything from the beginning of civilization to the fall of the Roman Empire. This is one of the areas I would like to start exploring more, but because my hair is short, I have to find some  ̶v̶i̶c̶t̶i̶m̶s̶ willing participants first!

Field School: The Journey Home (Las Vegas)

     The flight from Atlanta wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. During our boarding, we were told that if we had rolling carry-ons, they would have to be checked and put in the hold, but I had prepared for that and removed the bag I had from Bulgaria - I had put all the souvenirs into my Balkan Heritage Field School tote bag and then put that inside my I <3 Bulgaria drawstring bag that I had used as my dig bag for the past week (I realized on the flight later I had forgotten to take my passport out of my roller carry-on and was frantically praying to Hermes to at least let me get that bag back if nothing else because how did I forget to remove my passport). The seats were a bit roomier than the ones on the Paris flight because there were significantly fewer people on this flight, so the seats were slightly bigger. The flight was supposed to be four hours and sixteen minutes long.
     I met someone named Dawn Rose on the way into the flight because she and I had seats near each other, but her traveling companion had a seat higher up in the plane. Both a person behind her and I told her they were willing to switch with him if she wanted; the other woman ended up switching, so I kept my aisle seat, which was next to Dawn Rose's aisle seat, so we talked for a bit because I told her I was on a dig in Bulgaria, so we talked about archaeology for a while, and she told me where she traveled, before we both went to do our own things.
     The flight had a snack, so I had a weird "cookie" that tasted like doughy cake and some Coke. When they had come back, I asked what they had for hot drinks, and I got tea and asked for their cookies, which complemented the black tea well. The flight had been blasting cold air at us (the downside to the aisle seat and being short is that I can't reach anything above me like the controls for that) the whole flight, and before we took off, they made an announcement that there were no blankets on board because Atlanta had a shortage, so they didn't take any. I was so cold that I made more trips to the bathroom than usual (as soon as I felt the slightest need to go) just so that I could warm up a little bit. At one point during the first bathroom trip, someone pushed on the door with a lot of force, so I yelled "Whoa," because, dude, I am doing my business in here, please wait for a second, the door says occupied.
     Despite the fact that the airline was selling headsets for $2 a piece, I just did what I had done on my first flight out of Vegas, and watched movies with subtitles and no earpieces. I put on Love, Simon again, so if I nodded off for a bit, it wasn't that big of a deal. The final stretch of the time, I put on Thor: Ragnarok, and nodded off during that a few times as well. I kept checking my watch because I was so anxious to get home.
     Once we landed, I gathered all of my things and began to message Folklore Fiancé. They were already at the airport, and once I was let out, I was at gate D34. Folklore Fiancé said they had been at a different gate first, but then went to information. I asked them to call me, and they had told me where they were waiting. We decided to head to the carousel for my luggage and meet there. They asked me if I wanted them to grab my bags if they saw them. I said yes, if they could, but to be careful with the large luggage. Right after they said that, they saw the small one already, and while we were on the phone, told me they grabbed the big one too. We stayed on the phone until I found them waiting by the number 14 carousel. We hugged and my knee popped, so I had to sit for a minute.
     Folklore Fiancé led the way to their aunt's car where she was waiting for us in the parking garage. My luggage was a little worse for wear and it didn't have my lock on it anymore, even though I had a TSA-approved lock, which really irritated me. I didn't see it inside my luggage, either, and I am still angry about it because it was a brand new lock I had bought before I went. We loaded up the car and headed home. We talked about the dig, and I shared some snacks I had bought in Bulgaria with them, and we finally got home around 11 p.m.
     I gave everyone their presents that I had for them: I got Nana a pepper shaker and a magnet that was a mini mortar and pestle; I got three souvenir spoons (one silver, two ceramic) for my aunt-in-law, my sibling-in-law got a Bulgarian wooden flute, and Folklore Fiancé was given socks with traditional Bulgarian designs on it, a miniature notebook that was the very kitschy souvenir design but I knew they would like, a pegasus necklace, and then a necklace with a large charm with Bulgarian embroidery on it. They said they had never seen embroidery on a necklace before and seemed super excited about it, so I was glad I made the right decision on buying it.
     Folklore Fiancé heated up some kielbasa for me before I went to take my shower and soak my feet (because they are very swollen), and we went to bed late. This is my last blog post about my field school trip for the Pistiros excavation of 2018 through the Balkan Heritage Field School!
     That is, of course, until I go again next season 😉

Field School: The Journey Home (Atlanta)

    Boarding the plane and waiting for take-off from Paris took about an hour - which makes sense because there were a lot of people on that plane. The good: I had an aisle seat again, which makes it way easier if I needed to get up. The bad: as soon as my area was settled in, a baby screamed for the entire hour everyone else was boarding, and I was trying to continue to be patient. The really bad: everyone who knows me knows I don’t like it when people move my stuff without asking me (obviously not the flight attendants, that’s their job, I get it), but three different people tried to move my luggage and rearrange it and I had to tell them three separate times that it doesn’t fit that way.

    That was the beginning of my irritation with everything. Due to the fact that I can’t sleep on planes, I had a lot of movie-watching ahead of me. As soon as we took off and I said a prayer to Hermes, I tried messing with the screen in front of me. It didn’t work for a while, but I finally got it to work shortly after taking off.

    The first movie I watched was the remake of Overboard, which I forgot was a remake until halfway into it because Folklore Fiancé had talked about it with me before. The other movies I watched were 12 Years a Slave because I hadn’t seen it yet - it was really intense and a little confusing with the jumps in time, but overall a good film - and then I watched A Quiet Place, which was also really intense (although the baby at the front of my section screamed through half of it, so the effect wasn’t quite the same - yes, I had it up loud but airline headphones can only do so much). I could feel myself holding my breath during the movie. I didn’t find it to have a satisfactory ending, though.

    Since I decided to watch pretty heavy movies (and didn’t end up watching Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring like I said I would (sorry, Kiwi)), the rest of the time was taken up by watching pretty mindless sitcoms, like The Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, and the first two episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (I managed to finish the second episode all the way through as we were in taxi in the flight).   

    The food on the flight was okay, but the chocolate on the French flights are always 86% cacao or something ridiculous like that. The Bulgarian chocolate was bigger and milk chocolate, so I liked it much better.

    The real problems began, however, when we landed. I got up right away, pulled down my luggage, and got ready to depart. However, things have changed since I last traveled internationally. We had to get off, go through passport control, and then go get our checked bags and re-check them for our next flight. I was extremely anxious that my bag had been lost because I didn’t see it for a while, so I moved to where the conveyor belt from the hold let out, so I could see it as it was coming down.

    It took a while before I saw it, and I think I got over excited and intense, because I picked it up and then it hit the ground really hard. Then it went lopsided. Oh no, what did I do, fuck, was all that went through my mind. Because, sure enough, I leaned it back and the wheel popped off, so I picked it up and put it in my grocery bag with my snacks. There were three screws exposed on the bottom of the bag, and cracks in both the top on that side and the bottom near the wheel part. (When I re-checked my bag, the attendant told me to just make a claim when I got to Las Vegas, so yet another thing to do…)

    We were directed where to go for connecting flights, dropped off the checked bags, and then had to go through security. This security was strange, though, because they told us to just put everything in our bags, leave our shoes on, and we could go through. I tossed all of my stuff in my carry-on or my laptop bag (we didn’t have to take out laptops, either). I guess perhaps it was because it was the connecting flights and they might have a different protocol. I got through it pretty quickly, which was surprising to me because of my random wheel I had in the grocery bag.

    I checked the monitors to see where my gate would be and it said A11, and I was at the F gates. I followed the signs to get to the A gates and I rode another “Plane Train,” as they called it to get to my gate.

    Just a few more hours until I’m home.

Field School: The Journey Home (Bonjour, Paris - Encore)

     I knocked on Cyrene's door around 4:50 a.m., since we had decided that's when we were going to head down and catch the airport shuttle as we arranged the previous night. When we were checking out, I was prepared to pay the city tax like I did last time, but the fellow may have remembered me from when I checked in, and he didn't ask for it, which was cool. Cyrene and I stood outside to wait for the driver to come and get our luggage in the shuttle.
     We got to the Sofia Airport around 5:12 a.m. because he had to drop off someone at the other terminal, and then unload all of our bags (two other people had taken then shuttle with us), and Cyrene and I parted ways so we could check our bags at our respective airlines. My bag was a little over 21.60 kilograms, but it was still under 23, and that's what mattered. Once I was checked in and headed to my gate, it was barely 5:45, so checking the bags and going through security didn't take long at all.
     Cyrene messaged me and told me where her gate was, so I meandered over to her to say our goodbyes, and we went to grab some things from the place that had snacks and drinks. I bought two bottles of water and a Coke, and it cost me over ten leva, which is bonkers; that is way too much - the Coke was 5 leva on its own. Cyrene and I hugged and went back to our gates, and I ate my breakfast (mini croissants filled with chocolate), and drank one of the waters. The boarding started shortly after that, and it felt like we were waiting forever to board. Luckily, I had an aisle seat.
     But I was next to a baby and their father.
     I reassured myself that it wouldn't be bad because I was only on a two-and-a-half hour flight. The kid did sleep for most of the flight, and I read the guide to Plovdiv I had bought at the museum there. That took up most of the flight. The baby did kick me a lot, and the father kept moving and getting into my space, but I was trying my best to be patient because I know traveling with a kid that has to sit in your lap on an airplane can't be easy. He was very apologetic about things, though, so I had no problem with them. The baby wasn't screaming the whole time, and when they were awake, they were just saying "WOW" about what was out the window or babbling in French.
     We arrived in Paris around 10 a.m. Sofia time, 9 a.m. Paris time, and had to go through security for the connecting flights. Apparently, I can't bring soda or water even though I had bought them in the other airport, so I chugged the Coke, threw away the water, and the little water that they had given me on the Bulgaria Air flight (which honestly I should have drunk as soon as I received it because it was small). The attendant also put my hand sanitizer in a bag because I had forgotten to put it in one because I carry it in my pocket. Other than that, I was able to get through security pretty easily.
     The next challenge was my boarding pass for Atlanta saying "check screens" for my gate. So, I had to find one of the screens, but none of them listed Atlanta as a destination for the time it was leaving, just Vienna. I had seen a machine that lets you scan your boarding pass to tell you your gate, but since I was in line for security when I saw it, I couldn't get to it. Since the screens didn't say where I was supposed to go, I had to find another one to tell me where I was supposed to be. I needed to be in terminal 2E, so I found my way there and where we waited for the bus shuttle, there was another machine. It gave me my gate number, and I took the bus shuttle when it came and got off at the second stop.
     There were a lot of shops on the way to my gate, so I popped into a few of them to check them out since I still have a little Euro left from my mistake at the beginning of this trip. Nothing caught my fancy, and I found my gate. None of the outlets were working, so I gave up on trying to charge my phone or my laptop since I won't really be able to use either of them on the flight over anyway. I ran to the restroom and then back to the gate. I finished the last two blogs and have been uploading my Bulgarian photos to my personal Facebook before I add them to my Ancient Geeko-Roman pages. Since I don't have my waters anymore, I might get some before we board. It's still about an hour before we're going to be getting on the plane, so I'll probably just walk around for a bit, and then come back before boarding time.
     Atlanta, here I come! 

Field School: Farewell and Sofia

August 6, 2018

     Last night, I stayed up late because I was trying to finish packing and fill out my evaluation form for the Balkan Heritage Field School. There was a lot I had to say, but I kept hearing people being loud, so I went to the landing where Siyu, Madeline, Ivan, and Mathilde were sitting and sat with them for a minute and then headed outside to see what the ruckus was, but they were busy playing a drinking game, so I came back inside and finished packing and went to bed. I woke up at 4 a.m., talked to Folklore Fiancé for a bit, especially because there was a dog barking for a solid hour and a half, and fell back asleep.
     My alarm went off around 7 a.m. so that I could get up and get ready before grabbing some breakfast before I had to leave. I was about 99% packed, and Mathilde had offered to weigh my luggage for me with a little device she had. Once I had brushed my teeth and packed my toothbrush and toothpaste, Mathilde came back to weight my luggage for me (it was 21.60 kilograms, and the limit is 23, I believe). She offered to help me carry down my luggage to the restaurant where I was going to await the bus. She took the heaviest piece of luggage, and I got the rest.
     Once I had my luggage settled and sat back down in my usual seat for breakfast, Mathilde sat back down with me where she usually sat, even though we were both done eating. Then Siyu sat next to me, and Ivan sat across from me, pointed to my suitcases and said, "it's real." We all talked for a bit about various things; tattoos because one of the people I follow on Instagram has a trowel tattoo on their wrist, and I talked about the tattoos I wanted to get and about Folklore Fiancé's tattoo.
     Then, eventually, I told the story of my engagement with Folklore Fiancé and how we had planned it together and set it on a particular day, but we each had our own proposal to the other person so that part was still a surprise. Mathilde thought it was super cute, and I showed them all pictures of our engagement rings, and Mathilde was definitely swooning. Ivan said, "I think Mathilde wants to marry you now, too."
     Ivan then told me he was bad with goodbyes, which is why he ghosts everyone when we're hanging out, so I told him I won't make any eye contact when I said goodbye, I would just show up at his hometown in New Zealand unannounced one day. When it was around the time for the bus to be there, I began to gather my things. Nico gave me a coin from Macedonian coin before I left and offered to help me with my luggage and took it outside for me. I said "Au revoir," and Mathilde said she didn't like that, it's not au revoir, so I told her "see you later" in Japanese instead because she and I both study it.
     We got all the luggage outside, and the bus rounded the corner shortly after. Everyone came outside, and we all hugged. We were wished safe travels by everyone as well. When I got to Ivan, we both sort of avoided eye contact and did some weird punch-in-the-shoulder-fist-bump hybrid nonsense that felt super awkward, so I just said "okay, now give me a real hug," and he did. I said bye to Angela and hugged her and told her I would be back. She helped us with our luggage and we all loaded into the bus (I realized at nearly the last moment that I still had my room key in my pocket, so I hopped off the bus to give it back to Angela before returning onto the bus).
     I waved out of the back of the bus window at everyone, and Shahruz saw me and waved, said something and everyone waved before I shut the curtain. When we started moving, everyone waved again out the side window, and Mathilde was waving with both arms until we couldn't see her anymore.
     The bus driver left around 8:50 a.m., which was a little concerning because Jenny and Lina had a flight back to Sweden at 11:15 a.m. The bus driver stopped once for gas and another time for reasons unknown. However, they made it to their flight and safely home.
     Cyrene and I left with Linda and Jenny, who were on their way straight to the airport, but Cyrene and I had another day left in Sofia before we had to leave Tuesday morning, so we planned a few things. We were able to check into the hotel early, which was nice - the receptionist who helped us even gave us rooms across from each other. Cyrene opened the door, and it hadn't been serviced yet, so she was given a new room, so we were a few rooms down from each other. We both got settled before heading out, and I decided to shower later.
     We headed back down to the lobby to ask where we could find a taxi to take us to the National Archaeological Museum (also known as the National Archaeological Institute with Museum) in the city center. She said that she would call us a taxi and we could wait at the entrance outside. He showed up maybe less than five minutes later, and we got into the cab. He began to drive, and Cyrene and I talked, and when we got closer to the area we knew we had to be in, he pointed to either direction, and neither of us knew, but he went left, which seemed right when we looked at the map on Cyrene's phone. She showed it to him, and he pulled over and called someone. He handed me the phone and said "English," so I tried to talk to the person on the other line.
     This was stressing me out because the meter was still running while we were sitting there and a cab that should have cost only ten leva became almost thirteen once we got there (stay tuned to find out why that's not the worst thing that can happen with a cab money-wise). We got out somewhere nearby and walked the rest of the way. There was an underpass and we ended up right in the Serdica Ruins, which was a place we were planning on seeing anyway. I believe it was the East Gate area of the place, so we stopped to take pictures before we continued. We saw some souvenir shops on the way and decided to hit them on the way back before the walking tour since they closed before the walking tour ended.
     Finally, we found the Archaeological Museum. It wasn't as small as I would have imagined, and I bought the tickets since Cyrene paid for the cab. We were both stoked because as soon as you walk in, you see a ton of statuary, stele, two large sarcophagi (on the right, but they're hard to miss) and glass cases full of figurines and other assorted objects that I've never seen in a museum before. Cyrene and I walked around slowly, taking pictures, and I kept asking to get pictures with the statues - especially the one of Fortuna; that thing was enormous. It took us almost a whole hour to get through just the first floor.
     The upper floor had a lot of Byzantine icons, which didn't interest either of us all that much (once things move to Late Antiquity, both of us tend to lose interest), and then we saw a sign about staying a certain amount of centimeters away from the icons or an alarm would sound. So, we avoided them for the most part but made sure we walked past it. At the end of the upper walkway, there were two more small galleries: one about Bulgarian history from the prehistoric times up until when the church became prominent, and the other one was about Sports in Ancient Thrace, which we were both excited to see. The color scheme (orange and black) seemed like it would be obnoxious but it worked pretty well for the setup they had in the room.
     The next step was the Treasury Room, which we almost missed, but the security guards pointed out the door and that it was open (the other doors to the rooms were just a doorway, but the Treasury had heavy iron gates with a plexiglass-like top door over them that we had to pull open). The artifacts were amazing - there was a lot of armor, gold treasure, a bronze head that still had the eye inlays intact, and several other objects such as death masks and several small beads.
     We eventually made our way to the prehistoric hall and meandered around there for a bit, wondering what certain things were, and imagining what it would be like to fully understand the use of something. Cyrene marveled at the fact that people once owned these things and used them; whenever I think about that, I wonder about the things we use every day and whether in one thousand years, people will be digging up our garbage and classifying it as artifacts.
     Since we had gotten overexcited and started the museum, we hadn't eaten lunch, and it was still early in the afternoon, so we decided to hit the National Museum of Natural History, which was only five leva each. We got our tickets and went on our way - some of the things in the museum were interesting, but overall, it felt more like a cabinet of curiosities than a natural history museum. There was a lot of taxidermies, but also very corny things like badly done displays to simulate water. There was also plenty of specimens floating in vials or jars on every floor (there were four floors). I suggested we start on the fourth floor and then work our way down so that we would be done and on the bottom floor once we finished. The first floor was my favorite because that's where all the rocks and minerals were - the rest of it didn't feel quite like a museum.
     Lunch (or early dinner) was the only things on our minds once we left, so we began to scout out a place for food. On our way towards what looked like a busier area with a few options for food options, we found another part of the Serdica Ruins, so we made a pitstop there. Many pictures were taken, and the hunt for food continued. As we ventured on our journey, we passed a Mosque, and it was the first time I had ever heard a call to prayer in person. I thought it was quite beautiful.
     We finally settled on a place called Pizza Einstein, which had a good amount of traditional Bulgarian food options as well as pizza. I ordered a Margherita pizza because I'm simple and I missed just a plain food after having a lot of traditional Bulgarian food for the past two weeks. I did worry that my taste in Coca-Cola has changed though because it's all made with real sugar in Europe, so I'm going to go home thinking the soda tastes bad. It seems like I'm going to have to drink Mexican Coca-Cola to keep my taste buds satisfied.
     When the food arrived, I devoured the entire 26-centimeter pizza in less than ten minutes. I told Cyrene to not rush herself, I was just a fast eater, and it was no worries if she wanted to take her time. She ended up finishing her pizza, too, and then we were stuck in restaurant limbo because we had decided to eat inside and everyone else seemed to be eating outside. Thus, we didn't see our waitress all that often. She brought us the bill, and Cyrene used her card, but the elusive waitress was nowhere to be seen once more. Eventually, she came but told us to wait a moment for her because we were using a card, so she brought a machine to the table.
     Once we were free, we went to the Raffy stand and bought a couple of gelatos to eat while we walked on our way to the Free Sofia Tour, where guides take people on an English tour of the city and show twenty different monuments or places of interest on the way. The walking tour took two hours, and I was beginning to feel both the pizza and the gelato coming to seek vengeance, so once the tour was over, we headed over to the cafe so I could use the restroom. It cost me 0.50 leva to visit the porta-potty from Hell, but luckily I noticed there was no toilet paper when I sat down and asked for some before I had any issues. Thank the gods I had hand sanitizer in my bag.
     Here is where we both made a mistake because we just wanted to get back to the hotel: we saw a cab sitting and waiting, so we went up and asked about the Ibis Hotel Sofia Airport, and he said yes, yes, get in, and of course the first issue we both had was we couldn't find the clips for the seatbelts, so neither of us ended up wearing one. About halfway through the ride, I leaned over to Cyrene and told her that the meter was already at something like 35 leva, which is ridiculous because it wasn't far from where we were dropped off in the morning, and our final bill was nearly 40 leva. For a ride that couldn't have been longer than ten minutes.
     We got back to the hotel and thought about getting a beer, but Cyrene decided to pass, and I thought that was a better idea. I checked in to my flight, but it said I had to print out my boarding passes, and luckily there was a computer I was able to use in the lobby for it, and it didn't cost anything. I scheduled the airport shuttle for us at 5 a.m. and went back upstairs. I kept charging her tablet for her and then I brought it to her room since my phone and computer were dying (since I couldn't charge things when not in the room because the keycard has to be inserted for the electricity to work, which is annoying). We said goodnight around ten o'clock, and I definitely need to go to bed soon because it's half past midnight and we have to be up in about four hours to get ready and catch our flights.
     I have a lot of long layovers, so hopefully I don't go mad with boredom.


If you want to know more about the Free Sofia Tour, here is a link to their website: https://freesofiatour.com/free-sofia-tour/