Found

What kind of security measures would Christ have taken?

What kind of security measures would Christ have taken?, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I was just about to leave the Byzantine museum when a coach pulled up and these priests and their goon squad strolled out. Four no-neck besuited guys with shaved heads and the kind of body language that screams, "f@ck you".

It turned out they were protecting Kimon Nikiforos, a cleric from Cyprus. I mentioned this to a friend who lives there and apparently it is a status thing. The bigger the goon squad the the higher up the pecking order you are.

Student demonstration

Student demonstration, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

The students were protesting lack of funding for the Fine Arts department of the university of Thessaloniki near Kamara today.

Man on a mission

Man on a mission, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Zorro had to leave his horse at home and adopt his daytime persona, Panayiotis Psomidis, mild mannered council leader.

Office space

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Taken in an abandoned warehouse in Stavroupoli.

Dean Anastasios Manthos

Dean Anastasios Manthos, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Even by the turbulent standards of Greek education the previous week has been unprecedented. Once again many of the country's major universities have been occupied by students protesting plans by the government to permit the founding of private universities and the general lack of funding for the state sector higher education. In addition university elections have been halted sometimes with violent confrontations between different political factions.


Elections for the dean of faculties in universities across Greece lead to a number of violent episodes. In the Greek port town of Patra students clashed with riot police and a number of cars were set on fire. In Thessaloniki similar clashes between riot police and students were reported. On Wednesday the dean of the Aristotelian university of Thessaloniki, Anastasios Manthos was hospitalised after heated debate with student turned violent. The following days a gang of 30 attacked and severely beat two night watchmen on the university campus.


The conservative New Democracy government is seeking to change the country's constitution in order to allow the setting up of private universities so bring Greece in line with EU law. In addition they argue that such universities could led to an improvement to Greece's chronically ailing state run higher education sector. It should be noted that just two Greek universities made the Times Higher Education QS rankings top 400 at position 248 and 356.


On the other hand opposition politicians and students argue that long term lack of funding for education in general has hampered the country's universities and that what is needed is an overhaul of the system to bring it in line with European standards.


The protests come at a time of growing dissatisfaction with the government of Kostas Karamanlis whose administration has been involved with a number of sexual and financial scandals since its re-election in 2007. In addition rising food and petrol prices have caused hardship amongst those on low incomes. Many accuse the government of negligence over its inability to curb the spiralling cost of living which has seen many basic goods rise five times greater than in other European countries.

www.nowpublic.com/world/greek-universities-turmoil

Uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ on 4 Jun 08, 3.11PM EEST.

Soul Meets Body

Music by Death Cab For Cutie, photos by Teacher Dude, video making software from PhotoStory 3.

Robbed blind

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

In scene redolent of the 60s a group of 20 demonstrators entered a supermarket in the Exarxeia neighbourhood of Athens, Greece filled up shopping trolleys and left without paying. Afterwards the food was distributed in a street market nearby. The group also handed out leaflet protesting rising food prices.

The protests come at a time of growing dissatisfaction with the
government of Kostas Karamanlis whose administration has been involved with a number of sexual and financial scandals since its re-election in 2007. In addition rising food and petrol prices have caused hardship amongst those on low incomes and a general climate of discontent.

Many accuse the government of negligence over its inability to curb the spiralling cost of living which has seen price hikes in the cost of basic goods five times greater than in other European countries .

NowPublic.com

Devious Diva

One of the blogs that I have been following for as long as I have been blogging is Devious Diva's This Is Not My Country which has to be one of the best ones on Greece around. It deals mainly which human rights issues here in Greece and it always informed, accurate and passionate. I know that writing about subjects like this is not always easy, especially as a foreigner and Diva has had more than her fair share of trolls threats and insult from far right wingbats and other nationalist nutcases. However, she still keeps on writing about the kind of stuff that many would quite happily see swept under the carpet.

In addition to being a passionate blogger she is also a very good photographer (click here to see her pictures) and her work is currently being exhibited in Athens. It shows the conditions in which many Rom are forced to live in the capital.

The Genius of Photography

My lessons have more or less finished and I'm getting my affairs in order before I go back to England for the next couple of months. I will be looking for work there as it is difficult to find any teaching jobs here during the summer. Anyway, I do have more time on my hands to see friends and remember what life is like without the constant stress of having to race around the city in order to earn a crust.

Also I have more time to search the internet for the stuff that interests me and I came across this excellent series of six programmes on photography by the BBC called the Genius of Photography.

"In the course of our 170 year relationship, photography has delighted us, served us, moved us, outraged us and occasionally disappointed us. But mainly, it has intrigued us by showing the secret strangeness that lies beneath the world of appearances. And that is photography's true genius."



If you want to see more of the series I would recommend you see it using a great application I found a couple of days ago, Veoh TV. You need to download it first and then it lets you watch streaming TV via the internet.

Greek Robin Hoods strike supermarket

Supermarket, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

In scene redolent of the 60s a group of 20 demonstrators entered a supermarket in the Exarxeia neighbourhood of Athens, Greece filled up shopping trolleys and left without paying. Afterwards the food was distributed in a street market nearby. The group also handed out leaflet protesting rising food prices.

The protests come at a time of growing dissatisfaction with the government of Kostas Karamanlis whose administration has been involved with a number of sexual and financial scandals since its re-election in 2007.

In addition rising food and petrol prices have caused hardship amongst those on low incomes and a general climate of discontent. Many accuse the government of negligence over its inability to curb the spiralling cost of living which has seen price hikes in the cost of basic goods five times greater than in other European countries .

As seen on NowPublic.com

The Fairie Queene

The Fairie Queene, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I was taking pictures of cacti(?) for somebody's catalogue when I grabbed the chance to take this picture of Lydia modelling the flowers before she ran off outside to play with her friend, Anastasia.

Man Ray told me to do it.

, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

When I woke I could have sworn I was Man Ray. Luckily, Lee Miller told me to snap out of it.

Not exactly your average Friday.

Well, yesterday was just full of different impressions and meetings. I started off with a lesson in the centre discussing eating out in Verona and Greece's chances in the European football championships and afterwards bumped into one of my students who was helping to organise an anti-smoking campaign in Aristotelous Square (which in Greece definitely comes under the heading of lost causes. I swear people would smoke in their sleep if they could).

Later I popped by the Fair Trade shop on Vyronou St and in between chatting with the guys there managed to take some pictures of those present. Then later on after some more lessons it was onto a open air discussion on the signficance of May 1968 organised by the SYRIZA party in Navarinou square. There I bumped into another friend and a lively conversation over beer and chocolate ensued.

Finally, I ended up listening to live music in the university, drinking beer and discussing the various ways remedies for tear gas with a bunch of students I'd met via Flickr.

We're all Mayans nowadays.

We're all Mayans nowadays., originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

A touch of colour

Flickr Explorer stuff

1. "Only the dead have seen the end of war.", 2. 98% speed of light, 3. A lion in winter, 4. Untitled, 5. Lydia, 6. Book, train, culture., 7. Lydia, 8. Car,

9. Lina, 10. Anarchy for Beginners, 11. Untitled, 12. Careless Parking Saves Time., 13. Models taking their repose, 14. Even the dead get restless, 15. Untitled, 16. Hommage to Hitchcock,

17. night, 18. Fragitsa, 19. Untitled, 20. Snowing, 21. Untitled, 22. The Model, 23. Museum of photography and cinematography - Thessaloniki, 24. Urban malice,

25. Untitled, 26. Untitled, 27. Greek elections 2007, 28. Greek elections 2007, 29. The League of Green Chairs, 30. The power behind the throne?, 31. Dusk surfer, 32. Bridesmaid,

33. Untitled, 34. Navarinou, 35. Fabrika Yfanet/Φαπρικα Υφανετ, 36. Walking home, 37. The diary of a shy photographer., 38. Japanese craziness at the Bristol harbour festival., 39. City centre bench, 40. Street life at the university,

41. Lydia, 42. Red and yellow, 43. Untitled, 44. Yfanet / Υφανετ, 45. Cars, 46. Untitled, 47. Nasia, 48. Headless,

49. Lydia, 50. This is Eleni, Evi and Helen, 51. Tough Times

Lydia's name day party

Lydia had her name day during the week but decided to have a party for her friends today and as you can see everyone had a good time.

Interview day

I was in school today as many of my students were doing the interview part of their language exams. As you can imagine many of them were nervous at the prospect but I think they'll do well. I've spent most of the past eight months preparing them for this moment so there was little I could do except reassure them and just remind them of a the stuff we've been doing.

Sometimes it's small things like keeping eye contact with the person you're speaking with (as opposed to staring off into the middle distance), asking for the questions to be repeated and not getting hung up on an unknown word that make the difference at this stage. Basically, just chatting away in English so that when they go to be interviews they do not suddenly have to switch language. 

So now I've almost finished as my students are now done with their PET /FCE/ ECCE/ CAE/ ECPE/ CPE exams.  Now It's time to think about what I'm going to do in summer and how I'm going to earn a living for the next four months.

Night, night

Night, night, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

See more of my Flickr pictures here.