Dear Mom and Dad,

1. Dear Mom and Dad, Remember our vacation to Hollywood? How we were never bored and we had very few moments didn’t pass that we weren’t doing anything? Yeah I don’t even have those moments here in Ancient Athens. There’s so much to see and so much to do!! Thanks for the $1000 to spend but it ended up not being enough. I had to buy some souvenirs, and I mean a night in a nice inn is 700 silver coins(about $320)!! That’s just wrong!! So my very first night in Athens, I ended up sleeping in the public bathing area. Thank goodness a nice lady, named Mrs. Micheledes, saw me and couldn’t let me continue my stay like that. She let me stay in her house, which was so cool!! She told me all about an Athenian women’s life. She talked a lot about Hera and Hestia, the goddesses of women and families. Mrs. Micheledes, who let me call her Ma, is under complete guardianship of her father, since her husband died at war. Pappous and Yaya (the Greek words for grandfather and grandmother) let Ma marry at the age of 14 and had her first kids(who were triplets) at the same age!! I would be married in a year if we believed in that!! Also, Ma was raised with her four sisters and two girls her age whose parents had both died due to a sickness. This, being raised with other girls, wasn’t uncommon. In fact, Ma is raising 15 four-year-old girls at the moment!! Only five are her own, the other ten were complete strangers a few years ago. Isn’t that insane? Isn’t Ma’s whole life insane!! Well, I’ll write you again sometime. I have another week here in Athens!! I’ll have plenty of stories to tell when I get back! XOXO, Jenna(your favorite child) P.S. OH! I almost forgot to tell you, Ma’s oldest daughter(Demetria), whose 20, is a priestess, a religious figure. She leads worships and other this like that!! I thought that was so cool!! P.P.S. Don’t worry. I had very good manners. That’s Mrs. Micheledes in the crème toga and only 6 of the 27 people who live with her, plus me of course. In the purple is Demetria, the red is Irene, Thea in the purple, me in the blue, Mikelos in the brown (standing up), Yannis in the green, and Pentheus in the brown (sitting down).

2. Dear Mom and Dad, Hey again! Wow! I can’t believe it’s my last week in Athens!! There’s so much to tell. Well the Micheledes took me on a tour of the acropolis, the city part of Athens, and the augora, the market-place. Its amazing how much goes on here on a daily basis. There’s TONS of people here: merchants, soldiers, citizens, non-citizens. Its insane!! It reminds me of NYC, how crowded it is. But your eyes will always see something through the crowd, the sculptures. They are ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! Some are huge, some are small. Some are simple, some are so complex that it makes your brain hurt. Most were of Greek gods and goddesse and heroes. There were some kouri (nude male statues) and korai (clothed women statues). Ma caught me staring at some of them and started talking to me about them. Apparently the Ancient Egyptians were a big influence in the sculptures, and most of the works of art were mad of marble and/or metal. One day Ma, Irene, and I were in the market-place grocery shopping when Irene asked me if I wanted to see something amazing. I, being who I am, said yes of course. So we walked for a while. We reached another little city, which I was soon told was Olympia, and walked into a building. Irene led me through a few halls into a gigantic room. The only thing in it was a huge, and when I say huge I mean HUGE, statue of the Greek god Zeus. Now it’s considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Well I think that’s all I can fit on this postcard. Like I said before I’ll have plenty of stories to tell when I get home in 2 days and 14 hours. So until then, love ya! XOXO, Jenna(your favorite child) There we are looking at the statue of Zeus. Can you see us?