It took a chalkboard full of words for me to realize that Athens is, above all, a contradiction.

High on chalk dust and jelly beans, Michael Newman, Julia Marino, Meghan Louttit and I sat in a Scripps Hall and began writing every word about Athens that came to mind. Two themes seemed to emerge from this process: many words with sexual undertones (i.e. seduction, naughty, fertile…the list goes on) and a whole lot of contradictions.

How is it that this place can be both rural and cosmopolitan? Homogenous and diverse? Alive and brave, yet fragile? Its complexity and unpredictability make it all the more intriguing.

Conducting an interview the next day, I brought up these contradictions. Rosalie Romano, a passionate education professor, knew exactly what I meant.

“You must be able to see the beauty of a place like Athens, because it’s not physical,” she said. “The polar pairs mean everything. Nothing with meaning is without an underbelly. The human spirit doesn’t want conformity.”

I won’t try to say it any better, but I will include the complete list of words below.

Athens is: alive, alternative, beat, beatnicks, bohemian, bold, brave, bricks, cityclose-knit, coffee-addicted, controversial, cosmopolitan, creepy, dirty, diverse, edgy, feminist, fertile, fragile, free, friendly, funky, geeky, green, happening, haughty, hippies, home, homogenous, impoverished, intellectuals, liberal, loud, musical, naughty, nocturnal, nostalgic, ominous, outdoorsy, outspoken, picturesque, precarious, preppy, progressive, punk, quirky, restless, retro, rich (culture), rural, safe, skaters, studious, sub-culture, trail, uninhibited, unpredictable, urban, walking