Temple of Poseidon

Friday, September 26th, Arcadia took anybody that was interested to see the Temple of Poseidon. Located in Sounion, about an hour away from Athens, we hopped on a bus and headed towards the coast. It was a really nice day so we didn’t need to worry about any grey skies dirtying up our pictures! Before we reached the temple, we actually were taken to a technological museum at Lavrio. I’m not going to say much or anything really about it because it was a total boreeee. I took one picture and that was it. Everyone just really wanted to see the Temple and go swimming afterwards!

After walking around the museum for about 30-45 minutes, we got back on the bus and headed over to the Temple of Poseidon! Its location, overlooking the water, is very significant and appropriate since Poseidon is the god of the sea and natural forces like earthquakes and tornadoes. It was constructed in 600 BC with white marble. A funny story that I read in my travel book talks about a legend that King Aegeus of Athens supposedly leapt to his death off the cliff where the temple sits when he spotted his sons ship with a black sail waving in the wind. A black sail represents the sign of death. Aegues’ son was actually alive and quite well as he was on board getting drunk and had forgotten to raise the victorious sail instead of the black one. Drinking kills people, drinking kills……

Stoa Gangstas

Arcadia girls at the Temple of Poseidon!

View of the Mediterranean from the Temple

Once we had seen the Temple of Poseidon, we were off to go swimming! We were dropped off at a beach about 10 minutes away from the Temple. We had a little beach lunch and some napped, looked for seashells or went exploring. I went exploring with the girls and got great pics.

Life is never dull with my Arcadia girls

We hung out on this rock for a little bit and then the girls decided to go swimming. I decided to take some pictures of them so I went back on land. Here are the girls swimming. You see those two little dots in the middle of the picture, yea that's them. :P

After getting back to my towel on the beach, I decided that I wanted to go swimming too. So I got my bathing suit out of my bag and headed towards the bathroom when I felt a pain from my toe everytime I walked. I brushed off the sand on my foot to see if I had cut myself when climbing on the rocks. Oh no, there was no cut.

There was this!

A stupid splinter!!!

I sat for a good 30-45 minutes trying to get the little sucker out! One of my professors was running all around the beach asking if anyone had tweezers. The cafe on the beach said to put olive oil on it......ok. So then I had olive oil on my toe, two of the Arcadia staff members had a go at the stupid thing. Nothing. Then we finally got tweezers but I still couldn't remove it! It was so small and just a little itty bitty portion of it was sticking out of the skin. Not only was I not able to remove the little nusiance, but I didn't get to go swimming :'( I was one with the splinter until I got back to my apartment that night :(

It really is true, you can't take me anywhere!

:P

-m

New Parthenon Pictures

Here are a few more Parthenon pictures!

New Schedule

Ok, due to a little inconvenience i.e. another transportation strike in Athens once again, I am able to update and add more pictures! I guess the day won’t be a complete loss!

I’m in my 2nd week of classes but I forgot to add my new schedule. The original one that I posted was altered when I arrived and now I have an even better schedule!

Here it is:

Monday
9:00 - 11:00 – GREA GMO 101: Modern Greek Beginning Level
w/ Ourania Sinopoulou

2:00 - 4:00 – GREA SOMO 360: Contemporary Greek Society
w/ Lois Woestman

6:30 – 8:30 – GREA EVST 380: Exploring Nature Conservation in Greece and the European Union
w/ Dimitrios Dimopoulos

Tuesday
9:00 – 11:00 – GREA HIAN 331: Ancient Greek Sancturaries
w/ Jennifer Lynne Palinkas

Wednesday
9:00 - 11:00 – GREA GMO 101: Modern Greek Beginning Level
w/ Ourania Sinopoulou

11:30 – 1:30 – GREA GRCU 111: The Greek Key Seminar

2:00 - 4:00 – GREA SOMO 360: Contemporary Greek Society
w/ Lois Woestman

6:30 – 8:30 – GREA EVST 380: Exploring Nature Conservation in Greece and the European Union

Thursday
9:00 – 11:00 – GREA HIAN 331: Ancient Greek Sancturaries
w/ Jennifer Lynne Palinkas

Friday
NO CLASSES!

If you really look at it, I guess you can say that I have 4 day weekends!

-m

P-A-R-T-H-E-N-O-N

While so many decided to get a head start on island hopping to Santorini or Mykonos, I opted to stay on the mainland and see the sites around Athens this weekend. All the girls that I hangout with stayed in Athens as well so we decided to jump at the chance to be tourists with all the other crazy Americans in Greece! Parthenon, here we come!

We heard about a tour bus called ‘Athens Sightseeing Bus Tour,’ and decided to check it out. The bus would take us all around Athens to see the touristy places like: the Parthenon, Plaka, Syntagma – Parliament, Omonia Square, The University of Athens, Monastiraki, Psiri and many more. We caught the bus in front of the Panathenaian Stadium (1896 Olympic Stadium). It was the first time anyone of us was riding one of these sightseeing tour buses so we weren’t sure how it exactly worked. There’s a button in the bus that you push if you want to stop at one of the attractions. Being it our first time, we ended up passing two of the interest sites because we weren’t sure what to do. We finally figured it out in time to stop off at the University of Athens.

The University was very pretty. It had columns on some of the buildings and a statue of Athena on another. There were several buildings belonging to the school that were all clustered together. We walked around it for a bit and took pictures with the statues of course. I really wanted to see what the classrooms looked like but I couldn’t seem to find any for some reason. One building we weren’t allowed in and another just had offices.

We were planning on catching the tour bus again when we heard shouting down the street. Being the Curious George that we are, we started walking towards the noise. We soon realized that a protest was only a few blocks away in the middle of the street. We didn’t know what the people were protesting but they were yelling something of course in Greek that we didn’t understand. They were also carrying big signs. Then the rioters started running our direction! There were police around but they didn’t really do anything. It looked like a peaceful protest so we weren’t scared. We soon learned that the protest was for Olympic airlines.

After we learned what was going on and the protesters moved on to another street, we decided to head back to wait for the bus. The bus is supposed to come around every half hour but of course, Greece doesn’t quite follow any of the rules or schedules……We waited for the 30 minutes. Then 45 and finally 1 hour. Our main goal of the day was to see the Parthenon which the bus would take us too. Not wanting to wait any longer, we decided to head to the metro to get to the Acropolis. Our tickets for the tour bus cost us 5 euros and they were good for 24 hours and for any other type of transportation: bus, metro, tram, trolley. So we used it for the metro and in no time at all, we were standing at the entrance to walk around the Acropolis!

We got in free of charge surprisingly because we are students in Greece. I showed the guy my ISIC card and my Greek student ID card. He was questioning me at first what school I belonged too and I said Arcadia. He then asked where that was and I said here in Greece. He didn’t seem to believe me which I guess is understandable since the Arcadia University isn’t a major school here in Greece. He kept looking at my Greek school ID card like I made it myself and then he asked someone else in the office. Finally he then said that it was free! I’ll be visiting the Parthenon for class a couple times but now that I know I get in for free, I’ll definitely be going on my own as well!

Once you enter the area, you still have to walk up to get to see the actual Parthenon. Down below it, there are a lot of stone pieces that once stood upon the Acropolis but it looks like architects took the pieces and grouped some together for visitors. There are also two theatres one being the Theatre of Dionysus. The other one is called ‘Odeon of Herodes Atticus.’ Here is the Theatre of Dionysus.


And here is a picture of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus theatre which as you can see, is still used. I like how Greece still uses old buildings but it kind of urks me that the buildings on the Acropolis are being used. I watched as some of the crew moved a sound board around the rows of seats and it made me cringe. The thought of people all over the Theatre makes me so nervous that they will destroy it. I think it should only be a tourist attraction and not a venue.

Here is a building next to the Parthenon called ‘Erechtheion (Caryatids).’ The women statues at the corner of the building are the Caryatids and they are very rare. You will only find a handful of buildings with statues like that on it.

Then finally……

The Parthenon.

The buildings on the Acropolis were created under Pericles. Three legendary artists also helped with the designs; Iktinos, Kallikrates and Phidias. The completed Parthenon was unveiled in 447 BC after 10 years of construction. The Parthenon has 8 columns in the back and the front instead of the regular 6 that you might see. An interesting fact about this building is that the columns are not actually straight. There is a slight curvature in them which Iktinos created so to make an optical illusion of perfect symmetry. As you can see, the Parthenon is no longer whole due to a 1687 Venetian siege where the attackers accidentally blew up a Turkish supply of gunpowder stored under the Parthenon’s roof. Then, in the 19th century, British Lord Elgin starting removing pieces of the Parthenon and sending them to London. Of course this is the Elgin Marble controversy which I had never actually known before but I know some of you have heard about it before. For those who don’t know about the controversy, Lord Elgin got the O.K. from Turkish lords to cart away marble pieces of the Parthenon. Those pieces are still in London today and Greece wants them back but London won’t give it back of course. London feels that Greece is not capable of housing the pieces safely. So Greece has almost completed a museum that can be used to house those pieces. Whether or not London will actually give back those pieces when the museum is completed is still up in the air. It’s a very interesting story that I believe I will be discussing more about in class hopefully soon!

Maura, the human sacrifice

Kate, Mary and Karynna

Me, with the city of Athens

Theatre of Dionysus and the new Acropolis Museum in front of it

Back of the Parthenon

Today, there is a major restoration project going on. You can see the cranes and metal supports all around it which unfortunately disrupts the beauty of the building. There are quite a few more buildings and statues around the Acropolis but I wasn’t able to visit them on Friday but I will definitely get to them another time!

-m

The Island of Tzia

Away I sail to my first Grecian island!

Located about an hour a way from Greece’s mainland; lies the Island of Tzia. One of Greece’s smaller islands, it is also not visited by many tourists. After the orientation from hell, Arcadia was nice enough to sail us away to Tzia for two days. We took the ferry on Friday afternoon and it took a little over an hour for us to reach our destination. The water was surprisingly very calm as I was told it could get really rough on the Greek seas. I medicated myself pretty well for the trip even though I really didn’t have too. Better safe than sorry……

Once Tzia was in view, lots of hills and homes constructed on the hillsides could be seen. Windy roads ran all around the island and a beautiful lighthouse stood alone on a peninsula.

We walked to our hotels which Arcadia basically took over! It’s located in the small town of Karissia. We had to get 3 separate hotels to hold us all! I stayed in a 4 person room with 2 rooms joining which included a kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom once again was SHOCKING! I don’t know what it is with Greece and their weird bathrooms but this time, there was no shower. Standing in the doorway you see a sink, toilet but no actual shower. Then, on the opposite wall of the sink, there is a detachable showerhead attached to the wall and a drain right in the middle of the floor. THE BATHROOM WAS THE SHOWER!

After being shocked about the bathroom (strange things no longer faze me here in Greece), I packed up some beachwear, got Kate and we headed for the Beach Party hosted by Arcadia! The beach was small and intimate with a café on the side, Astro Café. Here, I was able to have my first swim in the Mediterranean Sea! Refreshingly cool and salty I might say! The salt made it pretty easy to float and left a sticky feeling once you got out of the water. At the café, you could get drinks at the bar and we were served small sandwiches, a sausage/hot dog meat looking thing and salad.

The bar played great club/dance music all night long and surprisingly, it was a lot of American songs! The Greeks really like their ABBA. We had a fun dance party going on and many went for a late night swim since the beach party didn’t start until 8pm. I left the beach and the party around 11pm because I still wasn’t feeling so well after the dehydration and the next day consisted of a lot of walking so I needed my rest.

The next morning, Arcadia took us to another town called Ioulida. Here, we were bused and then walked and walked and walked and then walked some more up through the town and around and up a hill to a lookout spot to see the sea below. It was a beautiful sight. We stopped, rested and filled our water bottles at the little water foundation at the lookout area. On the way back down the hill/mountain, we saw a stone lion. It was carved a long time ago but I’m not sure what the significance is. Stairs led down to it but it just sat on the hill overlooking the town below.
After the walk, we were free to roam around as we pleased. A few of us walked around the town and took pictures. We then wanted to head back to Korissia where our hotel was at so we could change into our bathing suits and head back to the beach but catching the bus became quite confusing to us. We were told that the buses would come around every hour but apparently this was only true during the summer. The buses stopped running so frequently in August. We sat and waited and didn’t know what to do. A bus did arrive but then we learned that it was broken down. We were given numbers of taxis by the school so we tried those numbers but many didn’t know what we were saying. Other students were waiting for taxis before us and were picked up while we were left still having no clue how to get down the mountain! We didn’t know which taxis was ours and seeing us struggling, 3 old Greek women talked to the next taxi which I believe was theirs, and ended up giving it to us to ride back down! I’ve been told that whenever you are in trouble around Greece, find an old Greek lady and they will help you! Seems to be true!

After that debacle, we finally headed back to the same beach where we had the beach party. Lots of Greeks were out which was nice to see instead of tourists. After the beach, we decided to head to Vourkari, another town over to see some ruins. Some students had assignments to do on the island depending on the classes they were taking. The assignment had to do with ruins and why they would be a good place for defense. The ruins were gated off and you couldn’t see too much of it but I guess it was good for defense due to its location. It had a pretty good view of the water so it could see any ships nearing the island. We ended up eating dinner in Vourkari along the water where a whole bunch of boats and yachts were lined up waiting for the next morning’s regatta race. We had a group of 8 for dinner and I don’t remember what our conversations were about but I remember laughing a lot!

On Sunday and the last day of our island getaway, a few of us headed to Korissia’s port area and checked out some of the shops. I ended up buying only postcards. They didn’t have too much but since it’s not much of a tourist place, I wasn’t surprised. We checked out a gorgeous church that stands right in front of where the ferries dock. It’s a small light peach colored church that was very traditional. We didn’t go inside but the doors were open. I didn’t want to take any photos either in respect.

After the shops and church, we headed to another beach and hung around there until it was time to leave for Athens. It was a very cute little island and was just what I needed to get over my rough days. I don’t think I will be heading back because there are so many more places that I would like to visit but I will always remember Tzia as my first Grecian island.

-m

The Pretty Good, the Really Bad and the Unforgettable Ugly

Orientation has finally come to an end and oh was it a week I will forever remember but hopefully will never experience again. I was fine the first 2 days I arrived in Athens but the heat caught up with me and made me feel real lousy real fast!

The Really Bad
Woke up one morning feeling weak as anything and gagging whenever my throat was try which was always that day. I wasn’t even able to leave my apartment to make one of the orientation meetings. Sat on the floor with a trash can next to me. Yea, it wasn’t pretty. When I finally did make it to the Arcadia Center, I talked with Jan Sanders, director of the program. She said that my symptoms sounded like I was suffering from dehydration. She said I should sit out of the day activities and rest at my apartment. I normally drink lots of water at home and I always have a water bottle with me but here, oh my god, it is freaking HOT! I can’t remember how many bottles I’ve had so far. There is no air condition around so I’m constantly hot. It’s a walking nightmare. So I went back to my apartment and made some hard boiled eggs to get protein in my body. I also went out and bought lots of Poweraide which I soon became dependent on in order to feel better.

It is the worst at night and in the morning. I was sweating so bad in bed and I didn’t have a fan. I woke up the next day feeling extremely weak again because I had sweat so much at night but I wasn’t drinking anything so my body was deprived of fluids for so long. Walked back to the center and talked with Jan again. She suggested I sit out again because they planned on walking a lot in the sun that day. I even had to sit out of my Greek night class because I felt awful! Oh, and I wasn’t eating for about 3 days. I wasn’t hungry and my body couldn’t take much food or I felt sick.

The Unforgettable Ugly
I’ve never been so dehydrated before and I didn’t know how to fix it especially being in a foreign country. With the dehydration bothering me, I soon became extremely homesick. Had a small panic attack in the Center lounge and I thought I was going to throw up. Being away from everyone and sick at the same time while trying to get use to a whole knew environment became really scary. So now I was dehydrated and really homesick. It felt like rock bottom and I was thinking about waving my white flag and hopping on the next plane back to Philadelphia.

The Pretty Good
Things soon slowly got a little better. I have my wonderful Kate and Maura that have helped me whenever I feel another panic attack coming on. They have even helped make dinner when I was too weak to do so. I went out and bought a fan that has prevented me from sweating to death at night and has even made me a tad bit cold at times in the morning! I fought the urge to always have poweraide and finally I am no longer dependent on it. I don’t know how many bottles I bought and I don’t want to know. And the program took us to an island on the weekend! I was hesitant to go due to extreme seasickness that can arise but I really wanted to attend because Arcadia was throwing us a beach party! The island trip seemed to be just what I needed! I didn’t get sick on the ferry and overall, had a fun time on the island.

More to come about the island! But for right now, I seem to be doing a lot better. No longer dehydrated and not thinking about home too much or at least trying not to. I’m working on getting my appetite back to normal which may still take a few days. We have it so easy in the United States that I know I have taken many things for granted. Be thankful for AC and a washer and dryer! I feel like I’ve gone back in time here!

-m

Great Expectations

I’ve made it to ATHENS, GREECE! The last two days have been really surreal.

The city – The girls and I took a taxi from the Athens airport to the Arcadia Center. Looking out the window, I saw so many houses all compacted really close together with small streets running through them. It’s very hussle and bussle here. After being in the taxi for 7 minutes, I saw an Ikea!! Kate saw a starbucks and Maura found a billboard for American athletic clothing. Their taxes are yellow just like ours and some of them drive Mercedes benz. But don’t think Greece is starting to sound like the U.S.! It’s much different!

I’ve been using my Greek a lot so far which consists of ‘Thank you, excuse me, please’ and some others but those are it so far. Some know English but the many that I have encountered do not. I can’t wait until it is easier to communicate with the Greeks and I’m able to get around more.

The apartment – My new home is not what I had in my mind but I shouldn’t have had any expectations. It’s a really small apartment with 2 singles and 1 double. I was one of the girls to arrive first so I took a single. The double is really a living room but was turned into a bedroom. The rooms are nice and big but the kitchen and bathroom are teeny tiny! In order to flush the toilet, you have to pull a cord that hangs down from the ceiling and you have to throwaway the toilet paper in the trash or it will clog the pipes. The hot water to the shower has to be turned on by a switch and left on for about 20 minutes. I’ve tried it and the hot water doesn’t stay on very long so I’m going to have to play around with it but, since it’s been so hot out, I’ve been taking cold showers. And don’t even get me started on the washer! I think it may fit one sweater L. My roommates Caitlin, Christine and Lauren are really cool, really sweet girls. The weather here is in the 90’s and it is hottttt! We do not have AC and only 2 fans are available so trying to sleep when you’re sweating to death is going to take some getting use too. I do have my own private balcony which is really great and I can leave the doors open for the cool night air which is still really warm.

Sightseeing – On my very first day in Greece, my roommates and I decided to walk around for a little bit near the school and I got to see the old OLYMPIC STADIUM!!!!!!!! It’s only 15 minute walk from my place and 5 minutes from the school. Maura and I are going to be running on the outside track when classes start. You can not go inside to walk around the inside track but you can see it and all the seats around it. Then on Monday, my roommates plus some other girls from another apartment got together and walked around before our orientation meeting. This time we walked to the front part of the Olympic Stadium and took pictures and that was when I got my first sight of the PARTHENON!!!! It was amazing that I got chills when I saw it. It’s even better at night which I got to see yesterday night. I probably won’t be walking up to it anytime too soon. I’m going to take things kind of easy and slow. See my neighborhood first and work my way to the bigger things. I’m here for 4 months, I don’t see a need to rush things. Ok, and plus, it looks like a really hard climb to get up there. You’ll get to see pictures, don’t worry.

Arcadia Center – I will have some classes at the Center but it seems to be more of a meeting place for orientation. It’s a very small pink building and I never would have guessed it was part of Arcadia. Another thing I should not have had expectations about. It has a computer lab, the smallest library I have ever seen and offices. Jan Sanders, the director of the Program here in Athens is very nice and so are her associates, very helpful and sweet. Most of my classes I think will not be held at the Center but different places around Athens!

Overall, everything has been pretty well. I don’t want to say that I’m disappointed with the living arrangements or the school because that wouldn’t be far to Arcadia. They never painted a picture of what things would look like, that was my own doing. Not all the apartments are the same and I am getting use to mine. It’s small but cozy. We’re going to be a cute little family here at Filolaou 129.

There’s more I would like to write and more about some of this stuff in better detail but this is just a summary. So let me post all of this first to you guys!

-m