Last Week in Athens

Group of Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros Me in the Odeon Herodus Atticus Theater!
Me violently performing in the Odeon Herodus Atticus Theater!
Alicia Peterson, me, and Ingrid Jorud (in order) in our Greek dancing costumes
Sara Chojnacki, Marit Geston, me, and Erik Berg in our acting workshop make-up

Alright, it's been a while since I've blogged and so much has happened since the last time I wrote, that I'm going to have to sum up my favorite parts of the last week. Otherwise this post could be longer than you're willing to read and certainly longer than I'm willing to write.

One of the funner activities we got to do was Greek dancing lessons. We were given 2 lessons which lasted 2 hours each. I've never been much of a dancer but I really enjoyed the Greek dances. It's usually done in a circle, either holding hands to the person next to you or grabbing shoulders. The steps are fairly monotonous--so if you have any balance at all you should be able to perform the steps. However, The Zorba dance is a little different. If you've ever seen the movie, you know what I mean! It is done in lines instead of a circle and is very difficult and very fast. Of course, I executed it perfectly! I seem to dance better in Greece, you know! The last night of our lessons we were put into traditional Greek dancing costumes. While I look a little like the Virgin Mary (it's supposed to be a bridal outfit) the boys looked like Aladdin from the Disney movie! I hope I can remember some of the steps so I will be able to perform for you all when I get home.

Another highlight was the National Archeological Museum. We went to many museums here including the Cycladic Art Museum, Benaki Museum, Jewish History Museum, Acropolis Museum, and a few others which names I can't recall. The Archeological Museum was my favorite though. It housed some very famous Greek statues, as well as the world famous Mask of Agamemnon. The only picture I put up from that visit was the Group of Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros, which was my favorite. It is basically showing the goddess Aphrodite (goddess of love) being forcefully propositioned by Pan (god of the shephards and flocks) with Eros coming to her rescue (Eros is the god of love, lust, and sex). Take a good look at the statue, it's so cool!

We also were given the amazing opportunity of visiting the Odeon Herodus Atticus Theater. It was such a fluke that were able to enter at all actually! It's under rennovation right now and they usually never let anyone go inside. I don't know how my professors did it, but somehow they finagled us in with their wily wits. Not only were we allowed to go inside, but we performed scenes from plays we've read on that very stage! We've been working on these scenes for a week and performed it as a project for my theater class. My group and I did a scene from The Birds (a very different play from Hitchcock's movie). It is a crude and ancient comedy which includes some wonderfully fun slap-stick violence (as pictured above). It was really fun to do in the Odeon--where these plays were really performed thousands of years ago!

The last thing I'm going to write about is the acting workshop we went to yesterday. It was a 6 hour workshop and pretty intense. We were all very tired after it was done. We performed scenes from the tradgedy Ajax, which is a very powerful and intense play. We all played The Chorus members and, to get into character, put on make-up and wore head scarves. The make-up made us look like death--which, I suppose, was the point. It was a very long workshop and perhaps not my favorite of activities, but don't we look horrifying?

There were many other wonderful events over the last week or so--far too many to write about now! I've taken hundreds of pictures already though and will be happy to show them to all who are interested when I return. I hope that everyone is staying warm in their respected areas of the world. I started snowing here in Athens today. I'm very upset the weather felt the need to follow me here. I will pray to the god Apollo tonight for some sunshine!!

Orthodox Churches, Hilarious Bike Tour, and Socrates

I've been in Athens over a week now! My how time flies! Here's the skinny on what I've been doing the last few days. On Saturday, the group was scheduled to meet our tour guide Demitris at a church seemingly in the middle of a heavily populated suburban street. Further stressing the bizarre connection between the ancient and contemporary found all over here in Athens. The inside of the church was beautiful. I find that many of the older orthodox churches are breathtaking because the icons that take up every inch of the walls, with the large dome in the center with Christ painted inside (see picture). We were told that this church was almost distroyed (like most churches in Athens) to make way for new streets. Instead, a German monarch, who we lovingly refer to as "Crazy Ludwig", convinced the Athenians to spare it.
After that we went to the Petraki monastery and spoke with an Orthodox monk while viewing the church there. We were able to learn about the culture of the monastery from a monk himself—which was really wonderful experience. Although the monk seemed to want to talk with us forever (I suppose time passes a little differently to him). I enjoyed the monastery though and especially enjoyed the cookies and juice they offered us!
On Sunday we got the opportunity to take a bike tour of Athens. The bike tour ended up being run by two young men who offer these tours free of charge. They were very cool and very hilarious. Throughout the tour they made up ridiculous "facts" about the ancient monuments--siting that the Greeks are the only people who don't know about their history, so we can't really blame them. Although riding through the city had an enormous amount of obstacles—rumor has it one of the girls in our group hit a man on her bike during the final stretch of the tour. You know, all accidents happen within a mile of home! All in all, it was a wonderful tour--well worth the charge of absolutely no euro.
Class on Monday was very interesting, as we talked about “The Birds” (a very funny theatre production) and Plato’s Dialogues with “The Apology” and “The Phaedo”. "The Apology" consists of Socrate's justification during his trial while "The Phaedo" is his final words in prison before being put to death with a draught of poison. We visited both Phyx Hill (where Socrates’ trial was held) and Socrates’ Prison (where he is speculated to have died). Dr. Hammerling had us read the end of “The Phaedo”, which includes the last words and death of Socrates. A class member said it best when they admitted how dramatic that excerpt was being read in the spot where scholars believed it was originally said.

The church in the middle of the street which "Crazy Ludwig" saved
The church at the Petraki monastery
Sam, my Athens roommate, and I on the bike tour (we are sad because our bike bells didn't work)
Socrates' Prison (this is where he was supposed to have died)

That's it for now! During these last few days the weather was excellent (in the mid to upper 60s mostly). But, never fear, it's rainy and cloudy today and supposed to be all week. Better than snow though, right?

Parthenon, Archbishop, Temple of Hephaistos, and Church of the Holy Apostles

Temple of Hephaistos

Church of the Holy Apostles
Parthenon

The Funeral of the Archbishop

So we finally did what every turist is supposed to do when visiting Athens--go up and see the Parthenon. So on the third day of our stay here we attended classes at the great monument. Just a little bit of building layout for you: the entrance to the Parthenon is called the Propyleia while the building to the right of the Parthenon is the Erechtheion. It was all so amazing and so huge; although it's really sad to see all of the scaffolding up on the Parthenon. It's their hope to be done with the reconstruction by 2010! I'm going to have to come back so I can go inside!

I also got to see my first big-wig funeral processional on Thursday morning. The Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church passed away recently and his funeral was yesterday morning. We got out of class early so we could wait on the streets with thousands of other Greek citizens and watched the Archibishop's body being taken through the streets to the gravesite. It was a very interesting event but I'm please I got the chance to experience it.

Today we went to the Temple of Hephaistos and the Church of the Holy Apostles. They were located on the Agora, which is the ancient marketplace in the old part of the city. This is the area where philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates staged most of their discussions. We were told the Temple of Hephaistos is what the Parthenon would have looked like had it not undergone such fatalities in the past. We also went to the Church of the Holy Apostles, which is a Byzantine church dedicated to the 12 apostles and is known for its beautiful frescos.

First Days in Athens

Today is my second day in Athens--after arriving yesterday afternoon. When we first landed we were tranferred to a bus which took us to the Parthenon Hotel. We were allowed to drop off our luggage but not to sleep--something I wanted to do terribly. They wanted to keep us active so that we wouldn't be jet lagged all week. Then I saw my first look at the Parthenon from Mount Phillippos (a little hilltop near our hotel). Unfortunetly, I think I would have enjoyed the sight more with some extra hours of sleep. It was still incredible and I'm greatly looking forward to getting a closer look at it. And today, we saw the Parthenon again, the Herodion Atticus Theatre, and were also taken to the Plaka (an old marketplace with great shops and cafes). The only notable purchases I made were for food. I am happy to report, I greatly like the food here in Greece. I have a pretty good feeling about this trip!

This is Alicia Peterson and I standing atop marble rocks overlooking Athens
The Parthenon from a distance
The Herodion Atticus Theatre

Leaving in only 2 days!

Hey everyone! I thought I would create this site so those of you who are interested in what I'm doing abroad may be informed with just a click of the mouse. If you haven't yet heard what I'm doing this semester-- I will be studying abroad with an Concordia honors program called Credo (which means "I believe" in Latin, I think). We will start off on the Greek mainlands, spending a good deal of time in the capital, Athens. At the end of February, we will be moving from the mainlands to the island of Crete and will visit several cities there for about a month. Then at the end of March, we will begin touring the Greek islands and I will be joined by my mom, dad, grandparents, aunt and cousin! I'm so very excited they're all coming! The island tour will take 8 days. After that, we will fly to Turkey--where we will be the rest of our trip. The Concordia program is officially done on April 20th but I have decided, since I'm so close anyway, to visit Ben and Abby in Spain for a week after finishing school. Then on April 28th, it's back to the States! I'm thrilled to get started and would love to hear for all of you while I'm there. My e-mail is rekohler@cord.edu-- please don't hesitate to write me!