Music and Graffiti

Music

I have been trying to figure out how to describe what music I am hearing and it is difficult. I am going to link to some web sites where you can go and listen and I think that will help. The Bouzouki is an instrument, like a guitar which is a traditional Greek instrument. Traditional bands usually have a Bazooki and a clarinet and a singer. Many people listen to traditional music on the radio or using Cds. Last weekend we stayed in a hotel and had a TV and when flipping though the channels noticed that there was almost always one channel with traditional Greek music and dancing at all times. I also saw something like MTV which had some videos and music in English and some in Greek.

Elena Paparizou-won Eurovision 2005 which is a big multi country contest
Natassa Teodoridou

Sfakianakis Notis
Sakis Rouvas
Despina Vandi
Anna Vissi-When I linked this site it was being updated and there wasn't much there yet.

Mikis Teodorakis-This is a classical music composer. We bought a CD with his music!

Did you know that you can listen to Greek radio online!? Here is a link to a station you might want to try! Ant1 FM

Here is a great page with general information about Greek music and links to many of the best artists. The Musical Gods of Greece

Younger people (teenagers) tend to listen to different music. I have heard a lot of techno pop and I guess that there is a specific type of Techno pop called Greek Techno Pop which includes some Greek instruments. I have not heard any rap or ska. Much of the music has some English words, but they are usually mixed in with Greek words also. Here are some links to Greek Music web sites. I have tried to find some where you can actually listen to the music.

Graffiti

One thing that I have seen everywhere here that has surprised me is Graffiti. Here are some pictures of the train that we took to Olympia last weekend. Graffiti is everywhere, especially in Athens, but there is even a little in Old Corinth. Most of it is very colorful, but there is some that is just spray painted words in one color.

Ms. Wilcox class thanks for writing so much and so many Excellent questions. I will answer them tomorrow AND more importantly, tomorrow I will be visiting the Demotico and I will have questions for YOU in my blog from the Greek students. You can write your answers in the comments and they will be able to read them (or their teacher will read them since most of them don't know English!)

Responses to Questions

It is Monday of the week we leave Greece (early Friday morning). It now seems like I have so much to write about! This weekend we went to Aegina which is an island very close to Athens. It was beautiful. I finally got to go to the beach although I still have not used my bathing suit.. One of the important features of this island is that they grow pistacio nuts and they are on sale everywhere. We decided we needed to try some and they were SO good. I have never eaten pistacios that tasted so fresh and crunchy. We visited some ruins of temples on the island and had a wonderful time. There is a big church on the island which is the church of one of the last people to qualify as a saint in the orthodox church has a tomb.

It was fun to hear from Ms. Wilcox’s class and there were so many questions that I thought I would use this posting just as a response. I am sitting on the train waiting to go to Athens, so Alexis chose correctly! Actually we are going to an island called Aegina which is not too far from Athens. We plan to stay there two nights and then to go back to Athens for the day.

Allie and Darcie, Thanks for your question about Halloween and telling me about your costumes. People here do not know about Halloween AT ALL! I will actually be in Athens on Halloween, so I don’t plan to dress up or get much candy. The Oxi Day holiday (which was the 28th of October) is their big holiday in October. I am hoping that when I visit the Dimotico again on Wednesday I can tell the kids a little about Halloween.

Clayton and Tyler, In all of the schools that I saw there was a computer lab, but no computers at all in the classrooms (not even for the teacher). Yesterday I talked with my friend Katerina who told me more about her school and about many other things. She helped me to find the web page for Aristoteleio school where I visited and talked to the English class. Take a look at it and stay in the Greek Language section to see pictures. There is a picture of the computer lab.

Shalissa and Anthony, Oratory means giving speeches. Nero created a new contest of giving speeches in the Olympics. Drachma is the name of the money that the Greeks used to have before the Euro. The Drachma is worth nothing now! It used to be that you could get about 300 drachma for one dollar. I didn’t really see it, but archaeologists say that the Zeus statue was really that tall!

Charles and Andrew, Steve, my husband, and I had a good laugh about the idea of going to Ireland or the Barrier Reef in Australia. We would love to do that, but they are not near Greece at all and certainly not a weekend trip! Maybe someday you will go there and write a blog I can read!

Kendle and Ashley, We seriously considered going to Sparta because we both remember studying it when we were your age. However, all of the Greek people here said that it would be too far and too boring. They said that there is nothing there to see. I guess it was an important location in history, but is only a village right now.

I will end today with a few food pictures. The first one shows something that I still have avoided eating, but was available all over Aegina. The other is a picture of a Souvlaki stand where they slice the meat off of a rotating grill and make Giros. A Giro is a piece of pita bread wrapped around some grilled chicken or pork (Souvlaki) with red onions, tzatziki (plain yogurt with garlic, cucumber and onions), and even some french fries!

I will write about music tomorrow. I promise!

Oxi Day Parade and Weekend Plans

Here are some pictures of the celebration today. Compared to all of the celebrations I have been to this week this celebration and parade was less colorful. The students all wore blue pants or skirts and white shirts. The day started with a church service at 9. People gradually arrived and a few of them went to church, but many gathered in the courtyard of the church. The students all went into the church and then stood during the service. One of the teachers that I met at the Dimotico Scholi read a speech about Oxi day. I know that he read it because when he showed me the computer lab he was finding and printing some speeches to use. He said that in every school a teacher has to give a speech, so it is much easier to find one that someone has already written and use it! In Orthodox church the priests sing a liturgy, They sing while the people come in and out and light candles and kiss icons. The service (mass) lasts several hours. Today mass stared at 8am and went until 10 when there was the gathering in the courtyard and the parade. When it was over everyone came out of the church and stood in the courtyard and there were more speeches and olive wreaths put next to the statue in the courtyard.

I decided to put a link to the Wikipedia about Oxi day so that if you want to read more you can, but something REALLY interesting happened when I was looking for it. First I found it and read it through and decided that it would be OK. Then I worked on the Blog, then I went back to copy the URL and the article had totally changed! The first article talked about how the celebration is a bit too militaristic and some people question that. The revision told the story of Oxi day in a dramatic way and did not question it at all. Do you think I should still use this as a reference?! Which one is closer to the truth? I decided to use it anyway because I think it shows the different points of view better than a web page that had not changed in years.

When the speeches were over everyone gathered in the Platia (the main square) and the parade went by. The parade was the whole school of students and nothing else. In New Corinth and in new other cities the parades are much larger with bands.

The trip this weekend has been decided. We are going to the island of Aegena which is close to Athens. It is Greek’s premier producer of pistacio nuts. We will have to take a subway train to Athens, then to Patras and then a Ferry ride to the island. It is supposed to be very picturesque. Although it has been beautiful and warm here the last few days I have heard that it is supposed to turn cold this weekend. That will be too bad because there is some beach on Aegena. Oh well, I guess that is why not too many tourists come to Greece in October. I had suggestions to go to Mykanos or one of the Cyclades (Mykanos is one of those islands), but they are too far to be worth the time it would take to get there. We only have a few days and so we need to go some place fairly close. More about that on Monday.

My next blog entry will finally be about music.

Oxi Day Celebration at Dimotico Scholi

What are you going to be for Halloween? Are you having a Halloween party at school? Here is a picture I thought you might like!

I talked to a friend here and he told me that the elementary school here is just called Dimotico Scholi. Since there is just one in the village there is no confusion. I am not sure what is done in the cities.

This is a week that is full of celebrations at school and so there is not too much studying and regular homework. At 9:30 many parents, little brothers and sisters gathered for the Oxi Day celebration at the school. Although I didn’t understand the language I could understand that a few of the students had big parts as narrators and many of the others recited poems or short speeches that they had memorized. They all did such a good job of not forgetting what they were supposed to say and talking loudly. There was also a group that sang several songs between the speeches and poems.

After the celebration I took a short walk to a house where a lady gave me a pomegranite. Have you tried eating a pomegranite? They grow on trees all around here. She also gave me some “manderini” (mandarine oranges).

While I was watching the program I also tried to notice what the students were wearing. They were more dressed up than the other time that I saw them and many of them wore dark blue skirts or pants and a white shirt. Maybe that was what the students in the choir were supposed to wear. What surprised me was how many shirts I saw with English writing on them! I am putting a few pictures here.

Chasing the Turks out of Greece

October 26 is an important day in the history of Greece. It was many years ago today that the last battle was fought with the Turks and Greece became an independent country. In Old Corinth this is celebrated by a re-enactment of the event up on Acrocorinth. I was able to attend the ceremony this morning and take pictures.

I walked up Acrocorinth since I do not have a car. I did not see anyone else walking up the mountain. There were many cars and the students were brought up in a bus. It was a beautiful day and so I didn’t mind the exercise or being outside. It took about 45 minutes to walk up and when I got there a man was giving a speech. The older students from the school (dimotico scholi) were there and they sang. Then many important people placed wreaths made of olive leaves at the feet of a statue of the general who won the war against the Turks.There were a few more speeches and then a some musicians came up and played traditional music while the story was told and acted out.

The best part was the noise made by the bottle rockets to show how the battle sounded. The Greeks were in traditonial costumes on the mountainside and the Turks were up behind the wall of Acrocorinth. After a while the Greeks gathered at the bottom of the entry way to Acrocorinth and the Turks came down and met them. They conferred for a little while and then the Turks took off and the Greeks went up and took over Acrocorinth. At that point the musicians played dancing music and a dancing troup came out and performed some line dances. On the last one the oldest students joined them. It was very colorful.

Earlier in my life I lived in Romania for three years. The Turks also ruled in Romania for many years and I think that the Turkish influence on the Romanian language and food was stronger than here in Greece.

Colleen, I know what you mean by Mykanos blue. Here is a picture of some postcards which show that color. It is a beautiful color and I think it is inspired by the color of the ocean. I have not seen that color so much here on the Pelopennese where I have been. I think it is a special thing that the islands have. I also would like to go to an Island and I am glad for the suggestion of Mykanos. It may not be practical because of travel time. We would have to travel somewhere and then take a ferry. I am considering it though! We have also talked about Sparta (but Greeks say not to go there because there is not thing to see), or Athens to see the National Museum, or maybe a different or closer island. Keep sending those suggestions!

I have gotten some great Halloween pictures. I will put the best ones up on the 31st. I hope you will send me some more!

Nice to hear from you Mitch! I hope you learned what you wanted about Greek money from the blog yesterday. I am still collecting information about the music. It is difficult to describe it in words, but I will be talking with a Greek girl on Friday and I hope to come up with something!

Elementary School in Old Corinth

I was going to name this the name of the Greek elementary school, but I am not sure how to spell it and I don’t want to misspell the title. People have told me that elementary school is called ‘demotico’. I will find out how to write it correctly and also if the one that I went to has a particular name. I think it is just called demotico achaia korintos (Old Corinth Elementary School).



I arrived at the school when they were having recess. The school schedule is much different than ours. School starts at 8:15 and then from 9:45-10:15 there is a break that looks to me like our recess. The students were running around the building and playing. There is no playground with swings and other equipment at the school. Then the kids go back to their classrooms and have school from 10:15 to about 11:45 and there is another 1/2 hour break. Then school goes from 12:15 to 1:30 and it is over. There is no lunch break because in Greece lunch is in the late afternoon, so the kids go home and have lunch after school. They bring snacks that they eat at recess time, but there is no cafeteria and I did not see any lunch boxes. I did see backpacks.

Every student has a backpack and carries a notebook where they list their homework for the day. I was able to visit a classroom when they were having their math lesson and science. In math they were learning about addition with carrying and in science they were learning about nutrition. I understood most of what went on in the math class, because numbers written on the board are the same in Greece. During math the students came to the front and wrote problems on the board. They often did the same problem over three different ways. What seemed important was knowing HOW to do the problem rather than just getting the right answer. After math the teacher told them all to take out their science books and they read and the teacher talked and they raised their hands to answer his questions.

The students were practicing marching for a parade they are going to be in on Friday. Friday is an important Greek Holiday called Oxi day. Oxi means NO and they celebrate the fact that in 1940 they said NO to Mussolini and joined the side against fascism (the same side we were on) in World War Two. In this parade all of the students in the school participate. I will take pictures of it on Friday and post them here. They play a big drum and cymbals. The best students get chosen to carry flags and to beat the drum and the symbols. They spent time practicing while I was visiting the school.

Tomorrow is another important day here and the students will be going up to the top of Acrocorinth to watch a reenactment of when the Greeks won a war and chased the Turks out of the country, This was in 1823. Tomorrow they are celebrating the 182nd year of being independent of the Turks. Several people have asked about what music people like to listen to here. I am going to be talking to someone on Friday who can tell me more about it and so I will be writing about that soon.

I will be going back to the school to visit again next week. I will be going to visit a religion class. I was surprised that in the front of the class there is an Icon (a picture of Jesus) and that in public school there is religion class. Greece is an Orthodox country and so there is a state religion and almost everyone is Greek Orthodox. When I go back to the school I hope to tell the students about Halloween. What do you think I should tell them? What are you planning to do on Halloween? If you want to send me any pictures to put up here you can send them to janicef@jfriesen.net.

Olympia or Olympus?

This weekend we traveled to Olympia. That is the city where the original Olympic games were held. I knew that, of course! Everyone does. But did you know that Olympia is not even near Mt. Olympus where the Greek Gods were believed to live? Here is a map that shows where the two places are.

Olympia is an amazing place to visit. It is a beautiful small town, but the most amazing thing is the HUGE archaeological site where the Olympic Games took place. I don’t think I can describe what a huge area has been excavated by archaeologists and how many amazing buildings and statues they found. An important thing to the ancient people who took part in the games was worship of the gods. Two of the largest buildings on the site are temples; one for Hera and one for Zeus. Inside the temple to Zeus is a statue that is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The temple was made of some of the biggest columns I have seen and inside there was a statue of Zeus that was two stories high. The actual statue did not survive, but a man who traveled through in the second century CE and wrote about what he saw (Pausanias) described the statue. It was made of ivory and gold. Here is a model of what it may have looked like.

The Olympic games were a celebration and a festival. People came from long distances to participate and to watch. There is a stadium there for the running races which could hold 40-50 thousand people. That is close to what football stadiums hold today. The sports in the original Olympics were a little different than the sports today. You can find out more about the sports online at the Perseus Web Site. In the later games Nero (a notoriusly bad emperor) wanted to participate and so he added sports like writing poetry and oratory and of course he won whatever he participated in!

When I say that we traveled, I should tell you that we took the train. We got up early on Saturday morning and walked down to the center of town and took the bus into New Corinth. The bus from Old Corinth to New Corinth costs 1 Euro, which is about $1.20 in US dollars. Then we took the train for a four hour trip along the coast to Olympia. One round trip train ticket cost 24.50 Euros. The money here was Drachma until about 2002 when Greece and most of Europe started using the Euro. The Euro comes in bills for 500, 200, 100, fifty, twenty, ten and five Euro. They are all different sizes and different colors. There are coins for one and two Euro and for 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents. When Greece started using Euros everything got more expensive. In 2000 you could get 303.15 drachma for one dollar, but of course everything cost hundreds of drachma! Even though a candy bar might have cost 100 drachma before, now the same thing costs 1 Euro which is about 300 drachma. You can see more pictures and learn more information about the Euro at this web site. Find out here about how your money would exchange for Euros.

Tomorrow I am going to visit the elementary school in the village. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I am going to some different festivals which have to do with the holidays that I was mentioning. I am hoping that I will get to tell some of the Greek kids about Halloween!

Next weekend is our last weekend in Greece. We are thinking of traveling somewhere to see something else, but we have not decided where. Where do you think we should travel for the weekend? Remember we only have two days and will have to take a bus or train. Let me know!

Aristotelio School

First let me answer a few of the questions that you have sent. Charles asked me quite a few different things. My favorite food here is probably souvlaki although I really like just about everything I have eaten so far. I have not been courageous enough to order sea food and one thing that people think of as a delicacy here that seems gross to me is octopus. There was an octopus in the refrigerator here last night, so maybe I will have to try it. I will let you know! I am learning to read Greek letters, but I am not doing so well at learning to speak. I recognized another sentence from hearing so many people say it. It is “Ti kan et te?” which means “How are you?” I don’t even know if I have spelled it right and I don’t know the answer! America will always be my home and so I suppose I like it best, but I really enjoy Greece.

Allie, Darcy and Alexis asked me about the dust in the museum. I am surprised that there are no cobwebs, just lots of dust. I am not sure why. I did break one of the pots I was dusting. I didn’t actually break it, but it was made of pieces that were put together and just running the cloth over it made two pieces come off. The person I am working with said that it was OK because there was an archivist who fixes that sort of thing and as long as the pieces are together it is OK. I am very careful and I would feel very bad if I dropped anything!

Today was a very exciting day for me. I had my first visit to a Greek school. I learned so much, but also left with so many questions. Aristotelio School is a private school in New Corinth. There is an elementary school (same ages as our elementary school), junior high school (Gimnasio: ages12-15) and a high school (Likeo: ages 15-18). I was able to meet with a class of Gimnasio, the third year. This was an English class and so, besides helping me out with my project, it was also a chance for them to learn a bit about the United States and to practice English. Two classes of students joined together to talk with me. Most of them had red t-shirts on and blue pants. The red t-shirts had their school logo on it. Some of them also had jackets that were red and blue. They were enthusiastic and, I thought, very nice. I think that they were not that different than American students the same age. I spoke to them all in English (I only know English, Romanian and Spanish, but no Greek!) They seemed to understand me and many of them shared answers and asked other questions. When I finished talking with them I told them how to find this blog, so I am hoping that they will read this and put in their comments to correct any mistakes or to add to what I say. Here are some of the things that we talked about:

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS
In Greece there is a large difference between public and private schools. Students here must pass some very difficult exams in order to continue their education, so it is important that they are prepared. The students told me that the public schools will not prepare you to do well on the exams. If a person goes to public school they must take lots of after school lessons which are expensive. They also told me that in private school they are safer because of good discipline. They wear uniforms, but public school students do not. Also, they go to school for one hour more (until 3pm) every day. They said that in private school there are more field trips (including one for three days at the end of the year). They are also closer to their teachers who are more involved with them and encourage them.

AFTER SCHOOL
After school many of the students take the bus home and eat lunch. What I didn’t get a chance to ask is if they eat at all during the school day. I wonder if they have school lunches like we have? If they go home and eat lunch it is already 3:30 or 4 pm and so that seems late compared to our lunch at 12 noon (and many schools have earlier lunch times). If they eat lunch at 3:30 when do they eat dinner?

HOMEWORK
After eating they do their homework. There was a lot of variation in how long homework takes. I guess it depends a lot upon what classes you have and some days you have more than others. These students said that they have an average of 1-2 hours of homework each day. Then they have free time and we talked about what they do.

TV
Some of them watch TV. The show that lots of them mentioned watching was ‘Friends’! There was also talk about a show called ‘You are My Mate’. I didn’t get to ask them if they have cable TV and how many channels they get. I wonder if they are watching English TV shows with Greek written below?

MOVIES
Many of the students (most of them) have favorite movies and like to rent videos and watch them. We went around and each one of them told me one of their favorite movies. Some of them were Pearl Harbor, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, The Last Samurai,
Grease, Blade, Gothica and many others. Some liked serious movies, some liked Greek movies, and others liked horror and adventure movies. Do you have favorite movies? The Greek students all have to “read” any movies that are from the United States because they are in English with sub-titles. The students in this class practice their English by turning off the subtitles and listening to only the English.

COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES
Another thing that they do with their free time is to play computer and video games. I wish I remembered the name of the game that some of the students were asking me about at the end of the class. It had the word “war” in it and it was an Internet game. They were asking if any American students I was writing to play this game. Maybe they will write and tell us the correct name or maybe some of you know and can tell us all.

COMPUTER AND INTERNET
In this school there is a computer lab and each one of them have a computer to work on. There are two computer teachers! One of the students explained to me that the Internet was very expensive right now and that he was waiting until the price went down to get DSL at home. I wish I had time to ask how many of them had computers at home and how many of them had access to the Internet. I wonder if those who don’t go somewhere (a public library?, an Internet café? to use the Internet)

The time went very quickly and you can see that I came away with as many questions as answers! I hope that both American students and Greek students will add comments and questions to the blog.

Today I would like to end with a little talk about what people wear here. I have included several pictures in the blog of crowds of people in Athens. This will show you what a lot of people wear. I think that they dress very similarly to the way we dress. The majority of people seem to wear jeans. Most women wear pants. I have seen older women and women who seemed more dressed up for work wearing skirts. In the village the old women (grandmothers) wear all black. I think that it is a form of mourning because they are widows.

Next week I will visit a public elementary school and also I hope to go back to Aristotelio to take some pictures because I did not have my camera with me this time. Maybe I can find the answers to more questions! The Greeks have a VERY important holiday coming up in a week. I know that Americans do too. Can you guess what they are?

Archaeology

I am staying in Corinth excavations, run by the American School of Classical Studies. This is a place where archaeologists come to dig during the excavation season (late March through May) and then to do research on all of the stored findings during the rest of the year. There are several archaeologists here now and it is very interesting to listen to them. I am learning a lot of new things. Old Corinth has many “digs” or places where work has been done to uncover whatever is there: pots, bones, coins, olive pits, pig bones, buildings, and many other objects of past civilizations. The archaeologists hire people to do the actual digging, but they plan where to dig and direct what happens during the excavation. There are also specialists who know how to clean the things off and preserve them. Archaeologists take the remains and study them carefully and compare them to try to determine how each item was used and to date the items.

I have been volunteering in the storerooms for all of the finds at the museum. Ian, one of the archaeologists from Australia said that the store rooms are like the part of an iceberg that is underwater. The museum only shows a very little part of what has been discovered (the tip of the iceberg). Most of what has been found is in the basement of the museum there are shelves and shelves and drawers and drawers of items that have been found during the various excavations. Everything is catalogued and stored carefully so that it can be found again. Every little piece is marked with where and when it was found and given a number so that it can be found in the archives in the future. The shelves that I have been helping to dust have ceramic pieces that are marked with the year that they were found. Many of them were found in the 1940’s and earlier. The material that is found stays in the storeroom so that archaeologists can go back and look at past finds. I have been told that there are 9 other storerooms of material in different parts of Old Corinth.

This year the dig was at Panagia which is close to the Elementary School that I hope to visit. It is a site where they have been digging geometric sarcophagi which are stone graves from the 9th or 10th century BCE. They have been excavating there for the last several years. They found bones and many items that were placed in the sarcophagus. From what they found archaeologists have determined that panagia was a burial location in the 9th and 10th century and then during the 3rd century BCE there was some evidence of Greek construction. However, the Romans then came and built a large house on top. They used and destroyed all of the Greek remains and flattened the land so that they could build, so there is not a lot of archaeological evidence for the Greek construction.
Can you guess what happened here by looking at the remains of the bones?












Today at lunch I met a marine archaeologist. She works underwater looking at sunken ships and other remains. Right now she is working on underwater excavation of an ancient harbor. She is going to send me some pictures that I can post to show you!

Where in the World am I?

It is so GREAT to hear from Ms. Wilcox’s 6th grade class. I was having trouble thinking about what to write about and now I have a whole lot of questions which will give me good ideas for a while (and you promised to send me more!). I also do have a few questions from other people (my mother is reading this too!)

I mentioned baklava, but I forgot to mention how the baklava I had here was a little different than what I have had in the United States before. In the United States baklava that I ate usually used crushed walnuts. The baklava here was made with sesame seeds! It really did taste about the same because of the pastry (filo dough) and the sweet syrup.

My mother wants to know how far I am from the ocean. I am putting in a picture taken from Acrocorinth that shows the view that we have of the ocean. It is beautiful, but we re not walking distance from the ocean. Along the coast here there are not sandy beaches. The nearest sandy beach is about 1/2 hour by bus at another town and I have not been there.

I am also putting in a picture of a rocky harbor for Ms. Wilcox’s class. I will write more about trade later because I am still collecting information. This is the harbor at New Corinth. There is a little beach here and people can sit out under umbrellas, but it is not really sandy. The weather here has been just on the edge of too cold for going to the beach anyway. About a half of the days that I have been here have been overcast and very cool. Other days have been beautiful and clear. I have enjoyed the sun shine. I brought sleeveless shirts and shorts with me which I have not used at all. I only brought a few long sleeved shirts and a thin jacket and I have needed to wear them often. I also wear shoes and socks almost every day because my feet would be too cool in my sandles.

Finally for today, I am going to put in a map to show you where Corinth is. The map of Greece has Corinth marked with a red X. Corinth is in the Peloponnese which is the part of Greece that hangs down on the bottom. Peloponnese means island of Pleops. It was named after Pleops who was a Greek mythological figure.

Pleops was the son of Tantalos who invited the gods to a feast and served up the flesh of his son to test their power of omnicience (knowing everything). The gods did know what he had done and did not eat the flesh. They were able to reconstruct Pelops and then hung Tantalos fom a fruit tree and punished him with eternal tormenting thirst. There are many other good stories about Pleops.

On the map you can also see that there are many islands (Greece has 1400 islands, but only 169 are inhabited. Greece is a part of the European Union and you can see on the map how close it is to Italy, France, Germany and other European Countries.

The Peloponnese is not an island because it was connected to the mainland. It used to have twin ports on either side of the land connecting the Pelopennis to the Mediterranian. A ship could come to one port and then be transported to the other side by being dragged on rollers and then put back in the water rather than to try to sail around the Peloponnese. The actual canal was not finished until the 19th century (1883-1893) by a French engineering company, The canal was cut through solid rock which explains why it was so hard to create in earlier centuries.

Nafplion

Thanks for your comments! Hi, Mitch, Kelly and Steve! Colleen reminded me about sweets. I have eaten some really good sweets here. Baklava is my favorite. It is a pastry with crushed nuts and lots of honey or syrup. At the one restaurant that we have gone to they have brought us dessert as a special treat without us ordering it several nights. Once it was a cake soaked with a sweet syrup. Once it was baklava and once it was something I have never eaten before. Since people here grow grapes they have lots of them. They take the newly picked grapes and make a sugar syrup with grapes and then put in some blanched almonds. It is very good if you like sweet things. It is sort of like a thick syrup with grapes and blanched almonds floating in it. I will try to find out the Greek name and tell you! It seems like the desserts that they eat are VERY sweet and syrupy.

I went for a day trip yesterday to a town near Corinth called Nafplion. It is a coastal town and has a castle which was last used in the 1700’s which protects one side of the village and a beautiful bay on the other side.

One of the main things to see in Nafplion is the castle, but there are from 900-1000 steps to get to the top! I decided that I should go up there in the morning while there was still shade on all of the steps (and while I still had energy). I took a picture before I started and then every 100 steps that I counted on the way up. I was surprised when I got to the top and paid admission to the castle that there were still many more steps inside the castle! Do you remember why people built castles at the top of a hill? The castle was built first by the Venetians and then the Turks came and took it over. During the war of Independence the Greeks beseiged the castle for 15 months to get it back from the Turks. Nafplion was the first capitol city of Greece.

The pictures I sent of Acrocorinth show a much earlier fortress. The one in Acrocorinth has some ruins from the Classical Period of Greece (the 300’s BCE -or BC) and then ruins from many civilizations that followed. The Venetians and the Turks ruled here also.

Nafplion also has a very small castle that is out in the middle of the bay to guard the bay. It is called Bourtzi. The contrast between the dark blue ocean and the castle makes it very striking to look at.

I have just met a high school girl who is very excited about communicating with some American students. She speaks excellent English. She will be checking with her school to see if it would be possible for me to visit sometime. Now is the time to send your questions and also to let me know if you are interested in communicating with some Greek students!

Greek Food

It is really helpful to me to hear from those of you who are reading so that I know what you are curious about (and so that I know someone is reading this!) Thanks Colleen for letting me know that you are reading and trying to unblock the blog so that students and teachers at school can see it.

I had one question about the food and so that is my topic today. So far I have mainly eaten in two different places. Hill House is the name of the place I am staying. They serve food (and also clean and do my laundry) here! Every morning at breakfast we meet in the dining room at about 7:30 am. The table is set and there is hot coffee, orange juice, butter and jam, and bread. The toaster is plugged in right next to the table so that we can make our own toast. I talked to a Greek woman who is doing research here and she said that until recently Greeks did not eat much breakfast. They would have a cup of coffee and children would drink hot milk. Recently they have begun to eat cereal. I think that the breakfast here is mainly an American thing.

At lunch (12:30 or 1 pm) we all gather again in the dining room and there is something hot to eat and usually a salad of some sort and fruit for dessert. This is also probably an American thing. From observing the Greeks that work over in the Corinth Museum I think that they take a break from work around 10:30 and have some food that they bring from home. I have seen them eating sandwiches and also pastry-type things with spinach and cheese.

The main meal for us is dinner, but restaurants do not open until 8:00 at the earliest! That is late for us! I think that the Greeks have their main hot meal at around 2 in the afternoon. Everything sort of closes around then until about 5 or so when people go home. Then at 8 in the evening everything is lively again in town and so we go and have our dinner. We have been eating all of our meals so far at the Merinos restaurant because that is where the Archeologists who we have met here go regularly. They say it is good fresh food and that a nice family runs the restaurant. The food is good. What have I eaten you are wondering? Well…
Souvlaki-which is skewered meat-chicken or pork on a plate with some tomatoes, tzakziki-a yogurt, cucumber, garlic type dip, fried potatoes, and red onions
Giros-they serve this on a plate with pretty much the same thing as the Souvlaki on it except it is not skewered meat and in this restaurant it is pork.
Greek Salad-cucumber, tomato, red onion, olives, and feta cheese
Kifle (meatballs)-Three large meatballs on top of seasoned rice
Stuffed Tomatos (stuffed with seasoned rice)
Moussaka-Eggplant casserole-layered with potatos and cheese
Pork Chop and French Fries
Since we have gone to the same restaurant almost every day I have had a chance to taste almost everything there! Now that we have gotten used to going there somehow it just doesn’t seem right to go anywhere else!

Next week the cook will be back at Hill House and dinner will be served here. It is a bit less expensive than eating out, so it makes sense to eat here.