It's been a few weeks ... !

Kalispera!

We just started our third week of TEFL training.  Its going by so fast our heads are spinning a little.  We’ve been teaching 45-90 minute classes on our own for the past week and a half now – scary huh??  Our days are pretty long … we leave the house every morning at 8:45am and don’t return until about 8:30-9pm.  We spend the morning learning teaching skills, grammar, etc and in the afternoon we’re working on our lesson plans and teaching lessons.  Then we get feedback on the lessons we’ve taught and head home.  By then we’ve got about enough time and energy to make dinner and relax for a few and its off to bed.  So, there’s our excuse for not having written for a while … ;)

Over the last three weekends, we have visited Ancient Corinth, Athens (again!), Nemea, Mycenae, Nafplio, Stymfalia, and Ancient Corinth again.

Ancient Corinth used to be one of ancient Greece’s most affluent cities.  Saint Paul spent about a year and a half here preaching to the Corinthians, which eventually became the Letters to the Corinthians.  The ancient sites include the Temple of Apollo, the Julian Basillica, and more, all sitting below the enormous Acrocorinth.  The Acrocorinth is a huge mountain of limestone jutting out of the city – about a 1 hour vertical hike, well worth it but ouch!!  On the top sits a fortress and from there you can see for miles and miles around.  The view is absolutely breathtaking.  We have visited and explored the fortress twice now and I think we’d both go back again – just beautiful!!

Last weekend we went on an “archaeological excursion” to Nemea, Mycenae, and Nafplio.  Nemea sits southwest of Corinth and is the location where Hercules was said to have carried out the first of his labors – the slaying of the lion that had been sent by Hera to destroy Nemea (that lion became the constellation Leo).  It’s an incredibly picturesque area with rolling hills, vineyards (yay!), olive trees, and bee hives.  The ancient site at Nemea holds the Doric Temple of Zeus (smaller than the Temple of the Olympian Zeus at Athens – but still impressive) with 3 original columns still intact.  The rest of the site has been badly damaged by earthquakes.

The next stop was Mycenae – we visited the Citadel and the Treasury of Atticus.  The entrance to the site was marked by the Lion Gate, an enormous archway with two (unfortunately headless) lions at the top.  The rest of the site contained remains of houses, buildings, and grave sites.  The path that wound up the hill led to Agamemnon’s Palace.  After exploring the Citadel we went back down the street to the Treasury of Atreus, aka the Tomb of Agamemnon.  This was an enormous, beehive shaped structure – so unique and cool!

The third and final stop of our tour was the seaside town of Nafplio.  Our tour book wrote that it is one of Greece’s “prettiest and most romantic towns” and it was right!  The beautiful, Venetian-style homes lined the sea under the massive Palamidi Fortress.  We walked around the village and had lunch in a cute little taverna – bread, salad, small lightly fried fish, and moussaka – delicious (we haven’t had a bad meal yet!!).  Full and happy we made our way to the base of the Palamidi Fortress and psyched ourselves up for the “999 step” walk to the top (we think it might have been a little less, but this is what the locals claim!).  Although the inside of the citadel was closed we still made the trek.  The view from the top was spectacular!  We had some well deserved ice cream and strolled around the water for a while before making our way back to the car. It was an amazing day :) …

This entry is getting a bit lengthy so we’ll save Stymfalia for next time.  We’ve sent out our resumes to some schools on the coast of Turkey and some schools in Greece.  Hopefully we’ll figure out our work situation sooner than later but in the mean time our plan is to travel for a month or so until we get a job!  We’ll keep you posted there … !

Hope everyone is doing well!  Enjoy the blog & the pictures & drop us an email whenever!!

xoxo C&S

PS - Here are the links to the pictures!!

Ancient Corinth I

Ancient Corinth II

Nemea, Mycenae, & Nafplio

AΘΗΝΑ!

Kalimera!!  (that means good morning!!)

Yesterday was our day trip to Athens.  We managed the bus and subway system from Vrahati to Athens (about a 90 minute trip) and found the Acropolis!  We were able to but a ticket that covered the 6 major sites – Ancient Agora, Roman Agora, Keramikos, Temple of Olympian Zeus, and the Theater of Dionysos.  We saw the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion with the Caryatids – the six huge maiden columns.  Smaller than the Theater of Dionysos was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.  In this theater the seating is being restored completely, but the backdrop of the columns and wall has remained intact.  It was so beautiful – I can’t imagine being able to see a performance there today!

I could go on and on about the ancient cites but you’ll really just have to look at the pictures – and even those don’t do them justice!  Everything is just so ancient and large, we couldn’t even fathom how big an undertaking this must have been in the early centuries BC!!

We walked the streets of Plaka – the village just under the Acropolis.  The shops and tavernas were so lively.  The owners of the tavernas came out into the street to try to convince us to come in.  One of them did finally convince us (or at least our stomachs) to try his restaurant – and it was great!  Chris had the kebab special and I had a spinach pie and Greek salad – complete with our first hunk of REAL feta!  It was unreal!  Totally incomparable to any feta we’ve had at home.  We’re doomed to be feta snobs…

We had some advice for our trip to Athens, but for the ride home we were on our own.  We realized upon arrival in Athens that we had no idea what the bus schedule was for the afternoon.  So, when it was time to leave we had to get resourceful.  I wholeheartedly tried not to destroy the Greek language when I asked a man in a kiosk “When is the next bus to Vrahati?”  He looked at us like we were crazy & couldn’t help us.  Luckily, a man standing behind us could speak English & instructed us to catch a bus to the main bus station. We followed his instructions and after a little ticketing confusion on the local bus we made it and booked a ticket back to Vrahati!  Great success!!

So even though it was a little rainy it was a great day!  Although we were exhausted when we arrived home we stuck it out and stayed up talking to our new friends.  Our efforts paid off – last night we were able to sleep through the night for the first time since arriving in Greece!

This will probably be the last of our exciting emails for a while.  We start our TEFL course on Monday so for 4 weeks we’ll be pretty busy learning and teaching.  They’re taking us on some ‘field trips’ over the weekends though, so we’re excited for that!  Thanks for all the emails and blog comments – we LOVE hearing from everyone!

More soon – miss you all!!

Love, Chris & Sam 

PS - Here's the link to our Athens pictures! 

Athena

Here's the link to our pictures!

First Days in Vrahati

We made it!

Hello everyone!

We've safely made it to Greece.  We had 2 uneventful flights and were picked up at the airport yesterday by Angeliki – our instructor’s wife.  Greece is gorgeous.  The landscape and the mountains are truly unique.  After about an hour and a half we arrived at the house we’ll be living in for the next month or so.  Its large, square, and white – with balconies and orange trees (we had an orange right off the tree last night & it was delicious!).  The beach is about a 1km walk from the house – its very rocky, but not like Maine rocks.  We are also within a couple minute walk to the center of Vrahati, where there are shops, cafes, and grocery stores.

The class before us is just finishing up this week so we were able to meet all the students last night.  They are all around our age – a girl from New York, a couple from New Jersey, a girl from Melbourne, a girl from Quebec, and another girl who we can’t place where she’s from… In other words it’s a full house and we’re currently sleeping on a “bed” in the living room/kitchen area. 

We’ve got the week to settle in and relax which is nice.  We’re thinking of doing a couple day trips tomorrow and Friday – one day in Athens and one day in Nafplio.  Saturday we’ll be moving into our real room and between Saturday and Sunday our classmates will arrive.  We think that there will be about 5 of us altogether.

I guess that’s about it for now!  The internet connection is a bit spotty – so we’ll try to get on Skype in the next couple days.  Otherwise, we’ll be checking our email about once a day so keep ‘em coming!  We miss you all!!

Love, Sam & Chris