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!!
I hope you're having a great trip man. We definitely have to do dinner when you get back to the states.
ReplyDeleteDid any of you have or know of anyone with a sexual harrassment complaint either formal or informal from TEFL Corinth...I would really like to hear for you asap, I'd be of great help.
ReplyDeleteNo I had never heard that, nor did we ever feel like the instructors would ever do that. Although the main instructor, Peter, is always present, there are the other instructors who cycle in and out, as well as the turn over of students. We always felt safe in Vrahti and in Corinth.
ReplyDelete