Saturday-Sunday, September 19-20, 2009

This weekend, our whole group took a bus to Ancient Delphi with our Art History/Greek Literature teacher, Anne Stuart. On the way, we stopped at an Orthodox monastery situated on the slopes of Mount Helicon called Hosios Loukas. The hermit St. Lucas founded this monastery in the 10th century—his body is still preserved in the church today (rather creepy to see). The area was beautiful! Sloping landscapes surrounded the area and the monastery was quiet and peaceful. Apparently, people come to this place for inspiration and I can understand why. Anne told us about the place and gave us a tour of the old and new church and we got to explore a bit before we had to leave. Anne is so knowledgable! It is like we have our own English speaking tour guide, and I think that most of the time, she knows more than any of the tour guides around. There is not a question that will stump her. Before arriving in Delphi, we stopped for a quick lunch in a village called Arachova. Once in Delphi, we went to the Delphi Archeological Museum for class. Ann took us through the museum and taught us about many statues and sculptures that have been preserved. After the museum, we dropped our things off at our hotel overlooking the Mount Parnassus and Sara, Sara, Laura and I went exploring in the small city. There were two or three streets filled mostly with shops in which to look. We did see one small museum room full of old, traditional Greek clothing (we saw the inspiration for the uniforms that the guards still wear today). I thought that was interesting to see. We had another class session with Anne before all gathering for supper at a taverna nearby. The evening was a quiet one, with some more roaming about the city before heading to bed. On Sunday, we all went to a Greek Orthodox Church service. The church was filled with icons and every inch was full of paintings. There were three elaborate chandeliers down the center of the church and some seats to sit. When we arrived, the service had already begun and as the service proceeded, more people gathered. It it not considered rude to enter a service late or to leave early here. When people came in, they usually picked up a tall candle at the entrance, kissed it, lit it, and placed it in a sand-filled stand on the side of the entrance. Then, they walked up the aisle and kissed the cross, then crossed themselves multiple times. There were several icons situated in elaborately carved wooden house-like structures, and people kissed the pictures and again crossed themselves several times before they found a seat. It was confusing to know whether to sit or stand. Some people sat and some people stood, and then they would switch and it was never at the same time. I tried to follow, but ended up just doing a little bit of both. The altar was in a separate room from the sanctuary and we could not see the priest most of the time, except for the procession with the Gospel. The entire service was chanted and it was a constant flow, with no pauses or silence. Sometimes several voices chanted at the same time. There wasn’t any music (besides the chanting) and the people didn’t participate in any of the chanting either. We couldn’t stay for the entire service, so we didn’t get to see communion or a homily, but it was all in Greek, so I wouldn’t have understood it anyway. It was a good experience to see an Orthodox Service and it seemed so different from the Roman Catholic Mass that I am used to. After the service, we met at the Archeological Museum again to see a bit more and then we visited the ancient sites. Because there was a rock fall, we didn’t get to go very far in the upper site--only up to the Athenian treasury, but not to the altar, the theater, or the stadium. In the lower site, we saw the Temple of Athena and a gymnasium. We tried to imagine what kind of workouts the ancient Greeks had here and we pretended we were ancient Greek athletes. On our way back to Athens from Delphi, we stopped in Arachova again and had time for lunch some exploring. It was a cute and quiet town in the mountains with more beautiful views of the countryside and more shops. Our teacher recommend the ΦOPMAEΛA (for/my/ella) cheese, so Sara Kokkila and I bought some together. We tasted it at our classmates apartment when we got back to Athens and it was delicious! To make it, you cut it up into pieces, fry it in olive oil, then squeeze lemon juice on it and eat it up. I can’t wait to make our cheese!