Going to Israel...

Hey everyone! I'm leaving tomorrow for a 10-day trip to Israel! This is the last trip of my semester before I head home. Please be praying for safety and health. I'll be blogging when I return!

Trip to the Grecian Peloponnese (Nov. 6-8)

Day 1: Corinth, Acrocorinth, Epidaurus
My trip to the Peloponnese was short and sweet - 3 days long. The weather was beautiful for touring - just becoming fall.
In one museum, we saw sculptures of human body parts. Random, right? Well, these were found in the Temple of Aesclepios. Aesclepios was the god of healing, and people who were sick would put a representation of the body part that was diseased in the temple, so that Aesclepios would heal them. Below is a picture of the actual bema where Paul stood to address the angry crowd in Corinth. (A bema is a platform in the middle of the marketplace.)

Acts 18:12-17 - 'While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into court. "This man," they charged, "is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law." Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, "If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things." So he had them ejected from the court. Then they all turned on Sosthenes the synagogue ruler and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio showed no concern whatever."'

The Jews were mad at Paul, but Paul was able to get up on the bema ("court"). Instead of Paul being beat up though, the synagogue ruler was beat up - odd turn of events, but Paul was saved from persecution.

Me in front of the Corinthian bema.
At the very top of this mountain pictured below is the Acrocorinth - "high Corinth" - the place of Corinth's fortress and famous Temple of Aphrodite. Paul in the Bible really got on to the Corinthians because they were so immoral. The Temple of Aphrodite was the place where the Corinthians worshipped the gods by sleeping with the temple prostitutes. They had a messed-up view of love. That's why Paul had to write I Corinthians 13 - "the love chapter" - to them.

We hiked up to the very top of the Acrocorinth. I was so proud to finally reach the top and view how far I'd come.The path we hiked up to reach the top of the Acrocorinth. Tasha Sallee and I sat on the edge of the mountain to view the city of Corinth below.

Girls Charlie's Angels pose - I don't know why... : )

Then we travelled to Epidaurus, the place of the world's best-preserved theater.

The theater of Epidaurus was set in the mountains. I imagined that if the entertainment couldn't keep the people's attention, the surroundings definitely could - breathtaking! We took turns testing out the acoustics of the theater. They were really good. I climbed to the very top seat to see if I could hear the person in the center of the stage below whispering. I could - amazing!

Day 2: Nafplion and Mycenae

In the morning, we went to the Fortress of Palamidi in Nafplion, a seaport town. The bus drove us up to the top of the fortress. This picture shows the castle and then the town on the peninsula below. The castle was amazing because it was still so intact. I had a lot of fun running around exploring the fortress.

Here I am exploring inside the fortress. We discovered dungeons, tunnels, and random nooks and crannies - fun, fun! Stephanie and I found an archway that overlooked the sea below - beautiful!We didn't have to walk up to the fortress, but we did take the 857 steps down. Our legs were shaking when we reached the bottom! Next, we went to Mycenae, one of the most ancient Greek civilizations. Below is the famous Lion Gate entrance to the Mycenae citadel. It's called Lion Gate because there are two headless lions carved above the arch. The Greeks believed that the stones were so huge, only the Cyclops (one-eyed giants) could have built it - so these walls are now called the Cyclopian Walls.

Ancient grave sites. The area surrounding Mycenae had lots of mountains and valleys - it reminded me of Napa Valley, California.

Here's a big group of us. We have a running inside joke about us all being part of a 'family tree.' Some people in our group are the parents, grandparents, and others of us are their kids. Stephanie and I stretch across the entrance to the tomb of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. Agamemnon is the king from Homer's books The Illiad and The Odyssey.After touring, we ate at a nice restaurant in Mycenae for lunch. They served our favorites - bread with olive oil, Greek salad, spaghetti, and vanilla ice cream!

DAY 3: Olympia

Our last day was very rainy and we afraid we wouldn't get to see much of the archeological site of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games. But thankfully, it dried up some. Below, Jessica, Samantha, and I are sitting in the original Olympic stadium on the stone seats of the judges, pretending to cheer on the competitors. We girls lined up on the original marble starting line, ready to race. (Well... not really race. The boys raced each other but the girls didn't want to really run. I did jog the 192 meters down and back though - whew-who!)

Jessica and I peaking around a column in Olympia

These were my roommates in the hotels during this trip: Ashley Valamides in the pink and Stephanie Sterry in the white. We had back rub parties every night!

I'm ready to run! On your mark, get set, GO!

In Olympia, next to the stadium is the Temple of Zeus. Here I am standing next to one of its tall pillars.

We walked through the Palaestra, the place where the Olympians used to train for wrestling. Matt and Frank reinacted what took place thousands of years ago.

It was a beautiful, crisp autumn day after the rain cleared off. Kathleen, Brenda, Stephanie, and I walked through the old town of Olympia, linked arm in arm.

Monemvasia Weekend Trip

On our 3-day free weekend, my roommate Jessica and I went to a small coastal town in the Peloponnese of Greece, called Monemvasia. We left Thursday afternoon, and after a 7-hour bus ride, we arrived. Below is a picture of the kind Greek hotel owner who greeted us that night. A favorite part of our trip was trying gyros at different restaurants in Monemvasia, trying to find the best gyro. This is a picture of the hanging slabs of pork and chicken that are shaven to make the meat for our gyros - gross-looking, but delicious!

I think we ate gyros for lunch and dinner almost every day - yum!!

The hotel included a free continental breakfast. We usually woke up around 10:30 am every morning, just before the breakfast closed.

Here I am on the balcony of our hotel - we were so close to the beach, we could hear the waves from the balcony. At night, we sat out on the balcony in our pajamas and watched chick flicks, like Runaway Bride and Sweet Home Alabama, on my laptop.

One afternoon we just relaxed on the beach. The ocean water was freezing so we didn't get all the way in. But I did take a nap on the shore.

Jessica and I on the beach.

Jessica booked the hotel, Hotel Pratamaris, ahead of time, and I'm so glad she did. When we arrived on Thursday night at 11 p.m., I was kind of scared with my bags in the dark, but thankfully, the hotel was right by the bus stop.

The rock behind me in the picture is the main tourist site of Monemvasia. We stayed on the mainland, but there is a causeway that led to an island (more like just a rock). No cars are allowed on that tiny island and the population is around 50 people. It was very quaint.

We hiked to the very top of the Monemvasia rock (be impressed!)

At the top of the rock are ruins of a medieval castle.

Jessica and I at one of the entrances of the ruins.

The beautiful aerial view of the small town of Monemvasia below.

You can see the remains of the stone castle walls below.Jessica on the top of the rock. We were surrounded by water, and if we looked down far enough, we could see our hotel on the mainland.

We met some locals and got to practice our Greek. It was a fun, relaxing trip. I felt very adventurous travelling, just the two of us girls.

Halloween Party

Last Wednesday, October 29th, we had a Halloween party. Fofi our chef prepared a fabulous feast and some of the girls made "worms in dirt" and cupcakes. I planned on just wearing a white bed sheet as a toga, but at the last second, my friends and I decided to be creative. I ended up as Chiquita Banana girl. See the blue Chiquita stickers on my cheeks?
These are all the girls in my group. A lot of them wore their Egyptian outfit from the Nile Cruise. Below is Colby, who dressed up as a suicide bomber. He made TNT out of computer paper, which he strapped around himself , and he is about to click his mouse... oh goodness.

This is Fofi, our amazing chef for lunch and dinner at the Artemis. She is a Greek-American from New York, and she makes us laugh all the time.

Rebecca and Tim Brinley, our directors here at Harding University in Greece, dressed up like a Viking and a Dutch girl.

This is Fofi's teenage daughter, Toula. She is homeschooled for high school, so she hangs around the Artemis with us most days.

Jessica Berrens, my roommate (aka Pocahontas), me, and Kelsey Curtis (Jackie Kennedy - she really does look exactly like Jackie.)

I drew Jessica's Pocahontas tattoo on her arm

Colby was roasting the pumpkin seeds over a tiny candle and then feeding the charred seeds to me off of his knife.

This is my pumpkin-carving group. I mainly watched and dug out the slimy seeds. The boys made our pumpkin look like it's throwing up - so not me!

At the end of the night, I separated out the pumpkin seeds so that we could roast them in the oven - yum!