Monday, June 30, 2008
Service Day
Hey everyone! Hope you're all enjoying yourselves..I know most of you won't be able to read this because some are at camps and some are traveling to London, but I guess I'll write tonight anyway. Today was pretty good. We had class in the morning as usual, then we ate lunch and after lunch, we all signed up for places to clean up around Porto Rafti yesterday. We spent from 2:30-5:30 walking around the city picking up trash. It wasn't really that bad. It was actually kind of fun because we all talked the whole time and had fun during the torture..lol..It was me, Adam, Neely, Tyler, Stephanie, Bryan, Jen, Michelle, and Ms. Schramm..We headed to the elementary school and cleaned all around it, and all the roads around it, and then up and down the road in front of the Artemis. There is sooo much trash in this city. I didn't really notice until today. Someone was nice enough to stop their car and tell us that they were glad we were doing it and to keep up the good work, so that made us all feel good. Afterwards, we ate supper and then some people are watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding right now. I started watching it, but then remembered how much I did not like that movie. lol..So, I came up here and did my Paul homework. I'm so glad there's only 12 more class days. That's pretty crazy..Also, I took Exam 3 in Biology today, so I just have one more set of quizzes to and another Exam, and then I'm done..I'm gonna try to do it before we leave for the cruise..Hopefully, I'll at least get to the Exam before then..That would make it where I have 4 days before Israel to take the Exam, and I should be able to do it in 4 days..lol...Anyway, there's not much else to say here, so I'm gonna go..I love and miss you all. Hope things are going good. See you all in a month!! Love, Ryan
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Slow Down
Hey everybody!! Today has been pretty good. I wasn't really looking forward to starting classes again, but it wasn't really that bad. I can't believe we only have 13 more classes left. That is insane. When we were in the airport Thursday, I was like, man, it seems like we were just here arriving to Greece. It's just flown by so fast, and I wish it would slow down. I checked my checking account balance and it says I have 1,550 Euro left, so I don't know if that's good or what..I don't know how much I'm gonna need for free travel, but I'm pretty much done souvenir shopping, so I'm just gonna start buying things I actually need instead of want from now on..lol..We got our Humanities tests back today. I got 100 percent on both slide tests, and an 86 on the Midterm. Her tests are really thorough so I always study everything, and just go blank in the middle of it. I'm really trying though. We had to turn in our journals today, so I just copied and pasted off my blog all the trip stuff. Hopefully that's all she wanted. I couldn't remember, but anyway..Oh yea, and I also filled out the application for the Teacher Scholarship earlier today. Hopefully we'll get it. I don't know if that's the one you were talking about, dad, but I think this one gives you 500 dollars a semester. So, I figured it was worth a shot. lol..They hand one out every 3 months I think, so I don't know if I can just keep applying for it, or what the deal is. Anyway, hopefully I get it. They're supposed to email me about it later. Also, tonight, we watched the first part to the 4 part series of Masada. I pretty much wanted to die. It was the most boring movie EVER!!!! I am really not looking forward to the other 3 parts. It's mandatory to watch it too..It wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't 3000 degrees in the living room. I couldn't breathe, so that made it even less enjoyable..hahah..Anyway, I think I'm gonna go shoot some hoops before I head to bed. I love and miss you all, and I will see you in August!! Love, Ryan
Friday, June 27, 2008
Pharoh, Pharoh..Oh Baby, Let my people go..ugh..yayayayayaya
Hey everybody! I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it back safely from Egypt and it was completely and utterly amazing!! It far exceeded my expectations!!! I'll just tell you a couple pages worth of stuff that we did..hahaha..My roommates on this trip were Bryan Clifton and Ryan Hamling. So, it was Brian, Ryan, and Ryan..funny, huh? Our tour guide was Osman. He is the nicest man. I'll tell you more about him in the blog..
Thursday June 19th
We went to Alexandria. It is on the delta of the nile in lower egypt. Egypt means black soil, and now only 4 percent of today's Egypt is Biblical Egypt. We saw the Montazh Palace. It was very beautiful. Farouk was the last person to use it. We also saw the Library of Alexandria. It held 7000 volumes. The original was burned down so they had to rebuild it. Next, we went to the catacombs. We saw the comb of Shakafah. The ditch led to the main catacomb. People thought this place was 1 of the wonders of the world. There were about 200 bodies found here. They also used these catacombs as a hiding place. We saw some canopic jars which were jars for the innards except for the heart. This is a much bigger andd decorated catacomb than Rome and Paris'. The main tomb had lots of cubby holes to put the dead in. It kind of reminded me of when we were smaller and used to crawl into the cubby holes in the band room (good times). The Caracalla Hall had a straight staircase that they used on their way down and a palace staircase that they used on their way up. Osman told us about 3 ways to bury people. You could use a sarcoficus, cubbies, or build the coffin into the rock. I thought the way they built it into the rock was interesting. I really enjoyed seeing the Catacombs.
Friday June 20th
Friday was a very long day, but filled with tons of very interesting things. We started off the day in Giza in a museum built by a French man, Mariet. It was pretty much like a warehouse. No AC, and we couldn't even take our cameras in so I don't have any pictures of what I saw. The museum was constructed in 1901. The Rosetta Stone is up to chest high and very thick. It's double sided and a perfect rectangle, but the corners were chopped off. It was done in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut. There were two statues found in his tomb. We also learned that the Northern people wore red headress and the Southern people wore white headress. We learned that to know if you read the hieroglyphics right to left or left to right is determined by whatever way the birds are facing, so I thought that was pretty interesting. We saw a papyrus chair and boomerangs. The boomerangs proved that they were not invented in Australia so I thought that was an interesting point he made. We saw two beds made of gold. We also saw 3 funeral beds. The mummification process took 40 days, and 70 days for kings. We saw the mummy of the oldest man on earth. He died in 3000 B.C. He was buried in a coffin made of reeds in the fetus position. Next, I payed 50 pounds to go into the mummy room. This was probably my favorite part of the museum. It was so cool. We saw Tuthmosis IV, King Amenhotep II, King Tuthmosis, III, Tuthmosis II, Thuthmosis I, Princess Meritamun, King Amenhotep I, King Seqenere Taa II, King Ramses II, and King Seti I. We saw the sculpture of Rahotep and Nofret. It conveyed their attitude and had preserved painted surfaces. Then we saw the Meidum Geese. It was the oldest collection of colors and the most use of different colors at the time. The last thing we saw in the museum was the Palette of Narmer. It was double sided and showed Hathor and four army divisions.
After the museum, we went to the Pyramids. They were completely breathtaking. They were named Cheops for the father, Chephren for the son, and Mykanous for the great grandson in law. There were also 3 baby pyramids for the wives. We got out and took pictures by them, and even got a group picture in front of them. Next, we went to the Solar Boat Museum. It was pretty neat. We had to wear overshoes, so it was pretty funny. There were 23 crew members. There were 10 middle oars used for rowing and 2 in the back used for steering. Overall, there were 1,224 pieces to the boat. It was built for the same pharoh as all the pyramids (Cheops). After the Solar Boat, I payed 15 pounds to go inside the middle pyramid. It was insane! I had to literally bend over the entire time through because the passage was so small. My back was killing me by the time we got in there. Frank layed down in the coffin to try and scare people when they came in, but no one got scared. It was pretty funny. When we got back out, Osman said that inside the pyramids, it can range from 100-125 degrees (I think it was much hotter) and it is the highest, tallest, and oldest wonder of the ancient world. It is also the only original of the seven wonders. They each took at least 20 years to be built. After we burned in the pyramid, we went to see the Sphinx of Giza. It was really cool. It used to have a nose and beard, but they shaved the beard and it is now in the British Museum. We spent the night on a train, and it was really really cramped, but still fun.
Saturday June 21st
This was Andrew and Shailer's birthday, so all the guys stayed in Car 3, so when we got up we all ran into Andrew's room and party boy'd him. It was sooo funny. We started to day off in Aswan which is the southernmost city and it is called the "warm city." I decided to wear my white bandanna since the Southern Kingdom wore white headdresses. It has always been a part of Egypt. We saw the Aswan Dam. It was built in 1902. The dam was 4 km long and 1 km long. We got out to take pictures, and Paul decided to arm wrestle the guards. He whooped them both. It was hilarious. One of the guards was even pushing all of his weight on Paul's arm. It was crazy..haha.. Next, we saw the Temple of Philae. It came from underwater and it was pulled out in 1972. It was underwater for 70 years. It was the Temple of Love between Isis and Osiris. It had the 5 parts of a temple: Sanctuary, Vestibule, Hypostyle, Open court, and Pylon. The Open Court was the largest part of the temple. There was no roof. It had 10 columns. There were three sanctuaries here. The middle one was dedicated to Isis, the left one was dedicated to Osiris, and the right one was dedicated to Horus, the falcon god. After we saw the temple, we went back to the boat. That night was Cruise Night. We had a dinner on top of the boat. Since it was Andrew and Shailer's birthday, they made them a cake, and they had to stand there and hold it while they sang a song that lasted for seriously 10 minutes. After a minute or so, they made Andrew and Shailer dance, and it was definitely one of the funniest things I've ever seen. That was a really really fun night. This was also the day that we got to ride camels. It was awesome! So, Andrew and Shailer had a full day for their birthday, and it was tons of fun.
Sunday June 22nd
We started off the day in Kom Ombo at the "Crocodile" Temple which was dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god. Here, we got to see mummified crocodiles which I thought was really really cool. The temple was Telomaic built in 290 B.C. The temples east of the Nile were schools or hospitals or both and the temples west of the Nile were funerary temples or storage houses. It had 3 vestibules. The second one has one of the oldest calendars in the world. There was no B.C. or A.D. They told years by adding up Pharoh ruling dates. Next, we went to Edfu and saw the Edfu Temple. It was covered in sand until 1881. There were 12 columns, so that meant there were 12 priests. It took 25 years to build and 160 years to decorate it. Early Christians came here as a hiding place. Sunday night was Egyptian Night on the boat. It was probably the funnest night on the trip. We all dressed up like Egyptians and had dinner, and then we had a dance afterwards. It was pretty crazy, but a whole lot of fun.
Monday June 23rd
This was also one of the really really long days. We started off in Luxor. It was named the "sun city." Here, we saw the Karnak Temple. It is the largest temple of Ancient Egypt. It was considered the 8th wonder of the world. It is 26 times larger than Ancient Jerusalem. That is insane! It had the Ram Avenue. They all had Ramses II on them. It took 2,000 years to construct this temple. It had 10 gates. They took all the bricks that were on a higher level by building mud brick ramps. I thought that was pretty interesting. We saw the Statue of Ramses II and his wife. He is in the death position and she is in the living position. There were 134 columns. The 12 in the middle were the biggest and fattest. They were 70 ft. high. We then saw the Obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut. I thought this was really amazing. All the inscriptions from top down talked about her. She was the only woman to rule Egypt and her statues depict her as a man. According to Theory 1, she would be Moses' mom. We also saw a Carab, and the theory of the carab is if you walk around it 3 times then you will be rich, if you walk around it 5 times, you will get married, and if you walk around it 7 times, then you will have a baby, so we all walked around it however many times we wanted up to 7. It was pretty funny. I felt really weird doing it. When we got back to the boat, Osman held a class that talked about Exodus, and then he gave us a Hieroglyphics lesson where we learned the shorthand for all the letters of hieroglyphics. It was really interesting. After that, we headed to the Temple of Luxor. We went and saw it at night so it was really really beautiful. It is the most beautiful temple in Egypt in my opinion. The Ram Avenue is 2 1/2 miles long. All the men's knees in their statues are big, and it wasn't until this temple that Osman told us why. It is because big knees is the fertility sign. If you have big knees, then it means you'll have children. So, when you went to meet your future father-in-law, he would begin asking you questions and then, slowly try to feel your knees. Osman acted it out with Ryan Hamling, and it was hilarious. There is still an active mosk in the temple. It is from the 10th century AD. The Vestibule was probably the best part. We sang songs as the sunset behind the temple. David Roberts once said, "There is nothing like the sunset on the Luxor Temple Vestibule." The open court is probably where Moses learned all his wisdom from the Egyptians. It also has the largest Sanctuary of any other temple. This night was Captain's Night on the boat, and we barely had enough time to go to our rooms and get changed. We were pretty much already late, but I didn't pack and lug around my humongous brown shoes all week for nothing!! I was going to wear my nice clothes. We had a really nice dinner and then afterwards, there was a belly dancer show in the common room. We all rushed down there, and I have to say I was pretty disappointed with her. Hahaha.. I stayed for a little while, and she made us all get up and do the Train with her, so I got in and when we reached the door, I got out. Haha..Then, I went up to the room and went to sleep.
Tuesday June 24---Happy Birthday, Ashton!!
We were still in Luxor and went to Valley of the Kings. The tombs began being found in the 17th century. There are 64 tombs, 9 are open, and we only got to see 3. Queen Hatshepsut was the first one to use the Valley of the Kings. I thought that was pretty ironic. We saw the Tomb of Ramses III, Tomb of Thutmes III, and Tomb of Queen Tausert. The Tomb of Thutmes III was my favorite one. He chose a weird spot for his. It was right in the middle of the mountain. It took 4-6 years to prepare a tomb. The Tomb of Queen Tausert waws very nice inside. It was the coolest temperature wise. After doing the Valley of the Kings, we went Alabaster shopping. I really wanted to buy some, but I wanted to save my money for papyrus. We saw Queen Hatshepsut's Tomb. It is behind the Valley of the Kings. It is the only monument in all of Egypt to be rebuilt. After seeing her tomb, we went to see the Tombs of the Workers. The first tomb we saw was Tomb of Anherkha. It was painted and very colorful. It was "60%" in the words of Osman. The next tomb was the Tomb of Sennutem. It was painted too and very colorful. This temple was "Over 100%" in the words of Osman again. It is 3,450 years old, but looked like it was painted yesterday. It was the first use of arched ceilings. I thought they were both really neat. Tuesday night, we stayed on the train again, and it was definitely one of the worst nights of my life. I slept for 1 hour, and woke up and couldn't breathe because it was so stuffy in the room. Our air conditioner didn't work, and so it felt like one of the tombs in our room. I couldn't go to sleep. I just stayed on top of my bed pouring water on myself all night. It was miserable. We woke up the next day, and Osman was pretty mad. He was like, "I didn't get any sleep. This is ridiculous." Hahaha.
Wednesday June 25th
We started the day in Cairo and had breakfast at Osman's home. He is so sweet. He invited us all over to his apartment to have some food and meet his family. His kids are adorable, and his wife is really pretty. We had a short service there. Osman loves it when we sing. There was some times when he was like, okay if you want to know about this, you have to sing me a song. I didn't mind it. It was a really emotional time because it is the last time that Captain and DiMy will be here with HUG, so they were pretty upset as was Osman and his family. After breakfast, we all went papyrus shopping, and I loved every single one. It was really hard to decide which ones to get. I got the huge Weighing of the Heart scene. So, I definitely won't be buying that much on the trips because that was pretty pricey. I'm really excited to put it up on my wall though. After the papyrus shop, we went to Memphis. It is the first capital of the world. Abraham came here, and it had the 1st clear writing of hieroglyphics. We saw the Alabaster Sphinx which had Hatshepsut's face and we saw 2 Ramses II statues outside. There was one inside which was the highlight of the Memphis Museum. It was 30 ft. long without feet. The museum was built over the statue. The largest Ramses II statues though are in Abu Simbal. They're 8 1/2 stories high. I really wanted to see them, but we never got the chance because of the boat schedule.
Next, we went to Sakkara which is the cemetery of Memphis. We saw the Tomb of Ptah-Hotep here. It is a mastaba, which is where rich people were buried. It had a middle chamber and 2 side chambers for him and his father. The son's was the most preserved place in Sakkara. After that, we saw the Steppe Pyramid. It was built in the Old Kingdom. It is 59 meters high with 6 steps that are 10 meters each. It was built by Pharoh Zoser. After we saw this, we went to a carpet school. The prices were insane. The cheapest one I saw that was actually worth buying was like 3,000 dollars. It was madness. There was one pink one that was 34,000 dollars. It's like hmm..buy the carpet, or the apartment to put it in? Hahaha. After the carpet school, we went to Cairo again and saw the Mosk. It was the oldest one in Africa and the 3rd in Islam. It was from 640 BC. There are 5 principles of Muslims: Only 1 god and Mohammad was the messenger, Prayers-5 times a day, Fasting, Charity, and Pilgrimage to Mecca if you could afford it. Overall, I thought the mosk was very interesting. There were people praying while Osman was talking to us. It was neat to watch them. After we were done, Osman took us all on a sailboat ride on the Nile. It was really nice of him, and it was a lot of fun.
Thursday June 26
We got up, and went to the airport and Osman was there to meet us. It was really good to get to say bye to him one more time. Really sad too. Once we got into Greece, we stood in the Customs line for at least 2 hours. I was getting really irritated. It was almost ridiculous. There were 3 whole things left alone, when there could have been 6 more lines. It just really made me mad. At least we had some good conversations in line. Hahah. Once we got back to the Artemis, I shaved my beard. It's not because it was too hot, I was just in a really weird mood, and decided to surprise everybody, so I definitely just shaved it all off. Hahaha. I'm still keeping the hair though. There's no way I'm losing both. Hahahha. All the girls were like, I need to touch your face, and saying it looked like 10 times better. They keep telling me to cut my hair, but there is no way. Anyway, last night we watched Prince of Egypt and it really made me want to go back soo bad. After that, I just came up to the room and went to sleep.
Alright, well, that about wraps it up. I hope you all enjoyed reading about the amazing Egypt trip. I love and miss you all, and I will see you in August! Bye! Love, Ryan
Thursday June 19th
We went to Alexandria. It is on the delta of the nile in lower egypt. Egypt means black soil, and now only 4 percent of today's Egypt is Biblical Egypt. We saw the Montazh Palace. It was very beautiful. Farouk was the last person to use it. We also saw the Library of Alexandria. It held 7000 volumes. The original was burned down so they had to rebuild it. Next, we went to the catacombs. We saw the comb of Shakafah. The ditch led to the main catacomb. People thought this place was 1 of the wonders of the world. There were about 200 bodies found here. They also used these catacombs as a hiding place. We saw some canopic jars which were jars for the innards except for the heart. This is a much bigger andd decorated catacomb than Rome and Paris'. The main tomb had lots of cubby holes to put the dead in. It kind of reminded me of when we were smaller and used to crawl into the cubby holes in the band room (good times). The Caracalla Hall had a straight staircase that they used on their way down and a palace staircase that they used on their way up. Osman told us about 3 ways to bury people. You could use a sarcoficus, cubbies, or build the coffin into the rock. I thought the way they built it into the rock was interesting. I really enjoyed seeing the Catacombs.
Friday June 20th
Friday was a very long day, but filled with tons of very interesting things. We started off the day in Giza in a museum built by a French man, Mariet. It was pretty much like a warehouse. No AC, and we couldn't even take our cameras in so I don't have any pictures of what I saw. The museum was constructed in 1901. The Rosetta Stone is up to chest high and very thick. It's double sided and a perfect rectangle, but the corners were chopped off. It was done in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tut. There were two statues found in his tomb. We also learned that the Northern people wore red headress and the Southern people wore white headress. We learned that to know if you read the hieroglyphics right to left or left to right is determined by whatever way the birds are facing, so I thought that was pretty interesting. We saw a papyrus chair and boomerangs. The boomerangs proved that they were not invented in Australia so I thought that was an interesting point he made. We saw two beds made of gold. We also saw 3 funeral beds. The mummification process took 40 days, and 70 days for kings. We saw the mummy of the oldest man on earth. He died in 3000 B.C. He was buried in a coffin made of reeds in the fetus position. Next, I payed 50 pounds to go into the mummy room. This was probably my favorite part of the museum. It was so cool. We saw Tuthmosis IV, King Amenhotep II, King Tuthmosis, III, Tuthmosis II, Thuthmosis I, Princess Meritamun, King Amenhotep I, King Seqenere Taa II, King Ramses II, and King Seti I. We saw the sculpture of Rahotep and Nofret. It conveyed their attitude and had preserved painted surfaces. Then we saw the Meidum Geese. It was the oldest collection of colors and the most use of different colors at the time. The last thing we saw in the museum was the Palette of Narmer. It was double sided and showed Hathor and four army divisions.
After the museum, we went to the Pyramids. They were completely breathtaking. They were named Cheops for the father, Chephren for the son, and Mykanous for the great grandson in law. There were also 3 baby pyramids for the wives. We got out and took pictures by them, and even got a group picture in front of them. Next, we went to the Solar Boat Museum. It was pretty neat. We had to wear overshoes, so it was pretty funny. There were 23 crew members. There were 10 middle oars used for rowing and 2 in the back used for steering. Overall, there were 1,224 pieces to the boat. It was built for the same pharoh as all the pyramids (Cheops). After the Solar Boat, I payed 15 pounds to go inside the middle pyramid. It was insane! I had to literally bend over the entire time through because the passage was so small. My back was killing me by the time we got in there. Frank layed down in the coffin to try and scare people when they came in, but no one got scared. It was pretty funny. When we got back out, Osman said that inside the pyramids, it can range from 100-125 degrees (I think it was much hotter) and it is the highest, tallest, and oldest wonder of the ancient world. It is also the only original of the seven wonders. They each took at least 20 years to be built. After we burned in the pyramid, we went to see the Sphinx of Giza. It was really cool. It used to have a nose and beard, but they shaved the beard and it is now in the British Museum. We spent the night on a train, and it was really really cramped, but still fun.
Saturday June 21st
This was Andrew and Shailer's birthday, so all the guys stayed in Car 3, so when we got up we all ran into Andrew's room and party boy'd him. It was sooo funny. We started to day off in Aswan which is the southernmost city and it is called the "warm city." I decided to wear my white bandanna since the Southern Kingdom wore white headdresses. It has always been a part of Egypt. We saw the Aswan Dam. It was built in 1902. The dam was 4 km long and 1 km long. We got out to take pictures, and Paul decided to arm wrestle the guards. He whooped them both. It was hilarious. One of the guards was even pushing all of his weight on Paul's arm. It was crazy..haha.. Next, we saw the Temple of Philae. It came from underwater and it was pulled out in 1972. It was underwater for 70 years. It was the Temple of Love between Isis and Osiris. It had the 5 parts of a temple: Sanctuary, Vestibule, Hypostyle, Open court, and Pylon. The Open Court was the largest part of the temple. There was no roof. It had 10 columns. There were three sanctuaries here. The middle one was dedicated to Isis, the left one was dedicated to Osiris, and the right one was dedicated to Horus, the falcon god. After we saw the temple, we went back to the boat. That night was Cruise Night. We had a dinner on top of the boat. Since it was Andrew and Shailer's birthday, they made them a cake, and they had to stand there and hold it while they sang a song that lasted for seriously 10 minutes. After a minute or so, they made Andrew and Shailer dance, and it was definitely one of the funniest things I've ever seen. That was a really really fun night. This was also the day that we got to ride camels. It was awesome! So, Andrew and Shailer had a full day for their birthday, and it was tons of fun.
Sunday June 22nd
We started off the day in Kom Ombo at the "Crocodile" Temple which was dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god. Here, we got to see mummified crocodiles which I thought was really really cool. The temple was Telomaic built in 290 B.C. The temples east of the Nile were schools or hospitals or both and the temples west of the Nile were funerary temples or storage houses. It had 3 vestibules. The second one has one of the oldest calendars in the world. There was no B.C. or A.D. They told years by adding up Pharoh ruling dates. Next, we went to Edfu and saw the Edfu Temple. It was covered in sand until 1881. There were 12 columns, so that meant there were 12 priests. It took 25 years to build and 160 years to decorate it. Early Christians came here as a hiding place. Sunday night was Egyptian Night on the boat. It was probably the funnest night on the trip. We all dressed up like Egyptians and had dinner, and then we had a dance afterwards. It was pretty crazy, but a whole lot of fun.
Monday June 23rd
This was also one of the really really long days. We started off in Luxor. It was named the "sun city." Here, we saw the Karnak Temple. It is the largest temple of Ancient Egypt. It was considered the 8th wonder of the world. It is 26 times larger than Ancient Jerusalem. That is insane! It had the Ram Avenue. They all had Ramses II on them. It took 2,000 years to construct this temple. It had 10 gates. They took all the bricks that were on a higher level by building mud brick ramps. I thought that was pretty interesting. We saw the Statue of Ramses II and his wife. He is in the death position and she is in the living position. There were 134 columns. The 12 in the middle were the biggest and fattest. They were 70 ft. high. We then saw the Obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut. I thought this was really amazing. All the inscriptions from top down talked about her. She was the only woman to rule Egypt and her statues depict her as a man. According to Theory 1, she would be Moses' mom. We also saw a Carab, and the theory of the carab is if you walk around it 3 times then you will be rich, if you walk around it 5 times, you will get married, and if you walk around it 7 times, then you will have a baby, so we all walked around it however many times we wanted up to 7. It was pretty funny. I felt really weird doing it. When we got back to the boat, Osman held a class that talked about Exodus, and then he gave us a Hieroglyphics lesson where we learned the shorthand for all the letters of hieroglyphics. It was really interesting. After that, we headed to the Temple of Luxor. We went and saw it at night so it was really really beautiful. It is the most beautiful temple in Egypt in my opinion. The Ram Avenue is 2 1/2 miles long. All the men's knees in their statues are big, and it wasn't until this temple that Osman told us why. It is because big knees is the fertility sign. If you have big knees, then it means you'll have children. So, when you went to meet your future father-in-law, he would begin asking you questions and then, slowly try to feel your knees. Osman acted it out with Ryan Hamling, and it was hilarious. There is still an active mosk in the temple. It is from the 10th century AD. The Vestibule was probably the best part. We sang songs as the sunset behind the temple. David Roberts once said, "There is nothing like the sunset on the Luxor Temple Vestibule." The open court is probably where Moses learned all his wisdom from the Egyptians. It also has the largest Sanctuary of any other temple. This night was Captain's Night on the boat, and we barely had enough time to go to our rooms and get changed. We were pretty much already late, but I didn't pack and lug around my humongous brown shoes all week for nothing!! I was going to wear my nice clothes. We had a really nice dinner and then afterwards, there was a belly dancer show in the common room. We all rushed down there, and I have to say I was pretty disappointed with her. Hahaha.. I stayed for a little while, and she made us all get up and do the Train with her, so I got in and when we reached the door, I got out. Haha..Then, I went up to the room and went to sleep.
Tuesday June 24---Happy Birthday, Ashton!!
We were still in Luxor and went to Valley of the Kings. The tombs began being found in the 17th century. There are 64 tombs, 9 are open, and we only got to see 3. Queen Hatshepsut was the first one to use the Valley of the Kings. I thought that was pretty ironic. We saw the Tomb of Ramses III, Tomb of Thutmes III, and Tomb of Queen Tausert. The Tomb of Thutmes III was my favorite one. He chose a weird spot for his. It was right in the middle of the mountain. It took 4-6 years to prepare a tomb. The Tomb of Queen Tausert waws very nice inside. It was the coolest temperature wise. After doing the Valley of the Kings, we went Alabaster shopping. I really wanted to buy some, but I wanted to save my money for papyrus. We saw Queen Hatshepsut's Tomb. It is behind the Valley of the Kings. It is the only monument in all of Egypt to be rebuilt. After seeing her tomb, we went to see the Tombs of the Workers. The first tomb we saw was Tomb of Anherkha. It was painted and very colorful. It was "60%" in the words of Osman. The next tomb was the Tomb of Sennutem. It was painted too and very colorful. This temple was "Over 100%" in the words of Osman again. It is 3,450 years old, but looked like it was painted yesterday. It was the first use of arched ceilings. I thought they were both really neat. Tuesday night, we stayed on the train again, and it was definitely one of the worst nights of my life. I slept for 1 hour, and woke up and couldn't breathe because it was so stuffy in the room. Our air conditioner didn't work, and so it felt like one of the tombs in our room. I couldn't go to sleep. I just stayed on top of my bed pouring water on myself all night. It was miserable. We woke up the next day, and Osman was pretty mad. He was like, "I didn't get any sleep. This is ridiculous." Hahaha.
Wednesday June 25th
We started the day in Cairo and had breakfast at Osman's home. He is so sweet. He invited us all over to his apartment to have some food and meet his family. His kids are adorable, and his wife is really pretty. We had a short service there. Osman loves it when we sing. There was some times when he was like, okay if you want to know about this, you have to sing me a song. I didn't mind it. It was a really emotional time because it is the last time that Captain and DiMy will be here with HUG, so they were pretty upset as was Osman and his family. After breakfast, we all went papyrus shopping, and I loved every single one. It was really hard to decide which ones to get. I got the huge Weighing of the Heart scene. So, I definitely won't be buying that much on the trips because that was pretty pricey. I'm really excited to put it up on my wall though. After the papyrus shop, we went to Memphis. It is the first capital of the world. Abraham came here, and it had the 1st clear writing of hieroglyphics. We saw the Alabaster Sphinx which had Hatshepsut's face and we saw 2 Ramses II statues outside. There was one inside which was the highlight of the Memphis Museum. It was 30 ft. long without feet. The museum was built over the statue. The largest Ramses II statues though are in Abu Simbal. They're 8 1/2 stories high. I really wanted to see them, but we never got the chance because of the boat schedule.
Next, we went to Sakkara which is the cemetery of Memphis. We saw the Tomb of Ptah-Hotep here. It is a mastaba, which is where rich people were buried. It had a middle chamber and 2 side chambers for him and his father. The son's was the most preserved place in Sakkara. After that, we saw the Steppe Pyramid. It was built in the Old Kingdom. It is 59 meters high with 6 steps that are 10 meters each. It was built by Pharoh Zoser. After we saw this, we went to a carpet school. The prices were insane. The cheapest one I saw that was actually worth buying was like 3,000 dollars. It was madness. There was one pink one that was 34,000 dollars. It's like hmm..buy the carpet, or the apartment to put it in? Hahaha. After the carpet school, we went to Cairo again and saw the Mosk. It was the oldest one in Africa and the 3rd in Islam. It was from 640 BC. There are 5 principles of Muslims: Only 1 god and Mohammad was the messenger, Prayers-5 times a day, Fasting, Charity, and Pilgrimage to Mecca if you could afford it. Overall, I thought the mosk was very interesting. There were people praying while Osman was talking to us. It was neat to watch them. After we were done, Osman took us all on a sailboat ride on the Nile. It was really nice of him, and it was a lot of fun.
Thursday June 26
We got up, and went to the airport and Osman was there to meet us. It was really good to get to say bye to him one more time. Really sad too. Once we got into Greece, we stood in the Customs line for at least 2 hours. I was getting really irritated. It was almost ridiculous. There were 3 whole things left alone, when there could have been 6 more lines. It just really made me mad. At least we had some good conversations in line. Hahah. Once we got back to the Artemis, I shaved my beard. It's not because it was too hot, I was just in a really weird mood, and decided to surprise everybody, so I definitely just shaved it all off. Hahaha. I'm still keeping the hair though. There's no way I'm losing both. Hahahha. All the girls were like, I need to touch your face, and saying it looked like 10 times better. They keep telling me to cut my hair, but there is no way. Anyway, last night we watched Prince of Egypt and it really made me want to go back soo bad. After that, I just came up to the room and went to sleep.
Alright, well, that about wraps it up. I hope you all enjoyed reading about the amazing Egypt trip. I love and miss you all, and I will see you in August! Bye! Love, Ryan
Northern Greece
Hey everybody! Sorry this entry is so late. I just haven't had that much time to do it until today. We have a free day today, so I'm gonna write about Northern Greece and Egypt. Have fun reading!!
Our guides name was Catarina, but it was a different one than the one we had for the Athens tour. My roommates on this trip were Adub and Jonathan Murray.
Thursday, June 5th
We started off the trip in Delphi. We saw an inaugora which was totally smooth and didn't have any friezes or capitals and it was in the Roman style. Next, we went to the Oracle. It was a place dedicated to Apollo. No one could stay inside except for priests. The road that led to the Temple of Apollo was called the "Sacred Way". Next, we stopped by the Treasury of the Athenians. This is where the pilgrims would place offerings based on their location. It was built before the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. This is also the place of the center of the universe. Catarina told us the story of how Zeus sent out two eagles in opposite directions to find out where they met and that would be the center of the universe, and this is where they met. I thought that story was pretty interesting. We then saw the Portacle which is where they would put their trophies from their victories. Next, we saw the Theater of Delphi. It was built in the 4th century B.C. They had musical contests here and sports events. It could hold up to 5000 people. I thought that the theater was very neat. We then saw the stadium. It wasn't near as big as the Olympic one, but still pretty impressive. It was 178 meters long, and could hold 5000 people as well.
After we saw the Stadium, we went into the Museum. We saw a sphynx with a woman's head, eagle's wings, and lion's body. I thought that was very neat. We then saw the Kylax of Apollo. It was symbolized as a girl and it was very well preserved. Next, we looked at Antinoos. I thought this piece was very interesting. It was a man about 19-20 years old, and he is famous for the beauty of his face. He was discovered in the Nile. It was a very beautiful piece. The next sculpture we saw was probably my favorite. It was of the Charioteer of Delphi. It was by far the highlight of the museum. It was made in the 5th century B.C. It was metalic statue, and it was the gift from a tyrant offered to Apollo. It used the "lost wax" technique. It's where you put a clay core, then wax over it, and then add clay over the wax. I thought that was pretty neat.
Friday June 6th
We woke up, and went to Meteora. It is the place of the monistaries. I thought they were astonishing. They were about 400 meters high and built in the 11th century. We looked at some of them from afar like St. Nicholas', but we actually got to go into The Great Meteoron. It was the main church and it was placed in the middle and it was founded by St. Atharoasis. The cellar was an old carpentry shop which I thought was pretty interesting. The next room was probably my favorite. It was the ossuary. It was filled with skulls from all the monks. It was really cool. Next, we went into the main church part. The Narthix is the room for unbaptised people and Catarina talked to us about it for a little while then we headed into the main room. It had the shape of a cross on top and the four corners depicted Matthew. I thought it was really neat to see.
After we looked at the monistaries, we headed to Vergina which is the place that had Phillip II's Tomb. It was discovered by Andronikas. It looked a whole lot like a temple. It had two chambers. I thought that the tomb was very astonishing. We saw the Tomb of the Prince in here too. Many think it is Alexander II's tomb. They know it is a prince and not a king because there are no golden artifacts in it. After Vergina, we headed to Berea. This is mentioned in Acts 17:11. I really like when Captain tells us where it is in the Bible because it just makes it that much more meaningful. We looked at Apostle Paul's Altar. It is the corner where Paul gave a speech. He didn't stay there long, and neither did we. That night, I had a dream that I wrote down in my moleskine because I didn't want to forget it and I wanted to share it with you all. Ashton, you're pretty good at interpreting dreams so maybe you can tell me what it means. Or maybe I can send it to Coach Coleman and pay him 27 cents to interpret it..hahaha..Anyway, Dimy and I were going to look at the house we were going to buy except it wasn't in Searcy, it was in Paragould, and it was right across the street from Jon's house. So, right before we walked in, I told her I wanted to go say hey to Jon. So, I ran over to his house and all of my friends were there. Even the ones that Jon doesn't really know, like from church and stuff. Even Sterling, which is a guy here at HUG was there playing poker with everybody. So, they were all surprised to see me. They thought it was too soon for me to be back, and it seemed like I had just left. So, we all hugged, and talked, and I told them I was looking at the house we were going to move into across the street and asked if any of them wanted to look at it with me, and they all refused except Sterling and that's when I woke up.
Saturday June 7th
On this day we went through Thessaloniki. It is the 2nd largest city in Greece. It has 2 provinces: Achaia and Macedonia. The city was liberated after the Balkan Wars. After we drove through Thessaloniki, we were in Philippi. This was probably the thing I was looking forward to the most on this trip mainly because Philippians is one of my favorite books in the Bible. Philippi was the first Christian community in Europe. We saw the commercial market which is probably the place that Acts 16:16 takes place in. Paul had a very special relationship with the church in Philippi. We saw Basilica B first. It was a standard church building. When it collapsed, they decided to use the old Narthyx as the main church. The Palestra is where they people learned and they also had public toilets here which I thought was really different. We all took pictures on them. It was pretty funny. We also saw the old baptistery in the basilica. Next, we walked on the Egnatian St. It was 560 miles long. Paul used it when he wanted to get to Macedonian cities, so I thought it was really neat to walk on the same road as Paul did. We saw an octagonal church that was built in the 5th century B.C. Next, we saw the Basilica A. It was pretty much the same as Basilica B. After Basilica A, we went and looked at the theater. It was built by Philipp II. The first row was abolished because it was turned into an arena. It also became more glamorous. After the theater, we drove over to Lydia's River. This was probably one of my favorite spots on this trip. It is where she was baptised in Acts 16:6. She was the first European woman to be baptised here, and the jailor was more than likely baptised here too. We sang a few songs here, and it was pretty moving. Other people sat beside us and listened and took pictures and videos, so that was pretty cool. Next, on the way to the hotel, we stopped by the Lion of Thepolis. It was built in the 4th century and it symbolized power and strength. It was a really awesome statue. We got a group picture by it making claws and growling at the camera. It was pretty funny.
Sunday June 8th
In the morning, we had a service in the TV room. It was very interesting. I really liked it a lot. After the service, we took a city tour of Thessaloniki where Catarina just told us some facts about it. It has 1.5 million people. We saw the Bayhamom, which is the oldest Muslim building. It was built in 1444. We saw the White Tower. This was an amazing tower. Some of us went into the city during the week and saw it. It was astonishing. It was built by the Phoenicians and it was the place for prisoners, so they called it the "Bloody Tower."
After the tour, we went to Pella, which is the birthplace of Alexander the Great. Here we saw the House of Dionysus. It had a garden and it was so luxurious. It had two yards and no windows. The floors were decorated with beautiful mosaics. We looked at a little bit of the Agora at Pella, but it had rained the night before, so they didn't want us to go too far back because it was so muddy. It was much bigger than the other agoras we've seen. The western side had workshops and the northern part was the administrative buildings. They used the Ipodamian system. It was the ideal system to build. It was definitely a planned neighborhood. We saw the House of Abduction of Helen. It had 2 mosaics. the first was a mosaic of deer hunting, and the next was a mosaic of the rape of Helen. It was very neat and very gorgeous. After the Agora, we headed to Thermopylae. This was probably my favorite spot of the whole trip. It was under Xerxes and it is where the Spartans came to fight the Persians. It is the place where the movie 300 takes place. Catarina told us the story about it. Philitas was the traitor of the Spartans who led the Persians around the mountain to catch the Spartans off guard. Leonidas was the leader of the Spartans and 300 of them stayed. Their motto was "Come home with your shield or on it." After she told us the story, we all went out and took pictures of the Leonidas statue. Paul listened to the 300 soundtrack on his iPod the whole time we were there. It was pretty funny. We then climbed up to the place where they had the dedication of the Spartans who fought. This part was just really neat and interesting. We then drove the 8 hours back to campus and went straight back to work.
Well, that pretty much sums up the Northern Greece trip. Hopefully you enjoyed reading about it. I miss and love you all. See you in about 40 days! Love, Ryan
Our guides name was Catarina, but it was a different one than the one we had for the Athens tour. My roommates on this trip were Adub and Jonathan Murray.
Thursday, June 5th
We started off the trip in Delphi. We saw an inaugora which was totally smooth and didn't have any friezes or capitals and it was in the Roman style. Next, we went to the Oracle. It was a place dedicated to Apollo. No one could stay inside except for priests. The road that led to the Temple of Apollo was called the "Sacred Way". Next, we stopped by the Treasury of the Athenians. This is where the pilgrims would place offerings based on their location. It was built before the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. This is also the place of the center of the universe. Catarina told us the story of how Zeus sent out two eagles in opposite directions to find out where they met and that would be the center of the universe, and this is where they met. I thought that story was pretty interesting. We then saw the Portacle which is where they would put their trophies from their victories. Next, we saw the Theater of Delphi. It was built in the 4th century B.C. They had musical contests here and sports events. It could hold up to 5000 people. I thought that the theater was very neat. We then saw the stadium. It wasn't near as big as the Olympic one, but still pretty impressive. It was 178 meters long, and could hold 5000 people as well.
After we saw the Stadium, we went into the Museum. We saw a sphynx with a woman's head, eagle's wings, and lion's body. I thought that was very neat. We then saw the Kylax of Apollo. It was symbolized as a girl and it was very well preserved. Next, we looked at Antinoos. I thought this piece was very interesting. It was a man about 19-20 years old, and he is famous for the beauty of his face. He was discovered in the Nile. It was a very beautiful piece. The next sculpture we saw was probably my favorite. It was of the Charioteer of Delphi. It was by far the highlight of the museum. It was made in the 5th century B.C. It was metalic statue, and it was the gift from a tyrant offered to Apollo. It used the "lost wax" technique. It's where you put a clay core, then wax over it, and then add clay over the wax. I thought that was pretty neat.
Friday June 6th
We woke up, and went to Meteora. It is the place of the monistaries. I thought they were astonishing. They were about 400 meters high and built in the 11th century. We looked at some of them from afar like St. Nicholas', but we actually got to go into The Great Meteoron. It was the main church and it was placed in the middle and it was founded by St. Atharoasis. The cellar was an old carpentry shop which I thought was pretty interesting. The next room was probably my favorite. It was the ossuary. It was filled with skulls from all the monks. It was really cool. Next, we went into the main church part. The Narthix is the room for unbaptised people and Catarina talked to us about it for a little while then we headed into the main room. It had the shape of a cross on top and the four corners depicted Matthew. I thought it was really neat to see.
After we looked at the monistaries, we headed to Vergina which is the place that had Phillip II's Tomb. It was discovered by Andronikas. It looked a whole lot like a temple. It had two chambers. I thought that the tomb was very astonishing. We saw the Tomb of the Prince in here too. Many think it is Alexander II's tomb. They know it is a prince and not a king because there are no golden artifacts in it. After Vergina, we headed to Berea. This is mentioned in Acts 17:11. I really like when Captain tells us where it is in the Bible because it just makes it that much more meaningful. We looked at Apostle Paul's Altar. It is the corner where Paul gave a speech. He didn't stay there long, and neither did we. That night, I had a dream that I wrote down in my moleskine because I didn't want to forget it and I wanted to share it with you all. Ashton, you're pretty good at interpreting dreams so maybe you can tell me what it means. Or maybe I can send it to Coach Coleman and pay him 27 cents to interpret it..hahaha..Anyway, Dimy and I were going to look at the house we were going to buy except it wasn't in Searcy, it was in Paragould, and it was right across the street from Jon's house. So, right before we walked in, I told her I wanted to go say hey to Jon. So, I ran over to his house and all of my friends were there. Even the ones that Jon doesn't really know, like from church and stuff. Even Sterling, which is a guy here at HUG was there playing poker with everybody. So, they were all surprised to see me. They thought it was too soon for me to be back, and it seemed like I had just left. So, we all hugged, and talked, and I told them I was looking at the house we were going to move into across the street and asked if any of them wanted to look at it with me, and they all refused except Sterling and that's when I woke up.
Saturday June 7th
On this day we went through Thessaloniki. It is the 2nd largest city in Greece. It has 2 provinces: Achaia and Macedonia. The city was liberated after the Balkan Wars. After we drove through Thessaloniki, we were in Philippi. This was probably the thing I was looking forward to the most on this trip mainly because Philippians is one of my favorite books in the Bible. Philippi was the first Christian community in Europe. We saw the commercial market which is probably the place that Acts 16:16 takes place in. Paul had a very special relationship with the church in Philippi. We saw Basilica B first. It was a standard church building. When it collapsed, they decided to use the old Narthyx as the main church. The Palestra is where they people learned and they also had public toilets here which I thought was really different. We all took pictures on them. It was pretty funny. We also saw the old baptistery in the basilica. Next, we walked on the Egnatian St. It was 560 miles long. Paul used it when he wanted to get to Macedonian cities, so I thought it was really neat to walk on the same road as Paul did. We saw an octagonal church that was built in the 5th century B.C. Next, we saw the Basilica A. It was pretty much the same as Basilica B. After Basilica A, we went and looked at the theater. It was built by Philipp II. The first row was abolished because it was turned into an arena. It also became more glamorous. After the theater, we drove over to Lydia's River. This was probably one of my favorite spots on this trip. It is where she was baptised in Acts 16:6. She was the first European woman to be baptised here, and the jailor was more than likely baptised here too. We sang a few songs here, and it was pretty moving. Other people sat beside us and listened and took pictures and videos, so that was pretty cool. Next, on the way to the hotel, we stopped by the Lion of Thepolis. It was built in the 4th century and it symbolized power and strength. It was a really awesome statue. We got a group picture by it making claws and growling at the camera. It was pretty funny.
Sunday June 8th
In the morning, we had a service in the TV room. It was very interesting. I really liked it a lot. After the service, we took a city tour of Thessaloniki where Catarina just told us some facts about it. It has 1.5 million people. We saw the Bayhamom, which is the oldest Muslim building. It was built in 1444. We saw the White Tower. This was an amazing tower. Some of us went into the city during the week and saw it. It was astonishing. It was built by the Phoenicians and it was the place for prisoners, so they called it the "Bloody Tower."
After the tour, we went to Pella, which is the birthplace of Alexander the Great. Here we saw the House of Dionysus. It had a garden and it was so luxurious. It had two yards and no windows. The floors were decorated with beautiful mosaics. We looked at a little bit of the Agora at Pella, but it had rained the night before, so they didn't want us to go too far back because it was so muddy. It was much bigger than the other agoras we've seen. The western side had workshops and the northern part was the administrative buildings. They used the Ipodamian system. It was the ideal system to build. It was definitely a planned neighborhood. We saw the House of Abduction of Helen. It had 2 mosaics. the first was a mosaic of deer hunting, and the next was a mosaic of the rape of Helen. It was very neat and very gorgeous. After the Agora, we headed to Thermopylae. This was probably my favorite spot of the whole trip. It was under Xerxes and it is where the Spartans came to fight the Persians. It is the place where the movie 300 takes place. Catarina told us the story about it. Philitas was the traitor of the Spartans who led the Persians around the mountain to catch the Spartans off guard. Leonidas was the leader of the Spartans and 300 of them stayed. Their motto was "Come home with your shield or on it." After she told us the story, we all went out and took pictures of the Leonidas statue. Paul listened to the 300 soundtrack on his iPod the whole time we were there. It was pretty funny. We then climbed up to the place where they had the dedication of the Spartans who fought. This part was just really neat and interesting. We then drove the 8 hours back to campus and went straight back to work.
Well, that pretty much sums up the Northern Greece trip. Hopefully you enjoyed reading about it. I miss and love you all. See you in about 40 days! Love, Ryan
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Back from the Land of Os
Hey everyone!! It's been forever since i've been on here. I almost forgot my password. Haha..I just wanted to let everyone know that we made it back from Egypt safely. It was AMAZING!!! I loved every second of it. I don't really have very much time to write about it right now..Especially since I haven't even written about my Northern Greece trip but I will definitely write them tomorrow on our day off. I named this the Land of Os because our tour guide was Osman and he was the nicest man ever!!! He would do anything for us. I was really sad to leave. Anyway, I have to go eat supper, so I will get back on tomorrow night. I am really upset that I missed the US Open. I would have loved to have seen that. Anyway, Love you all, and miss you! See you in about 40 something days!!! Love, Ryan
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Give me a break, Give me a break, Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar
Hey everybody! I'm really sorry that I haven't written in a while..The internet has been down here, and since it's been on I haven't had time to write because we've had so many tests and quizzes and homeworks. I had a Paul test the other day which I got a 92 on and I have a 92 in the class..Then, I had a Humanities test yesterday that I studied for like 3 hours for and then I had a Missionary Anthropology and Humanities Slide Test today. So, I've pretty much been studying since 2 o'clock this afternoon, and my brain is fried..I really just need a huge break, and that is exactly what I'm gonna get in Egypt and I am completely and utterly excited!!! I guess I should probably tell you about the weekend I had off. It was really amazing!! Jack, Andrew, Amie, Stacey, Ryan Hamling, Dani, and I all went to the Aegina Sea. We drove a ferry out to the island and we stayed in a hostel in Marina. It was sooo pretty..The hostel was a whole lot nicer than I expected it to be, and it was only 17 euro to stay there. I was really surprised. The people there and gave us rides to town whenever we wanted, and rides to the beach. They had a rock beach that was right by the hotel so Saturday, we just decided to go there because we didn't want to bug him and make him take us to the sandy beach. There were sea urchins everywhere. I almost didn't even want to get in the water. Dani stepped on one, and her foot started bleeding. It was pretty bad. Also, every girl and their grandma was topless..It was almost gross..lol..They just acted so nonchalant about it. It's really weird..Anyway, Saturday night, we just stayed at the hotel and watched the Greek vs. Russia soccer game on the big screen on the outside porch. It was insane. the Greek people were going crazy. The Greeks lost though 1-0. I think it would be awesome to go to a professional soccer game. I've really kinda gotten hooked to watching it since it's pretty much the only sport on television here. hahaha..Except I did get to watch the 4th quarter of Game 5 of the Finals. That made me very happy..lol..Even though I don't care for the Celtics or the Lakers..lol..Sunday, we slept in and then checked out at like 11 or so, and went to the sandy beach and stayed there all afternoon. It was so beautiful..It was really crowded though because it was a 3 day weekend for the people in Athens so everyone and their mom was there. But it was still tons of fun! Then we got back Sunday night about 10:30. Most of the people were back from their trips, and then Monday, it was time for business again. I'm so glad that I'm through until we get back from Egypt though. I really want this break so bad. Even though, it isn't technically a break cause we have so much to learn there, and write in our moleskines. But we do have a rest day on the friday we get back. So, I'm definitely looking forward to that. Our journals are due that day, so I guess I'm going to be working on my journal the whole day though..lol..The school part of this is not very great, but I am definitely loving it here, and I'm really sad there's only like 40 something days left..Anyway, we're about to watch either the Prince of Egypt or The Mummy to get our hearts set on Egypt...lol...So, I will talk to you all later, and I love you and miss all of you..See ya!! In Him, Ryan
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
June 10th
I really had no clue what to use for the title of this blog, so I just used the date..lol..Today has been pretty good. We had class of course, Missionary Anthropology was really interesting. I really like that class even though it's pretty hard. I made a 25/25 on the first Reflection Paper though..Yea! lol..We had to write about the differences between Greek and American culture that we've noticed so far, and similarities. It was pretty easy to come up with differences, but the similarities were pretty difficult. We also had Greek today. We learned how to say my something and your something..Pretty awesome stuff...hahaha..I also took Exam 2 today for Biology. I made a 75 but it's alright cause I made a 70 on the first test, and I found out yesterday that he moved it up to an 88. I was like..wow..lol..He curves his tests, so pretty much if I make a 75 or so, then I can end up with an A in the class. Hopefully. I don't really know how much he curves each test. They're so insanely hard though. After that test, I took the 15th quiz, and got an 18/18 so that was good. Then, i played basketball of course. lol..After that, Clint showed me some card tricks. He's really good at them. He showed me some at camp last year. We had chapel outside today. It was really pretty. We did it outside because all the HUHAers are here, and there's not enough room in the living room. I'm so tired right now though. I have too much reading to do. I have to read like 30 pages in Paul, and then I have to read a whole Chapter in Humanities, and then read like 20 pages from Missionary Anthropology and answer like 30 questions on the homework sheet. I have to do homework for all my classes because we're doubling up tomorrow like I said. I'm really not looking for to it at all. But I am looking forward to the whole weekend off!!! We already changed our plans. I think we're going to some other place that is closer than the ship, and it is really really neat. I don't know that much about it, but Jack said you can like scuba dive and swim around. And you can take ferry rides around the sea. Pretty much just an all around great time..hahahah...Oh yea, Calin Caruthers decided to go ahead and finish her trip and go to Peru for 2 weeks even though all that stuff happened. So, I guess it's okay if that's what she really wants to do. Also, the Richardson's daughter is going to Venezuela today. I think she's already left, so hopefully everything will be fine with that. Anyway, I think I'm gonna go get ready for supper. I will talk to you all later. I love you and miss you all..See ya in 2 months or so..lol..In Him, Ryan
Monday, June 9, 2008
Rainy Days and Mondays
Hey everybody..Just thought I would get on and ramble for a little while. Today has been pretty good. I woke up this morning, and I thought my alarm clock was messed up because I woke up at 8, and nobody was in the room so I was freaking out pretty bad and wondering why no one woke me up, so I hurried up and took a shower, and then ran downstairs and they just decided to eat breakfast this morning for some weird reason because they never do. So, I was downstairs and ready for class at 8:10 this morning..hahah..It just gave me a few extra minutes to look back over the Paul reading. I made an 8/10 on the quiz...Then, in Humanities we were supposed to have a quiz, but for some reason the powerpoint wouldn't open, so we got off clean..lol..I'm sure we'll just have 2 quizzes on Wednesday though. Speaking of Wednesday, it is pretty much going to be the longest day of my life. We're doing double classes so that we can have Saturday off to do whatever we want. I'm pretty sure Jack, Kim, Jen, Lacie, Andrew, Brian, Paul, and I (maybe a few other people) are going to Pirate's Cove. I don't know if anyone went there last year, Ashton, but if you know anything, feel free to tell me about it. I think it will be a whole lot of fun. It's an old Pirate ship on an island and you go and stay the day on the ship or jump off and swim in the ocean, and swim to the shore and stay on the beach. It will just be a whole lot of fun. Hopefully it won't cost too much. I guess I should also mention that I'm halfway done with my Biology class. Yay..lol..It's pretty much annoying, but I'm just gonna keep pluggin til it's over. He won't just open up all the exams though, and it really irritates me.
Also, HUHA (Harding University Honors Abroad) came today. And I was really surprised because Clint Lambert is with them. Did any of you know he was coming here? I couldn't believe my eyes at first. I saw him on the piano and I was like ha, that kid looks a whole lot like Clint Lambert, then he stood up and I was like wow..lol...It was pretty funny. Also, Mrs. Davis is here. I had her for Math my freshman year. She's really nice..She actually called me Ryan instead of Trey this time. I was surprised. hahah..There's like 25 of them, but I don't think it will be that much different than when the Burk's were here..Probably a little bit better since there's not little bitty kids running around. But in a way, it's worse because they all use the computers..hahaha..Anyway, I talked to Paul today and told him that I told you all about his incident and he said he didn't care so I can get rid of my guilty conscience..lol...
After they showed up, I went to play basketball of course..It's way too fun. Probably my favorite thing to do at the Artemis. My team won..again..lol...I'm undefeated here. Every team I've been on this semester so far has won, so I'm not saying it's me or anything, but..lol..Also, it started pouring down rain today. It was insane. It's the first time it's rained and it didn't hold anything back. Captain said that he's never seen it rain like this in June. So, now it's pretty humid outside..Reminds me of home..hahah..
Also, before supper, Captain told us that some of the Harding students that are in Venezuela were inside a museum, and some prisoners had escaped from prison, and they followed them into the museum and kidnapped three of the girls and the lady that was with them who was like the wife of a military guy there in Venezuela. One of the girls is Calin Caruthers and she is in Choir with us so we were all pretty upset about it. They were kidnapped, and they held them at gunpoint and told them to get in the car, and they took them 2 1/2 hours away, and on the way, they were talking about killing just one or if they should kill 2 or 3 or all of the women. It was pretty intense. But by the grace of God, they just decided to let them all go, and so they're fine now, but I think everyone is still pretty scared about it. And the Richardsons' (Professors that are here with us) daughter was planning on going to Venezuela tomorrow I think, but they're trying to figure out what she should do...I know it would be hard to let my daughter go to Venezuela right after something like that happened. But anyway, hopefully I didn't scare any of you too bad.
Alright, well, I think me and a few other people are gonna go get some ice cream. I might get back on and write some more stuff later tonight if I have time. I hope you all are having fun! Can't wait to see you all in now less than 2 months!! lol..I can't believe we're already 1/3 of the way done. Captain told us that today, and we were all like, stop it..lol..It's pretty sad, but I'm also looking forward to being back home. Alright I love and miss you all!! Bye!! In Him, Ryan
Also, HUHA (Harding University Honors Abroad) came today. And I was really surprised because Clint Lambert is with them. Did any of you know he was coming here? I couldn't believe my eyes at first. I saw him on the piano and I was like ha, that kid looks a whole lot like Clint Lambert, then he stood up and I was like wow..lol...It was pretty funny. Also, Mrs. Davis is here. I had her for Math my freshman year. She's really nice..She actually called me Ryan instead of Trey this time. I was surprised. hahah..There's like 25 of them, but I don't think it will be that much different than when the Burk's were here..Probably a little bit better since there's not little bitty kids running around. But in a way, it's worse because they all use the computers..hahaha..Anyway, I talked to Paul today and told him that I told you all about his incident and he said he didn't care so I can get rid of my guilty conscience..lol...
After they showed up, I went to play basketball of course..It's way too fun. Probably my favorite thing to do at the Artemis. My team won..again..lol...I'm undefeated here. Every team I've been on this semester so far has won, so I'm not saying it's me or anything, but..lol..Also, it started pouring down rain today. It was insane. It's the first time it's rained and it didn't hold anything back. Captain said that he's never seen it rain like this in June. So, now it's pretty humid outside..Reminds me of home..hahah..
Also, before supper, Captain told us that some of the Harding students that are in Venezuela were inside a museum, and some prisoners had escaped from prison, and they followed them into the museum and kidnapped three of the girls and the lady that was with them who was like the wife of a military guy there in Venezuela. One of the girls is Calin Caruthers and she is in Choir with us so we were all pretty upset about it. They were kidnapped, and they held them at gunpoint and told them to get in the car, and they took them 2 1/2 hours away, and on the way, they were talking about killing just one or if they should kill 2 or 3 or all of the women. It was pretty intense. But by the grace of God, they just decided to let them all go, and so they're fine now, but I think everyone is still pretty scared about it. And the Richardsons' (Professors that are here with us) daughter was planning on going to Venezuela tomorrow I think, but they're trying to figure out what she should do...I know it would be hard to let my daughter go to Venezuela right after something like that happened. But anyway, hopefully I didn't scare any of you too bad.
Alright, well, I think me and a few other people are gonna go get some ice cream. I might get back on and write some more stuff later tonight if I have time. I hope you all are having fun! Can't wait to see you all in now less than 2 months!! lol..I can't believe we're already 1/3 of the way done. Captain told us that today, and we were all like, stop it..lol..It's pretty sad, but I'm also looking forward to being back home. Alright I love and miss you all!! Bye!! In Him, Ryan
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Back Home..Well, the Artemis
Hey!! I just wanted to write and tell you all that we're back at the Artemis now from our Northern Greece trip. It was a whole lot of fun. A bunch of random things happened. Our tour guide was really smart. Almost too smart, she kept talking over the loud speakers of the bus, and it was pretty annoying after a while. I don't mind if they say a little something every now and then, but she would get on and talk for like 15 minutes every time. Captain and her would get in arguments a lot over what the group was gonna do. It was really funny and kind of awkward to watch sometimes. I think probably the funniest thing that happened on this trip is that while we were at the 5 star hotel in Thessaloniki, (Ashton, I'm just gonna tell you right now...You're going to LOVE this story)..Paul, (like it already?) lol..was out on the balcony of his room dancing in his underwear, but they were definitely pulled up to where it was turned into a manthong..lol..and Lauren Smith (the girl that goes to visit Becha with him) came outside and saw him, and she was just like stunned and couldn't say anything, and Paul screamed and ran back in his room..I seriously died when Paul told me about it this morning..I even told him that I would pay him 2 euro to go up to her and say "Hey, Lookings free, but touching's gonna cost ya" lol..He wouldn't do it though..He was afraid she wouldn't talk to him anymore..But I did get him to dedicate the song "Googly Moogly, That Thang is Juicy" to her on the way back to Athens. She just turned blood red...It was sooooo funny. Anyway, like normal, I have about 500 pages to read, so I will get back write more about the trip when I get my moleskine back as usual, and I love and miss you all, and hope you are having a great summer..See ya'll in 2 months!! In Him, Ryan
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Corinth, Peloponnese, epidarus, mycenae, and olympia
Hey everybody!! Once again, I'm really sorry that it's taken me this long to write about my trip, but it is really long, and I haven't really had time until now to actually think about doing it. But anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it. On Monday, May 26th, we went to Corinth first. Our guides name was Dionysus (god of excess) which I thought was pretty funny. We saw the Ancient Theatre which is from the Roman period. We also saw a stone with Erastus' name carved in it, and I thought it was really cool because he is mentioned in Acts 19:22 and Romans 16:23 and even in 2 Tim. 4:20..So, this could have been where he was at that time, but there is not really any proof of it. We also saw the Roman Odeum. It was smaller than the theater. It was used for musical concerts. We also went in to the museum and saw many different things. We walked in and the first thing we saw were statues who were all beheaded. I thought it was pretty interesting. We also saw many of the pots had a meander pattern which goes up and down, and it was supposed to symbolize life because life has ups and downs. Many of the sculptors had the Archaic smile and almond eyes. Some believe the smile symbolized the dead were resting in peace, so I thought that was pretty interesting to find out. Corinthians also invented the helmets with the covers over the cheeks and above the nose and between the eyes. We saw many of those, and I thought they were really cool. Then we saw the Temple of Octavian. It was in Corinthian Style. I thought it was a pretty neat temple, but after seeing all the ones at the Acropolis, it wasn't that amazing..hahaha. We then went into the Agora. Paul visited here where there were many prostitutes and foreign nationality. He preached here and was accused by the Jews and stayed for a year and a half and then 3 months. Next, we saw the Temple of Apollo. It was destroyed by the Romans. This is where the people met with their friends to talk and it had many shops and a marketplace. Then, we saw the Corinthian Canal. It was so breathtaking because it was just this bridge and then a humongous drop off to the bottom of a creek that's only about 7 m deep. They said you can bungee jump off here, but I definitely would pass on that trip. hahaha..
Okay, the next part is probably my favorite spot in all of Corinth except maybe the Acrocorinth. We saw the Bema which is exactly where Paul stood and spoke to people and where he was tried. It's recorded in Acts 18:1. This is the court from vs. 12 that he stood in front of and I found it very moving that it Captain said we can be sure that Paul stood right where we were standing. I just thought that was the neatest thing, that we know for sure he stood there. We also sung songs here and many of the people stopped what they were doing and listened to us. I always feel really weird when we do that, but in the end, it makes me feel good if someone says something to us about how good it was or thanking us for doing it.
Next, we went to the Acrocorinth. This was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. It was so gorgeous. I do not even think my words can describe it. It was definitely a battle getting up there, but it was completely worth it. We ate a sack lunch on top of the Acrocorinth and then headed back down and went to Epidarus.
In Epidarus, we saw the Sanctuary of Asclepios. In Asclepios' statues, he is always shown witha snake. The Sanctuary of Asclepios was also a healing station (hospital). Then we saw the Temple of Artemis which was from the 5th century B.C. I thought it was pretty neat, but still after seeing Acropolis, it is going to be really hard to beat those in my mind. The theater in Epidarus was definitely one of the top places on this trip and probably in any trip we will take this semester. The theater was plain amazing. You could stand in the middle, and the people at the very top, if they were quiet, could hear you when you spoke in a normal voice. It was pretty awesome. All the choir members(Jack, Andrew, Jen, Kim, Lacie, Leah, and I) all sang The Lord Bless You and Keep You on the stage and pretty much everyone in the audience listened to us. It was so amazing, and then our whole group sang a couple songs for everybody. The theater was definitely one of the best things about this trip. The hotel that we stayed at Monday night was really nice. My roommates were Jarod and Sterling. We definitely had a crazy time. There was a beach, and I went to it twice. Once before supper and then after. I only swam afterwards though. It was so pretty.
On Tuesday, we started off going to Naphlion where the Palamidi Fortress is. The Palamidi Fortress was really cool. It was huge and was built in 4 years. There were also small fortresses inside. We saw the Gate of Andrew here. It had the Lion of Venice above the gate. There was also a hole so they could drop things on enemies and also the turns made it hard for enemies to see them before they got caught. On free time, Jack, Andrew, and I crawled into the Kolokotrone's Prison. It was really really cool in there. Add me a couch and some cable and internet and I'm good for a couple years. Very homey. lol..Next on Tuesday, we went to Mycenae where we saw the Tomb of Agamemnon. They thought it was the King's Tomb because it was so huge. There was s dromos, passage to the tomb. The stone above the doorway weighs 120 tons. That is amazing to me how they even got that up there. I really have no clue how in the world they do most of the things they did. They thought the side chamber in the Tomb was for the queen or just more of the King's belongings. The doorway was 13.5 m high. Inside the tomb, it was 40 feet tall and had a side chamber. It was built with the cabelling system. Captain also asked me to lead a couple songs in the Beehive Tomb. It was really neat and the acoustics were amazing in there too. Then, we went to the Archeological site. This is where we saw the Tomb of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife. We also saw the Lion Gate here. I thought the Lion Gate was astonishing. It had Cyclopean walls, they were called this because the stones were so huge, they thought the Cyclops had to have built it. The lantel weighs 18 tons. The lions were supposed to symbolize the power of the royal family. We also saw Grave Circle A which was founded by Heinrich Schliemann. I thought it was very interesting. It had 18 skeletons and the Mask of Agamemenon. There were 5 masks altogether. Schliemann thought Grave Circle A was the burial site for Agamemnon and his family. Then we saw the remains of the Megaron. This is where the king lived and where he would meet people who had to ask him questions or if he needed to meet with foreign leaders. The last thing we did in Mycenae was go to the Cistern. It was the last extension of the citadel. I thought it was really cool. It was 18 meters deep, and very very dark. There was pretty much a wall of bugs in the air at the beginning and a couple definitely got in my mouth, but it was still worth it to go down there, and see it.
The last place we went on this trip was Olympia. We saw the Sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. It is where the first Olympic games were held in 776 A.D. The games were dedicated to Zeus and held in honor of him. I also thought it was interesting that they used the Olympic games as their dating system. The games lasted 5 days. On the first day, they would get ready, the second day, they had teenage games. The third day was horse races and pentathlon in the afternoon. On the fourth day, they would sacrifice cows for Zeus and did individual games like running and wrestling. And the last day was the closing ceremony in front of the Temple of Zeus. I thought that the penalty for cheating was really interesting. They had to pay for a bronze statue and the statue would have the name of the person who cheated, and their father's name on it, and it would be placed out front for everyone to see forever. I also thought that the Bronze Helmet of Miltiades was really really neat. It carried an inscription on it (Miltiades). It was dedicated to Zeus after his victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C. We also saw the Statue of Nike. It was really amazing I thought. She was supposedly coming from the sky to bring victory to the athletes. After Nike, we went and saw Hermes of Praxiteles. This statue was completely astonishing. I could not really believe my eyes. In the state, Hermes is carrying baby, Dionysus to the Nymphs to be taken care of. This is one of the few works of Praxiteles. It is made with the best quality of marble. We also saw some statues from the Temple of Zeus. They used to be colored back in ancient times. The East Pediment was a depiction fo Olympic games, and the West Pediment was of severe style, and it was a depiction of war.
In the Archeological site of Olympia, we saw the Philippion which was started by Philip the Great. It was built after the battle to show the Greeks that he was a Greek as well, and did not want to hurt them. Alexander the great finished it because Philip was assassinated. We also saw the Palestra, which was the place where they wrestled. It was a courtyard where they'd train for wrestling, and all the other rooms were used to spread olive oil, and dust on their body. The next room held one of teh first Roman baths discovered. We also saw Zeus' Temple. There was a hole in the middle of the columns to protect against earthquakes, which obviously didn't work too well because, an earthquake tore them down. (I love irony). There was an olive tree on the back side of the temple. This is also the temple where the closing ceremonies of the Olympics were held in front of.
We also saw the Temple of Hera. The altar in front is where they would light the Olympic flame. They would use a mirror to start the flame, then they would pass the torch to the athletes, then the athletes took it to Athens where it would stay the night in the Parthenon. Then, they would take it to the city where the Olympics was being held. They do this even today which I found very interesting. The last thing we saw was also definitely one of the coolest things of this trip. We went into the Stadium of Olympia. Some of the guys ran through chanting, I guess to act like they were Olympic athletes..haha..idk..but anyway, it was 192 meters long..thats like longer than 2 football fields. I was amazed. Some of the guys and girls raced down it, and Frank Bolling won, who is on Harding's track team..Big surprise, I know..lol..Anyway, this trip was definitely a whole lot of fun, and I can not wait to get to go to on the other trips. Hope you all are having a great time. Talk to ya'll later..Love and miss you all..In Him, Ryan
Okay, the next part is probably my favorite spot in all of Corinth except maybe the Acrocorinth. We saw the Bema which is exactly where Paul stood and spoke to people and where he was tried. It's recorded in Acts 18:1. This is the court from vs. 12 that he stood in front of and I found it very moving that it Captain said we can be sure that Paul stood right where we were standing. I just thought that was the neatest thing, that we know for sure he stood there. We also sung songs here and many of the people stopped what they were doing and listened to us. I always feel really weird when we do that, but in the end, it makes me feel good if someone says something to us about how good it was or thanking us for doing it.
Next, we went to the Acrocorinth. This was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. It was so gorgeous. I do not even think my words can describe it. It was definitely a battle getting up there, but it was completely worth it. We ate a sack lunch on top of the Acrocorinth and then headed back down and went to Epidarus.
In Epidarus, we saw the Sanctuary of Asclepios. In Asclepios' statues, he is always shown witha snake. The Sanctuary of Asclepios was also a healing station (hospital). Then we saw the Temple of Artemis which was from the 5th century B.C. I thought it was pretty neat, but still after seeing Acropolis, it is going to be really hard to beat those in my mind. The theater in Epidarus was definitely one of the top places on this trip and probably in any trip we will take this semester. The theater was plain amazing. You could stand in the middle, and the people at the very top, if they were quiet, could hear you when you spoke in a normal voice. It was pretty awesome. All the choir members(Jack, Andrew, Jen, Kim, Lacie, Leah, and I) all sang The Lord Bless You and Keep You on the stage and pretty much everyone in the audience listened to us. It was so amazing, and then our whole group sang a couple songs for everybody. The theater was definitely one of the best things about this trip. The hotel that we stayed at Monday night was really nice. My roommates were Jarod and Sterling. We definitely had a crazy time. There was a beach, and I went to it twice. Once before supper and then after. I only swam afterwards though. It was so pretty.
On Tuesday, we started off going to Naphlion where the Palamidi Fortress is. The Palamidi Fortress was really cool. It was huge and was built in 4 years. There were also small fortresses inside. We saw the Gate of Andrew here. It had the Lion of Venice above the gate. There was also a hole so they could drop things on enemies and also the turns made it hard for enemies to see them before they got caught. On free time, Jack, Andrew, and I crawled into the Kolokotrone's Prison. It was really really cool in there. Add me a couch and some cable and internet and I'm good for a couple years. Very homey. lol..Next on Tuesday, we went to Mycenae where we saw the Tomb of Agamemnon. They thought it was the King's Tomb because it was so huge. There was s dromos, passage to the tomb. The stone above the doorway weighs 120 tons. That is amazing to me how they even got that up there. I really have no clue how in the world they do most of the things they did. They thought the side chamber in the Tomb was for the queen or just more of the King's belongings. The doorway was 13.5 m high. Inside the tomb, it was 40 feet tall and had a side chamber. It was built with the cabelling system. Captain also asked me to lead a couple songs in the Beehive Tomb. It was really neat and the acoustics were amazing in there too. Then, we went to the Archeological site. This is where we saw the Tomb of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife. We also saw the Lion Gate here. I thought the Lion Gate was astonishing. It had Cyclopean walls, they were called this because the stones were so huge, they thought the Cyclops had to have built it. The lantel weighs 18 tons. The lions were supposed to symbolize the power of the royal family. We also saw Grave Circle A which was founded by Heinrich Schliemann. I thought it was very interesting. It had 18 skeletons and the Mask of Agamemenon. There were 5 masks altogether. Schliemann thought Grave Circle A was the burial site for Agamemnon and his family. Then we saw the remains of the Megaron. This is where the king lived and where he would meet people who had to ask him questions or if he needed to meet with foreign leaders. The last thing we did in Mycenae was go to the Cistern. It was the last extension of the citadel. I thought it was really cool. It was 18 meters deep, and very very dark. There was pretty much a wall of bugs in the air at the beginning and a couple definitely got in my mouth, but it was still worth it to go down there, and see it.
The last place we went on this trip was Olympia. We saw the Sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. It is where the first Olympic games were held in 776 A.D. The games were dedicated to Zeus and held in honor of him. I also thought it was interesting that they used the Olympic games as their dating system. The games lasted 5 days. On the first day, they would get ready, the second day, they had teenage games. The third day was horse races and pentathlon in the afternoon. On the fourth day, they would sacrifice cows for Zeus and did individual games like running and wrestling. And the last day was the closing ceremony in front of the Temple of Zeus. I thought that the penalty for cheating was really interesting. They had to pay for a bronze statue and the statue would have the name of the person who cheated, and their father's name on it, and it would be placed out front for everyone to see forever. I also thought that the Bronze Helmet of Miltiades was really really neat. It carried an inscription on it (Miltiades). It was dedicated to Zeus after his victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C. We also saw the Statue of Nike. It was really amazing I thought. She was supposedly coming from the sky to bring victory to the athletes. After Nike, we went and saw Hermes of Praxiteles. This statue was completely astonishing. I could not really believe my eyes. In the state, Hermes is carrying baby, Dionysus to the Nymphs to be taken care of. This is one of the few works of Praxiteles. It is made with the best quality of marble. We also saw some statues from the Temple of Zeus. They used to be colored back in ancient times. The East Pediment was a depiction fo Olympic games, and the West Pediment was of severe style, and it was a depiction of war.
In the Archeological site of Olympia, we saw the Philippion which was started by Philip the Great. It was built after the battle to show the Greeks that he was a Greek as well, and did not want to hurt them. Alexander the great finished it because Philip was assassinated. We also saw the Palestra, which was the place where they wrestled. It was a courtyard where they'd train for wrestling, and all the other rooms were used to spread olive oil, and dust on their body. The next room held one of teh first Roman baths discovered. We also saw Zeus' Temple. There was a hole in the middle of the columns to protect against earthquakes, which obviously didn't work too well because, an earthquake tore them down. (I love irony). There was an olive tree on the back side of the temple. This is also the temple where the closing ceremonies of the Olympics were held in front of.
We also saw the Temple of Hera. The altar in front is where they would light the Olympic flame. They would use a mirror to start the flame, then they would pass the torch to the athletes, then the athletes took it to Athens where it would stay the night in the Parthenon. Then, they would take it to the city where the Olympics was being held. They do this even today which I found very interesting. The last thing we saw was also definitely one of the coolest things of this trip. We went into the Stadium of Olympia. Some of the guys ran through chanting, I guess to act like they were Olympic athletes..haha..idk..but anyway, it was 192 meters long..thats like longer than 2 football fields. I was amazed. Some of the guys and girls raced down it, and Frank Bolling won, who is on Harding's track team..Big surprise, I know..lol..Anyway, this trip was definitely a whole lot of fun, and I can not wait to get to go to on the other trips. Hope you all are having a great time. Talk to ya'll later..Love and miss you all..In Him, Ryan
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