2018 May Term in Greece

As we journeyed into our second week, the sights we visited managed to become more and more picturesque. My two favorite places that we visited were Delphi and Santorini, both places had so much to offer geographically and historically. In Delphi, there was this certain beauty and liveliness to the town. Being able to walk the same path that the ancient Greeks did so many years ago and still see many of the same things they say is really intriguing. Aristotle did a great job at conducting the demonstration of how people attended the oracle. It was awesome being able to not only hear how it was done, but also see specifically where it happened. The whole ancient town in general was just constructed in such a way that it was very clear someone put a lot of time into building it. Also, walking all the way to the top to see the stadium was a bit of a hike but I am glad I did it. Visiting Santorini was the city I was most looking forward to seeing. It has been on my bucket list for some ti...

The past two weeks have been incredible. From the Parthenon to Mycenae to Marathon to Mykonos to Kusadasi to Santorini, it’s truly been an adventure. In Olympia, we were able to visit the track and ancient site of the first Olympics. Being on the actual site of these first games was remarkable, but our tour guide Aristotle, really made it seem real and intense. He walked us through the site as though we were experiencing the Olympic games as a participant in antiquity. Aristotle didn’t spare any details as he told us of the procedures and preparations the participants from the different city-states would’ve done to get ready for each event. It was really a neat experience to walk the same routes and see some of the same things the athletes might have seen. Looking back over the course I think one of my most treasured memories was visiting the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion. This temple sits on the top of a mountain that juts out into the sea. The views from the top were breath...

The second week was a continuation of the amazing locations we visited in the first week, yet only this time it was mostly cruise that was the source of our transportation. The one learning experience that truly stuck out to me due to its intricacy and detail was the carpet making tour and information session that we were able to experience. I never thought I could be fascinated by something such as rug making, but I really was. To see how these amazingly detailed rugs were made really was a breathtaking sight. To see how a woman could sit at a weaving station and dedicate their days to such intricate patterns and technique was truly stunning. I thought it was amazing how to learn how a woman could sit at a station for seven hours a day for seven days a week working on a rug, and it could still take up to seven months to complete even a smaller rug, yet one with immense detail and decoration. To also see the silk worms themselves and the process of extracting the silk and forming it in...

This first week of Greece was an accumulation of breathtaking sites and artifacts that all contain insurmountable historic value. My personal favorite was in the stadium at Olympia, where the first Olympics were originally held. As a track runner myself, I thought it was unbelievably fascinating and interesting to actually stand where the original sprinters of Greece stood. Though the track doesn’t look like match now, seeing where the starting line was down to the finish line, along being in the Garden of Zeus, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the stadium in its initial glory. Learning how the track once held 50,000 spectators really solidified how important the Olympics were to the culture and people of Greece. Even though the only physical prize at Olympia for the champion was a laurel wreath crown, it also came with glory, fame, and rewards from the personal city state they were from; such as Athens and how they gave their champions free food for life. I also thought it was awesome t...

Katie Mucha Professor Seaman Greece Trip – May 2018 Blog Posts BLOG #2 For the second half of this trip, one of the most interesting places that we visited was Rhodes. It was fascinating to walk through the (still inhabited) streets of the palace and to see where people lived when the castle was still in use. It was extremely picturesque to walk through the cobblestone streets and see the castle that (apparently) was the site chosen for several movies because it was so majestic and beautiful to look at. I was surprised to learn that it is cheaper to live within the walls of the old city than it is to live outside it (for the most part), and often students live there. Typically, places like that would be very expensive, so that was interesting to learn. I added a photo of the cobblestone roads that caught my eye. It is crazy to me that people used to walk on roads that were full of cobblestones all the time, they don’t seem like they would be easy to walk on wh...

Katie Mucha Professor Seaman Greece Trip – May 2018 Blog Post BLOG #1 One of the most interesting places that we visited so far was the theatre at Epidaurus, for several reasons. I presented on the Theatre of Dionysus, so when i was studying it while getting ready to go on this trip, i learned about the architecture that had developed over time so that the theatres were enhanced in the best possible ways. Sadly, the Theatre of Dionysus has been poorly preserved, therefore there wasn’t much grandeur for everyone to see, so it was fascinating to visit the theatre at Epidaurus since it has been kept nearly intact (except for the stage area). The staircase was a bit difficult to descend and ascend, so i wonder if this used to be the case as well or if time simply deteriorated the stones. I thought it was bogus information when Aristotle mentioned that people on the stage could whisper and then the audience members at the top of the theatre could still hear them, but he...

The value of tradition within the Turkish society was mentioned from the moment we docked in Kuşadas ,  Turkey on Day 12 of our Greece May Term. The first time it was mentioned, was through our tour guides story of her wedding. On the way from our excursion and to our next destination (where we would see how silk rugs are made), she spoke in depth about the use of the silk rug in dowries of women in Turkey. In her family, she says, one of the most treasured things that a dowry can have, is the rug. However, much to the dismay of her family, she did not have one. This to me sounded a bit like generational disconnect, where the newer generation loses old traditions to take on new ones. This was confirmed when she explained how her family had moved from a village and into the city at a young age. So instead of growing up with a mother who would spend her days weaving the rug, she was raised in a family where her mother worked all day. In the end, her and her siblings never learned ho...