My birthday was Friday. That was good. It was also LaRell's birthday and he got aggravated with me a few times because I wasn't anywhere near as excited about it as he was. He kept asking me if I was going to throw a party and I kept telling him that I didn't care. Then he got mad at me for not telling him happy birthday on Facebook or telling him thank you when he said it on my Facebook. I did both of those things face to face but apparently that doesn't matter as much. Oh well. Maybe next year.
They did throw a bit of a party for us, though. At dinner they had cake and they sang to us and sprayed us with silly string. The cake was delicious. I had two pieces. They also made us giant cards but then they misplaced them and found them yesterday. It was good.
Saturday was a good day. After lunch, Tim took us up to the roof of the Artemis to take some pictures. Then some of us went to climb the mountain. I took some pictures that I will be putting up later. When we got up to the second peak we found a pole and Jordan took off his undershirt and we claimed the mountain for ourselves. On the way down my group thought they knew the right way down but I also thought I knew the right way down so I went my own way and beat them back by 9 minutes. Their way was probably safer, though.
Yesterday we had church here at the Artemis. Cabot led singing, Cody said the opening prayer, I led the Lord's Supper, and Mark did the offering. Jeff Hopper (who I think is is charge of all international programs for Harding) is here for the week and he gave the lesson. It was pretty good.
After church, a group of us, including Brinley and Dr. Jewell, went to Athens for an AEK Athens soccer game. It was a lot of fun. Cody and Roman were raving about it after the game but they were lying to themselves a little bit. It was good, but the stadium wasn't even half full and it wasn't near as loud as it could have been. I get a lot more excitement from going to an Astros game. Or even the Pearland Oiler playoff games my senior year. Our team won 3-0 though. Next week is a big game and I'm thinking about going to get a better idea of what it should be like but I haven't decided yet. Now I have been to one more European football game than American football.
Thanks to everyone for the comments, emails, and birthday wishes.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
absence of poseidon and closing the the acropolis
We've had a really busy last few days. On Saturday we made our first trip into the city and that was fun. We all split up and spent some time walking around Glyfada and just looked at stuff. We saw the Conga Palace Hotel, which is where Harding's Greece campus (HUG) started a few years ago. It's been renovated since then so it's probably a lot nicer than it was a few years ago (they moved to the Artemis in 2000). This all took up a large chunk of time but there's really nothing on note. We just looked at stuff.
Then we went to the Temple of Poseidon and that was awesome. Poseidon wasn't actually there though. I guess he was out of town or something. It was really interesting to think that this building was much older than anything I've ever seen at home and it still stands mostly intact. We stayed up there for a while and then some of us climbed down the side and played on the rocks.
Sunday morning we went to a small congregation (like 15 people without us, almost 60 with us) in Athens that speaks in Greek, Russian, and English. We've been using these whispering sets so that Tim could translate everything they said so that Dino (the guy heading up the church. More about him later) wouldn't have to translate it all for us. Basically how the whisper sets work is that Tim has a microphone that he can speak softly into and everybody else can hear him clearly through a set of headphones that we carry with us. If I think about it I'll put a picture of them up later just to show you. We also use them when we're touring Athens, except the one I had the first day didn't work and the one they gave me to replace it yesterday worked in church and then just screamed static into my ear for the rest of the day until I turned it off.
After church we walked around in Athens and got some gyros for lunch. They were good. Then we hiked up to the Acropolis and got there at 3:15 to find out that it closed at 3. Tim had checked 2 weeks ago and it closed at 5 then but I guess they changed it. It was ok though. Mars Hill was right next to it so we went up there and Tim talked to us some about it some and then we had a short devotional, which I was a little unsure about at first but because of how many people were up there but then it turned out to be pretty cool because a few of the people came and sat next to us and took picture and recorded us on their cameras. Not to show to the authorities or anything, though. It was all good.
Then we went over to where they had the first democratic meeting. Mark wanted to sing God Bless the USA here after singing church songs at Mars Hill but we didn't. All we did here was take pictures and stand around.
On the way home the bus dropped Mark, Cabot, Molly, and me off in Glyfada to go help with an English speaking service at the Congo Palace Hotel, which probably actually ended up being the best part of my day. It was the first time that they had it there and there were about 20 people, including us. It was just like any regular Church of Christ service in terms of format: singing, prayer, sermon, singing, Lord's Supper, closing prayer. The four of us stood at the front and led singing and Dino gave the lesson. There is nothing really that stands out about the service, but it just felt like the most real church experience that I've ever had. I think it was more like the Church as it was intended.
Dino drove us home and told us about some of the stuff that he's done which was pretty interesting. He was actually the one that started the Harding campus at the Congo Palace Hotel in 1991 and then found the Artemis a few years later. He also knew the Brinleys from years ago and recommended Tim for the director's position when it became available. This is actually Tim's first semester here, I think. He and Rebbecca were missionaries in Russia for 14 years before this.
That's really it for now.
Then we went to the Temple of Poseidon and that was awesome. Poseidon wasn't actually there though. I guess he was out of town or something. It was really interesting to think that this building was much older than anything I've ever seen at home and it still stands mostly intact. We stayed up there for a while and then some of us climbed down the side and played on the rocks.
Sunday morning we went to a small congregation (like 15 people without us, almost 60 with us) in Athens that speaks in Greek, Russian, and English. We've been using these whispering sets so that Tim could translate everything they said so that Dino (the guy heading up the church. More about him later) wouldn't have to translate it all for us. Basically how the whisper sets work is that Tim has a microphone that he can speak softly into and everybody else can hear him clearly through a set of headphones that we carry with us. If I think about it I'll put a picture of them up later just to show you. We also use them when we're touring Athens, except the one I had the first day didn't work and the one they gave me to replace it yesterday worked in church and then just screamed static into my ear for the rest of the day until I turned it off.
After church we walked around in Athens and got some gyros for lunch. They were good. Then we hiked up to the Acropolis and got there at 3:15 to find out that it closed at 3. Tim had checked 2 weeks ago and it closed at 5 then but I guess they changed it. It was ok though. Mars Hill was right next to it so we went up there and Tim talked to us some about it some and then we had a short devotional, which I was a little unsure about at first but because of how many people were up there but then it turned out to be pretty cool because a few of the people came and sat next to us and took picture and recorded us on their cameras. Not to show to the authorities or anything, though. It was all good.
Then we went over to where they had the first democratic meeting. Mark wanted to sing God Bless the USA here after singing church songs at Mars Hill but we didn't. All we did here was take pictures and stand around.
On the way home the bus dropped Mark, Cabot, Molly, and me off in Glyfada to go help with an English speaking service at the Congo Palace Hotel, which probably actually ended up being the best part of my day. It was the first time that they had it there and there were about 20 people, including us. It was just like any regular Church of Christ service in terms of format: singing, prayer, sermon, singing, Lord's Supper, closing prayer. The four of us stood at the front and led singing and Dino gave the lesson. There is nothing really that stands out about the service, but it just felt like the most real church experience that I've ever had. I think it was more like the Church as it was intended.
Dino drove us home and told us about some of the stuff that he's done which was pretty interesting. He was actually the one that started the Harding campus at the Congo Palace Hotel in 1991 and then found the Artemis a few years later. He also knew the Brinleys from years ago and recommended Tim for the director's position when it became available. This is actually Tim's first semester here, I think. He and Rebbecca were missionaries in Russia for 14 years before this.
That's really it for now.
Friday, January 16, 2009
the port of the taylor
Alright so here's whats happened in these first two and a half days:
My flight from Houston to Detroit was good. I mostly just read Child of God by Cormac McCarthy. It was pretty good. We got to Detroit, which has a pretty cool airport, and had about 20 minutes before we boarded the plane headed for Amsterdam. Then we sat on the plane for at least 45 minutes before we left. I sat next to Tillie on the plane and that was fun. Everybody had their own tv on the back of the seat in front of them and you got to pick what movie you wanted to watch. I watched Meet the Robinsons and The Jungle Book. It was great.
I think that they engineer these planes so that the seats are comfortable enough to sit in but it is impossible to get any sleep at all. I tried to sleep for at least 3 hours and got 10 minutes. Once I actually fell asleep they turned on the lights and fed us breakfast because it was 5 am Amsterdam time and I guess that's supposed to help us get used to the time change or something.
The airport in Amsterdam was really the first time that I had a chance to talk to anyone besides Tillie so that was fun. We all just hung out for about an hour before we left for Athens.
On the plane to Athens I sat between Ben and Neil. I finished reading Child of God. It was good. McCarthy has a very different style of writing, though. And it's not a religious book at all if you're wondering. A lot of people got sleep on this plane but the guy behind me was pretty huge so I couldn't really put my seat back and only got about 10 minutes of sleep in 2 minute increments.
We got to Athens and got our luggage after waiting at the wrong baggage claim station for a few minutes. Then we all hopped on a bus and drove to Porto Rafti while Tim Brinley, the program director, gave us a tour of the city. It's really a lot different than I expected. I was expecting it to be pretty secluded but our hotel is right in the middle of this busy street. Not like actually in the middle of the street with cars driving all around us but there are plenty of stores down to the left and right. Porto Rafti is right on the sea. It's about a 2 mile walk that we've made twice already.
The first night that we were here we (me, Molly, Mark, Ben, Waddell, and Roman) went out walking at night. We got a little lost. It was a lot of fun though. We ended up probably walking 4 and a half miles. Yesterday me, Jordan, Jane, Molly, and LaRell went down to the point, which is just a big piece of land that juts out into the sea. It's apparently a good place to go swimming. We didn't swim though. The water is too cold.
There are stray dogs everywhere. They follow us around. Last night we went to get ice cream and some of the dogs kinda attacked some lady leaving the store. Not like a vicious attack but they barked at her and annoyed her. Some of the dogs will stop traffic for you, which isn't safe at all. I think we had seven of them following us around last night.
I accidentally got a job here when I signed up to be a computer science major. I'm in charge of pretty much all things computers and they'll give me something like 5 euro a week. More if I actually do any work.
Classes started today and they were fine.
My room is good. My roommate is good. The food is good. None of the girls mentioned above is my girlfriend. I don't have a girlfriend. Things are good.
I realize that the second picture is a little bit more curvy than it should be. It's because it's taking a lot of space and scrunching it up into a little space. I tried to make it fit better but that's pretty much as big as I can make it and make it fit in this border.
By the way, Porto Rafti is "The Port of the Tailor"
My flight from Houston to Detroit was good. I mostly just read Child of God by Cormac McCarthy. It was pretty good. We got to Detroit, which has a pretty cool airport, and had about 20 minutes before we boarded the plane headed for Amsterdam. Then we sat on the plane for at least 45 minutes before we left. I sat next to Tillie on the plane and that was fun. Everybody had their own tv on the back of the seat in front of them and you got to pick what movie you wanted to watch. I watched Meet the Robinsons and The Jungle Book. It was great.
I think that they engineer these planes so that the seats are comfortable enough to sit in but it is impossible to get any sleep at all. I tried to sleep for at least 3 hours and got 10 minutes. Once I actually fell asleep they turned on the lights and fed us breakfast because it was 5 am Amsterdam time and I guess that's supposed to help us get used to the time change or something.
The airport in Amsterdam was really the first time that I had a chance to talk to anyone besides Tillie so that was fun. We all just hung out for about an hour before we left for Athens.
On the plane to Athens I sat between Ben and Neil. I finished reading Child of God. It was good. McCarthy has a very different style of writing, though. And it's not a religious book at all if you're wondering. A lot of people got sleep on this plane but the guy behind me was pretty huge so I couldn't really put my seat back and only got about 10 minutes of sleep in 2 minute increments.
We got to Athens and got our luggage after waiting at the wrong baggage claim station for a few minutes. Then we all hopped on a bus and drove to Porto Rafti while Tim Brinley, the program director, gave us a tour of the city. It's really a lot different than I expected. I was expecting it to be pretty secluded but our hotel is right in the middle of this busy street. Not like actually in the middle of the street with cars driving all around us but there are plenty of stores down to the left and right. Porto Rafti is right on the sea. It's about a 2 mile walk that we've made twice already.
The first night that we were here we (me, Molly, Mark, Ben, Waddell, and Roman) went out walking at night. We got a little lost. It was a lot of fun though. We ended up probably walking 4 and a half miles. Yesterday me, Jordan, Jane, Molly, and LaRell went down to the point, which is just a big piece of land that juts out into the sea. It's apparently a good place to go swimming. We didn't swim though. The water is too cold.
There are stray dogs everywhere. They follow us around. Last night we went to get ice cream and some of the dogs kinda attacked some lady leaving the store. Not like a vicious attack but they barked at her and annoyed her. Some of the dogs will stop traffic for you, which isn't safe at all. I think we had seven of them following us around last night.
I accidentally got a job here when I signed up to be a computer science major. I'm in charge of pretty much all things computers and they'll give me something like 5 euro a week. More if I actually do any work.
Classes started today and they were fine.
My room is good. My roommate is good. The food is good. None of the girls mentioned above is my girlfriend. I don't have a girlfriend. Things are good.
I realize that the second picture is a little bit more curvy than it should be. It's because it's taking a lot of space and scrunching it up into a little space. I tried to make it fit better but that's pretty much as big as I can make it and make it fit in this border.
By the way, Porto Rafti is "The Port of the Tailor"
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