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GREECE: Week One

 I flew into Athens, Greece 7 days ago and time has flown by! In one week, I feel like I have seen and learned more about one country than I could ever learn in a semester long class. Our group of 18 students and Randy, our professor, has already become so close! In Athens, our hotel was just up the street from Monastiraki square which was surrounded by a hub of small shops and restaurants, and at the bottom of the hill that the Acropolis sits on. At any given point walking the old streets, you could look up and see the ruins peeking out from over the edge of the hill. 

After a group dinner to begin the program on the first night, our first day of activity involved walking to see the first modern olympic stadium, where the 1896 Olympics were held. Randy told us that the modern word “stadium” comes from the Ancient Greek word “stade,” which was a 200 yard race. This was the most popular and most prestigious race to win according to the Greeks. That is also the explanation to why the stadium is long and narrow, rather than more oval shaped; the runners would sprint down, turn around 180 degrees, then sprint back, rather than running in a circle like we do now. 

We stopped by the Temple of Zeus, then made our way to the Acropolis museum, then climbed up the hill to see the ruins themselves. The museum is built over ruins, with clear floors to see the excavations occurring below you. The Acropolis of Athens is a citadel, which includes everything on top of the hill, but the Parthenon is the main, and most famous temple on the hill. It was dedicated to the goddess Athena, for which the city is named after. On top of the hill, there is a 360 degree view of the sprawling city of Athens. 

Some ruins have been converted into a modern amphitheater overlooking part of the city!  

The rest of the week has been filled with seeing lots of temples (at least one a day), some traveling, and one of my favorite moments so far: seeing the sunset at Poseidon’s Temple at the Cape of Sounion. 

One day we took a ferry to the island of Aegina where we saw the Aphaia at the top of the island, then got to spend some free time on the beach (the water is SO blue!). After seeing multiple temples, scattered across towns and parts of Greece, it has been interesting to see how well the architecture and statues have been preserved, or how temples that all look so similar can actually be so different. There is so much detail in the faces of statues; their eyes are so powerful and each one with their own story and identity. 

We are now in Delphi, a tiny town perched on the mountain side, over looking a deep valley and the Corinthian Gulf. The ruins of Ancient Delphi are truly built into the mountain side, with the stone of the columns blending into the mountainside behind them. Apollo’s Temple, remains of rooms, a theatre, and even a long stadium at the top of the hillside. The mountains and valley that the ruins overlook remind me of the mountains in Utah! 

I have eaten endless amounts of Greek Salad, but I am not complaining. The tomatoes and onions are in season, and everything tastes as though it was just picked from the garden. I’ve developed a liking for seared or grilled sardines, another traditional Greek dish; They taste nothing like the salty ones from America, but have a similar flavor to that of white fish like tilapia. You eat the whole fish, and the bones add a nice crunch to the meal! I can’t wait for more yummy dishes and more beautiful temples. Week two, here we come!

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Social Media Submission: Perspectives gained through Nepal’s contrasting culture

Looking out the window of the plane as I flew over the quieting city of Kathmandu was my first experience not seeing a city glowing from below. It was just before midnight, but there were no illuminated skyscrapers and no glowing freeways alive with moving traffic. There were dimly lit main roads, occasional lights escaping from small houses, and a single story international airport terminal. It was as if I had taken a plane back in time. 

I spent my first day exploring the beautiful chaos of Kathmandu. I toured the Monkey Temple, where animals were one with humans overlooking the smog covered city. I saw the remaining temples of Kathmandu Durbar Square after the catastrophic earthquake in 2015. To see pictures of towering temples covered in ornate wood carvings flattened to piles of rubble almost three years after the disaster was eye-opening. We often see reports of global disasters, but to see the intensity of the damage first hand gave me a newfound appreciation for the strength of Nepal.

The captivating eyes of Boudhanath stupa are ingrained in my memory. Their gaze is so simple, yet so piercing. This earthquake caused damage to this stupa too, leaving huge cracks in the dome and gold top. The gold tower on a white dome is the traditional architecture of stupas created as Buddhist shrines, this one being one of the largest in Nepal. From a birds-eye view, the layers of the stupa represents a mandala, a traditional piece of buddhist art representing the universe.The 365 prayer wheels surrounding the base of stupa even represent each day of the year. When we were making our way around the base, we had the opportunity to hear a traditional buddhist prayer call, and listen to a group of monks perform a prayer. We watched the colorful prayer flags flow in the wind as the resonance of the prayer call filled the entire neighborhood. 

 On our fourth day trekking in the mountains, we walked past family’s fields and animals, observing their pure state of content within their simplicity. A group of children crossing our path greeted me with a traditional “Namaste,” and continued to ask in their broken, but captivating english, “how are you?!” Their faces exploded with pure, untainted joy at my simple response, my attempt to momentarily join their wildly contrasting world. Time froze and I was temporarily suspended in time; Between us were barriers of language and lifestyle too large to comprehend, yet everyone was beaming with unaltered appreciation for the present moment. I was merely a foreign body crossing their path on an insignificant afternoon, yet the children’s ability to instantly accept me into their world filled me with an overwhelming appreciation for the power in diversity and humanity. 

Seeing a culture so polar opposite to my own illustrated the diversity each place in the world possesses. I am hungry to keep exploring all different corners of the earth, experiencing each place as a new learning opportunity.