hey everyone- the week in crete was wonderful! started out a lil rough, but got gradually better and better and only much more better!! (more better,,...kinda like... 'more tender', right stevie??) anyway, we went to alot of sites and went to 2 beaches- both awwwwwesomely beautiful! we were so lucky. one was on a south-central coast called Matala, near the site of Phaistos, and the other on the SW coast, just at the opening of the Samaria gorge.
we took a ferry to Heraklion the first night and arrived early in the morning, after not having slept much on the 8 hour sail and started our day at Knossos, the largest palatial site on Crete. it was an extremely hot day, but i felt like it was still very nice compared to the heat when i went there this summer; it was prolly about 15-20degrees cooler this past week, and it was about 80-85....so...yeah.
cool part: we toured the area around Sir Arthur Evans' (the excavator and 'reconstitutor' of Knossos) personal home and also the first dept. house of the British School at Athens, on Crete. it has a long history- like having been occupied by the Nazis as a commanding point during WWII. there's even a plaque that commemorated some important Nazi guy signing his life and the Nazis away to the good guys, marking some ending point in the war. i was in the room they signed in! we saw an old copper bathtub heater in this building too..crazy.
i wont drone on about all the archaeological stuff and sites, but i will say one thing to a couple of you: mary, erin, and sarah---- our group found that part of Gortyn that we couldnt find! we saw an Egyptian temple, and a roman villa, and other such things. i have pics that ill put up on snapfish for u guys to browse through in Dec. or Jan. ;) awesome huh? bet yer jealous...
at Knossos and Mallia i gave presentations comparing their West Courts. i did awesome is all i can really say...... for real though, my prof said it was more than sufficient and said i did well, so i was reallllly happy that my reading and work paid off. plus i think a bad job would have been a big blow. so yeah, way happy about that. :)
i started gettin really nostalgic when we were bussing towards Mallia and started remembering something about shouts out the window of, "God save the Queen!!!!".............. (hahahaha.....)
spending alot of time w/about 1/4 or 1/2 (depending on day or evening) of the total kids here at CYA during the trip really was great for getting to know ppl and being social. meeting ppl on a smaller scale was much more fun and easier to do becuz you could talk to them all the time and were riding on the same bus or sharing hotel rooms everyday and night.
one night at this town called Zaros in the hills of no-where north (??) somewhere of Phaistos and Ayia Triadha, etc. we stayed at this realllllly awesome hotel where we stayed in bungalos, which we tropical feeling. there were trellesses and archways over the sidewalks with vines and flowers woven in. it was really a restful haven for the last couple days worth of heat and trekking around sites relentlessly. there was a pool and a fish farm (!hehe!) and a nice restaurant. so after showering and changing after we all arrived there, i went down to dinner and just sat w/some ppl. these kids were just the right ppl and were really funny and awesome to talk to. we laughed all night, especially w/this indianapolan guy named Theo who mocked and mimiked my accent all evening. i know i have one, but sheeeeeesh! never heard it so exaggerated before that it was even hi-larious for me!!! i couldnt open my mouth w/o sounding goofy after a while. guess it pays to discover....cool ppl that is.
sorry this is so long, but ive gotta catch ya up on the field trip week!!
ill try to wrap it up w/the hilight of the trip: the 12 mile trek through the Samaria Gorge (a nat'l park). this was 15 k of down and some up hill of mountainous, rocky terrain sprinkled with giant fur trees, boulder'y natural springs, and massive walls of rock up either side of you. reminded me alot of the coloradan rockies at the top with all the awesome views out above everything and the trees and as we descended both Glacier and Yosemite nat'l parks. it was absolutely beautiful. the hike was of course extraordinary, but soooooo worth the work. i even got to borrow this greek guide's 2 hiking poles, (like the hardcore Germans use) and they helped so much w/the knees and ankles. i could tell before even starting that years of gymnastics would get to my joints if i hadnt of had any help and ease for them. the trek turned out to be wonderful and very challenging, but yet empowering at the same time. i forget sometimes how the outdoors can do this to you, and always feel so lucky when i get to do it again. getting out of the athenian smog and into fresh air was worth all the money and work and i couldnt have been more thankful during the hike. it was sooooooo nice!!!! i got to know a couple more ppl better and listen to ppl's attitudes about what we were doing. some were all about getting through the gorge (blah) and some just enjoying it (me), and then others who complained alot about the work and exercise (blah). i tried to steer clear of the complainers- no fun. but all in all, after the 4hr+ hike, there was a really nice tropical beach to walk out onto.... so yeah- very rewarding! :) i think the sea is less or more salty at some beaches! im slowly learning about these things!
one thought that wont spur delight in the hearts of 2 ppl, namely mom and dad... is that the more i think about it, the more i want to do graduate school and/or live by the sea or ocean- you know, at least have it w/in proximity of where i live. prolly the thought about continuing my education is good, but perhaps not the living far from them...but hey- there's always retirement...and moving close to your kids.... benefits ya know... OR just visiting them alot and having a nice warm place to stay..... hehe..... problem is, i like the mountains too, so ive got to find a happy medium. only places i can think of is the carolinas, but there are so many damn southerners and funny accents!!! ;) we'll see about this.
laura: there's always south C, right?
well, im back in athens and was only awake about 9 hours of yesterday, having arrived back in athens around 8am after another overnight ferry ride. i think im recooperated but im still a bit sore from the hike (a run today helped), and ive gotten some work done. it'll not be as cool to be in classrooms rather than spending everyday at sites and museums like this last week, but still, many of my class sessions ARE at sites and museums here, so what am i saying?? alright, enough bragging about my hands-on education at great times.
im sure ill have loads more to ramble on about later, as they come to me.
hey yo smell ya later
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