Today we said goodbye to Greece and hello to Italy! To start the day we woke up a little earlier than the other days in order to make sure we could catch the train to the airport and have plenty of time to make our flight. Mr. Whitson should try out for the Olympic speed walking team. Man is he fast! Just as we were about to board we were called back as the plane had technical issues. The delay was only 40 minutes and then we were on our way.
When we arrived in Italy we took a bus to Hadrian's Villa, which was very cool. Emperor Hadrian lived during a peaceful time in the Roman Empire, and was committed to keeping the peace, making sure his people were happy, and also creating his massive villa. Hadrian loved Greek architecture, and took a lot of those concepts and incorporated them with his own to create his dream vacation home. It was well preserved and the tour guides Taghreed and Alyssa did a great job. Afterwards, we began the long journey to our own villa 3 hours away. This place is really cool as it sits on it's own set of ruins (including a gladiator arena!). The accommodations are much nicer than what we had in Athens. They cooked us a phenomenal meal, including a birthday cake for Adam.
Tomorrow we get to go to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.
Kamrom Vishteh & Nikhil Patel
Tesseract 9th Grade Students
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Day 4 - Delphi
Today we visited the city and temple of Delphi. It was an ancient city that thrived during the ancient Greek Empire. People would come from all over to seek an audience with the Oracle, a person who foretold people's futures. Visitors would bring treasures to pay homage to the Oracle and appease the God Apollo. Strangely enough, the Oracle only worked about 8 days a year. Since Delphi sits on two fault lines, it is believed gases released by earthquakes went directly into the Oracle's chamber, giving her hallucinations and basically making her high. After visiting the ruins and hearing Nikhil's presentation on the city, we went to the Delphi museum, where they have moved most of the recovered artifacts.
Delphi is located in the mountains overlooking a massive ravine. It took 3 1/2 hours for us to reach DelphI. On that bus ride, Derek and Sam made an incredible educational rap that everyone enjoyed. A good memory was at night. Everybody started panicking because they thought there was a crazy man downstairs (which was made up by Kamron). Overall today was a good day.
Here are some of the lyrics to the rap:
Derek and Sam, we are so cool
We help the community and go to school
We look to the future and stay. In our path
Every Tuesday we all study math
We say what we want as long as it's nice
As long as were smilin', that'll suffice
Jessica and Chianne are so kind
They stay alert and use their mind
We are doing laundry and packing as we fly to Rome tomorrow and then drive to Hadrian's Villa and then stay in Naples!
Sam Glotfelty and Cole Beairsto
9th Grade Tesseract Students
Delphi is located in the mountains overlooking a massive ravine. It took 3 1/2 hours for us to reach DelphI. On that bus ride, Derek and Sam made an incredible educational rap that everyone enjoyed. A good memory was at night. Everybody started panicking because they thought there was a crazy man downstairs (which was made up by Kamron). Overall today was a good day.
Here are some of the lyrics to the rap:
Derek and Sam, we are so cool
We help the community and go to school
We look to the future and stay. In our path
Every Tuesday we all study math
We say what we want as long as it's nice
As long as were smilin', that'll suffice
Jessica and Chianne are so kind
They stay alert and use their mind
We are doing laundry and packing as we fly to Rome tomorrow and then drive to Hadrian's Villa and then stay in Naples!
Sam Glotfelty and Cole Beairsto
9th Grade Tesseract Students
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Day 3 - Acropolis and Agora
When we woke up this morning everyone went down stairs for breakfast at 7:30. Then we walked from our hostel to the Acropolis which you could see from the streets. It was a lot of uphill walking but it wasn't as far as we thought it would be. First we went to Areopagus Hill and you could see most of Athens from this point. After that we walked up to the main entrance of the Acropolis and we adopted a stray dog (there are so many stray dogs in Athens it's unbelievable. Each one fights to adopt a group of tourists) The Acropolis was kind of like a castle, but it wasn't used on an everyday basis. After our visit to the Acropolis, we walked to the Agora. This was used as a public place where people could go to speak to crowds, trade, craftsmen could work, and many other things. Sam and Kamron were the presenters for the Acropolis and Adam presented at the Agora.
When we finished we separated into small groups and went out to lunch. I ate a wrap with chicken. It's was DELISH. Maggie had spanakopita, which is like a pastry with spinach inside. Once we finished eating we met back at the Acropolis Museum. Many of the surviving artifacts are located there, including the entire frieze (the top facades).
After the museum we split up again, some went shopping, while others went to the Olympic Stadium (the original one!). Most of them actually ran on the track where the very first Olympic games took place. we got back to the hostel, we spilt into groups again and went shopping around. Everyone met back in the boys room for our group meeting, where we discussed our feelings on what we think about people being kicked out of their homes in order to uncover archaeological ruins. We are all getting ready for bed now. Tomorrow we have a long bus ride to Delphi. One more day before heading to Naples!
Chianne Connelly and Maggie Holgate
Tesseract 9th Grade Students
When we finished we separated into small groups and went out to lunch. I ate a wrap with chicken. It's was DELISH. Maggie had spanakopita, which is like a pastry with spinach inside. Once we finished eating we met back at the Acropolis Museum. Many of the surviving artifacts are located there, including the entire frieze (the top facades).
After the museum we split up again, some went shopping, while others went to the Olympic Stadium (the original one!). Most of them actually ran on the track where the very first Olympic games took place. we got back to the hostel, we spilt into groups again and went shopping around. Everyone met back in the boys room for our group meeting, where we discussed our feelings on what we think about people being kicked out of their homes in order to uncover archaeological ruins. We are all getting ready for bed now. Tomorrow we have a long bus ride to Delphi. One more day before heading to Naples!
Chianne Connelly and Maggie Holgate
Tesseract 9th Grade Students
Day 2 - Mycenae
Today we also went to Mycenae, the great ancient city of Greece. Alex Kaufman and Cole Beairsto were our tour guides, and provided us with a wealth of knowledge about the Mycenaean tombs. The ones we saw were massive domes reaching 50 feet in hight and were made of huge cut stone. We also saw the tomb of Agamemnon, to which Mr. Whitson provided us a history of Agamemnon's, the king of kings, ancestry and the manly tragedies that befell the bloodline. After Mycenae, we went back to our hostel and split into groups. Two groups went shopping, and a third went to the National Archaeology Museum. It is considered the largest and best collection of ancient artifacts in the world. The shoppers went around the street markets of Athens and found everything from earrings to gelato. Overall, it was a great way to start our class trip.
Nicolas Carerras
Tesseract 9th Grade Student
Nicolas Carerras
Tesseract 9th Grade Student
Day 2 - Epidaurus
Today we went to Epidaurus. It is an ancient Greek amphitheater dating back to the fourth century BCE. It is considered 'the perfect amphitheater'. No matter where you sit, you can hear the performers on stage clearly. This was illustrated by Mr. Whitson, standing at the epicenter and speaking clearly to us in the VERY top row. The walk to the top was difficult, but very fun as well. We saw some other minor ruins, but they there mostly in the process of being reconstructed to show what things really looked liked at that time. We had lunch at the bottom of the hill at the local town at out bus driver's favorite restaurant. It was very enjoyable especially because there was a stray cat people took turns feeding. The cat got a free meal, and so did we; Mr. Whitson paid for our meal. Thanks Mr. Dave ;).
Taylor Thompson
Tesseract 9th Grade Student
Taylor Thompson
Tesseract 9th Grade Student
Monday, April 4, 2011
Day 2: Coming Soon!
Just a quick update - Taylor and Nick wrote their posts last night, but it looks like there was some difficulty exporting them from the iPad to this blog. We'll have them up in an hour or so.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Day 1: Arrival in Athens
Hi everyone,
Crossing the Atlantic always make for a long day, and our trip was no exception. Fortunately, everything went as smoothly as it could. All of our flights were on time and actually arrived 10-15 minutes early in each case. Immigration and customs were a breeze. Nobody forgot anything substantial (or even insubstantial, really). Here are some highlights from a long but generally uneventful day:
What We Ate: In Phoenix, there were few options available, but most arrived well stocked. In Chicago, almost the entire group swarmed the McDonald's. From Chicago to London, we were served two meals in flight. In London-Heathrow, some had sandwiches, others had breakfast dishes, while most purchased over-sized bags of Cadbury and other assorted chocolates. In Athens, we all went out for dinner in a great restaurant serving traditional food with... non-traditional names. For dessert, the restaurant provided chocolate crepes, on the house.
What We Did on the 8-Hour Flight: I watched three movies. Jordan played Tetris for eight hours. Niki failed at sleeping. Derek and Sam talked.
What We Learned: Several students learned that "white" is not your nationality. Cole learned that it's a good thing to hold on to something when the metro is moving. Everyone learned how to operate a push-button shower, and that toilet paper doesn't go in the toilet in Greece.
I woke up an hour ago for a quick run around Athens and up the Lycabettus Hill. All of the guys in my room were passed out. I'll go jab them with a stick in 20 minutes and then, after a quick breakfast, we'll be on the road to Mycenae. More tonight.
Dave
Crossing the Atlantic always make for a long day, and our trip was no exception. Fortunately, everything went as smoothly as it could. All of our flights were on time and actually arrived 10-15 minutes early in each case. Immigration and customs were a breeze. Nobody forgot anything substantial (or even insubstantial, really). Here are some highlights from a long but generally uneventful day:
What We Ate: In Phoenix, there were few options available, but most arrived well stocked. In Chicago, almost the entire group swarmed the McDonald's. From Chicago to London, we were served two meals in flight. In London-Heathrow, some had sandwiches, others had breakfast dishes, while most purchased over-sized bags of Cadbury and other assorted chocolates. In Athens, we all went out for dinner in a great restaurant serving traditional food with... non-traditional names. For dessert, the restaurant provided chocolate crepes, on the house.
What We Did on the 8-Hour Flight: I watched three movies. Jordan played Tetris for eight hours. Niki failed at sleeping. Derek and Sam talked.
What We Learned: Several students learned that "white" is not your nationality. Cole learned that it's a good thing to hold on to something when the metro is moving. Everyone learned how to operate a push-button shower, and that toilet paper doesn't go in the toilet in Greece.
I woke up an hour ago for a quick run around Athens and up the Lycabettus Hill. All of the guys in my room were passed out. I'll go jab them with a stick in 20 minutes and then, after a quick breakfast, we'll be on the road to Mycenae. More tonight.
Dave
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
