On Thursday after classes everyone collected their togas and prepared for the famous UD Geek Olympics in preparation for the trip to Greece the next day. The groups were set and everyone picked team names and themes that their teams were representing during the games. My group was the Greece Lightning (playing off of the musical). 
So the guys in my group slicked back their hair and the girls put on pink shirts under their togas. To start off the games Michael MacEwen ran through the line up of teams with a flaming torch through the vineyard to the field where we were going to compete. The teams followed him to the field and gathered together. Each of the groups presented themselves in front of the Professors. During the games we ran various races passing off grapefruit by our necks or spinning around a pole 15 times, gum bubble blowing competitions, spear throwing, tug of war, and shaving cream statue critiques. In the end the Spartans came on top and won the games. After cleaning up after the games they served us a great meal as a send off for our ten day trip to Greece.Departure for Greece, 10-2-09
The next morning we got up and got on to our buses. We had a sign up for two buses, I was on bus two. We left campus for Bari to catch our ferry to Greece. We stopped at a few rest stops to get food or go to the bathroom. Just before we reached the docks we stopped by the Basilica of St. Nicholas. This church had the body of St. Nicholas and a reliquary containing a lot of saints relics.
It was a really cool church. We finally made it to the docks and the RA's passed out our tickets and room keys and we all got on the boat. They told us the time we had to meet for dinner and we got settled in our cabins on the boat. After dinner we all hung out in the Mariners bar where there was dancing and drinks. We had a really great time with our friends, but the highlight of the whole night was when Dr. Waterman-Ward came form outside and jumped onto the dance floor and danced in the middle of all the students. It was hilarious seeing our Lit Trad professor dancing in the middle of all her students when she is fifty plus. After that I was done for the night I went to my cabin and went to sleep.Olympia 10-3-09
Our ferry finally arrived to the port city Petras Greece. We got on our buses and started on our way to Olympia. After a couple hours we
arrived to our hotel and got settled. Right after we got settled in our rooms Dr. Hatlie lead us to the museum of Olympia where we got to see the original Greek statue of Hermes and the baby Dionysos by Pixiteles, and remnants of the Temple of Zeus. Our professors
gave presentations of both of these things. Then we got to explore the rest of the museum which had a lot of cool stuff. There was great collection of military hardware from ancient Greece including things like the helmet of Miltiades who was the guy who won the battle of Marathon for the Greeks. The helmet had his name etched on the side
of it! It was a really cool museum. After that visit we had time to explore Olympia and check out the shops and stuff before dinner. We walked all around the little shops, Grace and I picked up our patches for Greece and got some baklava and headed back to our hotel for dinner. We ate as a group and at the end of dinner some traditional Greek dancers came out and did a demonstration for us. We got to join them after a while and all the students and some professors got in circles and danced around. While we were doing this a family was celebrating a wedding in the hall on the other side of the hotel. After I left I watched the families doing the same dances that we were just doing- it was really cool to see the tradition played out in everyday life.Olympia/ Delphi, 10-4-09
The next morning we all got up for breakfast than we headed ou
t for Olympia's archeological site and the Temple of Zeus. When we arrived to the site our professors gave lectures on Greek competition (Agon) 
and models of virtue (arete), and how the Olympic games worked back in the day. Elliot gave a reading from Pindar about the games, he started off by reading it in Greek than he read the translation. After all of the academics we made our way down to the ancient stadium of Olympia and we had a series of races on the old track. We had a men's race, a woman's race, and a mixed relay race. It was a great time racing in the original site of the Greek
Olympics in Olympia! After the site visit we went back to the hotel for lunch than packed our bags and headed off for Delphi. It took about five hours by bus to get there. The drive was beautiful as we drove by the coast up the mountain to the small town of Delphi. Once we arrived our class filled up 3 hotels-haha. After unpacking our stuff we had a nice dinner and a night out on the town. Grace and I walked around the town and found her a nice scarf. After shopping a little bit a bunch of us went to a café, sat and had some baklava. It was a really nice time. We were all pretty tired from traveling so we headed off for our hotels after the café.Delphi, 10-5-09
After breakfast the next morning Dr. Hatlie walked us over to the Archeological site at Delphi. We started the morning off by going to the temple of Athena where ancient Greek pilgrims would go to make sacrifices
to begin a purification process before going to the temple of Apollo. Dr. Hatlie gave us a lecture about the site and its significance in history. The students gave a dramatic reading of the Eumenides which took place at this spot. After taking some pictures and exploring this part of the site we continued up the mountain following the path that the ancient Greeks would have taken to reach the Oracle of Delphi at the Temple of Apollo. We stopped at the Castalian Fountain where more purification would take place. Dr. Hatlie talked about the significance of the Oracle and Dr. Waterman-Ward gave her reflection on the source of European poetry. Then the students gave another dramatic reading from the Bacchae. After the Castalian Fountain we walked up to the path that directly leads to the temple of Apollo. We 
explored the site as far as we could, unfortunately there had been some fallen rocks on the site from the mountain so they closed it off at one point for protection. We could still see everything we just couldn't get as close as we would have liked. From the Temple of Apollo was a great view of the valley and the sea in the distance. It was an incredible site. After spending time admiring the site and the view we had a nice lunch at a restaurant with another great view of the valley and sea. After lunch we visited the museum with all the artifacts from the site we visited earlier. After the museum visit they let us do whatever we wanted. So some of us chose to hike Mt. Parnassos which had another great view of everything around. Grace and I took it easy up the mountain on our way down Grace started picking up
these old nails she found on the trail and acting like she was an archeologist. The nails looked pretty old and she was really excited. When we got down the mountain we stopped by an Orthodox church in Delphi to check it out. There was singing coming from the back of the church when we were inside- I was convinced that it was a group of priests right there behind the wall but Grace thought it was a CD. We never found out but there was nothing coming from the speakers so I am still convinced that it was live. After our visit to the beautiful church we stopped by a Gyro place and picked up some true Greek gyros- they were amazing! I took a long nap then met the class for dinner. After dinner a bunch of us went to a quiet bar and hung out for a while. After a nice evening hanging out with a bunch of friends we walked back to our hotel and called it a night.Athens, Hosios Lukos Oct 6
So the next morning we said our goodbye's to Delphi and headed off to Athens. It was another 5 hour bus ride to Athens but along the way we stopped at an old Greek Orthodox monastery called Hosios
Loukas. Dr. Hatlie gave a lecture on the Greek orthodox faith and explained details of the site itself. He also talked about the history of the site and its founder St. Luke (who was not the gospel writer). The monastery was on a hill that also looked out over a valley of olive trees. The Monastery was made of red stone and brick and contained a lot of beautiful icons and paintings. They sold tons of different icons also honey which the monks at the monastery harvest themselves. After the visit we got back on the buses and headed straight to Athens. After arriving in Athens we unpacked out stuff and hit the streets with Dr. Hatlie, who lead us to the Pnyx. The Pynx was a hill which looks out over all of Athens. 
The Pynx is the heart of Greek democracy, it is the place where many discussions were made by politiotions and philosophers back in the day. On this site we had another lecture from Dr. Hatlie on the history, and also a lecture from Dr. Blue on Socrates and his influence in that time and today. After the lectures a few students read from Perikles' Funeral Oration which speaks about Athens, and democracy and the culture of the time, which mirrors our own. After the reading we walked over to the Areopagus which was Athens first noble court, and also the place where St. Paul preached to the Athenians.
When we arrived I walked up the original steps which St. Paul would have walked up to get to the Areopagus, they were very slippery because of how many people have walked on them in the past centuries. Here we had a dramatic reading of Eumenides, the trial of Orestes. Kevin took the role of Orestes. After the reading Fr. Brown gave a talk on St. Paul's missions across the pagan world. It was really powerful to be in one of the places where this took place. After Fr. Brown's talk we got the chance to explore the streets of modern day Athens. We walked around the different shops and things and made it back for dinner. After dinner about ten of us went out and had a drink at a local restaurant and had a great time. We made it back for curfew and went to bed.Athens; Agora, acropolis, theater of Dionysus 10-7-09
We received a wake up call in our room and I went up to breakfast. It was being served on the tenth floor of our hotel. I took the elevator up and when the doors opened I was blown away by the view. There were windows everywhere and there was a perfect view of the Acropolis on top of the hill. I was up there just before the sun made it over the surrounding mountains and watched the first light pierce through and put a spot light on the Acropolis. 
It was so breath taking. After breakfast we hit the town and went straight to the Agora. The Agora was the old city center, kind of like a main street where most of the activity in the city took place. Dr Hatlie and Dr Blue gave a couple more lectures on history and philosophy and then we explored the site. Dr. Hatlie also said that in the 70's he actually spent a year or two excavating this very site! He said even after all that time working on the site its so vast that we haven't even touched the depth of things that are there. There was a temple
and a bunch of remnants of old Greek culture. After walking through the site we visited the museum connected to it which contained artifacts from the site. There was a lot of pottery, jewelry, weapons, there was a lottery machine which was used in their democratic system. There was also a Spartan shield. It was a great museum. After that visit we made our way up to the Acropolis up the hill. On top of the Acropolis we walked through the temple of Athena Nike and made our way over to the Parthenon. Here Dr. Hatlie gave another lecture on its significance
. After his lecture we walked around on the top of the Acropolis and looked at the Erechtheum. This was the St. Peter's basilica of its day. Here it was also said to contain Greece's first olive tree given by Athena. After we explored the Acropolis we made our way down to the theater of Dionysus. At the original theater we had another dramatic reading of Oedipus the King. JP and a few other guys actually chanted the part of the chorus and it was really well done. After this visit we went and had lunch then visited another museum. At the national Archeological Museum we saw the famous death mask
of Agamemnon, some examples of linear B writing and a bronze statue of Poseidon and other statues. One of my favorites was the head of an Olympic boxer. After the museum I was pretty wiped out, we had a long day. I walked back to the hotel with Grace and we went to our rooms and took naps. We were responsible to find our own dinner that night so Grace, Andrew and I went out and found a great place. We were on a roof top that looked out over Athens and had a great view of the 
Acropolis. We enjoyed some great traditional Greek food and their house wine. After dinner we walked back over to the Pnyx to get a look of the city in the night. We met up with Jessica and John Paul and walked over to the Pnyx. On our way we passed by Socrates jail where he was imprisoned before he was executed. After that we found the Pnyx and hung out their and enjoyed the glorious view of the city and all its lit up sites. It was getting a little cold so we walked back to our hotel.Nafplion via Mycenae 10-8-09
When we woke up we got back on the busses and started our way to Mycenae. On our way to Mycenae we stopped at the famous 
Corinthian Canal. After checking that out we went to the famous site of Agamemnon's Palace. Here was the famous Lion's Gate. We also got to see the Treasury of Atrius. On top of Agamemnon's palace Dr. Hatlie gave a talk on Schliemann who was the archeologist who found the site we were at and also famous places like Troy. After his talk we went to the tomb of Clytemnestra and we had a dramatic reading of Agamemnon and his death scene. We left for lunch a little bit later then we made our way to Nafplion. We went off to the beach and went swimming and came back to the hotel for mass later on. After mass we had dinner at the hotel then Grace and I took a walk down the board walk by the water and sat on the bench and looked at the illuminated castle. It was a really nice evening.Nafplion, Epidaurus 10-9-09
After breakfast we took the busses to Epidaurus. Here we visited the site and sat in a well preserved theater where you could stand at a point and hear the speaker from any point in the theater. We did a dramatic reading of Antigone, then some students presented their singing skills and also read some poetry to everyone in the 
theater. From there we proceeded to the Sanctuary of Asclepius where Dr. Hatlie explained ancient Greek methods of medical treatment and the different things patients had to go through. After his lecture we walked around the site and made it back to the theater where people presented more songs and poems and such. Around 12 we left for lunch then had the rest of the day off. Grace and I walked around town and got margaritas with some friends. After a little while we went back to the hotel for mass and dinner. After dinner Teresa Kevin and I went over to a gyro place because the dinner they served was pretty bad. So we got our 2 euro gyros and walked the town. We found our way to a great little bakery and got some fresh baklava. We ate while walking down the peer then went back to the hotel for curfew.Corinth & Farewell to Greece 10-10-09
This morning we packed our stuff and got back on the buses. 
We left Nafplion and started our way back to Italy. Along the way to the ferry we stopped in Corinth. We visited the ancient site of Corinth and Dr. Hatlie gave us a little history about the place then Fr. Brown gave another talk on St. Paul's mission and his visit to Corinth. After the site visit I took the oportunity to get my last gyro in Greece and at it before we had to leave. After Corinth we had lunch near by right on the Corinthian Canal where we got to watch the boats go through the locks and stuff. It was really cool. After lunch we went straight to the docks and got on the ferry back to Italy to conclude a great time in Greece.
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