Happy St. John's Day, everyone!

Iklaina fest

Today is the feast of St. John. I wouldn’t know that except for the fact that I celebrated it in the little Greek town of Iklaina. We went up to the mountainside village last night after supper to join in their celebrations. They light wreaths on fire in the street and children and adults alike jump over the fires to bring a year of good health (and many children to women). Religious explanation comes from the story that when St. John was born, fires were lit to announce the event. Pagan tradition holds that on the first of May, families go out to pick flowers and make wreaths to hang on the door to celebrate springtime. On the eve of St. John’s day (a few days after the summer solstice), the wreaths are taken down from the doors and set on fire to celebrate the end of spring and the commencement of summer.
There was much food, dancing, and merriment, not to omit jumping over fires. An old man pushed me to do it immediately after we arrived, even though I was wearing a skirt… and it ended up that I was going the wrong way and got in trouble as well! Those old Greek men… I ended up jumping over the fires the right direction several times, so here’s hoping for a great year of health. After a plate full of goodies, I also was able to join in the dancing. The main Yaya forced me to dance, taking away my plate of food, my drink, and my purse to shove me into the circle. While I didn’t speak the language or know the dance at all, it was a lot of fun and I sort of caught on, so I ended up doing several dances with the villagers.
I also had an adventure in the local bar… I had to search a block away from the celebrations to find a restroom; in a bar full of men, I mimed my way to the location of the toilet (toiletas, it sounds like in Greek, I now know) but after entering realized I couldn’t find a light. I decided just to brave it and go in the dark, but as soon as I opened the stall door, the light came on. I figured it was similar to many of the restrooms here that have motion sensors to conserve energy, although I was surprised at having that technology in such a remote village. However, I came out of the restroom to be greeted by a table of men across the bar laughing loudly in my direction and discovered that the light switch was right outside the door to the restroom and one of them had turned it on for me. I thanked them in Greek and laughed at myself all the way back down to the festival, where it was easy to dance the embarrassment away.

What culture am I studying? MYCENAEan!

Mycenae

Last Sunday our group made a trip to Mycenae, one of the fortified cities remaining to us from the culture which borrowed its name from this citadel, the Mycenaean Age. This is a city that I’ve studied in every Classical Archaeology class I’ve had, and while I knew that the city was surrounded by mountains and had a deep ravine on one side, the site of the two giant mountains flanking the city and the deep rocky ravine that once held an ancient river took my breath away. While the pictures are nice, you cannot experience this place without being there.

Cyclopean Masonry

The citadel was nice, and it was awesome to see the things I’d studied (such as the extension which includes a cistern which one could go down into and a sally port used during siege).

Entrance to Cistern

We also got to see several tholoi (beehive shaped underground tombs) including one nicknamed the “Treasury of Agamemnon”… the lintel stone over this particular tomb weighs approximately 120 tons.

Tholos tomb

Not kidding. It was ginormous.

Me in front of the Lion's Gate entry to Mycenae

After suffering through the midday heat while climbing up the steep rocky slopes of Mycenae, we took a quick trip to Napflion, the first capital of Greece before Athens stole all the glory. Napflion is right on the coast, and has a large citadel on top of a very steep mountain jutting out of the landscape.

Napflion

It’s 999 steps to the top, supposedly, so I definitely didn’t go. Instead we had a relaxing time with an ice cream on the pier and a walk through the streets of the city. A lovely trip.

My roomie and me

The next day my roommate and I took a trip to the beach after we got done at the dig. It was quiet, but I’m glad we did it because today the entire group is going; however, I and three other students will be missing out since we’re assigned to work at the museum today, and won’t be at the dig site to catch the bus to the beach.Napflion

My Journey

I have a long trip ahead of me and it has several parts; well, mainly just three.
I begin here, in Greece, working on an archaeological dig. I majored in Classical Civilizations focusing on Greek Archaeology, but the degree program I did didn’t require me to work at all in an archaeological context. I came to Greece to gain the experience of working on site and putting my archaeology knowledge to work. I know a lot about the Mycenaean civilization since I’ve studied it in at least four classes at IU. The site we’re working at right now is, we believe, an outpost of the so-called “Palace of Nestor”, the large palace site here in Pylos. We’re specifically searching for Linear B tablets. Linear B is a pre-Greek/Greek script from about 1600-1100bce. It's only been found at Pylos, at the actual palace site. So if we could find it at Iklaina (where I’m digging) it would be awesome because it would prove it was a palace outpost and give us more information about the functioning of the state. In my trench we've found some burnt stone, so that's exciting (Linear B was only written on clay tablets that would biodegrade unless they were baked in a fire when the palace or outpost burned.). Greek history lesson of the day.
Part two of my trip includes traveling to Switzerland, London, and Berlin. I’ll be visiting friends in these cities, which I am SO looking forward to. However, I’m also excited about experiencing the cultures, food, languages, people, and cultural sites (museums, castles, the Berlin Wall!, etc.). I know that I’ll learn a lot because I’ll have the best guides--natives or friends who have been living in the country for an extended (enough) amount of time.
Part three of my trip is the most significant. I’ll be going to Nepal for five months to volunteer in an orphanage there. I’ll also be able to teach English at a local school during the day while the kids are away at class. Here I hope to learn a new language and a new way of life, as the Nepali culture is so different from ours. I’ve never studied any religion, culture, or language from Asia or Southeast Asia, and I can’t wait to be immersed in this one. I began searching for this type of project because I feel the need to help those with less; orphans abound in Nepal because families can’t afford the children they have and abandon them. I also hope to have the chance to work in a women’s home on the western border of Nepal with the same program. Young girls are often sold into slavery by their parents, even when they’re as young as five or six. The program I’m working with buys these Kalamari girls, as they’re known, back out of slavery and gives them a chance to study in school and lead a normal life. If you’d like to understand more about what I’m doing or where I’m coming from, I’d recommend visiting the sites involved with the homes, nepalorphanshome.org and www.volunteernepal.com, and also reading the book Three Cups of Tea. It didn’t originally inspire me on this journey, but it did make me more enthusiastic about coming.
If you’d like to know more about what I’m doing or why, email me or skype me. I’d love to hear from you all.

Pylos Life

A side street in Pylos

Pylos is a small town on the west coast of the Greek Peloponnese. It's absolutely gorgeous, with temperatures in the high 70s during the day and the 60s in the evenings and clear skies. It has a small bay with islands surrounding it on several sides, and shares the bay with some other small villages. There is also a large Ottoman Turk fort and castle near the southern tip, which I promise to explore soon so you can see it.
We're staying at the Hotel Karalis, where I have a balcony overlooking the wharf and a really nice roommate named Veronica. Everone on the dig is pretty nice. We spent some time exploring the
town yesterday after our work was done digging and after class. The stores and shops are all very small, but everyone is very friendly. There's a small beach in town, but there are supposedly bigger ones a short distance away. The nightlife is awesome, not in the typical college way of course, but the Greeks enjoy spending their time sitting outside of cafes, smoking and talking for hours. I think I'm going to try to emulate this way of life (the talking for hours with good company, not the smoking) ; there's no more beautiful place to do it.

The view from my balcony

Pylos

I'm here I'm here I'm here! After a very long delay and flight out of JFK, then a 10 hour bus ride, I'm in Greece and across the country from Athens and in my hotel room. There's a few things to work out, but they're definitely going to wait until morning. Our schedule seems pretty full... Sundays we don't have to dig but we have field trips, Saturdays we have to dig but we don't have class, the rest of the time it's class and digging. Tomorrow I think I'll look around town and maybe do a little shopping, and once I can get the internet working well I'll post some pictures for your viewing pleasure (I've only seen it after sunset, but so far, it's BEAUTIFUL) For now, it's definitely bedtime.

Mini-vacay in NYC: Now I know what that death card stood for...

Well.... that didn't work.

I'm not in Greece yet, even though I'm supposed to be on the bus at Pylos right now. Delta called me early yesterday morning to let me know that my second flight had been moved back four hours since they said my first one was delayed. My first flight was delayed a start by half an hour, but then got to Philly on time. I know it's confusing. They didn't really give me a choice though, they said, we changed your flight. What they failed to tell me was that you have to check in at JFK an hour an a half before the flight goes or you can't go with it. So this second flight they put me on had me landing in JFK at 259 when check-in closed at 3 and i had to switch terminals. Plus, the flight they put me on was, of course, delayed. So they told me Terminal 4 was open all night.

Luckily, Mom has a cousin, Linda, and she and her husband Alex live in Brooklyn. After sitting in Terminal 4 for quite some time by a payphone (as I left my cell behind for my six month journey), Alex came and picked me up. While I'm angry that I'm missing the first day of the program and most of the second as well, I'm so grateful for Alex and Linda, and Alex showed me a great time too. I was exhausted, but he took me out to see Brooklyn, and we went to Park Slope to walk around and get some dinner at a nice little restaurant called Song. Plus we got bagels for the morning.

I'm frustrated that if I could have stayed on the flights I booked, I would be in Greece by now. But I'm very grateful for my family here, their generosity, and the great time they've shown me. Plus, I got a bed and a shower, which was wonderful. Hopefully today's trip will work a lot smoother... let's give it a shot.

Graduation/Going away party

Thanks so much to everyone who made it out to the graduation party! It was wonderful to see friends and family that I might not see for quite a while! The day was a blast with old friends, tons of food, corn hole and swing-a-ball (hillbilly golf?), and a few surprises. You will all be greatly missed. XX