Sunday, June 21
Check your watch (set to CE time, of course) and add seven hours, dispose of all belongings, trade your clothing for conservative long clothes covering your shoulders and knees, and move to an isolated rock pillar. Welcome to a Greek Orthodox monastery! On Sunday, we traveled from Kalambaka through the mountains of Meteora to Saint […]
Central Greece Jewish Identity
Yesterday we visited the cliff monasteries of Meteora and then traveled to Trikala and Larisa to meet members of the local Jewish communities and see their synagogues. Both these communities and the one in Volos where we will visit today are Romaniote Jewish. These communities have been a part of the fabric of central Greece […]
Saturday, June 20
When I applied to this trip, I was grasping for a connection that me, as a Spanish teacher, could make to this program in Greece. I was willing to explore, and just assumed I would collaborate with a Social Studies teacher in the end to convey my message. In our first seminar, I learned that […]
Resilience
In the morning we visited the new Holocaust Memorial on the site of the Jewish Cemetery. The Cemetery was desecrated by the Nazis in 1941. The University expanded on the site. Not until 2014 was a memorial dedicated to their memory. The few graves that remain are covered in graffiti, as are most of the […]
Thessaloniki
Greetings from Greece, The CWB group from Pittsburgh arrived in Athens on Monday June 15th at around 9:00 am Athens time. We have had a whirlwind of activities and we are taking in a lot of the culture and history of the places that we have visited. Here are some photos from Thessaloniki (6-19-15) The White […]
Thursday, June 18
Castle of Ioannina Just beyond the huge walls of the castle we entered to visit a synagogue. Allegra told us her Holocaust story. She and her family managed to escape the Nazis by hiding in the mountains that surround the city. It was truly an amazing and inspiring atory. She also showed us the 500 […]
Mycenea June 16th
Today we left Athens at 815 am to travel to Mycenae the fabled home of King Agamemnon. Along the way we discussed the connection between topography and religion. We discussed how the polis and its isolation created a polythesitic culture. The relative isolation allowed for a system of gods who were feared and interacted with […]
Day 3
After a long bus ride it felt amazing to stop at a small town by the sea. I felt so at peace standing by the sea that I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to leave. The feeling reminded me of the song Peace by O.A.R. I stood leaning on the banister watching the waves hit the side. I closed […]
Archaia Olympia
Wednesday, June 17, 2015 The Olympic Games are something we are all familiar with, we watch these seasonal games every two years as they move from city to city around the globe–and today we visited where it all began. From the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD the Olympic Games were held every […]