Our second week was mostly early-morning Survival Greek, in which we learned as much modern Greek as possible in order to be able to get around for the remainder of the program. Since I had studied Ancient Greek, I was particularly intrigued by the sounds of the modern Greek letters, the presence of uncontracted verbs, and some familiar friends! It was definitely an adjustment to take 2.5h classes instead of Carleton’s regular 70 mins, but all the same it was amazing to see how much we could learn in just two weeks!
For meals, we were relishing the chance to branch out from Bon App, and try the traditional Greek food at the CYA cafeteria! I may have been overzealous with the olive oil at times but my taste buds loved it and my gallbladder has sufficiently recovered. Our apartment decided to take turns cooking dinner throughout the week, so it was exciting to see my friends’ cuisines come to life! I’m still learning to cook so my dinner night was simple but fun: small balls of yellow and green pasta, store-bought tomato sauce, and of course, olive oil. (I was surprised by the intensity of the flavor of the regular grocery store olive oil here!) My flatmate Ellie made some delicious breakfast tacos, complete with home-fried tortilla chips! For the sides, Aselya replicated her sister’s guacamole recipe and I squeezed some grocery store lemons for lemonade.
For our trip to Volos, we first stopped at Thermopylae, maybe most commonly known as the site of the Battle of Thermopylae between the Spartans and the Persians. Specifically, we looked at the narrow passage between the mountain and (ancient) shoreline, which according to legend is the small path that the Persians used to get around the Spartan defenses, with the help of the Spartan traitor, Ephialtes. The ancient shoreline has since receded, so we were actually looking at a great plain that used to be the sea, but we could imagine what the path might have looked like in ancient times. Having heard of the Battle of Thermopylae in previous classes (and of course from the popular movie, The 300), I must say that it is quite different to imagine an army climbing through the mountains than to actually climb a nearby hill yourself, without any of the armor, and be winded from just that. It was standing on that hill looking at the much taller mountains nearby, out of breath despite not having any weaponry, that I truly understood how mountains were an excellent natural barrier.
Next, we visited the Neolithic Settlement of Dimini. Fresh out of our Greek 204’s discussion of Hector running to look for his wife in the megaron or any of the other rooms, it was our opportunity to see the remains of a megaron for the first time. This megaron had stone foundations (which we could still see!) that would have been extended upwards with mud-brick and roofed with thatch. It sat at the peak of the hill, surrounded by concentric circles of other household dwellings. There, I imagined why Hector would have thought to first look in the megaron for his wife. As the dwelling of the royal family, this room was the most protected, as one had to walk through all of the other dwellings to reach the megaron. Moreover, this room had a hearth that Andromache might have been using.
