Hey all! I can’t believe that my first three weeks in Rhodes are almost over—I have my final tomorrow for Greek, and Monday will be starting my Greek Mythology class (and hopefully, continuing on to the next level of Greek!)
Since I’ve returned from Thess, nothing too exciting has gone on. The biggest drama was over my bank card—I just can’t catch a break money-wise this trip! I went to an ATM to withdraw some money, and the machine swallowed up my card and wouldn’t give it back! It wouldn’t respond to any button-pushing or angry jiggling, my card was just taken. I was there for twenty minutes before I finally gave up. The banks were all closed by this point, but the next day I got up early and went to the bank the ATM was affiliated with to see if they could open up the machine and give it back, but they were so unhelpful; they pretty much just shrugged, adopted a ‘yeah that happens sometimes’ attitude, and told me to call my bank. It took half of my remaining money to place an international call back to my bank, have the first card canceled, and work on getting another one sent out to me. A new debit card is on the way, however, and my parents wired me some money in the meantime, so it’s all been taken care of. It’s all fine now, but it was extremely stressful at the time! All my friends here were really great about making sure I was covered until I got the money in, for which I’m really grateful.
In my continued quest to really get into the EuroCup, I got a team Greece jersey. Our chances are not looking very good, though; we lost to the Czech Republic (arguably through some bad calls, a goal was called offsides and discounted even though it wasn’t), which means we have to beat Russia, and even then whether we continue or not hangs in the balance of factors outside our control. I’m really having fun trying to be a soccer fan, but it’s also hard for someone with my attention span; I’ll be talking with my friends for 20 minutes and not really paying attention to the game, and when I look back it’s the same as it was before; it’s not imperative to constantly be watching to understand, but then you miss it the few minutes really exciting things happen.
Yesterday I went with James, Rachel, their professor (my professor’s son), my professor, and his four year old granddaughter to see some of the ancient sites in Rhodes. Our two classes went instead of lessons, and it was so much fun! Spiros is incredibly knowledgeable about Ancient Rhodes, the Colossus of Rhodes, and a plethora of other topics, but he knows how to communicate that information, through stories and anecdotes, in a way that is really interesting and fun. We went to the Acropolis of Rhodes and it was so interesting, and really beautiful. According to mythology Rhodes rose out of the sea to be the home of Helios, the sun god, and the temple at the top of the Acropolis was dedicated to him, the patron god of the island. The way Spiros described the design, at the base of the stairs you would see nothing of the temple because of their angle, but as you climb the top slowly rises into view. On the top, there would have been four huge, bronze horses pulling a chariot with Helios inside, so as you climbed the stairs, it would slowly come into view. When you went to the temple of the sun god on Rhodes, the island of the sun, you would see a miracle; the sun would rise for you.
The remains of the temple at the top of the Acropolis.
He also told us some things about the Colossus which were really interesting. On all the postcards that show the Colossus in Old Town, he’s doing an awkward straddling move over the harbor. That, apparently, is completely inaccurate. First, all we know from writings about how it looked was that he had “a loose stance”, but we do know how it was made and how tall it was. When they made it, they would do it in sections and then pile dirt around those sections as scaffolding, burying it to complete the next section, etc; that would have been impossible over the sea. Even if they had the technology, to stand across the harbor it would have had to be three or four times larger than we know it was. Additionally, it took 12 years to complete, and you would not shut down the busiest harbor of an island famous for its importance as a diplomatic center and trading center in the region to build a statue. Apparently, the whole myth of its location there was started in the 1300s, long after the Arabs had taken it away, when an Italian historian came across some writing saying how the Colossus ruled “over land and sea” and thought that meant he stood over land and sea: the harbor. In reality, it was up on a hill above the Grand Master’s Palace; you definitely would have seen it entering the harbor, but it wasn’t on the harbor, and probably not in that wildly creepy stance on all the postcards. Thank goodness.
The granddaughter was adorable as well. Her name is Paraskevi (Friday) and she was so cute! She kept picking flowers to give to me and Rachel, and I, of course, always love it when little kids speak Greek! It was interesting because Spiros said that he grew up really close to the acropolis so it was always their playground, and talked about how he dared himself to ride his bike along a really high, narrow wall. It was just really fun to hear about how the local community still gets enjoyment out of the ruins; these ancient wonders are just part of their daily lives. Seeing Paraskevi jumping from ancient ruble to ancient rock was just another reminder of that fact.
We also went to the acropolis at Ialyssos, called Fileremos, which had a gorgeous view of the island, a massive cross you could climb up inside, and a monastery that had origins stretching to pre-Byzantium times. Spiros pointed to a house at the base of the hill the acropolis was on, and said that from that point on, the hill underneath was hollow and filled with all kinds of military arsenal and equipment. According to some treaty, islands are not supposed to have any kind of military presence outside of the national guard, but because of relations with Turkey they have all kinds of weapons stockpiled under there. And, Spiros said, the Turks know exactly how much Greeks have on their islands and Greeks know exactly how much the Turks have on their islands, and where it is, etc. So they both know, and they both know the other knows, but it’s there nonetheless.
The view from the cross at one end of the acropolis, and the view from the monastery on the other. In the second photo, the sandy-looking tip of land is Rhodes Town.
The monastery. There were a ton of peacocks around; males, females, babies, and the air was filled with their mewling call. This tunnel of olive trees connected the monastery to a balcony-like patio overlooking the island.
At any rate, that was a really fun outing. I also found our that Spiros is teaching the Mythology class, which got me all excited because you can just tell, based on how he handled this trip, that it will be a really fun class.
Today, I’m going with my professor Daniel, his wife, and Paraskevi to Faliraki, near to Rhodes Town, where they have a summer home. There is a festival for St. Amos going on there today, and we’re going to swim, go to the festival, and then go to their home for a homecooked meal. I’m so excited, and I just love how they’ve all taken me in as one of them and are so excited not only to teach me the language but to teach me about the culture of Greece, and I’m so grateful they are so glad to share it with me. In class today, he said that tonight we are going to speak only Greek; ask questions if I need to, but to try to do as much as possible without using English. I’m so excited to try!
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