After a very hot, very tiring and hungry-making afternoon, we ate dinner quickly because the dining room downstairs was being set up for a wedding reception. As we had vespers in the top story of the hotel, where the classroom is, the party began downstairs and from my balcony, I could hear the music quite clearly; Greek music is awesome, so far as I'm concerned. They were there, I was told, until 3:00 AM--and that's normal for a Greek wedding reception. There's going to be one in our classroom tonight, and already I feel sorry for the teachers who will be trying to sleep on that floor.
This morning we went into Athens to celebrate the Sabbath with the Adventist congregation here. They're not easy to find, as there are only 300 Adventists in the entirety of Greece, and all very hush-hush, as Greek Orthodox is the state religion. The English-speaking congregation was very welcoming at Sabbath school, including us in their class discussion. For the main service, we joined the rest of them in the main sanctuary, and the service was all in Greek. That was interesting at first, but as I couldn't hear the interpreter, got a little dull after a while.
Their music was beautiful, though, and their communion was top-rate; I almost wanted to ask what they did to the bread to make it taste so much better than the wafers we use in the US, but again, I don't speak Greek. The ordinance of humility finally got me introduced to the the few other girls on this trip; the ratio of men to women is something crazy, like 20:6. The potluck was really good, though it wasn't Greek food; rather, it was a mixture of dishes from the many different ethnic groups represented by the English-speaking congregation.
After potluck, two of the teachers and I decided a nap's too boring for Sabbath, and went to see some archaeological sites instead. We started with the ruins of a library, which I found amusing, as I worked in one this last year (a library, not a ruin) and the Roman Agora, with its famous wind tower. There, one of the teachers explained to me, free of charge (har har), how the Greeks and Romans attached their columns so that they stood so well--it was an iron peg with lead filled into a groove running into the hole at the base, very cool. He also explained the difference between Greek and Roman building materials--the Romans used bricks, whereas the Greeks did not. That is why the Greek structures are so much sturdier than the Roman structures. The most amusing part of this site to me was the ancient latrine--makes sense, in its own way.
The Ancient Agora was a huge and incredibly awesome site. I took more pictures than I needed, and probably won't be able to identify much of what is in them within a few days, but wow, it was all I could do to appreciate all the statues I was seeing, not to mention the Colonnade. The Colonnade is an ancestor to the modern shopping mall--the idea of it is to have shade for the venders to sell their wares so that the people would, being more comfortable, be more likely to buy. Getting a bit dehydrated and sweating in the sweltering heat, I fully understand their logic.
The temple of Zeus slightly above the Agora is really impressive, as it is so well-preserved. The building had a certain depth to it that was hard to capture on camera, and the view from it of the Acropolis is incredible. When worship of Zeus passed out of practice, it was used for several purposes--among them, burial for Protestants and later as a museum. To my amusement, the largest building of all (or what used to be, as all that remained of it were the stones at the base) was the bureaucratic headquarters. Our last point of interest was a very, very old Greek Orthodox church which, if I'm not mistaken, was the first--very interesting.
We got a little lost on the way back, but it gave us an opportunity to look at some of the local color--the cafe's which weren't about coffee but cold drinks (because of the sweltering heat), the bright textiles, the jewelry shops, the artifact-replica shops, and so many different types of sandals. I shall have to return there with money on a day which is not the Sabbath sometime, as I would like to explore it further. When I got back here, though, I was so thirsty I drank an entire liter almost in one go, and already I'm starting to get thirsty again; thankfully, dinner will be soon, and I am ready for it! Wish you all well, and hope you had a happy Sabbath.
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