Day 8: The History of the Peloponnese

Pictures: The first is of the Corinth Canal making the Peloponnesus a real island (= nesus in Greek). The second picture is of Agammenon's tomb hidden in a mountainside. The final is of me at the Theatre of Epidaurus, the most preserved of any ancient monument in the world!

Hello from Greece! I hope you're all doing well. Today has been a super-busy day of traveling. We traveled from Athens to the Peloponnese, which is an "island" in Greece. It's actually 99% surrounded by water (although the Greeks built a canal several years ago and it is now technically an island). Nesus means island in Greek and Pelopon was a King in Greece...meaning Peloponnese was named after the King and called an island. Look how much you're learning!

Here in the Peloponnese there are a ton of ancient ruins. We went to Mycenae where we saw the ruins of the old town where King Agamemnon (the King during the Trojan War) supposedly was. We also got to see Agamemon's tomb. It makes the myth seem almost real! Hmmm...I wonder if it is ;)

After traveling to Mycenae we went to Epidaurus, which is the old healing center. When people were really sick, they would go to Epidaurus to feel better. Do you all remember Easclepius? He was the god of health and sickness...the center was named after him. Ancient Greeks would go there to get better and in order to commune with nature. Communing with nature seemed to mean that you would get closer to the gods and be healed. Of course, if you had an injury, you were probably going to stay at the center for at least 40 days to get better! So in order to entertain everyone, they would be entertained with theatre. The theatre that is at Epidaurus is THE most preserved ancient ruins in all of the world! It was very cool to stand in the middle and talk...my voice vibrates!

Also in Agamemon's tomb, since it is circular, I can stand at one end of the tomb facing the wall and talk across to a friend on the other side and TOTALLY hear everything. It's pretty cool! I don't know the math and science of it, though...you all should ask Ms. Demmer or Mr. Neidig of how this works.

Melissa -- You asked about animals...well I don't know if this is animals, but there are some huge bugs here in the Peloponnese! They are bigger than June Bugs...they don't bite but they're huge.

Kennya -- The economy here is pretty good because Greece is on the Euro. The problem though is that everything is SO expensive (not just for Americans converting to the Euro, but even the Greeks themselves). The five euro is pretty much obsolete...you always have to keep a fifty in your pocket since things are so expensive. I'm lucky that Fulbright pays for most of my expenses! But when you come, be prepared with lots of spending money!

Allyson -- The Greeks definitely love their nationality. There are Greek flags everywhere and if you've seen _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_ where the dad says he can get the etymology of any word -- it's definitely like that. They tell us how the root of an English word is Greek!

Hope all is going well! I would love to hear from all of you reading :)

Ms. G