February 5

Instead of writing my blog posts at night like I normally do, I decided to wait until the next day (today is a free day) to write this post. And now I am struggling to remember what we did even yesterday. I think I am getting sick, which isn’t helping my memory or any cognitive functions. But I will do my best. I am actually very happy right now, despite my congestion. I am sitting in the hotel’s lunch area eating a large Greek salad and a bottle of water. I get to spend however long I want just lunching here, blogging and reading. Then, later tonight, several of us are going to see Revolutionary Road at the local theater. I am pretty sure the movie be in English and the subtitles in Greek.
Yesterday we left the hotel at 8:30 and took off for Olynthos. This 5th-4th cen BCE settlement looks like a grid. The stone walls look like the several others sites we have seen, but the rigid organization is a new development. The city is arranged into blocks and each block has 10 houses, with 2 parallel rows of 5. The arrangement of the houses stays the same, but the interiors vary (sometimes dramatically) in their interior. To prove this, Krentz showed us and explained the layout of what has been considered a “typical” house. Then he had us go off in groups of four and find a house with a different layout, and try to determine the functions of the various rooms. No group had to go far to find different homes. My group found a home that had a different style of courtyard (the colonnade was L-shaped) and lacked any signs of interior paving, which begs the question: Where did the stones from the courtyard go?
We got on the bus again to do a significant amount of driving, but this time, instead of reading, I decided it would be best to try and get as much sleep as possible. I started feeling sick yesterday and sleep is the best remedy. We stopped at a little town on the way to find some lunch. I took the opportunity to buy some more oranges here and load up on vitamin C.
Orginally, we were going to have to skip the Roman site at Philippi, because we were going to miss the times when the site was open, but I convinced Krentz to at least drive by. And miraculously, it was open! That was so typical, when we expect sites to be open, they are closed, and now the opposite is holding true. We saw the forum, the theater, and the basilica, all of which are now in ruins. The funniest part was when we saw the public bathrooms (which have held up well over time) and Krentz demonstrated how the people would use the facilities. Let’s just say that there is a hole on a bench, and a stick with a sponge. I got pictures of this demonstration (and all my other pictures from the trip) and uploaded them to this site: http://picasaweb.google.com/elizabeth.shevock/2009ClassicsTrip?authkey=ywLbKtabHkA&feat=email#5296840918861546386
One issue that seemed to pop up quite a bit yesterday was privacy. I have always been a fairly introverted and private person and the intimacy of the ancient world seems a bit shocking, and even uncomfortable, to me. These ancient cities, including the 4th cen BCE city of Olynthos today, are so compacted. These people lived on top of one another, and this was the only home and life they knew. For my mental health I need some time to just escape and recharge by myself. Would that have been possible back then? Where would you go? Prof. Krentz said today that the better off citizens were most likely had slaves continually in their presence. Were slaves just another part of the backdrop, like furniture?
Another action that I have always considered very private is going to the bathroom. The bathroom at Philippi is a long room with stone benches and cut out holes. And that is it! Of course we all sat down on the benches to get the full experience, and there is not much room between you and the person beside you. I wonder if people were just less self conscious. And the room has benches all the way around. Would people have made eye contact? I shudder at the whole experience.
After Philippi, headed to our hotel at Xanthi. We are a bit on the outskirts of town, so Spiros drove us in to town for dinner. The walk to town is not all that far, but since it was dark and we didn’t know the surroundings, Krentz though it would be best o drive the first time into town. I had dinner with Krentz, Spiros, Emily, Sarabeth, and Mary. We each ordered a meal and shared a few appetizers. I ordered chicken souvlaki (kabob) and shared the carrot and cabbage salad, a Greek salad, delicious toasted/grilled fresh bread with olive oil, fried calamari, and the fried cheese (I think it was head cheese). It was all delicious. Another thing that is weird: French fries are everywhere. It wasn’t just Egypt. French fries come as a side dish to EVERYHING! They are better than American ones because they are thicker and just tastier, but come one, fries? I don’t get it.
Tomorrow we head to Turkey and get our visas and meet the new bus. We will get back on Spiros’ bus when we go to Greece again, so it won’t be goodbye forever to Spiros. We will be pretty much holed up in Assos, reading The Iliad. Krentz wants us to divvy up the different books and read them aloud, as intended by Homer. We’ll see how that pans out. He has dibs on Book 1.
I don’t know when I’ll have internet next, but I will keep up with the individual days and post them next time I get the chance.