March 17

I woke up this morning and enjoyed a delicious bowl of muesli and soy milk on the balcony of our room. The air was a bit chilly, but it helped me wake up as I read about Corinth, the site we would be visiting this morning. After my cereal, I had a few cups of coffee in the breakfast area downstairs, just for good measure and we all got on the bus at 8:30. Spiros had to drive a group of school children this morning, so he had one of his other drivers and smaller bus take us to Corinth this morning. Though he considered it a smaller bus, everyone still got two seats to themselves and I was very comfortable.
It took about an hour to get to Corinth and we met Guy Sanders a little before 10:00. Guy is the director of the archaeological site at Corinth and boy did he know his stuff! He told us all about the geology, geography, and history of the site. Did you know that the Peloponnesian land mass is actually moving away from Europe at a rate of 1 cm per year? He described this as a rapid rate of movement and that geologists flock here to study the changes. He also told us all about the city’s strategic location right next to the isthmus and how Corinth used to charge for permission to transport ships across the narrow isthmus, instead of sailing around the Peloponnese, which has treacherous winds in certain areas. He also knew all about mythology, focusing on the stories that didn’t have a pro-Athenian viewpoint. The Corinth, obviously, was not Athens, nor was it under Athenian power. It fought against Athens at various points, and so it’s mythology would have been very different than the stories that Athens adhered to. There were still the same characters, but different instigators of the turmoil. He was a bit long-winded a points - he was no John Camp – but he was passionate and let us into areas that are restricted to the average tourist. He also got pretty excited when he told us about the bodies they dug up from the graves and all the different, and gruesome, ways they died. Some had horrible infections, others died from awful battle wounds, and some had disgusting diseases that just destroyed the body. It wasn’t particularly relevant to the time period our trip is studying, but it was interesting to find out how much information can be gathered nowadays with the help of forensic science. We can know so much more about how people lived at various time, just from their bones.
After Guy said good-by, Krentz had us spend a little time in the museum, and then visit the other places that Guy didn’t take us to. We stopped at the building where Paul was possibly taken before Gallio in Acts, and stopped by the ancient market area. This ancient city has been inhabited for thousands of years, and has many layers of construction to prove it. At one point, because of the excavation, we were standing on the 500 BCE ground level and looked up 2 and a half meters to where the Roman period’s level began.
It was 12:30 by this point and everyone had lunch on his/her mind, so Krentz decided we would visit the acropolis – acrocorinth – after lunch. More people are finding the idea of a packed lunch much more appealing, so 4 of us (Allie, Mary, Emily and I) sat on a park bench and ate our sandwiches and fruit. I had another delicious pb and banana. Though, I did a dumb thing this morning. I accidentally knocked over my peanut butter jar, which is glass, and it smashed to many pieces on the tile floor. There went 5 bucks out the window, or well, smeared onto the floor. But, I was able to make my lunch before the damage.
After lunch we took the bus up to the acropolis and spent an hour taking pictures and enjoying the incredible view. There is a Venetian fort here, very similar to the one in Nafplio. The hills are covered in wildflowers and flowering trees – a nice juxtaposition to the gloomy stone fortification walls.
We got back to the hotel around 4:15, but we were to meet up again at 6:30 for a discussion group. I spent the time making my dinner (I chopped up a nice, big salad with my pocket knife) and went back to the grocery store for more fruit and peanut butter. I am going to be very careful with this jar. This 4 euro is going to count!
We met for discussion and got off to a rocky start with the controversies about journals: how many we are expected to write, and when we should be writing them. People are stressing a bit too much about nit-picky details and Krentz was obviously getting frustrated. I guess since I have had a class with him, I know that he grades the students by reflecting back over the semester as a whole and looking for how the student performed and improved. So some people are kind of shooting themselves in the foot by irritating him about the little stuff, but hopefully everything will turn out alright. After that tense conversation, we got to the readings and had a productive hour and 15 minutes.
I had my salad for dinner and got some more work done. We go to Tyrns and Mycenae tomorrow, though Tyrns might be closed. Krentz says tomorrow will be a lighter day and hopefully we’ll be back in Nafplio for lunch. I am itching to go back to the acropolis here and get some more sun. I am getting a lovely farmer’s tan on my face and neck and I would enjoy a chance to even out my skin color.