The (hopefully last) one where I'm sick

Whoa.

So this past week has been a whirlwind of action. First of all, I apologize to you and to myself for writing this two days late but this is when I could do it.

Flights went very smoothly and by the time we landed in Athens I was so tired but we gathered ourselves and went out as a group to get some food. Myself and the other five guys are sharing an apartment and we got so lucky. We all are definitely individuals but get along so well. It's so easy to do stuff with the guys and the first week was definitely defined by our growing friendships. Inside jokes and nicknames established, we are now branching out and getting the ladies involved. Our apartment is cozy but not uncomfortable except that there are five seats and six guys. We overlook a busy street and the people that run our apartment also run a sports bar on the first floor which is frequented often for homework, drinks, soccer and especially karaoke.

We are about a five minute walk from the Acropolis and despite being trashed from flying for 20 something hours, we found the strength to walk to it on the first night. After eating a small group of us went to an outcrop beneath the Acropolis (which is lit up at night). We stayed there until 1 or 2a.m. with a lot of the locals and just looked across the city. We were talking about how pretty the ocean looked at night when an Athenian kindly pointed out that we were looking north and the ocean was behind us. Whoops! Athens doesn't sleep I'm convinced. Walking back from the rock we ran in to a man playing a trumpet. He was killing it. His dog accompanied him and would howl when he hit certain notes. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

But as the title betrays, I got sick fairly early on. Fever, congestion and headaches haunted my every move. Sunday was spent wallowing in semi-misery. Being sick internationally is a unique experience. I went to the pharmacy and struggled to communicate what I desperately needed. I ended up being handed TUMS...? So after I exhausted that option I began to beg. Thankfully one of our wonderful ladies had enough medicine for a small army and had just what the doctor would've ordered (hehe jokes). Despite taking this miracle medicine, my sickness still lingers however I'm fully functional and thankful that it wasn't worse.

Our week saw little relaxation time. We've traveled all around Greece. Last Sunday we saw a play at an Ancient Greek theater (Epidaurus) built in 200BCE. The play was all in Greek but it was incredible to imagine who sat in the same seats we occupied. We also went to Poseidon's temple which sits at the bottom of the peninsula of Greece. Wow wow wow... WOW. It was incredible. We got to spend most of the afternoon swimming in a cove beneath the temple and then walked up and watched the sun set over the Aegean sea. The next day the group went to the Acropolis but I wasn't feeling well and the temperature was well over 100 (Fahrenheit), but I heard that it wasn't too incredible. Without a doubt Apollo's temple was the coolest Greek ruin that we've visited. Went spent a whole day in Delphi which is a great town by itself with a view that I would expect in Austria or Switzerland not Greece. We had a tour guide take us through the museum which was interesting, but when we went to the actual temple I was dumbfounded. If you know me well you know how much I love exploring and how I have a special affinity for natural springs. Well Apollo's temple is on three springs, all of which are under the temple itself and we couldn't access but I was giddy just knowing it was there. Apparently the oracle of Delphi would inhale natural gas that was spewing out of the rock and then give her predictions (inaudible rambling) which were "translated" by the head priest. We walked the same steps that Alexander the took when he consulted the wisdom of the oracle. There was also a stadium at the temple and the guys were tempted to race in the traditional Greek style (naked), but the guards stationed around it deterred us.

It hasn't been all travel and fun. We also started class this week. We (as a group) are pretty overwhelmed with the amount of work combined with traveling and wanting to explore a new city. A couple of days ago we were told to go to Plato's academy, which is now just a park in the north of Athens. We sat where Plato used teach and read "The Republic" and wrote a reflection. This is a good example of how most of our academic work is still adding to the experience of the trip.
Shout out to Mother,
Happy birthday, I love and miss you.

Not being but becoming,
Chris Csotenbader