Since my last entry, life has been good; fast, but good! Might tell you first about our big souvenir shopping spree - except for a meal or two, we have made two purchases: deodorant & corn pads. Not big news, but quite different from previous trips. Back to the significant stuff...we had a big day last Wednesday touring Nemea & Corinth - south of Athens. This is the area with the richest grape vineyards in Greece. Grapes & olives were growing everywhere. Of course, the scenery along the way is beautiful - the Saronic Gulf & various mountains. A lot of escavation has been done by the U. of CA in Berkeley in Nemea. We had a little time to browse their museum & view the Temple of Zeus. The new adventure we had was climbing the Acro-Corinth, the huge mountain which overlooks Corinth. During the time of Paul, there was a Temple to Aprodite there - only ruins of a church since built over it mark the site. There is also remains of a castle. The climb was a challenge, but it provided a magnificent view. On vacations when we hike, we don't usually attempt such a climb until we're good & acclimated. But, we made it with no ill effects the next day. It was nice to return to Corinth & walk through the ruins there. A lot had been roped off - probably to protect the area during the Olympics when hordes of tourists visited Greece. Of special interest was the Bema - where Paul appeared before Gallio - & the remains of the Temple of Apollos. Next was the Corinth Canal - one of man's creations - where we saw quite a few boats go through. And, the big event was Bungy Jumping here. It is the second highest Jump in the world, but that didn't deter 14 of our group - including Ali, our granddaughter! We watched them all & breathed a sigh of relief when it was all over. Friday afternoon most of us decided to try the transportation systems into the Mall & further into the Plaka. Some of the students bought the famous sandals made in the shops & some bought some clothing items. Except for missing our connection to the last bus where we exited the metro - resulting in a rather long wait for Tim to rescue the 7 of us stranded - it was interesting & fun. The students have been to the beach area here in Porto Rafti several times. We made it once & Bob enjoyed the water. I preferred to sit on a lounge chair covered with a towel because of the wind chill. We joined Tim & Rebecca at a dinner Friday evening at the Congo Palace, the site where the English speaking congregation meets on Sunday evenings & where HUG students once stayed. It has been upgraded to a 4 Star hotel (for the Olympics) & we hardly recognize it from previous visits. Anyway, Dino Roussos was host of the party honoring his family. One of his daughters from the U.S. was here with her family & he also had siblings here. There were lots of people from the church there & also the faculty with the Faulkner University group that is here for a semester. We enjoyed meeting them & asking about "old" friends from Montgomery. Yesterday - yes, Sunday - because of a schedule change - was a work day for all of us with worship at the hotel at 8:00 p.m. Bob & I helped "sweep the street" outside the gate. Actually, we shoveled dirt & debris & then swept along the wall. We joined in the painting of the wall, too. Griffiti is prone to appear on any clean surface, so we got that covered & hope it will stay that way for awhile. After the projects around the hotel were finished & a great meal was enjoyed, we each took a garbage bag & headed down one of two streets hoping to make the surrounding area a bit tidier. We ended up at the beach & picked up some trash there, too. We were all beat at the end of the day, but proud of our accomplishments, too. Bob's classes are going well, as are those of Tim & Rebecca & Vicky. I'm still hanging in with the ones I began. The students are a pleasure to be around & that makes everything even better. Today is Bob's birthday. They learned a Greek birthday song in Greek class today & serenaded him at the beginning of his Paul class. They had all signed a huge homemade card, too. (Ali had a hand in that.) Later there will be a cake, but he doesn't know that. We were scheduled to have a day of sailing tomorrow, but the winds are making the sea a bit choppy. We have really had some beautiful days here. Wednesday we leave for a 12 days trip to Northern Greece & Turkey. I don't know if we'll have access to a computer or not. I'll get in another blog when we return. We are looking forward to all of this. Thanks for reading & commenting. Please do so even more.

Saturday was Day Two for classes & Bob began his teaching. I sat in on the Bible Class re the apostle Paul. For introduction, he used a portion of a movie about Paul & continued with power points. It was interesting & will make our travels to the areas Paul traveled more meaningful. I also sat in on International Relations & I'm hoping it will prove beneficial, too. We both sat in on Greek class & now have some of the more frequently used phrases to practice on. We've been introduced to some of the shops & cafes up & down the street where we are & treated to gyros & ice cream here - both quite good! Sunday turned out to be a marathon day. We left via special bus at 10:00 a.m. & didn't return until 9:30 p.m. We attended worship services at the Greek congregation in the morning & with the English speaking congregation in the evening. Both were enjoyable. We have "whisper sets" so Tim can interpret for us. After morning services we visited the Plaka where we had lunch & then walked up to the Acropolis & Areopagus. Access has been improved since our last visit, thanks to the Olympics. A lot of re-construction is being done on the Parthenon & surrounding buildings, but it is all still quite impressive. As we sat on Mars Hill, one of the students read the words of Paul from Acts & then we sang several songs before "hiking" down & back through the Plaka to our bus. We headed to another area on the outskirts of the city (Glyfada) & were treated to ice cream before the evening worship began. My old brain cells are wondering what is going on - so much information being thrown their way in such a short amount of time! If I can retain just some of it, I will be happy. Today was Class Day Three & thus our second class in Humanities. This will also be of great benefit as we travel. The weather has been somewhat like home - unusual for this time of year - not terribly hot, but warm in the day & cool at night. Some are planning to head into Porto Rafti & visit the beach this afternoon. (Porto Rafti is the name of the town where we are living. It is south east of Athens proper.) Thanks to those of you who have read & written!

We had a good trip over. One student missed our rendezvous in Detroit, but managed a direct flight to Amsterdam where she joined us for the final leg to Athens. We've been busy since arriving with settling in; orientations to our facilities & grounds, to the transportation available to us, & to the local area; tours to nearby sites; great food; beautiful scenery; & the first day of classes today. Bob will teach every other day & he begins tomorrow - Saturday. I helped with office work today in preparation for those classes. We sat in on Humanities today & plan to sit in on Greek. I will sit in on his class about the apostle Paul. We are all impressed with this group of students! Those of you who have been here know what a lovely place we are privileged to live in...& the view in every direction is lovely - whether mountains or grape vineyards. The one major site we've visited is the Temple of Poseidon - or rather what's left of that temple. It sits above the Saronic Gulf & is quite impressive. It is considered one of Greece's top ten sites. We were supposed to see the sun set there, but low clouds prevented that. It was beautiful anyway. The dogs have congregated in the front - only four, but they are big dogs, so somebody is making sure they are fed, but we've been told not to feed them. We are thoroughly enjoying this experience, but we do miss those of you back home. Please let us know what is happening in your part of the world.

Saturday, September 5, 2009 I have just created my blog in anticipation of our upcoming semester in Greece. This is an entirely new experience - the blog, not traveling. We leave Little Rock in the wee morning hours next Tuesday heading to Athens. When we get settled in, I will start writing about our experiences, relevant thoughts, not so relevant thoughts, & anything else that I fancy. I'll notify friends & family about my blog & hope they will log on & comment as they see fit.