The Last Day of Class

Hello everyone. I know I havent written since my groups outbreak of the flu. So here is what happened with that....

After having 20 people in the hospital with IV's to regain their fluids, and a news camera in our face almost the entire time, we went to a hotel in Tripoli for the night. All of the group made it back to the hotel before nightfall, so noone had to be in the hospital overnight. Us 12 healthy people didnt stay too healthy for long however. 4 of the 12 of us got really sick the next day, but my immune system held up just fine. Even today (the 27th, 4 days after the first symptoms) people are not eating real food, or feeling 100 percent.

When we got back to Athens on Thursday, it was a relief to be "home" and out of the germy bus. I guess it was a good thing this happened now though, instead of when we are on our 13 day expedition next class session. Then there really would be no turning back.

Thursday was a lazy, get rested day. Friday was also a free day, so me and my roommate Tina decided to go check out the shopping on Pereias (the ship port) and then went to Monestiraki, the flea market, to get some last minute souviners for Tina's family.

Today, was our last full class day. We started at 8:30 and drove to Marathon, the battle site of the 1st Persian invasion. There also is a museum we visited dedicated to the remains of all the Marathon settlements. In the middle of the battlefield and in the shed of the musuem we saw 2 different kinds of tombs used to bury prehistoric and classical people. The famous huge artificial mounds and a smaller circular set of mounds that have spiral entrances. Its interesting how much you can tell about the time period, customs, and religion of a culture just based on how they bury the dead.

After this we drove to Lavrion, and saw the oldest theatre in Greece. From there we went to a classical silver mine, where a famous slave revolt happened during the peloponnesian war. We spent a ton of time on the bus. After the silver mine, we drove to the peninsula of Souvn, and took a swim break at the local beach. Hiking down to the beach for about 10 minutes, we were greatful, but kind of dreaded the hike back up. By this time it was also 2:30, and even though we brought snacks for the bus, we were starving and ate at a little beach taverna. After catching some sun, we packed up, and hiked back up the hill, but even higher, to the temples of Athena and Poseidon. After a brief last lecture, we took a group photo and reveled in the sights. After being on top of gorgeous mountains for 2 and 1/2 weeks I still cant get over the scenery here. Im glad too, I would never want to take any of this experience for granted. The best part of the way home was getting to drive the coast all the way back to Athens (about 1 and 1/2 hours).

After getting home, we had a "family dinner and movie" evening and just hung out and caught up on some down time after an exhausting day. This is a link to a map showing the route we took today.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=athens,+greece&daddr=Marathon,+Greece+to:lavrio,+greece+to:Sounio,+greece&geocode=%3BFe0_RgIdo5NtASFdFk_ScgVWIA%3B%3B&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=37.91704,23.876375&sspn=0.547107,1.231842&ie=UTF8&ll=37.927951,23.984528&spn=0.547027,1.231842&z=10
Tomorrow I am going to the Island of Agistri. A popular close island to Athens, that locals frequent, is cheap to get to, and full of beaches and little cafe's. Then we are holding a large group dinner for everyone before people either stay, go home, or go to Italy for a different class. Then I should study a little for the final monday morning (just a 500 word essay on a topic we already have. I think Stav feels bad that he and everyone else got sick, so he's taking it easy on us) And then Im off to Santorini.

Hope you are all great! I probably wont have time to write until I get to Santorini.
Wish you could see what Im seeing.

Love ya