Day 2 - Greek Mythology and Philosophy

 Hi! For our second and last day of on-campus learning, we focused on Greek Mythology, history, geography, and final preparations for the trip. We started class with going over a map of Greece and the cities we are traveling to. We are starting in Athens, driving up to Kalambaka/Meteora, then flying from Thessaloniki to Crete. 

At the beginning of class, we focused on Marcus Aurelius who was a Roman emperor and stoic philosopher. We watched a short video summarizing his life and various accomplishments. We learned about his reputation of honesty and a book he wrote, Meditations. Similar to a journal or diary, his book was written for himself. We divided into groups to read the first section of his book, where he wrote about the different values and virtues he received from various people in his life, like friends and family. We used his work as inspiration for our journals and spent sometime reflecting on the relationships in our lives which have deeply impacted us. Julia and I (Olivia) really enjoyed the exercise because we found it helpful in reflecting on the amazing people and role models in our lives for which we feel grateful. Additionally, it was a nice reminder of the qualities we have witnessed in others that we would like to further develop personally. I'm starting to understand myself better and how everyone in my life has made me who I am today!

 

After lunch, we divided into groups of three and were assigned an important figure of Greek Mythology. Each group received a few stories about the assigned figures to read. Some included were Zeus, Pandora, Apollo, and Athena. With the new information, we drew the stories on the whiteboards. After that, each group presented the stories about their assigned figures to the class. The visualizations provided us with more context about Greek Mythology that we didn’t know before. The stories we shared in the class using drawings really helped us in understanding the importance of those figures in Greek Mythology that we might hear about while we are in Greece. Olivia and I found this activity as a fun, interactive way to learn about the mythology and even some of the places we are going to visit, like Delphi.

 

Towards the end of the class, we split up into groups and created a timeline for major events in the world ranging from 3000 BC to present day. This helped us understand how old some of the places we are visiting really are. We learned about some specific locations and their relation to important figures in Greek history. We were also able to get a better understanding of how these important figures or landmarks, which many of us have heard of, are related to Greece. To do so, groups were each assigned a different person or place to briefly research such as Alexander the Great, the history of the Monasteries in Meteroa, and Paul the Apostle. We then presented to the rest of our class about our person or place to give each other a better understanding of what we will be learning about. 

After class, we had a group dinner catered from Taziki’s which is a Mediterranean cafe. We had greek salad, pita chips, hummus, chicken skewers, and roasted potatoes. It was great to have an idea of the types of foods we will be having during our time in Greece. The weather was really nice so we all ate outside the Pden, on the Paddock’s patio. Everyone talked about what we were packing, what we’re most excited for on the trip, and the things we learned in class today.

One more thing... today helped me (Julia) with the ability to better “know myself” in many ways, including through the given reading that we had for homework. I really enjoyed discussing it with my group because it was about how finding your purpose is not selfish. Our reading focused on marginalized groups and by standing up for their rights, it is not selfish but actually good for others. Not standing up for what you believe or what you want to do can be detrimental.

 

  Thanks for reading today! - Julia and Olivia