Greece, Smile for the Camera!: Max's Basketball Escapade IV

As I woke up on my last day in Greece I was both sad and terribly excited at the same time. Even though I would never be back to Greece, at least not in the near future, I hadn’t been back to Colorado for more than five days at a time. Actually overall, both semesters combined, I spent a total of 11 days at home. I was ready to see my family and my mountains again.

            

But before I could see my family, I had to see Athens. Our first stop was the Parthenon, ancient and modern Greece’s crown jewel. Here is a fun fact about the Parthenon: it took a total of eight days to build the entire Parthenon. When we were standing there looking up in awe of the sheer size of this massive temple, a man walked up next to us and said that he had visited Greece when he graduated from college 60 years prior and since his first trip, the scaffolding that has been put up for the restoration team to use hasn’t moved an inch. In 60 years. So it took all of eight years to build, and in 60 the restoration team hadn’t made enough progress to move the scaffolding that covered one end of the structure. That speaks, I believe, not only to the level of caution the restoration team uses everyday, but it also speaks to the quality of the construction. Built in eight, survived for thousands of years, and restored literally inch by inch. That is something else.

            

Our final day in Greece was capped first by visiting the National Museum and second by playing our final game. The National Museum was pretty awesome. Not as spectacular as the museum in Delphi, but pretty spectacular nonetheless. I did see the other two famous bronze sculptures at this museum though: the sculpture of Zeus or Poseidon (they’re not sure who it is because the lighting bolt or trident is missing from the sculpture) and the famous Jockey Artémision.

The Jockey is the first sculpture traveling or foreign artists see when they’re in Greece. They choose to visit it first because it is the only sculpture from the ancient world where a horse is actually in motion. In all the other sculptures, worldwide, the horses are always standing. But in the Jockey, the horse is in a sprinting motion, with a young boy riding bareback. What makes this so attractive to artists is that, without the help of cameras, the Greek sculptures perfectly captured the image of a sprinting horse. From the flexing of the leg muscles, to the straining of the facial tendons, to the bulging veins around the eyes. The Greeks got it perfect. In fact, they got it so perfect that when a photograph was compared to that of the sculpture, the images were exactly the same. Now those were true artists!

Our final scheduled event was our final game. We played an American college in Greece. The team we played was a scrappy one, and the officiating was questionable, but we still played hard. Even though we lost, we could care less. We were ticked at the result but after five minutes we remembered where we were and who we were with and the anger and emotion went out the window. We spent our final night exploring downtown Athens and celebrating two of our teammates’ birthdays. Then it was all over.

Looking back now, almost two months after my return flight to Denver, I can’t help but think how lucky I was to have been a member of the 42 person party that traveled to Greece to explore and play basketball. I was truly blessed to have an experience like this during my entire college career, let alone my Freshman year. Thank you for reading my thoughts and following my stories. I know they can get random, but that’s just the way I am. I’m a random guy. Also a special thanks to Hailley for letting me write this piece for her blog. It means a lot!!!

Peace, love, and happiness,

Max Stanford

Coe College 2014

Want to see Max's whole video?  Check it out, without interruptions, here. 

Two New Campus Jobs This Fall

Good news! Not only will I be taking new and exciting classes, enjoying all the privileges of being a sophomore, and having an all around good time, I'll be working two new jobs this semester.

1. I'll be working in the Admissions Department!  I was hired at the end of my Freshman year and starting this fall I'll be giving tours, escorting prospective students, answering questions, and helping Admissions wherever they need it.  Needless to say but I'm pumped for this new job.  When I was on my college search process I always thought being a tour guide would be fun; it was something I really hoped to do once I chose a college.  And now that is happening.  Once school starts I will be trained and then I'll be all set to go.  Make sure to check back later this year to hear all about my new job!
2. I will still be in the Writing Center although my responsibilities will have changed a bit.  At Coe, every First Year Seminar class is paired with a Writing Fellow.  This Writing Center consultant is responsible for helping their FYS students navigate the college paper.  All incoming freshman know at least one Writing Center consultant so when they are having difficulties or just want to check in when working on a paper, there is a consultant ready for them.  I will be a Writing Fellow for the FYS entitled Nature of Science.  This summer I've been reading the Nature of Science textbooks so I'll be ready to help my FYSers.  Again, be on the lookout for Writing Fellow updates!    

Well I'm sure these two new jobs will keep me busy but that's fine by me!  I move back to Coe in less than a month!   WOW.

Greece, Smile for the Camera!: Max's Basketball Escapade III

When we awoke the next morning we were back in Athens. Our tour bus was waiting to take us four hours north of Athens to the ruins of Delphi. Delphi is home to one of the largest collections of ancient Greek artifacts and sculptures. This is because Delphi used to be the religious capital of the ancient Greek empire. The archeological site sits nestled against a mountain looking out over a sprawling landscape of mountain peaks and steep valleys.

            

Again, as we did in Santorini, we hiked up and down and all around the ruins of Delphi. We saw ancient temples, treasuries, theaters, tracks, and most importantly, the navel, or belly button, of Zeus. It was said that thousands of monks and religious figures made the pilgrimage to worship and touch the navel of Zeus, the most powerful God of all.  And so flash forward thousands of years and here I am, touching the most important, religiously speaking, piece of stone in ancient Greece. It was a pretty spectacular experience.

            

After we had hiked around for what seemed like forever in the hot and humid climate, we went inside to the site’s museum. The museum at Delphi was the greatest museum I have ever visited. And I have been to all the museums in Washington, I’ve walked the Freedom Trail in Boston, I’ve been to the Atomic Bomb memorial in Hiroshima, Japan and this museum blew those guys out of the water. The collection of marble statues, carvings, ceramic pots, bronze shields and helmets, jewelry, and weapons was unreal.

            

My favorite piece from the museum at Delphi also happens to be one of the three most important bronze sculptures in the world: The Charioteer. The Charioteer is world famous because of the condition it is in. I know I have included one, if not two or three, photos of this sculpture in my slideshow because it was so stunning to me. This sculpture survived thousands of years of baking sun, rain, snow, and wind and yet it stands as if it was sculpted yesterday. Although one hand as well as the chariot and horse are missing, the body of the Charioteer remained completely intact. From its flowing robe, to its eyelashes. That’s right, the sculpture had visible eyelashes. How cool is that? Eyelashes that had been carved and sculpted thousands of years ago still visible and intact today? I will never see anything like it the rest of my life.

            

The archeological site and museum at Delphi were spectacular. But we couldn’t stay there forever. The next day we had to travel almost seven hours on the bus. We were headed to the town of Kalamata. To get there we had to go back through Athens and head another couple of hours south through the mountains and olive fields. On our way, we stopped at Epidaurus, the most famous, yet unknown, amphitheater in the world.

            

The acoustics are so exact at Epidaurus that no matter which seat you choose out of the nearly 15,000 available, you will be able to hear the actors voices perfectly. Our tour guide actually demonstrated the acoustics for us on our visit. We all climbed to the highest seats possible all the way in the back row and listened as we heard her tear a piece of paper, drop coins, and whisper. It was absolutely incredible knowing that our modern movie theaters don’t even compare to the theater at Epidaurus.

           

Here is a fun activity for you to do now. It also gives you a chance to stretch your legs and your eyes. Get up and go find your bottle of olive oil. Chances are it says the olives are a product of Kalamata, Greece. If your bottle doesn’t say that, I’m sorry. You’re not tasting the world’s finest olives.

            

After a long day of traveling, we were ready to sleep. Our 7 AM wake up call was only a few hours away and we wanted to be awake and ready for our visit to Olympia, home of the original Olympic games and the oldest Olympic track in the world.

            

The Olympic track at Olympia is a giant stretch of dirt in the middle of an ancient city. It wouldn’t be different from any other track except for the fact that our modern Olympics blossomed and bloomed from its foundations. Track and Field, actually sports as we know them today can be traced back to the track at Olympia. As a college athlete, it was quite a spectacular and humbling experience. “Just think,” I thought to myself, “all those wind sprints you run at practice laid their roots here. Awesome!”

            

After pondering the very essence of sports at Olympia, it was time to bus ourselves back to Kalamata. We had a game to play. Our first of three. I won’t spend a whole lot of time talking about the games we played in Greece because it’s not very appealing to those of you who aren’t basketball players, but I’ll give you the highlights. Game one: Location: Kalamata, Greece. Opponent: Kalamata All Stars. Outcome: We beat ‘em. Last thoughts: It was so cool to play overseas!

            

The next day we woke up and were bussed back to Athens. Overall it was an uneventful bus ride. One stop for lunch and that was it. Not a whole lot to talk about. I listened to my entire 80 song playlist and that’s about it.

            

However, the entire day wasn’t completely boring. We played our second of three games in Greece. This time the opponent was a Greek professional team. That’s right, we played a bunch of paid professionals. Even though we lost, it was only by 15. And we played against professional athletes! It was pretty awesome to know that we could hang with a professional team.

After playing the professional team we were all pretty exhausted. We bussed back to the hotel and got some well-deserved shut-eye. I slept extremely well despite the fact that the next day would be our last in Greece. But we were going to tour the city of Athens on our last day so needless to say I was eager to get going the next morning.

Catch the final part of Max's adventure tomorrow!

Iowa's Private College Week Flashback Video

A homemade video for your viewing pleasure!

A shout out thanks to my mom and sister for helping make this movie possible! :)

Greece, Smile for the Camera!: Max's Basketball Escapade II

We awoke the next morning, or at least I did, porting into Turkey. Specifically Kusadasi, which is actually mainland Turkey. My thoughts about Turkey are very short: tourist trap, annoying merchants with fake American goods, hot, hot heat, getting lost while trying to hike to the top of the city. Turkey was a very interesting experience and I think that I would’ve loved to visit Istanbul.  But Kusadasi just wasn’t my cup of tea, and I love good tea.

           

From Turkey we flew across the sea towards Patmos. We didn’t literally fly, we did about 10 knots or 20 miles per hour. I experienced one of my “cruise ship firsts” while in Patmos. Our cruise ship was far too large to port in the bay at Patmos so we had to anchor outside the seawall and shuttle ourselves on the emergency lifeboats into Patmos. Patmos, for those of you who aren’t familiar with Greece’s thousands of islands, is one the Greece’s smallest inhabited islands. And boy is it a gem. It is also the place where Saint John the Theologian wrote the Apocalypse. An observation about Patmos: my extremely religious and Catholic teammates knew who Saint John was. Everybody else, myself included, had no idea whatsoever. Anyways, Patmos will forever be the first place I ever swam in the Mediterranean Sea. The water was spectacularly clear and the perfect temperature. Not too hot and not too cold. At this point in my vacation I am thinking “I could do this for a living.”

            

My time at this oasis was brought to an end by the echoing of our cruise ship’s fog horn off the hills. “From one oasis to another,” I remember thinking to myself. Tomorrow we port in Crete and then we’re on to the crown jewel of the cruise: Santorini.

            

The following morning I watched the sunrise as we ported in Crete, Greece’s largest island. My time in Crete was wisely spent exploring Europe’s earliest civilization. The Minoan civilization’s crown jewel: the Palace of Knossos. This palace is most famous for the legend of the labyrinth. For those of you who want to learn more about this, look it up on Wikipedia. I, for one, am not the right person to be describing such a historically relevant myth.  I have to say that I had goose-bumps when I thought about the fact that I was walking on stone that was laid during the Bronze Period (3200-600 BCE).

            

After my brain had exploded and I had just began to piece it back together, we dropped anchor in Santorini. My brain exploded and melted all over again. Santorini is THE spot to visit in the Mediterranean. Nothing else even compares. Again, like we did in Patmos, we had to take little boats into the harbor. However, this time it wasn’t because the harbor was to shallow. It was because there wasn’t a harbor at all. The island of Santorini used to be one giant piece of land. But, a long time ago, don’t ask me specifically when, there was a volcanic eruption and part of the island sank into the sea. Now, in the year 2011, the capital city Fira sits atop a giant cliff looking out over the sunken volcanic caldera.

           

I took more pictures in Santorini than anywhere else in Greece. I legitimately took roughly 1,000 pictures over the course of our six hour stay. I was simply mesmerized.

            Because Fira, the capital city of Santorini, sits atop a cliff there are three ways to get there:

Option one: you can take the gondola which will get you to the top in under two minutes. Just pay the reasonable fee of four Euro each way. Here is the catch: everybody chooses this option. So your 2 minute ride can turn into a 20 minute wait in line plus a two minute ride. Now I’m no math major but I think that adds up to 22 minutes, not 2.

Option two: you can ride donkeys, yes donkeys, up the almost vertical trail that leads to the top. This will get you to the top in approximately 20 to 30 minutes. All you have to do is pay the reasonable fee of 3 Euro. Here is the catch: once you hop on your donkey, you’re at its mercy. It is going to do whatever it wishes and you can’t do a thing about it. And it gets better: it only understands Greek. So you can yell and curse all you want in English, Spanish, Portuguese, but the donkey will keep on doing what it was doing. Good luck with that one.

Option three: you can walk. You can walk for free up the nearly vertical, donkey crap covered, sweltering hot path and get there in about 20 minutes, 15 if you speed walk it. Do I really need to tell you which option we, broke college athletes, chose? 

           

Fifteen minutes later, three of my teammates and I stood atop the cliff looking out over the caldera, at our cruise ship anchored in the deep blue water, at the barren and desolate landscape of the lone island in the middle of the caldera covered in volcanic ash and soot. We had made it.

           

In all honesty it wasn’t that hard of a climb. Although it was an intense, almost 45 degree incline, it wasn’t too hard. What made the climb slightly difficult was the sun. We were on a cliff face with no trees to shade our bodies, unprotected against the beating sun. But when we reached the top and stared down at our accomplishment, it made all the sweat worth it. When were we ever going to be here again? Why wouldn’t we make the trek up a cliff face? We’re college students, we love taking risks!

            

For the next three or so hours my teammates and I walked all over Fira. We took countless photographs, shot hours of video, climbed a few walls, and stood on top of a couple rooftops. One time we were chased off a roof by a screaming, rather large Greek man but other than that encounter we pretty much did as we pleased. Santorini truly made the trip for a lot of my teammates.

            

By the time most of us had begun to lose the memory of how we got up to Fira, it was time to go back down. I have to say that nearly every single one of my teammates preferred the climb up over the scramble down. I chose the word scramble on purpose because it literally was a scramble back down the path. The terrain was so steep that most of us gave in and let gravity push us down. It was impossible to walk down without having gravity force you to jog for a few seconds.

            

We sailed away from Santorini with sore legs, but as we watched the sunset on the beautiful blue buildings, it was all worth it. We literally sailed into the sunset when we left Santorini. Most of us couldn’t believe that we still had five more days left in Greece. Our trip felt like it was over when in reality we were just beginning.

To be continued...