Last's Night Dinner

I've been here for about two and a half weeks, and among many other things, I've been learning how to cook. Well, actually, let me rephrase that. I can't really say that I've learned how to cook, it's more that I've learned how to balance meals.

For those who don't know, I have my own apartment with a kitchen. This is a great blessing because it means that I don't have to spend a small fortune on a meal plan. However, the flipside is that I need to cook my own meals; this includes doing all my own shopping. It's kind of fun, because there are four local grocery stores and so I compare prices between them to figure out where to buy what. I've learned a lot about how to buy, cook, and prepare food, although it's still really weird buying only one pound of pasta instead of four. Today I wanted to post some pictures for the mothers reading to prove that I am eating my veggies. Here's an example of one of my meals.  

Lol I won't lie and say that I take the time to make all my meals look this organized, but here's what I ate last night. And yes, I did make those french fries. I went to the open market and got a huge bag of potatoes for 1 Euro and am trying different recipes with them.

First Philosophy Class at a Secular School

Classes started this week at ACT, and I must admit I was ready to get started. Right now, my schedule has three classes, on Mon, Wed, Fri, and two on Tues and Thursday. My five classes are History, Management, Mathematics, Greek and Philosophy. I got to pick from a list of several different General Education classes, but probably the easiest choice was Philosophy. Not only is that a subject where I have an interest, but I feel as a Christian it would be irresponsible for me to not try to understand the philosophies of this area and so the world. In addition, how could I pass up the chance to study philosophy, in it's birth place, Ancient Greece...?

I approached the class a bit too smug I must confess, partly because of my intellectually based Christian education, but also because of the knowledge I had gained at the rigorous two week worldview camp I attended in Colorado this Summer.

I picked my spot in the middle of the 2nd or 3rd middle row as is my custom. Not too close as to be considered a teacher's pet, but close enough so that my hand can easily be seen when raised, and so that the teacher would grow accustomed to seeing my face when he scanned the students so he'd become more familiar with me and learn my name faster. The students filed in quickly when the clock hit 11:30 AM and the teacher sitting on his desk scanned the students stoically in what is commonly called by communication majors as a "power pause". A power pause to those who don't know, is an attempt to gain control over listeners by a confident silence, which psychologically communicates to the viewers that the speaker is somebody who has something important to say and thus should be granted silence to, at least for a moment. After it was quiet, the teacher stood up and began to speak.

"I have a philosophical question for you today." He paused momentarily to let that thought sink in. Since most of the students didn't know what made a question philosophical, they continued to listen. "The question is a famous one that most of you have probably heard, and it is this. Can an all-powerful God create a stone that he cannot lift?"

I'm not going to lie, even I was a bit surprised. I realize that it was a common question, and I had certainly heard it before, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember any Christian responses, not from books or anything told to me. I think even the teacher was surprised at how quiet it got. Finally one student raised their hand and said "Yes, since he is all powerful he could." I felt embarrassed for her because she had walked right into the purpose of the question which was to be a circular paradox. Another student raised their hand, and with his answer brought her statement full circle revealing the error in her judgment, "if he is truly all-powerful, then he would be able to lift the stone." The teacher nodded smiling. He then opened it up again to the class. "So what is the answer?" Everybody remained quiet. Meanwhile, I was racking my brain for an answer, all the while sinking deeper and deeper into shame. This wasn't supposed to be a difficult question, it was only the first day! What would happen later in the semester, when he tried to disprove God and not just his omnipotence. Trying to clear my mind I began frantically writing down thoughts on my notebook paper, trying to come up with a solution. However, then the teacher spoke again, and there are few times I've felt as humiliated in my life, "aren't there any religious people out there? Are there any Christians who believe in God? I just disproved the omnipotence of God, a critical part of your religion, of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism... Is there nobody? After that challenge he paused. Nervously I raised my hand, and gave the answer that I had scratched together on my notebook page, praying that my reasoning had been sound enough despite the pressure. "Your statement is incomplete," I began. "You must first answer whether you believe God to be a rational or an irrational God. If God is omnipotent and rational, then he cannot lift the rock, because God must then follow the laws of Logic which say that there is no rock too big for God to lift, and so he could not create a rock that would be impossible to lift. But if God is omnipotent and irrational, then he could lift the rock, because then there are no laws that God works in accordance with and so he could make a rock he could not lift, just as easily as he could make 2+2=5." I knew while I was writing this that as soon as I said this, he was going to think he saw this as a loophole in my belief in God and would attack that in the following way. "So are you saying that God is subservient to certain laws, or are you admitting to serving a God that can create things he himself cannot do, and thus is not omnipotent?" I already had thought out my personal belief on the subject so I responded, "in regards to my believes, I believe that God is a rational God but also that he is omnipotent. I believe that there is no rock that God cannot lift. However, I believe that God obeys the laws of logic and reason as we understand them. I don't believe that God is in anyway subservient to these laws though, they are laws that HE created and that HE can change at any point, but in his omniscience, he has decided to follow them right now. In conclusion, God is a rational God who can lift any rock. But in his omnipotence, if he wanted he could change the laws of logic so that he could create a rock that he wouldn't be able to lift, but because he controls the laws of logic and reason preventing him from lifting the rock he is still omnipotent."

Feeling slightly relieved at seeing a few nodding heads I thanked God for giving me an answer that at least made sense to a few.





And that was the discourse. Just a note however, this is not literally word for word what transpired. I tired to capture the ideas that were communicated but in certain parts these are slightly different words. I wanted to present the ideas of the discussion in this blogpost in a slightly more professional manner, but the arguments are still the same. The reason I am posting this, is because I was wondering if anybody had some thoughts on the subject. I am not by any means set upon the ideas I presented in this post, and so I would greatly appreciate any feedback or comments. These ideas were what made sense to me, but if you think you see an error in my reasoning, by all means please point it out to me, I don't care about being right, I just want to know the best answer or best way of explaining it.        

Thermopylae and Delphi

My three day trip in Greece has been  amazing. Not only have I been able to see these incredible historical locations, but God has really taught me a lot about faith.Our trip from Thessaloniki to Thermopylae, to Delphi was too incredible to share through only a blog, so it'll have to wait until I can tell you in person, let it suffice that God is amazing, he is all-knowing, and my faith in him has grown dramatically because I've seen his power first hand. 

The following pictures are from Thermopylae and Delphi. Thermopylae was the site that I most wanted to see in Greece, (and probably the world), the Oracle of Delphi was Caleb's-neither of us were disappointed. We went to Athens today and so tonight at the Hostel is our last night. Tomorrow, I return to Thessaloniki and I start classes on Monday. Every place that we wanted to see we were able to. As a great Lagan once said, "we got what we came for". Although leaving Daniel and Caleb tomorrow is going to be hard, I am excited about finally starting school and the adventures that lie ahead. Daniel and Caleb are going to continue on tomorrow to Italy and then up through Europe.Today is my last day as a tourist, and honestly I'm happy about that. I have been spoiled certainly, but after seeing too many historical sites, "ruins" become just "ruins". Fortunately, I haven't reached that place yet, and I would like to keep it that way. Pictures of Athens will hopefully come up later today or tomorrow.   

The boyzeeuh in front of the statue of King Leonidas. Our incredible joy right now is hard to see in this picture, but if you look closely, both Daniel and Caleb are smiling, that "doesn't happen every dynasty" to quote Mulan.

Me in front of the statue of one of my heroes.

                                                                                                            

Sideview

Statue again

Me on the mount of Kolonos, where the Spartans made their last stand after King Leonidas was slain.

My favorite picture of the trip. The spear is actually splitting the sun. One n00b asked me if that was supposed to be like that, do you realize how hard it is to spear the sun?

Zoomed in picture of Leonidas

The Mountains in the background

The Sun over the remants of the wall at Thermopylae.

The view from Delphi. Delphi is a cliff city. It's literally built on the edge of a cliff. It's straight down. This picture was taken from the road.

The guard rail is the the only thing keeping cars from a thousand foot plunge.

The View again.

Hoods up Boyz

The flags of the EU lined the streets at Delphi.

The Altar of Apollo at Delphi.

The Temple of Apollo, undeneath which the Oracle of Delphi lurked.

 Temple again

The most famous spot for pictures of Delphi. If you look at pictures online of the Oracle, most  pictures show this temple. However, this is the wrong temple, this was built for Athene. The Oracle resided in the temple of Apollo.

Me in front of the famous picture spot. Far be it for me to break tradition.

One guy randomly asked me if I was from New England. Shocked, I said yes, and asked how he knew. He thought for a minute mysteriously, and then said, "your shirt is for the Patriots and your bag is for the Red Soxes," lol Greeks are so smart.

My Dream Come True

My Whole Life I've Dreamed Of It 

 

                                                     Thermopylae Greece

Day 4 - The Aegean Sea

I apologize to those who tried to leave comments before, I had made an error in the settings and so you needed an account to comment. Regardless, it is fixed now. Today was a great day. I had my first real glimpse of the Aegean Sea, and my first swim in it as well. The water is incredibly warm, considering I am from New England-where it is not uncommon to see a penguin, iceberg, or frozen person float by you while you're trying to wade. With that as my past ocean experience, this was quite nice. Today we went on a walk along the seashore on a beautiful path.

This is a picture of the water from above on a ledge. It's warm, beautiful, and quite clear.

The water again. I find the different colors quite mystifying.

Their are beautiful ledges along the coast which make for great pictures.

Random ancient watch tower we stumbled upon. I love that about Greece!

The Tower again.

The tower was right near the ledge, overlooking the Sea.

Us, farther along on the walk.

Of course the tower needed to be scaled.

Kind of reminds me of Ireland, not that I've ever been there.

Second game of Ninja at historical sites. This one is of us playing in the Aegean sea. I've decided to make this a regular part of the blog. As my brothers continue to traverse Europe, they will keep up the tradition of playing Ninja in famous locations such as the Alps, Thermopylae, the Parthenon, the Colosseum, etc I'm in the process of making a youtube channel where I'm going to post all of these ninja games. Right now the score is:

Caleb 1 Daniel 1 Joshua 0

Concerning prayer request,  Orientation is tomorrow, and I'm also meeting with my manager for the work/study program. I'm going to be significantly changing gears tomorrow from Tourist, to Student, so prayer for a smooth transition would be greatly appreciated.

Day 3 - 23 Things I've learned about Greece

Day 3 was awesome. But before I get to that, I need to apologize for not writing any captions yesterday for the pictures. Although pictures say a thousand words, I would like to give you about a thousand and thirty, because I would like spend around thirty words explaining each picture. What is the purpose of a picture, if nobody explains the meaning behind it? My point, exactly. Now, to Day 3!

Thanks to the incredible generosity of the Gieseckes, (some great friends of our family who work at the school), we got the incredible opportunity to visit Philippi today. It was about an hour and thirty minute drive to that city. You might be wondering why we went ninety minutes away to see historical sites, when they are all around us. The answer is actually fairly legit. About four hours ago my time, (so about 12 PM) your time, the Prime Minister of Greece made his most important speech of the year in Thessaloniki! So the day after I got here, the president of Greece comes a couple blocks from my house and makes his most important speech for the next year. Amazing, right?! Except, on this same day, anarchists from all over the Balkan reigon, in protest of the speech, wreck havoc upon the streets. You saw some examples of the riot police in yesterday's post. Allegedly, for several hours the anarchists are expected to throw things at the riot police, flip some cars, burn a few buildings and then go home. Apparently this isn't a big deal, it's not even noteworthy. Several people died last year because some homemade bombs were thrown into stores, which exploded and killed store workers. All of that to say, we decided to go to Philippi today, instead of risk our lives with mad anarchists running around with bombs, (as tempted as we might have been to stay).

The following pictures are from the Ruins of Phillip as I said, several famous biblical locations, the place where Lydia was baptized and finally a Venetian Castle. And as a further attempt to make amends for last night, and the future times where I will be just too tired to post captions, I'm going to talk about some things I've learned so far in Greece.  There are a million other pictures I will put up at some point, but right now I'm just doing the some of the humorous.

1. An Explanation for Caleb's Odditys. The idea behind this picture was for everybody to look contemplative and thoughtful, like the statue. This is the reason why everybody did the classic pose from the Rodin's the Thinker. However, if you observe Caleb, he has no exaggerated body position, in fact he looks no different from how he normally does. This showed me that Caleb is merely always contemplative and off in some distant land dreaming about things.





3. Never say that a mountain top in the distance looks cool in front of Caleb. We were driving along the highway and Mr. Giesecke or Hans, pointed out this Acropolis of the city of Philippi on this mountain top, I said "O thats cool!". Caleb was like yeah, let's climb it. Mr. Giesecke said okay, an hour later I was lugging a backpack as we trekked our way to the top.

This is the theater where Paul preached to the Philippians. Pretty amazing stuff if you ask me.

4. The Ancient theater of Philippi has better acouustics than my 21st Century Church (Wintonbury). It's pretty incredible, you can say something at a normal voice in the center, and it can be heard all the way up the steps.

5. Historical Sites in America are Terrible Compared to European Ones. Reason 1: Expensive. Reason 2: The places really aren't that cool. Reason 3: They are empty-nobody goes to them. Reason 3: They are free, because I'm a student.

6. The Ancient Greeks used to play Twister. This is a stone spinner.

7. Restroom Accommodations have significantly improved since the Third Century BC.

8. Greeks are not extremely trusting, as I first thought, they are actually just extremely lazy. This is a priceless Mosaic. See picture 2 Mosaic.

This is Daniel infront of the priceless Mosaic. As you can see the only thing protecting the 3rd century AD Byzantine church mosaic made from tens of thousands of tiny, individually painted and carved stones, fit together over years of work into an intricate puzzle masterpiece, is a little fence. There are no guards, cameras, lights, charges... anything really blocking you from vandalizing it. It is not that Greeks are too lazy to build a bigger fence, it is just that they assume you're too lazy to climb over their little fence. I guess they were right, we just looked. 

9. Everything at the ruins of Philippi is in ruins. See picture 2

even the 21st century tour guide map, put up by the Hellenic Ministry of Tourism.

10. Ancient roads are really rocky. lol

11. It's a scary experience climbing on ruins. I don't know whether to feel comforted, or worried that these ruins have been standing for over 2000 years.

12. They don't have Teddy Bears in Greece. They actually have Teddypuses as they put it. Platypuses, in teddy form.

13. There were two essentials to every Greek household. A jar of Spam

And a jar of cheese-wiz.

14. Never let Daniel lead. You turn your back for a second, and he's leading you up a mountain. His justification was, "I want to get to the top!"

15. I'm sorry to be unpatriotic, but from a purely aesthetic sense, the Greek flag is much more cooler than America's.

16. There's a reason cities took years to siege. I'm scared of dieing just climbing on the ruins as Ruins-let alone when they're in their splendor, stories high, with burning oil pouring down on you and thousands of people trying to shoot you.

17. These Wild Grapes are not infact Grapes and not Poisonous. When Caleb asked our guide whether they were actually grapes or not, the guide said that he didn't know. Caleb's response was to eat one and find out.

18 I asked for you Sam, but unfortunately this is not a Ramen bowl. I asked. He was kind of offended, I don't know why. He said it's for something about baptizing kids. I didn't get it all, it's all greek to me. (lame joke I know, but I needed to say it at least once. That phrase has been stuck in my head since I got here.)

19. Joey you are going to be so Happy. In Greek there is no "B" so use two other letters as a replacement. Knowing that, what does this spell? This is the oldest recorded use of that word.

20. Tourists in Greece are Shameless. This is a refurbished BC theater. *See next picture*

Sheesh.... Respect the Classics man...

21. There are stray Cats and Dogs EVERYWHERE!!! So much so that a lot of the roadkill around here is kittens and puppies. These ones weren't though, and they were pretty cute.

However, these adorable puppies, were right next to a very intimidating sign.

Translation *These animals have rabies, don't touch them, they have killed many people.*

22. I learned that this is not a route sign. This is truly the speed limit. Makes you wonder why they even bother?

Excuse the blurriness of the photos, these were taken while driving, very fast.

23. But I also learned that speed is done in Kilometers per Hour, and not MPH. KM are about .6 of a Mile.

And finally, I would like to end with this. You should be able to figure out what it is, if and if you can't ask your kid. I'm sad I lost though.

Ninja Tally in famous locations: Caleb 1 Daniel 0 Joshua 0