Corinth Today: Paul is my hero!!!

Well today we got to a rocky start with some miscommunications, but everything turned out great. We were able to sleep in quite a bit today which was sooooo nice. We did not leave as early as we wanted to, but I was able to make a sandwhich with the free continental breakfast they give us (bread with butter and jelly... B&J) which was nice. I saved it for dinner, it was yummy :)
Ok so anyway today was the day I have been waiting for, for so long...we went to Corinth (which here is called Korinthos). It was so exciting because we went to a place where people live that Paul... the apostle Paul... wrote entire books to!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't that insane?! Oh my goodness I was so excited! It took about two hours to get there by bus and train and metro. It was a lot of fun though. This city was so much different then the cities we have seen already. It was not as fancy and nice, but much more real. It did not look like it was trying to impress anyone but definently had its own style. It kinda reminded me of the houses in the movie "Slumdog Millionare". There was a lot less tourist attractions and the people did not seem very happy. There were a lot of stores with really nice stuff next to traditional Greek stores, it was interesting. I saw a few gypsy families relaxing on the grass. People are so interesting...the things they do, the things they do not do... I do not know, I just really like people from everywhere!

It was so amazing because we went up to ancient Corinth where Paul walked around and preached the gospel. Where he probably looked like a crazy man doing what God told him to do. The majority of the ancient city is all in ruins now, but it is still so beautiful. We saw what was left of it and what they tried to preserve. I really wanted to read what Paul did while he was there while we were there. So we sat under a nice tree and I felt like I was teaching a Sunday school lesson hehe. I sat and read aloud chapter 18 of 1 Corinthians. It makes me tear up just thinking about what we saw and how we experienced the place Paul was. As I read the chapter, I realized we made a similar journey as Paul did... in a much smaller scale of course, but we went from Athens to Corinth just as Paul did. And we are going to Rome in a couple days just like Paul! It is so crazy to walk around in the heat getting our feet all dusty and realizing a few thousand years ago, a man from the bible did the same thing! Wow! I also read 1 Corinthians 13 just because it is beautiful. Also because it is something Paul wrote for the Corinthians and I thought it was important for us to remember as well.

I really feel like the people in my group are like my family. Joel is like our big brother that has to take care of 6 sisters...lol. We have shared so much and I do not like thinking about leaving them :( so I won't! I am so glad I have such a fun group to hang out with. Everyone is so forgiving and accepting of each other, even with small quarrels here and there, everything always works out. Angela is so sweet and gentle, but she has a fiesty side too. I love it! Charissa is always looking for fun ways to do things, but is smart. Christina is just precious, so caring and I love messing with her. She is my BFK! Lol. I will have to explain that one another time. Chelsea is always so serene... I do not know if a person can be serene, but she is. She seems like she is out of a movie or a painting sometimes. She is so funny! Melody is always glowing, I love it! She is so precious. Joel... well then there is Joel. He is a fun guy, I am glad he brought this all together. He is also amazing at bartering! Today he was able to get a few of us girls a great deal on fun Greece bags! I am not good at bartering because I always feel bad trying to lower prices so much... you kind of have to be mean to barter a lot of times. I am not good at that. Joel is! No no no he is not mean, but he can be when he needs to I guess. Lol. I love my travelling family!! They are wonderful and I am getting to know them all so well. :) I am blessed!

Ok well back to Corinth, we saw the different temples that were there for other gods and all the different statues they had. The Greeks are such hard workers! I do not know if there any lazy Greeks. I mean at least in that time. The detail they place in each stone amazes me. Everything is so specific and wow, there is just so much thought put in each and every section of stone. I really love seeing it. And also the thing I did not know was how close Corinth was from the water. I mean on one side we saw rolling green hills with houses placed slanting off the sides, while on the other side there was the deep blue sea. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous!!
After we left Corinth we walked around a lot and just explored the streets of Corinth and then headed back toward our hostel. We stopped in Plaka, which is this fun shopping area where there are tons of different types of shops and resturants. Everyone was really hungry... I ate my sandwhich and a muffin I saved from another day. Plaka is where Joel got us the amazing deal on the bags. It was so much fun! I feel like even when we are not doing anything, our group is always laughing. It makes our trips so much more fun. We did a lot more random wandering and standing and talking today, but it was nice just hanging out in Greece.

Tomorrow we are going to Patras... I do not know what is there, but I know we are taking an overnight ferry from there to Italy tomorrow night. I am really excited to go to Italy! I do not know what to expect really and I like not knowing. I am excited to try real Italian food! Mmmmmmmm. I feel like so much of my adventure to these places is the food... but you really get to know a culture when you try their food and talk to the people. It will be interesting switching languages though, just as we were getting used to Greek... Hopefully it won't be too much different from Spanish and we can pick up on at least some of the words. The word we have had the most trouble with here is thank you... We already know it in Italian! Hehe.

Ok well I am sorry I was not as detailed today, I am tired and we are not sleeping as late tomorrow so I want to get some rest. Please if you have not already email me your addresses so I can have them. I love you all so much, I hope all is well in the states!
I do not know when I will write again because I will be on a ferry to Italy tomorrow night and I do not know if the Italian hostels will have internet. I will try soon.

Love always, Danni