Saturday, February 28, 2009

Monday, February 23, 2009

Week One Reflections



Trainee teachers discuss their experience of the first week of the TEFL Corinth course.



Trainee teachers conduct a short interview with TEFL Corinth director Peter Beech about the goals of the organisation, the importance of pre-course reading, and the challenges of teaching practice.
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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Archaeology Tour

The first Sunday of the course, we do our most popular trip, the Archaeology Tour.

The first part of the drive, going south from Vrahati for about half an hour is mainly open countryside, cultivated with grapevines and olive trees.

Our first stop is Nemea. This site is quite compact, and is a very accessible place to start. Though small, the museum is well-presented and informative.















The map on the wall behind Annie shows the context for the finds in the museum. Many of the items on display are from the Hellenistic period, and are mainly from Nemea itself, but there are much older finds from iron age settlements in the surrounding area.

















This reconstruction shows what the site looked like in its heydey, and is situated so that visitors can look out of the window and visualise the landscape with the buildings intact.


Everyone takes pictures of this skeleton.
"I was once like you are now."















This view of the site shows the magic and serenity of the location.

















In the stadium, Priyanka and Lori re-enact a race.















We stop for lunch at a taverna outside Mycenae, with simple traditional Greek dishes: moussaka, bean soup, boiled greens, meatballs, "saganaki" cheese.























Mycenae















In the narrow streets of Nafplio, there's much to photograph.
















Doug inspects the bullet hole in the wall of
the church where Kapodistrias was assassinated.




















Priyanka prepares to make her getaway.
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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Saturday BBQ

It's still only February, but it's a bright sunny Saturday at the end of the first week, so we celebrate with a barbecue in the garden. As Thursday was all about meat, today we're doing fish.















Marianna tries her hand at the barbecue while Josée mixes the salad ingredients.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Τσικνοπέμπτη / Tsiknopempti

"Τσικνοπέμπτη" is the Thursday ten days before the beginning of lent when it's traditional to feast on meat - roughly equivalent to Mardi Gras. We celebrate at a local taverna in Vrahati.













































Monday, February 16, 2009

Who's who

First day of a new course.

In the winter, the groups tend to be smaller, but we still have an interesting diversity. This group is a good illustration of the kind of people who take the course with us.

The current group are all in their twenties, which is fairly typical, though we get people of all ages throughout the year.

Five of the six are native speakers of English.















Josée is from Quebec, so her first language is French, but she has picked up varying amounts of several other languages on her travels.















Priyanka grew up in Papua New Guinea, looks Indian and sounds Australian.

The other four are from the USA, though Lori's parents are both from the Philippines and Marianna's father is Greek.

Annie and Doug have just completed a year teaching in Korea; none of the others have any teaching experience.

Each individual is unique, but collectively this group provide a typical example of the kind of people you can expect to find taking the course here.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Arrival in Corinth


The Corinth Canal




























































Settling in at the house




























































Exploring Vrahati

















Welcome Lunch

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Cambridge ESOL Reception

















Reception for Cambridge University's 800th anniversary at Her Majesty's Ambassador's residence in Athens.