Statues, souvlaki and swimming

This morning was a great achievement as we managed to get all the children out of the hotel and on to their bus by our scheduled departure time, and without actually leaving anything behind! We had a short bus ride to the National Archaeological Museum, where our guide Anna took us on a tour of the exhibits. Our conservative estimate of the number of pictures taken by our students is 1000, although judging by the length of time it took to compose most of them we suspect the quality of about 990 of them won’t be great! Sensibly judging the attention span of our children to be not particularly high, Anna raced us through in such a way as to keep attention while focusing on the main pieces in the museum.

Mr. Whitaker never looks his best in the morning

 From there we have an hour’s journey to Corinth, to an al fresco lunch beside the Corinth canal. At the entrance there is a bridge that sinks to allow ships to pass, and when it resurfaces it is usually covered with small wriggling fish. After lunch a run in the adjacent park, and then on to Naphlio.

Ms. Naidoo has trouble getting her new suitcase on the bus

 Our visit here has combined with some sort of holiday for Greek students, and there are plenty of them around, loud and noisy. Naphlio itself is a charming town, with three fortified citadels around the place, and narrow streets to allow a bit of browsing – because after all, these children like to shop! We split into our four groups and all went off in different directions to explore. The quite clearly communicated plan had been to meet back in the main square 15 minutes before our bus was due to leave, to allow us time to walk back to it, but Mr. Gikas decided he would head directly back to the bus and so left the other three groups waiting for him in the square. When we eventually decided that was what he had done, he met us on the way to the bus and had the cheek to accuse us of being late!

BISAK - bottom of the class

 At our parents’ evening prior to the trip we had mentioned about including a swim kit in the packing list, so one of the most regularly repeated questions this week has been “Can we go swimming today?” Well, within 20 minutes or so of arriving in Tolon 30 of our group of 34 were in the water. Ms. Naidoo pleaded the fifth and took Khaled for a long walk along the beach, and Mr. Gikas claimed ‘lifeguard duties’ – Ruben enjoyed his role as clean foot enforcer on our return to the hotel but didn’t fancy a swim himself. To say that the water was fresh would be a slight understatement – most emerged looking slightly pink! The children had great fun after swimming burying Mr. Whitaker in the sand, although Omar didn’t quite understand the concept of not burying Mr. Whitaker’s head at the same.

Naphlio

 Suitably invigorated, tonight’s dinner was quickly reduced to a series of empty plates and contented stomachs. Valerio surpassed himself by asking whether the bottles of water that had been placed on the table with glasses for our dinner were actually drinkable, much to the amusement of the waiter. With the children in good mood we headed off for a walk along the local prom. As a night cap we stopped for a hot chocolate, although there was universal dismay at the uninvited guest who joined us at our tables – a large locust. OK, cue screaming and mass panic as the children scrambled to get away from him. Mr. Whitaker stepped up to the plate and caught him in Mr. Suter’s hat.

Brrrrr...

 What a brilliant day! Sadly, we’ve only one more and then it’s back to Saudi and school on Monday. But we won’t talk of that, when we’re off to Epidaurus and Mycenae tomorrow. Let’s hope Mr. Suter has a better song to sing this year!

Not sure what to say here really!

Mr. Whitaker is buried

The view from the bedroom

Donkeys, sick bags and shopping...

Ready for the off

One thing that we’ve been absolutely amazed by since we’ve been here is the interest that there has been in our blog. In the time that we’ve left Saudi, we’ve received nearly 1000 views from all over the world. We can vouch for that by the message left by Elizabeth’s Granny in Australia, who is following our exploits here in Greece. Elizabeth herself was surprised by Granny’s contribution: “I didn’t know she was that clever.” Granny, if you’ve any reprimand that you’d like us to implement on your behalf to your Granddaughter, please let us know and we’ll happily comply! It is good because in this hotel we do have computers connected to the internet that the children can check messages left for them on the blog, so it’s helping them keep in touch with home. We’re amazed by parents who claim that they didn’t realise just how noisy their children are – now come on, mums and dads, how could you miss that?!

Ms. Naidoo feeling the strain

We had an early start this morning, so Mr. Suter’s singing had to be particularly loud. For Mr. Whitaker’s benefit also as he inadvertently switched his alarm off instead of to snooze when it went off this morning. A tentative weather check first thing promised blue skies, but there was a hint of a breeze that had staff reaching for the sick bags in preparation for a rough journey. As we were up so early some of the children were a little confused by the fact that it was still dark – there were at least three queries of whether we were having dinner for breakfast. A sign, we suppose, of how most of them rarely travel outside the Middle East and experience dark early mornings.

Aboudi, Khaled and Salik enjoy the breeze

Today was our day for island hopping. Last year we cruised on the Greek national day, which meant that the boat was jammed to the rafters but this year there were a mere 210 passengers onboard, so we had plenty of room to spread out. Of course most immediately opted for the top outside deck, but the staff up there were fairly wary of us and seemed to remember something about an incident last year involving a heavily twisted ankle… Despite this, the children still had plenty of interaction with the staff and chatting to one of them Mr. Whitaker was surprised to learn that we had a Filipino child with us that this particular staff member said he’d had a long chat with. Enquiring of his name, he was told “Mohammed.” We were all as much surprised by Mohammed’s multi-lingual skills as this member of staff obviously was. For those who don’t know Mohammed, he’s one of our two Saudi nationals on this trip, so we’d all love to know how that conversation went!

Refreshments, Daniel style

The first leg of the journey was our longest – two hours to reach the island of Hydra. We had a resident organist on board, a case of ‘Zorba plays elevator music,’ and one or two of our party had a tentative step out on the dance floor. A few more sunk into their chairs, as the quite heavy roll we experienced on the boat caused a few colour changes among children and staff. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘being green around the gills,’ but never would have thought that someone could actually have a green tinge. In Ms. Naidoo’s defence, she does suffer terrible with sea sickness and did well to keep a smile on her face for most of the day.

Hydra: everybody say, "Big Red Case!"

Sickbags intact and unused, we landed on Hydra and with no Mrs. Williams on board actually had a chance to visit some of the fortified ‘modern’ defences on the island rather than heading straight for the shops. Lojain in particular would take a cursory glance around wherever we were and then her next question would be, “Can we go to the shops now?” Hydra itself is quite unique as there is little motorised traffic and instead a pace of donkeys were tied up harbourside, being loaded up with a variety of materials from cement bags, planks of wood and even a double bed base. One local went past riding one while using his mobile, which prompted a few queries as to whether he should be using a mobile while in charge of a vehicle!

The monkey tree...

Shops depleted, next stop was the island of Poros, where Mr. Gikas and Mr. Suter were determined to see a little more of the island itself than they were allowed last year. Thus upon disembarkation, we avoided the shops and went for a convoluted stroll through the hills to the clock tower overlooking the harbour. Some of the children were a little surprised to see oranges and lemons growing above their heads as we walked up the narrow laneways, but Mohammed and Faisal plucked one to eat fresh as we strolled along – Faisal later refused to buy another in the shop to eat as he felt it wouldn’t be fresh enough. And then, of course, we did visit a shop or two…

Children?  What children?

Lunch was eaten on the way to Aegina – fortunately the crew delayed pulling away from the harbourside as we didn’t really fancy trying to hold on to our plates as we were eating! The highlight of the day for many was the ice cream that we had straight away after coming off the boat, but then we had a pleasant walk along the sea front which culminated in the request from most to return to the boat rather than continue shopping!

Fast-paced island life

Having managed to avoid the sick bags all day, despite some close calls, there was a miraculous recovery for the final leg home as we were entertained by the Greek Elvis Presley and his cabaret act – and when his act finished, our children took over the entertainment for the rest of the passengers as, encouraged by Mr. “Twinkle Feet” Whitaker, they danced all the way back to port.

Aegina

A return to the hotel, another three course dinner, and now bags are packed ready for our transfer down to the coast tomorrow. As we type this, the children are all asleep upstairs – despite the loud cheering from another group of students from the UK in the hotel. Of course, our staff wouldn’t allow our children to behave like that, but then that’s a whole other story….

Lunch - again!

Elvis Presleyopoulos entertains the crowd

What’s that up there?

We had a relatively late start this morning – the children weren’t due out of bed until 7.15am. For the difficulty we had in rousing some of them (Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Suter singing “Morning has broken” would surely usually rouse the dead!) you’d have thought we’d woken them up in the middle of the night again. We had a grand spread for breakfast, with plenty of choice, and then we planned to board the bus and depart by 8.45am. That was, until Aboudi decided it would a good idea to head butt his bedside locker! With a hotline to Nurse Eileen and Mr. Suter’s first aid skills, he was soon put right and thus we set off, slightly later than planned.

So who are the Falcons?

We had a brief tour of central Athens on the bus, and then we stopped at the Panathinaikan Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympics in 1886. We arrived there just as another 10 coaches did – seemingly a cruise ship had arrived in port this morning. We felt very proud in our white tour hats, compared to all those passengers who had a mere sticker with a number on it – very personalised, we don’t think!

On your marks...

From there it was a short stroll to the new Acropolis Museum. As we sauntered along the pedestrianised lane, the Acropolis, in all its glory, appeared on high to our left, seemingly nestled in amongst the clouds. Tamara pointed up. We paused, waiting for the profound expression of amazement that was surely going to spout forth from her. “Mr. Whitaker,” she asked, “what’s that up there?” At this point both Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Suter would like it to be known that Mrs. Williams taught Tamara her Year 5 Ancient Greek history course!

What's that up there?

The museum itself was a stunning collection of frecoes and statues from the Acropolis and Parthenon. Our tour guide, Anna, took us initially to a series of models of the Acropolis to show us its development through the ages. She answered a series of questions, impressed by the thirst for knowledge and indeed the level of erudition the children displayed. That was, until Daniel asked whether the fortified wall added to the base of the site in around 300BC was in fact the Great Wall of China. Despite the fantastic collection of artifacts on show, by far and away the most popular feature were the glass floors throughout the three storeys. As Jacob notes, “…at the museum it was fun and a bit scary because the glass floor was see through and when we were at the top I could see my fate if the glass broke.”

And behind us is an ancient Greek crane...

We had to have an appointment for our tour of the museum, as it does get extremely busy in there. In fact, at times we had to dodge around other groups as we toured around. What we as teachers would like to add here is that in comparison to other groups that were there, particularly children our age, our group was and has been throughout extremely well behaved.

What, no cranes?

Climbing the Acropolis this year was somewhat easier having no one to carry to the top as we had to last year. Perhaps Elizabeth can explain it best: “After visiting the museum we walked up to the top of the Acropolis. The walk there was REALLY tiring! Once we got there it was so good. The views were breathtaking.” It was a little windy at the top so jumpers soon surfaced, but that meant that the clouds covered the distant bay and the children didn’t have to listen to Mr. Suter droning on about the fear of imaging the Persian fleet amassed out in the distanc……………

Foooooooooood...

As you can imagine on a trip like this, photo opportunities are a regular feature: no “Cheese” here, every photo is preceded by a loud cry of “Big red case!” However, after our museum tour and Acropolis visit, the last few photos were greeted with a cry of “Hungry!” Point taken, we descended through the Agora for a souvlaki feast in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Plaka. Mohammed, when asked for the highlight of the day, said “the food” and the collection of clean plates attested to this. Lojain was slightly perturbed by the pigeon that perched above her head – claims of bird poop on you being lucky would not reassure her to stay in her seat!

After lunch we embarked on a preliminary shopping assault – while shopkeepers were delighted to welcome 30 eager to spend youngsters in their premises, they were slightly wary of their backpacks and the possible damage they could do. Which Salman did his best prove, sending a row of ceramics bouncing – luckily – on the floor! Wallets emptied, we route marched back to the bus, for possibly the highlight of the day for many – an ice cream! (although Simon managed to drop his for a stray dog to eat). A short coach trip home, another three course meal (pasta starter, baked chicken with Greek style potatoes and Greek salad and… ice cream!) and, due to our early start tomorrow for our cruise, an early night for the children with lights out by 9.00pm – an overseas trip record? Tomorrow is our cruise of the Saronic Gulf, visiting the islands of Aegina, Poros and Hydra. Weather forecast is supposedly quite blustery, so it could be an interesting voyage. Watch this space!

Relaxing after a hard day's sightseeing...

One thing that has truly delighted us here is the number of hits our blog has received, and the interaction between children here and back at school, and also parents.  We do have to issue an apology to Ms. Naidoo - apparently her suitcase has been the talk of BISAK over the last couple of days.  We do think that she has been hard done by and that really it wasn't as big as we made out.  Ms. Naidoo - our sincerest apologies.

Little red case

Finally, for all our blog watchers back home, a request.  Can you come up with a caption for Mr. Gikas and Mr. Suter's antics here?  Please let us know by posting a comment at the bottom of the page.

Your caption here

Here we are - eventually!

As the staff met this morning on the Oasis Gardens compound at 2.00am, topics of conversation were not of the forthcoming trip, possible behavior of the children, excitement of the journey – no, they were of amazement at the size of the suitcase that Ms. Naidoo had brought with her. While the children had been told that whatever they brought, they had to be able to carry it themselves, Ms. Naidoo had obviously misinterpreted this instruction and thought that she had to be able to fit in her case herself. The teachers had hoped to carry on the teasing Ms. Naidoo all the way to the airport, but that wasn’t to be. At the meeting with the children earlier in the week, Mr. Suter had stressed in particular that tour hats were to be worn at all times, and that anyone turning up at the airport without it would be turned away. Well, imagine his surprise – and Ms. Naidoo’s relief – when he discovered that he’d actually left his at home! Consequently, the teachers were slightly late arriving at the airport – Ayra’s mum rather cheekily texting Mr. Suter to ask whether he was actually awake!


Saudi customs at Dammam Airport were efficiently slow, somewhat perplexed by 34 white hatted travelers. Our cause wasn’t helped when Ruben got to the front of the queue only to barf – a disagreeable yoghurt drink, by all accounts. The short first flight to Doha was uneventful, but great excitement was to be had in Doha as the duty free shops took a pounding. Several children had to be reminded that, although it was a lovely idea to buy gifts for family members, that perhaps they might want to wait until they got to Greece before parting with their money!

The second leg from Doha to Athens was equally uneventful, although Ami wasn’t particularly happy with the adjoining passengers: “I have a smelly guy behind me and he keeps pushing my chair.” We didn’t think that was a particularly pleasant way to describe Mr. Gikas! The stewardesses at the start of the flight considered their charges to be “cute” and “delightful” – multiple visits in response to call lights and requests for this, that and the other pushed them to the limit of their tolerance. Airport staff met us off the plane and whisked us through customs where our bright pink coach was waiting for us. The driver wanted to know if Ms. Naidoo’s case had reversing lights on it. Several hundred photographs were taken, and that was just on the way out of the coach park! Not too much to see on the journey to the hotel, but the general consensus was there was lots of greenery and graffiti.

Upon arrival at the hotel, and in the excitement of the discovery of their room facilities, Ahmed dutifully placed all his valuables in the safe, and no sooner had he put in the code and closed the door – had forgotten what the code actually was. Doh!

Once the children had unpacked we had a brief walk down the road to give the kids their first taste of Greek food and culture, how fitting then that we ended up at a burger bar and fed them burgers and chips. Funnily enough the kids didn’t seem to mind however. The weather since we’ve arrived has been great – sunny and warm. Zaid was a little perturbed in the restaurant: “Please can I move tables as the sun is shining in my eyes and I can’t eat my food because it’s giving me a tummy ache.” Later we made our way to the local park. The monkey bars seemed to be a firm favorite, and after a few impromptu games over two hours had passed and it was time to return to the hotel.

We demanded all children have showers, however being in their own rooms this was hard to enforce, Mr. Whitaker was on the look-out for the ‘spray and cover’ technique often employed by the youth of today… One person who needed no persuasion was Matthew, who repeatedly visited his bathroom to perfect his “Cockeral Comb” hairstyle. If gel is needed on this trip, we know where to get it…

We had a late dinner, with the majority choosing to leave early so that they could go to bed. Cue four astounded but grateful teachers. As we type this they are all happily ensconced in their rooms. It’s been a long day, so a good night’s kip and then the Acropolis tomorrow. Can’t wait!

Jacob and Ruben find the going a bit tough



The monkey bars



Hooray - we're through customs!

Mariana, Ami and Elizabeth

The case of all cases

Greece here we come...

Mr. Whitake reluctantly dons his tour hat

 Excitement is mounting in Year 5 and 6 as the countdown to our departure to Greece is nearly up!  While no one is looking forward to our 3.00am meet at Dammam airport early tomorrow morning  for our departure to Doha and then Athens, we are all looking forward to our arrival there and the visits and activities we will be enjoying while in Greece. 

One person who is a little sad is Mr. Whitaker - here he is modeling our Greece tour hat which everyone will be wearing in Greece.  He is sad, as it means he'll have to leave behind his bottle of hair gel and won't be his usual spiky self for the week!  Look on the positive side Mr. Whitaker - it'll be one less thing for you to carry.

"My hair!"

It is our intention to update the blog on a daily basis while we are away, so that you can see where we've been and what we've been up to.  Please keep a check on our activities, and use the comments facility to let us know how jealous you are of us!



Athens here we come!

Helping plants grow

Here in year 5 we are currently exploring the effects of different conditions on the growth of plants.  Can we put what we have learned in our lessons into practice with this activity from the BBC?

Parts of a Plant