June 2, 2010
Junior guard Angela Puleo and senior guard Jence Rhoads are spending the month of May studying abroad in Greece. The two are taking a three-credit hour course called “Uncovering Greek Religion: Cults, Sanctuaries & Festivals in the Ancient World.” To keep Commodore fans tuned to their experiences in Greece, Puleo provided updates of their travels on VUCommodores.com.
Angela’s May 21 Update | Angela’s May 26 Update | 
Photos from Greece
A final hello from Greece – 
After our visit at Olympia last week we made our last trip on the road to Delphi. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. Mountains surrounded us and our balcony overlooked the valley. It was breathtaking. While we were at Delphi, we visited the Temple of Apollo where we got to see where people traveled miles and miles to hear their prophecy from the great God Apollo.
After our last trip we made our way back to Athens, our home base. For our weekend off, Jence (Rhoads), and some of the other students and I made our way to a local beach. The weather was gorgeous and the sea felt very refreshing, which was nice because I am a bit of a pansy when it comes to getting in cold water. Just being able to relax for a few days after our long road trip was good.
Each of the last two places we went this week really stuck out in my mind. The first was the church at Dafni. Our Professor was sure that the church would be closed due to renovations, but to our surprise, when the guides thought we were a German group they had been expecting, they let us in. One can only hope the Germans didn’t show up after us. When we got in the church, we got to climb up the construction to the top to see the mosaics. You could practically touch them. It just again made me realize how lucky I was to be able to come to Greece to study abroad. I will never forget the beautiful sight that we got to see at the Church at Dafni.
Our very last site visit was to the Temple of Poseidan. I know me saying the sites were “amazing” is getting pretty redundant, but really this one was AMAZING. Of course the sea surrounded the temple and we even had our own “sacrificing” ceremony. There were no sacrificial animals available so we chose a watermelon instead.
One of the fun things we were able to do outside the classroom was go to the Rihanna concert. Jence and I did some outstanding scalping and got floor level seats with some of our classmates. The concert was insanely good, but the only complaint I have is that I had to teach the European crowd how to sing along to the songs American style (I don’t know how happy they were about that). Jence and I also did some last minute shopping for some of our friends and families from back home, and since we were craving some more sacrificial watermelon, we bought ourselves one and split it in two.
We have our final presentations tomorrow, and then we have our “graduation” for the class. It is crazy how fast our time in Greece has gone. We have met some great people that I am sure we will continue our friendships with long after Greece. I got to experience once in a lifetime memories with not only one of my teammates, but also one of my best friends. I am so happy that the athletic department was able to give me this amazing opportunity. I would absolutely go to Greece again in a heartbeat, and would recommend to anyone that studying abroad is the way to go. I hope to study abroad again soon.
Go ‘Dores. We will be seeing everyone back in the U.S. very soon.
Angela
