It's Jeff and it's my turn to blog.   Be gentle.  I've never "blogged" before. 

7/14/2011:  Thursday night in Athens and we are ending Day 4 of the Patjeter Project.  This was another unforgettable, inspiring, positive, exhausting and wonderful day.  I wouldn't have it any other way. 

As you recall from previous blogs (Kelli and Ashton so far), we have 10 Baylor students partnered with 10 Albanian teenagers.  To say these 20 students have bonded is a gross understatement.   There are cultural differences to be sure, but there are many more things these students are celebrating they have in common.  Enthusiasm for the premier of Harry Potter last night is one of them.  (They have also been uniform in their amusement about my sleeping through the film.)


This morning we started with games on the street outside PORTA.  Frankly, I have never laughed harder than during the "snort" game.  The object of the game is to get someone next to you to laugh when you snort like a pig in their face. If either of you laugh, you're out.   Here are some photos that don't do it justice:

Shannon Lynn tries to get her partner Sam to laugh but succeeds with Emma Steincross.  Emma OUT.

Andrew Yarbrough eventually won.  Poor Kisla doesn't stand a chance.

Angel was a brute in this game.  Eni, already out, has never seen this side of the guy.

Kelli is laughing at Blendi, but he's still in and she's already in the loser group.

John seems less impressed with Angel's brutishness, but Vivian and Emma appear to be quite taken by it.

How did David Campbell not win?  He was so good !

Here are your snort champions.  Andrew Yarbrough on the left and
Clint Followell, PORTA's intern from Truett Seminary.  Clearly, Clint was a ringer.

It's great how the students transition from wild and crazy...



...to the slightly more serious business of leadership training. But they do!  The sessions today were on servant leadership and the seven types of power, plus David Campbell did an excellent presentation on synergy.  The student partners (an Albanian with a Bear) have had such a great time discussing leadership concepts together this week.  "On-topic" chatter fills the room on a regular basis.  It's neat to hear.

After lunch we rested for a bit, then gathered at PORTA for another conquest of Athens, specifically the famous PLAKA where we shopped for souveniers ...

and then went to the Ancient Agora where we walked the same streets as Aristotle, Socrates and Plato.  I, for one, felt smarter for awhile there.

In closing, did you know that people in Athens eat their evening meals really late at night?   We didn't either, but have found ourselves eating after 10 each night this week.  Tonight we dined at a sidewalk cafe near the base of the brightly illuminated Acropolis.  It was so pleasantly Greek.  (Maybe somebody else [Kelli?] will post photos of this.)

OK.  That's it.  My first blog entry.  Personally, it appeared more like photo captioning to me.  What do you think?

YASAS, y'all!

Jeff

P.S.  You parents of these Baylor kids have a LOT to be proud of.  Your kids are on their games over here.  It's been an absolute pleasure being around them.  They're great!