Dean Karnazes Completes his Biggest Run Yet

Greek American mega-marathon runner, Dean Karnazes, recently completed his greatest accomplishment yet: a cross-country run that literally took him from one end of the United States to the other. Karnazes, whose other feats include running 50 marathons in 50 days in each of America's 50 states, raised more than $175,000 to benefit Action for Healthy Kids, a non-profit organization to promote health awareness in America's youth.

Karnazes started his run on February 25 from Disneyland in California, and 75 days later, reached the studio of "Live! With Regis and Kelly" in Manhattan on May 10. In total, he had covered approximately 3,000 miles - running 40-50 miles per day! According to NPR, Karnazes' favorite moment of the run was, "Coming into the studio," he said, "coming in here, seeing my family, finally knowing I actually made it. So many days I was questioning it: Can it really be done?"

Karnazes is not only now an athletic superstar, but he is also the author of the book Run! 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss. He also is a strong advocate of youth fitness programs and regularly promotes a healthy lifestyle.

Source and Photo Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=136170965

Learn Greek in Greece!

Learning a foreign language is always easier, faster, and more exciting when in the country of origin. Learning Greek is no different. Whatever your skill level or area of interest - ancient Greek, Biblical Greek, or modern Greek - there is a language learning program in Greece that is right for you! Learning to speak Greek in Greece may offer you an invaluable insight into modern everyday life in the country and its culture, as well as an opportunity to spend a few unforgettable weeks on a dreamy island.

University of Thessaloniki: The University of Thessaloniki offers year-round courses in Greek as a foreign language. The school offers courses in Greek language and culture to foreign students, as well as to students of Greek origin, who intend to study Greek in higher education institutions or to familiarize themselves with Greece's history and culture.

http://www.auth.gr/home/index_en.html

Culture Centre on Lesvos Island: Through its AEOLIS project, the Hellenic Culture Centre offers Greek language courses to foreigners. The institute organizes summer language courses on the island of Lesvos, which begin on June 13.

http://www.aeolis.edu.gr/lang-en/2009-01-15-11-35-58.html

"Alexander the Great" Language School: The "Alexander the Great" Hellenic Language School offers courses to foreigners with either business or scientific backgrounds. The school has branches in Thessaloniki and Chania in Greece, in Sophia and Plovdiv in Bulgaria, in Skopjie in FYROM, and Tirana, Albania. The school is active all throughout the year, and this year's summer school program in Greece begins on June 6.

http://www.alexander-edu.org/index_en.php

The Greek House in Athens: The Greek House in Athens is a center for Hellenic culture and language and offers classes and private lessons throughout the year.

http://www.greekhouse.gr/greek/

College Year in Athens and Paros Island: The College Year in Athens is a study-abroad program focused on Greek history and civilization, offering foreign students university-level courses on Greece and the eastern Mediterranean world.

http://www.cyathens.org/index.cfm

For even more opportunities to learn Greek in Greece, please visit: http://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/2011/05/special-issue-learn-greek-in-greece.html

Source: Greek News Agenda

Lecture: Special Olympics and Volunteerism

On Thursday, May 12, 2011, the Greek Embassy will be hosting a presentation given by the Leadership of Special Olympics International. The subject for the presentation will be the upcoming Special Olympics, to be held this summer in Athens. From June 25 to July 4, 7,500 Special Olympics athletes from 185 different nations will compete in 22 different events. The Special Olympic Games provide a forum for athletes with intellectual disabilities can realize and celebrate their accomplishments. Though ability levels vary among the participants, all are provided with the opportunity to grow and to appreciate their individuality.

The event will be held at the Embassy of Greece, 2217 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington D.C.

To RSVP to this event, please e-mail rsvpculture@greekembassy.org.

EU Open House and Europe Week: Events at the Embassy of Greece

On May 7, 2011, the Delegation of the European Union to the United States and the Embassies of the 27 EU Member States to the United States will open their doors to the Washington public during the EU Open House Day. This fifth annual event will also kick off Europe Week throughout the United States. On Saturday, May 7, 2011 the EU Delegation and each Embassy will be open to the public from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., offering a rare look inside the buildings and providing a unique opportunity to experience the country's cultural heritage and national traditions. Free shuttle bus service will be provided throughout the day with stops at embassies and select Metro stations.

The Greek Embassy will be joining in the festivities by hosting an open house, providing visitors with traditional music, delicious food, and fascinating documentaries to give them a taste of Greek culture. Greece has much to celebrate this year, from the 2500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon to the hosting of the Special Olympics in Athens this summer. In honor of the Special Olympics, the Greek Embassy is presenting a photo exposition featuring 20 years of Special Olympics images by photographer Richard Corman. Visitors can also view documentaries by Mecano Film Productions showcasing the beauty of Greece's countryside and islands.

It promises to be an exciting and informative day that you will not want to miss!

Lecture with Iphigenie en Tauride Conductor William Lacey

In anticipation of the Washington National Opera premier of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride, the Embassy of Greece and the WNO are proud to present a lecture with conductor William Lacey on Thursday, May 5 from 6:30pm-8:30pm. The event will be held at the Embassy of Greece, 2217 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington D.C. 20008.

Iphigenie en Tauride, composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, is one of the greatest operas from the classical period, and was also a hugely influential work. Mozart, Weber, Berlioz, Wagner

and Richard Strauss were all inspired by the nobility and dramatic power of Gluck's masterpiece. In rejecting the decorative, repetitive style of Baroque opera in favor of a new purity and intensity of expression, Gluck was himself inspired by ancient Greek drama.

In this lecture, William Lacey investigates how Gluck's reimagining of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles paved the way for the Romantic music-drama and the classic Greek heroine Ifigenia. Maestro Lacey, a regular conductor at leading opera houses around the world, brings extensive experience with operas of the Baroque and early Classical periods and will provide unique insight into the adaptation of Euripides’ work from Greek play to French opera.

To RSVP, please e-mail rsvpculture@greekembassy.org.

PANORAMA OF GREEK CINEMA: Ulysses' Gaze

The Embassy of Greece, in collaboration with the Greek Film Center and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece is proud to present the Panorama of Greek Cinema series at the Avalon Theater in Washington, D.C. This series, which holds screenings on the first Wednesday of each month at 8:00pm, provides a unique opportunity for D.C. filmgoers to experience the best of Greek cinema.

On Wednesday, May 4 at 8:00pm, the Panorama of Greek Cinema series will celebrate its first anniversary with a screening of the film Ulysses' Gaze (Me to vlemma tou Odyssea). Written and directed by Theo Angeopoulos, the film received many awards: the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the Critics Award in 1995 by the European Film Academy, and the Top 100 Films of All Time list by Time Magazine.

Synopsis:

A Greek-American filmmaker, known simply as «A», returns to his hometown in northern Greece for a screening of his latest controversial film. His real reason for coming back, however, is to track down three long-missing reels of film by Greece's pioneering Manakia brothers who in the early years of cinema traveled through the Balkans, ignoring national and ethnic strife and recording ordinary people, especially craftsmen, on film. Their images, he believes, hold the key to lost innocence and essential truth, to an understanding of the Balkan history. Thus, he embarks on a search that takes him across the war-torn Balkans, a landscape of spectral figures and broken dreams, right to the heart of darkness: a damaged film archive in Sarajevo where his quest ends. Like a latter-day, Ulysses finds his «Ithaca», the missing, undeveloped film and is at last united with the work of the Manakia brothers... his gaze communes with theirs and another journey begins...

The film runs for 176 minutes and is in English, Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian, Serbian, and Romanian with English subtitles.

To view the film's trailer, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaUEulIEBV8&feature=player_embedded#at=14

To purchase tickets, please visit: http://boxoffice.printtixusa.com/avalon/advance?i=10549

The Avalon Theater

5612 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20015

202-966-6000

A Rare Glimpse into Life on Mt. Athos

On Easter Sunday, April 24, 60 Minutes aired an enlightening documentary giving viewers a rare glimpse into life in the monasteries of Mt. Athos, the holiest and most exclusive monastic community in all of Eastern Orthodoxy. The CBS anchor explained how difficult it was to obtain the interview, as there has not been a news team permitted on the peninsula since 1981. It took over two years of persistent communication and negotiation before the monks of Mt. Athos permitted the 60 Minutes crew to visit the community.

Considered one of the most sacred locations in Orthodox Christianity, Mt. Athos is a peninsula in the north of Greece, part of the larger Halkidiki peninsula. Twenty monasteries inhabit Mt. Athos, each one like its own enclosed town, self-sufficient and productive. The Orthodox monks who live in the monasteries have dedicated their lives to Christ, choosing to live simply, austerely, and piously.

The peninsula has been a sacred place for centuries, with the first monks living on Mt. Athos as early as the 3rd or 4th century. Monastic communities were well-established on the peninsula by the Byzantine era, and they continued to flourish even under Ottoman occupation. Today, several of the monasteries contain icons dating as far back as the 14th century. One of the monasteries even contains a holy relic dating back from the 1st century: a piece of cloth worn by the Virgin Mary.

It is said that over 1,000 divine liturgies take place each day on Mt. Athos, as there are many churches on the peninsula in addition to the twenty monasteries. The monks of Mt. Athos pray for hours on end, some continuing to move their lips in prayer even as they do daily activities such as cooking or cleaning. When they are not called to prayer, the monks occupy themselves with other tasks, such as iconography, harvesting fruit, and welcoming the many pilgrims to the monasteries.

Mt. Athos welcomes many pilgrims each year, though each one is required to obtain a special permit from the monks before making the journey. Only Orthodox Christian men over the age of 18 are permitted to visit; women are not allowed on the territory at all. One of the holy fathers explained to the CBS crew why this was, and his reasoning was twofold. First, by Christian legend, the land was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and so to honor her, no other woman was allowed to step foot on Mt. Athos. Second, the monks decided that the presence of women would distract the monks from their vows of chastity.

Mt. Athos' exceptional beauty and serenity make it the ideal location for direct communication with God. The monks who live there have maintained the same simple lifestyle for centuries, seeking enlightenment through prayer and meditation. The 60 Minutes special allows all people, men and women alike, to see what life is like for the monks of Mt. Athos.

For more information on Mt. Athos, please visit: http://www.inathos.gr/

To view the entire videoclip, please visit: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7363734n&tag=mncol;lst;1