Hi! My name is Kristen Hoover. I’m in Fulbright College
studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in
Classical Studies. This summer I participated in a study abroad program through
Greece and Turkey.
This trip was by far the best thing I’ve ever done. At first
I was not interested because of the price. But after doing some research and
speaking to Laura Moix I felt like studying abroad was something that could
really happen. I will always remember the trip I took to Greece and Turkey and
the people I went with.
The way this program is set up really allows you to submerge
into the Greek culture instead of being stuck in a classroom. Instead of
sitting at a desk, the professors led us around Greece and Turkey. The longest
time we stayed in a place was five days. It was always “go go go” because there
is so much to see everywhere!
Breakfast started at 7 usually and we would leave the hotel around
8 or 9 in the morning. At first it was hard getting up so early but having
roommates helped a bunch. We would always go down to breakfast at the same
time. The breakfast was always scrumptious. In Greece we had delicious yogurt
and peaches with honey every morning. In Turkey there were a lot of different
options for breakfast. But in both places there was delicious hot coffee
offered. The coffee in both places was a lot different from the American coffee
I was used to. It had a really great flavor but towards the end of the cup it
was always sludge-y. After breakfast we
would head out to different sites. I think the coolest site we went to was in
Delphi. There were so many ruins in one spot. Mt. Parnassus was sort of fun to
walk up if you could see all of the ruins.
Another cool site was Olympia in Greece. We ran on the track that the
original Olympians ran on. I got 14th place out of 15 but I didn’t
care! It was awesome to say that I’ve done that. Usually after visiting a site
we would go to the museum of the site that held all the artifacts found there.
The professors would tell us about each site in detail or a fellow student
would give their site report on that certain site. One of my site reports was
in Eleusis, Greece. It was really neat to be able to educate my fellow students
on the mysteries of the ancient sites. In the museum of each site the
professors would show us a few items they thought were important. Then they
would give us time to roam around the museum ourselves. Usually the professors
assigned us journal entries. They told us to pick two or three cool artifacts
from the museum and write about it in your journal. The professors would
collect the journals maybe around once a week to make sure we’re doing our
assignments.
Lunch was always fun during the day. The professors would
take us to a part of town that had lots of restaurants and give us an hour to
go eat wherever we wanted. It was a fun experience being on our own trying to
find food. One of first Greek phrases I learned was how to say “I would like
chicken gyros”. Sometimes, if we were pressed for time, the professors would
buy our lunch! That was always fun too because the professors knew what was
good to eat. Sharing was always
encouraged at meal times. Everyone would take a little from everyone’s plate so
we could try everything. I think the weirdest thing I ate was cow innards.
Aside from that, the food was wonderful. So many fresh vegetables and fruits! I
especially loved the orange juice. Most of the Europe’s veggies and fruits
comes from the island of Crete and their orange juice is a delicacy. In Chania, Crete there was a restaurant by our
hotel, which looked out over the port, which had the best fish I’ve ever had. I
tried swordfish, calamari, octopus, and shark and ate a whole lot of shrimp.
After lunch we would go to a couple more sites. Students
gave two site reports so there was always a day when we would listen to a
lecture from the students. A typical day for us wouldn’t end till around five
or six. After our last site the professors would gather us to talk about what
the plan was for the next day and what time we would leave the hotel. Then they
would set us free for the night!
We always tried to stick together when going out for dinner
but sometimes our group split up into two smaller groups. We tried to alternate
between sit down restaurants and cheap gyros places so we could save a little
money, especially in Turkey. After dinner most of the time we walked around
whatever city we were staying in. In
Istanbul we sat in front of the Blue Mosque and drank chai, in Lesvos one night
we went dancing with the professors, and in Nafplion we enjoyed the sea air and
ate gelato on the port. After dinner was a really fun time to go out and see
the city. It didn’t matter how tired we were or how far we had walked, everyone
always wanted to see as much as they could.
I am so happy I got to see another side of the world and
explore ancient sites with the professors and the people who went on this trip.
It was such a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone. Don’t let
the price get you down, it is worth every penny.
