I never really knew what I wanted from my college experience until I got to Elon. When going through the endless lists of universities, I picked out a handful of colleges I thought I might want to pursue my running career at with little regard to the academic opportunities offered. After a split decision one night, I found myself verbally committing to Elon. It wasn't until after I had applied early decision that I learned of Elon's #1 ranking in the Princeton review for being the nation's top university to study abroad. Being on an athletic team, I of course I didn't think much of it because my time would be devoted to my sport year round. This February, however, I saw my soon-to-be coach at a track meet in Ohio and he informed me that the entire track team would be traveling to Greece over our Thanksgiving break as a part of the athletic department's new study abroad program. WHAATT?!?!
I had never been out of the country before, though I had been to Canada (but I don't count that considering I live 20 minutes away from the border), and the prospect of visiting a foreign land with my teammates and coaches was both scary and exciting. There aren't many opportunities in life when you get to go abroad with an entire team to compete internationally and learn about a different culture in the capacity that we were able to.
The Landscape
We departed Raleigh International Airport for our connecting flight from Paris to Greece. After a close call in Charles De Gaulle, we all found ourselves passed out on our plane ride to get to Greece. Thankfully, I woke up for the last 15 minutes, just in time to see the extraordinary mountains, as well as the endless fields of olive trees and other terrain. Though our first stop was in Athens, which inhibited our view of this beautiful landscape, we later traveled around the country and got to see all the wonderful views we saw out the window of the airplane.
The People
America always gets a bad rap when visiting foreign countries. That was, at least, the impression that I was under. It wasn't until we were traveling around to all the little towns in Greece on our bus, such as Náflio, Nafpaktos, and Aráchova, that I learned the opposite. Though some people will always have their opinions about Americans, most of the shop owners just wanted us to buy their products so they were extremely nice. Obviously using tactics to sell products takes place in America too, but it was a unique experience purchasing souvenirs for my family and friends back home from people who took such great pride in the the product they were selling.
When you go to an overly-commercialized place such as Myrtle Beach or the Outer Banks, you're buying your tacky tourist mementos from unenthusiastic young kids who are just looking to make some money over the summer. Here in Greece, as I'm sure might be the case in other countries as well, you directly interact with the shop owners and the passion they have for the items in their store. Not only did I get learn about them, but I got to tell them about me as well, as they were curious to get to know the group of Americans who were traveling Greece in the off-season. Through these encounters, I was able to learn the most valuable ideas behind the value of Greek culture.
Archaeological Sites
Okay so yes, spending what felt like an endless amount of time at archaeological site upon archaeological site over Thanksgiving break really did suck sometimes. It just never felt like we truly took a break from school. Trying to use my imagination to figure out what the Ancient Greek villages proved to be quite the challenge, especially in Olympia where nearly everything just looked like destroyed rock and marble formations. With that said, I learned soooo much about the Ancient Greek culture and while much of it went over my head, a lot of it stuck with me simply because I was able to immerse myself in the "what it used to be." Though many of the facts and myths that Dafni, our extremely knowledgeable tour guide, shared with us were things we went over in class prior to the trip, it was a whole new experience having each site be our classroom.
The Food
If you can't find any better reason to go to another country, do it for the food. Seriously. Whether you know the people you're traveling with before you leave or not, there's no better way to bond than by roaming the streets of a foreign country while attempting to overcome the language barrier just to get some grub. I got to chill with my friends 24/7 for 10 days straight and you bet your butt we always encouraged each other to shove our faces with food, because why not? No better way to justify the consumption of unhealthy amounts of gelato than by just claiming it's part of the foreign experience. Bon Appétit amirite ??!?!?!?
