Submitted by Camryn Garcia on the 2019 winter session program in Athens, Greece sponsored by the Department of English…
Now that it is the second week of my study abroad experience, I have gotten a lot more comfortable with the city and interacting with peers and others daily. This week, we traveled to Delphi, Greece and it was mesmerizing. Delphi consisted of large mountains and a quaint ski town with small shops and cafes. We got to explore the classical history of Delphi and met a few other students from Australia. This week was exhausting and I learned a lot about myself and what I can handle being away from home. We visited numerous places of worship and it had me thinking about the struggles certain religions have faced, or still face today. We got to learn the history of Jewish synagogues in Athens in relation to the Holocaust and explore a Byzantine monastery in beautiful mountains on the way to Delphi. We also were able to talk to members of the Melissa Network whose work focuses on aiding refugees and learned about the refugee crisis which highly relates to what is going on in the United States. I was also able to travel to Santorini, Greece which was an interesting experience due to it being off season. We were also able to interact with locals there and learned how to find fun things to do in a limited period of time. For our last week, we have two more excursons planned outside of Athens and I cannot wait to explore more of Greece!
