What inspired you to go abroad?
The Lion Gate at Mycenae
What inspired me to go abroad was all of the different opportunities that my university provides. I believe that spending a semester abroad can be an important milestone in someone's development, so if one has the chance, one should do it.
I visited the study abroad fair at my university, Brandeis, and I decided that it was an opportunity that would be wasted if I did not take it.
I was also inspired by some of my professors who were involved in study abroad programs, as well as some of my friends and classmates who had gone on study abroad trips before me. Though none would go to Greece like me, they did speak about how beneficial Study Abroad was for them, so I thought it would be good for me as well.
Why did you choose College Year in Athens?
I chose this specific program because I have always wanted to visit Greece. I have been very interested in studying Ancient Greece and Rome, and I knew that coming to the Mediterranean region would be beneficial for that purpose.
At the study abroad fair, then, CYA immediately stood out to me as one of the foremost options for study abroad, both from speaking to the representative, and from looking at the advertising material.
The more research I did into CYA, the more appealing it looked to me. The living arrangements intrigued me, many of the classes that CYA offers looked immensely interesting, and when I began enrolling, the aid that was provided to me convinced me how helpful this would be.
What was your favorite part about Greece?
My favorite part was the clearly deep heritage and historical legacy present in both Greece in general, and Athens in particular.
Much of Athens clearly had a long history behind it, and I really found it fun. Many of my classes took place in either museums or archaeological sites where we were surrounded by the history of Athens.
I also attended a lot of cultural celebrations, such as Carnival, and I really liked that I was so involved in learning about Greek cultural and traditional activities.
Myself visiting the temple of Apollo at Delphi
What made your experience abroad extraordinary?
What made my experience truly extraordinary was how much closer I was able to get to the things I was learning about.
Many of my classes were held at ancient sites or in museums, where I got to directly access the things we were discussing. Even when I was in the classroom, the fact we were in a region of the world where much of what I was learning about had happened made it far more engaging for me.
For one example, I was learning about current events in the region in one of my classes, and we were getting regular news updates that were changing our professors plans for class. This proximity made all of my classes in this program more engaging than my classes back in America.
How did local staff support you throughout your program?
The staff and professors of this program were unbelievably helpful to me in a variety of ways. After important projects, I was promptly given feedback about what I did well and how I could have improved my work.
Another thing they did was have very interactive lessons, filled with discussions, and often presentations where we were able to demonstrate our knowledge. Sometimes, we even went to museums and ancient sites all over Athens, and that made lessons extremely memorable for me.
More then that, however, was the clear impression I got from all of my professors was that they really wanted me to succeed. All of my classes were relatively small, and I got to know my professors, and all of them personally seemed to want all of us to succeed, and were eager to help us.
They were open and willing to discuss whatever was giving us trouble in class, and taught in a way that made learning enjoyable.
What's one thing you wish you would have done differently during your time abroad?
One thing that I would have done differently was that I would have taken advantage of the program's location in Europe to travel more frequently. Many of my friends and fellow participants in the program took trips with groups of friends to other countries in Europe.
One of my friends regularly travelled to Amsterdam to meet friends who were studying in a different program. Some other friends went to the UK, Spain, or Malta. Overall, though I did occasionally take advantage of free weekends to travel, I feel I should have done it more often.
Describe what a typical day in your life abroad looked like.
A typical weekday involved me waking up, between 7:30 and 8:00 am, and eating breakfast, either at my apartment or on my way to class. I would then spend the morning at class. This would go until 10:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays, and 12:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Usually these classes were at the CYA building, but occasionally, I would have a lesson elsewhere in Athens.
Afterwards was lunch, which I would have at CYA, as lunch is always provided. Afterwards, I would have my afternoon classes, which were always done around 3:30. For the remainder of the day I would have free time, which I would spend doing homework, practicing Greek, reading, and doing chores around the apartment.
I would usually have dinner, either at my apartment or out, at around 8-9. I would get ready for bed afterwards, and I would try to be in bed by 1:00.
Weekends were more varied. I didn't have a set wake up time, so I had a lot of variance with when my day would begin. Usually, Saturday I would try to do sightseeing, while Sunday was the day that I would do all of my projects and other homework I had over the weekend.
What did you enjoy doing during your free time abroad?
Visiting the Theater of Epidaurus
In my free time, my favorite thing to do was sightsee, whether in Athens or many of the other places I visited as part of the program. I am unsure of any time that I will be in Greece in the future, so I felt I had to make the most of my time.
I had many things, such as the Acropolis and the Agora, which I had always wanted to see. I also got to see things that I had not previously known about, such as the ruins on the island of Aegina, the National Archaeological Museum, or the Athens War Museum. CYA helped me do this, by helping me take trips to Olympia, Delphi, Thessaloniki, and many other sites, places that I probably would not have visited otherwise.
At other times, I liked going out and spending time with friends. Often, friends would gather at my apartment to spend time with each other, and we would sometimes spend time at the local bars or nightclubs, but this was a relatively rare choice.
On my own, I read, and sometimes played video games, but those are things that I do at home, and I preferred the exploring that came with being in Greece.
What type of accommodation did you have? What did you like best about it?
For my accommodation in the program, CYA had apartments in the Pangrati neighborhood of Athens that I stayed in. These accommodations were very nice. Ultimately, my favorite part of my apartment was the neighborhood.
The apartment was well situated in a neighborhood that had a lot of excellent things close to home. It was across the street from a nice bakery I regularly got breakfast at, down the street there was a nice bookstore and some parks, there were several convenience stores and a well-stocked grocery store very close, and the restaurants in the immediate proximity were all excellent.
The laundry facilities and my classes were almost always a quick walk away, and public transit was close at hand. The apartment itself was comfortable, and had everything I wanted an apartment to have, but the best part was the neighborhood.
What is one thing every future participant should know about your program before their program begins?
I would say that the one thing every future participant in CYA should keep in mind is that it gets very easy to neglect your schoolwork. There were multiple times over the course of the semester that my time in Greece distracted me from my studies.
Occasionally, I went out with friends when it probably would have been wiser to work on my Greek, or when I had projects due and I didn't know if I had enough time. This negligence cost me, and later in the school year I had to deal with a large amount of stress, which I would have probably preferred to avoid.
Making sure to work hard even when the distractions of studying abroad happening will help you have a far more enjoyable time in the long run.
Would you recommend Study Abroad in Greece with CYA to others? Why?
I would wholeheartedly recommend CYA's Study Abroad program to others. This is because Athens is a great place to study, especially if one's interest is in history, classical studies, or the ancient world.
This program offers many unique classes with teachers utterly dedicated to the success of their students. The program also provided an expansive and supportive community, with many opportunities for the cultivation of friendships that last a lifetime. The program granted us the ability to travel throughout Europe, and experience many new cultures.
Overall, I believe that CYA's Study Abroad program is a well organized and run study abroad program, which should be considered a success.
What do you feel the biggest benefit of traveling abroad is?
The biggest benefit of traveling abroad is the opportunity to meet different cultures and people. I think one of the main problems in the world is that people don't have enough understanding of the ways other people live.
Traveling is one of the most reliable ways to cure that ignorance. When an individual is traveling to another place, especially when they are open-minded and eager to learn, they are more able to connect with the inhabitants of that place.
This is important because we live in a more interconnected world, and these sorts of understandings are necessary to foster greater friendships between the different people of the world.
The Parthenon
Now that you're home, how has your time abroad impacted your life?
Now that I am at home, I recognize that my time abroad impacted my life in a lot of different ways. One was that I was able to go on a lot more trips alone. I have travelled alone before, especially when flying between my home in the Chicago area and Brandeis, in the Boston area.
However, that was simple back-and-forth travel between two places, both of which I was familiar with. This was different, I could get my own plane ticket and find my own place to stay, and that is something I haven't had a lot of experience doing before. I could also make my own plans for traveling with friends, and going on vacations with my friends is something that I have only rarely done.
Another way it has affected me is that I became more invested in international geopolitics. Before, I was very attentive to foreign affairs, but I was in America, and we have historically been somewhat insulated from international affairs. In Greece, I was significantly closer to ongoing geopolitical conflicts in both Ukraine and the Middle East, some of which were discussed in class.
This, naturally, was far more concerning to me than usual information about geopolitics, but as a result, I was far more attentive.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
What I consider to be meaningful travel is travel that I have learned from. I believe that one should always take efforts to improve yourself, especially by learning new things, even when one is enjoying themselves.
As such, I try to make sure that when I take vacations, they should be meaningful travel. I tried to make many of the trips I took during this vacation meaningful. The special trips directed by the CYA program guides were very good at making meaningful trips for us, where we learned a lot of new things about the country and communities which were hosting us.
By learning from the people and places we met, we can become more responsible members of the international community.
