Farewell For Now

Back home in the United States, I've been thinking about my time in Greece a lot.  Of course, family and friends have wanted to know every detail of my time abroad, and in many conversations I've found myself pulling a blank on what to tell them.  It seems like even though I was in Greece for so many months I don't remember most of it.  After being there for four months, everything that stands out becomes familiar, everything that sets it apart from the US becomes the norm.  And I've noticed and learned about different modes of life, different ways of going about a day, and different ways of interacting with another person.

CYA offered me an invaluable opportunity in many forms: I learned from some of the most incredible professors, all very impressive in their fields.  All of my professors from this past semester were not only excellent teachers, but they were also eager to learn alongside me and my peers as we discovered new finds throughout Athens and the rest of the world.  The friends that I made inside and outside the classroom are some of the best I've ever had.  I know that there are a handful of people I've met here that I will stay in contact with because we've shared this unique experience.  My internship with the MediaLab taught me a slew of professional skills that I will no doubt bring to my next job, and I made more amazing workplace friends along the way.  Even though it was an internship, the responsibility and the respect involved made the position feel like a real job, a real career, and that is a feeling that I will keep with me as I finish school and start to enter the work force as a graduate.

As a whole, Greece was one of the most beautiful places I had ever had the pleasure of living in.  I learned to appreciate the outdoors and the casual din of the people around me.  I learned to listen to the city and look at the corners in new ways. I learned more than I ever thought I would about history purely by looking at one storefront; furthermore, the way Athens is built layer upon layer made me think about my carbon footprint, and the impact I have on the environment on a young person in America.  This city made me think about how I move through the world, and it caused me to think critically of myself and those around me.

One of the best memories I have of Greece, is one that occurred on my last day but brought me back to my first day.  I was walking to the academic center the first day I arrived in Athens, and I needed help unlocking my apartment door.  Having walked to the academic center one way, I thought that the person helping me would walk bak that way with me.  I then found out that there was another, seemingly more confusing way to my apartment.  She took me through winding streets and up and down crosswalks, and looking around I was completely confused and didn't have any of my bearings.  Before heading off to the Athens airport for the last time, I realized that the very same street that I traversed at some point throughout every day was the same street that the CYA employee had led me through on my first day in Greece.  It was a crazy realization to try and see the streets and all its storefronts and people without knowing all the history and experiences I've had with them–it was a surreal experience.  It was then that I realized how much I needed to come back to Greece, whether it's in this decade or the next.  Because the people in Athens knew me, and they helped me to discover who I was and wanted to be in this world.  So, it's a goodbye for now, and a very very large see you soon.

Hiking Up to the Gods

This semester I had the amazing opportunity to go hiking in the southern part of Greece. About thirty CYA students and a hiking guide from the area woke up early on a Friday morning, to take a six-hour bus ride. Groggily pushing ourselves onto the bus having forgotten to eat breakfast, we all used that morning ride to sleep a bit more and to mentally prepare ourselves to hike up the tallest mountain in Greece –which, of course, happens to be the one and only Mount Olympus

The minute the email about hiking Mount Olympus came into my inbox a few months ago, I jumped at the opportunity to sign up. My mom can attest to the fact that I had barely read the whole email before I was screaming with joy – how often was I going to get the chance to hike up to the mythological throne room of the gods? I knew that having chosen to come to Greece, I absolutely HAD to be on this trip, especially as I had spent the entire summer before thinking about all the possible experiences I could have on that mountain. Now that I’m back at sea level, I can say that the actual hike was nothing like I had expected, but it was still one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had.

We started the hike at the base of the mountain, which is in the town of Litochoro. Getting off the bus, I could already tell I would be in for a treat from the beautiful forest surrounding the mountain range. Going to school in Boston, I’ve come to love watching the leaves change, and I was really bummed that I wouldn’t get to experience that while I was in Greece this semester. But it seems like the gods had other ideas because the trees on this mountain range were some of the most beautiful shades of orange, red, and yellow that I’ve ever seen. A lot of the friends I’ve made here at CYA also go to school on the East Coast, and we were spinning in circles for a solid five minutes because we were so excited about the foliage – it was one of the funniest situations ever!

After we calmed down from the surprise of the trees, we started our hike by walking across a bridge that overlooked a small waterfall and then we continued up some steps laid into the path. Within the first couple of hours we made an impressive gain in elevation, and within the first hour I was sweating but still having a fun time. It was incredible to see all the little hills and valleys, and it was really nice to be out in nature. I’m also someone who loves to talk as I’m doing something, whether it’s walking, driving, or doing arts and crafts, and the hike was a perfect backdrop for me. There were a lot of other hikers that I either hadn’t met or hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to interact with during the semester, and I got to meet a lot of new and really cool people that way.

We started our hike pretty late in the afternoon, around five pm, which gave us just a couple of hours of daylight (luckily this trip took place before daylight savings time ended), but by the time night fell we still hadn’t gotten to the shelter, so our day hike quickly became a night hike. I have very little hiking experience, and quite frankly the only time that I spend outside is when I’m swimming at the beach or having picnics with friends on the grass. That means I am by no means equipped to hike up a mountain at night! Even so, I surprised myself when I realized how much fun I was having looking up at the stars and hiking in the dark with nothing but a flashlight and the moon to light my path.

Not long after it got dark, we could see the lights emanating from the windows of the refuge, and even though it seemed like every time we came upon another switchback, the light seemed to get farther away, we eventually arrived at the shelter at around 9:30 pm. After a quick dinner, we all braced ourselves for the pain we’d feel in our legs when we finally stopped moving and prepared for the rest of the hike up to the summit the following morning. Once we had all gathered in the morning, we had breakfast at the refuge and got to meet lots of other hikers and climbers, as well as some adorable dogs, all on their own journeys up the mountain. Gearing up to continue the hike, my friends and I took a few minutes to take some photos with the sun and the trees – even though we weren’t at the summit yet, we still had a pretty breathtaking view.

The second leg of our mountain hike was definitely a little bit harder because my legs were already sore from all the hiking we had done the day before. There were some parts of the mountain that were simply extreme verticals, and even though I saw my feet moving, I had trouble comprehending that I was hiking upward; it was truly wild to see!  After a few more hours, we reached the summit, and once we saw the open expanse that took us to the mountain edge, every one of us seemed to get a burst of energy. Finally being on a flat surface, we all started running to the edge to see what awaited us there, and we were not disappointed. It was a little foggier than usual that morning, but the view was spectacular. We were surrounded by mountain ranges, the sky was so open, and we could see for miles in every direction; I was floored, to say the least.

I don’t know if this is a common trope at all colleges, but one of the jokes at Tufts is that when people go abroad they always come back talking about all the ways that abroad “changed” them. Even the first day I got to Greece, one of the first texts I got from my friend was “Has abroad changed you yet?” It’s all a joke, but it’s based on a lot of truth: the abroad experience is different for everyone, but there are always concrete experiences that change perceptions and the ways we walk through this world. I think that’s a really powerful thing, and it was one of the reasons why I was so excited to study abroad in the first place. I could tell from the first step I took towards the summit of Mount Olympus that this was an experience that was going to stay with me forever; the process of walking through a part of the world that was and still is both so mystical and so natural, sharing laughs with friends, straining my neck to look out over cliffs without falling, all of these experiences changed me.  I came back from this trip having gained a lot of different things: I’m now more aware of my surroundings and more critical of landscapes and how I walk through spaces as a pedestrian. I also realized how much I love the terrain of Greece as a whole. What’s more, I got to see beautiful rural landscapes and make great friends, and I discovered how much I love walking among trees and hiking, a pastime I’ll definitely continue once I get back to the States. Standing on top of Mount Olympus, I got me a taste of what it felt like to be next to nature, and I absolutely loved it.

This article was originally published for and by cyablog.net