EC EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SUMMER PROGRAMS: The Gorge and Beyond

Sunday, June 4, 2017

The Gorge and Beyond

9:00am
At Emmanuel, warm spring days generally indicate the start of "EC Beach", and tanning on the freshly mowed grass that lays in the heart of campus. Here, I wake up to the quiet meows of the institute's cat, whom we have affectionately named "Athena", and the smell of freshly brewed coffee provided by the kind woman who have helped make this strange new land a temporary home.

Hiking Somaria Gorge was an interesting experience, to say the least. At the beginning of our 14km trek, one of our classmates asked how the pathways through the gorge were made. Professor Vamvakas explained that some of them (the ones at the very beginning) were made overtime by the goats who inhabited the area, as they moved and coexisted peacefully with their land.

I found it fascinating that we, as eager young students were able to step where they stepped.

6:00pm
As we sit on the boat leaving Ageia Roumeli, I am filled with excitement to head back to this new home in Crete... how nice is it, that I already have a place here that I truly miss once I'm gone? I've only ever had that once before, and it was when I chose Emmanuel to be the place where I continued my educational experience. How lucky am I to have had that feeling not once, but twice in the short 20 years I've spent wandering the world? The island's blissful tranquility has completely stolen my heart.

4:37am
The bus ride back from the ferry was long, and just about everyone on the bus was tired, hungry, and very ready for a nice cool shower back at the institute (I know I was!). The few of us who srated awake during the ride back got see the beautiful mountains that surrounded us at every turn. Every time I caught my breath, it would be taken away again by the stunning scenery. At one point, I looked over and Dillon and I couldn't help but grin at how joyfully breathtaking it all was.
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I just submitted my first essay for Geopolitics, and as stressful as it was, it was a great way to tie together everything that we talked about in class last week. Even more so, it helped me get out of "beach mode" and back into "student mode", which can sometimes be very difficult...good thinking Professor!

On to this weeks adventures....

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EC Eastern Security Studies Program

In the summer of 2011, as the "Arab Spring" was unfolding and the "Eurozone Crisis" was entering its second year, the Emmanuel College Eastern Mediterranean Security Studies Program was established in Crete, as a way to make the location the classroom. Beyond the grand theoretical, historical and political understanding that can be achieved through reading and classroom discussion and exchange, a more immediate, intimate and truer appreciation of the complexities can only achieved by experiencing the cultures, languages of personal interaction.

Since 2012 students have been able to combine an intensive curricular study, with the experience of immersion and living in a local setting. The geopolitical and geoeconomic forces that have acted in the region for centuries, can be identified in the classroom, but they can only be understood by being there. This year's EC EMSS Program will add a fourth week of study, experience and exploration and will also travel to the islands of Rhodes, and Cyprus. In Rhodes we will be partnering with the Prefecture of Southern Aegean and the Aegean University, while in Cyprus we will be hosted by the University of Nicosia.