EC EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SUMMER PROGRAMS: Home Away From Home-June 5, 2019

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Home Away From Home-June 5, 2019

It's only been a week since the program started, but I am already starting to feel at home here in Crete. Like we talked about in class today, part of the culture here includes the personal relationships that people have with each other. Yesterday, the ladies in the kitchen were preparing to make dolmathes, a traditional dish composed of grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs. I noticed them getting the ingredients ready and, because my mom makes me help her cook them all the time, I asked them if we could help. They were excited and brought all the ingredients to the table, so professor Smirles and I helped them wrap the grape leaves while others came to see how they are made. Even though I just met these ladies a week ago, I felt like I was cooking in the kitchen with my family. Small interactions like this portray the intimate communities here and how everyone is treated like family.

Thespina

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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.