One Week Later

Hey everyone, its hard to believe it has been a week since we arrived on Crete. Its amazing how different the village we are staying at, Alikianos, is from the busy streets of Athens. Time seems to move slower here, and I’ve already done so much. I never thought I’d be spending a birthday in a foreign country and I really liked visiting Chania for class and having the opportunity to explore the city. Peter, Dr. Vamvakas, and I ended up at a coffee/music shop that local musicians frequent. When we sat down, a group of local guys (who had clearly been drinking for a while) noticed us and began to sing in Greek. What they were singing about I don’t know since we’ve only been taking Greek for five days. The shop had instruments such as guitars, violins, and Bouzoukis sitting around for people to play and me and Peter began to play along to the songs as best we could. In the past week we’ve been learning about geopolitics and energy while also trying to learn Greek, and it has honestly been one of the best weeks I’ve had. Going to the beach every day for a week seems to make everything better. I was really interested to learn more about Cyprus and Crete as they relate to geopolitics. I never considered the geographical importance of the many Greek islands, but they allow Greece to dominate the Aegean Sea while shutting out Turkey. It will be exciting to go to Cyprus and Athens in the coming weeks. So much has happened so quickly. Time really does seem to move slower here, and the people are really inviting and nice. Alikianos feels really authentic and I’m excited to learn more and explore in the next month.

Ειρήνη,

Ματθαίος

First week in Crete

Hi everybody!

I've been in Crete for about a week now and I can say it has been quite the experience. I arrived in Greece on May 26 and stayed in Thessaloniki for about 5 days. My time in Crete has felt much different than Thessaloniki. There is definitely a feeling that I am on an island during my time in Crete, while Thessaloniki was a fast paced city with traffic and people walking around outside my hostel all day and night. 

Learning about the Eastern Mediterranean since classes began on Monday, June 4th 2018, has been fun and informative. Today, we discussed the situation in Cyprus at the cafe lecture in the Chania Harbor. We discussed the historical context that began with the Ottomans gifting the island of Cyprus to the British in the late 19th century. In the 20th century, people on the island perceived there to be two options for the future of Cyprus, which included enosis and taksim. The enosis option called for Cyprus to be annexed by the Greek state, while taksim was supported by Turkey and called for the division of the island. Next week we will be in Cyprus and I was assigned to represent the United States in the simulation at the University of Nicosia. I am excited to get started and be in touch with my partner at the University of Nicosia so we could start working on our opening statement.

Week 1 Post 1

Welcome to Europe!! And what a welcome it has been. Having never have left the country before this trip I had no idea what to expect and what the differences would be or how they would affect me. The biggest difference for me has been the eating schedule. In the U.S. I regular only eat two meals a day one at noon and one around 6. Compare this to Greece where lunch isn’t served until 3 or 4 and dinner can take place as late as 10. The importance of a good breakfast has never been more important and thankfully there are many great options. The effect of this new eating schedule has made it seem like the days just seem to fly buy. By the time classes end and we have eaten lunch, the first real meal of the day, its 3 in the afternoon and I realize that I’m exhausted. However, the day is only just beginning. Going to the beach each afternoon has defiantly been the highlight of each day but this doesn’t take away from the great discussions that have been taking place in class. The small class size and everyone being fully committed to academics has made more a much more enjoyable class experience than typically found at Emmanuel. This really has me exited for the coming weeks and the discussions will only get better as everyone gets a better understanding of the history and importance of this area. This trip if off to a great success and I can't wait for the coming weeks. 

Week 1 Fun!

Wowee what a week it's been! Although we've only been in Crete for a few days, we've done so much. The group has really bonded in our classes and daily beach trips. Over the weekend, we attended a memorial for villagers killed during World War II. The ceremony was extremely emotional for the people, despite the fact that the event happened over 70 years ago. It was interesting to see how historical events still affect the people of the area. In the United States, we have such a short history that things that happened decades ago seem far removed. This is not the case in Greece. With Greece's long history, World War II does not seem so long ago.
The other side of the story revealed itself today when we visited the German cemetery. Despite the fact that Germany was an invading force, they still buried their fallen on Crete. Still today, there is a debate over whether Germany's actions were justified under international law. Whether or not the actions were technically legal, the brutality of the occupation still weighs heavily in the minds of Greeks today. 
Greece is a place where the merging of two stories is not uncommon. Even in the architecture, decades are built on top of each other. This creates an interesting dynamic within the culture that is hard to find elsewhere. I'm excited to learn more in the coming weeks!

Fin.
XX Jess

June 6, 2018 Agriculture

The difficulty of small-scale farming

The agricultural industry has developed into an industry of great difficulty for small-scale businesses. In the United States each year the number of small privately owned farms is on the decline. Larger operations (factory farming) are making it difficult for small farms and businesses to continue their practices. Competition is the biggest hindrance to their success. Factor farms are able to produce more products and provide their goods at low prices that small operations are not able to make a profit or even cover costs. Additionally, the farming industry has lost its appeal to the younger generation. Young people are no longer willing to opt to take on these physically demanding jobs or continue a multigenerational business due to the changing political, social and economic landscape. The United States is not alone in the paradigm shift. All around the world, this shift is occurring. 

Today we went to a small scale packaging plant. Predominantly this business produces and processes citrus, lemons and olives. These three resources are abundant in Greece and many other countries that are situated on the Mediterranean. While travelling around Crete I noticed that many of the fruit-bearing trees still had much of its offerings. To me, this was very bothersome due to my interest in food insecurity. On the bus, Professor Vamvakas explained to the group that farmers within the area are letting trees bear their fruits because there is not a great enough incentive for them to collect and process the fruit. Additionally, farmers are pulling up citrus trees, to plant avocado trees due to demand and trend. At the packaging business, the owner toured us through his facilities, showing us the conveyor belts, olive processor and the fridges. 

This tour was interesting for me. Going in I wanted to ask a series of questions focused on the amount of waste, pesticide use, and environment impacts. The owner answered to the best of his abilities. Much of what he said was what I expected. The agricultural industry is a very wasteful one, and much of this is due to the consumer. Primarily consumers will not buy products that are deemed “damaged”. Produce that has slight appearance defects are generally not sold. The stores and markets that purchase produce are not willing to purchase products that appearance defects due to the belief that consumers will not buy them. This generalization is not wrong. Consumers are conditioned to buy products that are perfect. This ideology is what contributes to massive food waster around the world. The owner showed us a pile of Lemons that would not be sold to markets but will be sold to another business that will press the fruit instead of selling the fruit directly. The owner estimated that roughly 30% of the cultivated land would go to waste but that these numbers are not certain. He additionally went on to tell me that they use pesticides that are harmful to the environment due to the rise in fly population-that has the ability to devastate entire crops. 

Our visit proved to be an interesting one. All I can say is many thanks to Yota and her family.

Learning Greek: June 4, 2018

Learning Greek: June 4, 2018

Learning the Greek language feels like a disconnect from reality. Some of the symbols are familiar and others bare resemblance to the letters in the English alphabet but bare no similarity in sound. The second day of our Greek language class was severe compared to our previous lesson the night before. In the hours between the first and second class trouble persists in connecting the new shapes of the letters and their sound. In class, I am experiencing something I have never felt before. I feel terribly lost. I can only presume that my feelings are not felt alone. I assumed the class would be fast paced due to the length of the program. Luckily it's early, I'll have time to establish the shapes of the of the letters with their assigned sound. 

Greek Language Cheat Sheet: Every letter is pronounced, with 24 letters, the Greek language stands to complicate my day.

How I make sense of it all: Now to the letters, their name and the sound they make

Alpha A, α ah

Vita Β, β v

Gamma Γ, γ the letter y (used before e, u, i) otherwise “gh”

Thelta Δ, δ hard TH sound, as in “there”

Epsilon Ε, ε eh

Zita Ζ, ζ z

Ita Η, η ee

Thita Θ, θ soft th as in “through”

Iota Ι, ι ee

Kappa  K,k k

Lamtha Λ, λ l or ll 

Mu Μ, μ m

Nu Ν, ν n

Xee Ξ, ξ x

Omikron O,o “oh”

Pi Π, π p

Rho P,p rolled r

Sigma Σ, σ, ς s

Tau Τ, τ t

Upsilon Υ, υ ee

Phi Φ, φ f

Chi X,x ch light similar to the "ch" in “challah bread”

Psi Ψ, ψ Ps, chi-ps

Omega Ω, ω similar to “awe” and “oh”

In the second day of class, we went on to try to pronounce and sound out words. This proved to be difficult for me. By rows we each attempt to pronounce a word in our workbooks. It has been a bit nerve-racking, but we are all in the same boat. I have the alphabet down in the sense I can recite the name of each letter in order, but I am not quick in the association of the letter’s sound and identification. I learned that the best process for me is to break down the word into its syllables and look up each letter’s sound. Then write the word out phonetically. I hope in the next few weeks to make progress that can only be made in practice. Fingers crossed that English and Spanish will not sabotage this journey.

Welcome to 2018 Eastern Mediterranean Security Studies Program

For the last seven years Emmanuel College has been making the Eastern Mediterranean the classroom for a select group of students. The part of the world, which has been the cultural, historical, economic crossroads for millennia continues to be in the 21st century. In the next four weeks we are going to immerse ourselves into the region, by making the historic village of Alikianos, in western Crete, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean, our home and base of studying the region.

By keeping this blog we will share our experience with each other and with a wider audience, as previous cohorts have. Sharing in the experience also helps better understand, as we reflect and hear from everyone else.

Enjoy the ride and invite others to come along in the next four weeks.