Putting a trip as memorable and life changing as the Greece Cross Cultural trip is seems like an impossible task. There were so many moments where I thought, “I never want to forget being here with my new and old friends.” There is so much information sitting in the crevices of my mind that there are moments where I remember facts that I think I’ve forgotten. I look at the pictures and all the special moments come rushing back to me like I’ve been swept under the current of a wave. Throughout my time in Greece I had some personal revelations that could overshadow all of the information I had taken in, but without the information the revelations couldn’t have occurred. Being immersed in the Greek culture helped me discover things about myself I didn’t even know and analyze the difference between the two cultures.

I’m not good with numbers, money or anything along those same lines and so I had a hard time really grasping what people said was wrong with the economy in Greece. It would be hard for me to tell you if the 12% unemployment rate is high or why the bail out they received was half of their Gross Domestic Product (Mini-Lecture, Economics). It was seeing the people and the shop-owners that provided me with an understanding of what is going on in their economy. I don’t know whether to say this was because of tourism or because of the economy, but the more I walked around the shopping districts I noticed the presence of a shop owner outside trying to persuade me to come inside and buy something. Sometimes I would go in and sometimes I wouldn’t, but it was obvious that they were looking for the business. I never tried to lower the price of an item I was going to purchase because I realized I have a job back home in a decent economy and I can afford to pay full price for this. For me it was about taking a gift home to a family member or friend, to them it was the money they would use to survive.

Greece’s economy has been on the downward slope for a while now and the people are just unhappy. 10% of the population in Greece works for the government and are on the government payroll (Mini Lecture, Economics). If I remember correctly, people that work for the government are on the payroll for life and I believe that this is an area where a change can occur that could possibly help the economy rise from its ashes, so to speak. They finally have found a government that works for them, they need to find a way to keep it so they don’t completely crumble and find themselves under the control of another nation or the European Union. Our economy hasn’t been the best recently. I thank God on a daily basis that I have a job during the summer and that I have a house to stay in when I go home. I understand why the people are upset and the pain that they are feeling because I’ve been there, but the people won’t be happy if the government doesn’t find a way to make some changes.

The people have also played a role in the decline of the economy in Greece. I don’t believe that the economy could have collapsed the way it did if the people were not involved. 35% of Greeks evade their taxes (Dr. Ignatios Meimaris). I think that plays a huge role in the downfall of their economy. If a large enough portion of people don’t pay their taxes than the government is losing money to pay for the areas it is obligated to pay for. Another way that people work around claiming products is by selling items from the black market. 33% of items in Greece are bought on the black market (Mini-Lecture, Economics). These items are not going to be taxed and that money is not going towards the government and they cannot help the people if they are not getting any money from them.

We’re a democracy that is based off of a democracy that was successful for only 49 years (Costas Tsevas). Greece has a very long and constantly changing political history. They didn’t have the same type of government for a very long time. They were under military control a few times and they’ve had monarchies; they had a dictator and they were part of large empires. Compared to the governmental history of Greece, the United States is extremely young. We fought the American Revolution to get the government we wanted and fought the Civil War to have the same government everywhere and not lose any states, but since the Revolution the U.S. has always been a democratic republic. We know where we came from, but we haven’t had to fight many people to keep it to a system that we know works like Greece has.

The role of the president is different for both the United States and Greece. Our president holds all the power, where as in Greece he is more ceremonial than anything else (Mini-Lecture, Greek Government). The Prime Minister actually holds all the power. I could compare that to the United Kingdom where the Queen hardly has any power and the Prime Minister does most of the work. One of the things that I loved about being in Parliament though was the room that they always keep locked (Tour Guide, Parliament). It remains locked because it is a reminder for all the representatives of the government that democracy is no easy task and is something that has to be worked at daily. That one room is almost a representation of their entire governmental history or at least by keeping it locked they pay homage to their political history and remind themselves of where they came from.

The United States does have pretty good relations with Greece. The United States and Greece have historical ties because of the democracy that Greece “gave” to us. Currently the United States is playing a huge role in encouraging Greece to improve their relations with Turkey. There is an issue between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus. Now the United States is encouraging the proposition of a bi-zonal, bi-communal Cyprus with half of Cyprus being ruled by Greece and the other half being ruled by Turkey. One of the other things that is interesting about the improvement of Greece’s foreign affairs with Turkey is that Turkey is making the discussion to ascend into the European Union and Greece is the only nation that backs Turkey’s decision to do this (U.S. Embassy).

There are people that are clearly upset about what the government has been up to lately. I don’t think that they need to change their government, but they need to change the amount of power and money some people are receiving. The people clearly want change and we have to see how Greece answers the people’s requests. It blew my mind that they protested within the law (Mini-Lecture, Law & Security). I would think that people would be so upset that they would just let loose. Even though that surprised me, seeing people out on the streets actually protesting was a new sight for me. People were voicing their opinions and for all to see. I think that sometimes we are too afraid to voice our unhappiness that we just suck it up and deal with it. The Greeks are suffering so much that they can’t do that.

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to go to whatever college I wanted to. Money didn’t matter because I would take out loans and find a way to get the best education I could. In Greece, college is free; however, there is still a price that people pay for their free college education. The competitiveness of going to college causes families to have to spend more money on private tutoring to pass the entrance exams (Pari Papageorgiou, education lecture). The scores on these tests then determine what college you can get into and what profession a student will eventually have. There education system is competitive, whereas most of us go to college and then have to compete in the job market. I can’t say which I would prefer, but right now I’m loving the education that I am getting and I wouldn’t want it to be any other way. Some Greek students probably disagree with my statement and would rather go somewhere else.

Everyone in both Greek and American cultures think of education highly. We wouldn’t pay the money to go to private universities and they wouldn’t pay the money for the private tutors if it didn’t mean something to them. My mom did not go to college and she has been blessed to find a job that pays a pretty decent amount, but she didn’t want that life for me and taught me to value my education. So I studied, read and took the tests to get to the place where I am right now. I can imagine the life of a Greek student was probably similar to mine. A family that wanted their children to succeed and do better for themselves than they had, so they taught their children to value their education and they are willing to pay whatever money they need for private tutors even if they can’t really afford it.

If my family were to be similar to the Greek culture and have most of the family living close together I could probably take up a pretty decent sized portion of the neighborhood. Most of that is because most of the adults in my family have gotten divorced and remarried, creating a huge extended family, but still. I would live above my mom (and her fiancé) and she would live above my grandma and my step-grandpa. Divorce isn’t that common in Greece. Emotional divorce is more common with it happening to 60% of people (Pantalis Sidiropoulos, Family Life Lecture). It is unfortunate that my parents got divorced, but I’m glad they didn’t have an emotional divorce. I would feel guilty as a child because I was somehow preventing my parents from being happy. I wouldn’t want to burden my children with that and I can understand why people do it, but I don’t think that it is the best idea all of the time.

“Marriage is the best school of life” (Pantalis Sidiropoulos, Family Life Lecture). I think that is a great picture of what marriage could be for people and I can’t wait to be a part of that school. I learned a lot about my boyfriend, Randy, while I was in Greece. I think the saying “you learn a lot about someone when you travel with them” rang true when it came to the two of us. But, the most learning came when we talked about the five things to look for in a spouse. The more information was given about each of the five things the easier it became for me to see that forever could be a possibility with Randy. We are similar in a few areas, spiritual, psychological and social and we are building a strong friendship and falling in love with one another (Pantalis Sidiropoulos, Family Life Lecture). But being too similar could be bad and I’m glad that there are a few things that are different for the two of us. Our similarities give us a strong foundation and our differences help us keep each other on our toes and that concept is important in a relationship, otherwise it would get too dull.

Greek Orthodox is the national religion in Greece. It is pretty much every person’s religious identity because if you aren’t Greek Orthodox you are almost shunned from the culture. Most people only go to church at Christmastime, Easter, for weddings and for baptisms (Stephanos, Life as an Evangelical in Greece). There are some Christians like that here in the United States, but I think that the idea of being Greek Orthodox no matter how often a person attends church is much more common than being a Christian here is. There are many different ranges of those that are Greek Orthodox. There are monasteries and then there are the common people that hardly practice with everything in between.

Even though 98% of Greeks are Orthodox, there are other types of religions in Greece (Mini-Lecture, Protestants in Greece). Katerini includes a large Evangelical population (Pari Papageorgiou, Education Lecture). One of the other hardly major religions in Greece is the Muslim religion. The region of Thrace has 110,000 – 120,000 Muslims. One of the reasons for the large amount of Muslims in Greece is that Greece has borders with countries with large Muslim populations. Each capital in the European Union has a mosque, except fore Greece (Mini-Lecture, Muslims in Greece). I think that a large reason why some Athens does not have a mosque is because of the national identity that is associated with their religion. If they weren’t so attached with their religion they might be willing to have a mosque, but until they can make a decision to venture away from their religion a little bit I don’t think a mosque is in the future of Athens.

The monasteries were some of the coolest places in Greece. They hold so much history of the religion that Greece has, but at the same time they really hold onto some of those ancient rituals. I was a little thrown off by the ornate characteristics of the chapels of the monasteries. They are people that are so humble, yet they worship in a place that is covered in gold and silver. I think they are inadvertently worshiping gold and silver and that confuses me. Their idols are covered in 24 carats of gold. It is just a concept that I have to try to grasp and I know that it is something that I will be thinking about for a very long time.

I was really changed by going to Corinth. The Biblical sites that are in Greece are so amazing and so surprising, but Corinth was the one that impacted me the most. By going to the places like Corinth I realized something about myself that I didn’t know before we left. I was struggling with my walk with Jesus Christ. By going to those places I came back to a place where I found myself happy again with my spiritual life. I just needed something tangible to associate with my faith. Corinth was that place for me. I was changed. I was standing in a place where Paul stood and I could imagine what it looked like when he was there and what the people were like that he was writing to. I also thought about how all of the people that lived there and how they felt the same emotions that I do. The Bible became real to me. It was no longer stories about people that I know nothing about it. I finally realized that the Bible is a compilation of stories about real people.

One of the other things that brought me back was something someone said. “I’m not the best Christian” (Stephanos, Growing Up In Greece). Those simple words mean so much. None of us are the best Christians. Being the best Christian is something that is almost impossible because we still make mistakes. I needed to hear that. Going to Biblical places and hearing someone say something so simple brought me back to my faith and made me realize that there are times when I struggle, but no matter what I have God and the faith that I have believed in for so long. It feels good to be back.

I now have a budding interest in Greek mythology as well. I could never think of some of the stories that are associated with the Gods. I cannot even imagine how they got started. I can only imagine some mother coming up with one of those stories and then telling them to her son as he tried to go to sleep at night or to calm all his nerves about what was going on in the world. I cannot wait to read more of the stories and learn more about where the Greeks got some of their culture. There are some areas where it was hard to tell where the mythology stopped and the religious aspect started. Greece has held on to so many aspects of it’s history, everything from their government to the architecture to some of their rituals, but they have also held on to the mythology by still telling people some of the stories especially the ones that are associated with places like the Parthenon. It seems that they always want their people to remember and never forget exactly where they came from.

I adore sports. I am both a spectator and a participant. I can appreciate being on both sides of the game. Part of the reason why I chose to go to Greece was because of the sports history that is there. The Olympics is my favorite time of year, when they occur, and I can’t wait for them to be on again. To be in the place where the Olympics began was almost as cool as going to the Biblical places. I was able to see the places where both ancient and modern athletes have competed and was even able to be the modern Royal Couple for at least a few minutes for some pictures. One of the things that I was really disappointed by was how people had vandalized the stadium that was built for the 2004 Olympics (Costas Tsevas, Overall Guide). The Olympics started in Greece and it is an ultimate sign of respect by the Olympic Committee to be the host nation or city and the people disrespected it. Some people may blame the Olympics for causing their economic downfall, but doing something to a building isn’t going to do much good.

The ancient stadium in Olympia was such a cool place. Not only was it where the Olympics began, but also the humility that was visible there had me awed. It was so simple, a straight track built between two hills where the people would sit. Every person sat on the grass; no person was better than the other. The idea of that made me think about the stadiums where athletes compete today. We’ve spent millions of dollars on domes that collapse like the Metrodome in Minneapolis did after a snowstorm. The Olympics used to bring people together and were often a time where people figured out any of their issues and make peace. Now, we come together for sports and people get hurt because they are fans of the rival team and people just get mad at one another over stupid little things. That is not what sports should be about. I wish that the athletes and stadiums of today had some of that humility. I think that the entire perspective that people have on sports would change. It might even get more people to come and be a spectator or attempt to be an athlete. It shouldn’t be about the money, it should be about bringing people together.

The Greece Cross Cultural was a time of learning, but also a time of personal revelation. There are so many stories to tell and so many new friendships were formed. This trip was more than just a normal learning experience. I was taken out a classroom immersed in the culture and had to figure out how my culture and the Greek culture are the same or completely different. In the process I had a great time with great company and tried food I never thought I would eat. Now if only I could go back for a Greek pizza on Patmos and a nice cup of Freeway Orange.