civilization

^_«I used to be strolling within the Acropolis Museum. I used to be impressed by the finds below the glass flooring. I assumed, “How can I stroll on cracked ceramic plates buried within the grime? What different objects or tales may very well be buried beneath my toes?’

This helped me understand that historic historical past doesn’t disappear with modernity – as a substitute, I can see it below my white sneakers. Town of Athens is a continuing reminder of this truth…”.

The 22-year-old British-American Olivia Franklin lives in New York and research European Historical past, Politics and Literature at Columbia.

She, together with 14 different fellow college students, after filling of their names within the related purposes of their college, flew fairly removed from their tutorial “nest” and got here with their professors, the affiliate professor of Italian and Mediterranean Research Konstantina Zanouthe lecturer of Fashionable Greek Research Nikola P. Kakkoufa and the Ph.D. of the Basis Chloe Charalambous in Athens. And right here they obtained misplaced within the photographs, aromas and flavors of the town.

Mosaic of experiences

They went to museums and archaeological websites, to lectures, workshops, walks and excursions, they obtained to know historic Athens but in addition on a regular basis life within the trendy metropolis and its environment, they even did a theater seminar on historic drama on the Karolos Koun Artwork Theater or created their very own vases and have been guided to the secrets and techniques of ceramic artwork on the Middle for the Research of Fashionable Ceramics – Basis Oik. G. Psaropoulos.

From the Acropolis to Piraeus and Exarchia, from the Cavafy Archive to the outdated Orphanage of Aegina, their one week on the finish of Might was a wealthy mosaic of experiences.

That is after all one of many academic visits, seminars, summer time faculties organized each summer time, for years, by main American universities in our nation. This 12 months the younger women and men of Columbia have been in Athens for the “Mediterranean Humanities” seminar organized by the Basis’s Middle of Undergraduate International Engagement in collaboration with the Columbia International Middle in Athens and the Aikaterini Laskaridis Basis.

For a lot of, as they instructed “Vima”, the expertise was unforgettable. They have been guided to the Acropolis Rock and its Museum, the Benaki Museum, the Archaeological Museum, visited the Cavafy Archive, took educational-literary walks within the metropolis, each within the space of ​​the Exarchia and in Nicaea (the place they handled problems with refugee reminiscence, historical past and state coverage).

And naturally, as a result of the “recipe” of happiness should embody sea and solar, their keep was accomplished with a one-day journey to Aegina. There additionally they mentioned problems with interconnectivity of the islands via the ocean, whereas the go to to the Kapodistrian constructing of the Orphanage of Aegina, the place prisons later functioned, gave them the event to replicate on the connection of the islands to numerous types of incarceration.

Familiarity with the Mediterranean

All these constituted their very own, trendy, tour of the Mediterranean civilization via the paths of Athens.

“The Mediterranean has been seen because the cradle of Western civilization, as a dividing border or bridge of communication, and as a sea of ​​pleasure or a sea of ​​dying. The scholars who participated on this seminar took Athens, and Greece basically, as a place to begin to discover the a number of methods during which the Mediterranean was imagined by the individuals who lived on its shores and islands or traveled in its waters. Mrs. Zanou says about this in “Vima”.

On the identical time, nevertheless, the younger women and men got here into contact with present residents of the town, with “a variety of individuals, from librarians and actors to bartenders and college students,” because the 20-year-old American girl says Nika Kelopupil of Classical Philology, Fashionable Greek and Anthropology. “I used to be impressed by the heat they radiated.”

The week she lived in Athens gave her the chance to apply her Greek. “Even after I forgot the phrase ‘money’ or hesitated the place to go to ask a query, their encouragement and willingness to assist me be taught has boosted my confidence and my love for the language” continues.

With comparable emotions, the 27-year-old French-American Bruce Goodmanwho’s learning Neuroscience and Economics, says he’ll communicate with the Athenians he met: “Your entire metropolis is a superb testimony to the traditional tradition of the Greeks, whereas on the identical time organically and authentically combining the trendy lifestyle. It felt like we have been doing our academic GrandTour, touring to the cradle of the tradition that I had been learning since I used to be six (coming from the French training system) and that I used to be lastly capable of see with my very own eyes.” says.

The scholars across the bust of Dionysios Solomos within the Nationwide Backyard

Their second dwelling

Exarchia, the neighborhood during which they lived, significantly fascinated the 18-year-old American girl of Cypriot origin Danai Costalearning Inventive Writing. “Historic monuments are undeniably spectacular and maintain a reminiscence so wealthy in tradition, however the truth that the Exarchia is greater than a reminiscence of a historic previous is a vibrant focus of activism and, in concept, a protected haven for its ‘different’ teams society, was a supply of inspiration for me” declares.

It was not her first go to to Greece however, as she says, her keep for every week with the goal of energetic studying helped her to “understanding the nation as greater than a ‘graveyard’ of its wonderful previous”.

The youngsters could also be gone however, as Olivia Franklin says, they’re now felt “a kinship with Athens”. And one thing extra. “Whereas New York appears like my dwelling, the extra time I spend on this metropolis, the extra Athens appears like a house away from dwelling” Nika Kelo confides.

“I like the interaction of its historic previous with the colourful, very vibrant metropolis I do know right now. It is very straightforward to see myself selecting Athens as my metropolis of residence – having my morning freddespresso medium, watching the town flip pink with each sundown and residing within the mosaic of Athenian life.”