By ABBY BRAVO
Editor-In-Chief
I took the leap to study abroad because, as much as I love the Saint Rose community and am excited to return in the new year for my final semester, a change of scenery was needed for my personal growth. I have always wanted to travel, and being able to do so for roughly the same price as I would be paying for a semester at Saint Rose sounded like a no-brainer.
My friend Mia and I knew we both wanted to go abroad, and decided we should go together. We sat down with some characteristics we wanted in a location, namely mostly warm and close to a beach, and started searching. Greece was a natural choice.
But that’s not the only reason we chose Greece. Its location, rich history and influence on Western culture, and the overall program that the school, the American College of Greece, offered all helped our decision. There are classes on pretty much anything you can think of, in English, and since it is a popular study abroad school, there is a lot of diversity.
The next step was paperwork. We needed medical paperwork signed by our doctors, various forms for our study abroad provider, and forms for the registrar at Saint Rose, all of which had to be done two months before we planned to leave.
For me, the biggest obstacle was the physical process of getting a visa. Not every program requires a visa, but if you are staying in Greece for over 90 days for any reason, it is required. The closest Greek consulate is in New York City, and all meetings to hand over the visa documents must be in person. The paperwork itself was extensive but straightforward, which made the trip there not that grueling, and I was in and out of the consulate in 30 minutes.
We arrived in Greece on a rainy Thursday morning (I know, rain in Greece, what a great start). Mia and I were able to fly on the same plane together but got separated into two different buses at the airport.
Through a series of bus rides, I finally made it to my newly constructed residence building, only to be told that I can’t stay there because there is no electricity or running water yet. Everyone in my residence sat around waiting for a small 15-seater bus to take us 25 minutes away to a hotel. I was beginning to wonder if it was too late to get on a plane home and enroll in classes at Saint Rose.
The next day, we were able to return to our building, but the water and electricity issues continued for another ten days. Even now, two weeks after arriving, it can be spotty with water pressure and temperature, but hey, at least it’s hot.
I do have to say that the collective trauma of arriving after a 10+ hour plane ride with no place to stay, getting minimal information from the school, and being bussed from place to place for two days managed to bond us international students in a way that we wouldn’t have if everything had gone smoothly.
Now, after finally being able to settle in, I have been able to start processing where I am physically. It has been so surreal to walk to class surrounded by mountains and different trees and not see the familiar faces and small campus community of Saint Rose.
As a communications major, being functionally illiterate and not understanding 90% of what I am hearing around me has not been as jarring as I had feared. All of the students around me, regardless of where they are from, speak English as well as their first languages. On the same note, I have also found that if you say even a single word in Greek, a native speaker will be ecstatic (a word originally from Greek, by the way).
It’s baffling the amount of times I have said “yassas” (hello) when entering a store to be met with a series of enthusiastic Greek sentences. Now I have to learn how to say “I’m sorry, I don’t speak much Greek” in Greek.
If you want to study abroad, just keep in mind that there will be some setbacks, but you will make friends, learn to adapt outside your comfort zone, and you will be comfortable in your new space. And hopefully, you will at least have hot water.
