First Day of School

School. The bane of our collective, teenage, angst filled existance. The fairytale of my trip to Greece came to a violent and screeching halt once we were forced to endure the actual objective of our journey, knowledge. Though the trips, views, sights and sounds will continue for the next month, the air of vacation that has hung blissfully over our odyssey since our arrival disappated without a farewell. It was a day we all knew was looming menacingly on the horizon of our journey, but we were ignorant in our happy, carefree state of tourism. It is feelings of pure happiness like that and the rude awakening that comes when it all slips from your fingers that make you loathe the wicked banshee of Mondays even more than you already do. All of the burdens and responsibilities so often attributed to college life are thrown back in your face after the long summer reprieve and needless to say, it takes some getting used to.

Our class with Dr. Kaplan is simple enough, read a book, discuss the book and write papers accordingly. It is nothing out of the ordinary (aside from the fact that it is in freakin' Greece), but it is familiar and you take solace in the fact that you know what is around every corner. You know what the teacher expects and how to succeed in that environment. School with the Greeks though, is a new kind of discomfort. The American College of Greece, or what I've seen of it anyway, is a shade of the American college experience. Certain fabrics of it are subtly placed to give the illusion of an American four year institution while others lurk waiting to take advantage of unsuspecting students such as myself. Few American students actually attend Deree, most of them are Greek and to hear the Greek language spoken so freely and commonly around the campus is expected because of that. You expect though that once you reach a classroom setting, the tone shifts to accomodate an international audience. In my International Public Relations class, that wasn't the case. I arrived just 10 minutes early for my class to find my classroom dark and devoid of all human life. I checked the room number, looked at my schedule and confirmed several times that this was the time and place I was supposed to be. All of my suspicions were relieved when I saw my professor come barreling up the ramp, sweating profusely and profanely wondering where all of the other students were. Little did I know, I was the first one to arrive, out of five. Such a small class size really caught me off gaurd. The only time I had ever been in a class size that small was in a one on one tutoring session so to see so many empty seats was really strange. It is odd having that much attention focused on you in a classroom as you feel like you have to devote every second of your focus to the professor or else.

The next day, after my awkward but informative tutoring session, more of the students showed up and started speaking Greek to the professor, unaware that the American sitting across from them was completely and utterly lost. When the professor requested they speak English, they all looked at me with surprised looks, like they hadn't encountered an American in the classroom setting before. Discourse took place mostly in English, but there were side bar conversations that made me feel rather uncomfortable and worried that I may miss a crucial detail about the class. Thankfully my professor does a great job at keeping the relevant and important lectures in English and banters with his students in Greek-lish. The more time I spend in the classroom, the more I come to enjoy it. I feel as though the knowledge I'm going to gain from my Greek professor and peers is going to give me a substanial leg up on my American classmates back at UNF. I'm excited about the potential that this class holds for me and I think that my time in the classroom may wind up being even more rewarding than my time exploring the depths of history.