If it’s any testament to both the quality of the snorkeling in Athens and our class’s thirst for adventure, the number of snorkels owned by our group increased tenfold in the time between our first and last swim (from one, to ten).

The art of marble carving has been practiced in Greece since ancient times, and this is visible all around modern Athens. This ancient practice, however, never stopped. The same techniques are put into practice today, to produce Modern Art objects, architectural elements and studies of ancient masterpieces.

CYA President, Alexis Phylactopoulos, participated in the Delphi Economic Forum taking place at the Zappeion Megaron in a hybrid format from May 10 – 15, 2021.

Since coming to Παγκρατι (Pangrati) my daily step count has tripled. Without a car and in a city this walkable, it takes effort to get less than ten thousand steps a day.

This week, our Greek professor taught us the phrase “βγαινω εξω”, which means “I go out.” She said this is pretty commonly used to let people know that you’re going on a walk, a date, to meet friends, and really anything else that falls into that category. I can say with full confidence we are taking full advantage.

I am sure coronavirus taught us all a good many things, but the primary lesson I learned was that I do not like online classes. I cannot stand them. So when my home institution announced it would have mostly online classes in the fall of 2020, I knew I needed to get creative with my studies. I had originally planned on studying in Jordan in the fall of 2020, but that program had been moved online. I looked around for a study abroad program, but, as one can imagine, there were not many options last fall! I was even considering studying in Rwanda – not because the program there was interesting to me, but simply because I knew it was operating – when my father reminded me of a program I had looked into my freshman year, a program I had forgotten about. CYA. It taught Classics, I studied Classics. It was set in Athens, I liked Athens. It was a running study abroad program, I needed a running study abroad program. I applied in August, I was accepted, and in September I was off.

On Wednesday,  7 April, CYA’s Virtual Lecture Series enjoyed hosting a lecture by Vassilis Papakonstantinou, technology entrepreneur, co-founder and Vice-Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum Greece. Papakonstantinou explained the technologies of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain and spoke about how they are expected to affect our societies.