Traveling on the west coast of Turkey, exploring Athens, seeing the sites of the peloponnesian, visiting the wonderful islands of Greece, and venturing to northern Greece has been wonderful. The amazing views, historical areas, insightful museums, and awe-inspiring religious buildings have made this trip unforgettable. Being able to tangibly connect my education with what we have seen is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. However, there are some things I would change about the course in order to enhance future students’ experiences.
Firstly, I would make the amount of work, touring, and break time more proportional. Condensing several ancient sites, intensive readings, ten page final paper, reflective blogging, and commenting on other’s blogs is quite overwhelming in the short four weeks we have. I understand that we were given the syllabus in advanced in order to prepare for the trip and possibly get ahead. However, most of the requirements of the course except for the readings cannot be completed before the trip. Blogging is based on the daily excursions we take and the connections we find with it to the readings. Commenting is only available if the other students have blogs up. Then the paper is a reflective paper on your overall meditation of the journey. All these things must be done on a daily basis more or less, but the schedule of touring and class time we engage in make it difficult to accomplish all these things in one day. Especially when we were in Turkey, we would visit three or four different archaeological sites that lasted from 8am to 7pm. Being out in the hot blazing sun and trying to actively listen to the information the tour guide was so exhausting that by the end of the day I would just want to pass out. We would have long bus rides in-between locations that would theoretically give us more time to get work done, but often my classmates and I would get car sick or would be sleep deprived from the night before desperately trying to catch up on journals. Listening to the guides, going on the bus and immediately doing journals means being alert and attentive for 12 hours in a row which is impossible.
Therefore, if the workload is to maintain the same amount of intensity the free time and rest days should be increased to balance out the entire trip. If sacrificing more guided tours and sight-seeing is not viable then perhaps make the overall trip longer. Let’s do five weeks instead of four and allocate those extra 7 days evenly throughout the trip. This would not only give students more time to rest and create quality journals, but would produce a calmer more enjoyable atmosphere for everyone. Students could be more active in the tours, more lively in discussion, and more focused on their readings. The set up of the program now is like trying to fit twelve clowns in a tiny clown car; everyone fighting for room, uncomfortable, and irritable. If we lengthen the trip its like if the clowns are able to leave the car and enter the arena; happier, freer, and therefore funnier and entertaining.
I know it’s difficult financial to increase the length of the trip, so I might suggest lessening the overall classwork. That sounds drastic and like i’m a lazy student, but hear me out. Participation I understand cannot just give you a good grade. Showing up to class is something everyone can do. But consider the amount of time the trip is requiring us to go to class, 4-8 hours depending on the day (that is including the bus ride discussions and such). The amount of information that we receive is like having five three hour level classes in one day at Baylor. However, at home in Waco we at least have weekends free to spend time on our work and we usually only have 2 or 3 classes in one day. Journals are a great tool for the professors to tangibly see the amount of consideration a student is putting forth in the trip, but what about how they express themselves in discussion or on the tours. Maybe the participation should count for more or at least the discussions if they are thoughtful and reflective should be more significant in the final grade.
Another reason I would either lengthen the trip to ensure adequate time for studying and rest or lessen the academic requirements is because it will give the students a chance to really fulfill the purpose of studying abroad, which is to experience the culture. The tour guides give us great facts and history about each location and the country overall, but to be blunt, I can read about that in books. I’d rather go out around the city and see things for myself and make my own analysis of the people, the land, its values and views of the world. What’s the point of being in a great city filled with a rich heritage and new experiences if we are constantly stuck in our hotel room writing journals or recouping from long tour days. I feel like I have learned the most from going out and talking to the locals and imitating their style of life. “When in Rome do as the Romans do,” am I right? The best way to understand different cultures is to live it and to feel it. I have comprehended so much more about Turkish and Greek lifestyle by going out and discoursing with locals. One night we spoke with a Turkish man about his view of Americans and how our lifestyle is so different from theirs. He explained that Europeans are much more liberal and they do not understand why Americans quarrel about matters such as abortion and gay rights. Their lifestyle is relaxed and less confrontational because they do not want to interfere into someone else’s affairs like they do not want someone interfering in theirs. This casual mindset can attribute to the way they handle business like some of the stores I visited in Turkey where the cash register was the owners own wallet and then if he didn’t have enough change he would run next door and borrow some from the other store. This could also be why they eat so late or why they are so friendly with one another and quick to help each other. All from this one conversation I was able to gain understanding of how and why the Turks think the way they do.
That is what I would like to see this program emphasize more than anything else. I hope that future students are able to enjoy all the amazing ancient sites that the tour guides have to offer, soak in the information they are receiving, reflect on their readings and connections with the sites, be well rested to do all these things, and above all have time to explore on their own and figure out things for themselves.