Although many students call Athens home, some chose to take a trip across the pond to further their studies during the summer.
Bekki Wyss, a junior study ing English, studied abroad this summer at Birzeit University in the Palestinian territories to help with her thesis.
“I spent last summer in Tel Aviv, Israel, and felt that I need ed to live on the other side of the separation wall to really un derstand what was happening,” Wyss said. “I accidentally upset a soldier by trying to take pic tures of graffiti on the wall, so he threw a tear gas canister at me. The summer was just emotion ally hard in ways I didn’t quite expect.”
Wyss said she kept a blog dur ing her stay and discussed the topics she wrote about with her Israeli and Palestinian friends. The switch from quarters to se mesters didn’t make her plan ning difficult since she had to study Arabic during the summer to fulfill her language require ment, she said.
Catherine Marshall, direc tor of the Office for Education Abroad, said the switch to se mesters did not have an enor mous impact on students, but it allowed for programs to start earlier. It also allowed for cheap er airfare because they could travel before the start of sum mer, she said.
For Henry Kessler, a junior studying art history, his spring semester in Florence, Italy, was an opportunity to immerse him self in art from the Renaissance period.
“Studying Western art his tory in Florence is like studying archaeology in Egypt,” he said. “The city is a living testament to the Renaissance. I think that now I have a broader sense of the recurring motifs and themes seen over the vast canon of art history.”
Wyss and Kessler still missed Athens despite enjoying their time abroad.
“My roommates would tell me about moving in to our new apartment, Fluff (Bakery) would post statuses reminding me it was Slice Day, or I’d see pictures of my friends at Strouds and start counting the days until Au gust,” Wyss said.
Although studying abroad can be a challenge with the busy life of a college student, Wyss said that she can’t wait to do it again.
“I really had to redefine the way I saw the world, and it was a beautiful experience,” Wyss said. “I’m already scheming about ways to go back to Is rael and Palestine, and I’ve only been home for 24 hours.”
