David Corbitt - Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania
Crete, Greece (Summer 2006)

Why did you choose to study in Greece?

One side of my family is Greek so I've always wanted to go there and Greek food is my favorite. Scholastically I knew I wanted to study abroad for the experience and this was the perfect opportunity. They spoke Greek, but because the institute we stayed at had people from many different countries, English was used as a common language. At the left is a picture of a beach in Chania.

What can you say about your experience?

This opportunity to study abroad was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The maymester course lasted from May 15 – June 7 including the first week at Purdue. The first week consisted of learning about Greek culture from Greek faculty members and research. The objective of our project was to analyze the possibility of an EPICS-like program existing in another country. This meant writing a proposal with our initial assumptions and idea for implementation. When we arrived it was our job to set up meetings with students at local universities, local heads of schools, and local industry workers to either verify or oppose our initial proposal. Lastly, a final proposal was written with a dissemination plan. We then presented to the other Purdue students and any international students who wanted to listen. The food was amazing over there but it was somewhat different from the Greek food in America. Naturally there was a lot of seafood (on an island) but I usually ate either souvlaki or gyros. These were like the hamburger of Greece. Souvlaki is basically hunks of meat on a skewer like a kabab and gyros is more like strips of meat on a pita. Both could come with pita and, because of the lack of cows, was either chicken or pork. The toppings available were usually onions, tomatoes, and tzatziki. The one thing that Greek restaurants don't do as well here as they did there is the tzatziki, which is a yogurt based sauce used for topping and dipping, with garlic, onions, and other seasonings. Basically the food was all good.

As you may have guessed, that was not the fun part of the trip. Crete is one of the most beautiful places on earth; tons of beaches, restaurants, and landmarks. We had reserved days to travel to the palace at Knossos, where the minotaur myth originated, along with the Samaria gorge. Along with these excursions, every student had a free weekend to go anywhere we wanted. Most of the students, including myself, went to the Greek island of Santorini, which surrounds a dormant volcano. We stayed at a really nice but surprisingly cheap hotel where we had a free shuttle service into Thira, the main activity center of Santorini. We got to hike the volcano and admire the world famous sunset on this extremely beautiful island. Other events such as “Cretan night” and random social gatherings in the old harbor highlighted this amazing experience.

What was your home stay like?
I stayed at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Chania (MAICh), where I shared a dorm room with another Purdue student. The rooms had a bathroom, air conditioning, and a balcony shared with another room. The students were more than willing to call cabs for us, order food (in Greek), and help us with laundry if we asked.

What was the most memorable cultural experience you had?
One night we called "Cretan Night", we had a traditional feast complete with authentic musicians and dancers from the island. All the Purdue students also had to dance with the dancers. This was a very fun experience, first of all, but it also let us see some of the tradition and cultural differences. We had four authentic Cretan dancers entertain us wearing traditional clothes and being accompanied by a bazouki, which is basically a guitar-like instrument with 8 strings. They danced for us while we ate and then everyone joined in the dancing including individual dances around glasses of wine and group circle dances. It was a blast. One difference in the way people got around was that there didn't seem to be any law enforcement on the road and everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere. We took taxis or buses everywhere we went which were surprisingly nice cars like Mercedes Benz taxis ($2.60 US). The cost of a taxi into town was less than 2 euro a person.

How did the classes compare to Purdue's classes?
While I did sit in on an economics class at the institute, my trip was based on projects like EPICS and no classes were required. We were required to write a proposal before we left the country and a final proposal while we were there. We were required to keep a journal like EPICS at Purdue.

The world famous sunset at Santorini

Overall, I was able to meet people from all over the world and see that although there may be some cultural differences, everyone there was extremely kind and basically no different from any of us. I didn't know anyone I went with before the trip and am now friends with all of them including some international students I still keep in contact with through email I would definitely recommend this program to every student. This was one of the best experiences of my life and wouldn't trade the trip for anything.