An interview with Avgi Kalogianni

We had eleven students here for three weeks working on a documentary on a little known archaeological site called Despotiko. We finished a 12 minute video in this time, plus three smaller videos of our primary interviews. This much work is an amazing feat for even seasoned professionals, much less a group of students who range in skill sets from zero knowledge, to some seasoned students who had a good idea of what they were doing. I feel that everyone stepped up and did a great job with enthusiasm, professionalism, and a sense of adventure.

There were times when we were all outside of our comfort zones. When we were homesick, and tired, and sleep-deprived or jet lagged, and couldn’t figure out what we were doing. There were times when we were tasked with chores that we weren’t confortable with. But we have something unique to show for it.

Students will never let me live down the fact that I told them “it never rains on Paros”, and “there aren’t any bugs on Paros”. No need for raincoats or bug spray. Well, we had lots of rain for a few days, and cloudy cool temperatures. And of course that brought mosquitos. We had days of intense sun, sunburns, and heat. We had days of lots of walking- particularly up to the school we worked out of- a nice little walk through the countryside every morning and afternoon.

I feel that all of the students embraced Paros as it was their home. This happens on this small Greek island. The people here are so friendly, and welcome all of us as friends. There is so much to explore here, and even casual walks around the port town of Parikia, where we stayed, reveal mysteries every single time. This placed is drenched in history, time, and human life, and you can just feel it everywhere you go.

I am very proud of the students who studied with us on this trip. They all brought lots of diversity and passion to the project, and made lasting relationships. I feel that we have left a great piece of work behind in the video we made for the residents of Paros and anyone who is curious about a very unique place called Despotiko.

– Albert William

It is getting progressively harder and harder to wake up these days. Not so much related to being tired, but more related to the fact that the trip is coming to an end and I am not ready for that. On the happier side, today is Riley’s 21^st birthday! It was actually cool because the time difference is 7 hours ahead here than in the states so technically she turned 21 twice.

Since the trip is over on Friday, everyone is rushing to complete our assignments. One assignment is to interview a local resident. I decided to try and interview my favorite barista who makes the best coffee on Paros. Ashley and I went down to the café and I asked her if she would be willing to sit down for an interview later that day. Everyone on Paros is naturally generous and friendly, and she kindly agreed to the interview at 6pm that night. We left the café and headed to school.

Today at school, I worked on posting blogs and then I decided it would be a good idea to write my 5-page final reflection paper. No one is truly ever excited to write a paper, but the guidelines are simple and there is a lot to write about. However, as I started writing my paper, I started feeling emotional. I’ve had the greatest experience of my life here on Paros and writing a reflection paper reinforced the idea that it is coming to an end. I wrote about why I chose this trip, the good and the bad, my favorite memories, and everything in between. Most importantly, I reflected on the friendships I have made and how I will forever cherish the memories I have made with everyone.

The rest of the group worked on various activities. Some worked on papers, some worked with the edit of our film, and some went out to shoot their interviews. We are all really excited to see the rough-cut of our documentary tomorrow!

When I left school, I came home to prepare for my interview. I put some questions together which all basically sum up explaining her life here on Paros. By 6pm, I was both excited and nervous for the interview! However, nothing really ever goes as planned. Long story short, the interview didn’t happen because she had to take her dogs to the vet. It stressed me out because I wanted to have the interview done so I could spend Wednesday editing and finalizing the piece.

I headed back home around and then we had a little birthday celebration for Riley’s birthday. We went to the pool and sang happy birthday. Joy got some sort of brownie with walnuts, chocolate and caramel; they were beyond delicious. Afterwards we headed to my favorite restaurant, Hibiscus. We all had a variety of pizza, pasta and vino. We then headed next door to another favorite place, The Republic, where our friend Dimitris makes the best cocktails on the island. Riley was pampered like a queen all day and I am glad we were all able to celebrate together!

-Julia Whitaker

After a weekend of adventuring around Mykonos and Santorini, it almost felt like being home on our first day back in Paros. We started our day off with walking to class with breakfast and coffee in tow. I got coffee for the first time here, and of course, I opted for the pre-made Starbucks drink from the market. I had always wanted to try one here, and I finally did. It’s really interesting that even though there are no Starbucks coffee shops on the island, they still find a way to sell their drinks here. Once we arrived to school, we discussed how we were going to wrap things up with our video. The research team produced voiceovers for narration of the movie, the 3D team worked on rendering our files, and the video team focused on editing footage they had captured.

Our group started our evening off with a delicious dinner prepared by Joy. Dinner consisted of pasta, seasoned tomatoes and capers, feta cheese, fresh bread from the bakery, a multitude of Greek spreads and sausage from our friend and the local butcher, Lambis. We finished our meal with Delaney’s superb request of chocolate cake.

After dinner, most of the group went to do something on my bucket list….the fish spa. When we arrived, everyone was instantly a bit giggly and nervous to know what it felt like to have little fish eat the dead skin off our feet. First, we had to wash our feet off with fresh water then we were ready to stick our feet in the tank of little fish. The employee assisting us suggested we didn’t look down at first because it might freak us out too much. I wasn’t nervous about the thought of them eating off of my feet, but what I was nervous about was being too ticklish to sit there for 9 minutes. The time finally came for us to dip our feet into the water and all at once the fish started nibbling at our feet, ankles and toes. We all laughed and even screamed a little bit at the sensation. Some of us felt like our feet were being tickled and some felt sensation to be tiny little shocks of electricity. After the 9 minutes passed we decided to up our time to 20 minutes for a few more euros because it felt so good. After we fed the fish with our feet for 10 more minutes, our feet felt incredibly smooth. We were all so amazed that the fish were hungry enough to eat for that long and I know I couldn’t help but reach down throughout the night and feel how soft my feet were.

After a couple hours of shopping around various shops around town, we all headed back to our villa for the night. The next day was Riley’s birthday, so at midnight we all wished Riley a happy birthday and then continued to go to bed after a long day of schoolwork, eating, and well, being eaten as well.

-Mandy Packnett

Today is the day that we continue our three-day weekend adventure and head to Santorini to see one of the world’s most beautiful sunsets! Sounds simple and relaxing enough right? Well… the day started off a little rough. We had the hotel receptionist call us a free shuttle that was going to pick us up at our hotel and drop us off at the port to catch our ferry. Since our room “only slept six people”, the shuttle driver assumed he was picking up only six people.   To his surprise, when he pulled up there were nine of us with all of our luggage waiting to hop into his shuttle. He wasn’t overly thrilled with this idea, but luckily for us he agreed to let us all go anyways. Whew! We got away with that one, but the next hotel not so much…

As we were riding to the port on the shuttle, all of a sudden we heard a huge BOOM! And a small scream, or squeal you could say. Next thing we know, as we look out of the shuttle windows we see a guy flipping off of his moped in the middle of a round-a-bout. His moped flipped over, but thankfully didn’t land on top of him. His flip-flop went flying in the air, and to say the least it was a little bit of an adrenaline rush for all of us. He stood up quickly, checked himself out, and hopped back on his moped.

Once we arrived at the port we learned that our ferry was delayed for about an hour due to high winds and rough waters. This wasn’t the best of news for us considering we were trying to make it to Santorini in time to get a nice view of the sunset. Eventually our ferry came and what we thought was going to be a relaxing day had now turned into a very rushed evening.

Finally, we made it to Santorini! We took a bus to our hotel, which was a room for five people. We thought we could be slick and sneak the rest of us into our room like we did the night before, but this time that didn’t work out so well. We were caught dead in our tracks sneaking four extra people in. 180 euros later we sadly had a second room booked.

Of course traveling isn’t an adventure without some form of miscommunication. At this rate we were ready to do whatever it took to catch a view of the already setting sun. We ordered two taxis to pick us up and were told 7 euros. One car got lucky and understood that 7 euros was the total for the whole ride (which seemed abnormally cheap), while the other car thought that it was 7 euros per person and ended up paying the driver 35 euros which was 4 extra taxi rides too much! To say the least, the second car was a little salty when we met up with the people from the other car and realized what just happened.

Even though it had been a very adventurous and stressful day, the sunset made up for it all. We were able to get a phenomenal view of not only the sunset, but also the bright white buildings that lined the cliffs with crashing waves. A combination of the both made for a breathtaking view that not even our photos, time lapses, or Go Pros could fully capture.

After the sunset we decided to eat at a restaurant that offered the same beautiful view of Santorini. We collectively agreed that our dinner was nothing short of satisfying and a perfect way to see dusk slowly turn into the nighttime.

To end our night we went and checked out all of the shops that lined the stone pathways. Of course we all spent more money than what we planned on souvenirs because hey, we’re in Santorini and that’s awesome! We made it back to our hotel and discovered that the “Wi-Fi” didn’t actually work, so an early night for us it was!

-Riley Mineart

Today marks the end of our three-day weekend. Our day started at 8 am with breakfast at our hotel, Caldera Butterfly Villa in Santorini. The owner of the hotel is a petite Latina lady named Margarita. She took care of our taxi calls and recommended the best locations to watch the sunset and beaches.

Margarita and her first born moved to Santorini 27 years ago. She told me that her daughter would get bullied at school because of her skin tone. She touched my arm and pointed out that her oldest daughter is a little darker than me. “27 years ago, there were barely any immigrants here, yet alone Latinos”, said Margarita in Spanish. Margarita is from another island, Dominican Republic, that is home to many Latinos of different skin tones. Today, there are immigrants from Africa, Syria, and Albania in Greece. They landed in Greece because of its strategic location in the Mediterranean and for many immigrants Greece is not the final destination. They use Greece as a transit stop, many stay for a couple of months to gather enough money to move to another EU country.

The receptionist at the villa is Margaritas younger daughter, Joanna; she’s Dominican and Greek. She is 5 ‘6 , fair skin, and curly hair. She speaks Greek and English; she does not speak Spanish but calls her mom, “mami” in a Spanish accent. The way Margarita and her daughter hold a conversation reminds me of my mom. Joanna and I talked about the Dominican Republic; she was intrigued about all that I had to say about the island. My last study abroad trip was in the Dominican Republic. Turns out Joanna and I share the same birthday and were both the same age, we giggled at the coincidence and she requested to follow our Facebook page.

Around 10 am we headed to downtown Fira to shop, which is my favorite activity. I was intrigued by all the unique and colorful jewelry in every shop. I found a souvenir store that had a variety of items; it was a Wal-Mart of souvenirs. The items ranged from Christmas ornaments of donkeys and cats to miniature sculptures of Hera and Zeus, Santorini hoodies, soccer jerseys and pottery. I spent about 35 minutes gathering items for my family; I was able to use my friendly and charming skills to bargain for all my purchases. The area where I started my shopping spree was very calm and one could tell it was also catered to the locals of Santorini. My next stop was a shopping center that included all types of make-up brands from Mac to Clinique. I was captivated by their variety of Greek olive soaps and face creams… I only bought 6. I then met up with the rest of the group and took group pictures with the girls. We had a beautiful background of Santorini. On Saturday, Ashley decided it would be a good idea to take group pictures wearing flower crowns. We gathered to take pictures when a lady approached us and ask to take a picture with us. She told us she loved our flower crowns and we were all flattered by her request.

After our group pictures, I continued to shop and met up with the group for our taxi back to villa to checkout. Margarita suggested we take a mini bus to Kamari beach and arrange for the driver to pick us up at 2:15 to head to the port. We said our goodbyes to Margarita and Joanna. She reminded me once again to add her to our Facebook group and gave me a hug.

While on Kamari beach, some of us stayed at the beach and others headed for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. The owners were Chinese and our waiter did not speak English but luckily Jiachi was able to translate. After we were done eating, Osvaldo ran to us after he received our Facebook message indicated that the restaurant served spicy food. Jiachi told us that the fried rice tasted like the one he eats in China. I ordered sweet and sour chicken and fried vegetable rice, Jiachi ordered dumplings and fried noodles and beef, Shereyar ordered fried rice and Sichuan chicken, and Osvaldo ordered the spiciest meal, as always.

We enjoyed our time in Santorini, the shopping, the night view, the sunset, the food, the black sand, the people and atmosphere. I specially loved the diversity, as this is by far the most diverse place in Greece I’ve visited. If someone had told me I was going to meet a Latina business owner in Greece I wouldn’t believe them. The truth is that there is diversity in every corner and even in Greece, all it takes is a conversation between two people. I am happy I was able to meet Margarita and Joanna, and grateful Margarita shared her story with me.

Santorini is not just beautiful scenery it has beautiful locals and a great atmosphere.

Our visit to Santorini was filled with laughter, confusion, happiness and even tears of joy.

XOXO- Cynthia Morraz

It was a little cloudy this morning. After having some bread for breakfast, it was drizzling on our way back to the hotel. Although it was a dull start, we knew it wouldn’t be a gloomy day. Today was the first day of our three-day break. Most of us were traveling to Mykonos this weekend and Wen decided to stay behind and work on her project. She has decided to interview Demitra who is a local we have all befriended at a jewelry store. Our plan is to visit Mykonos Friday thru Saturday and end with Santorini on Sunday.

We took the high-speed ferry heading to Mykonos. We assembled at the port at 10:50am. The ferry was a few minutes late. The ferry safety video featured three little kids, both in Greek and English. After the safety film, they played a Mr. Bean moviel; Ashley and Riley seemed to enjoy it. I could hear them giggle from my seat. When we arrived at our destination, the sky was still overcast. It took less than an hour to arrive at Mykonos. The ferry would be making two more stops after Mykonos. Everyone got up quickly as we heard the horn indicating we had reached our destination.

We left the port to find a quiet place to figure how to get transportation to the hotel. It seemed impossible to find a quiet place in Mykonos as there are people everywhere and traffic seems crazy and scary. We walked for about 45 minutes before were reached the bus stop. It took a lot of work to find the correct bus and we had to stop at local shops to ask for directions. After a very long walk we were able to buy our bus tickets and prepare for a day full of adventure.

Our hotel was located at the other side of the island. We walked through the beautiful white marble maze to reach the hotel. It was a brand new hotel in Mykonos. Everything in it is nice, new and white. After an hour of unpacking we headed into town to eat and explore Mykonos. We stopped at a mini market to purchase a few snacks and souvenirs. Then we found a restaurant near the beach where we enjoyed pasta and pizza. Our waiter at the restaurant told us that Mykonos is for “ The crazies”, and we all laughed.

We are all very excited to be here and cannot wait to take beautiful pictures and long lasting memories.

-Jiachi Liu

Today, of course, is Saturday. All of the students were off at another place, so we started our day around noon by getting on the ferry to Antiparos. Thomas and Wen were with us, along with my mom, Joy, and my dad, Albert. We then got off and drove up to the cave of Antiparos (creative, I know). The cave was beautiful, but the walk through it was exhausting.

We drove back to the main town by the dock and ate in a small café (it was around 1:00 pm). After we ate, we wandered around the back alleys of Antiparos looking for an old wall fortification from the 12^th century. Wen, my mom, and I enjoyed looking for cats.

We then (somehow) wandered out of the back alleys and found ourselves in the countryside. We were confused, but we found a church top poking out from the roofs of the buildings near the port and walked back there. We all boarded the ferry, happy from an exciting trip. Thomas headed into a lower, boxed in deck to, “avoid the wind,” but my mom, my dad, Wen, and I decided to go to the top deck. Although the wind was wild, the sight of the parasails floating over the ocean was awesome. We all split ways when we got back to Villa Katerina.

My family and I hung out on the patio until around 7:30 pm, when we went to the Parosweb office to meet up with Nicolas. We had dinner at Bacco’s with Nicolas and his wife, Marta. We stayed there until around 10:30 pm. Today was a very interesting day, and I hope we can have more of them!

–Delaney William

Today was a typical work day. I woke up early, grouched a bit, went to get coffee and then headed up to the school by 9:00 am. Once I arrived at school, I went around to inquire what everyone planned to do today. The video team (Thomas, Andy, Jiachi, Sheheryar, and Osvaldo) were busy editing A roll, working on obtaining b roll and working with the research team (Julia, Ashley, and Cynthia) who were developing a script for one of the raw video edits. The 3D team (Sarah, Mandy, Riley, and I) were either rendering or insuring that our work would be renderable by the end of the day. And so we worked.

Pictured is the terracotta statue that I’ve been working on for the last few weeks with the original in the left hand corner. He/She (the archeologist is not sure if it Apollo or his sister Artemis) is finally ready for rendering.

Once the school day ended, several of us went out to interview a local restaurant owner, Dimitris, we’ve grown fond of.

I left, with Cynthia, while they were setting up to go and visit another one of our favorite people here on Paros, Dimitra. I was hoping to interview her and we made plans to shoot tomorrow night. I took some B roll while I was there and also had my ear pierced. Fun. Fun.

Today I’ve decided to discuss some of the differences between the US and Greece or Indiana and Paros. When I stop to contemplate the differences and similarities between Paros and Indiana, most are visually apparent such as architecture or landscape. For some reason, I never felt as if I was in a new foreign county. The area in which my group is staying has high tourist traffic. Because of this, I feel that a lot of the natural Greek culture is diluted. It’s harder to find differences within the culture on a personal level because they are trying to cater to those of us from a different culture.

Hospitality/Mom and Pops – At many of the restaurants, the owners are always standing by the entrance to entice individuals to try their food or helping to serve guests. In Indiana Mom and Pop restaurants are dwindling and we have lost that “personal” touch.

Siesta/Relaxed lifestyle – everything shuts down from 4ish to 6ish. There is a relaxed feel to daily activities on Paros. For example, foodservice is much slower and they do not expect you to jump up and leave as soon as you are finished.

Toilets – instead of disposing of toilet paper in the toilet, you must throw it in the trash can next to the toilet. Probably the very first difference I noticed was the toilets. There are no handles to use while flushing. Most of the commodes require you to push a button of some type. Almost all of the facilities are shaped slightly different with different mechanisms to flush. The feature toilet, which resides in my hotel room, is one of the easier ones to flush.

Also, you do not flush toilet paper in the toilet but instead deposit it into the trash can next to it. This is a very important rule to follow while staying in Greece.

Credit Cards – very few places accept credit cards. Most of the restaurants, thrift stores, mini marts, clothing stores and accessory stores only accept Euros as a form of payment.

Tomorrow most of the group is going to Mykonos for a three day break from school work. Unfortunately I will not be able to go but I am still looking forward to my three days of rest. – Wen