Standing right at the center of the universe, the omphalos stone, which according to Greek Mythology is the point where the two eagles sent by Zeus met, wasn’t enough to make the Deree trip to Delphi exciting. Being there with three students from other countries was.

There we were: a group of young people with a shared history – Greece – that we were exploring together.

The places we went and the discussions we had made me realize, more than ever, that the diverse student body of Deree makes it an international location where people communicate their ideas and learn from each other.

Our trip began at 7 a.m., so we weren’t into talking much at the outset. But as soon as we got on the bus we started looking at each other more carefully, getting used to our new acquaintances, introducing ourselves. Hercules Logothetis and Melissa Padgett are both from the U.S. and are here because they wanted to study in Athens, explore its culture and the people. But Eda Yicdiz and I are more like close neighbors, who share a small part of history. She is from Turkey and I am from Greece.

The omphalos stone at the Delphi museum

After some quick naps on the bus and a stop for coffee and a sandwich on the National Road between Athens and Lamia, our moods turned back to normal. Steadily the scenery outside the window started to change.  The urban buildings and billboards gave way to pine trees and firs. We were on the southwestern spur of mount Parnassus and our destination was now visible. The moment we set foot in Delphi and looked up the hill, we saw the relics of a great civilization dating back to the 6th century BC had prospered right where we were standing. “I had no idea that this place is only two hours from Athens,” someone said.

Columns at the temple of Apollo in Delphi

Michalis Siamos, who teaches Classics at Pierce College, gave everyone a leaflet running through the most important dates and facts about the ancient Oracle and a map.
According to the various myths, the temple of Delphi was dedicated to Phoebus Apollo because he killed the pair of chthonic serpents known as Python, for attempting to rape Leto, his mother, while she was pregnant with him and Artemis. The pair of pythons was draped around Apollo’s staff and he killed Python even though he would be punished for it, since it was a child of Gaia, the primal Greek goddess who personified the earth. As punishment for his murder, Apollo had to carry out tedius menial tasks for eight years, but the Pythian Games took place every four years to commemorate his victory. The stadium at Delphi could seat 6,500 spectators.  Nearby stood the treasuries built by the various Greek city states to thank the Oracle for her advice, the theater, and the rock where the Sibyl, the mythic priestess, sat to deliver her prophecies.

The theatre of Delphi from above

Walking around the ruins we started talking about ourselves, joking about the differences between our cultures. “I would assume that 75% percent of people in Chicago are on a constant schedule, doing things fast, whereas 75% people here are drinking coffee for four hours a day,” said Hercules, making us laugh.

Hercules, 22, is a Greek–American from Chicago. He went to college there and while doing his BS in biology minored in classics. This semester he enrolled in Modern Greek I at Deree to improve his Greek and get in touch with his relatives who live in Greece.
His decision to stay in Athens after he spent his summer vacation with his family in Greece really changed him. “For me this is one of the times that people tell you to step out of your comfort zone and become a better person, strengthen things,” he said. “Forcing yourself to step out of your comfort zone definitely has a value in it.”

After two months in Athens on his own, without knowing the language at all, Hercules feels that this transition from one place to another is too abrupt for him, “I am used to fast-paced living without much time for hanging out or relaxing – for someone like me it’s difficult to adjust.”

But all the difficulties of the abrupt transition to Greece vaporize when he wakes up and opens the curtains. “It is cool because I have a really good view at my residence, when I wake up and open the curtains or when I walk the hill of Deree every morning, I see Athens unfolding under my feet - It’s definitely cool to know that its 2009 and I’m walking in a city with thousands of years of history,” he said.

For Melissa, 19, who comes from Bloomington in North Carolina, a country town with farms and rural industries, Athens was different the other way around. “Being in a city and finding my way around makes me feel more independent,” she said. “In my town I know everybody and here there are so many people that you don’t know.”

Now that she’s at Deree, she meets with students from other parts of the world, which makes her feel excited about the differences and the similarities between her and her friends. “My friends at Deree are from all around – Malta, Brazil, Africa – and my roommate is German,” she said. “When we talk we all have different opinions and disagree on everything, but this is nice because you come to realize that things are not done everywhere the same way.”

She has completed two years now in Athens and likes the option of different lifestyles that the big city gives her. “I know so many people and I like that freedom, I can go out at night where things start at 12 am instead of 8 pm, which limits your options for nightlife; you can either take the metro and go to the center where you can find everything open, or hang out close to Deree in Agia Paraskevi, which is more suburban with easy families and kids walking around.”

Ok, she dislikes the stray dogs, the cars, the narrow sidewalks and the noise of the Athens center, but “that comes with moving to a city,” she said.

It was already 3 pm and the tour to the archaeological site was about to end. We took pictures from the different sites and Siamos told us about the last site on the map, the Stoa of Athenians, built by the Athenians after their naval victory over the Persians in 478 BC, to house their war trophies.  The rear wall of the stoa contains nearly a thousand inscriptions and any slave freed in Athens was obliged to record a short biography there, explaining why he deserved his freedom.

The Stoa of Athenians

Before getting on the bus to Athens we went to a tavern close to the archaeological site. We had all kinds of different dishes. Our friends from the States were not familiar with the Greek cuisine, but Eda and I started discussing the similarities in the cuisine and the common socio-cultural elements between the Turks and the Greeks.

Eda, 23, came to Deree this semester as a transfer student from Romania, where she was studying communications and PR. Now at Deree, she majors in advertising. She learnt about Deree through her boyfriend, whose friends were already studying at Deree. “I wanted to move somewhere else, closer to my country, its weather and culture; Romania is really cold and different than I am,” she explained.

Through the comparison of our cultures we agreed that Greeks and Turks are very similar in their everyday life. Having only the Aegean Sea between us, our people lived together for almost five hundred years. Maybe our countries’ governments adopt different political positions, but in fact, we said, we are very close in our mentalities.

“I find Greeks really close to my way of life and in the way we interact, the people, our people’s habits and even the food,” she said. “The families, their structure and size, are very similar and this makes me feel familiar to this country.”

For the last four months Eda has been studying at Deree and lives near the College with her boyfriend, who’s from Romania. She doesn’t speak the language well, but that’s not a problem, she said, because people are friendly.

All the Deree facilities, the pool, the gym and the library, give her many ways of spending her time with friends and without them. “Even though I am from another country and don’t share my language with Greeks, at Deree I feel the same as everyone because it’s an international environment with lots of different people,” she said.

Absorbed in our discussions, the food and the good wine, we had totally forgotten the time – the bus driver was waiting for us. It was already 5 pm, and we had to postpone our discussions until some other time. After we finished our meal and thanked the hosts for the good food, we said cheers, all satisfied with the food, the place and the nice memories we were taking with us.

On our way to Athens everything felt quiet on the bus and the scenes moving past the windows were hypnotic. Serene after the good food, the long walks and the different discussions, many of us dipped in our seats and slept.

Professor Siamos, Eda Yicdiz, Melissa Padgett and Hercules Logothetis (from left to right)