Engineering of Ancient Greece

Hello everyone, my name is Monica and I took a study abroad trip to Greece for my STEP Signature Project. During this time we traveled to the mainland of Greece and the island, Crete, where we got to visit many ancient ruins and a construction site of their modern subway system being built. Not only way I able to learn about engineering abroad but I was also able to learn about their culture by spending a week before the trip in class learning different cultural topics and then experiencing in country for 12 days.

During my time in Greece I was able to immerse myself into their cultural while learning to appreciate things from back home that I never thought I would. I was able to push myself into situations unknown to me such as learning how to travel independently. Making new friends who were also engineers made this trip more fun because we were able to relate to so many more things which I otherwise wouldn’t have experienced with a different group. I also was able to learn about the differences and similarities between being an engineer in America vs a different country.

My first glimpse of Greece was on our first stop of the trip in Thessaloniki. This town was able to give me my first views of the culture and the one that stuck out most to me was their passion for food. The Greeks are different in going out to eat such as taking as much time as possible. There is no rush when going out to eat. They will let you sit there for as long as you like and won’t give you the bill until you ask for it. Most of the time they would even give you free dessert before handing you the bill they asked for. Especially in being in a huge group as mine meals would at least take two hours each. It was easier to go during American eating hours because the Greeks start their days later and wouldn’t eat lunch until at least 2:30 pm and dinner at 10 pm. I also told myself that I would try as many meals as possible and one of those had to be octopus. This is something completely different than back home which I never would have understood or could have imagined unless actually experiencing it in real life.

I was nervous going into this trip because I only knew one person going with me before we left and I hoped to be with people who would make the trip fun. I am also more on the quiet side when I don’t know people very well but I quickly learned that I thought everyone on the trip was someone I could talk to. I felt like we were able to bond really quickly. We were all very open about ourselves and with our differences which made me feel almost sad when we all had to split ways and leave at the end of the trip. What I was hoping for during this trip was to have people that I could recognize on campus and be able to say hi to and strike up a conversation and I think that was accomplished. And most importantly, they liked taking as many pictures as I did.

 While we saw a lot of ancient ruins and learned about the engineering involved to build those my favorite educational part of the trip was our modern day subway tour in Thessaloniki. I learned that the basics are the same wherever you go and depending on where you are at in the world you will face different problems. The major problem this subway project was having was at two of the major stations downtown were ruins they discovers after construction had started. The question is should the reroute the subway station causing more money to be put into the project or destroy the ruins which have a lot of history to be learned from. We would never run into these problems in the US and it was interesting to hear about what engineers and construction workers thought about the issue. I want to be able to use my knowledge to help people around the world and realizing the challenges other countries face I think will help me be more globally aware which can only help me in my future career.

Overall, this trip has made me more excited to explore the world. I will be able to handle more international trips in the future with already having this experience. I also realized I am capable of making new friends and being social in situations I wouldn’t normally want to speak up in. I also intern at a global company and it has already helped me put a foot in the door because I am able to relate more to my coworkers who have traveled abroad for engineering purposes. I also think this will help me in my career because I do want to work for a global company and travel with them and this experience isn’t one many others can get so I think this will help me advance farther in my career quicker making me get to do the things I want to sooner to help others.