Thessaloniki

Last Wednesday, I was invited to be part of a panel discussion sponsored by the Fulbright office in Thessaloniki to talk with Greek students interested in studying at American colleges and universities.  Over a hundred students showed up.  I kept my comments fairly brief for a couple of reasons:  first, by the time we got to the panel part of the evening, the audience already had been sitting for about an hour and a half and the former professor in me knew that their attention span was getting to its upper limit; second, the other two Fulbrighters presenting with me, John and Kate, had just graduated from college and, therefore, could speak with more credibility what it is like to attend college in the States at this moment.  Furthermore, they were close in age to those in the audience.  I am glad that I didn't speak for long, because John and Kate did a great job and the audience applauded enthusiastically when they finished.  The highlight of the evening for me was being able to meet Argyroula, who is deaf.  She received a Fulbright in 2001 and studied at National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York.  She can speak in Greek or English and she can use Greek Sign Language or American Sign Language.  She is in the middle in the first photo; her Greek Sign Language interpreter is on the left.

The next day I walked from the Hotel Luxembourg (featured in the second photo) to the University of Macedonia, which took about twenty minutes.  I planned to meet with a professor in speech pathology, Dr. Areti Okalidou.  When I got to the university I was examining a map of the school trying to figure out where the Education Department was located.  A young man approached me and in English thanked me for my lecture.  For a moment, I thought he was confusing me with another American professor.  For all I knew, Americans might look all the same to a student from Greece.  However, he mentioned Fulbright and then I recognized him from the night before.  Although I had kept my comments brief that night, it was nice to know that someone remembered what I had said.  He made my day.  Still, I was dumbfounded our paths crossed and that he recognized me.  He kindly walked me to the Education Department where I met with Dr. Okalidou.  She studied and lived in the U.S. for over ten years.  Over lunch, we discussed deaf education  in Greece and the impact of cochlear implants.  In December, I will return to University of Macedonia and guest lecture for one of her classes.

The Hotel Luxembourg was only a block from the Fulbright office and only a block from the Aegean Sea.  You will notice that I frequented a Starbucks that was only two blocks from the hotel.  Ordinarily, I stay away from businesses that I can find in the U.S., but this Starbucks had a great view of the Aegean Sea.  The Starbucks that I frequent in Doylestown has a view of the Acme Grocery Store, but no major bodies of water.  On Friday morning just before I left for Ioannina, I stopped at the Starbucks to have a Chai Tea Latte (ironically I don't like coffee).  As I sat outside gazing out on the Aegean Sea, some young men rowed by in their scull.

The bus from Thessaloniki to Ioannina takes about three hours.  Apparently, it used to take over six hours, but recently Greece completed a new road through the mountains with numerous tunnels that makes the trip much quicker.  On the bus, I usually just read.  However, on this day I sat by a student named Yannis.  He was going home to Ioannina to vote (Greece has elections on Sunday).  We ended up talking for the whole trip.  We discussed Iraq, Afghanistan, global warming, architecture, engineering, the construction of bridges (there is a beautiful bridge in Patras, Greece), universities in England (he plans to study engineering there), and Pan-Hellenic exams (these are exams that all high school students in Greece have to take).  His father is a chemistry professor at the University of Ioannina.  I got to meet him at the bus station in Ioannina and he gave me lift home.  Yannis thanked me for giving him the opportunity to practice his English skills and his father took my phone number so we could meet again for dinner.

As I have mentioned previously, one of the important facets of the Fulbright experience is to promote cultural awareness.  I believe that this occurred on this trip, but in an unusual way.  I never expected that a Greek student would pick me out of a crowd at a huge university and thank me for a presentation that only lasted one to two minutes.  Furthermore, I never expected that I would have a three hour conversation with a student on the bus.  That is what makes the Fulbright experience so interesting: you never know when you are going to have an impact and you never know who you might meet.