Cultural Enrichment & Orientation in Greece

Cultural Enrichment

To actively participate in another culture you will need to acquire new learning techniques and survival strategies. You will need to look so that you really see things and then think about the things you have seen in order to make sense of them.

The Arcadia Center's Greek Key intercultural seminar aims to enable learners to unlock the door to cross-cultural understanding through language learning combined with experiential activities and service learning.  This course forms the cornerstone of the Arcadia program in Greece and is facilitated by Jan Sanders, Resident Director in concert with the Arcadia Center language instructors.

Excursions

Throughout the semester, you are invited to take part in a full schedule of excursions, events and lectures — all designed to enhance your understanding of Greece. In addition to day trips, a mid-semester trip is planned.

Our Greek staff will discuss this in detail—including dates and how to reserve your place—during orientation.  All Arcadia excursions attach great importance to the notions of safety, experiential learning and cultural understanding.

Many events are determined by the SSC (Student Services Council) at the Arcadia Center, which is comprised of program students. For details on some of our recent excursions, refer to the information below:

• Football (Olympiacos—Kerkyra)
  • Football (soccer), the favorite sport of most Greeks, men at least, is a standard part of Greek life. Olympiacos, as you may have learned, is one of the two most loved, or hated, teams in Attica. Olympiacos is the most successful club in Greek football history, having won thirty-seven League titles, twenty-four Greek Cups and three Greek Super Cups, more titles than any other Greek team; in European competitions, they have reached the quarter-finals twice, in UEFA Champions League 1998–99 and European Cup Winners' Cup 1992–93. Olympiacos is also one of the founding members of the European Club Association.  Come and watch a live Sunday afternoon game.
    
    
• Zacharoplasteio Crawl
  • While crawls usually include pubs, this one will include some of the best sweet shops of Athens. We will visit an excellent, well-known sweet shop in Pangrati followed by the most famous chocolate shop in Athens, the best place to get loukoumades (honey donuts), a gelato-lover’s heaven and, finally, a bakery/sweet shop in Kifissia renowned for its milk-based sweets. Come hungry, we will taste at each location.
• Murder Mystery Evening
  • We will have our very own murder mystery dinner. (We need 12 volunteers to act out the parts. This will entail reading out a part…no memorization…and attending one rehearsal/informational meeting beforehand. Dinner will be pot-luck and the evening will be merry.
• Hike up the Immito Mountain
  • You’ve seen the mountain. You’ve wondered what’s up there. Now you will get to see. We will take a bus to the closest point possible to the mountain via public transportation and then hike the rest. Monastery, goats, municipal coffee shop and more (perhaps even a squirrel or two). Don’t miss the fun!
• Cooking Lessons
  • A series of cooking lessons to help you learn to cook (and sample) some traditional Greek dishes! Demonstrations include: keftedakia (small meat balls) and tzatiki; chicken with roasted potatoes; pastitsio (lasagna-like dish); yemista (stuffed vegetables) and saganaki (fried cheese)
    
    
    
• Peloponnese Tour
  • This four day tour includes a break at the isthmus in Corinth, a visit to a private estate, a night in Mystras, an introduction to Monemvasia, and a visit to Diros caves. We will then make our way down to Tenaro, with time for lunch and some hiking along the way, before we depart for Sparta and the Museum of the Olive, and a tour of a vineyard. We will view the caves at Kapsi before returning to Athens.