DePauw University - Mirage Yearbook (Greencastle, IN)

Page 24 text:

STudy Abroad Greece . . . a sandal maker pumped our arms and grinned. You are Americans? Drink some ouzo. You like my son? You marry! eing in AThens, Greece was a Timeless experience for me, losTing from SepTember 4985 unTil The end of ThoT December. One of The mosT beouTiful weekends I had There was early in OcTober. I had been nosTolgicolly remembering The colors of ouTumn 0T home in lndiono while being seeped in The ciTy concreTe of AThens, where every building looked like a cemenT block, wiTh cemenT sidewalks, and even The ruins of The PorThenon in The disTonce were replaced in poTches wiTh cemenT. BuT This weekend, The DePouw group Took a Trip To Delphi, carrying me ouT To The mounToins and lnTo The oranges and reds of changing foliage. We saw a clear sTreom Tumbling down a rocky cliff in o onerfoll, ending in The founTcrin where They say The Delphic Oracle drank before she gave her prophecy. When we arrived GT Delphi iTselT, driving Through The rain while winding up Tiny roads, The rain sTopped end The clouds rose up in o misTy halo. EveryThing below us become vibronT wiTh color as The grey arose. The weT air jusT added a sharpness To The scene, and The air was full of flowers in bloom. For our orienTaTion inTo Greece, our group Took an overnighT ferry boaT To The island of CreTe. We learned of Minoan hisTory from our Greek Language and CulTure professor, Mimika DimiTri, and we saw The ruins oT Knossos, where King Minos supposedly ruled. We had our firsT run- ins wiTh The Greek noTiveseo 20 sondolmoker pumped our arms and grinned. You are Americans? Drink some ouzol You like my son? You marry him! We sTorTed enropTured CT The golden mounToins and dry landscapes, while we could see The blue ocean wherever we looked, We laughed CT The flocks of sheep crossing The roads in from of us. Once, as we wound The Tiny Volkswogon bus Through one-lone roads of a village, our driver, CosTos, leaned ouT The window To occepT o boskeT of fresh figs from a village man. This was Greece. AfTer The firsT few weeks of being mesmerized wiTh The Greek landscape, The surrounding ocean, The noTive villager's simple cloThes and The whiTe-woshed churches of blue posTer Tome, Then The reoliTy of Greece 05 a modern counTry began To seTTle in. On Thanksgiving Day, our Trip To EgypT was ThreoTened by The EgypTAir hijacking. The plane had been Token exochy seven days before our Trip, and was The some airline and flighT number ThoT we were To leave on. We were given The choice, individually, of wheTher each of us sTill wonTed To go or noT. i called home To ask my moTher for advice, buT The overseas lines were busy wiTh a Three hour woiT. Once i finally goT Through, my moTher couldn'T advise me 0T all. She Told me i knew The siTucTion beTTer Then she could ever know iT. l felT very alone, and very for from home. I decided To cancel my Trip, and one by one, The oThers of our group canceled, also, I wondered if The hijacking could have happened back in The USA. Back in AThens, oTTer a Trip we did Take To Turkey, I began To see The ciTy as The booming meTropolis iTs CiTizens saw iT as. The shop keepers oil spoke English for The many TourisTs. The Toxi drivers did, Too. The drycleaners, The resTourenT woiTers, The disco's borTenders oil spoke English. In TocT, There never seemed To be Cl Time when we really needed To know The Greek ThoT we sTudied, besides in our Greek class, and when we needed To Talk To our landlady. I never dreamed ThoT in The land of Homer, I would have To worry abouT o dripping kiTchen sink, and cockroaches. I never realized ThoT hoT oner hod To be heoTed each dove our hoT wcTer Tank balanced precoriously over our ToileTeond ThoT iT Took a full TwenTy minuTes To geT five minuTes' worTh of shower oner, if i wonTed iT hoT. I never dreamed o ciTy like AThens wouldn'T have recognized The reoliTy of dieT soda, dieT salad dressing, low-foT milk. Greece is The land of Olive Oil-we kidded each oTher obouT how we'd skip classes, book 0T DePauw, To sneak our hiTs of oil down in The dells, jusT To make iT Through The day. The yogurT in Greece is mode from sheep's milk, whole, rich and creamy. The food in general is fried. The Greeks weren'T concerned wiTh calories or moderoTion-Their moTTo wos To live-live-live. -Louro Holnes

Page 23 text:

STudy Abrood STrosbourg Besides The faCT ThoT foreign beer is be TTer, There's so much To learneabouf life, yourself, and oThers. key, I realize I need To be more open minded obouT This. Some people ocTuoIIy do look forward To coming back To DePouw ofTer d semesTer dbrood, on urban semesTer in The STdTes, whoTever. Forgive me, please, If I find ThoT o biT hord To undersTond. WhoT a shock To walk back on campus and see The same old plaid everyThing, Top-siders, American Boys, eTc. Everyone else was wearing brighT colors, bows, carrying ToTebogs and Talking abouT how They goT sooooo drunk IosT weekend. Boy, did I geT sTronge looks when one brighT sunny day I onked To EosT College all in block. Yes, This was before wearing black become fashionable 0T DePouw, Though I suppose we were Trying To make some sorT of fashion sToTemenT by dressing as we did. ThoT's 0T IeosT one DePouw hdbiT I hoven'T been able To break. AfTer all, you're TIouT If you dren'T foshionobIeeunIess of course you're so unfoshionoble ThoT iT becomes fashionable. Friends kepT reminding me To smile. I didn'T InTenTionoIly acquire The cold French dTTiTude or permanenT scowI. IT seemed To acquire me. Few fun and inTeresTIng Things To do wiTh DePouw-especiolly on weekends. Sorry, The froT pdrTies jusT don'T quiTe cuT H for me. I know a couple of clochdrds in The STrdsbourg Polois UniversiToire I can hang around wiTh if all I wonT To do is geT drunk and Try To pick someone up. I realized once again, how silly The Greek sysTem was when I Tried To explain iT To The French couple I had lived wiTh while abroad. Needless To say, They couIdn'T quiTe undersTond The whole siTuoTion. And I couIdn'T convince myself Tor Thems ThoT I was happy To have one 45' x 20' box To call my IIhome'Ieond o roommoTe To booT. I quiT wIThe-well 0 bunch of girls or guys live in The same house. They didn'T osk obouT The IeTTers I'PdsTed on my friend's buTT. We didn'T bring iT up eiTher. I won'T be bursTIng ony bubbles if I say ThoT DePouw Isn'T The real world will I? If ThoT upseTs anyone Too Terriny much maybe you shouldn'T go on reodingeor beTTer yeT, maybe you should go off campus for o semesTer. One friend from over There wroTe me once saying she Thinks we should make on amendmenT To The consTiTuTion requiring everyone To spend oT IeosT one semesTer obrood. thT on Ideo! I love ITI! Besides The focT ThoT foreign beer Is beTTer, There's so much To Ieorne dbouT life, yourself, and oThers. I become inTeresTed In learning while I was abroad in 0 way I had never before experienced. InTernoTionoI poIiTics and economics, orT hIsTory, musiceThey all mean someThing more To me now because I lived Through an American presidenTioI elecTion obrood, wiTh on abnormally sTrong dollar, I Toured The VdTicon museum, The Louvre, 0nd wenT To MozorT's homeland and an opera in Vienna. My French major would have been a joke ToT IeosT To mey wiThouT having spenT Time in The counTry I had spenT so many years learning obouT. WiThouT buying a holiday cake in d poTIsserie in Chinon. wiThouT sleeping in The marvelous Fren'Ch Trains, wiThouT experiencing firsT hand The Friday mIIiTory moss exodus To Paris. I Thdnk DePouw so much for making IT possible for me To go To STrosbourg, I don'T Thdnk DePouw, however, for making IT so hard for me To sToy for 0 whole yedreond for making iT hard To reTurn. Maybe Tth's jusT as much my fouIT Though. I'm noT sorry I hoTed coming bock-hoTe being book. The whole world Is open To me now. Isn'T ThoT whoT college is all obouT? I con'T sTdy oT DePouw forever and I'm glad I don'T wonT To. Of course, H was we who broughT sTirrup ponTs, block as 0 fashion color, and IeoTher jockeTs To DePouw. We were The firsT To realize how sheITered and shallow life Is 0T DePouw-ond we were so cool, worldly, we had jusT spenT o semesTer obroodein Europe!-TroveIing-Ieorning. Ho! No, we know we weren'T The TIrsT To experience These feelings of hosTiIiTy ond disillusionment HopefuIIy The numbers will keep growing, Hopefully each of you will become disillusioned. Hopefully you will grow ouT of DePouw. If you don'T, I feel sorry for you. eROCheI Schroeder 49

Page 25 text:

2'1