Kalispera (good evening) !!

Kalispera! 

Wow, I can't believe I am already halfway thru my experience abroad in Crete! Besides doing research, I have been exploring the island and am falling more in love with it every day... My parents might want to watch out as I may never want to come home hahah! But anyway, here's a recap of my week: 

Monday: class day! Today we learned about the Cretan economy and history as well as some language skills on basic vocabulary. After that, my afternoon was spent working on my STAR research. I focused mostly on starting to organize stuff for my poster, prepping questions to ask for an interview on Thursday, and putting more notes together on exclusive economic zones, UNCLOS III, etc. 

Tuesday: Today was another field trip day. This time, I had the chance to travel to the eastern part of the island and see a different region and terrain from the one I was used to. I got to go to a banana plantation and see how the process worked, explore some beautiful monasteries (both old and new), and also see a very beautiful beach! 

Wednesday: Today was great and a change from the normal class days... We had a guest lecturer come in to speak to us about her studies and her profession, both of which were useful to my research. She was talking to us about her dissertation she was working on focused on economics and the challenges she was facing with it. She was a very bright woman and had a lot of knowledge on not only that but also on the cultural aspects of things. After her presentations and the end of class, I did more research on my own. Today I started to write out more of my notes into essay form as well as organize everything into a more concise manner. 

Thursday/Friday: both thurs and Friday were considered class/ research days. We went to the complete other end of the island towards Chania so we got to spend a night in the area around there. On Thursday we met with the author of a book about Venizelos, a very prominent man in the shaping of Crete, where I had the opportunity to ask him some questions for my research. We then took a quick tour around the city of Chania and met with the provost from the technical university of Chania who talked to us a bit about what he did as well as about the school. Lastly to end off the day, we went to both an olive oil and bread factory where I got the chance to taste the local products, all of which were delicious! On Friday, we took a boat cruise to two gorgeous beaches and islands right off the coast of "main land" Crete and also got to talk with the head of the company.