The "Study" Part of Study Abroad

I knew I went to Greece to study abroad, but sometimes I just got lost in all the fun and excitement of being in a totally different environment! There is some advice that I want to share with someone studying abroad. Five weeks are a short time to be taking two upper division courses in addition to traveling. Therefore, it is so important to get a feel of what's coming.

Don’t underestimate!

A part of me thought that the classes wouldn’t be as challenging studying abroad. Reality was that it was very hard for me. Considering that we had to cover a 10 week course into 5 weeks, yet we busy traveling and having fun! Our professor also told us that our exams would be open note, so I thought that there wouldn’t be any problem. I was wrong. Reality hit me when I took my first midterm and didn’t do as well as I wanted to. I still don’t think we should be studying as crazy as we do back at UCSD, but my advice is to learn how to allocate time throughout the week to go over the lectures and reinforce what you’ve learned. What ended up helping is studying with my friends. We would sit together with our notes and go over each lecture slide to discuss what we’ve learned. This helped a lot and it wasn’t as bad as trying to study alone.

Studying Can Be Fun

I really recommend studying with others and exploring nice study spots. I really enjoyed going to the local café and writing essays with my friends. Again, just make sure to allocate some time to get some work done throughout the week. I found myself cramming information and writing essays last minute and it really made the process dreadful. When I spaced out my work, I found myself having more fun studying, getting more work done, and retaining more information.

Make the Most Out of It

I found myself getting burnt out and I felt like there were so many times I didn’t want to give out more energy. I say, go grab a nice coffee, stay hydrated, pack snacks, and make the most of it. I recommend to always stay curious and don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask for advice. Take a lot of pictures and get ready to learn like you’ve never done before. If you are too overworked, of course a break is good. Despite this, I recommend that in order to maximize your physical abilities, take care of yourself. I always packed a lot of snacks (Digestives were one of my faves!), water, a fan, medicine, hat, sunglasses, sunblock.

Learning out of the Classroom

It was so crazy how I had the opportunity to learn from adventure. I’m always so used to sitting in a lecture, reading a textbook, watching Khan Academy videos, looking up solutions on Chegg. This experience was so extraordinary, and it didn’t even feel like I was studying. I was simply experiencing while learning so much. I made so many amazing friends and so many wonderful memories with them. It was the first time I ever got to know a professor because my experiences talking with professors were only in lecture or office hours. It was so nice to be able to ask any question on the spot and it was so enlightening to have such long conversations with a professor! It felt so surreal going to such historical sites and being able to learn the history and origins of medicine was such a crazy feeling. This experience also affirmed that you can’t only learn from the books. You need to go out there and experience! This was such a fulfilling experience and I want to recommend studying abroad to everyone.

Here, I want to showcase some photos I took during our class/learning times~

This was our in-class settings. It was so nice being in a lecture with a small group because this helped me actively participate. Of course, I cannot stand being hungry during lecture, so I brought my lunch from one of my favorite restaurants called Poco Poco.

This picture was taken during one of our excursions to a castle. I found a little hole that gave a view of the breath-taking Mediterranean Sea. It's crazy how I can say that I went to a castle for class.

There were some meals provided by College Years in Athens. It was so awesome to eat delicious food with the whole class. νόστιμο (nostimo-delicious)!

This is one of the hotels we stayed at during the excursions in the island called Kos. This hotel provided a free breakfast buffet, had a nice pool, and our room view was of a castle ruin and sea port!

In Kos, we visited the Tree of Hippocrates. This is where Hippocrates taught his pupil medicine. So iconic! We learned that almost all medical schools have this tree planted (UCSD Medical School doesn't have this tree).

The National Archeological Museum in Athens! This is one of the many museums we visited. I loved learning by going to the museums. 

This was our breathtaking view when we went to a class trip to Delphi.