I spent part of my summer going into senior year studying abroad in Athens, Greece. From the end of June to the end of July, I took a course called CHTE 355: Illegal Antiquities, offered through the College Year in Athens (CYA) program. The class focused on the illegal antiquities trade, forgeries, repatriation, archaeological context, and impacts on cultural heritage. It lasted four weeks, with two weeks being held in a classroom and museums around the Athens area, and the other two were spent traveling to Crete, Thessaloniki, and Naxos and visiting more museums there. The coursework mainly involved readings about case studies, debating controversial topics about the illicit antiquities industry, and each student would need to prepare discussion questions for one of the museum visits. I chose to study abroad because I have always wanted to study abroad in Greece, and CYA offered a lot of unique courses to choose from even during a summer session. As a Classics major who wants to go to law school, this class specifically struck my interest because of the classical civilization aspect, as well as the opportunity to learn about legality and the issues with the antiquities trade. 

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I learned so much from this class - it truly was one of the best experiences I've had in college. The different trips were so educational and well-planned, and all the museums we visited taught me something different and valuable. My key takeaway from the class is that the United States is a very big problem in the looting and forgery industry, and that is kind of embarrassing to me (but unfortunately I'm not surprised). I learned a lot about how to recognize looted material in a museum, and that many hotly debated topics (like the Parthenon Marbles for example) have a lot more backstory to them than most people realize. Most importantly, it was so easy to take everything in about the class because it was so hands-on and directly in the field. My favorite aspect was how we would talk about a piece of art and then the next day I would go to the museum and see that piece of art in real life. It made everything so much more memorable and the information will definitely stick with me even though the program is over. 

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This class impacted me in many ways. Like I mentioned earlier, it was the hands-on learning that made it so amazing. It was really special that I got to experience a different country as a student, rather than a tourist. It made everything much more meaningful and I learned so much not only from the class I took, but the trip itself. I loved the experience so much that I am planning on going to Rome in the spring and studying abroad for the full semester. I have chosen to showcase my final exam, which involved answering three different essay questions and a questionnaire about how the class was run and what I got out of it. I think this final shows a good mix of everything the class talked about and highlights the most important things that I learned. Much to my surprise, I received a 100% on this assignment, and I am really proud of everything I wrote about. I have also chosen to link my Instagram account that I updated throughout my trip. I made a concerted effort to post photos from everything I saw, did, and ate each day, and tried to be as detailed as possible with my descriptions. I've only been back in the U.S. for a few months, and I already love going back to look at everything I did in such a short amount of time.