Hey everyone! My name is Karly Shirey and I am attending The American College of Greece in
Agia Paraskevi, Greece. I am a fifth year student at Cofc and I am majoring in public health and
anthropology, as well as studying pre-med. I chose The American College of Greece because of
its location and the archaeology. The school is relatively close to downtown Athens and it is very
easy to travel throughout the country. Since I am an anthropology major, I am required to take
archaeology. I thought that Greece would be the perfect country to study archaeology in due to
all of the archaeological findings. When I was deciding where I wanted to study abroad, I had to
conduct a lot of research on the classes as well as consider which country would provide me with
the most archaeological experience. During my time in Greece, I wanted to be able to meet
people from all around the world while getting to know and understand the Greek culture. So far,
I have met many people from various states, Japan, Egypt, and Chile.

Knowing that I would be attending a school in Greece, I wanted to become familiar with the
language. I already knew most of the Greek alphabet, however, I was not as familiar with the
lowercase letters. Before coming to Greece, I decided to memorize the entire Greek alphabet.
When I first arrived in Greece I was shocked by how many people did not know English. This
encouraged me to start studying the language more so that I am able to communicate with
cashiers, servers, and the general Greek population. Throughout my time in Greece so far, I have
learned many different words and phrases from my fellow Greek students and my professors. I
hope to continue learning more of the Greek language as well as more of the cultural traditions in
Greece.