My Odyssey in Greece
by Mats Lemberger
The radiant sun beating down on a sweltering highway. Wheels spinning furiously on the hot dark road. Suddenly the outskirts of a great city. A flurry of billboards and unfamiliar letters. The density of vehicles, buildings and people increasing with every pedal stroke. Egnatias Street. Aristotle Square. Sights flooding in from all directions. Rows of arches and red columns. A barrage of sounds. Street performers. Old men in suits and caps gathered on benches, talking. Pigeons shuffling and fluttering. The aromatic mêlée of crackling spiced meat and sweet loaves of bread. The santuri’s hammered strings casting hypnotic clusters of notes up into the mingled heavy air. And we, walking our laden bicycles toward journey’s end. Finally to rest by the lulling, fragrant sea.My friend Tom and I rolled into Thessaloniki on road bikes in the fall of 2006. It was the last stop on a two-month, 6,000 km cycling trip from Copenhagen. The adventure, which originated in something of an ongoing dare during our years at Dartmouth, became reality when we were both offered internships at the American Farm School of Thessaloniki. Why fly when you can cycle? So a few weeks after graduating from college we loaded up our panniers, hopped on our bikes, and spent the summer taking a long commute to AFS. As one odyssey ended, another began.
Before I continue allow me to give some background on AFS (from the school website):
“The American Farm School of Thessaloniki, Greece, is an independent, non-profit educational institution founded in 1904 to serve the rural population of Greece and the surrounding region. The School’s founder, Dr. John Henry House, was a practical idealist who believed in educating the whole individual: the head, the hands and the heart, so that when graduates would return to their home towns they would educate others through their sound agricultural practices. After a century of implementing the founder’s vision, the American Farm School today remains dedicated to the institution’s hallmark: the dynamic fusion of theory and practice in all levels of agricultural education.” (www.afs.edu.gr)
Living, learning and serving at AFS made for a unique and enriching post-graduate year. As you can imagine from this brief contextual description, it’s a neat place. Our primary purpose for being there was to assist the English and Student Life departments. More broadly, AFS interns are charged with being cultural ambassadors, sharing their life experiences, perspectives and talents – in short, a little bit of America – with the several hundred mainly village youths from all over Greece who study at the Farm School.
I still have to laugh when I think back on how my students commonly reacted to hearing about the bike trip to AFS. After a brief look of astonishment, most students would smile wryly, raise their arms hopelessly and exclaim: Eisai trellos! ("You're crazy!") I heard that expression so often, I began to wonder if it might be true! To show how amazing the bike trip had been and to demonstrate that we did, contrary to the view of some students, actually have our wits about us, Tom and I made a slide show full of pictures and stories which we presented at a secondary school assembly. This was the first time many AFS students had met people who had even considered embarking on such a rigorous journey. Afterwards, seeing a light in the eyes of more than a few students was really meaningful since one of our central goals as interns was to encourage students to lead active lives. Sitting around drinking frappé is fine, but why not get out and cultivate a zest for life? To that end, we spent much of the year engaging students in sports, music and ideas.
Befriending AFS students and staff was one of the best parts of the internship. In addition to teaching biweekly “extra” English classes, I also spent countless hours interacting with students in the fields, production facilities or greenhouses during daily practical training; in the gym, library or music room during afternoon activities period; and in the dorms having conversations sometimes late into the night. When my parents visited in April, we spent Easter with a delightful AFS family in northern Greece with whom we experienced a traditional village Pascha including a bonfire, lamb on a spit, roasted kokoretsi, flowing spirits and dancing in the streets. It was a joyous celebration of life, simultaneously Greek Orthodox and Epicurean. The staff at AFS treated me like family too. Whether snacking on fresh figs or mousmoula fruit in the calm of a late afternoon, caroling with community members during Christmas, or enjoying home-cooked meals on campus, I was always welcomed in the warm spirit of hospitality and made to feel at home.
Thessaloniki proved to be an excellent home base for further adventures and exploration. After ascending Mount Olympus in the fall I decided to run the 2006 Athens Marathon. To have completed the first marathon of my life on that historic course was truly special. My mom flew over to be there with me and it’s a memory we’ll always cherish. I went on to run the Alexander the Great Marathon in April. It was there that I met Yiannis Kouros, a legend in the world of ultra long-distance running. In the course of training for these races I befriended a fantastic range of people in both Thessaloniki and Athens, some of whom became solid running buddies. In the spring, after a little recovery, I took some great weekend trips with Tom, including a trek through Vikos-Aoos National Park and an unforgettable expedition on Samothrace where we reached the summit of Mount Fengari (the highest peak in the Aegean Sea from which, according to Homer, Poseidon watched the fall of Troy). One of our most electrifying, yet altogether unexpected, adventures occurred on national Greek television where we performed several American folk songs for a New Year’s program. It was almost as exciting as following the Eurovision music contest in a school community that included college students from a number of European countries. Perhaps my fondest memory was bearing witness to the creativity of my students as they thought critically, wrote original works and composed songs.
After concluding my internship at AFS, I spent about two weeks cycling around Crete. It made for a fitting culmination to an amazing year. Before flying home from Athens, I had the chance to pay one last visit to an AFS family on the outskirts of the ancient city. What more could I have asked for? Wherever you may find yourself in Greece, you are never many steps removed from the American Farm School. From the heart of Macedonia to the mysteries of Samothrace, from the plains of Marathon to the summit of Mount Olympus, from the depths of Zagori to the crossroads of Crete: Greece has many wonders in store for those who search. I did a lot of searching last year and, in the process, took a few more steps along life’s ongoing journey of self-discovery.
