My Moment In Greece

Brian Barbero Each time I sit down on a plane to travel somewhere new I always wonder what it's going to feel like to come home. It started on the flight coming back from Amsterdam. The lights on the plane were dimly lit, some were sleeping, some were not, and Professor Finitsis was reading a cominc book with his Bose headphones snugly in place.

I took out my camera for the first time to filter through what I was sure were to be hundreds of pictures. I hadn't seen all of them before because I wanted time to reflect on the them and remember the stories attached to each of those pictures. As I started to look through them I saw that there were many I forgot I'd taken, like Katie bending over the ledge at the top of the acropolis, Professor Finitsis' Mama Mia moment, Professor Ihssen and the donkey at Mystra, Ben lifting up Ashley after taking a dip in the water, or Kyle looking down at the dizzying plummet below at the Mystra citadel. Memories of the little things that made my day began coming to mind like practical jokes with water and oranges, Braveheart movie quotes, random Barbara Streisand references, endless walks to unknown places, candid moments like tripping at the starting line, Greek dancing and laughs during long dinner conversations.

These memories came to me all at once and they were clear to me as if I experienced them yesterday. I was jumping back and forth between them and wanted to share them with other people around me, but as I looked back...many of us were sleeping. It reminded me of our wonderful class discussions and a time I was tempted to snap photos of us dozing off after three hours of lecture without pause. My goodness. When I reached the end of the memory cards there were over a thousand pictures all together. I thought about what it's going to feel like when I get back now that Greece is in the past. It was a melancholy feeling because I felt like our group was really starting to get comfortable in each other's company. We had learned so much together and so much about one another, the plane trip home felt anti-climactic like the trip was cut off at the midway point with no resolution to tie everything together in the end. Perhaps in the next few days.

Pretty soon I'm going to be fondly reminded of Greece at the most unexpected times. Memories will come out of nowhere when I'm walking through a market reminiscent of the Plaka, or studying at a cafe bustling with conversation like many of those in Athens, or smelling some familiar spice used in one of the beautiful dishes we ate and shared. Something in some random place will trigger these memories of our time in Greece and it's something I'm looking forward to. It'll be nice to be nostalgic someone from our trip and say, "I was reminded of our time in Greece today when..."