Starting the New Year in China

By Athena Lao

Although it's only the second month of 2010, it's funny to think that I've spent more of this year in China than I have in the United States. This past January, I participated in the inaugural Harvard Winter Service Learning Program, sponsored by the Harvard China Fund, along with 28 other undergraduate and graduate students from my university. I'm still slightly jetlagged, but looking back on all we saw and did, the exhaustion is worth it!

I wrote previously on the APIASF/GMS blog about my trip to Greece last summer. While that experience was similarly incredible, I'll be honest - digging for 7 hours a day does not fill my heart with as much warmth as teaching for 7 hours a day does. My international service learning experience was life-changing! If you have the opportunity to participate in such a program, do it! You'll get so much more out of a trip than a cadre of Facebook photos (although you'll have that too).

Week 1: Beijing
During our trip, we interacted with students from Peking University (PKU). The students were incredibly helpful and good-natured. They also made up for my deficiency in Mandarin knowledge. We had lectures from PKU professors about China, visited primary schools, talked with migrant families, and toured the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We didn't get to go to the Great Wall since the roads were icy. Mao Zedong once said that one is not a man until he has climbed the Great Wall. I guess I'll have to wait until next time to "become a man."

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Beaches, Bones, Bus Rides, and Bad Tan Lines...

...those are only a few of the things I will remember about my time spent studying abroad in Greece! So far, it's been the best summer adventure that I’ve ever had.


I spent five weeks as a junior staff member for the Kenchreai Cemetery Project, an archaeological excavation based in southwest Greece. As a student participating in the program for course credit, I not only worked in the field Mondays through Fridays from 7 AM-1 PM (shoveling, pick-axing, trowel-ing, hoeing, sieving, sweeping, washing and learning about pottery and bones, getting dirt in places I thought I'd never find it, developing an intense six-pack and a hardcore tank top and sock tan...basically, all the different facets of field work), but I also attended seminars, and wrote and presented a research paper on the Lechaion Basilica - the largest ancient church ever found in Greece (it's longer than a football field). The picture below shows what remains of the basilica today:

Having no previous archaeological or art history experience, I learned so much from going on a dig! I'm going to be a Classics major, so interacting with the tangible remains of classical culture (coins, bones, pottery, tesserae, etc.) added another dimension to my mostly literature-based perspective on the ancient world. I was treated to some impressive (and very filling) native cuisine (moussaka, baklava, gyros, souvlaki, and feta, for starters), and I even picked up a little Modern Greek (at least enough to order a gyro from the local tavern). Best of all, I formed some great friendships with both students and professors!

It helped that I was surrounded by places like these everyday:

And that after work, we got to hang out at the beach!

And on the weekends, our group (comprising 30+ students from colleges all over the US) took a charter bus to different archaeological sites nearby like Epidaurus...

...Mycenae...

...and Ancient Corinth (this was near our hotel!):

In our free time, we organized all sorts of cool group activities. We hiked, explored tombs and other historical sites (it seems like anywhere you stand in Greece, under you is SOMETHING important in antiquity), went clubbing (it's definitely different from the American version of clubbing), attended a performance of Aristophanes' The Clouds in the Theatre of Epidaurus, and went sightseeing in Loutraki, Nafplio, and Athens.

I'm on a bench in front of the Parthenon. Can you find me?

I've always wanted to travel internationally, but as a Classics and Pre-med student, I know that with numerous course requirements, it is difficult to study abroad during the regular school year. However, there are still options in the summer, January term, or Spring Break to go abroad - you just have to take the time to hunt them down and plan ahead. The thrill of being able to explore one of my dream destinations made all that time I spent during the spring semester tracking down the right program and finding funding so worth it! I highly recommend traveling abroad at least once when you're in college - you will NOT regret it. I started out college having never stepped foot outside the US, and only a year a later, I definitely can't wait for the next trip!