Author: Addie Walker | Major: Animal Science | Semester: Summer 2025

Making Friends with the Locals

This summer, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Thessaloniki, Greece at Perrotis College. I have always known that I wanted to study abroad, but none of my semesters were ever free enough for me to do so. This is what led me to my search for a good summer program. I found the Perrotis summer abroad program on the hogs abroad portal and immediately knew that I wanted to go. Not only did they offer a program that aligned well with my business minor, but also the extra excursions that they offered were incredibly appealing. When I emailed the people in charge of the program, they were always super friendly and informative which made me feel more at ease with my choice. I was in the program for 6 weeks from May 31st to June 12th and it truly felt like I got the most out of my time there. During my time at Perrotis, I took a Greek Wine Business and a Greek Culture class. Of the two, I loved the Greek Wine Business course the most. Our professor was super sweet and you could tell that he taught because he wanted to and not because he had to. In class, we learned all about the history of wine in Greece and the struggles that modern wineries face in an increasingly competitive market. We even learned proper wine tasting techniques and as part of the course, we were able to tour different wineries all around the country including a couple in Santorini, Greece. Our trip to Santorini definitely stuck out to me because it is a place that I always dreamed of going. The winery tours there were the most fascinating to me because Santorini is a dry volcanic island that is not very suitable for growing things. This means that they had to develop unique agricultural techniques to ensure that the grapes could grow which I found fascinating to learn about. Going into this course, I did not know a lot about wine, but now I can name the major wine varieties in Greece as well as what the best markets are for Greek wine all across the world. I truly learned so much from this course and it helped me gain a greater appreciation for wine that I did not have before. While in Greece, I got to see and do so many things, not only with the program, but also on my own. Classes were only Monday through Wednesday so we got long weekends to travel and experience what Greece has to offer. My favorite trip that we took with the program was our trip to Mount Olympus. I have always loved hiking and the fact that I hiked up Mount Olympus and got to spend the night up there is insane. The views were breathtaking and the sense of accomplishment for making it up was worth the long climb. When I was not with the program, I spent my time island hopping. I went to Santorini, Naxos, Crete, Corfu, Paxos, AntiPaxos and even took a day trip to Albania. My favorite place that I visited was Crete. The beaches at Crete were so beautiful (some were even pink!) and the water was so clear and warm. Even the food was fantastic. I tried snails for the very first time and they were not as bad as I was expecting. Even wandering around the city in Crete was wonderful. I loved all the winding small streets with the little shops advertising jewelry and art. I also really enjoyed traveling to Corfu. For one of our days there, my friend and I ended up spontaneously getting tickets to Albania for the next morning. This was easily the highlight of my Corfu trip because we were able to go to theseruins in Albania that were the most intact ruins I had ever seen. We also were able to try Albanian food and it was truly delicious.I feel like this trip allowed me to explore so much about not only Greek culture, but myself as well. Overall, I had such a fun time on this trip and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to have gone. I will carry and cherish these memories for a lifetime.