Tomb of the Kings
Author: Jason Van Wieren | Major: Data Science | Semester: Fall 2024
I studied abroad in the fall 2024 semester in Cyprus which is an island in the Mediterranean. The island speaks a dialect of Greek and is heavily connected to Greece but is its own independent country. I knew when I decided I was going to study abroad that I wanted to somewhere in Europe and when I saw Cyprus I thought it would be a great fit for me because I’d be in a place which is at the crossroads of three continents and I’d be able to experience a real multicultural environment that I was very unfamiliar with. Living with people who were from the middle east, Europe, and Africa allowed me to get a much different perspective on the world and the U.S as well.
The learning experience was different in how the university and classes were set up. Most of the classes were once a week for three hours, besides my calculus class which was twice a week for 2 hours each time. Another major difference was the grading. All my classes were only based on your grade on the midterm and final and maybe a couple homework assignments. It was different and honestly I prefer the way it’s done in Arkansas better but I was still able to learn just fine and had no problems with any of the professors themselves. The one experience the sticks out in particular to me was when me and the other two U of A data science students that came to Cyprus with me had a group project in our data visualizations class together. We got to spend some good time together and while learning how to use some new programs. I’m very glad I got to meet these students on this trip and I will definitely be continuing to hang out with them afterwards as well.
The program that ran my study abroad trip would take me and all the other Americans in the program on day and weekend trips around the island throughout the semester. During these trips we would have stops and learn history about the area that we were in. But on the weekend trips once we got to the hotel of the city that we were staying we had a day and half to explore on our own around the town. My favorite weekend trip we took was to a town called Paphos, this is one of the oldest cities in Cyprus and had lots of historical sites to go and visit. Me and a group of friends went to a place called Tomb of the Kings, which was a large plot of land that has ten or more tombs that were all pretty large and really cool to walk through. Another place we went to in Pahos was called The Mosaics which was another large property that had two big houses on it both of which contained hundreds and even thousands of years old mosaics. It was really cool to see the detail that people were able to make that long ago.