Gail Juin's Greener Life

This past week I was giving a tour and a prospective student came up to me and asked me a question, the question that inspired this article. They asked “What is the depression and mental health like on your campus? Is it acknowledged by your school or does it just get passed by like it does at most institutions? Is depression really apparent here?” It took me by surprise to hear these types of questions, but I realized that they are one that should be asked and addressed. There are a lot of colleges that don’t acknowledge how much school can affect a person’s mental health; Evergreen isn’t one of them. There are multiple different resources available on campus that make it a little easier for all the students that go to Evergreen. We have unlimited, free hours available in our counseling center so that students can always have someone to talk to if they feel like they need it. We also have the light lounge which is basically a bunch of vitamin D “Happy Lights” that students can sit in front of to get extra vitamins since it can be pretty gloomy here in Washington. Students can also rent them out from student housing for the dorm rooms which makes it a lot easier to access! However, even with these resources, it doesn’t mean that depression and mental health issues aren’t apparent on our campus.

Depression is going to be a problem on any college campus pretty much no matter what. School takes a toll on everyone and a lot of colleges and universities will simply ignore it and say that everything is fine, even if it isn’t. Evergreen acknowledges mental health and tries to do everything that they can to provide help for students that feel they need it. When I first started attending Evergreen, I struggled with depression as did most of my friends. We all had our own ways of dealing with the anxiety and depression that comes along with being in college, some of which involved the schools resources and some that didn’t. I had a few different activities that I would try whenever I was feeling depressed or super anxious. My favorite was always to just go for a walk in the woods, either by myself or with a close friend, and find a nice area where I could sit and draw or set up my hammock. Evergreen has 800 acres of undeveloped forest that is perfect to go relax in and get some much needed fresh air. I often times will find one of the tree houses that are set up in the woods and climb up there to read; it feels like a whole new world when you’re off the ground and among the trees.

It does tend to rain here in Olympia quite a bit so sometimes going outside doesn’t feel like an option. Sometimes the gloominess of our weather here can make it more difficult for the students because it feels so much harder to get out of bed and actually do things, at least in my experience that is. When this happens, I usually try and take the bus downtown and sit in a coffee shop. That way I’m not just cooped up in my room doing homework or reading but I can still be inside in a nice setting and feel relaxed. Burial Grounds is always my favorite place to go sit because it’s one of the more laid back coffeeshops downtown and makes me feel at home. It doesn’t hurt that their drinks are amazing. Hanging out with friends is always a good option too! Evergreen has lots of clubs to join, or make your own with the help of only three other people, so that you can find people who are interested in similar things as you.  My friends and I would always get together in the dorms or in our apartments to just chill and play some music.

Self care is a huge deal. Often it’s when you’re extremely over worked and have no time to yourself that you realize you need to take a minute for yourself. Maybe call in from work that day or take one of those three absences that you have for your program, and just take a day for yourself. Sometimes just treating yourself to dinner or a movie can make a huge difference in your depression. Whenever I feel like I really need a day of self care, I’ll go buy some face masks and ice cream from target and just settle in with a good movie or tv show on Netflix for the night. All the stores are super close to campus so it won’t ever be too far out of the way. If you’re someone who enjoys being more social during your self care, find a house show to go to! There’s always some kind of event going on in Olympia. If there’s not, invite some friends to join you for movies and face masks and enjoy your self care time together. You all deserve it, college is hard.

The main point of this article is just to take care of yourself. College can be really stressful and sometimes it can feel like you don’t have any time to worry about yourself. Take that time. It won’t matter how well you do in school if your mental health is in bad shape. You come first.

We are officially moved into our apartments in Florence Italy! THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL. Our whole class is spread in different apartments throughout the city which is amazing because it actually gives us some separation for the first time in 5 weeks. My apartment is with 3 other girls from our program and we lucked out with being in the building right next to the school that we’re studying through, SACI. There’s only one other apartment in our building that has people from our program in it which is really nice.

Florence is already really cool. Our apartments are so close to the Duomo and to all these amazing museums. When we were in Greece, I would recognize a lot of the sites we were seeing and the statues that were in museums but I didn’t remember a whole lot about them. We’ve only been in Italy a few days and I am already recognizing so much! We got to visit the museum of the Duomo on one of our first days here and as I was walking around, I kept stumbling upon things that I was like “oh hey, I know that piece!” and “I remember learning about the making of this.” It made me feel so good to realize that I’d actually learned a lot in my program at Evergreen.

Seeing Brunelleschi’s Dome, Giotto’s campanile, and St. John’s Baptistry was absolutely breathtaking. I spent so much time in my program at Evergreen learning how they were built and memorizing their names for tests that it felt so worth it finally getting to see them all in person. They were so big and beautiful and the detail that was all over the outsides of the buildings was just a preface to what we would see when we went inside. It was so overwhelming but at the same time made me feel so justified for the all the time and effort that I put into this program back in the states. The artwork in the Duomo museum was absolutely amazing. Seeing the actual Doors of Paradise and realizing how much bigger they were than I thought they were going to be took my breath away. I am not the type of person to just stand in front of a piece of art for longer than five minutes but when I was looking at the artwork in this museum, I couldn’t help but stand there and look at them in awe. The pieces were all so detailed and showed so much emotion. In today’s modern art, I don’t tend to see the kind of emotion that these statues showed. It’s still beautiful but in an entirely different way.

Florence is beautiful. There’s not nearly as much of a language barrier as there was in Greece which makes everything much easier and I feel less out of place here. I loved Greece

but I always felt like people were staring at me because they could tell I didn’t belong. It doesn’t feel like that here. The food is phenomenal. We had some good food in Greece but I was really missing things like pizza and what better place to get pizza than Italy? We have kitchens in our apartments here which is a life saver because I didn’t realize how much I loved to cook until I couldn’t do it at all anymore. It’s so nice being able to cook again and having big dinners with people from class in our own living area; it feels much more like a home. Last thing about food because I’m sitting here with my stomach growling as I write this, but the GELATO OH MY GOSH. I have never tasted something so magical until I tasted the gelato here. We went to this place around the corner from our apartment and they had a kiwi flavor that was made from fresh kiwi. The best kind however, and I will stand by this until I die, was the Ambrosia flavor. It was yogurt, honey, and cinnamon and it was honestly the best thing that has ever been in my mouth. I’ve gotten it almost everyday since we went. 

Holy Crap.

Hydra is, by far, the most beautiful place that I have ever laid eyes on. Crete was pretty close to perfect but Hydra is a whole new level. Just standing on this island is such an experience. The water is more clear and more blue that I ever though I’d see. They don’t have any cars on the island here, they get around only by foot and by donkey. Seeing the donkeys everywhere gives me mixed feelings. I’m really impressed that they can go entirely without cars but those poor animals. They’re forced to carry tourists and all of their things around and they stand for hours on end in the sun on cobblestones. I grew up with my family owning mules and they always had lots of room to run around and enjoy life so it saddens me to see these poor donkeys having to sit through this.

We get to go swimming while we’re here on Hydra. Our TA told us that there was cliff jumping which I was super excited for but when we got there, it was much more of just a ledge than I was picturing. It was still really fun, even though the water was freezing. There’s so much salt in the water here that when you’re in it, you don’t even have to try to stay afloat, you just do! It was incredibly relaxing. We have a lot of free time during our two days on Hydra, which is really refreshing because we haven’t really had any free time since we’ve been in Greece. Hydra is pretty much the epitome of what I imagined Greece to be like before I got here. The buildings are white and throughout the hillside, the water is clear and blue, and everything just feels right.

The food here is outstanding. Since we got to Greece, we’ve only been able to eat out because we stay in hotels so we don’t have access to kitchens. The only time we get home cooked meals is when we visit small villages and eat dinner with families there. Eating out has been nice but I’ve been getting tired of having the same things every time I got out to eat. On Hydra, they have a lot of seafood options which has been delicious. Our rooming here is much nicer than when we’re in Athens as well. In Athens, all 39 of us stay in one hotel so it’s impossible to not run into your classmates all the time. In Hydra, we are spread out in 4 different hotels so there’s at least some distance. It’s a small island so it’s not much but it’s more than usual.

I don’t think I ever want to leave Hydra. This will be the place that I come back to when I eventually get back to Greece. I feel connected and at peace here and I think it’s my favorite place thus far. 

God,

the water.

She is a beautiful sight.

She is gentle and clear,

Soothing as she moves

In and out.

Pulling me deeper

Into her caressing hold.

The Sea is alive,

Alive and Beautiful.

The water is clear and blue,

So clear you can see the bottom.

But don’t reach for it,

It’s further than you think.

Float.

Float and look at the sky.

The Sky that’s as blue as the water underneath your body.

We’ve been learning a lot about bees throughout this trip. Greece is famous for their honey here and it certainly lives up to the hype. Tasting the honey here was a huge highlight of this entire trip, so you know it was good. We visited two different honey farms while we’ve been here, the first was on Crete and we got to see the process that they use to make the honey as well as test all the other items that they use beeswax and other substances the bees make for. During this visit, we got the opportunity to put on those big bee suits and go over to the bee hives and taste the jelly straight from the hive; it was like an out of body experience.

Besides making honey, the farm also made honey raki as well as healing cream. The raki was insane, normally raki tastes a bit like rubbing alcohol but the honey raki was one of the sweetest and most delicious things I’d ever tasted. The healing cream that they make is called an “Ancient Healing Cream for Face and Body.” It’s used for itching, dry skin, burns, etc. If you burn yourself and immediately put this balm on, the burn won’t even appear. They make it with natural beeswax, royal jelly, extra virgin olive oil, thyme honey, and propolis, so almost everything in it comes directly from the bees! I actually ended up buying some of this because it worked so well that I couldn’t not.

The people who ran this honey farm were amazing; they welcomed us into their home, showed us around, and fed us. We got to take a tour of their farm which not just bees, but cows, horses, ducks, goats, and sheep. The cows they have are some of the only cows on in Greece. I grew up on a farm so getting to see this place was really sentimental to me and made me miss my hometown in Pennsylvania quite a lot, which is something I don’t feel that often. The village here was so small that they didn’t even have a school; the children would take an hour long bus ride to the nearest town every morning to have school there instead. Everyone in this town seemed to always be coming together, they all helped with the animals, with the honey, and with the restaurants. It reminded me of th

e Amish community back where I grew up. Back home, the Amish always come together whenever another family needs their help. They help with building, selling food, and school, it’s a very wholesome community.

A few days after Crete, we took a trip to Ancient Olympia and got to visit Clio’s Honey farm. Clio and her family were very welcoming and made us a home cooked meal with an extremely tasty honey dessert. After we ate, Clio taught us all about her farm; from how it operates, the history behind it. The

history of her farm was actually really cool. Her grandfather was the first person to harvest chicken eggs in Peloponnese and the house that she uses for her honey process now, used t

o house 5000 chickens that her grandfather would use to sell eggs to Athens.

We got to learn a lot more about what the hives make at Clio’s farm than we did at the oneon Crete. One of the many things the bees make is called Propolis. It looks kind of like a resin and it helps to keep the hive healthy because it’s a natural antiseptic.  It can be used to keep out intruders and repair the hives. If an intruder gets in that is too big for the bees to get rid of, they will cover the body in propolis in a sort of mummification. Since it’s such a strong antiseptic, the body doesn’t give the bees any kind of diseases while it’s t

here. Royal Jelly is another product that the bees make; it’s used to fee the Queen Bee, which she is also created from. The jelly literally creates a stronger, better bee and she is the only one who can give birth. Before the new queen is ready, the old queen will leave with about half the hive to find a new hive to

start their new life. A queen will only fly twice in her life. The first is when she is born; she will fly very fast and all the drone bees will follow her and only the strongest will catch her and mate. The second time is when she leaves to start a new hive once a new queen is born. The queen can only stay a queen while she has sperm in her belly. Without the sperm, she is useless and the hive will not survive because there are no more females being born. The drone bees, which are males. are pretty much useless. One on in a hundred actually serves a purpose, which is to fertilize the queen that first time she flies. The rest just make noise and do nothing.

Class has been going on for about a week now in Greece but it already feels like we’ve done a months worth of activity. Our days are hectic but entirely worth it. So far we’ve visited all over Athens and explored the Island of Crete. I think I prefer Crete to Athens in the long run because Athens just reminds me of Los Angeles while Crete actually feels like what I pictured Greece would be like. Athens is still an absolutely beautiful city however; we got to visit the Acropolis as well as Monastiraki square.

The Acropolis was truly a beautiful site. We studied it for almost the entirety of fall quarter and I found myself still in shock by the enormity of the site. Staring at the ruins made me feel so small and unworthy because you could see the amount of effort that went into sculpting each little piece of architecture and art that was shown on the site. It’s amazing to see the restoration that is going into the acropolis because they have to try to match up the details exactly on some pieces that are smaller than my hands.

We got to take a “surviving Greek language class” on one of our first days here and it was helpful even though I’ve only remembered how to say “please,” “thank you,” “You’re welcome,” “hello,” and “Good day,” but hey, it’s more than I knew to start! I really want to continue learning the language  but we have very limited wifi and limited free time so it makes it difficult to sit down and write/study the letters. I’m hoping I can just at least learn the alphabet so that I can be able to figure out the words, even if it takes me a minute to figure out what’s being said.

Crete has been, by far, my favorite place we’ve visiting since we’ve gotten here. It was exactly what I pictured Greece would be like. We got to spend Greek Easter there which was one of the most amazing experiences that I’ve ever had. Being a part of such an intimate religious experience was .eye opening. I’m not extremely religious but going into the monasteries and being welcomed by the Greek families almost made me start crying. Midnight mass was unlike any festival I’d ever been too; they had a march of the soldiers out in front of the Church while they sang songs and lit candles and they even set off fireworks at the end of the night. We didn’t eat meat for the whole weekend until after the Midnight Mass which is when they feast. The locals actually go totally vegan for the 50 days before Easter which is astonishing. Trying lamb for the first time was really interesting, definitely glad I waited until Greece to try it because they know their lamb here.

The beaches in Crete were extremely beautiful; I’d never seen water so clear in my life. Even though it was so deep, it looked like the ground was right underneath our feet. I’ve always loved the water but I’m extremely terrified of anything that lives in the water so it’s always been hard to go in the oceans back home since you can’t see anything. The sea here was both terrifying but also mind easing since I could see if anything was coming near me, luckily nothing was. I think my favorite thing that we visited on Crete, however, was the Botanical Gardens of Crete. It was like walking through what I would imagine the Garden of Eden would be like. There were fruit groves everywhere and every single kind of flower that could come to mind, it was mind blowing. I’ve been to Botanical Gardens before but this was like an out of body experience.

One of the last things we did on Crete was visit the Agia Triada Monastery. I grew up Quaker and went to a very beautiful, stone meeting place on Sundays with my grandfather and in the summer we had meeting outside in a Quaker grove in the Poconos but neither of those even slightly compared to the beauty of this Monastery. From the outside it was pretty, with red stone buildings everywhere but the real magic was inside. Walking inside the Monastery quite literally made my eyes tear up. I am not a religious person but you could feel the amount of spiritual energy and love that took up the halls of this place. The decorations were outstanding and inside the main dome of the building was a huge mural of Christ looking down at all those who pass underneath. There were yellow stars lining all of the ceilings and there were beautifully painted icons all over the walls. It was, honestly, one of the most stunning things that I’ve seen in my life.

We’re heading back to Athens and then onto Nafplio, Olympia, and Delphi so more to come soon!

After two long, long, quarters, it’s officially time to leave for my study aboard and I could not be more excited! For the next two months I get to explore Greece and Italy (plus a side trip to London after). I get to see ancient art, architecture, and so so much more. The food is going to be incredible and the people will be wonderful, it’s just going to be fantastic.

I’ve travelled all over the United States but I’ve never left the country before so prepping for this has been stressful and a doozy. If you’re thinking about doing a trip outside the US, do better than I did and plan wayyyy ahead because it just makes everything so much easier. Since my program is going to be moving all over Greece and walking more than 10 miles a day, I don’t want to bring too much but I’m not an experienced enough traveller to not take a full suitcase. I’m stuck in this limbo space right now where I feel like I have too much packed but also not nearly enough so that’s been a lot of fun.

I can’t wait to get immersed in the culture that takes part in Greece and Italy. We’re going to be visiting a lot of different architectural sites as well as many monasteries throughout Greece that still follow traditional Greek Orthodox traditions, like head scarfs and skirts that go to your ankles. I come from a fairly non religious family, though I was encouraged to believe whatever I wanted too. My grandfather was the only practicing Quaker in my family and helped to teach me the traditions of that culture. I also explored Christianity and Judaism to really see what beliefs I wanted to follow. I haven’t been able to experience too much Greek Orthodox belief systems so I’m really excited to get to see it actually IN Greece. My partner is grew up Greek Orthodox and when I told her we were visiting monasteries, she went through her closet and surprised me with her old head scarfs from when she wore them to church; it was so sweet.

Anyway, pictures to come of Greece! Yiásas! (goodbye in Greek)