My prior knowledge about Greece was mostly shaped by a few factors throughout my life. First, at the beginning of my career I worked as a middle school teacher and taught Ancient Civilizations to sixth graders, which featured Ancient Greece as a key component. Later, in my career in international development, I have spent many years working in areas near Greece or that have had interactions with Greece (mostly the Balkans and Turkey), without ever visiting Greece. It has always been a country I wanted to visit, but somehow I never made it there. Finally last year I was able to spend one day in Corfu (a 30 minute ferry ride from Albania) and that further stoked my interest in a longer visit.

I was surprised to hear the video refer to Greece as a country in the Balkans. While I know this is geographically correct, I have always associated the term with the former Yugoslavia. I have also been very aware of the conflict over the contested term "Macedonia" as well as the history of Alexander the Great. As a person who has spent extended time in the Balkans (mostly Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo) I will be very interested to see the cultural differences and similarities between Greece and those other countries in the region. 

As an additional note on Greek culture, I am particularly excited to spend an extended amount of time enjoying Greek food and wine! I hope to have the opportunity to participate in either the gourmet walking tour or cooking lesson in Athens at the end of our time. I've been able to do similar cooking lessons in Spain, Portugal, and Italy and they were real highlights of those trips. My approach to travel is to try and focus on experiences as souvenirs rather than things. Cooking lessons are perfect because you bring home a skill you can enjoy for years to come!