Thanks for the checking out the blog for this Global Leadership Adventures program!
Here are a few things to know and expect:
- Blog posts are written by onsite program staff and/or students and sent to our Headquarters team who will post the blog on this page.
- We typically receive 2-3 blog updates per week from each program, so please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a blog post every day – that’s totally normal.
- Blog updates received late in the evening or overnight will be posted the following day.
- Blog updates received on weekends may not be posted until Monday.
- Due to many factors such as internet accessibility, program staff aren’t always able to send photos, so some blog posts may contain text only.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope you enjoy following along on these unforgettable adventures.
For frequently asked questions about the blogs, please visit our Program Blog FAQ page.
-The Global Leadership Adventures HQ Team
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BLOG POST FOR JULY 14
Greetings from Greece!
We’re so happy to have all these great students here on the program with us. All 16 have arrived safe and are resting up after their long flights.
It’s a packed itinerary with tomorrow’s highlights being a city tour, Acropolis visit, and food tour. Today we had arrivals, naps, delicious meals, and pool time on our hotel rooftop overlooking Athens and it’s archeological sites. We also had our orientation, where we started by discussing the GLA rules and Code of Conduct, and transitioned into a discussion on values which informed our community agreement!
We shared some laughs and got to know each other throughout the day. Such joyful, funny, intellectual, sporty, and musically talented students in this group. What a great start to this journey!
Our blogs will start with myself (Amanda, International Director) and Kyle (group mentor) as authors then transition into student written narrative.
They will be busy during the days fostering in-person community and have their phones at night to reach out and connect with home. I recognize this time zone difference might be a challenge when you want to reach your student so we’ll send regular blogs and be available as a staff support team for you and them 24/7.
Thanks for trusting us with your young ones, it’s really an honor to work with them
Amanda, International Director
Kyle, Mentor
BLOG POST FOR JULY 15
Yasass (Hello)! Our first full day in Greece we began with breakfast at the hotel. We then went on an Athens city bus tour! We learned the history surrounding the important buildings in Athens, and the golden age of Greece all the way to present Greek history. We also learned the reason behind why Greek parliament guards have pom pons on their shoes (an old military blade hiding technique)!
After arriving at the base of the Acropolis, we ventured up. While walking our tour guide Evi explained the importance and meaning behind the Acropolis, Parthenon, and multiple temples! She explained how they are connected to Greek mythology, religion, and culture.
After multiple water breaks we started our Athens food tour! Our tour guide first led us to a dessert bakery named Krinos that is over a century old! They are famous for their Loukoumada, which is a fried dough desert with honey and sugar. They are a Greek classic!
Then we explored the meat, fish, and vegetable market. Then we were seated at a restaurant and had a family style lunch tasting multiple different Greek dishes. We finished the tour by stopping for gyros! We ended the day back at the hotel hanging out near the pool playing games. All in all great start to an ongoing adventure!
Blog done by Leaders of the day,
Anya and Nora
BLOG POST FOR JULY 16
By Mia and Audrey,
After a busy day yesterday, we started off today with the Invisible Tour, which highlights the parts of Athens not commonly seen by tourists. A homeless man from Athens led our tour and told us about his life and how he became homeless. We learned about the International Network of Street Papers and the International Network of Street Tours. He showed us some of the places that help shelter, feed, and provide resources to the homeless. He spoke about the importance of sport and the arts, and how many homeless people lose access to that. He shared his opportunity to act in many theatre productions and how meaningful that was to him. Moral of the story is don’t take life for granted, and that life always keeps moving!
After the tour we went into the main part of town and got a Greek dish called gyros, mostly everyone asked for beef and chicken. We had an hour to eat and then we went into the main shopping area, the flea market street. We had an hour to get some clothes, bracelets, and ice cream.
After shopping we went back to get our bags from the hotel and got on a bus to get on the ferry! The ferry was delayed a bit so we went and got ice cream and water. We were able to stay on the bus so we weren’t in the heat for a long time. We all got our roommates and now we are headed to our next destination Crete!
BLOG POST FOR JULY 17
Done by: Katie and Kaleigh
This morning, we began our day pretty early by arriving from our ferry in Crete at 4am. After a quick few hours at our hotel of rest, freshening up, and breakfast, we made our way to the bus, and arrived at Magarites after a long car ride. This is a village in Crete known for its extensive history of pottery. While here, we met a gentleman who was kind enough to offer us an in depth pottery class. He taught us some techniques, shapes, and styles as to how we can create our own unique pieces.
After completing our masterpieces, the gentleman took us to his studio, where he creates, displays, and sells his finished pieces. He demonstrated many ancient techniques that individuals used to make life easier back then! After this, we swung by a restaurant in the village to grab some delicious lunch. It was yummy! We had a wide variety of Greek dishes such as; fried cheese, meatballs, tzatziki, and goat. We then went back down to explore some other shops and purchase what we wished.
Following this, we made our way to our new hotel for the night, and got changed for dinner and Cretan dancing. The 30 minute bus ride felt almost like 5 minutes by how entertaining the landscape truly was! When we arrived, we were greeted by friendly people who had everything planned out for us. We began eating dinner, and were quickly surprised with live Cretan music being played. Eventually, the dancers joined in and invited us to join them in a few of their performances. Near the end, the students took a turn in teaching by showing the dancers how to do the Cotton-Eye Joe line dance. Everyone enjoyed today so much, and we can’t wait for what’s to come next!
BLOG POST FOR JULY 18
Written by: Anika and Jake
Hello from Crete! We all started our days in Rethymno, where we took a short bus ride to where our bike tour would begin! We rode through the historic and beautiful city, stopping along the way to see the many sights that Rethymno has to offer! We did have a few bumps along the way… maybe more than 8…but no real injuries, and we didn’t let that stop our journey through the city.
After our tiring but enjoyable bike tour, Evi told the group what we were going to eat for lunch. We were going to eat cheeseburgers! Everyone cheered in joy, expecting more Greek food. After everyone had eaten their variation of cheeseburgers, we all walked down to a cute little ice cream shop. According to our bus driver Bobis, it is the best ice cream shop in Crete. He was not lying. It WAS good. People enjoyed vast flavors from banana to cheesecake. These were all arranged by our amazing local director Evi. Thank you Evi!
After we had eaten lunch, we all jumped into our bus for the 2 hour drive to Zaros. Some of us slept while others were listening to music, chatting with friends or just entranced by the beauty of Zaros. Shortly after we had arrived at our marvelous hotel in Zaros, many of us headed straight for the pool. People were reading by the pool, passing a ball around, learning how to swim, and laughing heavily. After everyone had washed up we all headed over to the hotel restaurant where we saw a big tank of fish, a small playground, and the gorgeous view of the sunset in the mountains. For dinner we had cheese pie, salad, chicken and potatoes and the Greek twist of flan.
BLOG POST FOR JULY 19
This morning we ate breakfast at the IDI Hotel and then left for the farm. At the farm we first learned how to bake bread and a dessert called skaltsouni (cheese pie). While we waited for the traditional oven to be ready we learned about making a traditional goat cheese. After trying the cheese, we visited the farm animals. We got to feed all of the goats, hold the baby goats, feed the pigs, and collect the chicken eggs. After we were done with that, we sat down to eat lunch. We ate the bread we made along with chickpeas and herbs, a mixture of rice and vegetables, and a traditional Greek salad. After that we had our dessert, and once we finished our dessert, we danced. It was the same dance that we learned on Thursday so I think it was a bit easier for everyone this time around. We spent our entire morning there and it was time well spent.
We had a pretty low key afternoon. Once we got back to the hotel, we chilled a little in our hotel rooms and then went downstairs to have a debate about water scarcity in Greece and possible solutions from different points of view in the economy. The debate went very well and we all came to an agreement about solutions. Afterwards we all went to the park and had different activities like a plant scavenger hunt, charades, and speed competitions about Greek gods and goddesses. We all went back to the hotel and had an amazing dinner made up of salad, ham and cheese rolls, kebabs and pita bread! All and all it was an amazing fun filled day and we had so much fun!
Authors – Sophia and Lyla
BLOG POST FOR JULY 20
By Michelle and Adeline
After a busy few days, we got to sleep in till 10 AM and make our way out of Zaros and into Heraklion which is the capital of Crete. We got to swim for a few hours in the beautiful clear blue water off the coast. We had lunch at the seaside restaurant where we got to choose either pasta or pizza. We ate our lunch and continued to swim, play volleyball, or hangout together on the sand. After the beach we got back on our bus to our hotel in Heraklion where we got to rest for a couple hours before walking over to the city part of Heraklion where we got to listen a little bit about the history of some of the buildings like the church and main “lion fountain”. After our short tour we got free time to shop around with our partners and explore a bit before coming back together and going to a sit down dinner where we got fried cheese, pork, French fries, and Greek salad.
BLOG POST FOR JULY 21
By Paige and Amelia
We’ve made it to Santorini! After a wonderful time in Crete exploring the island we started off the day by taking a couple hours ferry to the famous Santorini island. Once we dropped our luggage off at our new hotel we headed straight to the black beach. Usually when you hear beach you think of beige, white and lightly colored sand but in this case, there was a volcanic eruption which had led the beaches to have a beautiful and unique red, black, and while pebbled beach. Here at the beach we swam in the water, played volleyball, and ate lunch at the beach club where we had margarita pizza, gyros, and Alfredo pasta which were all amazing.
After spending time at the beach we checked into the hotel and later went on a bus tour around the island, going to various different little towns each one being gorgeous and having the classic white and blue buildings. This tour lasted around 3 hours and we got souvenirs, great photos, and of course ice cream. After learning a bit about life on the island and seeing it as well, we headed back to the hotel for a bit of down time before dinner.
By the time dinner came around everyone was starving from the long day we just had. They served us a lasagna-like dish for dinner and some had pasta as well. For dessert we had a cinnamon flavored yogurt mixed with cream and a graham cracker which everyone enjoyed. After our first day in Santorini everyone was exhausted and we all had a good night.
BLOG POST FOR JULY 22
We’ve made it to Santorini! After a wonderful time in Crete exploring the island we started off the day by taking a couple hours ferry to the famous Santorini island. Once we dropped our luggage off at our new hotel we headed straight to the black beach. Usually when you hear beach you think of beige, white, and lightly colored sand but in this case there was a volcanic eruption which had led the beaches to have a beautiful and unique red, black, and white pebbled beach. Here at the beach we swam in the water, played volleyball, and ate lunch at the beach club where we had margarita pizza, gyros, and alfredo pasta which were all amazing.
After spending time at the beach we checked into the hotel and later went on a bus tour around the island, going to various different little towns each one being gorgeous and having the classic white and blue buildings. This tour lasted around 3 hours and we got souvenirs, great photos, and of course ice cream. After learning a bit about life on the island and seeing it as well, we headed back to the hotel for a bit of down time before dinner.
By the time dinner came around everyone was starving from the long day we just had. They served us a lasagna like dish for dinner and some had pasta as well. For dessert we had a cinnamon flavored yogurt mixed with cream and a graham cracker which everyone enjoyed. After our first day in Santorini everyone was exhausted and we all had a good night.
BLOG POST FOR JULY 23
Our day started at 7:40 with a big breakfast, and we were soon on our way to shop. After shopping in Fira, we walked to a restaurant, where we enjoyed delicious food and had great conversations with friends. For lunch, we had meatballs, fries, and spinach pie. Shortly after lunch we boarded the bus and headed towards the dock where the boat would meet us.
We arrived and the boat and we were impressed with the boat’s old and stylish appearance with high sails and colorful wood. Many stops were made along the cruise, each very unique and beautiful. After everyone boarded from the two docks, we sailed toward the first destination which was a nice sunny swimming area close to the safe volcano that created a really cool appearance on the black rock. It was an option to jump off the side of the boat which a lot of students took part in and had a blast, along with swimming with pool noodles.
The next stop was another unique swimming area that noticeably had very clear, dark blue water next to steep mountains which is also where dinner was served. This dinner was quickly eaten by the students tired and hungry from swimming, which consisted of Greek salad, chicken kabobs, rice, potatoes, bread, tsiki sauce and orange juice. A good portion of time was spent at this location relaxing, swimming, and then eating.
After this, the sun slowly began to set, so we started to cruise around the islands for the last few hours on the boat. We had a wonderful time watching the sunset, taking pictures, talking, and laughing. We arrived at the boat port around 9:00 and hopped on the bus back to the hotel where we went to bed right away, exhausted from such a fun day!
From Will and Joseph
BLOG POST FOR JULY 24
By Michelle and Adeline
Today we woke up bright and early to eat breakfast and make our way to the “Humanity Greece” soup kitchen. We all worked together to prepare vegetables by peeling them and cutting them up to make a meal to then put into boxes, which we decorated to give out to homeless people in need. We then sat down and ate the meal we made for lunch, which was a healthy mix of lentils and vegetables. In the afternoon we had a few hours of freetime. We played cards, swam, and (unfortunately) packed to leave the following morning 🙁 . After our free time we all got ready in our nice dresses and dress shirts then took the bus to our farewell dinner where we did our last sunset circle. Once we did our sunset circle we sat down for our farewell dinner. We did traditional Greek dancing and ate traditional Greek food buffet style. We then competed in a competition where you had to be the loudest team to cheer and GLA won!
P.S. We also added in posts for July 20 and 21. Scroll up to check them out!
