It’s hard to summarize such an eventful semester, but I’ll try to do my best! On the other hand, it’s not too complicated because I still have loads of thoughts and feelings about the course, the fellow students, and myself.

This course represents everything that I love about Erasmus in general. We sit in a circle, and everyone is equal. It’s up to everybody how much they want to participate and how much they want to share on certain topics. In the beginning, shyness was more common, but time did its job and created a friendly, trustworthy environment—of course, it was more us, but I appreciate the nature of time itself. We were open not just to each other but to every single academic topic that we were talking about. I enjoyed the process; I loved to learn about digital storytelling and others simultaneously. Meanwhile, I was focused on these things when the thunder just hit my head, and I realized how open I had become. I’m extremely grateful for everyone who let me know them and to them for making it possible for me to show my real face through drawings, conversations, stories, etc.

I also have to mention how much I’ve grown as a person, as a future full-time adult, as a friend, and as a friend to myself. While studying hard and essential things, it’s impossible to study these things for ourselves. Every single academic thought has a little effect on us unconsciously—this course had a huge impact and left a mark on me. We had to express ourselves clearly, and this requires having these things in our heads clearly. I’ve clarified many phenomena in myself, about myself, my culture, my country, our continent, other people’s cultures, continents, etc.I would like to bring these experiences and knowledge about human nature into my whole life. They are useful in literally any situation—with coworkers, family, friends, strangers, foreigners, etc.Last but not least, they are extremely helpful for myself. I’ve had a completely different self-image ever since I learned another language. I’ve proved my fear wrong—I’m able to be funny or mean in English as well. I can make real and deep connections outside of my comfort zone. Others can’t see my insecurities; they see what I show them. I would like to carry these with me as well. But to be honest, I’d love to have in my life constantly the digital storytelling course: Professor Alex, Millia, Max, Morgan, Benny, Dora, Farah, Felix, Jasmine, etc.

So there is nothing left to say, efharisztó poli my dear friends, thank You for building me and even bigger thank You if I’ve made even a little impact on You. Hope that our paths going to cross each others one day ❤️ 

Why did I choose these cards, and how are they related to my dream jobs? This question has kicked me hard. Before I would’ve been able to explain why I chose these cards, I also had to take a deep look into my unconscious mind.

I’m very social, so I guess I’ve chosen loads of people because I’m not an alone worker. I prefer to work in teams; I enjoy communicating the most.

• 

My second picture is because I’m an observer and also a positive person. I believe that everything has a reason, so this is me, crying and watching the sunset while thinking about how lucky I am. (Based on true history, this happened last night.)

The third one is about common respect and empathy. These are key elements in my dream work: to honestly value others’ work and mine. It’s something that’s necessary for me to be able to express our thoughts as equal partners in a work situation.

The last one is about energy, adrenaline, and variety, because I need these in my life. To have a chance to be creative, to move, to connect, to have conversations…

I don’t know which profession fits me the most, but I’m not worried. At least for now, I’m able to clarify what I’m looking for in a job.

It’s pretty ironic that today I have to define something that has a complex set of definitions.

When I was a kid, I wasn’t a big fan of definitions. But on the other hand, I’ve always had good skills in composition, imagination, and observation. When someone tells me to imagine something, I hear the situation and the conversation, but not the extraordinary visuals. I can’t paint, and I’m quite bad at drawing (unfortunately, I’ve always looked up to the people who are able to express themselves through visual art pieces), but I always speak in sentences and in a unique and various way. I even take care to speak nicely to myself in my thoughts.

When I was a teenager, literature amazed and impressed me most. I was reading, thinking, speaking, and listening all the time. After I got deeper into the fake intellectualness, I found philosophy. Immediately, I fell in love with the nature of philosophical thinking. I’ve enjoyed reading the Tet collections; I was impressed by the different directions; and I’ve felt that the schools are competing to confess me about ethics, metaphysics, feminism, history, logic, and ecstatic.

My motivation brought me to a really good destination, where I have the opportunity to learn from undiscribably clever minds. But I had one problem: I didn’t want to read and enjoy philosophy in my free time anymore since I had to do the same all day and all night. My platonic love for this science started to fade. I had to deal with extremely hard texts about topics that I’m not into at all, and some of the topics are not connected to rational thinking.

Beside this, I still enjoy my studies, but I felt relieved when I decided that I wouldn’t be a philosopher.

I would like to learn as much as possible while I have the opportunity. I would like to live my life according to my knowledge of good, logic, beauty, ideas, feelings, gender, society, politics, languages, identity, time, culture, speaking, understanding, nature, and definitions.

I would like to share an extraordinary day of mine.

One of the best parts of it is that I wake up! Of course, I prefer not to rise with the sun (to an alarm), but still, how disappointing it would be to not wake up somehow. So usually, I just enjoy the lovely feeling of being half asleep and half awake. It’s a little after-rave feeling every morning. It sounds reasonable for me to call every day that begins a festival. You can choose what kind of festival you want to attend. I usually prefer some kind of techno or electronic indie, but some days I just have guilty pleasure needs, so I stick with the early 2010’s stars, but only the biggest ones, like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.

After that, at least for most of my life, I have the opportunity to be part of the community with which I share a common city. I take a walk or a trolley to go to my university. Meanwhile, I continue to be the biggest DJ on Spotify and can create a movie in my head, matching the vibes of me and my music. Sometimes I have a Was Anderson mood; on another day, Jeanne-Pierre Jeanette; and some days I imagine a theater piece in my imagination. Worst-case scenario for the day: for 24 hours, I’m the riporter of the news, and I’m not able to stop scrolling through the news and digging deeply into depressive and unfair topics. That’s how my trips usually look.

I love being around people, especially when I like them. Somehow I always find good people around me, so I always have something to wait for. Just like in the Pantheion, the courses are obviously amazing, but they are also good reasons to meet with each other. I enjoy giving and receiving honest attention and conversation. Oh, gasp, I’m getting emotional. Today I hold a classical music festival, whose sequel was directed by Kubrick. Anyway, I love the process of waiting and the meetings as well. Nothing special is needed for the time together. Just the fact that I can think about habits—the fact that I can have them and I can also be part of them—so if we don’t speak often, let me tell you that I’m grateful for You creating for me the comfort of belonging somewhere in a completely crazy and unfamiliar country.

After that, on the way home, I have some DJ work to do again, get a bycycle or a tram, and have an adventure to my home. During the trip, I watch the beautiful architecture, the beautiful people (and also the loko junkies; they are my favorites), the beautiful operation and living of the systems, and the habits.

Just like mornings, nights are also like festivals, but more likely a MET-Gala. With my closest friends, we share the nominees for the best moments of the day. Sometimes that’s the most challenging part—to process all the happenings and impulses that we’ve received throughout the day. Of course, before or after this conversation, the obligatory things need to be done as well—some essays, cleaning, or cooking—but these are easy compared to dealing with all the pressure. So I enjoy doing activities with little responsibility and risk while singing and dancing at my festival.

Then another party begins.

Once upon a time, there was a child who was almost perfect—she had everything. She had crazy amounts of friends, excellent grades, special talents, and an important role in her local sports team—just like in her country’s national team. But every success has its own cost, and as she grew up, she felt herself trapped in the success and her own expectations. She wanted to feel free and go to festivals. explore the world and herself as well. She had to make one decision that determined her life path: she was invited to a richer country to play as a professional player. That was the real beginning of her biggest adventures.

She chose to stay in her country and start her studies. At the beginning, she felt lost. She used to have strict routines. Every single day looked the same, just like every meal, training session, and day at high school. She felt that now there is not much routine in her life, but there are also not many challenges or successes. That was the reason she decided to just have fun and not be responsible for the first time in her life. She let all the strict lines in her life fall.

In the beginning, it was really fun for her; she spent a lot of time with her friends, traveled a lot, partied a lot, and had loads of everything. But that much of everything made her feel empty. She was not sure what she would like to do in the future. She felt less free when she had gray days. At the top of it, the lockdown and the COVID crisis just hit.

The absence of social interactions and the moving made her sick. She had no light in her room (where she had to spend all her time) or in her life either. But just like in a good artistic movie, the spring brought with it changes: it was not needed anymore to be at home before 8 p.m., the school started to be not that hard, and it was allowed again to meet anyone but family.

She was still confused about many things (including her future), but she was happy to be able to feel alive again. During the lockdown, she had some really deep and meaningful conversations with herself. She read loads of philosophical texts, especially Stoics. She started to relieve herself and not put too much pressure and expectation on herself.

After this radical change in her mindset, during one random party, she met a beautiful soul. They were really alike. They had a really deep connection. For the first time in her life, she was in love. She felt so much confidence in herself like never before. She has learned how to use elements from her strict and nihilist lifestyles as well.

Today, she is full of hope. Today she studies in Athens with her love. Today, she has the perfect balance between strictness and craziness. She is living her best life.

Moving to a new country, speaking English, getting familiar with a strange city, paying in a different currency than in my home country, living far away for the first time in my life far away from my family, using different public transportation than I’m used to, being surrounded by a completely new alphabet, eating food that I’ve never heard of before… All these things seem exciting and chaotic at the same time, but that’s just because they happened simultaneously.

My last four months have been filled with constant change and learning. But there was one element of this confusion that was permanent—the school. particularly the system theory course. Sometimes I felt that the classes followed my personal journey. I know I probably felt this way because my reality is determined by my experiences, feelings, fears, memories, and the state of my body, mind, and mood.

At the beginning, I was the wolf from the video of the first course—I entered a completely new and unique system of Athens, the Panteion University, and the course. All of these elements had a huge impact on me from the very first day. I changed irrevocably, but I don’t mind. Before October, Athens, the university, and the courses were all just imagined ideas for me; all of them became parts of my reality. Every one of them means the same, but at the same time something different has happened. All of them were connected to me by emotions, feelings, memories, associations, knowledge, and, most importantly, something that I’m familiar with.

On the second course, I became one more week wiser, and the realization hit me hard: all these impacts are not one-sided; I affected the circumstances around me as well. I had an impact on my fellow Erasmus students, and not just on them. I learned a lot from the city, from the citizens, from the other students, from the travel system, etc. But the most unbelievable part of it is that they learned from me! For example, in the canteen, we usually (and predictably) talk to each other, most likely about our cultures at first. It was an extremely interesting period of the Erasmus program because we didn’t know each other’s personalities yet, just like people from certain countries. We discussed our country’s political situation, economic problems, society, school system, minimal wages, etc. It was really instructive, since I see every nation’s essence deeper and in a different way than before. But also, I see my own culture and country in a different way! I had to compare it to other systems and workings, and this led me to see all these things from a new perspective. I have to say that I have never been that proud of my country in my whole life! When I was talking about places I love, art pieces that changed my personalities, people I admire, historical events that make me think… I became sensitive at some point.To be honest, I noticed the same with my partners during the conversation. It was just so heartwarming to share ideas, memories, and proudness with each other. We all became wolves in Athens, which changed our and each other’s environments, and I see this phenomenon as beautiful. especially that I could be a part of it.

These changes in consent could also be difficult; I was forced to live differently than I had previously. All of the new impacts have unlocked a new part of my personality. I did things that I’ve never done before, and I spoke about things I’ve never spoken about (additionally in English)! What a challenge! ), I felt emotions I’d never felt before… As a result, I sometimes felt like a stranger. But just like the metronome, I found the way back to myself. I was fluctuating, but at the end of the day, I found myself as I know myself. All of the new impulses and extreme movements just make my regular working mechanism stronger. I learned that knowing myself doesn’t just mean that I know what I’m like. but also to know what I’m not like. to be able to draft what things are interesting for me and which are definitely not. To know what I like in a friendship, city, canteen, person, or even the social platform I use daily, all of these consciousnesses started to play a big role in my way of thinking. I had to redefine lots of things that were already in my mind.

All of these lead me to the conclusion that everything is so complex. just like we talked about it in class. All of this recognition scared me, since all these things that I learned were just too much for a couple of seconds. Seeing the coherences and their weight is difficult and perplexing.But after we shared it with other people, it became more admissible. But the key to it is sharing! It may sound like a cliche, but sharing is caring is a timeless truth.Dealing with the complexity of the world is not a lonely work to do alone; what’s more, it’s a practice that can only be done with other people who think about the same kind of topics. One thing I really liked about this class was that we had to talk about certain topics without feeling rushed with people who were in similar situations to me. With some people, my friendship started during the classes. But even if our relationship didn’t flourish to the level of a friendship, it was still a good experience to listen to their thoughts on different topics. Because, as I previously stated, knowing what you don’t like is as important as knowing what you do. Having a conversation with someone whose opinion is completely opposite to mine can be as enjoyable as having one with someone with whom we share the same ideas.

But there is something especially impressive in the realization that I’m not alone with my ideas and that people from different countries and with different backgrounds share the same ideology as me. These kinds of conversations make me feel less lonely in the chaos of existence. On the other hand, different opinions also make me calm, since I can understand that whatever someone else thinks about something is also hard. It is difficult to think in general.But just like many other things, doing it together makes it easier. One of my favorite ideas from this class that stuck with me is that we are worth more together than individually. I don’t know how this didn’t come to my mind earlier, since that’s human nature—we were never meant to be alone. We are all connected somehow; every person can find something in each other that is common.

Beside people, there is one significant thing that connects everyone and everything: nature. During the classes, I learned to respect nature in many ways: the laws of nature, human nature, the nature of the soul, and my own nature. Realizing how we are connected by our essentials is humbling. Every single person is a part of their micro and macro environments; I became a part of Athens, the University, and the class. Aside from this, as a human, I’m always and inalienably a part of humankind and the infinity cycle of nature. I’m a resident of the Earth, which is just a small element of the Milky Way. This thought helped me be able to measure happenings in everyday life and realize how things are not really meaningful. In the context of existence, it really doesn’t matter if I couldn’t catch bus 040 in Syngrou Fix and I have to wait five more minutes for another bus to get to the school. These kinds of things are not problems; the one who creates and sees this as a problem (and something annoying) is me. The source of some bad things in my life is because of me, not because this is the nature of life. Nature itself is neither good nor bad; it’s just a huge, complex system with thousands of aspects. This is something from the Greek mentality that I would like to bring home with me and see in my life.

I feel like I took the same steps in this course to learn more about how the human soul works. As part of it, I was thinking a lot about AI. Some elements of it scare me, but on the other hand, I’m not afraid of its potential power. I experienced during the conversations that parts of life cannot be replaced by something non-human. In the first place, AI can’t feel. Zeros and ones next to each other will never be able to make mistakes and then feel guilty about them. AI will never be able to have a sixth sense or feel pressure. AI can’t be amazed since they were made not to feel or act like this. But they never meant to do these kinds of things. They were created to replace people in things that they could do for us, but living, breathing, and thinking are not among them. They can’t have a family, have a nationality, or accomplish anything. Overall, I feel sorry for them—what a shame that they have to copy human life, but they can’t experience the best parts of it. If they develop feelings in the future, I believe the first will be jealousy as they realize how much they miss.

I would like to highlight one more thing, the movie we had to watch. I can’t describe how mindblowed I was. I don’t understand how this movie is not considered one of the biggest classics in cinematic history. It would really deserve it! I promised to myself that I would show this film to people I love because I would like to share this experience with them- and as I said stereotypically, sharing is caring.

Overall, I would like to thank everyone in this class for letting me learn so much from them. Obviously the biggest role in it belongs to the Professor, but the nature of the class was created by us as well. Thank You for changing me in the way that You did.I’m really grateful and impressed by the last four months. 

Best wishes,

PloTwists

I think that last class was my favorite. Not because we talked about the most interesting topic in the semester, but since I had the biggest shock. For the first time in my life, I consider myself as a not purely human. 

When I thought through the video we watched (which was amazing! I wish i could make beats, since in that case I would make a techno song from the lyrics of it, but with the same robotic voice),It came to my mind that beside I have loads of friends, the closest one is my phone, especially the internet. I’m afraid that in the internet age, these positive feedback loops (that our own reality creates) will lead us to prioritize self-care over community building. But as far as I know, humans should be in groups, work, feel, and grow together. Not Growing individually – just, only, by the way- next to each others.

Also, the realization hit me hard that how my phone functions as one of my most important part. I don’t have to remember, for people, dates, or memories, because my second brain (aka. my best friend) does it instead of me. But using and training our brains is just something useful.

At the end, we will instruct our phones to feel for us. The unfortunate reality- which I’m sure has already occurred somewhere on the planet- is that a desperate (and lazy) lover can ask the AI to write an honest love confession for him/her/them. Pathetic.

Another interesting thing that occurred to me during our course was that when I realized that I am here for the other people in the room, not just for myself, I immediately changed my perspective on the situation. I noticed that the way i was sitting changed, as did my facial expression, and my thoughts as well. I went from being the one who observes others to being the one who is observed. (YES I OBSERVE YOU ALL!, but I swear not as much as your own phone, also i don’t collect informations about You, I just don’t close my eyes -beside blinking- during the class.)

Well… To be honest I don’t even know where to begin this post. I’m angry, impressed, confused, jealous, surprised and happy at the same time. Let me explain one by one.

I’m angry, because sometimes I feel like humanity owns all the necessary knowledge to be able to improve the World. We could stop poverty, make less gap between the people, save the environment but at the end of the day, no. But why? Because these are not profitable. For the actual order of the humanity it’s more gainful to separate the people into groups (or nations) instead of thinking as an all connected species, whom need each other and could improve a lot as one community that lives on the planet Earth and try to help each other and the nature.

I’m impressed, because this movie was a massive mind-blow for me. I study philosophy so i almost get used to the wow experiences, but this almost two hours was so intense, that the only thing could’ve done was blinking. At some point I felt that all the three characters are me, during my studies. When I first learnt the history of philosophy the different ideas were competing each other in my head just like a physician, a politician and a poet. It was a pleasure to watch all these ideas come together. (Especially the Descartes and Newton critics, I’m not a big fan of neither, but just like Sonja I respect them).

I’m confused since this movie was made more than 30 years ago… How these ideas haven’t gone Worldwide? Why I have the feeling, that some country and politician directly goes to the opposite way than the solution? Why doesn’t everyone admit that everything connected with everything? I just don’t get it.

Jealousy. This is an interesting one. Maybe it’s not even the right word, but I’m lack of deep knowledge of English, so I have to go with this one. This absence of knowledge is part of my jealousy. I’d love to know that much. I want to have that much quotes in my head. I want to see all these concatenation and I want to be able to have such a deep conversation like the main characters. Anyway I’ll try to do my best and study as much as possible.

I’m surprised, why this movie doesn’t count as a classical. In every person’s life there is a culture film era (what a beautiful period!), watching the Truman show, The Fight club, Amelie from Montmartre, etc. All these movies are mind-blowing, but this one also deserve to be known by a wilder audience.

I’m happy because I don’t know when was the last time when a movie that I haven’t seen yet has such a big impact on me. Most of the time when I’m watching something I don’t really focus on that. But not with this movie. All of my senses concentrated to the film and all of my braincells tried to handle all of my simultaneous feelings and thoughts. ( I highlighted just a few of them).

I’ll recommend this movie to everyone who’s interested in these kind of mind-blows! I loved it!

P.s.: It would be really interesting to make the same movie (I mean with the same characters and in the same conversation form) nowdays. I’m curious what changed ever since. I’m sure that psychic, political science and even art went through big improves. Maybe with a modern version of it i would be even more angrier, impressed, confused, jealous, surprised and happier.

I always write my essays to my notebook- that’s why sometimes I forgot to upload it to blog. But I’m lucky, since I have all the texts from the beginning of the semester. Sorry for the late, despite this hope it will make sense and You will enjoy it.

In the recent week I was constantly thinking about what is bad and where is it came from. This class (back in October) helped me to be sure about that bad is just the absence of good. I mean death is followed by life and not the life comes before death. If it wouldn’t be like this, why every single organs of mine try to keep me alive? How it would be possible for amoebaes to spread? How the metronome would be able to get in synchronized if there are no general rules?

Every single living or not living things effect on each other, spontaneously or consciously. All the simple parts come together in a dynamic way and create a complex whole, which is respond collectively. After a while every single elements of the chaos find their right place and after that they know that this is the exact place where they are belong to. To be honest this does impress me. Just like the example with the ants. They don’t need a leader to know what is the right thing to do. They just know and trust in the process they feel in their bones.

This is the point where I’m getting back to the question of good and bad. How is it possible that every single human being knows when they act right? How is it possible that mankind is able to move like metronome? How we are able to get in sync with each other on the dance floor, or in a deep conversation about traumas (and start to feel empathy)?

Because we feel each other and we feel what is good. Toward, we feel what is good for the other people. After that it’s on us whether we choose to act accordingly or not. (Not because acting right is easy, but because we know what we should do.)

Ps.: Pay attention to each other, we are more powerful together than separately ❤️

I arrived to Athens with my parents, we came by car, so it was a last common trip for a year. I was so excited, that I couldn’t think about the details of how everything will feel like when they won’t be with me anymore. I cared more about how the school could looks like, how will the canteen be like (It’s way more better than I imagined), how I’ll be able to make friends, etc, etc.

But the exact moment after they left my apartment near to Larissa Metro Station the only thing i felt was emptiness. I felt that I have so many opportunities about what could I do, that at the end I was laying in my bed and thinking about the nature of roots. This same feeling came to me after our class.

Changes are like the wind, they are challenging the tree’s leaves, the branches, but not the stability of the tree itself, since it has way more bigger roots, than it shroud’s. But what happens when the log is far way from the roots?

The parts on the surface really start to appreciate the comfort and confidence that the feeling of belonging to somewhere can offer. Sometimes the only noticeable things from this relation are the obligations, that’s why it’s important to sometimes take a step back and appreciate the whole picture’s little elements those make the entire self-image as it is.

One reason why I love this class is that we are exactly doing this time by time. We take some steps back and watch the things how they really are. Purely, but still in a huge system (and the same time we are parts of these complexities).