Name: Bri Riggio

Status: Junior at Claremont McKenna College

Major: History, Women & Gender Studies Sequence (I know, right? What good can this possibly do me?)

Previous Travel Experience: I’ve seen a fair share of the U.S. and have been to a number of prominent American cities including Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Manhattan, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Washington D.C. I’m a National Parks junkie, too, and have been to beautiful places such as Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and The Grand Canyon (both rims!). I’ve seen active volcanoes in Hawaii and I once took an elevator to the top of a World Trade Center tower. But I’ve never actually been outside of the border… not even to Mexico. Lame.

I Can’t Wait For: the Acropolis! And all the Greek Isles! And buying fresh fruits and vegetables from open air Greek markets! And Corinth! And Rhodes! And Delphi!

I Am Greatly Concerned About: Not speaking Greek, not eating dinner until 9 or 10 at night and staying up until 2 or 3 each morning (I get up at 6 in the morning on a typical day!), getting homesick (or worse), the gnarly plane flight over there, and the Greeks’ apparent dying love for feta, olives, and lamb (three foods that I abhor to no end).

Strange Things To Think About: I’m going to spend my 20th birthday in a foreign country, I won’t get to do the whole dress-up-for-Halloween thing, toilet paper apparently cannot be flushed down toilets in Athens, and avoiding the “Evil Eye” will have to become a big concern of mine

While Abroad, I Have Been Charged To: Be on the lookout for energy conservation initiatives that the Greeks have adopted (my Sierra Club supervisors), enjoy the food (my father), take care of myself (my mother), and have the best time of my life (everyone else).