Athens through my eyes
and a presentation of myself
Hello everyone,
I am Elena Pasiakou, I am 20 years old and I study Communication, Media and Culture at Panteion University in Athens Greece. Right now I am focusing my studies around Advertising and Public Relations. I live in Piraeus which is the port of Athens. It is very important for me to live near the sea and I have a special bond with it because I grew up in a small sea-side village in Northwestern Greece. The sea, inpiring and calming, makes my mind to travel as it is forever linked with happy childhood memories.
I am really into photography. I love capturing moments and people that are important to me, the city I live in, places I travel to, nature, animals and everything else that draws my attention. Moreover, there is nothing I enjoy more than a good book as it helps me get my mind off things whenever I feel the need to escape and it helps to widen my horizons. Another thing about me is that a day cannot pass without listening to some music. I listen to various kinds of music but my favourite genre is rock.
My most treasured possession is a globe that my dear grandfather gave my brother and I when we were little. I can gaze it for hours daydreaming about the far-away places I aspire to visit one day. I am consumed by wanderlust, I want to travel, see as many places I can and meet new people that will navigate me through their own different cultures, challenging my beliefs and views and possibly changing my mindset. I think it is crucial that one learns, understands and more importantly respects other people’s cultures and diversities.
That is why I am part of an international project called Connecting Cities. It aims to bring together teachers and students of five countries in four different continents in order to discover and embrace both our differences and our similarities. It is a digital collaborative experiment that has cities as center. The cities taking part are Quito, Santiago, Kampala, Shanghai and Athens.
Athens in my view has two different faces. The first one -which I think is common in many contemporary cities- is characterized by hectic paces, people that are always in a hurry and those omnipresent beeps and car noises, a combination that can lead to a lot of stress.
On the other hand, there is this completely different and fascinating side of the city, it’s historical center. Walking on those streets of Athens, surrounded by monuments, I sometimes get this mesmerized feeling when I think that the ancient philosophers used to roam at these very places some thousand years ago and I still stop to admire them even though I have seen them countless times before. Athens is full of picturesque places with a diverse architecture where the classic mingles with the modern and where the Greek greenery claims it’s way through the cement and the buildings. I like the fact that the streets of Athens are almost always filled with tourists whose excitement and joy are so contagious that can make my day. I also like the sunny days that are thankfully so common in Athens.
In conclusion I really love my city and I want to see it improving. I am eager to learn about the possitive perspectives of other cities and hopefully one day see them applied in mine too!
#ConnectingCities #CCities #Athens #Greece
