I feel so honored that IAESTE offered me such a good chance to go to GREECE to have my practical training. I benefit a lot from it because it's my first time to see a whole new world and a totally different culture.

But things don't go so smoothly when I was applying for my visa. Originally, my training period was from Sep 13th to Nov 13th. However, for some unknown reasons, I didn't receive my acceptance note until the early of September, normally you have to wait half a month after you handed in all the necessary material in the embassy. So it is impossible for me to arrive there on time. When I got my visa, it was already Sep 17th, I was just about to buy the flight ticket when some new problems popped up. September is the hot season in Europe. All the flights have been booked out by that time. I contacted nearly all the travel agencies in HangZhou, but they all told me the earliest flight available would be in the early of Oct. As a result, I arrived in Athens on Oct 7th, almost one month later than appointed.

So what I want to say to those who are going to take part in this project is, first, if your acceptance note is delayed for some reason, just like me, you don't have to wait for it. Ask them to send a fax form of your acceptance note, some embassies like the Greek embassy accept the fax forms. Second, if your training period is in August or September, you have to book the ticket beforehand, otherwise, you will either have to delay your flight or buying the ticket at extremely high price.

The time when I arrived in Athens airport was 22:30 local time. It was so nice of IAESTE HELLAS to appoint someone to pick me up at the bus stop and then sent me to my hotel. Students all over the world participating in this project lived in the same OMEGA Hotel. It's a small but nice hotel which located in the center of Athens. The cost of lodging is 7.5euro per day which is an average cost in Athens. The room is simple but convenient, there is a TV room on the second floor where we used to have a little get-togethers at night.

The company I was working in was UNILEVER HELLAS. It's a big international company whose products are available everywhere in the world. In the beginning, UNILEVER is only a company producing detergent and powder for washing, But in recent years, it began to produce olive-oil and ice-cream as the scale enlarges. After the foudation of the European Union, UNILEVER began to rearrange its assets in the European countries in order to make it work more effictively. UNILEVER HELLAS was designated to produce detergent. However, being an electrical student, I'm afraid that I'm not qualified for the job offered because UNILEVER HELLAS is a chemical company. Fortunately, my boss was so considerate, he rearranged by putting me in a department which controls all the critical equipment of the company so that I could do something using what I have learnt at school. My boss told me that there was a PH meter which always shows the wrong pH of the solution, it bothered them so much because if this pH meter didn't work properly, the following procedure would all be in a mass. He wanted me to help finding out the reason. So first I studied all the related material, then I started to take samples of the solution and tracked down the measurements and made comparation everyday, and then I made my own analysis according to the data I collected, with the help of several experienced engineer, I handed in a report proposing four possible reasons at the end of my training period and the boss is quite satisfied with it.

Another indispensable part besides working was traveling around the whole Greece. As we all know, Greece is a famous touristic place. Someone said that, if you've only got one chance to go to one country, only enough time to study one county, then Greece is your choice. It was only after I finished my stay in Greece that I began to understand the meaning of it.

These are the most famous places in Greece, I was really fascinated by the marvelous achelogical buildings and I do hope it will be of some help to those who are going to Greece.

Acropolis

The most important site of Athens is the Acropolis. During Perikles' Golden Age, ancient Greek civilization was represented in an ideal way on the hill and some of the architectural masterpieces of the period were erected on its ground. Over the centuries, the rocky hill was continuously used either as a cult place or as a residential area or both. The inscriptions on the numerous and precious offerings to the sanctuary of Athena (marble korai, bronze and clay statuettes and vases) indicate that the cult of the city's patron goddess was established as early as the Archaic period (650-480 B.C.).

	Pathenon. The most important monuments on the Acropolis is the Pathenon. It is the most important and characteristic monument of the ancient Greek civilization and still remains its international symbol. It was dedicated to Athena Parthenos, the patron goddess of Athens. The central part of the temple, called the cella, sheltered the statue of Athena.The two pediments of the temple are decorated with mythological scenes: the east, above the building's main entrance, shows the birth of Athena, and the west, the fight between Athena and Poseidon for the name of the city of Athens. The Parthenon retained its religious character in the following centuries and was converted into a Byzantine church, a Latin church and a Muslim mosque.

Erechtheion. Another important monument on the Acropolis is the Erechtheion .It has a prostasis on the east side, a monumental propylon on the north, and the famous porch of the Caryatids on the south. The main temple was divided into two sections, dedicated to the worship of the two principal gods of Attica, Athena and Poseidon-Erechtheus. A relief frieze, bearing a representation possibly of the birth of Erechtheus, decorated the exterior of the building.

Delphi Delphi is also a very important archelogical site in Greece. According to ancient Greeks,it is the center of the world. During the Mycenaean period, the female deity of Earth was worshipped in the small settlement of Delphi. The development of the sanctuary and oracle though, began in the 8th century B.C. with the establishment of the cult of Apollo. Under the protection and administration of the Amphictyony, the sanctuary continued to be autonomous after the First Sacred War and, as a result, increased its panhellenic religious and political influence. The Pythian Games were re-organized, the sanctuary was enlarged and it was enriched with nice buildings, statues, and other offerings.

The Temple of Apollo. The visible ruins belong to the last temple, dated to the 4th century B.C., which was peripteral, in Doric order. It was erected exactly on the remains of an earlier temple, dated to the 6th century B.C. Inside was the "adyton", the centre of the Delphic oracle and seat of Pythia.

The Theatre of the sanctuary. It was originally built in the 4th century B.C. but the ruins we see today date from the Roman Imperial period. The cavea had 35 rows of stone benches; the foundations of the skene are preserved on the paved orchestra. The theatre was used mostly for the theatrical performances during the great festivals of the sanctuary.

The Castalia spring. The sacred spring of Delphi lies in the ravine of the Phaedriades. The preserved remains of two monumental fountains that received the water from the spring date to the Archaic period and the Roman era. The later one is cut in the rock and has niches cut high in the cliff, which probably held the offerings to the Nymph Castalia.

Epidaurus The Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus was the most celebrated healing center of the ancient world. The cult is attested as early as the 6th century B.C. when the hill-top sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas was no longer spacious enough for the public worship of the Epidaurus city-state. The French Scientific Mission to the Peloponnese was the first to conduct excavations on the site. However, all the monuments of the Asklepieion have been brought to light in systematic excavations carried out by the Greek. There is also a big theater in Epidaurus, it was so well built that even the person sitting farthest to the stage can hear as clearly as the one sitting in the front row. I really felt that I made the right choice taking part in the IAESTE project. It was a so wonderful experience that I will remember it forever.