Dr. Jim Eickemeyer, of the Cuesta College Physics Department, has enjoyed three wonderful years of educational European tours with interested Cuesta College students. These well-received excursions have included, for example, touring the incredible Large Hadron Collider near Switzerland to learn about particle physics, and marvel at the incredible technology we have created. 

Well, from May 25 to June 6, 2016, Dr. Eickemeyer will once again be leading such a tour, this time to both Italy and Greece, in particular Greece’s islands. The 13-day trip, which begins in Rome, is designed for the study of global climate change, with its effects on glaciations and sea level. The effects that plate tectonics have upon local and global temperature changes in the area over time will also be a focus of the study. After Rome, the group will visit Sorrento and Pompeii in Southern Italy, followed by Delphi, Athens, and Patras in Greece, as well as an extensive tour of the Greek Islands including Mykonos, Crete, and Santorini. There will even be a brief stop in Turkey! 

This trip’s educational benefits run deep, and the experience is sure to be unforgettable for as long as its members will live. It’s unfortunate that sometimes the educational value of a thing can’t be tallied in a system for what it’s truly worth, but students should be happy to hear that, as with all Eickemeyer’s tours, one unit of credit will even be provided by Cuesta College to students on this trip—in this case for a field summer lab in meteorology.

The $3,904 base price of the trip includes all breakfasts, many dinners, airfare, lodging, transportation, and cruise costs for the island part of the tour. But if you’re interested in this magnificent opportunity, even if you aren’t entirely settled on actually going through with it yet, be sure to attend the informational meeting for the trip, which will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 3 p.m. in the Science Forum (also known as room 2402). Attendance to that meeting is MANDATORY for participation in the trip, so better to visit and change your mind than be undecided and regret it later. Please contact Professor Eikemeyer immediately if you can’t attend the meeting so that special arrangements may be made. His Cuesta College phone number is 546-3100, Ext. 2760. Further information can be found by visiting www.efcst.com/1668417TD.

Contributor Chris White-Sanborn is now humming the 1st Delphic Hymn, known as one of the oldest surviving pieces of sheet music in the world, just because Delphi was mentioned above. What a nerd ... Send your collegiate news to [email protected].